Mastermind (Martinique Jason)

Martinique Jason (born Martinique Wyngarde), also known as Mastermind, is a fictional mutant supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe. She first appeared in Wolverine/Gambit: Victims #1 (September 1995) as a 'dead' woman in an illusion, and in issue #2 as herself. She was created by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. Martinique is the daughter of Jason Wyngarde, the first Mastermind and member of the first Brotherhood of Mutants, and the half-sister of Regan Wyngarde, also known as Lady Mastermind and the X-Woman Megan Gwynn aka Pixie. Martinique has the ability of creating telepathic illusions, a power she shares with Regan and inherited from their father.

Fictional character biography

Martinique Jason is one of the daughters of the illusionist, the original Mastermind. She has an intense hatred for her half-sister, also Lady Mastermind, Regan Wyngarde (who first used their now shared-codename).^[2] She hates her sister for "stealing the spotlight", while her sister hates her for being a "skank", with the two of them constantly insulting each other.^[3]

She teamed up with Arcade to frame Wolverine for several murders in London. One of the victims had been a friend of Gambit's. Gambit went to London, where he was pitted against Wolverine by Martinique. She eventually turned the tables on Arcade by giving him a recurring nightmare. At this point, she used the alias Martinique Jason.

Brotherhood of Mutants

Martinique later joined an incarnation of the Brotherhood of Mutants led by Mystique. This Brotherhood was involved in another assassination attempt on the Senator Robert Kelly, who at the time was running for the United States presidency. The Brotherhood were defeated by the X-Men and a dying Pyro, who sacrificed his life to save Kelly. During the encounter, she was placed in a coma by Cable.

X-Corp

She was later removed from a hospital by Multiple Man, for use in Banshee's paramilitary mutant police group, X-Corps. Martinique's powers were employed to keep the supervillain members of the group, Blob, Avalanche and Fever Pitch under Banshee's control. She was eventually awoken by Mystique, who had infiltrated the group under the disguise of the mutant Surge. The two women then "freed" the villain members of the X-Corps and used them to lay waste to Paris. They were defeated by the X-Men.

M-Day

After M-Day, Martinique was found amnesiac and catatonic in her costume in the streets of San Francisco. After meeting a trio of aged hippies and entering their minds, seeing their innermost desires, as a favor to them, she began transforming the city into how it was back in 1969, and was known as the Goddess.^[4]

Divided We Stand

Angel arrives in San Francisco to meet up with the other X-Men there but slipped into the illusion himself although he managed to contact Cyclops and Emma Frost in the Savage Land for help.^[5] The two come to San Francisco to investigate his disappearance, and end up investigating what happened to San Francisco.^[6] Martinique, partying, soon finds out that Emma is trying to get into her head. She defends herself from the psychic probe and literally calls the police.^[7] She backtracks the psychic probe to find out that they are the X-Men before quickly remembering all that she had forgotten, including her name. She then uses the hippie X-Men, Angel, Iceman, Warpath and Hepzibah to confront the two X-Men.^[8] Emma defeats Martinique and shatters her city-wide illusion with a psychic attack, but the illusionist escapes, and is found by a woman who is later revealed to be Madelyne Pryor and offers her a position in the Sisterhood of Mutants.^[9]

Sisterhood of Mutants

Madelyne and the Sisterhood approach Lady Mastermind, who is at a graveyard mourning her father. When Madelyne makes her offer, Regan draws her gun and threatens to shoot. Madelyne, however, promises to resurrect Regan's father; Martinique (who is excited at the prospect of her father's resurrection) grudgingly confirms this as true, also adding she still loathes her sister. Regan joins the Sisterhood and together they perform a spell involving Kwannon's body and a captive Psylocke, restoring her to her original body.^[10]

Later she and Chimera attack Cyclops, Dazzler and Northstar while the rest of the Sisterhood attack the X-Men.^[11] Mastermind is revealed to have been seriously injured during the battle with the X-Men, but subsequently manages to escape along with the Sisterhood.^[12]

The Sisterhood split up leaving the Lady Mastermind sisters (as they now share the same codename) and Psylocke back at the base while the Red Queen takes Chimera, Lady Deathstrike and Spiral to Jean Grey's burial site. There she is confronted by Emma Frost, Dazzler, Karma and Storm. After the Red Queen's defeat, she teleports off with Spiral and the rest of the Sisterhood.^[13]

Pixie Strikes Back

In the second issue of X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back, the mother of the X-Man Pixie teleports herself to the Wyngarde Mansion, where Martinique is fighting with Regan. She claims that Pixie is their sister.^[14]

Marvel NOW!

Hope Summers later visits Martinique in prison, where she steals her illusion abilities in order to use them against the Avengers Unity Squad.^[15]

Powers and abilities

Like her father and sister, Martinique Jason is a mutant with the ability to create sensory illusions that affect all five senses of those the illusion is cast on, and have demonstrated some influence on extrasensory abilities as well. Her illusions can do real damage, including asphyxiation and bleeding from the pores.

Like her half-sister Lady Mastermind and unlike their father, Martinique also possesses limited telepathy; which she uses to read minds on a basic level to fine-tune the accuracy of her illusions from victim to victim. Her powers do not affect any surveillance devices because they do not affect machines, only the mind. She is one of the few mutants who have retained their mutant powers after M-Day.

After appearing on the streets of San Francisco after M-Day, Martinique's powers seemed to have strengthened, her power to read minds on a basic level having grown into full-blown telepathic powers, which she is able to use to perform deeper psychic probes and mask her mind from telepathic intrusion by even a mutant as powerful as Emma Frost. Martinique's power of illusion seems to have mutated into incredibly powerful and complex illusions that completely warp the thoughts, personalities and perceptions of others in an entire city and its environments with ease.

Other versions

In the timeline seen in the "Age of X" storyline, Martinique is present when Magneto creates Fortress X.^[16]

In the alternate reality seen in the 2004-2006 trilogy of miniseries X-Men: The End, both Martinique and Regan fell prey to Mister Sinister who turned them to stone. Using their bodies, he created a device that would ensnare people in an illusion should they get too close. When the X-Men came to attack Sinister, the Ladies Mastermind caught them in an illusion that played out their heart’s desire. Thanks to a telepathic nudge from Jean Grey, Wolverine broke free of the illusion and destroyed the statues, ending Martinique’s torture.^[17]

References

External links

• Martinique Jason in Marvel Wiki