Mysterio

For other uses, see Mysterio (disambiguation).

Mysterio
File:Mysterio2.jpg Mysterio by Todd Nauck.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	(Beck) The Amazing Spider-Man #13 (June 1964)
Created by	Stan Lee Steve Ditko
In-story information
Alter ego	Quentin Beck Daniel Berkhart Francis Klum
Team affiliations	Sinister Six
Notable aliases	(Beck) Ludwig Rinehart
Abilities	(Beck and Berkhart) Special effects expert and masterful illusionist (Klum) Teleportation

Mysterio is the name of three fictional characters, all of which are supervillains and enemies of Spider-Man in the

. The original Mysterio (Quentin Beck) was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and first appears in Amazing Spider-Man #13, although it was later retconned that the aliens seen in Amazing Spider-Man #2 had been Mysterio and his men in disguise; it was revealed that he had been hired by the Tinkerer to disguise himself as an extraterrestrial and uncover military and industrial secrets.

In 2009, Mysterio was ranked as IGN's 85th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.

Fictional character biography

Character overview

Debuting in Amazing Spider-Man #13, Mysterio is Quentin Beck, a special effects wizard and stunt man working for a major Hollywood studio with dreams of making a name for himself in the film industry. However, he came to see his career in special effects as a dead-end job, but realized that his expertise in illusions could make him an effective supervillain.

In his first battle with Spider-Man, Mysterio obstructs the hero's spider-sense with gas and dissolves his webbing with a chemical abrasive. He later joins the Sinister Six in an attempt at revenge on Spider-Man. Mysterio later creates the alias of world-renowned psychiatrist Dr. Ludwig Rinehart, using technology and hypnosis in an attempt to make Spider-Man lose his mind. Mysterio then establishes a brief partnership with the Wizard in a plot to kill Spider-Man and the Human Torch on a Hollywood movie set. He goes on to convince Spider-Man he is 6 inches (150 mm) tall using a post-hypnotic suggestion.

While Beck is incarcerated, his cellmate Daniel Berkhart briefly becomes Mysterio on the original's behalf. Out of prison, Beck resumes his Ludwig Rinehart identity to manipulate Spider-Man's Aunt May into revealing the whereabouts of a lost fortune hidden in her house. Beck used bogus alien disguises to frighten May Parker into revealing the location of the fortune, but then learned that the money had long ago been eaten by silverfish. In his next appearance, Mysterio tricks Spider-Man into believing that he had caused the death of a bystander. Mysterio then attempts to scare the tenants from an apartment complex in real estate thwarted by the preteen superhero team, Power Pack. He is recruited by Doctor Octopus to form the second Sinister Six, and battles Spider-Man.

In other encounters, Mysterio has faked the death of Spider-Man's Aunt May, and made deals with demons from Limbo. Despite this, however, Mysterio was constantly beaten by Spider-Man and usually arrested. He joined Doctor Octopus' Sinister Six on several occasions, but this never gave him the edge against his foe that he desired. Eventually, he began to lose credibility as a supervillain, with his defeat at the hands of Power Pack being a particularly humiliating moment.

After his final imprisonment, Mysterio was given an early release, as he had been diagnosed with a brain tumor and lung cancer, both caused by the chemicals and radiation from his equipment. He was given one year to live. Obsessed with enacting his final revenge on Spider-Man, he was disappointed when he deduced from newspaper articles that the current Spider-Man was just a clone, and saw no dignity in overpowering a 'copy' of the real thing (even though by then, the clone had been killed, and the current Spider-Man was indeed the original). Mysterio decided to change his plan and focus on Daredevil, who he had encountered recently during an insurance scam that the Man Without Fear had thwarted; he believed that he had found a 'kindred spirit' in Daredevil, in the sense that both were second stringers with little reputation outside their homes.

After the Kingpin gave Mysterio all the information he possessed about Daredevil's past, Mysterio developed an elaborate plot to drive Daredevil insane. Daredevil was nearly manipulated into killing an innocent baby (falsely accused of being the Antichrist), Karen Page was killed by Bullseye after Mysterio had convinced her that she was suffering from HIV due to her time as a porn star, Matt Murdock's partner Foggy Nelson was framed for murder after cheating on his current lover, and Daredevil nearly lost his mind as he appeared to be tormented by the forces of Hell.

