This is a fun one. Everyone is familiar with Bruce Campbell's recurring cameos in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films; in the first film, he was the Ring Announcer who named Spider-Man, and in the second one, Campbell famously likes to say that he "defeated" our favourite webhead. As the Snooty Usher who constantly berates Peter Parker for his shabby appearance before finally letting him into the theatre where he's attempting to see Mary Jane in her play, a lot of fans subscribe to the theory that this character is actually Quentin Beck, aka Mysterio. A special effects maestro and stuntman in Hollywood, Mysterio used his bag of literal smoke and mirrors to basically rob banks and be a pain in Spider-Man's a$$. Considering the fact that Campbell's appearance in the Tobey Maguire sequel was very much theatre/acting-adjacent, you can start to see where fans started to enjoy considering that this was our big screen version of Mysterio. There were even rumours after the release of Spider-Man 3 that Raimi was going to bring his old buddy Bruce back for a real show - most likely as Mysterio - in the fourth film that ultimately never got off the ground. Campbell himself was quoted as saying that he was returning for a "major role". It's definitely a shame that we never got to see that, if only because Raimi clearly wanted to make up for the lacklustre third outing few people enjoyed. In any event, we can take solace with the fact that in our hearts and minds, we saw Mysterio well and truly defeat Spider-Man, that fateful night outside an off-Broadway theatre.
Cinephile since 1993, aged 4, when he saw his very first film in the cinema - Jurassic Park - which is also evidence of damn fine parenting. World champion at Six Degrees of Separation. Lender of DVDs to cheap mates. Connoisseur of Marvel Comics and its Cinematic Universe.
