MIRAGEMIRAGE
Real Name:
Desmond Charne
Identity/Class:
Human technology user
Occupation:
Professional criminal, former
holography technician
Group Membership:
Super Villains Anonymous;
formerly Sinister Sixteen (Armadillo, Beetle/Janice Lincoln, Bi-Beast, Boomerang/Fred Myers, Clown, Cyclone/Pierre Fresson, Human Fly, Kangaroo/Brian Hibbs, "Man Mountain", Overdrive, Scorcher, Shriek, Speed Demon, Spot, Squid),
The Hood (Parker Robbins)'s army of resurrected Scourge victims aka. Deadly Dozen (Basilisk/Basil Elks, Bird-Man/Achille DiBacco, Black Abbott, Blue Streak/Don Thomas, Cheetah/Esteban Carracus, Cyclone/André Gerard, Death Adder/Roland Burroughs, Firebrand/Gary Gilbert, Hijacker/Howard Mitchell, Human Fly/Richard Deacon, Lascivious/Davida DeVito (formerly Titania), Letha/Helen Feliciano, Megatak/Gregory Nettles, Mind-Wave/Erik Gelden, Miracle Man/Joshua Ayers, Turner D. Century/Clifford F. Michaels, Wraith/Brian DeWolff), led two separate trios of underlings,
Scourge's
victims
Affiliations:
Bird-Man,
Blacklash, Constrictor, Cyclone, Deanna Delaney,
a Dreadnaught, Firebrand
(Gilbert), Grapplers
(Letha,
Poundcakes,
Screaming
Mimi, Titania),
the
Hood, Mach VII (Abe Jenkins, formerly Beetle), Mechano-Marauder,
Melter, Mind-Wave,
MODOK, Mole Man, Owl (loose), Rhino;
formerly Boomerang (Fred Myers)
Enemies: Boomerang (Fred Myers), Chameleon, Daredevil (Matt Murdock), Tanya Adrian (as "Maria"), Punisher (Frank Castle), Scourge of the Underworld (original), Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Thing (Ben Grimm)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Master
of Illusion
Base of Operations: Mobile, notably New York City, USA
First Appearance:
Amazing Spider-Man I#156
(May, 1976)
Powers/Abilities:
Mirage's costume was
equipped with numerous miniature hologram-projectors and
micro-circuitry to power them. The main ones (referred to as Image
Inducers) were based within each side of his mask. Using these
holograms, Mirage could disguise himself as others, create
three-dimensional duplicates of himself and make himself invisible to
the human eye. When others such as his underlings were within range, he
could use these holograms to disguise them as well.
Height:
5'
11" Weight:
195 lbs. Eyes:
Blue Hair:
Brown
History:
(Superior Foes of Spider-Man#3 (fb)) - Desmond Charne was in love with Deanna Delaney, but they stumbled across a battle between Fin Fang Foom (or similar) and Thor and Iron Man. Iron Man rescued Delaney from falling while Charne stood by helpless. After that, Delaney lost interest in Charne and they separated. However, it did give Charne the idea that he could pick up women as a "bad boy" costumed villain.
(OHOTMU Deluxe Edition#18/Amazing
Spider-Man I#156
(fb)-BTS) - Desmond Charne wanted to become a criminal known for his
impressive methods, and saw Spider-Man as an example of what he wished
to be, just not on the same side of the law. Charne spent years
studying laser sciences and holography, keeping his advances in the
field secret. When he was ready, he created a costume that utilized
this technology and became the Mirage.
(Amazing Spider-Man I#156) -
Mirage and his trio of
underlings led a campaign of crime in Morgan's of Malverne, a building
which was hosting a number of weddings that day. The quartet robbed
several of the weddings, and made their way to one for Ned Leeds and
Betty Brant. As they took the guests' valuables, Peter Parker, who was
in attendance, changed into his Spider-Man garb and attacked them.
Though he quickly defeated the underlings, Mirage was able to elude him
using his holographic technology. When Spider-Man realized Mirage's
powers, he brought down a huge chandelier on the villain, knocking him
out.
(Marvel Two-in-One I#96 ) - Using
the Image Inducers to
disguise themselves as ambulance drivers, Mirage and a new trio of
underlings entered a hospital in which the Thing was recovering from
recent injuries. They shed their disguises, intent on kidnapping the
Thing and holding him for a multi-million dollar ransom, but ran afoul
of a visiting Daredevil, who easily defeated them when his super-senses
let him detect which was the real Mirage and which were holograms.
