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| Mysterio in Spider-Man/Deadpool #2 |
One of Spider-Man's major, and memorial, villains Mysterio is a prime choice for the upcoming Spider-Man: Far From Home. Once ranked the eight-fifth greatest comic book villain by IGN he has been a recurring foe for New York based superheroes. Today we'll be looking at some memorial moments from the main Mysterio's appearances (there has been more than one Mysterio) to see why he is such a high-regarded Spider-Man foe.
Real-World Origins
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| The Amazing Spider-Man #13 |
As can be expected Mysterio first appeared in a Spider-Man comic: The Amazing Spider-Man #13 from 1964. That year was a big year for Spider-Man seeing the introduction of: Electro, the Green Goblin, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio, and the Sinister Six. Like most of Spider-Man's comics he was created by the Steve Ditko-Stan Lee partnership; quite likely Ditko was more behind Mysterio. Ditko was very much interested in surreal characters and imagery which Mysterio fits perfectly. Evidentally Ditko was proud of creating Mysterio stating on the front cover: We've done it! We've created the greatest villain of all for 'ol Spidey! However, Mysterio's first appearance was later retconned to the earlier The Amazing Spider-Man #2 - in this story a villain called the Tinkerer had used realistic alien costumes and props as a way to take control of New York. This was retconned so Mysterio was the one who made the realistic aliens.
Origins
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| An example of Mysterio's powers in Amazing Spider-Man #66-67 |
Mysterio, Quentin Beck, was a special-effects master and stunt-actor from Hollywood but wanted to be so much more. Unfortunately for Beck, he lacked the talent to be an actor, and lacked the patience to be a director his attempts at fame were snatched from him. Jokingly, a friend suggested that to become famous quickly you had to be a costumed superhero, however, Beck realised that with his skills at special effects he could become a villain. Developing his famous fish-bowl helmet, a hallucinogenic gas, and state-of-the-art robotics he moved to New York to see if he could take down, and then replace, Spider-Man. After helping the Tinkerer he decided to adopt his own identity - Mysterio. In Amazing Spider-Man #13 reports emerged that Spider-Man had been robbing establishments leading Peter Parker to fear that he had developed a disorder at the worst time possible: Aunt May was struggling to find money to cover a mortgage payment. Mysterio appeared at the Daily Bugle in a puff of smoke declaring that he is a new hero aiming to bring down Spider-Man, and as he left in another puff of smoke a note appeared challenging Spider-Man to a duel on Brooklyn Bridge. Spider-Man accepted but was easily defeated by Mysterio's hallucinogenic abilities, gadgets, and a seeming ability to replicate Spider-Man's powers. Heralded as a hero Mysterio agreed to a publicity shoot at the Bugle where Parker managed to place a tracker on the new 'hero'. Spider-Man tracked him to his base where he found out that Mysterio was the true culprit - the two fought again after Spider-Man managed to record Beck's confession, and this time he used his spider-senses to counteract Mysterio's gas.
Mysterio reappeared later that year in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 as one of the founding members of the Sinister Six - in fact Mysterio coined their team name. Dr Octopus realised that alone he could not defeat Spider-Man, but united with other villains they would be able to beat him so he brought together five other villains - the Vulture, Mysterio, Kraven the Hunter, Sandman, and Electro. Octopus would kidnap Bugle reporter Betty Brant, whom he knew was close to Spider-Man, and Aunt May who was visiting her - the other five villains would distract Spider-Man and, in theory, wear him down. Mysterio was the fourth villain that Spider-Man fought - he built robots versions of the X-Men to battle Spider-Man. However, the robots were defeated by Spider-Man, Mysterio was defeated, and Spider-Man went on to defeat the last two members of the Sinister Six.
Other Appearances
Mysterio's usage of gadgets and the possibility for surreal stories thanks to his hallucinogenic gas made Mysterio a popular character throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Spider-Man replaced the Fantastic Four as Marvel's big publication so Mysterio went from a major Spider-Man villain to a major Marvel villain. One unique storyline was the introduction of Mysterio's alternate life as Dr. Ludwig Reinhart; Mysterio was also a skilled hypnotist which helped with his mind-altering techniques. In Amazing Spider-Man #24 Peter Parker overheard Dr Reinhart telling J. Jonah Jameson that Spider-Man will eventually develop a split-personality: the spider and human half would inevitably clash. When Peter changed into Spider-Man he suddenly saw Dr Octopus, Vulture, and Sandman who disappear just as quickly as they appeared. Fearing these visions might lead him to attacking civilian he decided to finally see Reinhart for help, however, when he arrived the doctor's house had the room flipped upside down. During the consultancy visions of his enemies kept appearing so Reinhart starts convincing him to remove his mask. Jameson, and Parker's bully but Spider-Man admirer Flash, realised that something was up and broke into the house revealing that the furniture was actually nailed to the ceiling. Tackling Reinhart they revealed that it was really Mysterio underneath a realistic face mask.
