Spider-Man: Homecoming Image of The Tinkerer

With Spider-Man: Homecoming just two months away, we finally have our first look at villainous techy the Tinkerer. While Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 still has at least a few more weeks left in its theatrical run, Marvel is already looking ahead to the next superhero outing of the year. Before Thor: Ragnarok arrives, this July will let audiences get more acquainted with Tom Holland's take on Spider-Man. As the third big-screen version of the wall-crawler, Holland certainly has some big shoes to fill. Luckily, his scene-stealing turn in Captain America: Civil War proved that he's more than up to the task.

While we've already seen a number of trailers and images for the new film, there's a lot we still don't know. Michael Keaton will play the Vulture, Spidey's chief foe, but he won't be alone. He'll have a crew with him, and the lineup looks to include a version of both the Shocker and the Tinkerer from the comics. So far, we've only had fleeting glimpses of the two possible contenders for the latter, but little has been revealed about the tech-specialist the Tinkerer. But with the movie right around the corner, we now have our first glimpse at the character working alongside his boss.

Empire has a new issue on the way, and within it we'll get our first look at the Tinkerer as played by Michael Chernus. Ahead of the release of the magazine, CBM has uncovered the image in question, showing Tinkerer working alongside of Keaton's Adrian Toomes.

Click Here for the Image of The Tinkerer

Spider-Man: Homecoming - Tinkerer and Michael Chernus

While Chernus is a bit younger than the typical version of the Tinkerer from the comics, he more than fits the mold of the character. In the movie, Tinkerer will be compiling various bits of alien tech from the MCU and reworking it for Toomes to use in his criminal enterprise. Of course, Toomes' plans get thrown for a loop when Tony Stark's company Damage Control begins inching in on his territory. As executive producer Eric Carroll says in the upcoming issue, this proves problematic for Toomes.

"That puts him in a pretty desperate situation. So with one of the trucks they've already loaded up, he and his crew, with the help of a character called The Tinkerer, start stealing more of this exotic tech - Chitauri, Dark Elf, and even some Stark stuff - to retro-fit and sell on the black market."

The addition of Damage Control and Toomes as a salvager adds an interesting layer to the MCU and plays with the fact that a number of battles over the years have left behind some valuable debris. We've previously seen a version of this play out in the One-Shot Item 47, which saw a young couple start a crime spree after discovering a Chitauri weapon in the ruins of New York following the events of The Avengers.

It looks as if Toomes will not only be doing the same, but be gathering resources from the Dark Elves attack in London from Thor: The Dark World and likely even Ultron's own schemes in Sokovia. And Iron Man has certainly left plenty of tech behind around the globe during his various battles, meaning Toomes will have more than enough gear to sell to his clients and outfit himself and his crew.

It's likely that the future of the MCU will see a similar conceit used to birth new heroes and villains, so we'll see how it fares in a few months when Spider-Man: Homecoming hits theaters.