Marvel has a habit of dropping new characters into ongoing storylines. No massive announcement or hype campaign. Glitch is that kind of character. He showed up in Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 7 and has already brought some genuinely compelling backstory with him.
What Is a Technarch?
Before we can talk about Glitch, we need to talk about his species. The Technarchs are an alien race of techno-organic beings. Their bodies are made of living metal and organic technology fused together. They can reshape their bodies, adapt to damage, and survive conditions that would kill pretty much anything else.
Their society is built around strength and dominance. When a Technarch is born, they have to fight their own parents to prove they deserve to live. If you lose, that’s it. If you win, you’ve earned your place in the Technarch groupmind, which is basically a shared collective consciousness that all Technarchs are connected to.
It’s a brutal system. It produces beings who are powerful, cold, and deeply loyal to that hierarchy. Most of them, anyway.
Enter Warlock
If the Technarch name sounds a little familiar, it might be because you’ve come across Warlock before. He’s been a Marvel character since 1983, first appearing in New Mutants.
Warlock is a Technarch who refused to play by the rules. When it came time to fight his father, the Magus, he ran. He fled his home planet and eventually ended up on Earth, where he found a new family with the New Mutants. Instead of becoming the cold, dominant being his society expected, he became genuinely kind, curious, and loyal.
So why does that matter for Glitch? Warlock and Glitch are brothers.
Who Is Glitch?
Glitch is a Technarch, like Warlock, and the son of the Magus. Just like his brother, he refused to follow the path his society laid out for him. He rejected the fight, rejected the groupmind, and walked away from everything.
The difference is that Warlock found people. Glitch found emptiness.
He drifted through space alone for what the comics describe as 24,672 revolutions, which works out to hundreds of years. No companions, no community. He floated through the void after turning his back on the only life he knew. That’s a long time to be alone, and it tells you something important about who Glitch is before he ever says a word.
His solitude finally ended when he was found by a scientist named Professor Xanto Starblood. And… where things get complicated. Starblood didn’t offer Glitch a warm welcome. He convinced Glitch to sacrifice his mind so his body could be used as a suit for Starblood’s scientific work. Glitch agreed. Whether that was desperation, trust, or something else entirely, the comics haven’t fully explained yet.
Glitch Meets Spider-Man
Glitch first appears in Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 7 #11, created by writer Joe Kelly and artist Pepe Larraz. His first full appearance comes in issue #15, and it’s one of the better character introductions in recent memory.
By this point, Glitch has bonded with Peter Parker as a host, which means his techno-organic body is literally wrapped around Spider-Man like a suit. The mind link that comes with that bond is bidirectional, so Peter can access Glitch’s memories and Glitch can access Peter’s. Glitch has seen everything, and his take on Peter’s inner world is not flattering. He describes Peter’s mental landscape as full of guilt and self-loathing, calls it frustratingly dull, and then introduces himself. Just like that.
It’s a great first impression because it tells you exactly what kind of character Glitch is. He’s not warm. He’s not here to be Peter’s friend. He’s sardonic, blunt, and completely unbothered by social niceties. He also mentions, almost in passing, that he finds spiders disgusting. Which is a fun detail given, you know, who he was bonded to.
Why the Warlock Parallel Matters
Here’s the thing that makes Glitch genuinely interesting beyond just being a cool new alien. He and Warlock made the same fundamental choice, rejecting their father, their society, and the Technarch way of life. But they ended up in completely different places because of it.
Warlock found Earth, found friends, found a reason to stay connected to the world. Glitch drifted alone for centuries and then gave up his own mind to a scientist who wanted to use his body as a tool. That contrast is the kind of storytelling that rewards readers who pay attention, and it raises a really interesting question: have they ever met? The comics haven’t addressed that yet, but it feels like a storyline that’s eventually coming.
What to Watch For
Glitch’s story is still very much in progress. He’s appeared in the main Amazing Spider-Man run and was part of the recent Amazing Spider-Man / Venom: Death Spiral crossover event, with more issues on the way. The Xanto Starblood story is still open, and given how much weight the “he convinced me to give up my mind” detail carries, it seems like that relationship is going to matter as the story develops.
