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Background
Quentin Beck had the typical supervillain childhood. His mother died at an
early age and his father mocked his desire to become an actor in Hollywood.
This left him a very shy, self conscious young man.
Beck started his career as a Hollywood stuntman. He later branched
into special effects, and within a few months was one of the industries top
special effects designers. But Beck grew tried of his continual backstage role
and wanted something greater. Unfortunately, he didnt have the looks to be a
Hollywood actor. One day a friend jokingly told him to take out
one of the new cotsumed crime-fighters, that were popping out of the woodwork
at the time, if he wanted to make a name for himself. Beck took the idea to
heart and began to study the then fledgling Spider-Man.
He entered into a partnership with the Tinkerer to steal industrial and
military plans. The two men pooled their genius and developed an alien
disguise to mask the true nature of their crime. The scheme was foiled by
Spider-Man, but the hero did not see through the villains' diguises.
After more planning and study of his foe, Beck attacked Spider-Man as
Mysterio, under the approval of the Daily Bugle and J. Jonah Jameson, but
was soundly defeated.
Mysterio accepted Doctor Octopus's invitation to join Vulture,
Electro, Sandman and Kraven the Hunter in the Sinister Six, a group
made up of former spider-foes all looking for revenge. Mysterio used robotic
versions of the X-Men to attack Spidey, who quickly realised that he wasnt
fighting his old allies. Using his Spider-Sense, he found the control room and
easily defeated Beck.
Mysterio has fought Spider-Man many times since then, never once hesitating to
use innocent people as pawns. He and the Wizard tricked Spidey and the Human
Torch into battling each other. Naturally, they discovered the plot and
defeated thier enemies. Beck used Maxie Shiffman, Peter Parker's agent
before he became a crime fighter, to lure Spidey out to do battle. Most notably
was his
prolonged campaign with the burglar to recover a fortune from Aunt
May's house, which he
eventually discovered had been eaten by silverfish.
Beck's self confidence never seemed to really rebound, as he often worked with
other criminals. He re-joined the Sinister Six three times. He was used by Doc
Ock, tried to get revenge on Ock and reformed the Six to rid themselves of the
criiminal killer, Kaine. After Kaine killed Octavius, Beck and others
(Vulture, Jason Macendale and Electro) tried to steal his adamantium
tentacles, but were stopped by Spider-Man and the Scarlet Spider.
He started planning
his final revenge, but his long-time enemy Spider-Man was no longer who he
knew, but a clone. Ben Reilly faced off against Mysterio and his ally,
Armada, when they created the MysteryVision TV channel. MysteryVision was
an addictive broadcast that turned its viewers into mindless zombies. I assume
the point was to keep people watching the channel, earning Beck inflated TV
ratings and thusly, mucho dinero.
While being imprisoned in Ravencroft, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and
lung cancer, both afflictions beyond help, and both caused by the products Beck
had used for years. With the maximum estimate of one year to live, and deemed
sane and no longer a danger to society, they released him.
Not wanting a revenge on such a mere clone, Beck remembered his
past meeting with Daredevil, and how intrigued and interesting he was. He
bought all the information about Daredevil from the Kingpin, and
elaborated a complex plan to drive him mad. He hired Daredevil's nemesis,
Bullseye, who killed DD's love, Karen Page. Beck destroyed Foggy Nelson's
relation with Liz Osborn and he almost made DD kill an innocent baby. But
when it came down to it, Beck's plan to have an insane DareDevil killing him
failed, because Matt Murdock wouldn't give him that pleasure. Instead, he
breaks him down with words. Beck says his final move is stolen from
Kraven, and shoots himself.
Before his death, Mysterio trained his cousin Maguire Beck, the person
inside the Conundrum costume and his friend and one-time stand-in Daniel
Berkhart in the use of his technology. Berkhart would become his sucessor,
seeking to avenge his friend by tormenting Spidey and Daredevil, as well as
pursuing his own personal agenda.
Beck briefly appeared post humously at Midtown High. He confronted Miss
Arrow, telling her that he knew what she really was. His new masters were
watching her, and they wanted to know if she had what it took to kill Spider-
Man. She didnt appreciate being lectured by a dead man.
Thanks To:
Some of the above information is extracted from the various
versions of the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe and the more recent
Marvel Encyclopaedias.
The assistance of the
Marvel Chronology Project is gratefully acknowledged.
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