However, Daredevil's will proved stronger than Mysterio expected, and he unmasked Mysterio as the mastermind, shattering the villain's helmet in fury and revealing his now languishing appearance. Beck had thought Daredevil would kill him upon discovery, which in his eyes, was a "grand way to end his final show". Daredevil denied him this and instead verbally abused Mysterio's plot and very existence, dismissing Mysterio's scheme as a basic 'B-Movie' plot and calling Mysterio a 'human xerox', incapable of having an original thought in his life; if nothing else, the Kingpin had already attempted to drive Daredevil insane, and he had used the 'supernatural intruding on our world' idea in a previous attack on J. Jonah Jameson. Broken in every sense of the word, Mysterio, saying he was stealing an idea from Kraven the Hunter, pulled out a gun and shot himself dead. While Mysterio has faked his own death several times in the past, this act was legitimate, as Mysterio had nothing left to live for.

Daniel Berkhart

File:Mysterio1.jpg

Daniel Berkhart as Mysterio.

Someone claiming to be Mysterio appeared later with the revised Sinister Six, making references to his 'death', stating how after fighting Daredevil he had exited in a 'most spectacular fashion'. There was some confusion to this Mysterio's identity until Spider-Man: The Mysterio Manifesto hinted that it was Daniel Berkhart, an old friend of Beck and a previous Jack-O-Lantern who had taken over the mantle of Mysterio during a period when Beck had previously faked his death, and has reassumed it after Beck's death. This issue was not addressed again until a Mysterio briefly fought Spider-Man and was captured in Spider-Man Unlimited (Vol. III) #7. In Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #12, Berkhart was confirmed to be this second Mysterio by Quentin Beck.

Return of Beck

Mysterio unmasked in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #12. Art by Todd Nauck.

In Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #11-13, a teleporting mutant named Francis Klum plots to destroy the recently unmasked Spider-Man in revenge for events shown in The Evil That Men Do. Klum purchases the Mysterio costume, and turns the school Peter Parker teaches at into a 'haunted house', filling it with death-traps. Klum's actions bring the attention of Daniel Berkhart, who arrives and prepares to team up with Spider-Man in order to defeat Klum.

Beck appears in the school auditorium in a dark red version of his costume and confronts Klum, before leaving him for Berkhart to deal with. Beck then confronts Miss Arrow, revealing that half his head is missing from the gunshot wound, and explains that, having gone to Hell for suicide, his "superiors" in the afterlife sent him back to Earth to maintain a cosmic balance. His superiors want Spider-Man to continue working at the school and Beck knows Miss Arrow has a similar role for the "other side".

Berkhart and Klum briefly battle one another before Spider-Man captures Berkhart. While trying to escape, Klum runs into Arrow and tries to take her as a hostage, only to be stabbed by one of her stingers. He then teleports away, badly bleeding. Neither Berkhart nor Klum have been seen since. Though Berkhart was incarcerated, Klum's status is uncertain.

In Amazing Spider-Man #581, a flashback shows that prior to his suicide, Beck had been hired by Norman Osborn to fake his son Harry's death.

The Gauntlet

File:Spider-Man Enter-the-Gauntlet Mysterio.jpg

Mysterio returns in Amazing Spider-Man Art by Marcos Martin.

Mysterio reappears during The Gauntlet storyline in Amazing Spider-Man, which re-introduces several past Spider-Man villains with new twists. This Mysterio claims to be a returned Quentin Beck who has returned from the dead (while intermittently suggesting he's lying completely); if Beck has indeed returned from a faked death, it's unclear how this fits in with his aforementioned appearance. He is under the employ of Maggia crime member Carmine, creating androids of various deceased Maggia (including their dead leader Silvermane) to give them a credibility boost in their gang war with Mister Negative. Beck controls the Silvermane robot himself and plants seeds of rebellion in Hammerhead, who had left the Maggia under the belief that Silvermane was deceased. He also tries to drive Spider-Man mad by making him think he's accidentally killed several gang members, while trying to convince him that a returning Captain George Stacy, who claims to have always been the gangster known as The Big Man, also faked his death years earlier. This turn makes Spider-Man realize that Mysterio must be behind the recent mysterious return of so many deceased individuals, and he vows to have Mysterio pay for making it personal. Shortly after, Mysterio uses the Silvermane robot to murder Carmine in an attempt to secretly seize control of the Maggia (although his real agenda was to steel the Maggia fortune) before being confronted by Spider-Man. After escaping following his fight with Spider-Man, Mysterio has an encounter with Chameleon (posing as Jean DeWolff) who tells him that he has some friends who are "dying" to meet him.

