The Smark Avengers - Vol 4, Ep 27: Classic X-Men Villains Spotlight – The Blob, Toad, Vanisher & Mastermind

Episode Date: August 29, 2025

The X-Men have faced Magneto, Apocalypse, and even the Dark Phoenix… but what about the other guys? In this episode of our comic book podcast, Corey, Dylan, and Jon take a hilarious yet informative deep dive into four of the strangest and most underrated villains in X-Men history: The Blob, Toad, Vanisher, and Mastermind. From their bizarre backstories and odd powers to their biggest appearances in comics, cartoons, and movies, we spotlight how these classic villains shaped mutant history—even if they’ve been overshadowed by bigger names. Expect deep cuts, funny commentary, and plenty of love for these misfit Marvel bad guys. If you’re an X-Men fan, a comic book history buff, or just someone who loves hearing about the weirdest parts of superhero lore, this episode is for you. 🔹 Which forgotten X-Men villain is YOUR favorite? Let us know in the comments! 🔹 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and hit the bell so you don’t miss future episodes covering Marvel, DC, and beyond! Click the link for Dylan's radio show!: http://www.bouncedigitalradio.co.uk Click the link for Dylan's Twitch stream: http://Twitch.tv/spookylaroux Click the link for Jon's Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/bigjonbowski/ Click the link for Corey's project "Henry's Usual": https://www.tumblr.com/henrysusual Click the link for Corey's show "Large Old Cup": https://open.spotify.com/show/2YHMppnl9inQevwLIxR64f

I want to know who we thought that was like a cool thing to do. It was like, oh, look, the Rock's got goosebumps. I don't give the fuck that the Rock's excited. Look at the Rock. He's hard as hell right now. He's got an erection. He's that's excited to be here. Oh, he's just, he stabbed a pig with a spear.

Yeah. Hi, everybody. Welcome to Spark Avengers. My name is Corey. With me is Dylan and John. I was going to be hard to explain. It will be really difficult to explain. Oh, boy. How's it going, guys?

Good. Good. Yeah, not bad, not bad. All right. Well, folks, we're going to get right into it for about a year and a half now. Probably getting, well, we're not there yet. We're probably closer a year and a half than not. We have been doing kind of deep dive episodes on various members of the X-Men continuity.

We started with Beast and we worked our way all through the original five. Then we did Magneto and Charles Xavier. so we're at seven. So we kind of had this idea of like, all right, well, let's just keep the train rolling, you know?

And part of that was, let's take a look at what characters came in after, you know, like in order of appearance. And we realized there was maybe a slight problem with that because in the early 1960s, when the X-Men book first came out, a lot of villains were kind of the villain of the weak kind of motif.

and some of these villains, I don't think we could base a whole episode around them, you know? They weren't very good. No. Nope. So instead, what we decided to do is we're going to take the next four villains that appeared in the X-Men world, and we're going to lump them all together, because that's how they were introduced as essentially part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

I think Vanisher was individual, though, right? Yeah. He debuted all on his own, and blobbed it. as well to be found. Well, we'll get to that. Yeah, we'll get to that. So, um, we're going to be breaking down and reviewing Vanisher, the blob,

mastermind, and toad. Um, and kind of depending on where this goes, this could very easily be a two-parter. Um, however, as we were doing our research, maybe,

maybe not a two-parter. We'll see when we get there. So, uh, the way this worked is, John and I took the four and we separated them. So John took two, I took two. And I guess order of operations would indicate that we're going to start off with the vanisher.

Is that correct? Yes. He debuted in X-Men number two. So I feel like he should be the first we talk about. Okay. Dylan, any questions where we get started? Yes, who are the X-Men? all right i don't worry about it yeah it's it's not gonna it's not gonna come up sweet thank god thank god

whew all right john take it from there okay dogg so the bannisher his real name is telford porter which obviously really important information I mean, it is if you want someone whose nickname is Telly and then his surname is Porter and then his powers uses the dark dimension of teleport. Okay, I was going to say maybe he was like Matter Eater lad and could just consume anything he wanted. He just eats hot dogs all day.

He just eats hot dogs. His special ability, never-ending gullet for hot dogs. well if you guys had kids would you call your son Telford I mean if I knew who's gonna be a mutant with the specific powers that had to do with teleport and then maybe I would but you wouldn't until he was 13 yeah would know unless his parents were mutants and they could see the future that is a boring argument there you go so yeah he debuted in X-Men number two and like I say his powers is teleportation based where he can

teleport himself and others via the dark force dimension in his debut he kind of stole some top secret government plans and tried extorting them with the government for like $10 million to get the plans back but then like the X-Men showed up I was going to say the X-Men showed up and saved the day but it was really Charles Xavier mind-wiping

Vanisher that saved the day which was kind of one of the troubling examples of Xavier abusing his powers I guess but you know we talked about that in the Charles Xavier episode so we don't need to do that again

we did um from there vanisher briefly joins a group called Factor 3 alongside Blob Eunice the Untouchable

Mastermind and Changeling as well who you know basically became morph in the animated series and a fellow by the name of Mutant Master yeah definitely not three people

but you know what's in the name who cares and so they had plans for world domination they were foiled well they I say they were foiled it turns out mutant master was actually an alien

who was looking to enslave the planet or kill everyone or something along those lines and when the rest of the factor three found out they basically joined forces with the X-Men to to defeat him so yeah fuck you mutant master all this trick in the book alien pretends to be a mutant

and the mutants follow him and then unbelievable it turns out to reveal himself somehow and the mutants turn on him can't trust anybody he says can't you definitely not aliens no I've always said that

you know like space aliens not like yeah let's clarify yeah just to be sure So Vanisher basically went missing for a long period of time until he was captured by Stephen Lang who was a government agent who basically took over the Sentinel's program

and who I believe his mind ended up becoming like the basis for MasterMold as well Why am I talking about Stephen Land so much? Because there's not much to talk about Vanisher so yeah basically yeah Stephen Lang got beaten Vanisher was freed

and then he came under the mental influence of a guy called Darkling who has he's the mutant who had like powers of controlling the forces of the dark force dimension which obviously plays into

