Mastermind
Jason Wynegarde

Powers

Illusion Generation: Unearthly ability to generate 3-D illusions. Damage from such illusions is imaginary, but if 0 Health is reached, the target is rendered unconscious for 1-10 rounds. Mastermind's illusions affect all senses except smell. They cannot be recorded on cameras, tape or other mechanical devices. All who can see illusions are affected by them. Mastermind can perform the following power stunts:

• Unearthly ability to alter his appearance, including all sight and touch components.
• Unearthly ability to become invisible.

Equipment

Talents

None

Contacts

Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Factor Three, Hellfire club

History

Nothing is known about Mastermind's life before the time when, as a carnival mentalist, he was enlisted by Magneto as a member of his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. At this time, Magneto sought to protect his fellow superhuman beings from persecution by normal human beings by conquering humanity and ruling the world himself. The other members of the Brotherhood were his allies in pursuit of these goals. As a member of the Brotherhood, Mastermind battled the X-Men repeatedly, but the X-Men continually thwarted Magneto and the Brotherhood. Finally, Magneto attempted to enlist the enigmatic alien being known as the Stranger as an ally. Angered, the Stranger transformed Mastermind into stone and transported Magneto, whom he captured, to another planet.

Eventually, Mastermind returned to normal and joined Factor Three, another organization of superhuman mutants bent on world conquest. However, Mastermind and his allies joined the X-Men in defeating Factor Three's leader after discovering he was an extraterrestrial being.

After again being defeated as a member of Magneto's Brotherhood, Mastermind was invited to apply for admission to the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club. To prove his worth, Mastermind sought to use his mutant powers and artificial means to alter the personality of the X-Man Jean Grey psionically so that she would willingly become the Inner Circle's new Black Queen. Unknown to Mastermind or anyone else, his victim was not really Jean Grey, but a cosmic entity, the Phoenix-force, which had duplicated Grey's form and personality.

Mastermind succeeded in convincing the false Grey into becoming the new Black Queen, but thus unintentionally triggered the process that would soon transform her into the insane Dark Phoenix. Before the latter transformation was complete, the false Grey broke free of Mastermind's control and opened Mastermind's mind to all the psionic sense impressions she received from the cosmos. Unable to cope with them, Mastermind fell into a catatonic state. The Inner Circle, of course, rejected his application for membership.

Mastermind eventually returned to normal, but remembered the glory of the cosmos he had perceived, and felt tormented that he could no longer experience it. He decided to take revenge on Grey's friends, the X-Men. He succeeded somehow in inducing Mariko Yashida into calling off her marriage to the X-Man Wolverine, and caused the X-Man Cyclops and his teammates to think Madelyne Pryor, whom Cyclops loved, was Dark Phoenix. Mastermind hoped to crush the X-Men's spirits by thus manipulating them into killing Pryor. But the X-Men discovered Mastermind's deception and defeated him.

Mastermind later attempted to tap into the power of Rachel Summers, the daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey from an alternate timeline, who had been imbued with the Phoenix Force. This attempt also failed, and Mastermind was imprisoned under the delusion that he had achieved cosmic awareness.

Mastermind contracted the Legacy Virus, a terminal disease that affects mutants and some normal humans. On his deathbed, Mastermind made peace with Jean Grey, the X-Man whom he had most violated in his career, and revealed to her that she was the woman he had come closest to truly loving. Mastermind passed away, and his daughter Martinique who possesses similar powers, has since taken on the name of Mastermind.