Mirage returned later as part of a large gathering of super-villains,
but they were all defeated by the heroes who had gathered to visit the
Thing. Mirage was once again defeated in combat by Daredevil.
(OHOTMU Deluxe Edition#18) -
Mirage was released from
prison after a short sentence.
(Captain America I#319) - Mirage
was one of a number
of super-villains invited to the Bar With No Name in Medina County,
Ohio by Gary Gilbert (formerly Firebrand). Gilbert was trying to raise
awareness in the villain community concerning the vigilante Scourge,
who had murdered a number of costumed criminals. While waiting for the
meeting to start, Mirage chatted with Letha, but shortly afterwards,
Scourge revealed his presence as the bartender as he gunned down Mirage
and all the other criminals there.
(Captain America I#320 (fb)) - Water
Wizard arrived
late for the meeting and found everyone dead. He then called in Captain
America.
(Captain America I#320) - Captain America contacted the local authorities, who picked up the bodies of Mirage and the others. Later, Cap decided to try to lure Scourge out of hiding by posing as a surviving member of the massacre, and chose Mirage to disguise himself as. The ploy worked, as Scourge returned to finish the job and was caught by Captain America before being himself assassinated.
(Captain America I#425 (fb) - BTS) - Lou Dexter (Dead Ringer) obtained a piece of Mirage's tissue.
(Captain America I#425 - BTS) - Dead Ringer attended a press conference by Captain America in the form of Mirage and cast an illusion of Heinrich Zemo and his Masters of Evil only Captain America could see. Cap made a fool out of himself in front of the press. Super-Patriot captured "Mirage", who took on another form of Purple Man when the Black Widow took him away.
(Deadpool#0 (fb)-BTS) - At some point afterwards, Arnim Zola took DNA samples from the corpses of several of the massacre victims, including Mirage, and created proto-husk duplicates out of the genetic material.
(Punisher VII#5) - Aided by
Dormammu's dark magic, the Hood resurrected Mirage along with several
other of Scourge's victims to fight the Punisher.
(Punisher VII#6) - The Hood addressed the assembled resurrected villains (including Mirage), warning them that failure to kill the Punisher would leave them dead again after 30 days, but lying to them that it was the Punisher disguised as Scourge who had killed them. Each one resurrected had been augmented, armed and costumed by the Hood. Soon after, Mirage suggested himself as leader, but the Fly, Basilisk and Death Adder walked out.
(Punisher VII#7) - Mirage sat at a table with Mind-Wave, Cyclone and Firebrand playing cards and making jokes about Microchip. Letha and Lascivious then arrived; Letha asserted herself, mocking him and mind-controlling him to demean himself.
(Punisher VII#8) - Mirage facilitated the disguise of various resurrected villains to appear like (1980s era) Avengers as part of an elaborate masquerade to engage the Punisher, but the vigilante saw past the ruse and incapacitated him, taking him away for brutal interrogation before jamming a grenade in his mouth. Those surviving the Punisher's retaliation found Mirage. Letha safely extracted the grenade and ordered Bird-Man to take Mirage away from the field of battle.
(Punisher: In the Blood#2) - Hunting down Microchip, Punisher found Mirage, who had disguised himself as Venom. Punisher began to violently extract information out Mirage, but he was shot in the head by "Maria" (Tanya Adrian) to silence him.
(Punisher: In the Blood#2) -
(Superior Foes of Spider-Man#3 (fb)) - Three months later, Charne came out of a coma in a hospital and a doctor told him that he'd been given a second chance at life.
(Superior Foes of Spider-Man#3) - Charne attended a meeting of Super Villains Anonymous (also attended by Boomerang and Mach VII (Abe Jenkins)) and told the others of how he became a criminal and his miserable, almost invisible life after resurrection, then broke down and cried.
(Superior Foes of Spider-Man#17 (fb) ) - Boomerang approached Mirage after the Villains Anonymous Meeting and made him an offer.
(Superior Foes of Spider-Man#12) - The Owl had Mirage join Boomerang's Sinister Sixteen in a raid on Chameleon's hideout.
(Superior Foes of Spider-Man#17 (fb) ) - Mirage created a three-dimensional duplicate of himself and stole the real painting of Dr. Doom's face.
(Superior Foes of Spider-Man#12) - Meanwhile his duplicate was caught and tied up by Chameleon (not sure how that worked). Chameleon briefly impersonated Mirage, but Boomerang saw past the disguise and knocked him out. Boomerang then toyed with the still-bound Mirage.
