SPIDER-MAN versus MYSTERIO
The Menace of... Mysterio! (Marvel)
Where: Amazing Spider-Man #13 When: June 1964
Why: Stan Lee How: Steve Ditko
The Story So Far...
When Spider-Man suddenly turns to a life of midnight robbery: J. Jonah Jameson touts his scathing editorials as vindicated. With the public turning against him, and no way to safely consult a psychologist without risking his secret identity -- even Peter Parker is beginning to doubt his own wall-crawling alter-ego's innocence!
Enter - Mysterio: A strange, bubble-domed individual who arrives unannounced at the Daily Bugle!
Mysterio claims to be a hero who's disguised himself to prevent threats to his family from the criminal underworld. He aims to use his incredible powers to stop Spider-Man's crime wave -- asking only that the newspaper print an invitation to the Brooklyn Bridge before he disappears in a puff of smoke!
Spider-Man answers the rendezvous in the hopes of learning the truth about his sudden crisis of identity. Mysterio has no interest in talking, though. This eerie new "hero" is only interested in using his "powers" to destroy Spider-Man!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Spider-Man 5 (Super-Human)
Intelligence: Spider-Man 5 (Professor)
Speed: Spider-Man 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Spider-Man 5 (Marathoner)
Agility: Spider-Man 5 (Cat-Like)
Fighting: Spider-Man 3 (Street Wise)
Energy: Mysterio 4 (Arsenal)
Total: Spider-Man 29 (Metahuman)
Based on the stat readout you're probably expecting a cakewalk for our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man -- but the numbers only tell part of the story!
Mysterio is Quentin Beck: A Hollywood master of special effects and stunt work who turned his trade into an elaborate career creating crime!
His knowledge of electronics, chemicals, and practical effects means he's a villain who attacks the mind as vociferously as the body! Deception in his greatest tool, but make no mistake -- his illusions are often a deadly reality!
In Amazing Spider-Man Annual #4 we saw Mysterio team with The Wizard to create: a deadly gas chamber, lifelike holographic doubles, and a giant-sized animatronic gorilla! Alone, Spidey might've been defeated, but he tag teamed with the Human Torch to narrowly escape the various perils.
Mysterio's illusions range from the disorientation of a living funhouse mirror, to elaborate death traps. In theory, Spider-Man can rely on his unique "spider-senses" to navigate visual decoys. However, Mysterio's deceptions have been known to be quite convincing!
In the alternate reality of Old Man Logan it was Mysterio who helped beat Wolverine's keen senses, tricking him into eviscerating the X-Men while under the belief they were his deadliest enemies. Mysterio has also been able to fool his way past the highly enhanced senses of Daredevil!
What ultimately lets Mysterio down is a combination of ego and lack of fighting skills. His personal suit provides some physical armoring, levitation, as well as an arsenal of special effects gimmicks, smoke projection, mind-altering gasses, holograms, and controls for various electronic aids. Once these are bypassed he's typically ripe for defeat, though.
This is pretty early in Spider-Man's career, so he's at least vulnerable to the pretense of Mysterio's claims of strange powers. He's also still getting to grips with his own powers. We saw the Vulture use simple diversionary tactics to get the drop on Spideya few months earlier, in Amazing Spider-Man #7.
The proportionate strength, speed, and agility of a spider should typically be enough to best Mysterio, but it's about time we find out what happened!
History: Spider-Man (1-0-0)
The Tape: Spider-Man Ranking: Spider-Man (#2)
What Went Down...
Walking a tightrope along the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge, Spider-Man seeks answers from the man who summoned him. As if appearing from nowhere in sudden burst of smoke -- Mysterio arrives to carry out his challenge!
Where: Amazing Spider-Man #13 When: June 1964
Why: Stan Lee How: Steve Ditko
The Story So Far...
