Spider-Tracer: The Menace of… Mirage?!

Bet you thought I was gonna say Mysterio, huh, Spider-Man fans? Nope! For this month’s Spider-Tracer article, I thought we’d take a look at the minor irritant known as… Mirage! Let’s get right to it, shall we?

Funny enough, Mirage and Mysterio, at least in terms of their abilities, are quite similar. With his special suit, Mirage can disguise his appearance, as well as any thugs in his employment, create several false holograms of himself, and bend light to appear invisible (which helps when using a hologram of himself to fool an opponent). So just who is this yellow yahoo, anyway?

First appearing in “The Amazing Spider-Man” # 156, Mirage and his minions were making money by robbing weddings. They just happened to, unfortunately for them, choose the wedding of Ned Leeds and Betty Brant, where Peter Parker just so happened to be a guest. After a well-timed blacking out of the lights on Peter Parker’s part, Spidey appears and takes out Mirage’s thugs before going after (as he liked to call himself) the Mirage.

It took a few misses, but, after figuring out that Mirage himself was always invisible and nearby his illusions, Spidey dropped a chandelier on the illusion attacking him, and, luckily enough, Mirage himself.

As we’d come to discover over the years, Mirage, or Desmond Charne, was inspired to become a costumed character after his girlfriend was saved by Iron Man during a battle with Fin Fang Foom. Helpless to save her himself, his love left him, prompting him to think a costumed identity would be required to get women. Soon coming to admire Spider-Man, Charne’s studies of visual electronics allowed him to create the Mirage identity and abilities. However, instead of becoming a hero, Charne settled on a criminal lifestyle.

And so, after his failed robbery of the Leeds wedding, Charne formed another gang of minions and went to the hospital in “Marvel Two-in-One” #96 to abduct a recuperating Ben Grimm, the Thing, for ransom. Their plan was foiled by a vigilant Daredevil, who easily saw through Mirage’s tricks thanks to his heightened senses.

Mirage later turned up at a supervillain meeting in the Bar With No Name in “Captain America” #319. Unbeknownst to the criminals in attendance, the Scourge of the Underworld, the very subject of their meeting, was disguised as the bartender and massacred the lot of them. And so ended Mirage’s short villainous career. Well, for quite some time, at least.

In “The Punisher”, Volume 7, #5, Mirage and several of the other Scourge victims were resurrected as part of the Hood’s war on the Punisher. Unlike most villains that cross his path, Mirage managed to survive his battle with the Punisher and lived to fight another day (even after it seemed like his life was ended yet again by a bullet).

Mirage later becomes a member of the Owl’s Sinister Sixteen, only to eventually wind up pushed off of a building by Boomerang (all of which took place during “The Superior Foes of Spider-Man” series). While he seemingly died (he was brought back as a clone in “The Clone Conspiracy” story, after all), a villain with Mirage’s powers should easily be able to fake his death, right? Nope, he was dead, alright… until he was resurrected by Dr. Strange while repairing Las Vegas as a part of the “Damnation” storyline.

So yes, as of this article, Mirage is alive and well. Mirage sure is lucky. He may not be able to use his powers to fake his death like Mysterio has numerous times, but his ability to return from death is quite admirable indeed, no?

What are your thoughts on this colorful, second-rate Mysterio?  Let me know in the comments below!