MCU: Quentin Beck [Mysterio] (ENFJ)

The Myers-Briggs personality type of Quentin Beck, or Mysterio, from the Marvel Cinematic Universe is not hotly contested, to my knowledge. I just wanted to check it out for myself, and verify that Mysterio is indeed an ENFJ. (I’ve been gathering examples of villains to use in another article.) I did consider ESFJ and also INFP, but ultimately landed here. So, with that being said, here’s my analysis of Mysterio as an ENFJ.

Fe:

“Wow, Peter, wow. I thought we were close. Fury always had to die, but not you. I tried to help you walk away. Now you’re making me do this.”

“Everyone will listen, not to a boozy man-child, not to a hormonal teenager, to me and my very wealthy crew!”

“But for what it’s worth, Peter, I really am sorry.”

“You’ll see, Peter. People, they need to believe. And nowadays, they’ll believe anything.”

“I created Mysterio to give the world someone to believe in.”

Quentin Beck, or Mysterio, presents himself to others as empathetic and altruistic. While pretending to be a hero, Mysterio connects with Peter, validating the boy’s feelings. He gives him advice, and makes him feel both normal and appreciated. In addition, he convinces everyone that he has a sincere desire to save their Earth from destruction. Peter eventually comes to believe that Mysterio would a better option than him to succeed Tony Stark.

Inevitably, the movie reveals Quentin Beck’s true motive, which is to fill the void left behind by Iron Man with a more deserving hero, a hero people can believe in. (He also claims that people need to believe.) However, Beck doesn’t create Mysterio alone. He forms the perfect team to aid him. Behind the scenes, he’s shown sharing the credit with his entire team and making everyone feel significant.

While Mysterio’s grand illusions do cause significant collateral damage, Quentin Beck does not enjoy causing the death of others. Of course, this is especially so when the death is someone he feels somewhat connected to, like Spider-Man. When he has to order Spider-Man’s death, Beck passes the blame off to others, claiming that they’re making him do it. He initially blames the team member who lost the drone, and then later blames Peter himself. Essentially, he avoids framing things in a self-centric way, making his villainous choices about the actions or failures of someone else.

Ni:

“This certainly isn’t ideal, but I have contingencies.”

“There is a window of opportunity and someone will step up.”

“It’s easy to fool people when they’re already fooling themselves.”

With the death of Iron Man, Quentin Beck recognizes an opportunity to create a more ideal hero for the world. So, he creates an elaborate ruse, knowing that people will believe anything at this point. He then relies on grand illusions to make Mysterio believable as a hero. Of course, he has several contingencies in place at any given moment to ensure the outcome that he desires, which is why he doesn’t panic when Spider-Man is able to reach him on the bridge. He relies on planning and rehearsing to ensure that the vision he has for Mysterio plays out perfectly.

When attempting to trick others, Beck relies on his ability to read them, in addition to embedding illusions within illusions to such an extent that it’s hard to tell what’s real anymore. Essentially, due to his Fe-Ni combination, he excels at messing with people’s mind. He easily ascertains Peter’s insecurities, and uses them against him. Initially, Beck only does this subtly, but later, he traps Peter in a complex illusion, throws all of his insecurities back in his face, and tells him that “deep down you know I’m right.”

Se:

“I’ll just kill the kids myself.”

Quentin Beck is relatively comfortable taking action and putting himself in risky situations. Beck is not often shown taking a backseat, and controlling everything from a distance. Instead, he’s usually taking an active role in whatever is going on. While he does divvy out orders constantly, he quickly takes matters into his own hands when his team fails, like when trying to kill the kids that knew his secret.

During his elaborate ruses, Beck always places himself close to the center of the battle, albeit cloaked. Of course, he has to be somewhat nearby in order to play Mysterio at certain key moments. However, in the final battle, he places himself directly in the center of it all, and at one point, even orders E.D.I.T.H. to fire in spite of her repeated warnings that he was in the strike zone. Similarly, while he does do a lot of advance planning, Beck relies on his team to give him epic lines to say in real time, as situations unfold, rather than being prepared with these himself beforehand.

Ti:

“I control the truth… Mysterio is the truth! If you were good enough, maybe Tony would still be alive.”

As an inferior Ti user, Beck makes the truth subservient to a greater purpose or a collective need, claiming that truth is something he can control. He claims that Mysterio is truth, rationalizing that the world needs someone to believe in.

Of course, it’s a nice bonus that he’s able to validate his intelligence (as “the smartest person in the room”) in the process. (Inferior Ti can also manifest as insecurities concerning one’s intelligence as perceived by others.) Beck fixates on that one time Tony Stark humiliated and invalidated him. So when seeing the opportunity, he determines to fool the entire world and replace Tony Stark using the very technology that Tony Stark undervalued and even mocked.