Mysterio (Francis Klum)

Not to be confused with Mysterio.

Francis Klum
Francis Klum. Art by Terry Dodson.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil that Men Do #1 (2006)
Created by	Kevin Smith Terry Dodson
In-story information
Alter ego	Francis Klum
Species	Human Mutant
Abilities	Teleportation, telepathy and telekinetic abilities

Mysterio (Francis Klum) is a fictional comic book supervillain appearing in books published by Marvel Comics, in particular as an adversary to Spider-Man. A mutant with the ability to teleport and to control other people's bodies mentally, he was created by writer Kevin Smith and artist Terry Dodson, and first appeared in Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil that Men Do #1 (2006).^[1]

Fictional character biography

Klum as Mysterio III. Art by Todd Nauck.

A mutant teleporter, Francis Klum is a descendent of the wenig Tekterisendes, humans whom Nazi scientist Josef Mengele implanted with mutant tissue during World War II's Project: Griffin.^{[citation needed]}

Francis was sexually abused by his older brother Garrison (Mr. Brownstone) and forced to use his powers to assist Garrison's illegal activity as a heroin dealer. Determined not to let his older brother sexually assault anyone else, Francis teleported within and exploded Garrison's body before Garrison could rape the Black Cat (Felicia Hardy), whom he had dosed with heroin.

Eventually learning the details of Francis' abusive relationship with Garrison and his role in his brother's death, Felicia nearly convinced Francis to turn himself into the authorities; but Spider-Man (Peter Parker), believing that Francis was trying to throw the Cat from the bridge on which they were talking, brutally attacked Klum.

Believing that Felicia set him up, he fell from the bridge, teleported in mid-fall and sustained severe physical injuries, losing his left leg below the knee. Contacting the Kingpin, Klum purchased the paraphernalia of the currently-deceased Mysterio, Quentin Beck, reasoning that, by using an old enemy's costume, he would put Spider-Man off-guard, causing Spider-Man to assume he knew what he was dealing with until Klum demonstrated his powers and it was too late for the wall-crawler to do anything about it.

However, Klum's plans to kill Spider-Man at Midtown High were interrupted when he was stabbed in the chest by school nurse Miss Arrow's stingers after an altercation with two other Mysterios (one of them possibly being a resurrected Quentin Beck). Klum teleported to safety, although Arrow (who was later revealed to be Ero, a being composed of hundreds of spiders) would later state that her stingers were fatal to everyone except for Spider-Man. He hasn't been seen since.

Powers and abilities

Klum is a mutant with the ability to control people's bodies to do anything he wants them to without actually controlling their minds. He is also a long-range teleporter who can teleport his body to other locations, as well as other objects to and from his present location. His costume features an electrically-charged cloak, boots with magnetic plate springs and mechanical smoke ejectors that produce a concealing mist, and gloves which emit a web-dissolving acid spray and electric bolts. He is self-educated in the use of mechanical/visual special effects and illusion. Klum has an artificial leg.^{[citation needed]}

It has been confirmed that Francis kept his powers after M-Day.^{[citation needed]}

Other versions

Francis Klum as Mysterio was featured in Old Man Logan, where he was behind all the illusions of slaughtered X-Men to trick Logan under orders of Red Skull.

See also

• Mysterio

References

1. ^ Smith, Kevin. Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil that Men Do #1 Marvel Comics, 2006