Quentin Beck - also known as Mysterio - was the main antagonist of the 2019 Marvel film Spider-Man: Far From Home. Originally an employee of Tony Stark, he had developed advanced holographic technology for Stark Industries before being fired from his position. Seeking retribution, he allied himself with several ex-employees of Stark in order to create the superhero persona of Mysterio, using his illusion technology to create a series of fraudulent disasters that Mysterio would then stop in order to gain public acclaim.
History[]
Past[]
Quentin Beck was once an engineer in Stark Industries' R&D Department. By 2016, he had invented an advanced holographic projection system, claiming that its military applications could change the world. However, Stark would re-purpose the technology for therapeutic purposes, re-naming the system "B.A.R.F." (Binarily-Augmented Retro-Framing). Beck was fired shortly after the B.A.R.F. system was demonstrated at M.I.T., supposedly due to being mentally unstable. Infuriated, Beck intended to take revenge on Stark for stealing his invention and giving it such a laughable name.
Becoming Mysterio[]
In 2023, Stark had sacrificed his life in order to defeat the alien warlord Thanos. While most of the world mourned Stark's loss, Beck saw an opportunity to fill the void left by Iron Man's sacrifice. Assembling a team of other disgruntled ex-Stark employees, Beck plotted to become the world's next reknowned superhero. Re-acquiring his holographic technology and other systems from various Stark divisions, Beck and his team engineered a new persona that Beck would take on: Mysterio.
In 2024, Beck and his team began putting their plan into action. Using a series of Stark Combat Drones outfitted with Beck's holographic projectors, the group staged a number of attacks around the globe by supposed "Elementals": beings originating from a parallel universe that were each comprised of one of the primary elements of nature: earth, fire, wind and water. As far as anyone in the disaster areas knew, these Elementals were real and the destruction they caused was proof enough, but the damage had all been caused by the weaponry of Beck's drones which were hidden behind holographic illusions. Mysterio would intervene in each of these attacks, seemingly driving off the Elemental and appearing to be the hero, but actually being the perpetrator of each attack.
Following one such attack in Ixtenco, Mexico, 'Nick Fury' and 'Maria Hill' (actually the Skrulls Talos and Soren in disguise) investigated the disaster area where they encountered Mysterio. Beck provided them his cover story, claiming that he had come from "Earth-833" and was attempting to stop the Elementals from destroying "Earth-616", as he referred to this world. During this meeting, Beck's crew projected the 'Earth Elemental' for Fury and Hill to witness, which Beck then promptly "defeated". Some time following this, he orchestrated an attack in Morocco by the 'Wind Elemental', appearing there to "defeat" the monster.
Meeting Spider-Man[]
While Peter Parker and his classmates from Midtown High were enjoying their class trip across Europe, they found themselves in the midst of an attack by the 'Water Elemental' in Venice, Italy. This was no coincidence, however; Beck and his team knew that Parker was Spider-Man and that the young hero was Tony Stark's protégé. Having learned about the existence of Stark's E.D.I.T.H. AI and knowing that it was being bequeathed to Parker, Mysterio engineered the attack in Venice specifically to take advantage of Parker. Parker intervened and managed to save the lives of his classmates while Mysterio neutralized the fabricated threat.
Following the incident, Parker was approached by 'Nick Fury' (Talos) who wanted to recruit him as an Avenger. He handed Parker the E.D.I.T.H. glasses that Stark had left him before escorting him to his temporary headquarters where he was formally introduced to Beck. Beck expounded his backstory to Peter, but Parker turned down Talos' appeals for assistance, choosing to return to his vacation. However, Talos pulled strings to redirect the itinerary of Peter's class to Prague, where Beck had already staged EMPs to herald the next Elemental fight. Talos once again appealed to Parker for help, this time giving him a stealth suit to avoid detection as Spider-Man.
Attack in Prague[]
During the Festival of Lights in Prague, Beck executed the mock attack of the 'Fire Elemental'. Spider-Man and Mysterio then arrived to confront the monster, with Spider-Man breaking a fire hydrant to douse the creature with water in an attempt to weaken it. After Spider-Man avoided the Fire Elemental's attacks and noticed it getting bigger, Mysterio arrived to assist him with an energy field to protect themselves from the Fire Elemental's attacks. Mysterio offered another plan and was told that Spider-Man needed to attack it with something it can't absorb.
Mysterio told Spider-Man to dodge away from their opposite direction. After Spider-Man attacked the Fire Elemental with a piece of concrete, Mysterio was told to shoot at the monster. As they kept harming the Fire Elemental, Mysterio was swooped away from its attack and told Spider-Man to keep his distance. As the Fire Elemental was on the verge of destroying the Ferris wheel that had Ned Leeds and Betty Brant on it, Mysterio blasted the monster away to keep it away from the ride. During the battle, Mysterio failed to notice Spider-Man accidentally hit one of his drones, breaking off its holo-projector, which was then stolen by Michelle Jones.
While Spider-Man supported the weight of the ride with his webs, Mysterio let the Fire Elemental draw its power from a metal crate, growing it larger. Knowing there was no way to stop it, Mysterio seemingly attempted to sacrifice himself to stop the Fire Elemental by channeling his energy powers, expressing that he should have done it the last time he fought against the creature. After channeling his energy through his body, Mysterio flew into the Fire Elemental and destroyed it by denoting himself from the inside. After the battle, Spider-Man checked on Mysterio, while Fury and Hill arrived to check upon them. Mysterio woke up from his fight and got up from the ground with the help of Spider-Man.
