Monday, August 24, 2015

Super villain Monday: the immortal Mysterio

Purchase Mysterio's coolest story here

Mysterio is a fictional supervillain and enemy of Spider-Man that appears in the Marvel Universe. The first and most-high profile incarnation of Mysterio is Quentin Beck, although numerous other later incarnations of Mysterio are not Quentin Beck
Among all of the enemies of Spider-Man, Mysterio does even break into the top ten.  Mysterio is not the Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus, The Lizard, the Vulture, Venom, Carnage, Sandman, Electro, The Rhino, the Sorpion, J. J. Jameson, the Molten Man, the Eel, the Kingpin , The Enforcers, The Owl, and the list keeps going.  By the time you get to Mysterio it's because you were reminded of his existence by an off hanf reference in a Kevin Smith movie.

The sad part is that Mysterio is one of. Spidey's more viable villains.  Yeah, it's true that he fell into the mindless plot point of most of the bad guys.  He keeps returning out of a desire for revenge on the hero that put him in prison.
Quentin Beck was an old school performer.  His skills were in the stage arts of Mac shows and hypnosis.  These talents seen as no longer entertaining in the wide world of show in, Beck became Mysterio and applied his special effects wizardry to a life of larceny, and not in a Penn and Teller kinda way.
His plan being thwarted by Siderman, Mysterio swore revenge.  For Mysterio, it was not enough till Spider-Man.  Mysterio was more personal.  Posing as a psychiatrist, Mysterio used a combo of drugs and hypnosis to drive Spidey crazy and make him reveal his identity..
Of course he failed due to the intervention of J. Jonah Jameson.

After that Mysterio's career went down the tubes.  His plans were often thwarted by supe powered infants or oriary insects heating the intended loot.  Adding injury to those particular insults, thsmoke and chemicals Mysterio used for criminal activities had manifested themselves as a brain tumor.  Mysterio had Cancer.
After his final imprisonment during the Guardian Devil storyline, 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, but this imminent death caused prison psychiatrists to grant him early release. Obsessed with exacting 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, whom he had encountered recently during an insurance scam that the hero had thwarted; Mysterio 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 using a special designed drug.  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,[16] Matt Murdock's partner Foggy Nelson was framed for murder after cheating on his current lover,[17] and Daredevil nearly lost his mind as he appeared to be tormented by the forces of Hell.
At the end of this story arc, Mysterio is apparently killed.  I won't tell you how, you need to read the Guardian Devil story to find out.

After that other chumps using Beck's gear assumed the mantle of Mysterio, but none could hold a candle to the original.  Sadly, as is the way I comics, and even more sadly, as is the way of Spider-Man, Mysterio rented from the dead by making a deal with the infernal hosts of Hell.  He even sported a new demonic version of his costume and confronted his imitators,

I don't know when Mysterio will reappear, but the tick of a successful villain is to make him human and relatable.  Mysterio represents th fear we all have of obsolescence and the value we should place on what has gone before.  Now if we can just stop him from being defeated by The Power Pack and hungry silverfish.

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