Spider-Tracer: The Mystifying Menace of Multiple Mysterios

Quentin Beck certainly has proven to be quite a pain for Spider-Man over the years, as evidenced by last month’s Spider-Tracer article. He’s done everything from faking Aunt May’s death to posing as a psychiatrist in order to discover Spidey’s secret identity. But did you know that Quentin wasn’t the only Mysterio to give Web-Head troubles over the years? It’s true. Much like with Vulture and the Rose from past articles, this month we’ll be covering the multitude of men to take up the identity of Mysterio.

The first man to take up the Mysterio identity after Mr. Beck was Daniel Berkhart in “Amazing Spider-Man” #’s 141-142. A former stuntman who worked with Beck (Berkhart had been fired for showing up to work drunk a few times too many), Berkhart became the second Mysterio after the original seemingly perished in an escape attempt from prison. Feeling obliged to take up the fight with Spider-Man for his fallen friend, Berkhart adopted the costume and equipment left to him by Beck. Berhart was a natural, even driving Spider-Man so bonkers that he ended up damaging his hands in a scuffle with… a brick wall! You read correctly. Berkhart had Spider-Man convinced several of his foes were attacking him in unison and it turned out that the only thing Spider-Man had been hitting was an old wall. It’s worth noting that loyalty to a friend wasn’t the only thing that had convinced Berkhart to become the new Mysterio; Berkhart was paid by J. Jonah Jameson to harass the Wall-Crawler! Upon his capture, Berkhart threatened JJJ to get him a good lawyer or else he’d tell law enforcement of his involvement.

Quentin Beck, of course, returned to the role for several more years, but seemingly died again in a crazed revenge scheme with Daredevil. Berkhart resumed the role with Beck gone, battling Spider-Man as part of the Sinister Six. He dropped several hints as to not being the original Mysterio along the way until his true identity was revealed.

Around this time, another Mysterio stepped up to the plate during the “Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do” mini-series. A mutant wanting revenge on Spider-Man (Spider-Man had attacked him for incorrectly thinking he was going to kill Black Cat), Francis Klum purchased Beck’s equipment from the Kingpin. Hoping that his natural ability to teleport in conjunction with his new gear might give him an edge, Klum still couldn’t get one over on Spider-Man.

Not long after, Spider-Man revealed his identity to the world during Marvel’s “Civil War” event. Berkhart and Klum both decided to try and kill Spider-Man at Midtown High School (who happened to be a teacher there at the time) on the same day (what are the odds?) in “Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” Vol. 1, #’s 11-13. Spider-Man managed to take down Berkhart. Meanwhile, Klum came face to face with Beck, albeit with a good portion of his head missing from his seeming suicide that followed his defeat at the hands of Daredevil. Beck claimed to have been serving powerful masters of some sort, claiming he went to hell for killing himself, though no reference to this information was ever dropped again. Klum was soon stabbed in the chest by the school nurse (and if you think that there was more to this nurse than meets the eye, you’d be right and your Spider-Sense is working just fine in case you were wondering) and hasn’t been seen since teleporting himself away. So yes, not one, not two, but three Mysterios! What more could a guy ask for? Well, maybe in Spidey’s case, an Excedrin, but that’s beside the point (okay, maybe Beck needed an Excedrin more, as evidenced by the pic below).

Years later, Roderick Kingsley, the original Hobgoblin, who happens to be in the business of selling off villainous identities for a cut of the buyers’ profits, sells off the Mysterio identity to an unknown criminal. The criminal decides to slightly alter the name to Mysterion, but has yet to hit the big time. His most notable exploits include being captured and mind-controlled by the Superior Spider-Man, along with other members of the Sinister Six, and being handed a defeat by Squirrel Girl and several other heroes following an attack with robotic dinosaurs on Liberty Island.  Mysterion first appeared in “Avenging Spider-Man” #22.

If there’s one thing to learn here, it’s that Quentin Beck is one tough act to follow! Berkhart may be dead, supposedly killed off-panel by the most recent Jack O’Lantern (for having taken up the Jack O’Lantern identity between playing Mysterio; the new Jack wanted to be the only one to hold the mantle), as might Klum, while Mysterion can’t seem to score a win. Who is your favorite Mysterio, and why? Let me know down in the comments below!