Mysterio

• 1. Introduction

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  Mysterio is a Marvel Comics supervillain whose greatest weapon was never strength. He first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #13, dated June 1964, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. He became one of Spider-Man's most enduring enemies and a fixture of the hero's rogues gallery. He was also a founding member of the supervillain team known as the Sinister Six, and he later clashed with Daredevil. The best-known man to wear the mask is Quentin Beck, who wanted fame in film. Instead he found a different kind of spotlight, building false worlds to break the people trapped inside them. This documentary asks three questions. How does a man with no superpowers trouble a hero who senses danger before it arrives? What happens to a villain who is arrested again and again? And why did the name Mysterio keep passing from one person to the next, and onto screens far from the comics page?

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• 2. Tools of Illusion

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  Quentin Beck worked as a special effects master and stunt man at a major Hollywood studio, and he wanted more. He dreamed of making a name in the film industry, yet he came to see special effects as a dead-end job. His attempts at acting were poorly received. Then he realized that his expertise in illusions could make him an effective criminal.

  Mysterio has no superhuman abilities. He is an expert designer of special effects devices and stage illusions, a master hypnotist and magician, and an amateur chemist and roboticist. His years as a stuntman taught him hand-to-hand combat. That training lets him fight Spider-Man despite the hero's superior physical abilities, and misdirection serves as a second line of defense.

  His helmet is made of one-way plexiglass, so he can see out while no one can see in. Inside it sit an air supply to protect him from his own gases, sonar to navigate his mist cloak, and a holographic projector for three-dimensional illusions. Magnetic coil springs in his boots give him impressive leaps and let him cling to surfaces.

  Nozzles in the boots and wrists release a constant stream of smoke that shields his movements. He can mix other chemicals into that smoke. One gas dulls and inhibits Spider-Man's spider-sense. Another causes paralysis for 30 minutes. An abrasive eats away webbing. Hypnogens make people more susceptible to his will, and hallucinogens cause vivid hallucinations.

  Combining hypnogens, hallucinogens and holographic projectors produces most of his illusions. Some versions of the costume add lasers or knockout gas nozzles in the eye emblems on his shoulders, or electric coils in the cape to shock anyone who touches it. The first time he turned these tools on Spider-Man, he used them to frame the hero for a theft.

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• 3. Humiliation in Series

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  The Midtown Museum was the stage for Mysterio's first battle with Spider-Man. He framed the hero for robbing it, clouded the hero's spider-sense with gas, and dissolved his webbing with a chemical abrasive. Spider-Man still won. He tricked Mysterio into admitting the robbery, and he had captured the admission on tape. Mysterio went to jail, blaming Spider-Man for his ruined career.

  The aliens in The Amazing Spider-Man #2 were later revealed to be Mysterio and his men in disguise. The Tinkerer had hired him to pose as an extraterrestrial and uncover military and industrial secrets.

  Doctor Octopus designed the scheme that brought Mysterio into the Sinister Six. He gave each member a card naming the location of the next battle, with each place chosen to suit that member's talents. Spider-Man had to defeat them one after another to win the next card. Octopus believed every fight would weaken the hero a little more. Mysterio was the third opponent, and he met Spider-Man with robot replicas of the X-Men. Spider-Man destroyed the robots, defeated Mysterio, and took the card that led him to the Sandman.

  Dr. Ludwig Rinehart was the next mask Mysterio wore, an invented and world-renowned psychiatrist. With technology and hypnosis, he tried to drive Spider-Man out of his mind and nearly talked him into unmasking. Then J. Jonah Jameson burst into the house, and Spider-Man unmasked Mysterio instead. A short partnership with the Wizard followed, in which the two pretended to enroll Spider-Man and the Human Torch in a film so they could kill them on a Hollywood set. Both villains were arrested.

  On television, Mysterio threatened to destroy the city. Using a post-hypnotic suggestion and a miniature funfair, he convinced Spider-Man that he stood only six inches tall. Spider-Man saw through the illusion and captured him again.

  Aunt May became his next target. As Rinehart, he used bogus alien disguises to frighten her into revealing where a lost fortune was hidden in her house. He then learned that silverfish had eaten the money long ago. Elsewhere he faked May's death and made deals with demons from Limbo.

  A real estate scheme to scare tenants out of an apartment complex was thwarted by Power Pack, and the defeat humiliated him. His credibility as a supervillain eroded. Joining the second Sinister Six under Doctor Octopus never gave him the edge he wanted. That cycle of arrests ended only with his final imprisonment, during the story arc called "Guardian Devil."

