MENTACLEMENTACLE
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Rigellian)
mutate (? - see comments)
Occupation: Former
champion of the Grandmaster
Group Membership: Lethal Legion (The Blood
Brothers, Captain Glory/Glah-Ree, Drall, Ferene the Other, Metal
Master/Molyn)
Affiliations: Grandmaster (En Dwi Gast), Lethal Legion (The Blood Brothers, Captain Glory/Glah-Ree, Drall, Ferene the Other, Metal Master/Molyn)
Enemies: The Avengers (Brother
Voodoo/Jericho Drumm, Cannonball/Sam Guthrie, Citizen V/Bobby DaCosta,
Falcon/Sam Wilson, Hawkeye/Clint Barton, Hercules/Heracles,
Lightning/Miguel Santos, Quicksilver/Pietro Maximoff, Rogue/Anna Marie,
Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff, Synapse/Emily Guerrero, Thor/Jane Foster,
Wasp/Janet Van Dyne, Wonder Man/Simon Williams), the Black Order (Black Dwarf, Black Swan/Yabbat
Ummon Turru, Corvus Glaive, Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, Supergiant),
Hulk (Bruce Banner), Red Wolf (Earth-59120), Voyager (Va Nee Gast)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: "Squid-Bot" (insult from Lightning)
Base of Operations: Ala's Bar, Knowhere
First Appearance: Avengers VI#676 (March, 2018)
Powers/Abilities: Unlike other Rigellians, Mentacle possessed tentacles where her legs should be. These tentacles allowed for rapid movement and she could whip the tentacles at enemies as an attack.
Mentacle possessed vast psionic abilities, including
telepathy that allow her to read, control or even erase the minds of
others, and telekinesis sufficient to levitate herself and even
superhumanly strong and durable others, as well as generate telekinetic
barriers strong enough to prevent psychic entities from astrally
possessing other beings.
Height: 3'0" (by approximation)
Weight: 50 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Orange; glowing pink when using psychic powers
Hair: None
History:
(Avengers VI#687 (fb)) - When the Elders of the Universe Grandmaster
and Challenger decided to play a game of champions against one another,
the Grandmaster chose the Rigellian alien Mentacle to join his "Lethal
Legion."
(Avengers VI#681 (fb)) - Mentacle was
summoned alongside the various other aliens chosen by Grandmaster and forced to participate in
the Grandmaster's Lethal Legion, champions he
hoped would win the game against his fellow Elder of the Universe, the Challenger.
Grandmaster tasked Mentacle and the others with defeating the
Challenger's champions, the Black Order, warning that if they failed,
they would be returned to certain death. Grandmaster also told Mentacle
and the Lethal Legion that they would defeat the Black Order by
obtaining cosmic pyramoids for game points.
(Avengers VI#676) - Mentacle was sent to Wade el Rayan, Egypt on Earth alongside her Lethal Legion teammates and the Challenger's Black Order champions. The Black Order immediately went on the attack, forcing Mentacle and the others to reciprocate. The Black Order's Supergiant quickly tried to possess the body of the Lethal Legion's Captain Glory but Mentacle used her own mental powers to generate a psychic shield that repelled Supergiant. The battle was soon interrupted when the Grandmaster and Challenger told the combatants that the rules of engagement had to be followed and neither was to attack until the cosmic pyramoids were in play. The two groups then went their separate ways and one of the Blood Brothers asked Mentacle to mind-blast the Black Order's Ebony Maw if he later tried to shift out of their way. Mentacle agreed, promising to isolate and punish the Black Order.
(Avengers VI#677) - After one of the pyramoids appeared in Rome, Italy, Mentacle and a squad of Lethal Legion members also arrived and began attempting to acquire the pyramoids to score a point in the Grandmaster and Challenger's game. As a squad of Avengers arrived on the scene, Mentacle kept herself rooted to the ground with her tentacles while generating a telekinetic barrier to shield one of the Blood Brothers, who leapt at the pyramoid. When the Avengers began to interfere, Mentacle focused her attacks on Lightning while her Lethal Legion teammates battled some of the other Avengers. After the Metal Master took down most of the Avengers by controlling Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, Mentacle stopped Cannonball in mid-air with a telekinetic barrier but was grounded herself by Quicksilver, who slammed Mentacle face-first into the dirt.
