| "The Menace of Mysterio" | |||
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| Spider-Man (1994 TV series) episode | |||
Mysterio |
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| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 5 |
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| Written by | John Semper Marv Wolfman Stan Berkowitz |
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| Production code | 105 | ||
| Original air date | February 25, 1995 | ||
| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Spider-Man episodes | |||
"The Menace of Mysterio" is the fifth episode from the 1990s animated Spider-Man series first season, first broadcast February 25, 1995 by the Fox Broadcasting Company on Fox Kids. It was written by John Semper, Marv Wolfman, and Stan Berkowitz.
The episode introduces the character of Mysterio, a villain created by Stan Lee first introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man issue #13. Moreover, the title and the majority of the episodes' plot elements are based on that particular issue.[1]
Contents |
The episode opens with Spider-Man apparently raiding a museum. This leads J. Jonah Jameson and many others to believe that the wall crawler is a criminal. Peter thus decides to search for clues to prove that these robberies were caused by a Spider-Man imposter. For example, the webs 'Spider-Man' used did not dissolve after an hour, like Spider-man's web usually does. He teams up with Detective Lt. Terry Lee in search for clues. Peter finds web left from the scene of the crime, and suggests to Terry that the webbing is fake as Spider-Man's would have dissolved by that time. Also, using the CCTV footage of the scene of the crime in which Spider-Man robbed the museum, they notice that the viewings of Spider-Man in the video aren't genuine. However, Spider-Man continues to apparently commit more crimes. It later unfolds that an expert in illusion, a villain named Mysterio has been creating false images in order to frame the wall crawler. Peter also figures out that Mysterio is Quentin Beck, who must be attempting to frame Spider-Man because the hero had landed him in jail previously. At the end of the episode, after a confrontation with Spider-Man, Mysterio is imprisoned and Spider-Man's name is cleared.
The episode was the first of the series to tell the fictional story of Spider-Man's origin from the comics. Writer Stan Berkowitz has revealed in an interview that he considers telling the origin after the first few episodes rather than in the first a "bold move". The writers translated from the comics the villain featured in the episode, "Mysterio", by using the characters' drafts from the particular issue to analyse the characters voice.[2]
The episode's title was also used as the title to the third episode of the 1967 television series.
The episode has been re-written and published in book format twice. A work of the story by Michael Stewart was first published by Golden Books in 1996, following the episodes' original broadcast.[3] Mike Raicht later re-wrote the story again in 2006 and his work was published by Spotlight.[4]
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