Vanisher powers again not much happened there the new warriors beat this darkling guy vanished covers free so he went and joined another new group which was the new enforcers alongside

dragon man dreadnought plant man and super adaptoid I just want to point out how can they be now as a fan of the enforcers where's fancy Dan for Zach exactly

but it's a new the new yeah they're not the old enforcers no those are the old enforcers oh okay these are the new different not that it helped them because

yeah they got beat by Spider-Man is split up so yeah like up until this point vanager sort of wore like a really weird sort of frilly costume with I guess

like the best way I can describe it is like one of those youda like ruffle collars around his head for some reason no reason no I mean it I have no idea like it doesn't have anything to do with his teleportation powers no he just he just thought it looked cool

yeah and he kept it for a long time he did but then when he dropped it he decided, okay, I'm getting rid of this stupid collar thing. I'm going to replace it with some weird-ass tattoos, which I'm going to put all over my head. So, yeah, he basically changed up his look, dropped the costume, and then decided to take control of a drug cartel,

which is sort of specialized in mutant growth hormone. but Archangel put a stop to that by essentially buying into the shell company of his business and then closing it down so yeah that fucked up vanished his plans but you know he did retain his powers

after M-Day as well so that's something he had going from I guess um Yeah, and then basically we get to X-Force where this was during the utopia area of the X-Men, where they were living on, like, the former asteroid M in San Francisco Bay. It's sort of a precursor to Krokoa, really, like where they were inviting along all the world's mutants to all come and live with them. Vanisher was pretty untrustworthy so

he was tired to steal some legacy virus like a stockpile of it but Cyclops sent X-Force to kind of stop him and then Elixir gave him a brain tumor basically so that they could

coerce him into being their transport, like basically taking them from mission to mission, wherever it might, you know, go. So he was basically forced against his will to do that for a while on the promise that they'd eventually

remove the tumor. And, yeah, so he went with them to the future to kind of help Abel and Hope fight off Bishop while he was in his mad, rage, trying to kill hope because he thought she was like

he turned 75% of the world into a nuclear like wasteland yeah yeah exactly he was up to some shaghananigans um yeah and then

when he got back from the future he uh he basically he was suffering from the effects of this tumour, or so he thought. It turns out it wasn't the tumour that was making him sick anymore

because Alexa had removed it in the future, but he had stage four syphilis. That's a fucking twist. Yep. So wait, wait, hold up, hold up, hold up. So some of the symptoms of syphilis, you can't confuse with the brain tumor, because it's things like

a pussy discharge from your penis did Vanisher have this shit going on and just like, oh my fucking brain tumor making it pus come out of my dick I guess maybe his brain tumor messed up his head so he didn't really recognize the thing

because that's another aspect of it is you start to hallucinate shit because it melts your brain for all intents of purposes it also makes you incontinent so Vanisher is also just shitting himself apparently. Well,

they didn't draw that end of the book. Obviously not. Holy shit. I think, I mean, I agree that it's not a great explanation. I don't think that if you're like, yeah, yeah, you're the X-Men traveling into the future, but can you be a little bit more

realistic about the symptoms of syphilis? I think they were like, what that's the case? Why did you have to go with syphilis? It could have been any number of things. well was it we don't know if that was the same writer maybe somebody inherited vanager was like oh fuck it he got syphilis

you know he's just walking around with a dirty dick it's vanisher he pops in and out you know what I'm saying oh my gosh Jesus Christ well Elexey couldn't fix that

anyway we fixed your brain tumor don't worry about the syphilus Alexa easily could have fixed that he did he did okay don't worry what a dick move if he didn't well i didn't do that i just did the brain tumor i'm not going to fix your mistakes um so yeah banisher was cured and then he briefly worked for emma frost hellfire club um like working with emma directly just to help get around i guess uh but then was seeming

killed when this general or commander of O-N-E the office of national emergency shot him with like a mutant cure serum that basically turned him into

goo. But yeah I mean this cure shot at him. Yeah he did get resurrected on Krokoa and became a member of

sword, was kidnapped by the power broker and implanted with a control chip. But, like, rogue helped break him free. And he did die again, but, like, was brought back because it's a Crocoa, and there's,

like, resurrection protocols. And, yeah, so that's basically all Vanitya's done in the comic. So he did briefly appear in Deadpool 2 as well. Yeah, he's played by Braddard. by Brad Pitt. Yeah. Yeah, I was about to say for a guy who has the ability to go anywhere he wants, he seems to fall under someone else's control more often than not. Yeah, yeah. That's just unlucky.

I will also say that, I guess being played by Brad Pitt kind of balances out the fact that he is kind of a pitiful character in that sense. But I mean, for all the sense of purposes, like, the X-Men are really bad about like, well, we need a teleporter for this team. And like, we'll just, you know, the mutant Uber, essentially. We're just going to have you around to teleport you. Because they treated Pixie pretty much the same way

in certain team books. So it's like, well, we need a teleporter. Yeah, yeah. Jeez. Jeez. All right. Well, I just want you to know that you covered almost what,

80 years. of Marvel Comics for Vanisher in 13 minutes. Easy. I'm surprised it took that long. I think it's because we got to talk about. We talked about syphilis for about a minute. That's true. Oh, boy.

All right. Well, that was the Vanisher. Any other remarkable instances of him turning up in anything? Because, I mean, he was the villain at X-Men 2. You would think that they would do other stuff with him. Was he an X-Men 2? No, no, I mean, he was X-Men issue 2. Oh, sorry, yeah, yeah.

