10 Comics You Must Read Before Spider-Man: Far From Home

To put it as plainly and as professionally as possible... Mysterio is a goofy, stupid, campy villain. The guy wears chequered green spandex, a purple cape with shoulder pads and- lest we forget- a fishbowl over his head. His superpowers, at least early in his comic lifespan, could best be described as 'projections that may or may not give you a headache', and his flamboyantly theatrical persona only exaggerated all that silver age ridiculousness.

And... yet.

Mysterio has persevered over the years as one of Spider-Man's oldest and most beloved villains, and the announcement that Jake Gyllenhaal would be donning the fishbowl to play The Master Of Illusion was met with near-universal excitement. With trailers so far establishing Mysterio as an inter-dimensional sorcerer and ally of Spider-Man and being neatly summarised by Flash Thompson as 'Iron Man mixed with Thor' (but definitely no Spider-Man, of course), audiences can expect a more grounded and less-in-your-face incarnation of one of Marvel's more whacky villains.

For less-avid fans of Marvel, what better place to start with your research into Mysterio than with his very first appearance? It's quite impressive, considering the countless retcons and rewrites that come standard with the comic canon, that Mysterio has remained fundamentally the exact same character in personality and costume since 1964. Fingers crossed that Gyllenhaal's take on the character will be as timeless in the MCU as he is in the comics.