long and short of his history: mom and dad were a poor match, mom was naive and good natured, dad was a wannabe thief/merc who took stupid jobs from half-wit villains to at least keep a roof over their head while being a bad husband, bad father, and bad person. this guy (i need to name him) spent 90% of his childhood alone, which gave him time to dedicate to school and the growing hobby of knowing how shit works (the seeds of disdain for the elusive magic were planted here). mom encouraged him, got him through high school early, and then was killed in a wrong place/wrong time kind of situation after following dad to one of his shoddy heists. so he left home, went to mit and STUDIED. he learned in an obsessive manner about tech, chemistry, robotics, and found his obsession with magic bloom during this time. he was recruited by a government agency that used his skills to create a simulator of some kind, not 100% sure what it was yet but it had good intentions but could be pretty messy if found in the wrong hands. it never sat entirely right with him so he developed his own arsenal to kind of null out any potential bad things that could be done. his tech works like mysterio's where he builds worlds via special effects and studied hand-to-hand combat and as much as he could to protect himself as just a human dude. so he's out there trying to do good but he's easily manipulated and will also suit up for the most convincing party.