PUPPET MASTER

 

PUPPET MASTER

Real Name: Phillip Masters

First Appearance: Fantastic Four (Vol. 1) #8, November 1962

Powers: Phillip Masters is able to control minds using a special form of clay. This clay has both radioactive and mystical qualities, cultivated from its origin source at the base of Wundagore Mountain in Transia, the location of the High Evolutionary's experiments and where the Elder God Chthon's essence has been trapped and contained. By shaping the clay into the likeness of a given individual, the Puppet Master is able to control that person via intense concentration. The exact mechanism of his control has varied greatly over time. Sometimes he would physically manipulate the puppet to make his victim move in the same manner. More often, he concentrated mentally in order to plant powerful suggestions in the minds of his victim, directing their behavior. Sometimes his victims would consciously act out these compulsions without fully understanding why, but other times Puppet Master's control would place his victims in a trance-like state where they had no conscious thoughts other than his commands. Puppet Master required physical contact with his puppets to control them, and his control would be broken if the puppet was destroyed or misshapen so it no longer bore his victim's likeness. He could employ multiple puppets, but was also skilled at rapidly reshaping the clay of a given puppet to take control of a new victim on the fly.

Phillip Masters is a gifted intellect with a doctorate in biology.