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• 4. Guardian Devil

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  A diagnosis of a brain tumor and lung cancer, both blamed on chemicals and radiation from his own equipment, changed Mysterio's last prison term. He was given one year to live. That prognosis led prison psychiatrists to grant him an early release. Obsessed with a final revenge, he read newspaper articles and decided the current Spider-Man was only a clone. He saw no dignity in beating a copy, even though the clone had by then been killed and the hero was in fact the original.

  So Mysterio turned to Daredevil, whom he had met recently when the hero thwarted an insurance scam. He believed he had found a kindred spirit. Both men, he reasoned, were second stringers with little reputation outside their home turf.

  The Kingpin supplied details about Daredevil's past. With them, Mysterio built an elaborate plot to drive the hero insane. A specially designed drug shaped Daredevil's mood and made him violent whenever anyone suggested that a baby girl was innocent. Mysterio presented the child alongside conflicting reports that she was the second coming of Christ or the Antichrist.

  The damage spread beyond Daredevil. Karen Page was killed by Bullseye after Mysterio convinced her she was gravely ill. Foggy Nelson, Matt Murdock's partner, was framed for murder after cheating on his lover. Daredevil himself was tormented by a demonic figure who was really Gabriel, an agent of Mysterio.

  Daredevil's will proved stronger than Mysterio expected. Doctor Strange discovered the drug and magically removed it from the hero's bloodstream. Daredevil then unmasked the mastermind, shattering his helmet in fury and revealing his wasted face.

  Beck had expected to be killed. In his eyes, that would be a "grand way to end his final show." Daredevil refused. He dismissed the scheme as a basic "B-movie" plot and called Mysterio a "human Xerox," incapable of an original thought. The Kingpin had already tried to drive Daredevil insane, and Mysterio had used the supernatural-intruder idea in an earlier attack on J. Jonah Jameson.

  Broken, Mysterio said he was stealing an idea from Kraven the Hunter, pulled out a gun, and shot himself dead. He had faked his death several times before, but this one appeared genuine, because he had nothing left to live for. That ending proved less final than it sounded.

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• 5. Back From Hell

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  A dark red version of his costume announced the return of Quentin Beck in the Midtown High School auditorium, in the middle of a three-way battle between Spider-Man and the two successor Mysterios. Beck told Miss Arrow that half his head was missing from the gunshot. Because he had died by suicide, he said, he had gone to Hell, and his "superiors" in the afterlife sent him back to maintain a cosmic balance. They wanted Spider-Man to keep working at the school.

  The Gauntlet story line reintroduced several old Spider-Man villains with new twists, and Mysterio claimed to be a Beck who had faked his death. He worked for Carmine, a member of the Maggia crime organization, building androids of dead Maggia figures, including their leader Silvermane. The robots were meant to boost the gang's credibility in its war with Mister Negative. Beck piloted the Silvermane robot himself and planted seeds of rebellion in Hammerhead.

  He also tried to drive Spider-Man mad. He made the hero believe he had accidentally killed several gang members, and he staged the return of Captain George Stacy, who claimed to have been the gangster called the Big Man all along. Spider-Man realized that one man must be behind so many dead people coming back. Mysterio then used the Silvermane robot to murder Carmine, hoping to seize the Maggia and its fortune in secret. Spider-Man exposed him, and he fled. The Chameleon next told him about friends who were "dying" to meet him, the Kravinoffs, and he was present at the ritual where Spider-Man was seemingly sacrificed to revive Kraven the Hunter.

  Doctor Octopus invited Mysterio into his villain team during the Origin of the Species story line, with the promise of a reward. Mysterio went after the infant child of Menace and tricked Spider-Man into handing it over by projecting an image of Avengers Mansion. Spider-Man worked out the villain's involvement and recovered the baby. Mysterio then joined a new Sinister Six. He worked with the Chameleon to fake an attack by zombie pirates in the Caribbean, distracting Spider-Man and the Future Foundation while the rest of the Six stole something from the Fantastic Four's headquarters. When the Six attacked the Intelligencia and their doomsday weapon, he took down the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes.

  In the Ends of the Earth story line, Mysterio first helped Doctor Octopus attack the Avengers and pursue his plan to "heal" the world. Then Spider-Man convinced him that Octopus would honor no deal and would likely scorch the Earth. Mysterio switched sides to help Spider-Man, Silver Sable and the Black Widow. He led them to a Mayan temple, claiming he had chosen the site because of supposed Mayan prophecies of the world ending in 2012. After disabling the Octobots controlling the Avengers, he lent his vehicle, gave away the location of Octavius's base, and vanished in a cloud of smoke.

