Who Is Porcupine, The Weird Marvel Villain In She-Hulk Promo?

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law has reached its halfway point with episode 6. We have seen quite a few villains as of yet, including Titania, the

By Chandraboli Majumdar
September 25,2022
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She-Hulk: Attorney at Law has reached its halfway point with episode 6. We have seen quite a few villains as of yet, including Titania, the Wrecking Crew, and Donny Blaze, who wasn’t exactly a villain but the opposition during a case. However, in future episodes of She-Hulk, the MCU will be introducing a hoard of weird and obscure villains from the Marvel comics. Now not all of these villains will get episodes dedicated to themselves. After all, there are only a few episodes left in this season. Nonetheless, they will be making a cameo. One of these villains will be Porcupine. Yep, he is exactly what he sounds like. A supervillain with a spiky costume.

She-Hulk clip showing Porcupine

She-Hulk clip showing obscure Marvel villains including Porcupine
She-Hulk clip showing obscure Marvel villains including Porcupine

During episode 2 and 3 of She-Hulk, we see Jennifer Walters represent Emil Blonsky aka Abomination. Emil Blonsky is a changed man who has met seven soul mates through the prison pen pal program. Additionally, his plan after being released from prison on parole is to go on a ranch and spend his days in peace, meditating and guiding others on a spiritual journey. The clip shows exactly that. Blonsky has basically started a support group for villains. In a previous trailer he was shown to have written a book as well. The villains who are a part of this spiritual journey to “Seize Your True Power” are Porcupine, Man-Bull and the Matador or El Aguila. As you can see in the corner, She-Hulk has stumbled upon these villains and their therapy session. And I cannot wait to see her reaction.

Who is Porcupine?

Porcupine from Marvel comics
Porcupine from Marvel comics

So Porcupine has had several iterations. Most notably there’s Alexander Gentry and Roger Gocking. However, from the spiky costume in the She-Hulk promo clip, this version of Porcupine seems to be the one from Earth-9047. Nonetheless, as seen in case of Leap-Frog, Marvel is combining several iterations of the same character to create an amalgamation villain. We are assuming that the same will be done for Porcupine. He will be a mix of both Alexander Gentry and Roger Gocking. So let us explore both these versions of Porcupine.

Alexander was a weapons designer for the US Army who one day decided to create a costume inspired by a porcupine. He then dove headfirst into a life of crime. His primary foes were Hank Pym aka Ant-Man and Janet Van Dyne aka Wasp. Porcupine had successfully robbed a high-security bank and was one of the villains to crash Reed Richards and Sue Storm’s wedding with Doctor Doom. However, by the end of his run he also sided with the heroes and aided Captain America on his mission.

Alexander Gentry from Marvel comics
Alexander Gentry from Marvel comics

After the death of Gentry, Roger Gocking won the rights to the name Porcupine and took over the mantle. He too aided Doctor Doom during his conquest of Wakanda in search of Vibranium. Gocking joined a bunch of supervillain teams with members who were equally less known in the Marvel Universe. He is best known for babysitting Spider-Woman’s baby. With the help of She-Hulk he mended his ways and became her sidekick and even became a better father to his daughter. He and Jess shared a special bond that was really sweet.

As for the powers, they almost entirely stemmed from the suit. The large metal armor acted as a great defense against attacks. The suit also hid several offensive weapons including the quills which Porcupine could shoot like arrows and cause quite a bit of damage. In fact the costume could also release toxic gasses to weaken the opponents.

His role in She-Hulk

Porcupine villain to appear in She-Hulk
Porcupine villain to appear in She-Hulk

While, Porcupine will be making an appearance in She-Hulk, it will most likely just be a cameo and nothing more. Marvel is trying to introduce some of the quirkier and weirder villains from the comics into the MCU and that’s the goal porcupine will be fulfilling. You might be wondering why Marvel is scraping the barrel for such C-list villains when there are more prominent ones to be explored. Well, the answer is pretty simple. She-Hulk even in the comics has a history of dealing with obscure and whacky villains. These characters provide the comic its signature humor and light heartedness. Moreover, it’ll be fun to see the MCU take a turn from the mainstream and experiment a little.