I mean, yeah, but his powers are not that, like, impressive, I guess, in the grand scheme of things. And his look probably didn't help as well. He, you know. Yes. For the longest time, he looked lame. Yeah, his outfit was stupid, his name was stupid. What he did with his powers was stupid. but he always end up being somebody else's

bitch, which was stupid. Like, he's never like, you gotta get to banish into this episode or this issue, because there's no, there's no, like, no threat, there's no redeeming quality to him, you know? Uh, well,

he could be a good guy. He did turn up in, uh, Wolverine and the X-Men, the animated series, voiced by Stephen Blum. He makes a minor reoccurring appearance as a member of Professor X's future X-Men, while the present version makes a cameo appearance in the episode Aces and Ates as a Genotion prisoner.

So he shows up in a cartoon, and then he also appears in The Amazing Spider-Man Web of Fire as a member of the new enforcers. And that is a side-scrolling action-adventure game that came out in 1996 for the Sega. Which Sega? Mega Drive? 96. It's got to be Mega Drive, yeah. Saddam's that nice sakes

This is the most Indian part I'm talking about about his shirt Yeah He had a small part In age of apocalypse A small part in House of M

A small part in Exiles Small part in Ultimate Marvel And these are like Small part I mean Like he might have been on A combined one page In general So yeah

I mean Guy shows up in X-Men issue number two doesn't do much for the rest of his comic run there you have it there it is there it is so let's squeeze another three minutes out of that

um blood from a stone uh john again if you want you want to say do you want to jump into the blob from here jump into the blob yeah

let's not jump into him okay but uh yeah let's let's move on to the blob because like I say he debuted an X-Men number three so he was only natural to follow like the numerical order so yeah the blob is Frederick Dukes he's basically you know the immovable object he can like give himself extra mass that basically makes him strong makes and resilient and pretty much it's indestructible as well

but only as long as he has contact with the ground so he started out as like a carnival strongman who the X-Men initially tried to recruit that he turned him down and returned to his carnivore

and basically decided rather than be good he's going to uses powers to kind of bully the carnival folk into being his gang and then convinced them to go and attack the X-Men but you know they were beaten

and this being an early X-Men book as well Charles Xavier mind-wiked him what a prick loves he just can't get enough shortly after this

Magneto then recruits Blob for the brotherhood of evil mutant. But when Magneto tries to blow up the X-Men using a torpedo that could have killed Blob as well, Blob basically, you know, quit the team and returned to his carnival. But this is where he meets Unis the Untouchable, and then they become friends and partners. and as you do when you find a new friend you go and rob a bank and try and get some money

they get recruited to Factor 3 which we already talked about a little bit that resorted in aliens and being a you know temporarily team with the X-Men blah blah blah Factor 3 breaks up

what does the blob do he rejoins the brotherhood of evil mutants only this time it's under mastermind's leadership that is until Magneto returns and takes over again but then this was during the period where as we covered during the Magneto episode he creates the Alpha the Ultimate Mutant who basically turns on them all and then turns them all into infants yes so that's the way they're remain for a little while until Eric the Red shows up,

restores Magneto, and then some of the residual radiation also helps restore, like, Blob and the others as well. Yeah, that makes sense. Whatever. Yeah, it's science. You can't argue with science. Yeah, good enough for me. So what does Blob do now that he's an adult again? Why not rejoin another version of the Brotherhood of Mutants? This time, led by Mystique, and also in the team, Destiny, Pyrro, and Avalanche as well.

Short aside, that to me is the version of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants I always think about, because that was kind of the version that was in the animated series. Yeah. That to me is like the iconic group. It's a classic lineup right there. they start off as villains until the government basically recruit them as freedom force like a group basically hunting down mutants for the government and that puts them into conflict with the X-Men and X-Factor

and even the Avengers as well because you know I guess the government would just go after any superpowers beings at that point and they basically they do this for a good number of years until like a mission in Kuwait goes badly and the government kind of cuts their losses and the group breaks up so what does blob do now he joins another version of the Brotherhood of evil mutants this time led by Toad and we also have Pirate and a guy called Fantasia in the group that I've never heard of him and don't remember him at all. Fantasia, was he not the wrestling magician?

That is who I thought it was, but this is Fantasia spelled with a Z instead of an S. So maybe it's, I don't know, a different version. Well, I'm looking forward to the episode where we break down Fantasia, and I'm sure we'll make a multi-parter out of that one. Basically this brotherhood doesn't go well either, so it breaks up and what does Blob do now? He joins another version of the Brotherhood of Evil Meevents. This time it's Mystique leading the group up again, and they attempt to kill Senator Kelly, but they're stopped from doing so by the X-Men. X-Men and then the group breaks up so what does Blub do now I think you can guess he joins another

version of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants this time led by Exodus only Exodus is like hang on you are the biggest fucking loser in all of mutant them there's a common denominator with all these failed teams, Bob, and I think it's you. Absolutely. So, yeah, he basically rejects him for being useless. And then we get to

M-Day, where Blob is one of the many, many mutants who loses his powers, which causes his, like, him physically to frink, except for his skin, which becomes all

like a saggy man. basically. It's so bad that he can't even kill himself because of like the thick skin fold. So yeah, needless to say

Blob is pretty depressed when this happens and joins a group that isn't the brotherhood of evil mutants that it's made up of ex-mutant called ex-stell alongside

such luminaries as Elijah Cross Callisto Fatal Reaper Abyss and Marrow But yeah Basically it's another shit show

And they get beat by Of all people Richter and multiple man So Of all people Come on I mean it's not exactly the A list Let's put it that way

after this he briefly becomes a successful weight loss guru in Japan because I guess he's had some surgery to kind of staple back some of the skin and stuff the problem with that he can't really be a weight loss guru

because they're like what's your secret and he's like I don't fucking know one day I woke up and put in the flat left yeah that's not going to work for everyone Some psychotic woman said a sentence and all of a sudden I, you know, a lot of my friends don't have their powers anymore. Yeah, you'd think.

