Mastermind was for the most part a jobber. Started off as one of Magneto's henchmen and spent decades as a boring side character with one dimensional plots and a generic personality.
Then Claremont happened. For some reason, everything he touched as a writer became golden and as a result, Mastermind became a complex and interesting character, rich with personality within the Phoenix and Dark Phoenix sagas (which are both amazingly written and stand out as masterpieces of the comics genre) and became one of the best known villains of the X-Men.
He is also one of the few mutants to not be brought back at any point since his death in the 90's, being succeeded by his daughter. He's stayed dead, and as a result, hasn't gone down the lame route like Colossus or whatever and kept getting brought back to life.
Reflexes
dodges a laser blast while casting his illusion. (Uncanny X-Men #6)
Dodges a optic blast and then creates a illusion that blinds people. (Uncanny X-Men #5)
Illusion Casting
Handbook on his capabilities. Bit wordy, but gets the point done. (Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe)
Creates a entire army out of illusions that take over a city long enough for Magneto to create a real army. (Uncanny X-Men #4)
Beast knows that Mastermind's illusion isn't real but recoils and reacts regardless. (Amazing Adventures #13)
Convinced Beast that he killed Iron Man and gave him amnesia. (Amazing Adventures #13)
Creates a massive illusion to a crowd that Cyclops is attacking them. (Uncanny X-Men #134)
Creates multiple versions of himself. (Uncanny X-Men #5)
Edits the memories of Polaris as a child to misremember her parents death. He states that he can't do this to older people. (X-Factor 2012)
Fools the X-Men, including Jean Gray, into thinking they were trapped. (Uncanny X-Men #4)
Incaps and traps Iceman and Cyclops, fooling them into thinking their powers are useless. (Uncanny X-Men #39)
Influences the dreams of Rachel Gray and edits her memories into thinking that Franklin survived. (Excalibur #175)
Uses multiple illusions and manages to hide from Phoenix Jean Gray's casual telepathy. (Uncanny X-Men #125)
Turns a stone wall to glass, fooling Beast into thinking that he can't grab on to it. (Uncanny X-Men #4)
Is able to hide his thoughts from Phoenix Rachel Gray and convince her to give him some of her power via a telepathic link. Mastermind managed to do this while hiding his real intentions. (Excalibur #175)
Beast is unable to move, even when he knows that it is a Illusion. (Uncanny X-Men #5)
Manages to incap Captain Britain by leaving him in some state of inactivity within his mind. (Excalibur #175)
Fools the entire X-Men into fighting Cyclops by tricking them into thinking he was Dark Phoenix. This was also realistic enough to fool Wolverine's amazing senses, which can usually detect illusions or falsehoods. (Uncanny X-Men #175)
Fools the X-Men into thinking they are fighting Dark Phoenix, including Logan. Should be noted that there is a physical person there, but they have been fooled into thinking that they are Phoenix and doing all of this. This is one of Mastermind's best and most complex illusions. (Uncanny X-Men #175)
Messes with Sentry's mind (regardless of his amazing telepathy and defences) and literally invents The Void as a concept. (New Avengers #9)
A dying Mastermind from the Legacy Virus is able to overcome the likes of Jean Gray and Iceman and places them into his illusion world, as well as bypassing her telepathy. (Uncanny X-Men Annual #17)
Fools the X-Men into thinking that New York has been destroyed. Should be noted that his illusions kill Cyclops for a while, showing that they are so realistic that the human body can die as a result because it thinks it is getting attacked. (Uncanny X-Men #175)
Gallery
Scan 1/2/3- Fights Emma Frost in a psychic battle to a draw, through it's implied that Emma didn't go all out considering she looks fine while Mastermind is all sweaty (Classic X-Men #34)
Fights Xavier for a bit with his powers before losing (he didn't have a chance of winning, but being able to fight him in the first place without being instantly stomped is pretty good all things considered) (X-Men First Class #3)
Fools Beast into thinking he's turned to stone (Professor Xavier and the X-Men #6)
Gallery
Scan 1/2- Gives him dude a illusion of cash that stays around even when miles away from him (X-Men- The Hidden Years #12)
Hits Stranger with a bunch of illusions that confuse him for a bit (this is impressive because the Overmind, a planetary telepath, has to ambush him to get the guy in a psychic duel) (Professor Xavier and the X-Men #15)
Gallery
