Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #12
I Hate a Mystery Part Two
The NYPD are setting up a cordon around Midtown High which has suddenly been enveloped in a cloud of smoke. As officers try to keep the groud back and they wonder who is responsible for all of this. That’s when a man in a Mysterio costume appears and tells them that the perpetrator is Francis Klum, an impostor who seeks to claim the mantle of Mysterio. When they ask why this Mysterio has come, he explains that he has come to offer his aid because he seeks to shut down this usurper. Knowing how to get past the smoke barrier, Mysterio heads into the school, asking the officers to wish him luck.[1]
Inside, Spider-Man is looking for the students he was trying to escort out of the building and lost. Suddenly, a green gas starts filling the room and since his foe probably doesn’t know that his new costume can filter out toxins, Spider-Man pretends to be affected by the gas and begins writhing on the floor. This draws out Principal Harrington who asks Peter what he’s doing. When Spider-Man explains everything, Harrington says it wasn’t convincing. That’s when Peter pushes the principal to the ground to avoid a flurry of bats that start flying across the hallway. That’s when he sees that the bats are carrying away Mary Jane, and chases after it, not wanting to risk dismissing it as just a trick.[2] Spider-Man tells Harrington to wait for him, but the principal thinks it’s unwise to be alone and follows the web-slinger into the green mist.
Meanwhile, Frances Klum has been confronted by a man claiming to be Quentin Beck, the original Mysterio. When Klum attempts to use his teleportation ability to try and materialize inside the intruder and kill him, the man claiming to be Quentin Beck causes Klum to catch on fire. Frances doesn’t believe this man is Beck, pointing out to the newcomer that Quentin Beck committed suicide not that long ago.[3] When Klum suggests that he is Daniel Berkhart, but this newcomer says that he is not Daniel, but reveals that he has arrived. Beck insists that he is back from the dead, telling Klum that his masters will be looking forward to see how Klum does in battling another pretender as well as Spider-Man.[4]
Elsewhere in the school, Flash Thompson and Nurse Arrow are trying to get a group pf children out of the school. When they round a corner, Flash tells everyone to hold back while he checks the hallway for booby traps. Ignoring the cautious advice of Miss Arrow, Flash runs across the hall. However, when he opens the door on the other side he finds himself right behind the group of students. When Flash tries to run down the hallway again, the floor gives way and he grabs the edge before he can fall into the pit where a massive animatronic monster writhes. Meanwhile, Spider-Man finds the woman who appears to be Mary Jane being threatened by a man dressed up like Dracula. When the vampire threatens to drain Mary Jane’s blood, Spider-Man suddenly realizes that this is all a trick and calls the vampire’s bluff. Roger Harrington has caught up to him at this point and asks Spider-Man how he can be sure that this is an illusion. Peter points out that the woman who is supposed to be his wife is not wearing her wedding ring.[5] To prove his hunch, Spider-Man realizes that there is a very easy way to find out if his wife is a prisoner or not, he calls her on his cell phone. After confirming that Mary Jane and Aunt May are still safe at Stark Tower, Peter concludes that he’s facing Mysterio.[6]
In the other part of the school, the animatronic monster is still trying to pull Flash Thompson into the pit. He tells Miss Arrow to get the kids to safety. However, Brad — a kid that Flash’s students constantly bully — comes to Flash’s aid, using his pocket knife to cut through the creature’s tentacles. Once they are clear, a grateful Flash and Miss Arrow promise not to report the fact that Brad brought a knife to school. Suddenly, one of the lockers opens and Arrow is sucked in. When Flash opens the door to pull her out, she has disappeared. By this point, Spider-Man and Principal Harrington are wandering the halls while the web-slinger calls out for Mysterio to come out and face him. When Peter enters the auditorium he’s confronted by two Mysterio’s — Frances Klum and Daniel Burkhart. While Klum wants to kill Spider-Man, Burkhart wishes to aid the wall-crawler in defeating the Klum and proving that he is the true Mysterio.