  The Spider-Men story line revealed that Mysterio had crossed into the Ultimate Marvel universe several times. His Ultimate counterpart turned out to be a series of remotely controlled robotic avatars. In Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1, one avatar blasted the Ultimate Kingpin out of a skyscraper window, confessed publicly to the murder, and released a fear hallucinogen across Manhattan to rob the Federal Bank. When the mainstream Spider-Man was pulled into that universe, Peter's greater experience let him focus through the illusions and destroy the avatar.

  Mysterio planned to destroy the portal and trap Spider-Man there forever, but he could not resist watching how his enemy fared. He kept it open long enough for Peter and the Ultimates to capture him. Fury kept him prisoner because he knew Peter's secret identity. When Galactus was accidentally transferred into the Ultimate universe, the Ultimates questioned Beck. He told them that his world's Reed Richards had defeated Galactus's past assaults.

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• 6. Kindred's Servant

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  Eight months after the events of Secret Wars, Mysterio attacked Parker Industries. He wanted to use the company's Webware technology to beam imagery directly into users' minds and cause mass hysteria. Deadpool thwarted the plot by running him over with his "Dead-Buggy." In the hospital, an unknown figure left a Mysterio bust on Beck's bedside table and declared that he was "not out of the game yet." After Deadpool was manipulated into killing Spider-Man, Mysterio tortured the hero's Limbo-bound soul with power from a mysterious benefactor. Deadpool followed into Limbo and helped Spider-Man overpower him, and Mysterio then vanished from his hospital bed.

  Las Vegas became Beck's home when he left the supervillain business. His daughter Misty Beck came to persuade him to become Mysterio again, and she involved him in a ritual that would grant great power in exchange for sacrificing something loved. When she tried to kill him, he accidentally stabbed her, placed his hand on the altar, and gained power drawn from Cyttorak. The Scarlet Spider defeated him by cutting off the hand that had touched the altar.

  Later, Mysterio created the illusion of an alien invasion that lured every superhero team into battle. Spider-Man discovered the plot and defeated him, and Mysterio said he had wanted to become more than a lesser criminal. In the series "Dead Man Logan," Miss Sinister coaxed him back into the role in exchange for protection from Old Man Logan. Neo-Hydra planned to dispose of him once he had served his purpose, so he led Logan to its base and faked his own death with an illusion.

  Dr. Winhorst was the psychiatrist who tried to tell Beck that his story of being sent to Hell was a hallucination. Then the demon that revived Beck appeared in the office. It took the alias Kindred and killed the man it believed was Beck. That man was actually Winhorst, brainwashed by Mysterio into believing he was the supervillain so the real Beck could escape Bedford Hills Psychiatric Hospital. Kindred noted that Mysterio kept running from his purpose and handed him a script to follow.

  Mysterio then produced a film with Mary Jane Watson under the alias Cage McKnight. When Peter planned to propose to her publicly at the premiere, the Savage Six attacked, and Mysterio rescued Mary Jane and exposed his identity. Doctor Octopus offered him a place in the Sinister Six if he helped capture her. Mysterio teleported away with her and blamed a deal with Mephisto for the chaos. At his old studios, he told her he was bound by a deal struck with Harry Osborn after his suicide.

  He also revealed that he had been the therapist who helped her come to terms with Harry's death. It was later shown that he used that role to plant false memories of Gwen Stacy confessing to an affair with Norman Osborn. Those memories explained away Gwen's adult children, Gabriel and Sarah. They were clones created by an A.I. Harry, and together the three formed Kindred.

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• 7. Heirs to the Mask

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  The Amazing Spider-Man #141, published in February 1975, introduced Daniel Berkhart, the second Mysterio, created by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru. After the original seemingly died in prison during an escape attempt, J. Jonah Jameson hired Berkhart, a stuntman and Beck's cellmate, to torment Spider-Man as Mysterio's ghost. Berkhart claimed that Beck had left him equipment and that he owed his friend revenge. The story leaves open whether that was true or a cover for Jameson's role. Berkhart was arrested with no witnesses to his harassment. He threatened to expose Jameson unless the publisher got him a lawyer, and that plot thread was never resolved. Later, after Beck's suicide, a Mysterio appeared with the revised Sinister Six and referred to his "most spectacular" exit. The miniseries Spider-Man: The Mysterio Manifesto hinted that it was Berkhart again, and Beck later confirmed it.

