ELECTRO
Maxwell Dillon has been one of Spider-Man's most frequent and enduring adversaries, often fighting alongside some of the more powerful masterminds in the web-head's rogues gallery, rather than creating intricate plots of his own. Raised by his overprotective mother, after his father abandoned them, Max had ambitions of being an electrical engineer. However, after being convinced by his mother that he was not smart enough to pursue such a career, Max instead reluctantly took a job as a lineman for an electric company. While repairing a power line still connected to its spool, Max was struck by lightning. Instead of being killed, the freak accident caused a mutagenic change in his nervous system, allowing him to generate and control vast amounts of electricity. After creating a colorful costume, Max turned to a life of crime as Electro.
At the beginning of Electro's criminal career, J.Jonah Jameson began a smear campaign in the Daily Bugle proclaiming Electro to actually be an alter-ego for Spider-man. Intent on proving the publisher wrong, Spider-man faced Electro and was nearly killed by merely touching him. Using a fire hose, however, the web-slinger was able to defeat Electro. Sometime later in another attempt to deface Spider-man's reputation, Jameson secured Electro's supercharged services to battle the web-slinger on national television. Before an audience of millions, Spider-Man stood triumphant once more. Dillon was humiliated.
After a string of embarrassing defeats, decided to test his strength in numbers as a member of the Sinister Six, alongside Doctor Octopus, Kraven the Hunter, Sandman, Mysterio and the Vulture. Drawing numbers, the plan was for each villain to face Spider-man in a different location that drew upon their respective talents one by one until one of them was victorious. However, they were eventually defeated and imprisoned.
In an attempt to win himself the glory and respect that had alluded him so frequently, Dillon tried to devise a master plan to control New York City's power supply. However, he was once again defeated by Spider-man and convinced to quit his criminal career...if only temporarily. He resurfaced as a member of the next incarnation of the Sinister Six, with Hobgoblin replacing the deceased Kraven the Hunter. Doctor Octopus betrayed the group and they were subsequently disbanded.
Electro was also a member of Mysterio's Sinister Seven, created to combat Spider-Man's insane, homicidal clone, Kaine. However, Kaine disappeared and with no further need to keep the group together, it was disbanded and Dillon returned to his self imposed exile
He was once again brought out of retirement by the Rose, who offered Dillon the chance at an experimental procedure to greatly enhance his abilities in exchange for his services as an underworld enforcer. Dillon and agreed, sensing the opportunity to rise above his past failures. After undergoing the procedure and dispatching several members of the True Believers, an offshoot of the Hand at the request of the Rose, Dillon returned to his original plan of taking over the New York City power supply. Once again defeated by Spider-Man, who had donned an insulated suit, a frustrated Dillon threw himself into the Hudson River, apparently killing himself.
However, Dillon survived as he reappeared as part of the next series of subsequent incarnations of the Sinister Six, each of which were either defeated or disbanded due to internal conflicts. The most recent incarnation, the Sinister Twelve, gathered by the Green Goblin as part of a larger plan to enable his escape from prison and destroy Spider-Man. They were defeated with the help of the combined efforts of Captain America, Iron Man, Daredevil, Yellowjacket and the Fantastic Four.
Electro was hired by Brainchild to free Karl Lykos from the Raft, a maximum-security prison designed to hold supervillians. Electro initiated a prison break the likes of which had never been seen, releasing scores of criminals. However, his actions also brought together a number of the world's most powerful heroes to contain the disaster including: Captain America, Iron Man, Luke Cage, Spider-Woman, Matt Murdock, Sentry and Spider-Man, many of whom were trapped in the Raft when the power was shut off. With the exception of Daredevil (and Sentry at first), this impromptu gathering of heroes reunited shortly after the prison break to form a new Avengers team. Dillon tried to escape with his girlfriend, a waitress in Boston, but was captured by the new Avengers, the very team he inadvertently helped create.
