Mysterio - Blog Posts

The sinister six just called the six (untill I find a better name) in the hero and villain swap au where the first hero team to form more then once they formed cause they just couldn't stop Spiderman from stealing stuff. Unlike outher teams the six used to meet at the most random places. The six also tends to not have permeate members of the team they leave and join at random points, sometimes after a member disappears and when they come back they get confused as to why they where replaced, the first time this happened was when kraven disappeared and was replaced by Green goblin.

Spiderio + looks

So I saw Spiderman: Far From Home, And couldn’t help but think of how alike these two are.

since you mentioned him, why do you like mysterio so much?

Much like I mentioned in that other post, my appreciation for Mysterio is based on "pretty much everything the character's been in, comics in last place" first and foremost, mainly because comics Mysterio, while he's obviously the source and has really great, essential storylines for appreciating the character, also has a lot of moments that make him too much of a scumbag for me to enjoy the way I'd like to, particularly Guardian Devil, I really, really don't like that storyline. It's this problem everyone cursed with a love for comic book characters runs into, especially when they are villain fans who like their favorite villains a little or a lot less nasty / murdery / perverted / etc-y than how most writers prefer to use them, I think you all definitely know what I mean without me having to cite specific examples, so we can put this caveat aside.

So I can talk about how much I love Mysterio in general.

(Art by michalivan)

First off, Mysterio has what is EASILY one of the greatest supervillain designs period, not even just for comic book characters, and I'm that they never got rid of the fishbowl or tried to permanently redesign it into something "cooler", like the fishbowl isn't already unbelievably cool, and that, even with the lengths they took to modernize and blockbuster-fy Mysterio for FFH, they didn't touch the fishbowl and instead used it as a centerpiece for some of his illusions (by far the best part of that movie, really the only thing that made me watch it, was it's depiction of Mysterio and his traps). 

It’s a design that wouldn’t look remotely out of place in a Power Rangers or Kamen Rider show and I mean that as a compliment, tokusatsu supervillain designs are generally a cut or several above comic book supervillain designs, partially because, much like how fighting game characters need to be appealing at first sight in ways other videogame characters do not need, tokusatsu villains, especially in monster-of-the-week formats, need to strike up an impression and be distinguishable and show you what kind of threat they pose or character they are, often with nothing BUT their design. And so Mysterio stands out in any line-up, next to any candy-colored criminal mastermind or deformed gangster or animal-themed superthug.

Mysterio’s look, even at it’s most basic form, strikes a weird, confusing, mystical figure. What should be a fairly obvious albeit still cool supervillain look, with that green bodysuit and purple cape and wrist ornaments, turns almost into some kind of weird abstract art piece, with the net pattern over his body and those wretched eye ornaments attaching his cape and of course the fishbowl, obscuring and dehumanizing his features beyond even the usual  monstrous mask, evoking something far less bestial than the other Spider-rogues, instead pushing it to the truly alien and dreamlike, something you’d find minding it’s business in M.C Escher rooms squirreled away in unexplored depths of subconscious, something that only bothers to look human so it can better taunt you with just how stupid and ignorant you really are about the world around you. 

And of course, Mysterio is not some grandiose, godlike alien, he’s just a theatrical asshole with parlor tricks, and his design excellently communicates both of these aspects to him, especially when the fishbowl is inevitably destroyed and suddenly the entire illusion is gone. Or is it? He always finds a way to get you the hardest when you think you’ve got him down and he’s got no more illusions to pull, and then he turns out to have a whole ensemble of extra illusions, or just good old fashioned dirty tricks, because Mysterio is nothing if not a resourceful bastard.

I mentioned atop that I don’t like some moments where Mysterio is made too much of a bastard for me to enjoy the character as a fun supervillain, but that is in no way me saying that I don’t like Mysterio as a bastard, quite the opposite. I love that he in particular, out of most of the major Spider-Man villains, is the one with the least tragic reasons for becoming a villain. He wasn’t turned into a monster, he wasn’t screwed over unfairly out of his life’s work, he didn’t have any mental illnesses or conditions to push him to crime (which gives him less of an excuse than fucking Carnage, of all people), he didn’t even have a tragic life story prior to taking up the costume.