Scan 1/2- Is able to send a projection to himself to the X-Men despite not even Xavier using Cerebro being able to access them with his powers. Should be noted that Mastermind was amped due to having his physical body transmuted into stone and having his mind enhanced over time due to being incapable of moving, so this isn't regular levels of power. (X-Men First Class #2)
Makes himself invisible and silent while in Cyclops's house (Uncanny X-Men #174)
Gallery
Scan 1/2- Makes Logan cry salty tears like a big baby (Uncanny X-Men #173)
Plays mind games with Cyclops and successfully hides from him (Uncanny X-Men #174)
Makes a dude fall for hours on end (X-Corp #5)
Gallery
Scan 1/2- Creates a detailed illusion of Krakoa that fools Angel and Monet (X-Corp #2)
Gallery
Scan 1/2- Simulates a giant crowd of people all at once (X-Corp #2)
Gallery
Scan 1/2- Fools about 30,000 people with a giant construct illusion that lasts a while (X-Corp #4)
Gallery
Scan 1/2/3/4- Creates multiple illusion constructs to shock the Hellions into unconsciousness. This included the likes of Sabretooth, Kwannon Psylocke, Havok, etc (Hellions #9)
This also included keeping them in detailed illusions for this issue and a half (Hellions #10)
Gallery
Scan 1/2- Makes the Hellions think that they beat Arcade while also erasing their memories of meeting Sinister and co outside of Kwannon Psylocke (Hellions #11)
Conclusion
Not a lot to talk about, but Mastermind is pretty powerful close to the end of his life. His telepathic offences are amazing, able to bypass the likes of Jean and Rachel Gray.
His illusion creating is near peerless in terms of characters in general tbh.
Not that it entirely matters, but the original Marvel Girl didn’t have her telepathic powers active and one could argue she was still a novice when Mastermind projected Xavier.
Needless to say, the other feats are real solid. Short, but impressive.
Not that it entirely matters, but the original Marvel Girl didn’t have her telepathic powers active and one could argue she was still a novice when Mastermind projected Xavier.
Needless to say, the other feats are real solid. Short, but impressive.
Yeah, I guess she was pretty much a novice at that point. Thankfully, I was also able to remember not to include most of his Jason Wyngarde feats as he was directly amped and not at his base levels.
Glad that you enjoyed this Respect Thread through.
Uses multiple illusions and manages to hide from Phoenix Jean Gray's casual telepathy. (Uncanny X-Men #125)
IIRC, he could only do that with a machine
Actually, the machine only allowed him to project his thoughts directly to Jean and increased his range massively, as the Marvel Handbook scan states clearly at the start of the second section.
I knew about the machine's existence and what he did with it which is why those feats aren't here. That feat isn't one of them. The fact that he later recreated the same feat with Rachel Gray and Jean Gray again while weakened by the Legacy Virus also shows that it isn't just a one off.
I applaud the more obscure characters getting respect threads. Good stuff!
Thanks! The whole reason I make these in the first place is to shine a well needed light on the more obscure and goofy characters of Marvel, as well as inform people of characters that are grossly underrated in the Battle Forums and beyond.
If I'm at least doing one of those right, then that's a mission accomplished as far as I see it, lol
I've updated the Mastermind RT with a bunch of new scans I found when reading through his stuff again after finding a reading list without a ton of re-prints of old comics.
@professorrespect: could be beat both his daughters at the same time you think? Although I have no idea how illusionists fight goes
If I recall, the one I did a RT on is immune to hypnosis and can see through illusions naturally due to her powers. Her father's stuff kinda falls under that.
I applaud the more obscure characters getting respect threads. Good stuff!
Thanks! The whole reason I make these in the first place is to shine a well needed light on the more obscure and goofy characters of Marvel, as well as inform people of characters that are grossly underrated in the Battle Forums and beyond.
If I'm at least doing one of those right, then that's a mission accomplished as far as I see it, lol
@ichinisanji: Huh, that's pretty good actually. Missed that when reading through the story, I guess, through it's hard to tell if Xavier set the machine wrong or Mastermind rigged it while in disguise.
I applaud the more obscure characters getting respect threads. Good stuff!
Thanks! The whole reason I make these in the first place is to shine a well needed light on the more obscure and goofy characters of Marvel, as well as inform people of characters that are grossly underrated in the Battle Forums and beyond.