When Spider-Man suddenly turns to a life of midnight robbery: J. Jonah Jameson touts his scathing editorials as vindicated. With the public turning against him, and no way to safely consult a psychologist without risking his secret identity -- even Peter Parker is beginning to doubt his own wall-crawling alter-ego's innocence!
Enter - Mysterio: A strange, bubble-domed individual who arrives unannounced at the Daily Bugle!
Mysterio claims to be a hero who's disguised himself to prevent threats to his family from the criminal underworld. He aims to use his incredible powers to stop Spider-Man's crime wave -- asking only that the newspaper print an invitation to the Brooklyn Bridge before he disappears in a puff of smoke!
Spider-Man answers the rendezvous in the hopes of learning the truth about his sudden crisis of identity. Mysterio has no interest in talking, though. This eerie new "hero" is only interested in using his "powers" to destroy Spider-Man!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Spider-Man 5 (Super-Human)Intelligence: Spider-Man 5 (Professor)
Speed: Spider-Man 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Spider-Man 5 (Marathoner)
Agility: Spider-Man 5 (Cat-Like)
Fighting: Spider-Man 3 (Street Wise)
Energy: Mysterio 4 (Arsenal)
Total: Spider-Man 29 (Metahuman)
Based on the stat readout you're probably expecting a cakewalk for our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man -- but the numbers only tell part of the story!
Mysterio is Quentin Beck: A Hollywood master of special effects and stunt work who turned his trade into an elaborate career creating crime!
His knowledge of electronics, chemicals, and practical effects means he's a villain who attacks the mind as vociferously as the body! Deception in his greatest tool, but make no mistake -- his illusions are often a deadly reality!
In Amazing Spider-Man Annual #4 we saw Mysterio team with The Wizard to create: a deadly gas chamber, lifelike holographic doubles, and a giant-sized animatronic gorilla! Alone, Spidey might've been defeated, but he tag teamed with the Human Torch to narrowly escape the various perils.
Mysterio's illusions range from the disorientation of a living funhouse mirror, to elaborate death traps. In theory, Spider-Man can rely on his unique "spider-senses" to navigate visual decoys. However, Mysterio's deceptions have been known to be quite convincing!
In the alternate reality of Old Man Logan it was Mysterio who helped beat Wolverine's keen senses, tricking him into eviscerating the X-Men while under the belief they were his deadliest enemies. Mysterio has also been able to fool his way past the highly enhanced senses of Daredevil!
What ultimately lets Mysterio down is a combination of ego and lack of fighting skills. His personal suit provides some physical armoring, levitation, as well as an arsenal of special effects gimmicks, smoke projection, mind-altering gasses, holograms, and controls for various electronic aids. Once these are bypassed he's typically ripe for defeat, though.
This is pretty early in Spider-Man's career, so he's at least vulnerable to the pretense of Mysterio's claims of strange powers. He's also still getting to grips with his own powers. We saw the Vulture use simple diversionary tactics to get the drop on Spideya few months earlier, in Amazing Spider-Man #7.
The proportionate strength, speed, and agility of a spider should typically be enough to best Mysterio, but it's about time we find out what happened!
History: Spider-Man (1-0-0)
The Tape: Spider-Man Ranking: Spider-Man (#2)
What Went Down...
Walking a tightrope along the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge, Spider-Man seeks answers from the man who summoned him. As if appearing from nowhere in sudden burst of smoke -- Mysterio arrives to carry out his challenge!
Spidey immediately dives at his hostile host -- but Mysterio effortlessly avoids the attack! As if by magic, his smoking feet carry him over his adversary in a graceful backwards arc -- and into a returning dive kick to the back!
The blow staggers Spider-Man for a moment, but the proportionate strength and agility of a spider helps him recover quickly. He takes a return swing at his newest nemesis, but swipes open air as Mysterio steps onto the sheer face of the bridge brickwork -- and stands on it in defiance of the laws of gravity!
Designs to pull Mysterio back up top go by the wayside when his smoking feet again glide him out of the wall-crawler's reach!