His backstory is that he was an accomplished VFX artist and stuntman, with steady employment, who became bored and, failing to transition into acting, decided to take up costumed supervillainy (a retcon later established that he was blacklisted after one of his special effects injured someone, but that doesn’t mitigate anything as he could have, and indeed has, found any number of workarounds for this). Even adaptations that try to give Mysterio more concrete or understandable (and sometimes less fun) reasons for becoming a supervillain don’t do anything to mitigate that this guy, while not nearly as cruel as the Goblin or the Symbiotes, or as dangerous as Doc Ock or destructive as someone like Electro or Scorpion, is a piece of shit who became a costumed terrorist purely to sate his ego, because he had the means and resources to become a supervillain and the idea appealed to him, so he did it.

You know how Breaking Bad appears at first to be the heartbreaking story of an average, well-meaning man driven to crime out of desperate financial woes, when it turns out to be mainly the story of a gargantuan, cartoonish asshole finally finding an excuse to cut loose and go on an ego trip at the expense of everyone around him? Or Death Note and that whole joke that goes around in this site, about how Light Yagami saw the slippery slope and decided to grab a sled? That’s Mysterio. He’s the greatest example of a genuine, bonafide Saturday morning cartoon villain in Spider-Man’s rogues gallery, and often times this doesn’t at all mitigate the threat he poses, even when Spider-Man is actively aware that he’s dealing with Mysterio’s Scooby-Doo bullshit again.

If there’s a single thing that asshole’s honest about, is the why he’s doing this, and frankly I tend to like that in a villain, especially because all the other Spider-Man villains tend to be largely tragic victims, fully monstrous and irredeemable murderers, or funny assholes who are meant to be slightly sympathetic and pathetic also. In a world where the biggest villains tend to be self-deluded monsters and scumbags doing wretched things under a pretense of nobility or excused (sometimes by the narrative even) by personal tragedy, like Magneto or Dr Doom or the X-Men in the Krakoa era or MCU Thanos, I find Mysterio refreshing. Nobody’s gonna ask me to debate the morality of the mass murders and war crimes committed by Mysterio (and it helps that he’s not interested in doing those, he really just gets his kicks out of putting on a show and fucking with Spider-Man) and we’re all generally on the same page that he’s a total dipshit and kind of a joke but he’s also very cool and genuinely scary at points, and he’s generally not bad enough to the point it ruins how fun he is to watch as a cartoon villain (again, minus stories like Guardian Devil, at least for me). Nobody’s gonna come up to me in real life and argue with me that “he’s got a point” that I should consider debating over. 

Mysterio is a creature of spectacle through and through. It’s the spectacle that makes superhero comics what they are, and the true power of Mysterio as a character comes not in the ways he poses a personal threat to Peter Parker (which he does, having gone through painstakingly cruel lengths to gaslight and torment Parker’s mind in ways that other villains with direct mind-control powers couldn’t conceive doing), or a major-scale menace to the city. It’s not in the ways he poses a dark mirror to Spider-Man or a symbolic attack on his persona, that’s what you go to characters like Venom or Doc Ock or Kraven for. What makes Mysterio interesting to me, on a deeper level, is that his power lies in the spectacle that we inherently sign up for when we go to superhero stories. He may not break or acknowledge the 4th wall directly, but on some level, Mysterio displays awareness that he lives in a world of story, that he is a player on a stage like all the others around him, and that he must entertain. His very gimmick as a villain is to tell stories within stories, to insidiously take control, even if only briefly and only in the little world he lives in, of people’s lives and puppeteer them along.