Elsewhere, Miss Arrow tumbles out of a locker in a deserted part of the school. There she is confronted by the third Mysterio, who senses that there is more to this unassuming school nurse than meets the eye.[7] When she asks who he is, this Mystery says that he is Quentin Beck the original Mysterio, recounting how it was reported that he shot himself in the head. When Miss Arrow asks if the reports of his death were exaggerated, Mysterio says they weren’t. To prove this, he removes his fish-bowl helmet to reveal that a good portion of his right side of his head from the cheekbone up is missing.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Mysterio (Beck), Mysterio (Burkhart), Mysterio (Klum), Flash Thompson, “Miss Arrow”, Mary Jane Watson, Roger Harrington
Continuity Notes
There are three Mysterio’s in this story so for the sake of clarity I’m going to refer to them by their names. For those keeping track at home these Mysterio’s are:
The Mysterio wearing the green bodysuit and purple cape at the beginning of the story is Daniel Burkhart, the second Mysterio who first took on the role in Amazing Spider-Man #141.
The Mysterio who took over the school last issue is Frances Klum, he can be told apart from Burkhart because his green bodysuit has stripes on it. Klum bought Mysterio gear from the Kingpin in Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil that Men Do #6.
Lastly, the Mysterio in the red bodysuit with red fishbowl helmet and the purple cape is Quentin Beck the original Mysterio who first assumed the role in Amazing Spider-Man #13.
Peter refers to Mary Jane as his wife here. However, not long after this, Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage is erased from existence by Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. In the new timeline, Peter would identify Mary Jane as his fianceé instead of his wife.
Quentin Beck did indeed commit suicide in Daredevil (vol. 2) #7.
Who Mysterio’s masters are in this story is unclear. Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 5) #1 later reveals that Mysterio is indebted to an undead being named Kindred because he was responsible for bringing Beck back from the dead. I discuss this in more detail below.
In the new timeline post-Amazing Spider-Man #545, Peter would comment on how the woman is not wearing an engagement ring instead of a wedding ring.
When Mary Jane states that Mysterio is dead, Peter points out that so was he, The facts here:
Quentin Beck, the original Mysterio, blew his brains out because he was suffering from terminal brain cancer. That happened in Daredevil (vol. 2) #7. His return here is not fully explained, but he’ll later be resurrected as a normal human again by Kindred as explained in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 5) #1.
Peter himself just recently died and was reborn during the Other: Evolve or Die event which occurred in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1-4, Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #19-22, and Amazing Spider-Man #525-528.
Mysterio’s not wrong here, Arrow is actually the Other (seen in The Other storyline) in disguise as we’ll learn in more detail in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #21-22.
Topical References
Spider-Man says that if Harrington wants an actor to get Tobey Maguire This is a tongue in cheek reference to the fact that Maquire played Spider-Man in three Spider-Man films that were made by Sony Pictures from 2002 to 2007.
Making Sense of Supernatural Quentin Beck
Quentin Beck indeed committed suicide in Daredevil (vol. 2) #7 and was dead for a while. This story arc marks his full return to the world of the living (Beck was one of the villains trying to escape the afterlife in X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl #1-5 prior to this) Here, Mysterio is depicted as undead with supernatural powers. However, his appearances after Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #13, Quentin is a normal human being with no supernatural powers. How that could be is not explained until much much later in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 5) #1 that he was brought back to life by an undead being named Kindred.
As I write this in July 2020, Nick Spencer is still crafting the long-running Kindred storyline is still on the go so there may be more details that will be revealed at a later date.
What’s not clear is if Kindred is the “master” that Mysterio is speaking of here, or some other entities remain to be clarified. I’d like to think that Mysterio’s masters here are different from Kindred, because it doesn’t make sense that Kindred would give Mysterio super-natural powers just to take them away later. Kindred is a character that enjoys torturing others and giving Mysterio new powers doesn’t fit that archetype.
So there are a few theories here (all my own and in no way official):
Mysterio is powered by supernatural forces given to him by some mysterious masters. I’d even theorize that Mephisto may have been part of it, leading up to Brand New Day. After observing the situation, these masters returned Mysterio back to the afterlife and stripped him of his powers, probably because his mission was merely one of observation. He was later found by Kindred, tortured and then brought back to life. This is my preferred theory.
Mysterio was given these powers and mission by Kindred who later took away those powers and resurrected him. As I said above, doing so seems really out of character for Kindred, who revelled in torturing Mysterio
Or, Kindred brought Mysterio back to life and Mysterio’s abilities and actions in this story are all part of some illusion he’s trying to pull of. Which is by the the most boring and predictable answer and really hope this isn’t the case because, yawn, it’s been done before.
