'Spider-Man: Far From Home' Toys Confirm Elementals As Hydro Man And Molten Man
A batch of new Funko POPs from this summer's Spider-Man: Far From Home have been unveiled, and they reveal some very interesting details about several new characters.
Jake Gyllenhaal is playing Mysterio, a key villain from the Spider-Man comics, but as we've heard, he's supposedly a hero joining forces with our friendly neighborhood webslinger. That's because there's a new threat from these creatures called Elementals, huge, human-looking monsters made up of water, fire and the Earth. So far, fans have only assumed what Spidey bad guys these Elementals might be repurposing from the comics, and now we have official confirmation of who these Spider-Man Far From Home villains are.
Here's the new Spider-Man Far From Home villains as Funko POPs:
Image removed at the request of Marvel.
Even though this image doesn't name the Elementals, if you go to the official Funko blog, they're identified as Hydro Man and Molten Man. That confirms exactly what fans had assumed, especially since there were a few small Easter eggs in the trailer for eagle-eyed comic book readers who identified the classic issues where these villains first debuted:
Molten Man debuted in Amazing Spider-Man #28 in September of 1965. If you look in the image of Peter's classmates running in panic from the flames on the Tower Bridge in London, you'll see a license plate that reads "2865 SEP," referencing that exact issue. In the comics, the character is a scientist whose body was transformed into red hot metal and fire after being exposed to radioactive material.
Hyrdo Man arrived in Amazing Spider-Man #212 in January of 1981. In the image where Ned and Betty are sailing in Venice, there's a boat that is numbered "ASM 212," another clear reference to that key issue of the comics. The villain got his powers after being knocked into water during a dangerous experiment. Again, exposure to radiation gave him the ability to transform into and manipulate water.
There is one final Easter egg that has yet to be confirmed anywhere. When Nick Fury and Maria Hill see that massive Earth Elemental, there's a license plate next to them that begins with "463." And it just so happens that Amazing Spider-Man #4, published in 1963, introduced the villain known as Sandman. As anyone who saw Spider-Man 3 can tell you, the character is a career criminal who stumbled into an experiment by accident and found his body fused with sand, giving him the ability to shapeshift.
What Does This Mean for Spider-Man: Far From Home?
If it seemed odd that Spider-Man was suddenly dealing with these strange, seemingly cosmic creatures when he's supposed to be more of a ground-level superhero dealing with street-level criminals who happen to have superpowers or advanced technology, there might be an explanation for that. And the use of these familiar villains as the Elementals may support that.
In the comics, Mysterio is a villain who uses his expertise as a former special effects designer to make it appear as if he has mystical abilities. In reality, it's just technology disguised as magic. Therefore, it would stand to reason that maybe Mysterio has crafted these Elementals as special effects creations in order to make it appear as if he's the only one with the abilities to stop them. That would explain why he tells Spider-Man, "You don't want any part of this," in the first trailer.
But beyond that, this makes us wonder if maybe Mysterio has recruited some street-level villains from the world of Marvel Comics to portray these bad guys using his own technlology. Could we see Flint Marko be introduced as Sandman in the MCU? That's difficult to say since he doesn't have his own toy revealed yet. So we'll have to wait.
Speaking of Mysterio, as you can see, he's getting his own cool Funko POPs too, including these retail exclusives:
Image removed at the request of Marvel.Spider-Man: Far From Home arrives on July 5, 2019, but these Funko POPs (and more) will be out before then.