MYSTERIO
Quentin Beck found his calling when his uncle gave him an old movie camera. Despite his widowed father making fun of him, he grew up to become a successful stunt man and special effects designer in Hollywood. That changed when he became frustrated and felt he wasn't getting the recognition he deserved. First he teamed up with the Tinkerer to steal industrial and military plans, with Beck donning an alien costume to throw potential snoopers off the track and leading a group of supposed extraterrestrials. Later, an article in the Daily Bugle gave Beck the idea of pretending to be Spider-Man and framing him for crimes, then becoming a hero and bringing Spider-Man to justice. Beck studied Spider-Man for weeks and was able to duplicate his powers, apart from spider-sense, mechanically. After a few robberies posing as the web-slinger, which added more grist to the mill for J. Jonah Jameson's vendetta, Beck, as Mysterio, trounced an unsuspecting Spider-Man. When they next met, Beck fought and apparently beat Spider-Man, then boasted how he had achieved it all. Spider-Man taped the confession and cleared his name. Despite the clever gadgetry Beck built in to the Mysterio costume, Spider-Man managed to defeat him. Beck next joined up with Doctor Octopus when he formed the Sinister Six but the group had no better luck in defeating Spider-Man. Then Beck posed as Doctor Ludwig Rinehart, a psychiatrist visiting from Europe. Using illusions, Beck convinced Spider-Man that he was going mad and could only be cured if he revealed his secret identity. As Spider-Man was about to do just that, Jonah Jameson and Flash Thompson burst in, Jonah having been told that Rinehart was a fraud. This unexpected arrival spoiled Mysterio's scheme and Beck was soon returned to prison. Now unemployed, and with a criminal record, Beck planned a way to take revenge against Spider-Man and Jameson by staging a car crash where Spider-Man was the cause, and Jameson supposedly died. In reality, the "body" was an automaton, and the real Jameson was placed in a special-effects version of Hell. Emboldened by the seeming success of his plan, Beck found the courage to call a childhood friend, Betsy Schneider, and they started dating. After Spider-Man rescued Jameson, Betsy admiringly told Beck that they could make lots of money off his story. Beck became enraged, certain she was only using him. Later, he proposed marriage to Betsy, but she had changed her mind about him.
In yet another plan of revenge, Beck teamed up with the Wizard against Spider-Man and the Human Torch; after that failed, he bided his time in jail until he was able to escape. He then devised a series of elaborate traps in an abandoned amusement park, convincing Spider-Man that he was only six inches high. Back in prison, Beck had an epiphany of sorts; he realized that master criminals spent more time avoiding capture and battling foes than they did accumulating wealth and gaining power. He devised a quiet, long-term plan, a nursing home scam whereby he would trick the infirm into signing all their wealth over to him. To this end, he made use of his cellmate, Daniel Berkhart, taking him into his confidence, teaching him all his secrets and training him to replace him as Mysterio, even as he engineered his own "death". Berkhart was released and he conforted Spider-Man, but was defeated eventually.
Later, Beck assumed the identity of Doctor Rinehart and ran his scam at the Restwell Nursing Home on Long Island. He amassed eight million dollars in three years but ran afoul of the Burglar who had killed Peter's Uncle Ben. The Burglar had broken into the Parker home years before in search of a treasure hidden in the 1930s by the gangster Dutch Mallone and now sought more information from Aunt May who was a resident of the nursing home. The Burglar held "Rinehart" prisoner, inducing the "Doctor" to help. Beck figured he could dispose of the Burglar once he learned the treasure's location so he faked May's death from a heart attack to allow the Burglar to take her from the nursing home without Peter knowing. Spider-Man, however, recognized Beck and confronted him after battling numerous illusions. Eventually, Beck escaped to work on other, safer scams, among them a scheme to undermine Spider-Man's confidence by making him the cause of an innocent bystanders death.
These plans failed and Beck rejoined the Sinister Six but bailed out when he realized that Dr. Octopus was using the group for his own ends. Later, the other five met, intending to get revenge on Dr. Octopus but Octavius anticipated such an attack and instead had another proposition for them involving the appropriation of Hydra's satellite control station. The others reluctantly accepted, though Beck secretly planned to take over once they had obtained their goal. During a heated battle with a number of different heroes, Beck made his play, causing the heroes to fight each other, but he was knocked unconscious by Deathlok, who literally saw through the illusions.
