Powers of Mysterio:
The latest entrant to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is also one of its most mysterious characters till date. Mysterio is a villain, in the comic books, that has been a throne at Spider-Man’s time since time immemorial. He has since redeemed himself and again gone back to his evil ways of crime and deception more times than we can count in the comic books. The guy known as Quentin Beck used to be just a highly gifted special effects expert who decided to use his skills to become a super-villain instead of a Hollywood prop-master. After coming toe to toe with Spider-Man, the latter’s superhuman abilities sometimes still proved ineffective against the might of Mysterio. The comic books also revealed that Mysterio literally did a deal with the Devil and got superpowers in return. Presenting – 10 incredible powers of Mysterio from the Comic Books you never even knew!!
10. Invisibility
Many do not know but like Spider-Man has two versions – Peter Parker and Miles Morales, Mysterio is also a shared mantle. The one we see in the Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer is the guy we know as Quentin Beck – the very first Mysterio. But there are two more such Mysterios in the Marvel Comics Universe. They are Francis Klum and Daniel Berkhart. Daniel Berkhart has ability unique to him – he can turn invisible. Although it is not a superpower if that’s what you were thinking! Daniel Berkhart has a device called the Invisi-Mask, a machine that bends light around a closed space and makes it look like the object it is hiding is not even there. Apart from that, with Maguire Beck’s tech support, he also has Image inducers to create hallucinations and mirages.
9. Psychological Manipulation
Mysterio has what many would say a flair for the dramatic. Quentin Beck was originally a highly sought after Special Effects expert that helped many Hollywood projects achieve CGI and VFX wonders. When he realized he could use his skills for his own advantage, Quentin became the Mysterio. But his ability to create drama and drive it forward to sometimes lead to Mass Hysteria is exceptional. Mysterio impersonated Spider-Man and did crimes when he first made his debut to turn the public sentiment against Spider-Man before trying to stop the Wall-Crawler as himself and making the world think Mysterio is the hero the City deserves. He even used pure psychological warfare tactics to almost drive Daredevil insane although he did not manage to succeed in that endeavor.
8. Inter-dimensional Travel
One of the many perks he got after doing a deal with the Devil was the ability to traverse between dimensions, and even different universes. After Mysterio realized that there are literally countless universes with countless possibilities for him to explore, he decided to let go of his original reality and make way for some other reality fit for him. In the Ultimate Marvel Universe, Mysterio first killed the Kingpin and took over the criminal underworld. It was only after Peter Parker met Miles Morales in another universe that they realized what was going on and decided to put an end to Quentin Beck’s reign of terror.
7. Telekinesis
As we said, there are three different Mysterios in comic books. The first two – Quentin Beck and Daniel Berkhart, are just ordinary people with extraordinary skills in sleight of hand tactics and deception techniques. But the third Mysterio – Francis Klum, actually has superpowers of his own. He was actually a product of Nazi experimentation on his parents where their bodies were embedded with mutant genes. As a result, Klum developed the power to control things with his mind, something we know better as Telekinesis. When Spider-Man got on his nerves, Klum took on the role of Mysterio and lured him into a trap, thinking that Spider-Man has him out-gunned before revealing his powers of telekinesis and completely turning the tables.
6. Telepathy
Francis Klum’s mutant powers do not just end with telekinesis. He also has the power to read and manipulate the thoughts of other people. Telepathy was a gift bestowed on Klum by the Nazis which he uses for his own bidding. Francis is an extremely adept telepath, being able to read people’s minds and knowing their greatest fears. He would then project those fears onto them and force them to do things that they normally would never have done. Mysterio is someone known to be a good psychological manipulator but Francis literally took it to another level by throwing in telepathic fear projection to create chaos in the mix.
5. Teleportation
The last and final power of Francis Klum is his power to literally jump through space from one point to another using the power to teleport himself. Francis Klum uses this facet of his mutant abilities the most, using his teleportation as a weapon to get behind his enemies and catch them off guard by hitting at their blind spots. In one issue, the three Mysterios – Quentin Beck, Francis Klum, and Daniel Berkhart got into a massive argument and started to fight. It was the hardest for Spider-Man, who had jumped in to dispel the tension, to stop Francis Klum, who kept teleporting himself from one place to another, and ensuring Spider-Man has a really hard time taking him down.
4. Bio-Warfare
Mysterio uses several hallucinogens and gases to confuse his enemies. Since Quentin Beck is an expert in organic chemistry, he has used his talents to create incredibly potent illusion inducing chemicals that affect the state of mind. In Spider-Man: Far From Home, we see Mysterio shooting what appears to be some sort of green colored mist from his hands. For now, we are not sure if it is what we think it is. In the comics, this green mist is actually a hallucinogen that Mysterio releases to trick his enemies while he keeps himself breathing fresh air since his helmet has an isolated life support system.
3. Sensory Deprivation
The green mist that Mysterio is famous for using whenever he makes an appearance is also useful tool for the guy to fight superheroes with enhanced senses. Spider-Man not only has superior senses but also a sixth sense called the Spidey-Sense. This allows him to predict when the next attack will be coming and from which direction it might be coming from. But once Spider-Man inhales that gas, his Spidey-Sense temporarily shuts down, leaving him open to attacks! Mysterio used this gas to its maximum effect when he tricked Wolverine into killing the entire X-Men team by making him inhale the gas, which created massive hallucinations in Wolverine’s head, and he went berserk. Not even Wolverine’s sense of smell was functioning properly to tell friend from foe.
2. Hypnotism
Daniel Berkhart uses the hallucinogenic green gas to create illusions that trick the human mind. Francis Klum has his telepathy to do the same trick. But Quentin Beck’s ability to trick the human mind is the most subtle and effective – he has the power to hypnotize people. Quentin actually studied for years the science of Hypnotism and was finally able to master it as an art. He uses his power to hypnotize people through subtle suggestions and cues. One of his greatest feats was tricking Spider-Man into thinking that he was going insane until the wall-crawler visited a psychiatrist to realize it was all a trick of Beck’s Hypnotism.
1. Special Effects
The one ability that is his signature move is his ability to create extremely lifelike special effects that could fool a superhero as seasoned as even Spider-Man. Quentin Beck was the world’s greatest VFX and Special Effects expert of Hollywood and an incredibly talented stunt person. He decided to become a super-villain because he was never acknowledged for his work. Using his know-how and tricks of the trade he had picked up along the way, Beck soon became Mysterio and the rest is history. While there are other abilities and skills that Mysterio uses more frequently, the one skill that sets him apart is his use of special effects.