  Francis Klum, the third Mysterio, appeared in Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do #1 in August 2002, created by Kevin Smith and Terry Dodson. He became Mysterio in the miniseries' final issue. Klum is a mutant who can teleport. His older brother Garrison, known as Mr. Brownstone, abused him and forced him to help in a heroin business. When Garrison drugged the Black Cat and tried to rape her, Francis teleported inside his brother's body and blew him up.

  Spider-Man believed Klum was trying to throw the Black Cat from a bridge and attacked him brutally. Klum fell, teleported mid-fall, and lost his left leg below the knee. Hungry for revenge, he bought the dead Beck's gear from the Kingpin, hoping an old enemy's costume would catch Spider-Man off guard. At Midtown High, school nurse Miss Arrow stabbed him in the chest with her stingers. She was later revealed to be Ero, a being composed of hundreds of spiders, and she said her stingers were fatal to anyone but Spider-Man. Klum later died of his wounds. Ben Reilly resurrected him in a cloned body in the "Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy" storyline, and he died again soon after from cell degeneration.

  Mysterion, the fourth Mysterio, first appeared in Avenging Spider-Man #22 in June 2013, created by Christopher Yost and David Lopez. An unknown man, he bought the costume from Roderick Kingsley. He fought the Superior Spider-Man, who was Doctor Octopus's mind in Spider-Man's body, and the Punisher. After his capture, he was mind-controlled into the Superior Six before escaping with the other members.

  Alternate universes multiplied the name further. In Marvel Noir, Mysterio is a stage magician called "The Magnificent Mysterio." In Spider-Gwen, he founded a theme park called "The Cursed Carnival of Mysterio." In Spider-Man: Fake Red, he learned Peter Parker's secret identity and bonded with a symbiote to become Venom. In the Ultimate Spider-Man series, "Mysterio" is a moniker shared by five people who draw power from a magical amulet and alternate weekly, including Gwen Stacy and Quentin Beck.

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• 8. Screen and Shelf

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  Jake Gyllenhaal portrayed Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019, in a version very different from the comics. This Beck was an unnamed former Stark Industries scientist whose holographic technology was showcased in Captain America: Civil War, where it was called B.A.R.F. After losing his job over mental instability, he recruited other embittered ex-employees to exploit Tony Stark's death. They built the Elementals from drones and invented a backstory claiming the monsters and "Quentin Beck" came from another universe. Spider-Man's classmates gave him the name Mysterio.

  Beck partnered with Talos, who was disguised as Nick Fury, and with Spider-Man to "defeat" the Elementals, and he won the hero's trust to get the device called E.D.I.T.H. When Spider-Man found out the truth, a drone accidentally shot Beck dead during a fight in London. He had planned for defeat, and doctored footage of the fight exposed Spider-Man's identity and framed him for murder. That footage drives Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021, where Gyllenhaal returns through archive footage, and it reappears in the web series The Daily Bugle.

  In 2009, IGN ranked Mysterio 85th in its Top 100 Comic Book Villains, and in 2014 it placed him 13th among Spider-Man villains. In 2019, CBR.com ranked him 16th among the deadliest Spider-Man villains. In 2022, Newsarama ranked him 9th among the best Daredevil villains of all time.

  Spider-Man (1967) featured Mysterio voiced by Chris Wiggins. In Spider-Man: The Animated Series in 1994, Gregg Berger voiced a version who died in an explosion alongside Miranda Wilson, an actress he loved. In Ultimate Spider-Man, Mary Kate Wiles voiced Frances Beck, the daughter of a Mysterio whose soul was trapped in his helmet after a deal with Dormammu.

  Toy Biz made two action figures of Mysterio, and Bowen Designs produced a 13-inch statue. Diamond Select gave him one-seventh of its Sinister Six statue set. In 2018, Hasbro released a Marvel Legends figure based on the comic version in two variants, one with a green translucent head and one with a white translucent head.

  Video games gave him many roles. In Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, he was the final boss, building an army of holographic monsters from meteor shards. In Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, he shattered a tablet into 17 fragments and absorbed its power. In Marvel's Spider-Man 2 in 2023, Noshir Dalal voices a reformed Beck who opens virtual reality venues across New York called "Mysteriums." Miles Morales discovers that those venues are trapping people in life-threatening illusions.

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