Well, either way, he, I guess, didn't really take to that success and decided he wanted to go back to being a mutant again. So he initially starts working with Mystique, who supplies him with, some MGH which was extracted from Dazler which kind of gives him his powers back but then he gets abducted by myth sinister who uses this power bestowing virus known as the mother vine to like experiment on him which briefly gives him like a secondary mutation that allows him to stretch his body but in a way kind of coincidence. He, well, I, you know, he had Vanity to turn into goo briefly, but the, uh, the blob basically loses control of his secondary mutation and melts into a literal blob, uh, before managing to reconstituate himself. Um, and then, yeah, like, you, uh, can you remember if this was,

before we started recording or not, but Lobb basically ends up in the age of X-Man, I think it is. Yeah, this is before we were... Where he... Yeah, he

becomes like a cop in this alternate universe and has a relationship with Betsy Pradeck. But then, like, everything gets returned to normal,

and Krakawa starts and Blob leaves behind his villainous ways to basically become the bartender at the Green Lagoon, which is like the big bar on Krakawa. And that is pretty much, I guess, like, his entire run up until most recently. Yeah, and I could fill in that gap just because he's shown up in a couple of the books that I've been, currently reading. After the Krakawa era ended, this sort of privatized prison got the rights to the Xavier mansion and turned it into like a super prison for mutants. And Blob is captured and basically recruited into being a member of their sort of mutant

hunting team along with characters like Wild Child and Siren. so he is being held against his will for all intents and purposes being forced to hunt down his fellow mutants there you go yep and he's also appeared in some other things as well like he's surprisingly appeared in quite a few x-men movies like the main one people will probably remember him for is probably x-men origins wolverine where he was played by Kevin Durand in a fat suit basically he had like a brief

cameo in X-Men Apocalypse by a wrestler called Gustav Claude Umei or I don't know it's some French-looking surname which I'm probably butchering and then in Deadpool and Wolverine

in like the the wasteland there, he basically again appears as like sort of a background cameo this time by another wrestler a guy called Mike Waters

who is one half of the UK pit bulls and yeah that's basically it so I'll hit you with the video game appearances blob was a recurring boss in X-Men

he then appeared in X-Men reign of Apocalypse He was in a cameo sort of stage level for X-Men Mutant Academy 2. He was an unlockable character in X-Men Next Dimension. He was a boss in X-Men Legends. He made a cameo appearance in X-Men Legends 2 Rise of Apocalypse. He was in the X-Men Origins Wolverine tie-in game as a boss. He appeared as a boss in Marvel Avengers Alliance.

He was in Marvel Heroes. He was in Lego Marvel Superheroes. He was in Pinball FX2 on the X-Men table. He is a playable character in Marvel Puzzle Quest and appears in Marvel Snap. He has also had multiple animated series appearances, Spider-Man and his amazing friends. X-Men Pride of the X-Men,

which we watched in one of our previous episodes as part of a watch-along. X-Men, the animated. series where we were kind of speaking of him originally. A teenage version of the character showed up in X-Men Evolution, and he was also in Wolverine in the X-Men as well. So Blab is a character who gets a lot of use, despite not really doing anything with him. And probably just because he's very easily identified.

I mean, he looks unique. His powers are unlike anyone else. It's, you know, he's a bully character. Yeah. John, did you learn anything new and exciting about the blob in your research? Not really. I mean, I'm sort of surprised by just how many different incarnations of the Brotherhood of Evil he's been in, but, I mean, if you've been around since X-Men 3,

I'm sure you're going to end up in a fair few of those at some point. True. It says a lot of the character where they just, like, it seems, like a good idea. Like you said, he's very recognizable. He's, you know, he's got that look to him. It says a lot whether, like, what the fuck do we do with this guy other thanches? He's the big guy in the

group again. He doesn't do anything. The only way you know him is more, like the main guy in the brotherhood of evil mutants. Do you mean? That's how everybody recognizes him. But sometimes you need a villain who's just a big guy that you can punch. Yeah. Yeah. Like that's all that's

needed in the story. you know he fills his role wow you know well I suppose it is now my turn and I arguably have the two of the more interesting characters who did some stuff outside of just join the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants or get syphilis

more a publisher come on I don't disrespect to Alfred Porter like that so my two characters will start with we'll start with the one who didn't have as many interesting things do as the other. We're going to start with Toad,

who his real name is Mortimer Toenby. He was born less than handsome. His parents abandoned him almost immediately, where he lived in an orphanage for several years where he dealt with children being cruel and teasing and tormenting him on the account of his ugliness and misshapen body. Despite his intelligence,

he apparently had extreme shyness and a slight learning disability, which made many believe that he was slow. So he dropped out of the orphanage prematurely, opting to live on the streets and fend for himself rather than face abuse. The constant fear and hatred exhibited by everyone he knew caused him to develop a severe inferiority complex. This has caused more or more early on to show absolute devotion to anyone who shows him the slightest amount of affection or respect. So this is our precursor that led him to X. men number four, where he debuted as a member of Magneto's original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants alongside Mastermind, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch. Toad, the early brotherhood of Evil Mutants did not get along very well.

Almost all of it was centered around the fact that everybody wanted to get with Scarlet Witch, and her brother was not crazy about that. So Toad was not immune to that. He incurred a lot of hostility with Quicksilver because his affectionate, towards Wanda. But he was also incredibly devoted to Magneto, probably because Magneto accepted him as a fellow mutant. Toad believed that Magneto truly loved him,

but in reality, Magneto just kind of felt sorry for him and used him as a pawn. So after a bit of time, Toad's body started to mutate even more, giving him a more evil-looking appearance and a more personality to boot. So he started his own group of evil mutants and recruited Blob, as we've discussed, and also Soren, who will be an interesting episode

in the future, I'm sure. This put him in contact with various superheroes, mostly with the mutant strike force team known as X-Force while he was the leader of the Brotherhood. During one of these counters, Sorin almost fatally wounded cannonball. He, however, got better, is what the breakdown of that stated.

