Mysterio appeared in 1963 Marvel Comics called Amazing Spider-Man.
Quentin Beck, the son of Elmore and Henrietta Beck, was born in Riverside, California. From a very young age, Quentin had a love for movies and special effects. During this period, Quentin became good friends with his cousin, Maguire Beck. As Maguire tells it, Quentin's father was something of a loser. However, Maguire's father encouraged his nephew's interests, giving him his first movie camera. With the camera given to him by his Uncle Vinnie, Quentin made his own home-movies and learned how to create stop-motion special effects. Thinking his son was wasting his time, Elmore Beck smashed the camera. Still, this did not dissuade Beck, who continued to learn the art of practical special effects. After high school, Beck attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he developed technical knowhow that helped him solidify his career aspirations.
By the time he had become an adult, Quentin Beck became an accomplished special effects expert as well as a stuntman. However, Beck grew bored with his career and frustrated with the lack of recognition he got from his work. In an attempt to get the fame that he craved, Beck tried to become an actor but had very little success. It was around this time that Spider-Man was making headlines as a media sensation. The wall-crawler's agent, Maxie Shiffman hired Beck to come up with special effects for a television appearance. Although Quentin insisted that Shiffman use fake props, the promoter wanted real dangers. Beck complied but warned that he would take any responsibility if anything wrong happened. Sure enough, Spider-Man arrived in late to practice the stunts and the studio audience was almost injured had it not been for the web-slinger's quick thinking. Having grown fed-up with his stagnant career, Quentin became inspired when one of his co-workers jokingly suggested that he use his special effects skill to become a costumed villain and kill Spider-Man. Another motivator for his desire to show the world was the fact that Beck wrote what he thought was the greatest screenplay ever written. However, this too was rejected by his peers.
Quentin Beck first delved into crime when he allied himself with Phineas Mason, the criminal inventor known as the Tinkerer. Using his repair shop as a front, the Tinkerer planted bugs in the electronic equipment of prominent inventors and government officials in order to steal their secrets and sell them to the highest bidder. As a cover for their activities, Beck used his special effects skill to make it look like this scheme was being carried out by alien invaders. He created life-like alien costumes as well as a phony alien craft. Unfortunately, the scheme was ruined by Spider-Man, forcing the "aliens" to flee. Having successfully escaped from the wall-crawler, Quentin Beck vowed to beat him one day if it was the last thing he ever did.
Returning to Hollywood, Quentin Beck went back to his old job. However, when one of his stunts horribly burned an actor, he was blacklisted from the industry. It was then that he began developing the weaponized special effects that he would use throughout his career as a super-villain. Deciding to get his revenge against Spider-Man, Beck began developing devices that could replicate the web-slinger's abilities. However, he was finding it a challenge to replicate Spider-Man's wall-crawling ability. He then arranged a meeting with his idol, legendary special effects artist Ray Bradhaus. Bradhaus continued to use practical special effects even though the major studios were favoring digital special effects. One effect, used in an Italian horror film, appeared to pull off the stunt he wanted to recreate. Gassing Ray and putting on his new costume, Beck went down into the basement, where he discovered that Bradhaus was actually a practitioner and that the demonic creature in Ray's last film was a real creature. Beck was able to slay the demon using his special effects and was satisfied that he succeeded Bradhaus as a master of special effects. Quentin took on the name "Mysterio" taking the name from Il Mysterio after Bradhaus' last film.
Powers and Abilities[]
- VFX Artist: Beck is a master of make-up, physical stunt work, mechanical and visual special effects.
- Mechanical Engineer: He is a brilliant inventor and engineer, with advanced knowledge in robotics.
- Chemistry: He also learned a great deal of applied chemistry, especially the use of hallucinogens, and electronics.
- Strategist: Beck is a meticulous planner and organizer.
- Actor: He is a skilled actor who kept himself in top physical form.
- Psychiatry: Beck knows basic psychiatry and physiological manipulation of others.
- Hypnotist: Beck is trained in the basic art of hypnotism.
Arsenal[]
- Mysterio Suit: Beck wears a suit that contains his personal weaponry that include a one-way acrylic glass helmet (with 30 minute air supply), holographic projectors, 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. He also has more advanced technology (not of his own design) at his disposal.
- Web-Shooters: Mysterio has also created his own version of Spider-Man's webbing, including a gun that fires webbing, but lacks the complete knowledge of the formula Spider-Man uses, since Spider-Man had also designed his artificial webbing to begin dissolving after an hour has passed.
- Android Avatars: Beck had a host of android avatars which he used to enter another universe.