(Avengers VI#678) - Mentacle and the other members of
her Lethal Legion squad stood over the paralyzed form of the Avengers'
Quicksilver, who had been frozen in stasis mid-run. When the other
Avengers went on the offensive, Mentacle disabled Hercules with a mind
blast intended to take over his mind and was quickly disabled herself
by Lightning, who blasted the ground beneath Mentacle. Mentacle soon
regained her footing and renewed her attacks when the Black Order
arrived on the scene as well, unaware that the Grandmaster was watching
the Lethal Legion's progress. The battle was halted, however, when the
Black Order's Black Dwarf touched the pyramoid and was seemingly
eradicated as Mentacle and the other combatants stopped in their tracks.
(Avengers VI#681 (fb) - BTS) - Mentacle discussed
with the Lethal Legion's leader, the Kree Captain Glory, that should
the opportunity present itself, Mentacle would telepathically force a
member of the Lethal Legion to touch one of the pyramoids.
(Avengers VI#681) - When a pyramoid appeared in New
Mexico, Mentacle and her Lethal Legion teammates battled the Avengers
at the appearance site. During the battle, Mentacle attempted to whip
Citizen V with her tentacles and eventually succeeded in hitting him
with a mind blast as she ordered him to yield. While the he Avenger
Rogue saw an image of Mentacle and the Lethal Legion after absorbing
the essence of the Black Order's Corvus Glaive and learned of the game
between Grandmaster and Challenger, Mentacle was intrigued by Citizen
V's exclamations of "Red triangle!" Telepathically digging deeper into
Citizen V's mind, Mentacle learned that the phrase "red triangle" was
post-hypnotic command placed within Citizen V's mind by Professor
Charles Xavier to aid against mental attack. Recognizing Xavier's name
from Rigellian files, Mentacle remarked that Xavier was merely an
average psionic by Rigellian standards. Mentacle then telepathically
mapped Citizen V's minds and prepared to completely erase it before
Falcon flew in and kicked her. As Mentacle recovered, Falcon grabbed
Citizen V and flew out of Mentacle's telepathic range. Moments later,
as Lethal Legion member Drall distracted the Avengers, Captain Glory
had Mentacle do as they had earlier discussed and she began
telepathically forcing one of the Blood Brothers towards the pyramoid.
(Avengers
VI#682) - After the Blood Brother was stopped by the arrival of the
Avenger Hawkeye and his ally Red Wolf, Mentacle and the Lethal Legion
renewed their battle with the Avengers, with Mentacle attacking
Hawkeye, Red Wolf and Synapse at the same time with her tentacles. When
Hawkeye fired an arrow at Mentacle, she boasted that she was inside his
mind before he had even fired such a "primitive projectile" and that
physical attacks were useless again her, unaware that the Wasp had
shrank down and flown near here. The Wasp then flew at Mentacle,
enlarging to her normal size as she did so, busting the side of
Mentacle's helmet with a growth-powered punch. Wasp then asked Mentacle
if distractions worked on her. Before Mentacle could fully regain her
bearings, Falcon dove into her as Red Wolf touched the pyramoid,
removing it from the field.
(Avengers
VI#684) - Mentacle and Captain Glory managed to escape the Avengers,
thanks to a little mental suggestion from Mentacle. Captain Glory
remarked that there was no point in running but Mentacle disagreed,
feeling that their escape would buy them time to regroup but Glory
grimly claimed the Lethal Legion no longer existed, as the other
members had fallen. The Challenger's secret weapon, the incredible
Hulk, then arrived at Mentacle and Captain Glory's location and
severely injured Captain Glory's spine. Trying to calm Captain Glory,
Mentacle attempted to reach into the Hulk's mind but found herself
disabled by the sheer rage inside Hulk's mind, screaming "no!"
