BROTHERHOOD OF MUTANTS III

Written By: 
Last Updated: 
1st August 2006

Leader: Mystique
Membership: Mystique, Avalanche, Blob, Sabre, unnamed black female (unconfirmed Crimson Commando II), Toad, Sabretooth, Post, Mastermind III

First appearance: X-Men (2nd series) #106

Before

  • Thanks to the High Evolutionary’s anti-mutant wave, Brotherhood of Mutants II disbanded after all the members lost their powers.
  • X-Men Forever #1 shows that the Toad lived in San Francisco, while Mystique had infiltrated Senator Kelly's campaign headquarters.
  • X-Men Forever #6 explains how the Toad aquired his new powers (genetic make-up repaired by Prosh) and Mystique was also affected when she was forced to manually reconnect a conduit of the device while it was working. Her template form has been changed (to Movie version) and also her mind seemingly can't deal with the knowledge she gained about mankind’s future. Seeing a newspaper ad of Senator Kelly going for president brings her to the idea of assassinating him (again).
  • The late Destiny did leave not only one journal but a whole collection of them. From those entries Mystique learned details about Kelly's presidential campaign. In many different guises (Valerie Cooper for example) she infiltrated the campaign, and she also posed as Moira McTaggert to acquire her data on the Legacy virus. (X-Men Forever #1, X-Men (2nd series) #104-105)
  • Pyro, a member of former incarnations of the Brotherhood, was diagnosed with the Legacy Virus many months ago. The few times he appeared since then, his condition got worse every time. His near death caused Pyro to rethink his life, and since then he has been trying to make amends for his past.
  • Mastermind III first appeared in the Wolverine / Gambit limited series. The X-Men never knew about the late Jason Wyngarde having a daughter. Being gifted with similar abilities like he was, Martinique took on her father's codename. She also appeared in Daredevil (1st series) #352.

Chronology

X-Men (2nd series) #106: In an abandoned steel mill near Pittsburgh, Mystique observes the training of the members of her new Brotherhood. She considers that the new additions Sabre and the unnamed female are not ready to go along on any missions yet. Toad arrives and asks to join the new group; at first Mystique turns him down, but he impresses her with his new abilities.
Uncanny X-Men #388: Using Moira's data, Mystique developed a strain of the Legacy Virus that only attacks humans. After testing it on a ship filled with Hellfire Club members, Mystique, Sabretooth and Toad travel to Muir Island, where they want to cause a distraction for the other half of the Brotherhood that is assigned with Senator Kelly's assassination.
Cable (1st series) #87: Post, Blob and Avalanche attack presidential candidate Robert Kelly during one of his speeches. Cable has been guarding Kelly for weeks and intervenes with some other X-Men. At first it looks like they are able to drive the Brotherhood off, but suddenly a fourth attacker is seen - Mastermind III. She casts an illusion of the Brotherhood's defeat, which allowed Post to get close enough to Kelly. The Senator certainly would have been killed if not for Pyro, who was among the audience. He fries Post, but the usage of his mutant powers takes too much out of him; with his dying breath Pyro asks Kelly to change his view on mutantkind and finally end the war between mutants and humans.
Bishop: The Last X-Man #16, X-Men (2nd series) #108: On Muir Island Rogue, Wolverine and Bishop arrive too late to prevent the explosion of Moira's lab. They easily defeat Toad and Sabretooth, but Mystique proves herself to be the most dangerous; she uses an mutant-inhibitor gun on Wolfsbane and stabs Rogue, apparently still angered by Rogue’s „betrayal“ of leaving her in prison months back. Rogue only survives because of Wolverine's healing factor and using his claws she stabs Mystique in the back. The X-Men then take the badly injured Moira (due to the explosion) and Mystique into a jet, but on the flight back Moira dies of her injuries. Shortly before she telepathically gives Xavier the cure to the Legacy Virus, which ironically derives from the strain Mystique created. Senator Kelly did indeed change his views on mutant issues, but in another speech he was shot by an anti-mutant fanatical human.

Afterwards

  • Mystique was sent to a super-villain prison to recover from her injuries (Uncanny X-Men #389), but later when the X-Corps broke into that facility they found Mystique’s cell empty (Uncanny X-Men #401). The new mutant Surge on the X-Corps was soon revealed as Mystique in disguise, and she staged a coup from within X-Corps against Banshee, slashing his throat and killing Sunpyre before making her escape.
  • The Blob was sighted among the many assembled troops among Genosha, but after Magneto’s defeat he left Genosha before the island was attacked by Sentinels. Blob was later forced to join Banshee’s X-Corps in between Uncanny X-Men #401-402, but joined forces with Mystique when she turned the tables on Banshee.
  • Avalanche too was recruited as a member of the X-Corps, and Mastermind III was pulled from prison and employed by Banshee as a method of controlling his evil mutant X-Corp members. Both worked with Mystique when she staged her coup.
  • The Toad was seen taking part in Madripoor’s Bloodsport tournament. He got defeated in the second round by Wolverine and can consider himself lucky, as many other combatants killed the players they defeated. [Wolverine (2nd series) #167]
  • Sabretooth was captured by the Weapon X Program and again received adamantium implants to his bones. The Weapon X Program would consider him their prime operative and he recruited recruited many other agents for them. [Wolverine (2nd series) #166, Deadpool (2nd series) #57-60].
  • Sabre and the unknown black female have not been seen again.