Thank God. After they were defeated, Toad remained a plagued humanity fighting against humans wherever he could and even apparently murdered somebody at one point so he was somewhat effective at least against one person he murdered

it says someone it's not very good researches not your researches yeah just whoever's compiling his data yeah it's like what I guess the guy probably so much like this is a bit of a spoiler much like blob

toad is a character that gets a lot of use but he gets put into very more unique situations than Fred Dukes did. But anyway, yeah, he ends up getting into conflict with Generation X at one point when he visits the Massachusetts Academy. And he apparently left his terrorist ways behind until the stranger attacked Toad in San Francisco and accused him of wasting countless opportunities to better himself. The stranger then revealed to actually be proche, a sentient alien vessel that had in

previously used by X Factor. John, are you familiar with Proche? Is that? Apocalypse's ship? It is. Like that? The Sinti...

It is. So, Prosh recruited Toad alongside Jean Grey, Iceman, the juggernaut and mystique to save the universe. Amunzel are sent to various points in history, including a period where Toad was happily running an amusement park, as well as when he was imprisoned after having been beaten by the Avengers.

Toad was eventually sent back to... At the top. Toad was eventually sent back to that period where he first joined the Brotherhood after being rescued by Magneto and relived the physical and verbal abuse he suffered at the hands of Magneto. The mutants eventually traveled back

a short time after Toad's birth where it was revealed that Toad had been experimented on in a research facility run by Amanda Mueller. John, are familiar with Amanda Mueller? I sort of recognize the name. It's for you, someone who had like a connection to Mr. Stenner. like in one of his various disguises when he was experimenting on people?

I looks like it. She looks like a fucking nightmare, by the way. Yes, she was, she had an association with Mr. Sinister, but she was referred to as the black womb because she survived a series of miscarriages. It's not a great nickname. No, there's definitely, it definitely had better. Yeah, I don't want that one. The threat to the universe was eventually revealed to be the real stranger, and Toad was mortally wounded in the subsequent battle. Mystique attempted to heal Toad by using Prosh's medical technology,

with Prosh believing that it would also unlock the genetic potential that had been squandered by the research done on Toad as an infant. Using Mystique as a manual conduit, Prosh's regeneration device heeled Toad made him a little more handsome, as well as gave him more strength, and a powerful prehensile tongue. Because before that, Toad was just a funny-looking guy who jumped around a lot. Weird that didn't think about doing the tongue thing, like, from the get-go.

Right? Nah, we just wanted to jump around. What are Toad's known for? Looking like they're from medieval England. That's what they're known for. John's not currently dressed like that, is what you're saying. He doesn't have the little frills on his outfit? He's got the little bull cut.

Yeah, he's got a little bull cut going on. Yeah. It's got raging syphilis. During the House of M, Scarlet Witch has her complete mental breakdown and lost her mind and control over powers and altered reality. And once that was resolved

and the mutants were mostly depowered, Toad ended up being one of the lucky 198 who kept his powers. Look, good for him. He ends up becoming, uh, ends up staying at the Xavier, Institute, where it becomes sort of a haven for the remaining 198.

During Civil War, along with Caliban, Domino and Shatterstar, he led a group of mutants to break out of the 198 camp and led him to what they believed was an abandoned nuclear bunker in the deserts of Nevada. The X-Men soon engaged the O&E outside the bunker. Meanwhile, General Laser instructed mutant Johnny D, a character we've discussed before, isn't that right, Dylan, to create havoc, among the 198 escapees. Johnny D took a troll of the mutant outlaw and forced him to shoot at Domino. The mutants realized outlaw's possession in time, and Domino was able to use her powers to cause a misfire. Toad took this opportunity to take Outlaw out so he could not harm anyone else.

Big Hero Toad. Good for him. So the X-Men along with Bishop, Iron Man, and Miss Marvel managed to find a way to free all the trapped mutants and everyone. The 198 included and left without injury. During Utopia, many mutants moved, including Toad. He was seen in the city riots and was injured in the chaos. Trance and Dragonus were seen to try to carry him out to safety, but were slowed down when Hammer Soldiers started chasing them until Gambit rescued all three of them.

After the events of Schism, Toad begged Wolverine to let him join with the group of mutants that were going to relocate to Westchester. Wolverine was reluctant to have Toad on board, but when Toad offered to be, quote, that he would even want to be the janitor, Logan took Toad up on the offer, and Toad became the janitor for the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. I was during this time that Toad's skin color changed into its green-like shade, and Toad felt at his place in the Institute, but still felt anger towards a larger number of the students and teachers who basically made a mockery of him and treated him like shit. He did, however, start a romantic relationship with Husk of all people during that time. at some point Toad left the X-Men and returned as a villain. He was captured and he tortured the time-displaced young Cyclops

blaming him for many events that occurred in his life and he later appeared again as a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. There it is. So during Crocoa, Toad was of course brought there as well. He was one of the citizens and alongside Mystique and Sabre II. he, um, they stole information from the orcus forge from damage control due to his exceptional hacking abilities, apparently being a weird little medieval man also makes

great at computers. Uh, they were successful and escaped only leaving saber tooth behind due to the intervention of the fantastic four. During the Kirkland Hellfire gala, the Scarlet Witch coaxed Magneto to strangle her to death with Uru as part of a plan they concocted to resurrect fall mutants whose minds were not backed up in Cerebro. Scarlet Witch was eventually came back to life and implicated Toad for her death, as the Uru used for the murder was later found in Toad's home. Pleading guilty to the murder charge, possibly as a favor of Magneto, he stated that he had killed the Scarlet Witch for turning her back on the Brotherhood and Magneto.

