Mastermind (Jason Wyngarde)

Mastermind
Mastermind in X-Men: The Hidden Years #12 (November 2000). Art by John Byrne.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The X-Men #4 (March 1964)[1]
Created by	Stan Lee (writer) Jack Kirby (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	Jason Wyngarde
Species	Human mutant
Team affiliations	Secret Empire Brotherhood of Evil Mutants Factor Three Hellfire Club
Abilities	Realistic psionic illusion casting Memory alteration

Mastermind (Jason Wyngarde) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly as an adversary of the X-Men. The original Mastermind was a mutant with the psionic ability to generate complex telepathic illusions at will that cause his victims to see whatever he wishes them to see. He was a founding member of the first Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and later a probationary member of the Lords Cardinal of the Hellfire Club, where he played an important role in "The Dark Phoenix Saga".

After Wyngarde's death from the

Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby, he first appeared in The X-Men #4 (March 1964). He was given his "real name" of Jason Wyngarde by Chris Claremont and John Byrne.^[2]

The name and visual appearance of Jason Wyngarde as he appears in the Dark Phoenix Saga and later stories was originally based by artist John Byrne on that of British actor Peter Wyngarde, best known for playing Jason King, and who also played the leader of the Hellfire Club in an episode of The Avengers.^[3]

Fictional character biography

Nothing is known of Jason Wyngarde's life before joining the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, except that he was a carnival mentalist. With Mastermind's help, the Brotherhood takes over Santo Marco, a fictional

After the spell wears off, Mastermind joins

After being restored to adulthood, Mastermind becomes involved with the Hellfire Club, who conspire to capture the X-Men for their own uses. He initially poses as Nikos, and begins a romance with Phoenix.^[13] Then, he manipulates her through the use of his own powers and a mind-tap mechanism created by Emma Frost, which he uses to project his illusion directly into her mind, causing her to believe she is living out the life of a Victorian aristocrat who was married to Jason Wyngarde (Mastermind),^[14] and was the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club. This turns her against the X-Men. Cyclops attempts to free Phoenix on the astral plane, but Mastermind confronts him there and soundly defeats him. Instead of binding Phoenix to him forever, as Mastermind had hoped, the shock of Scott's psychic "death" breaks her free from his control. Enraged at what he did to her, Phoenix reaches into his mind and makes him experience godhood for a moment. This experience leaves him catatonic.^[15]

When Mastermind recovers his sanity, he seeks revenge on everyone that caused him pain. He strikes down Emma Frost, leaving her comatose.

Mastermind later dies of the Legacy Virus. Before he succumbs, he asks Jean Grey's forgiveness for what he did to her in an attempt to gain control of the almighty Phoenix Force within her. She forgives him and he dies peacefully after using his final act to save Jean Grey from dying alongside him.^[22]

After his death, Mastermind appeared in a flashback sequence that revealed that he was paid by the supervillain known as "the General" to put one of his illusions into the mind of Sentry, making the Sentry "...so scared to use his powers, [That] he'll think the world will be attacked by the devil if he does." This would make Mastermind responsible for the creation of the Void itself, the evil counterpart of the Sentry who is actually the manifestation of the inhibitions that Mastermind implanted in the Sentry to prevent him from using his powers.^[23]

He would appear again in a flashback sequence when Lorna Dane discovered that she was the one responsible for the accident that killed her parents. Magneto, who had been drawn to the location of the accident by her magnetic pulse, had Mastermind use his illusionary powers to re-write Lorna's memories of that day, since he believed that she was not ready for her abilities or the life he could offer her, leaving her to believe that her parents died in a plane crash when she was an infant.^[24]

During the "Empyre" storyline, Mastermind is among the mutants that were revived and residing on Krakoa. When Magik calls for the psychic mutants to come to Genosha and deal with a Cotati seed pod that is weak against psychic attacks, Mastermind is among the psychic mutants that answer the call.^[26] He is among those who witness Magik's fight with the Cotatinaught.^[27]

Characteristics

Powers and abilities

Mastermind has the mutant ability to cast exceptionally realistic psionic illusions.^[28] He can psionically cause other people to see, hear, feel, smell, and taste things that do not actually exist.^[29] For example, he can make himself look and sound like a different person, or look and feel like a wall, or even seem invisible. He can use his powers to duplicate himself.^[30] The range of Mastermind's powers is wide enough to affect an entire city.^[31] He is even capable of affecting telepaths as powerful as Professor X and Jean Grey, although to manipulate Dark Phoenix he required an amplifying device called a "mind-tap mechanism" provided by the White Queen that enabled him to project illusions directly into the entity's mind, so that the entity "saw" them, and to monitor the entity's thoughts, both over great distances.^[32]

Family

Mastermind's name and powers still live on through his daughters: Martinique Jason and Regan Wyngarde. Both appear to be stronger than the original Mastermind; Martinique can create citywide illusions that even hypnotize people to believe they are in a whole new era and Regan's lethal illusions can continue even after she has been rendered unconscious.^{[volume & issue needed]}

In the second issue of X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back, the mother of X-Man

• In 2009, IGN ranked Mastermind 98th in their Top 100 Comic Book Villains" list.^[34]
• In 2017, WhatCulture ranked Mastermind 7th in their "10 Most Evil X-Men Villains" list.^[35]
• In 2018,
  CBR.com ranked Mastermind 16th in their "25 X-Men Villains, Ranked From Weakest To Strongest" list.^[36]
• In 2019,
  CBR.com ranked Mastermind 2nd in their "10 X-Men Villains that Seem Totally Lame (But Are Actually Super Powerful)" list.^[29]
• In 2020,
  CBR.com ranked Mastermind 2nd in their "10 Best Illusionists In Marvel" list.^[37]
• In 2021, Screen Rant included Mastermind in their "X-Men: The 10 Most Powerful Members Of The Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants" list.^[38]

Other versions

Age of Apocalypse

In the alternate timeline seen in the 1995–1996

• Mastermind makes a non-speaking appearance in the
  Brotherhood of Evil Mutants
  who is also known as the "Maestro of Illusion".
• Mastermind appears in the X-Men: The Animated Series four-part episode "The Dark Phoenix", voiced by Nigel Bennett.^[42] This version is a member of the Inner Circle Club.^[43] Additionally, an alternate timeline version of Mastermind from a world without the X-Men appears in the episode "One Man's Worth (Part 1)".
• Mastermind appears in
  Acolytes
  .
• Mastermind appears in
  Marvel Anime: X-Men, voiced by Haruhiko Jō in the Japanese version and by Travis Willingham in the English version.^[42] This version is the leader of the Inner Circle, who initially sought to manipulate Jean Grey into becoming the Phoenix before she sacrificed herself to prevent them from using its power. In response, Mastermind framed Emma Frost for Grey's death and took on the alias of Japanese researcher "Jun Sanada" to form a secret alliance with the U-Men
  and pretend to work under Japanese scientist Dr. Yui Sasaki to manipulate her son Takeo, a mutant capable of warping reality, into using his power to allow mutants to take over the world. After the X-Men discover his schemes, Mastermind attempts to use Takeo to weaken them, only to be killed by the boy after he loses control of his powers.