The "friends" Chameleon was talking about happens to be the Kravinoffs as he was present at the ritual where Spider-Man is sacrificed in order to revive Kraven the Hunter.

During the Origin of the Species storyline, Mysterio is among the supervillains invited by Doctor Octopus to join his villains' team where the villains are promised they will receive a reward. Mysterio went after Spider-Man for Menace's infant. He tries to use illusion effects to frighten Spider-Man but fails, thus leaving him a reminder.

Powers, abilities, and equipment

Quentin Beck did not possess superhuman abilities but was an expert designer of special effects devices and stage illusions, a master hypnotist and magician, and an amateur chemist and roboticist. He had extensive knowledge of hand-to-hand combat techniques learned as a stuntman.

Daniel Berkhart, a former friend and protégé of Beck's, had some of the same training and skills as Beck.

Francis Klum has the mutant ability to teleport both himself and other objects, and the ability to control other people's body parts, as well as an understanding of the technologies in the Mysterio suit.

Mysterio's suit has personal weaponry which include a helmet with a holographic projector and gloves and boots armed with nozzles which emit hallucinogenic gas. He developed a gas that can cancel Spider-Man's spider-sense, and when he is cloaked in his mist gases, he uses sonar to detect objects and beings nearby. Klum's Mysterio suit is nearly identical to Beck's, while Berkhart's uses a darker color scheme while being similar in design to the Mysterio of the animated series.

Other versions

Old Man Logan

In an alternate future of the Marvel Universe, Mysterio casts an illusion which makes Wolverine believe that the X-Men are various deadly villains of the Marvel universe, and Wolverine slaughters them all, only discovering the trick after he killed the last "villain" (Jubilee, who appeared as Bullseye), and the illusion cleared up. Without the X-Men, the Red Skull's alliance of villains manages to conquer America and kill most of the heroes. This Mysterio is said to be Francis Klum.

Marvel Zombies

A Zombie Mysterio appears with five other Spider-Man villains attempting to eat civilians, but all six are repelled by Magneto and Wolverine.

Marvel Zombies Return

A past version of Mysterio from Spider-Man's college days appears as a member of the Sinister Six and battles the reality hopping Zombie Spider-Man. The zombie Spider-Man pulls parts of this Mysterio's brain out of his dome head, which infects Mysterio with the zombie virus, causing him to participate with other zombie members in eating Spider-Man's friends. Angered, the Zombie Spider-Man kills him.

Ultimate Mysterio

An Ultimate version of Mysterio was introduced in Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #3. His appearance is drastically changed from his 616 counterpart. He wears all black with a green neck brace that produces blue smoke that envelopes his face. In his first appearance, he had a police technician to set up surveillance equipments to the police department. However, after NYPD's police captain Frank Quaid asked Spider-Man to aid them to find the crook who somehow able to stay ahead of his unit. Mary Jane Watson, Spider-Man's love interest, figured out how the criminal does it after the hero informed her of the situation. After the police arrested his accomplice, the villain vowed to get even with Spider-Man and then escapes.

Mysterio appears again in Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1, blasting Kingpin out the window of a skyscraper. He publicly confesses to Wilson Fisk's murder and threatens the city, stating that he is now in charge. He releases a fear hallucinogen across Manhattan in order to rob the Federal Bank. Spider-Man stops him and Mysterio's personal hatred for the web slinger increases.

Creating an illusion of the Hulk to lure Spider-Man to him, Mysterio ambushes and severely wounds the hero. Before Mysterio can unmask and kill Spider-Man, a mysterious vigilante rescues him and together they defeat Mysterio revealing his true face. Mysterio finds Spidey's blood on his broken armor and designs a Spider-Slayer who personally targets Peter. The mysterious vigilante defeats it and before Mysterio can do anything else the police rush to his hideout, which they found by tracking a piece of the Mysterio's tech. Mysterio curses and then proceeds to blow up his hideout.

Mysterio is one of the characters in the Spider-Man movie featured in Ultimate Marvel.

In other media

Television

• Mysterio was a villain in the 1960s Spider-Man animated series in two popular episodes from the first season, The Menace of Mysterio (one of two half-hour episodes of the season) and Return of the Flying Dutchman voiced by Chris Wiggins in a British accent. Mysterio also appears in a third-season episode The Madness of Mysterio, although he appears out of costume and has red hair and green skin.
• He later appeared in the Spider-Man episode "The Pied Piper of New York Town", voiced by Michael Rye. He is shown hypnotizing the youth of New York via special music in a fake disco club.
• Mysterio made an appearance in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends episode "Spidey Goes Hollywood" voiced by Peter Cullen. He blackmails a director named Sam Blockbuster to persuade Spider-Man to star in a movie, rigged with devices he created.

