MASTERMIND III

BIOGRAPHY

Little is known about Martinique Jason’s background but her father has been identified to be the mutant villain Mastermind. Martinique herself would grow up to possess the same power to cast complex illusions into a victim’s mind and, like her father, she would abuse this gift. Martinique isn’t the only child of Mastermind as he has at least three, but none are exactly on friendly terms with one another.

After her father’s death, Martinique took the name Mastermind and decided to come out of his shadow and take on the X-Men herself. Teaming up with Arcade, who also had a grudge to bear against the mutants, she travelled to London and began setting up a trap. Arcade had a number of Wolverine robots, which Martinique programmed to kill a series of women, re-igniting the mystery of Jack the Ripper. Naturally, Wolverine travelled to London himself to investigate and was immediately ensnared in Martinique’s illusions. By pure chance, one of the murdered women was an old associate of Gambit’s and he too came to find out what had happened. Altering her plans, Mastermind approached the two X-Men and, posing as an Interpol agent, helped them hide from the police that were investigating the crimes. Unfortunately for the two X-Men, they were both caught in Martinique’s illusions and were slowly being turned against each other. While Martinique’s powers were similar to her father’s, she had the added benefit of being a telepath and was able to reach into someone’s mind and use their own memories against them. Gambit and Wolverine started fighting each other, not realizing that they were being played.

Things started falling apart, though, when Martinique linked minds with Arcade and saw a dark secret he was hiding. Arcade had accidentally killed his previous assistant and set up the whole scenario to hide her body among the victims and cover his own crime. So distracted by this revelation, Martinique accidentally let go of her illusion and the two X-Men broke free of their confinement. Oblivious to her error, Martinique was threatening Arcade when they were interrupted by Gambit and Wolverine. Far more interested in punishing Arcade than revenge against the X-Men, Martinique slipped away with Arcade under cover of one of her illusions, promising as she did so that Arcade would pay. Indeed, Martinique sent Arcade to a psychiatric ward, where she trapped him in a deep illusion that forced him to confront his dead assistant again and again. [Wolverine & Gambit: Victims #1-4]

Martinique’s moral upturn wasn’t to last and she quickly returned to old ways once she took over Arcade’s Murderworld. Seeking information on her new real estate windfall, she enlisted the help of the firm Nelson and Murdock, which just so happened to be run by Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil. Deciding to have some fun, Martinique took Foggy Nelson to Coney Island and then laid in wait for Daredevil to show up to save him. When he did so, Martinique played games with the hero, making him believe he was being set upon by a number of his adversaries, like Typhoid Mary and Kingpin, and then forcing him to choose between the lives of Foggy or Elektra. Before Martinique herself could be caught, she too disappeared, leaving the two confused men behind. [Daredevil (1st series) #352]

Martinique joined up with Mystique’s latest incarnation of the Brotherhood in an attempt to kill Senator Kelly. Whilst the other members like Post, Blob and Avalanche attacked directly, Mastermind kept away from the fray and manipulated the appearance of things around them. Cable and the X-Men were on hand to try and stop the assassination, so Mastermind kept them distracted by making them attack the wrong targets. Unfortunately for her, Pyro, who was dying of the Legacy Virus, had gained a conscience and alerted the X-Men to Mastermind’s meddling. Using his psimitar, Cable stabbed Martinique and put her in a coma. Despite their best efforts, the X-Men failed in saving Senator Kelly and the Brotherhood disbanded afterwards. [Cable (2nd series) #87]

Martinique was placed in a secure unit where she was locked into a machine projecting a virtual reality scenario in her head. She was eventually retrieved by Multiple Man, who was working for Banshee as a member of his X-Corps. However, Martinique’s incarceration wasn’t exactly over, as she was connected to a new machine and forced to use her powers to subdue some of the more volatile members of Banshee’s squad, like Fever Pitch and Avalanche. When the telepathic Chamber discovered her, he was accidentally dragged into her psychic prison. Inside her mind, Martinique was just as fiery as ever and objected to Chamber being in there with her. She remained cryptic about what she was truly up to and, when Chamber pressed her on it, she showed him she was much more adept at mind games than he was.

Banshee’s X-Corps soon started to fall apart when Mystique was revealed to have infiltrated the group. She had been communicating with Martinique for some time and the illusionist had merely been going along with Banshee’s plan until the time came to turn the tables on him. Mystique broke Martinique out of the machine and together they set about using the X-Corps to commit acts of terrorism across Paris. When the X-Corps were defeated and Mystique was taken out by Abyss, Martinique knew that she would be next and so slipped away to avoid the X-Men. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #401-406]

Martinique stayed away from the X-Men for a few years and was lucky enough to be one of the few mutants to retain their powers after M-Day. Unfortunately for her, as a telepath the trauma of the mass depowering was so much that she became amnesic. A group of elderly hippies found her slumped on a street in San Francisco and, when they tried to help her, she reached into their mind and pulled out their deepest desires. They longed for a time like the 1960’s, when everything wasn’t so dark and dismal, and so Martinique granted it. Casting an illusion, she made it seem everything was like the 60’s again, from the people to the city itself. Whilst her illusion was only small to begin with, it grew over the next few months until it enveloped the whole of San Francisco and everyone in it. Martinique herself was dubbed “the Goddess” and the people worshipped her for what she had bestowed upon them.