Speaking more personally, Mysterio’s always been a concept deeply appealing to me personally, a grandiose theatrical supervillain who specialized in using movie special effects and film concepts to pick fights with superheroes. I’ve wanted to become a filmmaker since I was 13 and it’s a dream I latched onto strongly my whole life no matter what, one I’ve only been able to begun achieving recently. I’ve always loved telling stories, learning about stories, taking facts and events and spinning stories out of them and getting people invested in them, I’ve been doing it even before I knew what it was, and one of the big reasons why I’ve always wanted to be a filmmaker is because film affords you more tools to work with when creating a story, and I’ve always wanted to learn more about what those tools were and how to use them. Learn the “magic”, as it were. 

And sometimes it feels weird or wrong to call it “magic”, when it’s stuff that you know how to do so mechanically, when it’s stuff you have to do for a living, when you have to do it when you don’t want to, when you got bills to pay and so parts of the “magic” become a job like any other and suddenly you have to come to terms with the idea that maybe you ended up choking your childhood dream by chasing it and it’s hard to muster up the love and excitement you need to in order to go after those dreams you’ve been putting in the backburner forever now and-

..Allright, you know what, I take it back, maybe Mysterio did have a point. A worker in the film industry, ESPECIALLY in the special effects and stunts department, choosing to become a supervillain, feels like something that doesn’t need much justification. Mysterio’s real arch-enemy wouldn’t be Spider-Man, it’d be CGI. 

Or Sony.

(Fingers crossed that, with all the Raimi love in NWH, someday we’ll FINALLY get some justice in this world and get Bruce Campbell as Mysterio for real.)

Jokes aside though, part of the reason I always found Mysterio cool, even when I had read or watched very few stories with him in it, is the same reason so many people quote first and foremost when asked to describe why they like Batman: the ability to kick ass without superpowers. I’ve always liked to watch Mysterio fight Spider-Man for similar reasons people like to watch Batman fight Superman.

I’ve never, ever, liked the idea of Mysterio using actual magic, it runs very much contrary to his appeal as a tremendous illusionist without any magical abilities, using purely advanced technology and his own brilliant mind to run circles around superheroes (and sometimes even supervillains, even those who are actual magic users, who can’t figure out and counter what he’s doing). I didn’t want to get into film because of Mysterio, but the idea of Mysterio made filmmaking and special effects look cool to me the same way Popeye made spinach look cool or Batman makes being a detective look cool. Yeah, spinach doesn’t turn you into a fighting god (to my bitter dissappointment when I first tried it) and by all means Batman would be a pretty terrible detective, but that’s what fiction is for, and fiction is Mysterio’s power.

Fiction is what allows Mysterio, a no-name scumbag with no superpowers, to pose a regular challenge to a superhero who leaps through buildings and juggles cars. Fiction is what allows Batman to beat up Superman, and it’s specifically the fact that it’s Mysterio’s background in film, in special effects and stunt work and acting and etc, that allows him to do all of this, that always made it really, really cool for me. One of the great things about film for me is that learning how the magic is done doesn’t destroy it, quite the opposite. Is Jurassic Park spoiled for anyone when they find out that, no, they didn’t have an actual T-Rex on set, so they built TWO GIANT ROBOTS made to look impeccably like artistic renditions of Tyrannosaurus and whole teams had to operate those under extremely precise conditions just to get seconds of footage? Of course not, that only makes it better! We all know that the Muppets are not “real”, and that doesn’t stop anyone from treating Kermit like he’s a real dude, just a little smaller and a little more green than other dudes, to the point crew members regularly describe completely forgetting that the Muppets are not actually fellow actors. You know it’s fake, and you still think of it as real anyway. Spider-Man knows everything Mysterio does is an illusion, and he still has trouble fighting him. 

Mysterio is a creature of the story who weaponizes stories, weaponizes the art, the scenery, the actions, the reactions, the character arcs, the medium itself, against the protagonist, on paper for his own benefit, but really, for our own (because Mysterio is nothing if not a performer, and a performer is nothing without an audience). His power is his ability to give us a show. Not Spider-Man. Us. Who guarantees that, beneath that fish bowl of his that betrays no line of sight, he isn’t always looking at the reader to gauge your interest and is just good at pretending otherwise, like he does with everything else? 