If I'm at least doing one of those right, then that's a mission accomplished as far as I see it, lol
dude, you are awesome
Thanks, lol. It's nice to see such positive comments on the site for a change.
@professorrespect: now that one stranger feat really screams pis. He tricked someone whos senses are beyond the senses themselves. I bet Claremont thinks xavier would make the living tribunal think he's a baby, with a simple thought.
@professorrespect: now that one stranger feat really screams pis. He tricked someone whos senses are beyond the senses themselves. I bet Claremont thinks xavier would make the living tribunal think he's a baby, with a simple thought.
I mean catching Stranger out for a few panels before bouncing back doesn't seem completely PIS. Hell, Stranger's shown a tendency to be weak against sneak attacks when Overmind caught him with a telepathic assault mid attack.
@professorrespect: I don't think illusions are quite the same as telepathic attacks tho. Someone with natural cosmic awareness would not be fooled by illusions when they have a fundamental sense of reality.
@professorrespect: I don't think illusions are quite the same as telepathic attacks tho. Someone with natural cosmic awareness would not be fooled by illusions when they have a fundamental sense of reality.
Can I get a list of your rt to go through them?
I guess that's true, but cosmic awareness is always been a bit loosely defined, even the likes of Odin have been fooled by illusions despite having Odin-Force.
Sure! I have a tier list of RT's made. It's a lot through, so take your time, lol
@ichinisanji: Huh, that's pretty good actually. Missed that when reading through the story, I guess, through it's hard to tell if Xavier set the machine wrong or Mastermind rigged it while in disguise.
could he manage something like that though? Make you think left is right, up is down, or think words mean different things?
Also how did he manage the jean grey illusion with the legacy virus thing? He made her believe she had children and a husband. Was he amped because he was dying and lacked control?
@ichinisanji: Huh, that's pretty good actually. Missed that when reading through the story, I guess, through it's hard to tell if Xavier set the machine wrong or Mastermind rigged it while in disguise.
could he manage something like that though? Make you think left is right, up is down, or think words mean different things?
Considering Mastermind created the Void persona (or at least made it a physical manifestation for Bob) I wouldn't put it beside him to make Xavier see Cerebro look set up correctly when it actually wasn't.
Also how did he manage the jean grey illusion with the legacy virus thing? He made her believe she had children and a husband. Was he amped because he was dying and lacked control?
From my knowledge, the Legacy Virus will flare up a mutant's powers way beyond their usual levels before death. Mastermind therefore would be given much more power than standard levels of strength, making such a feat possible.
@ichinisanji: Huh, that's pretty good actually. Missed that when reading through the story, I guess, through it's hard to tell if Xavier set the machine wrong or Mastermind rigged it while in disguise.
could he manage something like that though? Make you think left is right, up is down, or think words mean different things?
Considering Mastermind created the Void persona (or at least made it a physical manifestation for Bob) I wouldn't put it beside him to make Xavier see Cerebro look set up correctly when it actually wasn't.
Yeah making it look like it was set up correctly is one thing. Making xavier set it wrong is another.
It's like if he made write out "Mastermind is the greatest man in the world" even though I wanted to write "Mastermind fucking sucks lmao"
Like make you think you're throwing a punch instead of you kicking.
@ichinisanji: Well yeah, that's the basis of his powers. Mastermind can make people think they've done something when they actually haven't: his abilities are pretty simple, but have a wide range of practical uses. Through I doubt he made Xavier set it wrong, I wouldn't put it as beyond him.
@ichinisanji: Well yeah, that's the basis of his powers. Mastermind can make people think they've done something when they actually haven't: his abilities are pretty simple, but have a wide range of practical uses. Through I doubt he made Xavier set it wrong, I wouldn't put it as beyond him.
the jean grey/legacy virus instance reminds me of what he did with the mindtap device back during dark phoenix saga
@ichinisanji: Well yeah, that's the basis of his powers. Mastermind can make people think they've done something when they actually haven't: his abilities are pretty simple, but have a wide range of practical uses. Through I doubt he made Xavier set it wrong, I wouldn't put it as beyond him.
the jean grey/legacy virus instance reminds me of what he did with the mindtap device back during dark phoenix saga
That's true, through the device only amped Mastermind's range, not his power, from all available sources.
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