Members

Mystique (Raven Darkholme)

First appearance: Ms Marvel (1st series) #16 (as Raven Darkholme)
First Brotherhood III appearance: X-Men (2nd series) #106

All Brotherhood III appearances: X-Men (2nd series) #106, Uncanny X-Men #388, Bishop: The Last X-Man #16, X-Men (2nd series) #108

Powers: Metamorphic shape-shifter with a perfect cell memory able to rearrange the formation of her cellular structure in order to:
- take on any human appearance she wishes
- adapt specific genetic traits such as night vision, finger talons, or body armor
- heal surface tissue damage
- suppress her natural aging process
- and reboot her genetic template to withstand all pathogens and poisons.

Avalanche (Dominic Szilard Petros)

First appearance: Uncanny X-Men #141
First Brotherhood III appearance: X-Men (2nd series) #106

All Brotherhood III appearances: X-Men (2nd series) #106, Cable (1st series) #87

Powers: Generate seismic energy to affect inorganic matter, causing it to shatter or disintegrate and create a tidal effect in the earth beneath his feet, propelling and manipulating that surface.

Blob (Fred J. Dukes)

First appearance: Uncanny X-Men #3
First Brotherhood III appearance: X-Men (2nd series) #106

All Brotherhood III appearances: X-Men (2nd series) #106, Uncanny X-Men #388, Cable (1st series) #87

Powers: Enhanced mass and multiple layers of elastic, fatty tissue grant him superhuman strength, can absorb all forms of impact and damage, and are flexible enough to hold objects within the folds of his flesh and pop them out when he flexes his muscles, generate gravity fields that hold him firmly in place to make him an immovable object.

Sabre

First appearance: X-Men (2nd series) #106

All Brotherhood III appearances: X-Men (2nd series) #106

Powers: Hyper-accelerated metabolism enables him to move, react and perceive his environment at superhuman speeds, recover from fatigue and injuries at an increased rate, and generate micro sonic booms at high speeds.

Unnamed black female (Crimson Commando II) - unconfirmed
First appearance: X-Men (2nd series) #106

All Brotherhood III appearances: X-Men (2nd series) #106

Powers: unknown

Note: During a comic convention Claremont mentioned that the Brotherhood would reappear with a new Sabre, Mastermind and Commando. Since Commando is the only unaccounted name it might refer to this new character. If this will be followed upon is unknown.

Toad (Mortimer Toynbee)

First appearance: Uncanny X-Men #4
First Brotherhood III appearance: X-Men (2nd series) #106

All Brotherhood III appearances: X-Men (2nd series) #106, Uncanny X-Men #388, Bishop The Last X-Man #16

Powers: Amphibian genomes give him superhuman strength, agility, and leaping powers, vision that extends into the ultraviolet range, the psionic ability to communicate with and control frogs and toads, the power to puff like a blowfish to release a gust of compressed air, an elastic tongue that can stretch and lash out at will, and the ability to release enzymes and pheromones from his fingers or tongue that can sap the will power of others, paralyze their movements, and work as a temporary adhesive so that he can cling to solid objects.

Fact: Toad's powers were hinted to have been altered by a man called Surgeon in Generation X #18-19. It seemed that this was the explanation for Toad's ability to secret adhesive slime. Yet X-Men Forever revealed that Toad's genetic make-up carried a defect which made his powers so unstable.

Sabretooth (Victor Creed)

First appearance: Iron Fist (1st series) #14
First Brotherhood III appearance: Uncanny X-Men #388

All Brotherhood III appearances: Uncanny X-Men #388, Bishop: The Last X-Man #16

Powers: Accelerated cellular regeneration gives him superhuman strength, speed, endurance, reflexes and resistance to physical injury, expands his perceptions to give him animal-like senses, and grants him a healing factor that repairs his body at an advanced degree. He also has retractable finger claws that, along with his skeleton, have been surgically bonded with adamantium metal.

Fact: Sabretooth's physical abilities have been augmented at least twice: first, by his son Graydon in the Sabretooth Limited Series, and later by the new Weapon X Program.

Post (Kevin Tremain)

First appearance: X-Men (2nd series) #50
First Brotherhood III appearance: Cable (1st series) #87

All Brotherhood III appearances: Cable (1st series) #87

Powers: Mutant genes give him blue skin, enhanced strength, speed, endurance, durability, and an analytical acumen. A blood transfusion from Cable gave Post a techno-organic viral infection, which interacts with his armored power pods that can manifest a teleportation unit, cloaking shield, plasma cannons, and scanning devices that identify and record mutagenic signatures, allowing him to adapt his power pods into combat modes suitable for that mutant.

Mastermind III (Martinique Jason)

First appearance: Wolverine & Gambit: Victims #2
First Brotherhood III appearance: Cable (1st series) #87

All Brotherhood III appearances: Cable (1st series) #87

Powers: Telepathic abilities allow her to assimilate the thoughts and memories of others, stimulate different portions of their brains to elicit reactions such as fear, hatred or lust, and incorporate these manipulations into psychic illusions to create elaborate and convincing false realities.

Fact: Martinique is the daughter of the first Mastermind (Jason Wyngarde), who was a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants I and the Hellfire Club I. Probably Martinique Jason is not her real name, since she used it to hide her identity when she introduced herself to Wolverine and Gambit. Lady Mastermind, who appeared in X-Treme X-Men #5-9, is her half-sister. They both inherited their illusion powers from their father.