Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #13
Cover Date: Jun 64
Title: "The Menace of... Mysterio!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Steve Ditko - Penciler
Steve Ditko - Inker

Review/plot:
Something about Spider-Man made Stan Lee a real critic of the super-hero genre, which is a good thing. Here it is, Mysterio's first appearance, and he's already described as looking corny and wearing a fishbowl.

    

He poses as Spider-Man, commits some crimes, and then gets J. Jonah to help him challenge Spider-Man. His powers of illusion are very effective here, especially in Ditko's art, and he also is able to cancel Spidey's spider-sense (like Peter said in an issue of UTOS, he really shouldn't have been advertising that spider-sense).

During the set-up, Peter is so tired and distraught that he actually believes he might be split-personality and committing crimes while he is asleep. He's so messed up he starts dropping dishes, and Aunt May tears into him:

You're not worried because our savings account is almost gone and it's getting harder to pay the mortgage each month, are you?

No, you ungrateful runt, you're just worried about your stupid super-hero life.

Spidey almost takes a session at a psychiatrists office, but can't go through with it (A blurb on the cover says, "Ever see a comic mag super-hero take his troubles to a psychiatrist? You will now!".

Spidey eventually smashes Mysterio's spider-sense jammer and beats Mysterio, supplying him to the police along with a taped confession that he framed Spidey.

Meanwhile, Peter gets along with the ladies much better than you'd expect.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 7 - first Mysterio

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Tales #151

to me, spideys first encounter with Mysterio was a real missed opportunity. Mysterios powers looked really magical: flying, sticking to the side of the bridge, stopping spideys web in mid-air.
Unfortunately, Stan's thought balloon dialouge screws everything up. rather than having spidey wonder about the mystery, he had spidey accurately guess all of the tricks Mysty was using. "I bet his boots are magnatized. Or I bet hes spraying the webs with a disolving mist too fine to see." of course Spidey makes these accurate deductions with no evidence to speak of.
When Mysterio reaveals how he did everything it comes as no surprise to the reader since spidey already guessed everything.
its a missed opportunity because Mysterio was at his most effective before you knew he was just a special effects guy.

I just sort of noticed the first appearance of Mysterio is similar in some respects to the first of the Wizard; only being that it is 1964 and not 1962, the villains need their own secret identity or else they aren't going to be credible. As critical as JJ was in Mysterio going for "cape and fishbowl", obviously villains knew by this point that even if you're going to be playing with tricks, you have to look the part with all the wild heroes out there or else just seem like "some guy who wants to take down the heroes".

Mysterio's real "power" is his mastery of misdirection and illusion, not the fishbowl suit. Although it is an iconic look, there's no reason for him to continue to use it after it served his purpose as "fake superhero". I think it interesting that while Ditko would use it in the first Annual for the Sinister Six, he eschewed it for Mysterio's next appearance in the regular title.

As Kveto said, Mysterio is much more effective when you don't know he is behind it or how he is doing it.

I've always wondered what it says about Liz that the first time she shows any real interest in Peter, it's immediately after he nearly gets killed fighting Doc Ock, and unmasked for the entire world to see. No wonder Flash decided to dress up as Spidey and fight crime a few issues later. What must teenage life at that high school have been like?

If Amazing Spider-Man movies end up using Mysterio I wonder what route they'll go? Will be a no-body that goes crazy because no one remembered it was his birthday? Or maybe he decides to become a super villain because a fish bowl got stuck to his head?

Seriously I see so much potential in Amazing Spider-Man 2, what I thought was done well was done really well, but what was done poorly was done sooooo poorly.

In addition to Aunt May's remarks (which, if they were coming from anyone else, I would definitely call passive aggressive), Betty also says something to Peter like "You're probably worried because you haven't sold any pictures lately." It's funny that poor Peter can't even worry about his Spider-Man problems without people reminding him he also has Peter problems.

Years later Superman was seen going to a psychiatrist in secret for a few issues.

I love that Untold Tales of Spider-Man paid homage to the dripping word clouds. For instance, whenever Betty and Liz are in the same room.