(Avengers VI#690) - Following the defeat of both
Grandmaster and the Challenger, Mentacle joined her Lethal Legion
teammates at Ala's Bar in Knowhere, where she asked her teammate Ferene
if she was leaving the group. Ferene replied in the affirmative,
claiming her time with the Lethal Legion had reached its end but
Captain Glory suggested Mentacle and the others remained together.
Comments: Created by Mark Waid, Al Ewing, Jim Zub and Pepe Larraz.
It was never explained how Mentacle became the way she was, as most Rigellians have legs instead of tentacles. Perhaps she was a Rigellian mutant? Or was mutated into that form somehow?
Writer and Mentacle co-creator had this to say about
coming up with Mentacle:
"I remember we were discussing who'd be on the all-new Lethal Legion--I
think we'd already decided at that point that it was going to be all
aliens, and a mix of older characters and newer ones. So we had the
Blood Brothers in there, we had a new Metal Master, there was a new
Captain Glory who was basically 'what if the Kree had a Captain
America,' and later on, Jim gifted us a couple of fab new alien
villains, with backstories and everything. But at that moment, in the
room, we'd decided we needed someone with mental powers. Someone from
Rigel, maybe? What would they be called?
I had a sudden flash of inspiration.
'MENTACLE!'
It burst out of my face like Orson Welles advertising peas, or a mad scientist declaring their creation lived. Everybody collapsed with laughter--even I had to agree there was no way we were calling a character 'Mentacle' in the Year of Our Lord 2017. And then we did anyway, mostly because we couldn't stop saying 'Mentacle' to each other. Obviously, I regret nothing.
At first we dismissed the brilliance of Mentacle, but it soon *ahem* wormed its way into our consciousness. We couldn't let go of that ridiculous name...but was it ridiculous? Didn't it sound like the exact kind of thing Stan Lee would've announced with bombastic aplomb back in the days of Merry Marvel? Weren't we trying to recapture a bit of that classic 'heroes versus villains' simplicity? If there's a Mr. Fantastic, and a Sub-Mariner, and a Magneto, surely we could envision the glory that is Mentacle, the mental tentacle?
Mentacle.
Say it and know that name means power. Buy a dozen
copies of AVENGERS#676, Mentacle's first appearance, and store them
somewhere safe as an investment in your financial future."
Profile by Proto-Man.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Mentacle has no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
Avengers VI#676, p10-11, splash page (Mentacle, fullbody)
Avengers VI#676, p12, pan4 (Mentacle, headshot)
Avengers VI#678, p3, splash page (Mentacle on rocky ground)
Avengers VI#681, p2-3, splash page (Mentacle whipping her tentacles)
Avengers VI#681, p13, pan4 (Mentacle using telepathy)
Avengers VI#682, p8, pan2 (Mentacle vs. Wasp)
Avengers VI#684, p22, pan2 (Mentacle, telekinetically flying)
Appearances:
Avengers VI#676 (March, 2018) - Mark Waid, Al Ewing, Jim Zub (writers),
Pepe Larraz (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers VI#677 (March, 2018) - Mark Waid, Al Ewing, Jim Zub (writers),
Pepe Larraz (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers VI#678 (March, 2018) - Mark Waid, Al Ewing, Jim Zub (writers),
Pepe Larraz (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers VI#681 (April, 2018) - Al Ewing, Jim Zub, Mark Waid (writers),
Kim Jacinto, Mike Perkins (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers VI#682 (April, 2018) - Al Ewing, Jim Zub, Mark Waid (writers), Sean Izaakse (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers VI#684 (May, 2018) - Jim Zub, Mark Waid, Al Ewing (writers), Paco Medina, Joe Bennett (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers VI#687 (June, 2018) - Mark Waid, Al Ewing, Jim Zub (writers), Paco Medina (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers VI#690 (June, 2018) - Mark Waid, Al Ewing, Jim Zub (writers), Pepe Larraz (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
First Posted: 06/03/2018
Last updated: 06/03/2018
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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