Mysterio may be a gimmick villain, but it’s a gimmick that makes him an extremely versatile, interesting villain nonetheless because his gimmick is that he’s a storyteller. He weaves lies, frauds, deceptions, tricks, cons, all in spectacular packages and villainous plots, fueled and sustained by magic. Not the hokey bullshit used by that goober Dr Strange to save the world, the real stuff, that which has magically influenced you to spend time, if not money also, to read or watch a story with a guy who has a fish bowl for a head fighting a guy in spider pajamas. Used and designed by a criminal whose endgoals are often as basic and unremarkable as Quentin Beck himself is when you strip away his costume, when he’s nothing but a scumbag with dirty tricks, but Mysterio? Mysterio is magic, and he’s here for us. 

Or so he would claim. He is a professional liar above all else. But he prefers the more pompous name for that, it’s called “artist”.  

ffh spoilers

Okay but can we plz talk about the cute lil mention of Voltron in ffh? So cute, so wholesome

im so so curious abt this: what did everyone name their mystic sellers? reblog and put in the tags what you named them pls?

Alignment charts and memes, ft. Spidersona and OCS

Info on Sinister Six

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I HAVE SOME DESIGNS I WANNA SHARE HOLD ON-

The first I don't like cause Electro in it sucks, but I think the Spider-Suit is so cool and I want to draw it separately, the white accents?? OH MY GODDDD

The second one I could do the colours and design better, but god I have an unreasonable attachment to it I CANT LET IT DIE OKAY I CAN SAVE THE GOD AWFUL DESIGN AND MAKE IT MEDIOCRE

I want to create UNIVERSES for the two I AM GOING INSANE. I might just do a usm and have like 40 Spider-People in one universe cause I love them.

Some extra information on my universe's Sinister Six members.

First post here

I'm tempted to do entire fics on them but- I need to stop before I start overwhelming myself and getting too excited.

Doctor Olivia Odell

Likes - She's always had a strange fascination with ballet, always adores any dances that include sea themes, or long flowy silk.

Dislikes - Any vehicles, cars, helicopters, even bicycles make her nervous and uncomfortable because she has no control. Olivia used to walk everywhere, now, her tentacle situation can help with that.

Favourite food - Fruits, specifically strawberries and blueberries, she loves salads because they can be so diverse with what foods are included.

Least favourite food - Anything spicy, she's always preferred colder foods, and so something hot in temperature let alone flavour is just not her thing.

How does she text? - Usually her texts have very good grammar, even in crisis, she doesn't text often and prefers to use emails in which they're very professional and well structured.

Nationality - English.

What does she think of her fellow Sinister Six members? -

I... Have mixed feelings on the Green Goblin, I believe that his obsession with perfecting... Whatever he was trying to do, was rather immature, and not well thought out, but, I can understand his need for scientific discovery.

Frederick? His connections are useful, and his dedication to his family is admirable, but it gets in the way. He has a soft spot for those younger than him, which, to be fair, is a lot of people.

Marlene is far too bright, my eyes sting just looking at them. They're also very young and unsure. Their powers, however? Now, that's interesting.

Miguel, much like Frederick, has family issues that are too distracting, but, at least he's much more willing to be a firm leader and get the job done.

Mysterio... What do I say about Mysterio?... He's... His illusions are definitely useful...

Norman Osborn

Likes - He likes shiny objects, anything that can spin, and screams. They're loud, they drown out the voices.

Dislikes - Those two boys... He can't remember how he knows them, but he knows it's painful to see them.

Favourite food - Steak.

Least favourite food - Anything with too much grease.

How does he text? - Doesn't bother to check for spelling errors, punctuation, or grammar, and he's barely coherent. Yet, he insists on texting the Sinister Six group chat regularly.

Nationality - American.