Now unhinged, possibly due to exposure to his own hallucinogenic mist, Beck posed as Mr. Gerde, Dr. Octopus's attorney (after the multi-armed criminal's apparent death) and forged a videotaped will, that used Octavius's relative Elias Hargrove as a pawn along with the remainder of the Sinister Six. Using misdirection and Spider-Man, Beck stole a data disk containing details on underground figures. He needed Hargrove to get the right code, but Hargrove had worked out that the tape was a fake. Before he could coerce Hargrove, the Scarlet Spider stopped Beck. Beck undid the booby-trapped data disk, but the Scarlet Spider managed to escape with Hargrove just before the building exploded, with Beck apparently caught in the blast.
In a new scheme, Beck assumed the identity of Rudolph Hines and set up a new network, "Mystery Vision", which sent addictive subliminal signals to viewers mesmerized in front of their TVs. With ratings soaring, Beck also plotted to use an unsuspecting Spider-Man (Ben Reilly) as part of his programming. He tricked Spider-Man into wearing receivers, but when Ben realized what was happening he was able to trace the source of the transmissions and put the transmitter out of action. With no special signal, the networks ratings plummeted, and Beck's fame was over. While in prison after another failed union with the Sinister Six, he learned he was dying as a result of prolonged exposure to his special effects chemicals. On release he planned his swan song. But the Spider-Man was not the one he knew, so he decided to destroy Daredevil instead. Buying information from the Kingpin, he proceeded to drive Daredevil insane, both with drugs and by harming or killing those close to him. Beck's final attempt to goad Daredevil into killing him failed, and he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. Even after death Becks soul didnt get to rest. His soul was sent to hell for his evil doings and resided there till the Pitiful One gave him a chance to go back, although he was later sent back by Dead Girl and Doctor Strange. Recently Quentin was again seen in the living world when the new Mysterio (Francis Klum) appeared. He had bought Becks old costume and attacked school where Peter Parker had been working. After Francis had secured the school by surrounding it with knockout gas and ranting how great he was, Beck made his entrance and lectured Francis how he wasn't ready to fill his shoes. Francis acted fast and tried to teleport himself inside Becks body, but Beck transformed himself to reddish hell flames and burned Francis slightly. Francis didnt believe that he was Beck and accused him of being Daniel Berkhart, but Beck informed him that Daniel arrived just moments ago. He also revealed that he and his associates were interested in how Klum's fight against Spider-Man and Daniel would go before vanishing in a puff of smoke. Soon Spider-Man and Daniel arrived and fight ensued with three of them. Meanwhile Beck sought out Miss Arrow, the school's new nurse. She didnt believe that he was Beck so he took off his helmet, and showed her that half of his face was missing. He revealed to Miss Arrow that he was hired by certain individuals to serve their needs and told her that she, him and Spider-Man are just pieces in a game that is taking stage in cosmic proportions. Before he left he convinced Miss Arrow to convince Peter to stay working in the school.
THE HUMAN TORCH
Following his sister, Sue, Johnny joined Reed Richards' crew in a space flight. Riddled with cosmic radiation, Johnny transformed into a flaming monster when the flight crashed back to earth. Calling himself Human Torch in tribute to the World War II era hero of the same name, the youthful Johnny found new adventure as part of the Fantastic Four, proving to be an invaluable if somewhat volatile member of the team.
Johnny met another teenage hero, Spider-Man, who broke into the Baxter Building hoping to impress the FF. Despite their early misunderstandings, the Torch and Spider-Man eventually became good friends.
IRON MAN
Tony Stark was sent to Vietnam to supervise a field test for one of his tranistorized weapons. While he was there Stark trip on a booby trap and a piece of shrapnel was lodged in his chest.
Stark designed and built an electrically powered suit of armor and equipped with heavy offensive weaponry. The armor also contained pacemaker like device which enables Stark's heart to keep beating after the shrapnel entered it.
Over the years Stark constantly refined and modified the design of his armor. Stark eventually underwent heart transplant so that he was no longer obligated to wear his metallic chest plate. In recent years Tony Stark's greatest nemesis has been alcoholism. As a wealthy socialite, alcohol had been a constant part of his life.
t: Kudos.