Acquiring E.D.I.T.H.[]
Following the battle, Beck took Peter to an abandoned pub which he and his team had spruced up with holograms to make it appear still open. As they took the time to decompress, Peter expressed his frustrations over having to seemingly give up any chance of a normal life in favour of being a responsible superhero. Feigning sympathy, Beck preyed on Peter's doubts, subtly manipulating him with flattery and support for the young man's own wants and desires. The result of this trickery was exactly what Beck had hoped for as Parker decided to give him the E.D.I.T.H. glasses, stating that he was more worthy of them. Beck humbly accepted the glasses and wished Peter well as he left the pub.
Once Parker was gone, Beck and his group deactivated the holographic illusion and came together to celebrate their success. Beck thanked the members of his team for their contributions to the plan and raised a glass in a mock toast to Tony Stark and Peter Parker. Now that they had E.D.I.T.H., they would connect it to the entire fleet of Stark Combat Drones and streamline Beck's control over them. They then plotted to carry out their biggest deception yet: use the drones to project a colossal Elemental Fusion in London, England. There, they would cause massive damage and casualties before Mysterio would swoop in to save the day and cement himself as "the next Iron Man".
Tying up loose ends[]
Beck and his crew retreated to their base to rehearse Mysterio's next fight in London, and they connected E.D.I.T.H. to their network to hijack its swarm of drones and increase the scope of his illusions. Quentin also demanded his crew doubled the planned damage the drones would cause, brushing off any potential casualties as more fuel for the mediatization of the battle. Noticing a missing holographic projector, which had been left behind in Prague, Beck became paranoid that his farce would be exposed, and even aimed his armed drones at his crew. Beck tracked down the projector to Peter's classmate MJ, who had since then shared her discovery of it to Peter, and they had deduced that the Elementals were a charade.
Anticipating Peter's intent to reveal this information to Fury, Beck employed illusions to impersonate Fury and meet up with Parker in Berlin. Parker confessed the discovery of the projector and who else had this information, namely MJ and their other friend, Ned Leeds. Beck then dispelled the illusion of Fury and attacked Parker, engulfing him in illusions and wearing him down until he was hit by a bullet train. Leaving Peter for dead, Beck and his crew rerouted Peter's classmates to London, so that Beck could kill them and cover up their deaths as a casualty of the upcoming Elemental fight. Having used EMPs to herald the emergence of a giant-sized composite Elemental, Mysterio briefly met up with Talos-as-Fury before beginning his grand performance at the Tower Bridge, from within where he controlled the drones and the holographic fight.
Grand Finale[]
Peter arrived at the scene as Spider-Man soon afterward, having received assistance from Stark's confidant Happy Hogan, who also alerted 'Fury' of Mysterio's deceit. During the chaos, Beck had one of the drones target Hogan and Peter's classmates, cornering them inside the Tower of London. Spider-Man made his way through the drones, partially disabling them and exposing the composite Elemental as an illusion. Despite being ultimately overpowered by the machines, Parker managed to make his way inside Tower Bridge. Beck reprised his maneuver to engulf Spider-Man in illusions, but Peter used his spider-sense to ignore the holograms and fight the drones with his eyes closed. Overriding E.D.I.T.H.'s warning that he was in the drones' strike zone since Spider-Man was closing in on him, Beck kept ordering the drones to engage. This resulted in Beck being fatally injured from a stray bullet of a drone that Peter sent spiraling.
In one final attempt to kill Spider-Man, Beck cloaked himself while casting an illusion of his dying body handing back the glasses to him. Peter saw through the illusion, and grasped Beck's arm just as he was about to shoot him. Peter knocked Beck to the ground and took back the glasses, ordering E.D.I.T.H. to destroy all of the drones. He then confronted the dying Beck, demanding why he had done all of this. Beck stated that people needed something to believe in, and that nowadays they would believe anything. He then succumbed to his wounds and died, though Peter had to confirm with E.D.I.T.H. that Beck was truly dead and that he wasn't being fooled by another illusion.
Legacy[]
Although Beck was defeated, his criminal activities would never be brought to light due both to his death and the disappearance of his accomplices. Worse yet, his demise would bring disastrous consequences for Peter; before dying, Beck had recorded his interactions with Spider-Man, subtly editing them to make it appear that Spider-Man had murdered him in cold blood and that the web-slinger had been controlling the drones. Beck's crew sent the footage to The Daily Bugle, whose director-in-chief, J. Jonah Jameson, then broadcast to all of New York City, exposing Spider-Man's true identity and turning the public against him.
While Peter would later be acquitted of the murder charges, Spider-Man's reputation was still left in shambles as public opinion of him remained hostile. With his and his friends' lives torn apart, Peter would approach the Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange, asking him to cast a spell that would make the public forget all about Spider-Man. In attempting to fine-tune the spell so that Peter's friends would still remember him, Strange ended up botching the spell, creating ruptures in the fabric of reality that resulted in the appearance of individuals from alternate universes who were all enemies of Spider-Man.