Issues of reach are quickly remedied with some quick fire web-slinging, but Mysterio appears to have an uncanny answer for that, too! With a simple gesture of his hand the webs appear to freeze in mid-air and vaporize!
With another wave of his hands Mysterio disappears into a blooming cloud of smoke. Undeterred, Spidey jumps into the fog with his keen spider-sense at the ready -- but for the first time in his amazing career it fails him!
With his preternatural danger sense jammed, Spider-Man resorts to swinging wildly through the cloud, but it does him no good. Mysterio stays hidden, avoiding his attacks while unleashing a barrage of his own!
Pummeled by invisible strikes, Spider-Man's disoriented situation grows desperate! With options dwindling, and Mysterio's blows testing his enhanced resolve, he opts for a drastic measure -- jumping from the Brooklyn Bridge!
Spidey hits the water relatively unharmed, weaving a web ball of air to evade police helicopters. He swims away submerged beneath the waves, while Mysterio basks atop the bridge in victory!
The Hammer...
The first career outing for Mysterio goes into the books as a success!
His mighty "powers" lived up to their claim, earning a tactical victory against a young and unprepared Spider-Man. The reader, of course, knows all is not as it seems, but in this first outing, Spidey only has fleeting suspicions about the true nature of Mysterio, and his talent for simulating super-powers.
It's a fairly standard introduction for a classic Spider-Man villain. Even in his second appearance, we saw Vulture get a similar win in 1963's Amazing Spider-Man #7. It's the dramatic set-up for a tense rematch later in the issue.
I'd like to think readers of the time may not have had absolute certainty Spidey would come out on top in the end, but they probably did, and had fun seeing how he did it, any way. I sure did!
It's been much tougher for Quentin Beck to get respect in the intervening decades. His defeats have had a way of overwhelming his fleeting successes.
Fans of a certain age seem to have either loved the fantastical fish-bowled felon - or hated him. Like a lot of dyed in the wool fans, I've always come down on the side of affection. I love the classic Steve Ditko design, and the core concept.
Mysterio may be best associated with smoke and mirrors, but his penchant for deception and false realties only seems to lend itself to growing relevance.
The way we consume media should easily be reflected on the way Mysterio distributes it. Smart phones and virtual reality headsets are the kinds of ever present vehicles that invite Mysterio into all of our lives.
False narratives of so-called "fake news" and the growing concern of gullibility and confusion among average consumers plays directly into the schemes and means of Mysterio as a super-villain. These concepts don't even need to be pushed into the realm of science-fiction to exploit the concept of Mysterio as a very real, very dangerous character, perfectly suited to our times.
Of course, smoke and mirrors are still pretty fun, too.
Jake Gyllenhaal brings plenty of smoke to the big screen with his version of Mysterio appearing in Spider-Man: Far From Home. It looks like the movie appears to be paying some homage to the original story seen in Amazing Spider-Man #13, which is nice to see. Especially with the dome on!
Mysterio's deceptive skill has been extended to marketing for the movie, which presents Gyllenhaal as a powerful inter-dimensional hero accidentally brought to the MCU by Thanos, and the events of Avengers: Infinity War. We can all assume much of what Mysterio claims will be a lie, but I'm sure moviegoers will enjoy seeing how Spidey comes out on top in the end.
If you'd like to see how they did it in the classics, and reconnect with the original (and best) Mysterio, you can do so by checking out the collected Marvel Masterworks: Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 2! Using the Amazon purchase link provided will get you a top deal on paperback and help support Secret Wars on Infinite Earths at no extra charge! That's no illusion!
Find more Spider-Man smackdown by following links throughout this post, or by diving into the Secret Archive! There you'll find every featured fight indexed by publisher, series, and issue! You can also get daily links to featured fights by following on Twitter and Facebook! Be sure to throw a like or share this way!
Winner: Mysterio
#377 (+264) Mysterio
#2 (--) Spider-Man
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