As Toad was banished to the pit of exile, he exclaimed that he did it all for Magneto, although the Scarlet Witch tried to advocate on Toad's behalf of her words could not save him from his fate. After months spit in the pit, Toad and all the other captives were eventually secretly freed by Krakawa and its spokesperson Douglas Ramsey, with the purpose of chasing after an apprehending Sabretooth, whose own time of the pit had harmed Krokoa and its residents. Using a ship operated by Madison Jeffery's techno-kinetic abilities, this makeshift team called themselves the Exiles. Despite their objective of apprehending Sabretooth, the Exiles ended up reluctantly working with him to fight against Orcus. However, the Alliance was short-lived with Sabreto betraying the Exiles. and building an army of multiversal duplicates of himself. During Sabretooth's assault on Wolverine, the X-Force,

the exiles would get the drop on Victor has led to Toad losing his life, though, at the hands of Sabretooth. So, as of right now, Toad is dead. Oh, it's shame. At least it was Sabretooth that killed him and not the syphilis. So obviously everybody remembers Toad from the 2000 X-X-Men movie where he's played by Ray Park. He had a unique little look

and everything, but I think most people remember Hallie Berry's terrible line of what happens when a toad gets struck by lightning the same as everything else, which is implied he is killed by that. A young toad appears in X-Men days of future past. He's a former soldier

that finds work in a diner. And an alternate timeline variant of Toad based on his appearance in X-Men does show up in Deadpool Wolverine, portrayed by an uncredited Daniel Ramos. In video games, Toad is an unlockable character in X-Men Mutant Academy, X-Men Mutant Academy 2,

X-Men Next Dimension, an amalgamation incarnation of Toad appears as a mini-boss in X-Men Legends, where he's voiced by the great Armin Shimmerman. That's exciting. Toad appears as a playable character in X-Men Legends 2, Rise of Apocalypse. He is in the Game Boy Advance version of X-Men,

official game. He appears in X-Men Destiny. He appears as a boss in Marvel Avengers Alliance. He's a playable character in Lego Marvel superheroes, and he appears in Marvel Heroes as well. And then, of course, in the animated series, he shows up in Spider-Man and his amazing friends. X-Men, Pride of the X-Men. X-Men, the animated series. A young version of him appears as a regular character in X-Men Evolution. He's in Wolverine in the X-Men, and he also has a part in the superhero super squad as a member of Doctor Doom's Lethal Legion. So again, Toad is a character that shows up a lot, probably just due to how unique he is. Not bad for a guy whose power for the longest time was just being able to jump high.

That's true. Being a weird boy. It's been a really weird looking kid. Yep. Oh, also, we did talk about the ultimate version of Toad, who did not even get an on-panel death and ultimatum. They just wrote that he died in the list of characters who died in ultimatum. But now we know. You know, now we don't have to stay up at night wondering if he's going to come home.

We already know. It's better that way. Yeah. Well, remember how he said that this might be a two-episoder? That's going to probably just be a one episode. Doesn't look like it. Yeah. All right.

Well, also debuting in X-Men issue number four is the fourth character we're going to be talking about today, Mastermind. Jason Wingard managed to grow his mutant abilities relatively unknown and noticed in the public. However, the one person who did recognize his abilities of psychic illusion was Magneto. Jason Wingard joined his group, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Magneto's goals suited him, as he'd previously managed to secure employment as a mentalist or a trickster in carnivals. His thirst for power matches desire for the Scarlet Witch, but despite trying to use his powers and arguments, he was never able to separate her from a protective brother, Quicksilver, during their tenure as the group, with his tricks being ineffective on them.

I don't know if they ever bothered to explain why Mastermind's powers did not work on Scarlet Witch. but oh well as a member of the brother yeah that's really interesting because I was about to say oh it's because she's like she's a witch

she like had you used her pars so like keep him at bay but then you'd be like well Gene Gray arguably has like she's like

omega right yeah so like even at the time I don't know if she was an omega but like she had considerable psychic abilities that you would think

would keep her I'm sorry to jump the gun a little bit because I feel like we're gonna get the Gene Gray in a second, but I don't know why Gene Gray would be susceptible

to masterminds bars and discard it which wouldn't be. Like that's maybe it's because Gene Gray was possessed by some other worldly beings. She wasn't all there. Yeah. Well, and also isn't this like not

Gene Gray but a copy of Gene Gray? Complicated. Yeah. Yeah. When did the Phoenix make a copy? of Jean Grey is going to be the question. When the spaceship landed in the Hudson Bay or whatever it was. Okay. So then it was in like a little egg thing in the bottom of the bay.

And then what came out of the bay was the Phoenix. So, so it wasn't, it wasn't Jean Gray that got, we'll, we'll get to it. We'll get to it. So like I said, I feel like Mastermind would be the one we'd actually have a conversation about. So Mastermind battled the X-Men quite a bit. His powers had not been developed to their fullest potential once he joined the Brotherhood, but he was still very capable of casting minor visual illusions, like simulating the illusion of fire and making it seem like Beast's legs had stopped working

and keeping him from moving. The Brotherhood continually failed in their battle against the X-Men. Magneto attempted to make a pact with an enigmatic being known as the stranger. However, instead of a new ally, Magneto found a new foe. as the stranger was not a mutant, which was what both Magneto and the X-Men had assumed, but a cosmic entity from the stars. During the confrontation with Magneto, he was stranded on an alien planet while Mastermind was turned into stone after attempting to double-cross him.

The Stranger spell wasn't permanent, and when it wore off, it didn't take Mastermind long before he found himself in another group looking for mutant supremacy, and that would be factor three, which we discussed earlier with Vanisher, which, which has more than three members of the group. Don't worry about it. So after the Factor 3 stuff happened with Mutant Master, even though Mastermind had helped save the Earth from alien domination, he was soon captured by Sentinels,

and unable to project any psionic illusions on gigantic robot servants, he had to rely on help from the X-Men to save him, however, did not take him long before he became a criminal again. He reformed the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, this time without Magneto siblings, but with Blob and Eunice, the Ennis, untouchable. He had attempted to persuade the beast to join them. He was unsuccessful, which resulted in a fight which he was also unsuccessful in winning. Magneto soon returned to

claim the title of leader, and this time he literally created a new member of the team using alien technology, Alpha, the Ultimate Mutant, which I believe we've already discussed as well. So Magneto got turned into, so Mastermind got turned into a baby, the same as the others. As children, he no longer had their mutant powers, their abilities they had developed when they originally reached puberty. Therefore, the team was. was defeated by one of their own members, with Alpha himself leaving Earth to find his purpose in deep space. After some point, Jason Wingard returned to his true age. He joined the rich and influential members of the Hellfire Club.