File:Spidermanep5.jpg

Mysterio in Spider-Man: The Animated Series.

• Mysterio appears in Spider-Man: The Animated Series voiced by Gregg Berger. He was a former stuntman who blames Spider-Man for ruining his reputation. In "The Menace of Mysterio," Mysterio frames Spider-Man for various crimes, but his plan is exposed by Spider-Man and Detective Terri Lee, and he is jailed. Later, he becomes a member of the Insidious Six in the episodes The Insidious Six and Battle of the Insidious Six. In Mysterio's final appearance in the series, The Haunting of Mary Jane Watson, he creates a studio in secret intending to defeat Spider-Man there. After Breaking out of prison he aided Spider-Man in his search for Mary Jane through his studio. Spider-Man discovers that Mysterio was in love with a woman named Miranda Wilson, a former actress who was mortally wounded from a filming accident the day Spider-Man exposed Quentin Beck and was saved only by Beck's Cybernetic technology. Miranda planned the entire kidnapping to swap bodies with the similar-looking Mary Jane using a machine developed by Mysterio, Mysterio explained that he faked the machine and only built it to give her hope for a new body. Devastated Miranda set the studio to explode, Spider-Man saved Mary Jane, and Mysterio apparently died in the explosion, staying with Miranda to the end. In the five-part Six Forgotten Warriors storyline, in which the Kingpin hires the Insidious Six again, the Vulture replaces the late Mysterio.

File:SpectacularMysterio.jpg

Mysterio in The Spectacular Spider-Man.

• Quentin Beck first appears in The Spectacular Spider-Man episode "Persona" voiced by Xander Berkeley. He is one of the Chameleon's henchmen alongside Phineas Mason. After Chameleon impersonates Spider-Man, using Beck's special effects tech, and goes on a crime spree, the group are taken down by the real Spider-Man and the Black Cat. Quentin takes on the identity of Mysterio in the season two episode "Blueprints". He steals tech from Tricorp and Oscorp, pretending to be a sorcerer "saving" man kind from technology. He defeats Spider-Man twice but Spidey discovers his lair and defeats him after realising that he doesn't use magic but technology and illusions, the tech itself isn't a threat while the illusions couldn't fool spiderman's spider sense. Mysterio is seemingly taken to jail, but in the end, it's revealed it was actually a robot made in Beck's image; when asked why he did this he stated that he didn't want anyone else taking the credit for his performance as Mysterio. The real Mysterio is also revealed to be working with the Tinkerer for the enigmatic Master Planner. He returns in the episode "Reinforcement" as part of the new Sinister Six. He attacks Spider-Man alongside Kraven the Hunter, and the trio end up in a mall. He doesn't really fight, but helps the Kraven the Hunter with robot duplicates of himself. When Kraven is defeated by one of the exploding robots, Mysterio tries to escape but is stopped by Spidey's web fluid whom made sure that Mysterio wasn't a robot this time. He is arrest by the police, while the others villains were extracted by the Tinkerer. In the episode "Identity Crisis," the reporter Ned Lee is interviewing Quentin Beck when Peter Parker was rumored to be Spider-Man. Quentin Beck states that he hopes that Parker is Spider-Man and that a lot of people in the prison would know what to do with that info. In the episode "Opening Night," however, it is revealed that the Quentin Beck that was imprisoned in the Vault was actually a robot that can switch between Quentin Beck and Mysterio (since Montana, or Shocker knew how to do this, It's implied that the two were in an alliance). The robotic Mysterio aides the other villains in the Vault in fighting Spider-Man, but is accidentally destroyed by Molten Man. The real Quentin Beck's whereabouts remain unrevealed.

