main imageMINDMASTER DEVICE

Classification: Terrestrial technological device

Creator: Unrevealed, possibly Magneto (Max Eisenhardt)

User/Possessors: Magneto

First Appearance: Look & Find X-Men (1992)

Powers/Abilities/Functions: The Mindmaster Device, in its completed form, was capable of enslaving the minds of others. After it was fragmented into pieces, its still-functioning pieces were capable of generating three-dimensional, semi-solid holograms plucked from the minds of those near it (see comments).

History: 

(Look & Find X-Men) – During an X-Men Danger Room training session, Magneto burst into the X-Men Mansion planning to use the Mindmaster Device to enslave the mutant super heroes. Just as Magneto’s success seemed imminent, the mysterious mutant teleporter Gateway arrived and fragmented the Mindmaster Device by teleporting its parts to various locations in time, hoping to save the X-Men from Magneto. Telepathically scanning Gateway’s mind to discern his intentions, Professor X explained that the X-Men would need to travel to various points in time and space to retrieve the fragmented parts of the Mindmaster Device and return to defeat Magneto, who had retreated during the confusion. Using Gateway’s teleportational doorways, the X-Men traveled to the Savage Land, where they battled dinosaurs and various other time-displaced figures to retrieve the Mindmaster’s gyroscope. The X-Men next traveled to the mutant-hating island Genosha and battled Genoshan Magistrates and the Acolyte Fabian Cortez in order to gather the Mindmaster’s radar dish. Following Cortez to Asteroid M, the X-Men fought off the time-displacing founding Acolytes before using Gateway’s teleportional doorway to retrieve the Mindmaster’s tripod and control panel from an active Sentinel base. Next traveling to an alternate future mall, the X-Men gathered up the final piece of the Mindmaster: its radar screen. Having repaired the fragmented Mindmaster Device, the X-Men returned to the X-Mansion, finding it under renewed attack from Magneto and several other foes including Juggernaut, Sabretooth, Brood aliens, Apocalypse, Genoshan magistrates who had followed the mutant heroes through Gateway’s portals, Sentinels, and other time-displaced creatures and foes, such as the founding Acolytes, pirates, cavemen, runaway Danger Room robots, and dinosaurs.

(Look & Find X-Men (fb) – BTS) – After a fierce battle, the X-Men used the Mindmaster Device in conjunction with Gateway’s powers to return all to the proper time periods. As they returned the figures to their proper time and space, various X-Men aided in restoring order to the time periods that had met with chaos during their time journey. Iceman returned the Genoshan magistrates to Genosha while Storm helped cleanup the X-Men Mansion of debris that had been littered there when she had used her weather powers in battle. Forge returned the deactivated Sentinels to their inactive base (procuring some of their technology for his personal use) and Cyclops returned dinosaurs to the Savage Land, where he helped clean up some of the time-displaced debris. More for their own personal cleanup, Gambit gathered up sporting equipment left behind in Asteroid M while Jubilee returned to the futuristic mall to retrieve personal items left behind during the scuffle there. The X-Men also helped restore Shi’ar Empress Lilandra’s personal belongings that had become lost in time before returning to their own Danger Room to clear out various leftover items lost in time.

Comments: Created by Dwight Zimmerman, James Janes and Dave Simons.

This story was featured in Publications International’s Look & Find X-Men book which was a hardcover book where the reader had to find various things in each 2-page spread, similar to the Where’s Waldo? (in the US; elsewhere it's Where's Wally?) book series. The book surprisingly had an interesting story concept and fits rather nicely into normal 616 continuity, occurring shortly after X-Men II#1 (1991 series) after Wolverine went back to his old tiger-stripe blue & yellow costume. Some of the X-Men#1 Acolytes appear in the book but given the time-disrupting story, they could easily be written off as being briefly time-displaced. One thing of note is that while the book’s indicia states Copyright 1992 Publications International, Ltd., the back cover of the book states: “The names & distinctive likenesses of all characters mentioned or appearing herein are trademarks of Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. Copyright 1992.”

The Mindmaster Device’s specific functions were listed as “enslaving the X-Men.” After it was fragmented, the story mentioned that its unstable pieces disrupted time. Given that numerous fictional characters appeared within the story’s time disruptions, it appears that the device’s unstable pieces were also capable of pulling forth images from its victims’ minds.

I apologize for not having a photo of the completed Mindmaster device but the only picture we really got was an image showcasing the pieces of the device that the X-Men needed to locate, hence the main image just showing the pieces. That, and it was probably the only way that the story from this book was likely to ever get mentioned. With that in mind, numerous literary and historical characters appear within the story. One could say this is an argument that the figures existing in the real world of Earth-616 or that they could be images plucked from the minds of those present by the Mindmaster device. I choose to look at it as those figures who have been shown to exist within the Marvel Universe were actually plucked from 616’s history and those that were not shown could be physical representations of images pulled forth by the Mindmaster. It’s somewhat hard to tell given the sheer amount of figures on each page of the book ... the following is a list of characters plucked from either history and others’ minds in the book: the Biblical Moses, Adam and Eve; the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs; Dorothy, the Scarecrow, Toto, and the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz; Santa Claus his his 8 reindeer; Alice, the Chesire Cat, the caterpillar and the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland; George Washington and colonial soldiers; Captain Ahab and Moby Dick; Rapunzel; Ben Franklin; the ancient Roman Medusa, a minotaur, a cyclops, a centaur, a satyr and a winged man; the Trojans and their Trojan Horse; the primates and the large black obelisk from 2001: A Space Odyssey; King Kong; Robin Hood, Little John and Friar Tuck from Robin Hood; Dracula; and Aladdin. There were many others not obviously identified. Coincidentally, numerous Earth-616 characters appear within the story as well including: The X-Men (Gambit (Remy LeBeau), Beast (Hank McCoy), Iceman (Bobby Drake), Colossus (Piotr Rasputin), Professor X (Charles Xavier), Forge, Storm (Ororo Munroe), Rogue (Anna Marie), Archangel (Warren Worthington III), Cyclops (Scott Summers), Jean Grey, Wolverine (James Howlett), Jubilee (Jubilation Lee)); the original X-Men (Cyclops, Beast, Marvel Girl, Angel, Professor X, Iceman) circa X-Men I#6 (1964); Gateway, Magneto (Max Eisenhardt), Gladiator (Kallark), Empress Lilandra Neramani, Brood aliens, Sentinels, the founding Acolytes (Fabian Cortez, Anne-Marie Cortez, Chrome (Allen Marc Yuricic), Marco Delgado) circa X-Men II#1 (1991); Ka-Zar (Kevin Plunder), Genoshan magistrates, Savage Land tribesmen, Pipeline of the Genoshan Press Gang, Master Mold (in his head with spider legs form), Apocalypse, Juggernaut, and Sabretooth.

Profile by Proto-Man.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Mindmaster Device has no known connections to

images: (without ads)
Look & Find X-Men, p1-2, splash page (Mindmaster Device pieces, main image)

Appearances:
Look & Find X-Men (1992) – Dwight Zimmerman (illustration script development), James Janes (illustrator, illustration coordinator), Dave Simons (inks)

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

First Posted: 03/31/2013
Last Updated: 03/27/2013

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