There he became a key member of Sebastian Shaw's inner circle, a highly secret and esoteric collection of powerful mutants and super beings who gave themselves rankings according to chess pieces. It had come to Shaw's attention that the X-Men's newest member of the Phoenix was potentially the most powerful and dangerous mutant in the world. So he planned to have Phoenix as a member of the inner circle, and therefore require the use of Mastermind's powers. Mastermind himself had desired for more power within the inner circle, and obtaining Phoenix would be a key part in showing his worthiness to them as a member. So he would stalk Gene for months on end, consistently meeting her as different people in different places, a priest on an airplane or a young surfer on a beach, for example. These experiences would allow Mastermind to slowly ease his way into her mind. So basically just repeated exposure is what it sounds like he did.

Like he just gradually started breaking her down. So while the X-Men were searching a seedy nightclub for Dazzler, the latest new mutant that the Cerever had detected, Phoenix began to experience intensely realistic visions. In these flashbacks, she was transported back to 18th century Britain and was courted by a man known only as Nicos. He had thick curly hair, a full beard, and dressed according to the time period. Phoenix found that she was attracted to Nicos and struck.

to come to terms what she believed were scenes from a past life and her feelings for her current lover, Cyclops, with reality consistently blurring between both of them frequently. Eventually, she would succumb to her past life and experience her marriage to Jason Wingard as a Victorian aristocrat. However, Phoenix's mind was being manipulated by two psionic power mutants. Mastermind's own illusionary powers were being amplified by Emma Frost's mind tap machine, a mechanism, which boosted her own powers, and allowed Mastermind to project his illusions. directly to Phoenix's mind from long range, as he himself wasn't able to project his powers far enough to achieve the effect.

Together, they manipulated the Phoenix into becoming the new Black Queen of the Hellfire Club. So that answers that. It was a combination of gradually inserting himself into her mind, as well as getting his powers amplified by Emma Frost. Emma Frost Machine. Emma Frost Machine. She never used again. Yep.

Science. Exactly. Never ever come on. Never bothered to try it one more time. Other problems she's had since becoming a member of the X-Men never once thought to use this machine. Could those problems have been solved by this machine? Some of them, yes, absolutely. Yes, no question about it.

But don't use the machine. Not important. So they ended up guiding Phoenix and made her turn against the X-Men. And unknown to them both, though, Mastermind and Emma Frost, Cyclops had shared a deep telepathic rapport with Phoenix. through this mental connection he attempted to battle Mastermind on the astral plane yet Cyclops is relatively inexperienced as psychic battles having not been in one before and Mastermind's own power was amplified by Emma Frost's formidable telepathy Mastermind killed Cyclops in the telepathic battle and the psionic backlash from the trauma

snapped Phoenix free of his control although Cyclops had actually survived the Phoenix grew enraged Phoenix had enjoyed the seductive qualities of power that the Hellfire Club had shown her combined with her anger she transformed from Black Queen into the Dark Phoenix Her first malicious act of power was directed directly at Mastermind She entered his mind and showed him the vast scale of the universe By expanding his consciousness he became one with the universe but his body remained in New York Mastermind was crippled with his mind flooded with images of the universe And his unbearably small place within it

He would later be picked up by the cops and taken to a mental asylum due to being in a catatonic state It could be assumed that they didn't recognize him due to appearing to him in his true, far older appearance, which was something he had used his powers to hide for years at this point. So, gradually, Mastermind regained his consciousness, and after years he became bitter and vengeful vowing to have his revenge on those he blamed for what happened to him. Members of the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants suffered first. Rogue's mind was already fragile from the permanent absorption of the powers and psyche

of Miss Marvel. In this state, it was easy for Mastermind to manipulate her into leaving the team she had once loved by manipulating her perceptions. Mystique, who was the leader of the brotherhood at the time, was already suffering from nightmares induced by Mastermind. This was the foundation of torment for her, as she then lost rogue, her adopted daughter, and therefore left her family broken.

Mastermind attempted to have his revenge on Cyclops. He had successfully convinced the X-Men that Madeline Pryor was, in fact, the Dark Phoenix Reborn, something that was easily accomplished, as Madeline already had a strong physical resemblance to Jean Grey, because she was a clone. though no one at the present time knew that she was a clone.

He then used his powers of deception to turn the X-Men against Cyclops but was ultimately defeated by the first X-Man, despite even trying to trick him into thinking he had actually died. Although his attempts to ruin Cyclops' new relationship had failed, Mastermind did manage to destroy Wolverines. This time, Mastermind was more subtle, just as he'd been with rogue and mystique, by slowly and gently using his powers to cast doubt

in the mind of Mariko Yoshida about Logan. and his past. Ultimately, he had convinced her to spurn Wolverine on their wedding day, thus achieving a twisted victory on the team that had shunned his past plans. His last battle against Phoenix's family was against her daughter, Rachel Summers. Rachel was new and fairly inexperienced with the Phoenix Force, and Wingard sought to wield the power of the Phoenix Force for himself, successfully this time. This led to him battle with both Rachel and Excalibur. Once more, he was defeated after a close bout, but this time he'd been cast under a power

psychic illusion trapped in the dream that he'd achieve total cosmic awareness and destroyed all of his foes. In many years later, when Wingard was heard from again, he'd mysteriously contact the X-Men and requested to see the Phoenix once more. When the X-Men arrived on the island for the rendezvous, they were assaulted by all sides. They suspected they've been led to a trap, but when Gene reached mastermind, she realized the truth. Although he had never been a physically strong man, Jason Wingard's body was withered and killing itself. He'd contracted the legacy virus, and his powers were out of control. That's not the thing I thought you were going to say you could track it.

