Magicians have appeared throughout comic book history, both as heroes (such as the original Golden Age Green Lantern) and as villains (such as Marvel’s Asgardian beauty, the Enchantress). Mysterio is a magic user who typically falls into that latter category.

The stuntman and special effects master who would go on to become one of Spider-Man’s foes first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #13 (June 1964). Quentin Beck aspired to make a name for himself in the movie business, but after his attempts to act fell flat and he realized that special effects would never get his name on a marquee, he turned his talents into an asset with slightly more malicious intent.

Using his knowledge of special effects and illusion and combining them with his hand-to-hand combat skills gleaned from his stuntman background, Quentin took on the guise of Mysterio and quickly got to work as a villain. Though he was able to get around Spider-Man’s spider-sense with gas and could dissolve webbing, Mysterio was eventually captured and tossed in jail.

Mysterio banded together with other members of Spidey’s rogues gallery to form the Sinister Six, and would be a consistent member of the villainous team throughout their history. He also began to lean more into his talents in hypnotism, coming close to getting Spider-Man to unmask himself on more than one occasion and going so far as to tricking him into thinking he had been shrunk to just six inches tall. However, Spidey would see through all of these illusions.

Quentin was later seen as a foe of Daredevil’s, and teamed up with the Kingpin to defeat him. However, Daredevil unmasked Mysterio by shattering his trademark helmet, but rather than killing him, he insulted Mysterio’s abilities, calling him a “human Xerox” that was unable to form an original thought or scheme of his own. Broken, Mysterio committed suicide – though he was sent back to Earth (now missing half his head from the gunshot wound) after his “superiors” in Hell decided he needed to be alive for the sake of a cosmic balance.

He has continued to reappear as a consistent foe of Spider-Man in the years since, playing the role of a villain most of the time – though he has also teamed up with Spider-Man in order to take down other villains, such as Doctor Octopus.