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| Mysterio in The Amazing Spider-Man |
Guardian Devil
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| Daredevil Vol. 2 #7 |
In the late-1990s, with Marvel going bankrupt thanks to the comic book crash, Marvel experimented with several new lines of comics. One such was Marvel Knights; instead of focusing on long-term stories Marvel Knights would focus on stand-alone stories. One of the characters to be brought into Marvel Knights was Daredevil which with Daredevil Vol. 2 #1-8 brought two legendary figures together. The first was comic book fan and movie director Kevin Smith, of Clerks and Mallrats fame, and legendary artist Joe Quesada who had worked on everything from Batman to Spider-Man. Marvel Knights proved to be so successful that Quesada became Marvel's editor-in-chief. Anyway, in Daredevil #1 he is given a baby born through immaculate conception, and is told that the child is the Anti-Christ by a man called Nicholas Macabes - something deeply troubling for the recently devout Catholic Matt Murdock. Macabes left a crucifix for Matt, but his life started falling apart soon after. His former lover Karen Page discovered that she was HIV-positive from her time in the porn industry and addicted to drugs, his best friend Foggy Nelson is accused of murdering a woman he was having an affair with, and Matt started becoming uncontrollably violent when people suggested that the infant was not the Anti-Christ. Desperate for help he sought Dr Strange who informed him that the crucifix was emitting a drug, and that the child was not a demon (albeit with the help of the demon lord Mephisto). However, the church where he left the baby was soon attacked by the assassin Bullseye who killed Karen to get to the baby. Devastated, Daredevil almost commit suicide but he opted to track Macabes instead who turned out to be Mysterio. After being released early from prison due to a brain tumour caused by his equipment he decided to destroy a hero. He wanted to destroy Spider-Man but opted against it because he incorrectly believed that Spider-Man was a clone - the Clone saga was confusing even for Marvel characters. Buying information on Daredevil from the Kingpin he had a girl artificially inseminated without her knowing, faked Karen's test, drugged Foggy, and drugged Matt. He then wanted Matt to kill him for what he had done, but Matt refused calling it a 'B-movie plan' and that Kingpin had already attempted to drive him insane. Mysterio opted to copy Kraven - after he had defeated Spider-Man he had killed himself - and killed himself. The dark, and very controversial story which Marvel has tried to forget, did have a happy ending - the baby went to live with a loving family.
The Other Mysterios
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| The Second Mysterio |
In 1975 with The Amazing Spider-Man #141-142 a second Mysterio was introduced. After Quentin Beck seemingly died in an attempt to escape prison J. Jonah Jameson decided to use it to bring down Spider-Man. Hiring a stunt-man called Daniel Berkhart, who had worked with the original, and obtaining the original suit he wanted Berkhart to 'haunt' Spider-Man as the ghost of Beck. However, Spider-Man soon defeated the second Mysterio who, possibly, lied about being given Beck's costume and decided to get revenge for his predecessor's imprisonment. The comic ended with Berkhart demanding Jameson get him a lawyer or he would tell the police about the editor's involvement - something writers forgot about and still haven't mentioned since. After the original's actual death Mysterio kept appearing and fans wondered, is it Berkhart? It has since been confirmed that Berkhart was the second Mysterio, however, he also took up the mantle of Jack O'Lantern. Unfortunately for Berkhart, the newest Jack O'Lantern in 2012's Venom Vol. 2 #11 said that he killed all the past Jack O'Lanterns meaning that he is likely dead. A third Mysterio, a mutant able to teleport called Francis Klum, appeared in the very controversial Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil that Men Do (due to Klum being sexually abused and then forced to be involved in drugs, all by his older brother). Like Berkhart, after his initial appearance he rarely featured in comics and was seemingly killed off. The fourth Mysterio is still nameless - an unnamed African-American man bought Mysterio's costume before changing it to become Mysterion.
The Original's Return
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| The Return of the Original |
In The Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #12 the original Mysterio returned back from the dead with half his head missing from his gunshot to confront the second and third Mysterios attacking Peter Parker's school. However, in The Amazing Spider-Man #618 when he re-adopted his old moniker he claimed that he had faked his death - comics can get confusing. Even more confusingly he managed to find an entrance to a parallel version of his world - Earth-1610, the Ultimate Universe. Utilising an android resembling himself he sent it into the Ultimate Universe to create a footing in the New York underworld. He even murdered the Ultimate version of Kingpin in order to take over his former territory but he was constantly defeated by the Ultimate Spider-Man - regardless of reality Spider-Man also bested him. That is, until Spider-Man was killed. This brings us onto Spider-Men. With the Ultimate Peter Parker dead he hoped to properly muscle in on the underworld. The mainstream Peter Parker saw Mysterio up to something in his original universe, and was accidentally transported to the Ultimate Universe where he clashed with the new Spider-Man. After the initial clash, and Peter trying to understand that he's dead in the new reality, they had to deal with Mysterio. With his Spider-Man in the Ultimate Universe he planned to trap Parker there. He would have succeeded if not for his own hubris - assured of victory he briefly opened the portal to check where Parker was allowing him back through. Since then Mysterio has remained a constant villain against Spider-Man.
Beck did retire for some time. After he was defeated by both Spider-Man and Deadpool in 2016's Spider-Man/Deadpool #5 he decided to retire to Las Vegas stating: I'm done. Mysterio is dead, and may he rot in Hell. God knows I've done it before. His retirement didn't last long. In Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider he was caught up in a plot where his daughter planned to sacrifice him in order to obtain the power of Cyttorak - a demon/god entity. Such a popular villain of Marvel's most popular hero could not stay retired permanently though. The story is still ongoing, it only started mid-2018, but we may finally get to see who revived Mysterio from the grave. The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 5 #1 showed just how powerful Mysterio is: he managed to create images of an alien invasion so convincing that every major hero came out to fight them. He wanted to be more than just a street-level villain constantly beaten by Spider-Man - after all he had almost took over the New York of a parallel reality - and wanted to be treated in the same light as a villain like Dr Doom. His lawyer, the Beetle a.k.a Janice Lincoln, told him to claim insanity. He was only convinced when he saw his master in the corner...
Thank you for reading and I hope you found it interesting. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.
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