He had hoped to see Phoenix one last time to repent for his actions, but was unable to prevent his own powers from attacking the X-Men. After all these years, he still believed that Gene was the Phoenix who had been psychically manipulated previously. Although their relationship had been his enemies, Phoenix remained the only woman he had truly ever loved. Therefore, when Gene Gray peered before him after escaping his illusionary world where all of her dreams were achieved, he begged her for forgiveness. He was sorry for what he had done to her, the Phoenix, back at the Hellfire Club, and wished to be forgiven. Gene was compassionate, and without revealing the truth about the Phoenix, she forgave him.

He was then able to die with his mind and soul at peace. So, Mastermind showed up in a series of flashbacks and memories and such, but it wasn't really him. The role of Mastermind was picked up by children that he had had, including Martinique Jason, and Reagan, Wingard. Also, he had a, I believe Pixie is his kid. Is that correct? Oh, rating. Yes, Mastermind had an intimate relationship with Miss Gwynn,

who gave birth and raised Pixie of the new X-Men, showing in her powers, which are partly illusion-based. So Jason Wingard is Pixie's dad, I suppose. So of course, Krokoa being Krokoa, Mastermind was resurrected. And as part of his resurrection, he ended up becoming, well, first off, he ended up being recruited to assist the team of X-Corps. X-Kor was a branch of Krokoa that was dealing with the business side of their miracle drug that they were growing through all their various little Kroa flowers and whatnot. So he basically helped them work with security and ward off Finris. Then later on, he ended up forming a partnership with Mr. Sinister and was able to basically trick the Hellions into thinking they had won.

And I think that was the last time anyone has seen Mastermind. So Mastermind is kind of in X-Men 2, the character of Jason Stryker, who is a lot powerful, Unitary Powers is allegedly partially inspired by Mastermind, but related to Curtis Striker, not Curtis Stryker, but Stryker, who is the main anti-mutant villain there. William Stryker. Curtis Stryker, Curtis Stryker is the Mortal Kombat character. But anyway, Mastermind was in Spider-Man, his amazing friends. He was in X-Men, the animated series, where, of course, he had a big part in the Dark

Phoenix Saga episodes. He was in X-Men Evolution, where he was a member of Magneto's Acolytes. He also had a big role in Marvel anime X-Men, where I believe he was like one of the main villains, and he shows up in Lego Marvel superheroes as well. So that is Mastermind. Like I said, of the characters we discussed, probably had the most noteworthy story aspects. yeah had the biggest impact i would say story wise

yeah yeah i mean no mastermind no dark phoenix yeah but no toad then there would be no thing where the toad his skin turns green so who would be the janitor in the gene gray school of higher learning some fucking prick who knows Who would take the fall for murdering Scarlet Witch?

Boy, that other guy. They killed. I will never talk about it. I will say, that is awful. That is such a Magneto Dick thing to do. We're like, we need to kill Wanda so that we can bring her back, and that will restore Cerebro for some reason. So we need somebody to take the fault.

I know. The one guy who has been completely devoted to me forever, because I was the first person that was nice to him. And by nice to him, I mean, I allowed him to him. to be around and occasionally beat and swore at him. He had a comment. Sure. So.

He looked. I mean, in a haircut like that, he had a comment. It was the 90s. Everybody had a bull cut, except it was the 1960s. It wasn't, yeah. It wasn't the 90s. It wasn't. No.

So, if there are no more thoughts on our dive into, some of the first X-Men villains, aside from Magneto. John, what's your movie count out for the year? Oh, I am up to 667. Oh, one short. Why did you have to watch the other movie? I mean, I had to kill some time earlier today, so... One short?

Well, one over. 67? Well, yeah, I thought he was 667, so he's won over, not one short. I did watch a horror movie for my 666, which was the remake of Carrie, which arguably isn't that much of a horror movie. Yeah, I completely forgot they didn't remake a Carrie. It's not as good. Well, if they want your, what was your 667 movie? Yep.

Uh, it was, it was a movie called The Hallelujah Trail, starring Bert Lancaster. Uh, it was supposed to be like, uh, almost like a parody of those old, tiny, like, three-hour-long Western epics. Uh, but instead of, uh, being funny and, like, leaning into the joke, it was basically like a poor version of the real thing. so it was very much a slog to sit through. Well, that's a shame. If they want to get your more in-depth thoughts on the Hallelujah Trail, where can they go? They can go to Letterbox where I am at Big John Bowsky, all onward. And Dylan, you get up to some stuff during the week.

What do you get up to? civilis giving it or receiving it I couldn't legally I'm not locked down to that question that's fair the court case is on and the oh it's very

very litigious but other than that that that's a segue way that's another one for the compilation other than that I do a radio show it's every Monday night 9 o'clock to 11 o'clock UK time it's on Bynce Digital Radio.comcoded UK put in your web browser you can listen to the show whenever I'm on it's really good we play all sorts of music and do a little bit of banter and stuff

that's every Monday and then during the rest of the week sometimes I street on Twitch at Spookly Roo where I draw pictures of mice and other stuff as well. So that's what I do. There you go. And there will be links in the description for both John's letterbox and also for Dylan's Twitch and the radio station that he performs. Would you say you perform on the radio? Some kind of performance, I suppose.

Yeah. Yeah. Hosts it. Oh, yeah. Host, there we go. Whatever appropriate verb. And as for me, I have my other. show, which is large old cup.

I'm also potentially working on some new stuff. When I solidify what that is, I'll let you guys know what that is. But until then, we're going to go for now and, you know, do some other stuff. So until then, goodbye. Goodbye. Bye-bye. The toad? That was toad.

There is. From Beyond the Graves.