What does he think of his fellow Sinister Six members?

Pretty hair, like little tentacles.

Sand is irritating, all over my skin... He does it on purpose, I know it.

Bright, loud... Perfect to listen to... Not fun to talk to.

Too quiet... He reminds me of... Of...

Shiny, I like the helmet, it spins.

Frederick Miller

Likes - Playing dolls with his daughter, he can't afford much, but his wife passed down a dollhouse with some cute little wooden peg dolls that they play with after school.

Dislikes - Soft beds, he's always preferred a hard surface to sleep on, maybe that's why his back is so horrible.

Favourite food - He likes cereal. It's cheap, the most important meal of the day, they give you a lot of what you need, plus, you can add anything to it.

Least favourite food - Honestly? Anything with an expensive price tag, the cheaper, the better it tastes.

How does he text? - He can't actually write too well and so uses the speech to text feature, it makes his texts get misunderstood regularly.

Nationality - American.

What does he think of his fellow Sinister Six members?

Olivia is strange, she's not a bad co-worker but she's intense. I don't know if she likes me, and I don't know if I like her. At the end of the day, she's just another criminal I gotta work with.

Uh... That guy...? Green Goblin, was it? He's... He's definitely a... Uhm... Person...?

Marlene reminds me of my kid, they're bright, fun, and honestly? I feel bad for them, they shouldn't be in this business, at all, from what they've told me, it was a complete accident.

Miguel, he's strict, commanding, but that's until you share a beer with the guy. He's damaged, I feel for him. Although, that doesn't make me like waking up at five AM any more.

I don't like how Mysterio acts around Marlene. He's just... Weird... At least his technology is useful.

Marlene Diegel

Likes - Ballet and classical music, they're very important to the history of theatre and the entertainment industry in general.

Dislikes - Dull colours and costumes that aren't flashy, in their opinion, if you're going to be a villain you may as well dress the part.

Favourite food - Cake, the ones with heavy icing and cherries on top.

Least favourite food - Chicken, especially with bones in it.

How do they text? - Lots of emoticons and exclamation / quotation marks, they're never professional texting even when it's about a serious mission.

Nationality - German.

What do they think of their fellow Sinister Six members?

I wish I was as smart as Olivia, I admire her, really, but she's honestly not very fun to be around. She's quiet, and kinda boring, but at least her tentacles can hold stuff for me.

Green Goblin gives me the creeps, he's literally green, I thought he was some kind of alien at first. I can't imagine purposefully doing that to yourself.

Frederick is nice to me, I don't know why, but he feels like my dad, or my brother, or just my friend, even if we never get to sit down and talk much, I always enjoy when we do.

Miguel also reminds me of my dad, but how he actually was, and not the feeling of a dad. He's very strict and he kinda scares me sometimes, but he's not doing it in a bad way, or at least I don't think he is?

Mysterio's got a fish bowl for a head, I admire the flair, especially the cape, but it is a little ridiculous, and that's coming from somebody with lighting patterns all over their clothes. There's something about him though, I can't place my finger on it!

Miguel Dominguez

Likes - Taking videos and photos, he originally wanted to be a photographer before joining the army, and he's never managed to get back into the hobby professionally.

Dislikes - Watching sports, he despises how boring it is and how you aren't even doing anything while watching.

Favourite food - Pizza, specifically with jalapenos, barbeque sauce and pineapple, it adds a spicy kick and an interesting flavour combination, which boosts his energy.

Least favourite food - Spaghetti, it was his wife's favourite, even the smell makes him sick to his stomach.

How does he text? - He uses emojis a lot and isn't well versed in how people typically use them, so tends to come off as strange. Very good grammar, but occasionally he will sacrifice a bullet point or capital letter once and a while.

Nationality - Mexican.

What does he think of his fellow Sinister Six members?

Olivia's smart, she put this scorpion tail on me, but, I know what it looks like when someone is being told to do something. That's all I'm sharing.

