Most people assumed the villain of Spider-Man: Far From Home would be Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio, although there have been rumors of multiple villains and now the first trailer has portrayed Mysterio as a hero, fighting a creature Peter Parker perhaps couldn’t handle alone:
This launched a thousand thirst tweets, but it also launched speculation about the identities of these creatures:
Last month at CCXP (Comic Con Experience in Brazil), Tom Holland and Jake Gyllenhaal talked about how their characters fight “elemental creatures” together. These appear to be Marvel Comics villains The Elementals, with the three pictured above seeming to be (from top to bottom) Magnum, Hellfire, and Hydron, although there are other villains they could be. CBM spotted some Easter eggs in the trailer that could point to alternate identities (or could just be trolling us all).
When Nick Fury and Maria Hill are seen fighting that first creature in the picture, there’s a license plate in the scene that starts with 463. CBM points out that the villain Sandman first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #4 in 1963. (It’s a bit of a stretch.) Shortly after the second creature above is seen, the trailer shows a shot on the London Bridge where a vehicle has the license plate “2865 SEP,” which may reference Molten Man’s first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #28 in 1965. There’s also a boat spotted behind Ned Leeds in Venice that has “ASM 212” painted on it, and Hydro-Man’s first appearance was in Amazing Spider-Man #212.
So these three creatures could be Sandman, Molten Man, and Hydro-Man, but the official synopsis does refer to them as “elemental creatures,” so let’s discuss The Elementals. There are four members of The Elementals, first introduced in Marvel’s Supernatural Thrillers #4 back in 1974. They’re extradimensional beings who used to rule parts of the Earth. They take humanoid shape and each control one of the four elements. Magnum controls rocks, Hellfire controls fire, Hydron controls water, and Zephyr (not seen in the trailer, as far as we know) controls air.
So it’s elementary, or at least that’s what someone wants you to think. We all know Mysterio (real name: Quentin Beck) is a villain in the comics, and the movie’s official synopsis even hints at there being more going on, saying Spidey and Nick Fury are trying to “uncover the mystery of several elemental creature attacks.”
In the comics, Mysterio uses special effects, illusions, hypnosis, and other tricks to fool people into believing he has superpowers. He’s seen doing some wizardry in the trailer, but is this the real life, or is it just fantasy?
He’s doing a good job of creating symbols in the air in front of him like Doctor Strange does, but it could all be for show. In all likelihood, Mysterio is creating the elemental attacks himself and coming to the rescue for personal gain, like someone’s creepy cousin who starts a fire and then “saves” everyone by putting it out (Not cool, Chad!).
We’ll see if Mysterio is indeed the source of all this mystery and sorcery (he is) when Spider-Man: Far From Home opens July 5th.