(Superior Foes of Spider-Man#13) - Still bound to the chair Mirage somehow managed to use a nearby phone to call Mach VII and gave him the address he was after catching Mach VII interest with the fact that Boomerang was the leader of the gang.
When Mach VII arrived Chameleon, impersonating an EMT, took Mirage away in an ambulance for a "psych evaluation". Inside the ambulance Chameleon revealed his true identity and interrogated him.
(Superior Foes of Spider-Man#17 (fb) - BTS) - Mirage didn't crack under Chameleon's torture.
(Superior Foes of Spider-Man#15 - BTS) - Chameleon delivered Mirage to Owl's hideout.
(Superior Foes of Spider-Man#15) - One of Owl's henchmen dragged Mirage inside followed by Chameleon, who offered to join forces with Owl against Boomerang, and promised that Mirage told the truth about not knowing where Boomerang was.
(Superior Foes of Spider-Man#17 (fb) ) - Mirage delivered the painting of Dr. Doom's face to Boomerang on a rooftop hoping that he would now become the sixth member of the Sinister Six like Boomerang had promised to him. Boomerang instead pushed him of the building and Mirage apparently fell to his death.
Comments: Created by Len Wein, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito.
Mirage had entries in OHOTMU Deluxe#18 and the Master Edition. In the Deluxe, his costume was drawn incorrectly.Update by Markus Raymond: Superior Foes of Spider-Man.
Profile by Madison Carter. Updated by Grendel Prime.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Mirage has no known connections to
Deanna Delaney was in love with Desmond Charne. However, a nearby battle saw Fin Fang Foom pick up and drop Delaney, only to be rescued by Iron Man while Thor fought the giant creature and Charne stood by helpless. After that, she lost interest in Charne and the two separated.
--Superior Foes of Spider-Man#3
Mirage hired a trio of men to
help him rob the
weddings being held at Morgan's of Malverne, and they were defeated by
Spider-Man
--
Amazing
Spider-Man I#156
Mirage later hired a second trio
and tried to kidnap
the hospitalized Thing before being defeated by Daredevil.
-- Marvel Two-in-One I#96
images:
(without ads)
OHOTMU Master Edition#6 (main image)
Superior Foes of Spider-Man#3, p17, pan4 (headshot)
Punisher VII#6 (resurrected costume)
Superior Foes of Spider-Man#3, p16, pan6 (Delaney)
Amazing Spider-Man I#156, page 8, panel 8 (first trio)
Marvel Two-in-One I#96, page 9, panel 2 (second trio)
Appearances:
Amazing Spider-Man I#156 (May, 1976) - Len Wein (writer), Ross Andru
(penciler), Mike Esposito (inker), Marv Wolfman (editor)
Marvel Two-in-One I#96 (February, 1983) - Tom DeFalco (writer), Ron
Wilson (penciler), Mike Esposito (inker), Grant & Tooks
(editors)
Captain America I#319 (July, 1986) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Paul
Neary (penciler), Joe Sinnott (inker), Mike Carlin (editor)
Captain America I#320 (August, 1986) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Paul
Neary (penciler), Dennis Janke (inker), Mike Carlin (editor)
Captain America I#425 (March, 1994) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Dave
Hoover (pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks), Mike Rockwitz (editor)
Deadpool III#0 (1998) - Joe Kelly (writer), Yancey Labat (pencils),
Sean Parsons (inks), Matt Idelson (editor)
Punisher VII#5 (July, 2009) - Rick Remender (writer), Jerome Opena
(art), Axel Alonso (editor)
Punisher VII#6-8 (August-October, 2009) - Rick Remender (writer), Tan
Eng Huat (art), Axel Alonso (editor)
Punisher: In the Blood#2 (February 2011) - Rick Remender (writer),
Roland Boschi (art), Axel Alonso (editor)
Superior Foes of Spider-Man#3 (November, 2013) - Nick Spencer (writer),
Steve Lieber (artist), Tom Brennan (editor)
Superior Foes of Spider-Man#12 (August, 2014) - Nick Spencer (writer), Steve Lieber (artist), Lauren Sankovitch (editor)
Superior Foes of Spider-Man#13 (September, 2014) - Nick Spencer (writer), Steve Lieber (artist), Lauren Sankovitch (editor)
Superior Foes of Spider-Man#15 (November, 2014) - Nick Spencer (writer), Steve Lieber (artist), Lauren Sankovitch (editor)
Superior Foes of Spider-Man#17 (January, 2015) - Nick Spencer (writer), Steve Lieber (artist), Lauren Sankovitch (editor)
First Posted: 04/02/2007
Last updated: 06/17/2014
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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