Green Goblin's more like a pet than a human, why would a man reduce himself to such an animalistic state of mind is beyond me. At least he follows orders, I suppose.

Frederick is a good, hardworking, man. Despite how he acts at first, he is very family centered, and I feel as if we both have an understanding of our relationship as co-workers.

I don't think Marlene's cut out for this line of work.

I appreciate Mysterio and his illusions, the technology is impressive, and he's even added advancements to my tail on more than one occasion. But, he's a bit too... Eccentric, for our missions.

Quinlan Blanchfield

Likes - Baking, specifically after a long day of working behind the stage, the lights, the music, it all gives him a rush, and baking cools him down.

Dislikes - The colour blue, it's always just annoyed him, it's too soft.

Favourite food - Cokie dough, and cookies, but, he's working on trying to convince Olivia to help him find a way to safely consume cookie dough, so far she's uninterested.

Least favourite food - Anything that's salty, he never adds salt to his baking, no matter how much it'll improve it.

How does he text? - Uses words that any regular person would need a dictionary to decipher, he's never had a spelling error or incorrect grammar, yet he also uses emojis occasionally.

Nationality - French.

What does he think of his fellow Sinister Six members?

Olivia is impressive, her advancements are far beyond any others, and I'm not just saying that because her boss funds us and our living situations.

Green Goblin interests me, his state of mind, or lack thereof, his costume, everything is such a point of intrigue, I can't wait to learn more when he starts to regain his memories.

The sand guy? He's annoying, I'm starting to think he's spilling sand into my costume on purpose.

Marlene...? No comment.

Miguel is a great leader, he's strong, strict, everything about him is intense, I admire him, I really do, but his schedules and god, the diet? Don't get me started.

The Sinister Six in my universe!

Some more information

Let me know if you want to know more! I'm tempted to write about general information about them, like how they grew up, what their relationships are to each other, etc, etc.

I'm still figuring things out, but I'd love to hear any suggestions!

Doctor Olivia Odell - Doc Ock / Doctor Octopus, a marine Biologist who hoped to bridge the gap between human and sea life, she was successful, but had to cross legal corners to do so, leaving her a criminal. Now, she does human and animal experiments to aid those who fund her in their criminal activity.

Age - 32

Norman Osborn - The Green Goblin, a man who was so obsessed with replicating his son's radioactive spider bite, and finding who murdered his wife, that he turned insane. His only thoughts filled with anxiety and primal defense. Both of his sons are now left with a dad too far away from his humanity to care for them.

Age - 47

Frederick Miller - Sandman, a hardened criminal, who, despite serving under corrupt men, only wants to provide for his daughter, even if that means permanently changing his biology and partnering with a sketchy doctor.

Age - 43

Marlene Diegel - Electro, an actor turned criminal after an 'accident' on stage, which leaves them with electrifying powers, and a lengthy criminal record. They were offered help, but by who? And why?

Age - 22

Miguel Dominguez - The Scorpion, a war veteran who jumped at the chance to get closure for his wife's murder, leaving him with a tail permanently infused to his lower spine. He never wanted this job, or to become a strange scorpion human hybrid, but if it'll aid the investigation, he doesn't mind.

Age - 45

Quinlan Blanchfield - Mysterio, a man so obsessed with theatre and illusions that he staged an incident that would permanently ruin the life of an actor, but, unfortunately for him, he was found out and now lives his life on the run, hiding his identity from everybody.

Age - 23

I have more! Like school friends, Spider-Man himself and Black Cat, but I'm reaching the limit of image postings, so ಥ⁠_⁠ಥ

Given my last post about drawing my universe's Sinister Six and some more Spidersona art, plus a few extra characters.

I'm resting for a few hours because I just drew like six characters in two hours and my brain hurts 乁⁠(⁠ ⁠•⁠_⁠•⁠ ⁠)⁠ㄏ

Bro is investigating a bump in the night 💀

@halbothq SNORE Mi Mi Mi Mi 💤💤💤💤