PSYCHO-MAN

 

PSYCHO-MAN

Real Name: Unrevealed
First Appearance: Fantastic Four Annual (Vol. 1) #5, November 1967

Powers: The Chief Scientist and ruler of a technocracy governing five planets of the Sub-Atomica system within the Microverse (a dimension accessible via the energies of shrinking), the Psycho-Man discovered the secrets of fear itself with the guidance of the Olympian goddess Nox. When his system became overcrowded, he sought a new home for his people and chose Earth, believing its population had no defense against his weaponry. He created a human-sized armor suit and an emotion-stimulating Control Box.

The Psycho-Man possesses no known superhuman powers, though he claims that he derives power from the negative emotions he causes, like a psychic vampire. A brilliant engineer, mathematics genius, cybernetics expert and weapons designer, the Psycho-Man has knowledge of technology far in advance of present day Earth's. His primary weapon is his Control Box that can stimulate three negative emotions--fear, doubt and hate--in one or more targets.

Using the nobs on the handheld device, the Psycho-Man can control the type of emotion, its intensity (from mild to life threatening) and the length of the effects. The fear ray frequently causes people to hallucinate a particularly fearsome image or scenario dredged up from their own subconscious, which often causes them to be completely paralyzed with terror. The Control Box's settings can also be reversed, which allows the Psycho-Man to bombard opponents with courage, confidence and love--this renders them extremely confident to the point of recklessness and overly sentimental.

The Psycho-Man has incorporated this emotion altering technology into larger devices with greater range and effectiveness, once even influencing an entire planet. Blind or sightless people have proven immune to his emotion rays. The only known defense against his mind-altering rays is a Microverse native mineral known as Nuvidia. The Psycho-Man has access to shrinking and enlarging technology which he uses for a variety of effects. His armor had various weapons systems, including hand mounted giant fans. He can probe minds to see if people tell the truth. He has created several giant robot forms of his body armor that he uses to carry out missions on Earth, which he can either "pilot" or cybernetically control from the Microverse. For travels within the Microverse, he relies on a gigantic Worldship. The Psycho-Man has also been seen commanding a fleet of vessels he calls his Death Ships. He is also capable of easily traveling to Earth and even other dimensions using technology. He briefly gained some of the powers of his Control Box. He could also generate solid energy forms to give form to his illusions--these powers have since vanished. Without his armor or weapons, the Psycho-Man is physically frail and has been seen using life-support equipment to cope with nerve degradation he claims occurred when the Invisible Woman exposed him to the effects of his Control Box.