A while went by and, when the X-Men temporarily split up, some of them ended up in San Francisco, where they were immediately caught in the sway of Martinique’s illusion. Emma Frost and Cyclops soon realized something was up with their missing friends and came to investigate but Emma’s telepathy blocked the illusion. When Emma tried to pinpoint the cause of the illusion, Martinique felt her but the intrusion triggered something and her memories started coming back to her. With her more villainous side starting to seep through, she sent a cadre of cops to kill the two X-Men. When they failed in their task, Martinique decided to up the firepower and used the brainwashed X-Men to try and take out the intruders. Whilst Emma had failed the first time, she persevered and started breaking through Martinique’s mental barriers, causing the illusion to break up. Martinique fled the city but was confused as to how she got out and why she was headed in a certain direction. Things became clearer when the Red Queen, aka Madelyne Pryor, approached her and enlisted her into her new Sisterhood. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #496-499]

As well as Martinique, Madelyne also recruited Chimera, Spiral and Lady Deathstrike into the Sisterhood. However, there was one final recruit that would be surprising to Martinique, namely Regan Wyngarde, another daughter of the original Mastermind and half-sister to Martinique. Despite their similarities, neither sister could stand the sight of the other and they constantly hurled insults, each claiming to be the better illusionist. What they did agree on, though, was that they both loved their father and when Madelyne said she could resurrect him they both leapt at the chance.

At the time, Madelyne was in an incorporeal form and her main goal was to find herself a body to inhabit. The first stage of her plan to accomplish this required the Sisterhood stealing the corpse of deceased X-Man ally called Revanche. After this test run proved successful, Madelyne’s Sisterhood attacked the X-Men to obtain a lock of Jean Grey’s hair from Wolverine. During the night attack, Martinique teamed up with Chimera to take out some of the few X-Men who were still awake. After getting what they went there for, they fell back to their base to enact the final part of the plan. Whilst Madelyne went off to locate Jean Grey’s body, she left Martinique and Regan behind to deal with the X-Men who were bound to follow. Martinique was naturally annoyed at being left as bait, especially alongside her sister. When Madelyne’s plan ultimately failed, Spiral teleported away and rescued the Mastermind sisters, who were being soundly beaten by the X-Men. With their leader gone, the Sisterhood went their separate ways, although Martinique and Regan chose to stay together despite their hatred for one another. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #504, 508-511]

The two women ended up living together, though they could not get over their disdain for each other. One day, a strange woman came to their door and demanded that they help find her daughter, their half-sister. Whilst they were not at all surprised to find out their father had another child, they were slightly bemused to learn it was Pixie from the X-Men. Even more surprising, Pixie’s mother claimed to be a fairy. At first, Martinique and Regan refused to help but eventually reluctantly agreed after an emotional appeal. With the aid of a fairy spell, they found Pixie and teleported to her but were shocked to see the X-Men had also located their missing member. After a not-so-emotional reunion, the sisters helped Pixie defeat the demon Saturnine. When some of the other X-students saw Martinique and Regan, they attacked but Pixie took pity on her new family and teleported them away. [X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back #1-4]

Somehow, Martinique wound up getting arrested and was put in a prison for super powered individuals. It was here that the power-mimic Hope Summers visited the inmates and slyly copied Martinique's powers so she could use them in outwitting the Avengers' Unity Squad. [Cable and X-Force #9]

It’s unknown for how long Martinique was in prison but a long time passed before she was seen next. Unfortunately for her, she wasn’t in a much better place as she had been captured by Arcade and held hostage. The villainous gamesmaster was using Martinique as leverage in a bid to make her newly resurrected father work for him. Arcade’s plan failed and Jason was soon freed, with Martinique presumably being freed too. [Hellions #9-10]

[Note: During this story, the art depicts Lady Mastermind being held hostage, but the text indicates that it’s Martinique. Whilst this is probably an art error, the simplest explanation in-world is that Martinique had taken to dressing like her sister]

With the mutant race all living on Krakoa, Martinique can now finally be a family with her father and sisters. Although how long any of them can stand being in the same room each other is anyone’s guess.

ALTERNATE VERSIONS

In the Age of X reality, Martinique, along with her sister, was saved from an anti-mutant mob by Magneto, who managed to float the entire skyscraper they were in away. During the crossover itself, though, she was not seen on Fortress X, indicating she had perished in the meantime like so many others.

In the future depicted in X-Men: The End, both Martinique and Regan fell prey to Mister Sinister and were turned by him into 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.