Video games

• Mysterio appears in the Spider-Man Questprobe game.
• Mysterio appears as the first boss of The Amazing Spider-Man for Game Boy.
• Mysterio appears as the final boss in the sequel The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
• Mysterio appears in the Sega CD version of The Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin.
• Mysterio is the main villain in Spider-Man: Mysterio's Menace.
• Mysterio is the main villain in the game The Amazing Spider Man.
• Mysterio appears in Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six.
• Mysterio appears as a boss in both the SNES and Sega Genesis games based on the animated series.
• Mysterio appears as a boss in the Japanese only Super Nintendo game The Amazing Spider-Man: Lethal Foes.
• Mysterio appears as the first boss in the Game Boy Color game Spider-Man 2: The Sinister Six.
• Mysterio appears in the 2000 Spider-Man PC, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, and PlayStation game, voiced by Daran Norris.
• Mysterio appears in the Spider-Man 2 video game voiced by James Arnold Taylor. He first appears without a secret identity, trying to discredit Spider-Man and gain fame for himself. However, this event includes Beck releasing several criminals, including Herman Schultz, who threaten the crowd, getting Beck in trouble with the law. Later Mysterio appears posing as an alien who aims to conquer New York City with his army of robots. Spider-Man eventually discovers Mysterio's identity when he stops the villain from robbing a bank. In this game, Beck wears a suit that looks like the traditional Mysterio costume (sans helmet and cape) while trying to discredit Spider-Man, while his Mysterio costume consists of the familiar "fishbowl" and a flowing robe bearing a large M on the chest.
• Mysterio appears as a boss in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. He appears a member of the Masters of Evil and joins MODOK and Crimson Dynamo in the attack on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Omega Base. He has special dialogue with Spider-Man and Venom.
• Mysterio is the main antagonist in Spider-Man: Friend or Foe voiced by Robin Atkin Downes. He combines the shards of the meteor that originally brought Venom to earth with his nanotechnology and hard-light holograms to create P.H.A.N.T.O.M.s (Perpetual Holographic Avatar Nano-Tech Offensive Monsters). Adding to his ranks is a wide array of villains (which create this game's "Sinister Six"), Doctor Octopus, Green Goblin, Scorpion, Rhino, Sandman, and Venom, in that order. He sends Doctor Octopus and the Goblin to Tokyo, Scorpion and Rhino to the mystical Tangaroa Island, Sandman to Egypt, and Venom to the historic Transylvania. His base of operations is in Nepal. Mysterio first encounters Spidey in Nepal somewhere near his lair, where he steals back two shards. Mysterio disappears, and summons two PHANTOMS to combat him, but they are defeated when Spider-Man unleashes the power of the symbiote by smashing the shard in his hand. Spider-Man fights through his forces until he reaches his headquarters, where he utilizes laser weaponry, occasionally stopping to laugh in "triumph", giving Spider-Man time to punch him. In the end, Mysterio is defeated and imprisoned (off screen).
• Mysterio appears in the PlayStation 2 and PSP versions of Spider-Man: Web of Shadows voiced by Greg Baldwin. He is an assist character who takes down enemies with his illusions.
• Mysterio appears as the main antagonist in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, voiced by David Kaye As revealed in the intro video, he shatters the Tablet of Order and Chaos while fighting Spider-Man, causing problems with reality. When Mysterio learns of the Tablet's power, it grants him the ability to perform magic spells. When Spider-Man gives Madame Web the tablet fragment, Mysterio attacks and threatens to kill Madame Web if Spider-Man doesn't recover the remaining tablet fragments for him. Upon receiving the remaining pieces the completed tablet transforms Mysterio into a god bent on destroying the multiverse and remaking it into his own image. He individually fights each Spider-Man in that version's decomposing dimension, and each one smashes Mysterio's helmet until all four gang up on him and beat the tablet out of him. The game ends with Madame Web returning each Spider-Man to his own dimension and Mysterio being sent to jail by the Amazing Spider-Man.

Toys and collectibles

• Mysterio has been the subject of two different action figures produced by Toy Biz under their Spider-Man: The Animated Series and Spider-Man Classics lines. The Toy Biz Mysterio was repainted for the first wave of Spider-Man figures by Hasbro.
• Mysterio has been reproduced as a mini-bust and as a thirteen-inch (330 mm) statue by Bowen Designs. He has likewise been crafted as a mini-bust by Art Asylum as part of their Rogues Gallery line. He also makes up one-seventh of the "Sinister Six" statue set from Diamond Select.
• Hasbro will be adding a Spider-Man 2 game version Mysterio to their Spider-Man 3 Movie figures series as well as Shocker and Vulture. Source can be found on Cooltoyreview.com.

External links

• [2] at Marvel.com
• Profile of Mysterio I at Spiderfan.org
• Profile of Mysterio II at Spiderfan.org
• Mysterio II at The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
• Mysterio III at The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe