The Puppet Master (Philip Masters) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
As his name suggests, the Puppet Master uses "radioactive clay" to make puppets in the likenesses of real people, allowing him to control and manipulate them. Presumably, he has some sort of psionic ability that enables him to do this. He has a deep hatred of the Thing, who is romantically interested and married to his stepdaughter, Alicia Masters. He once tried to take over the world but was thwarted in this effort by the Fantastic Four.
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Publication history
The Puppet Master's first appearance was in Fantastic Four #8 (November 1962), and he was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. His last name, Masters, was revealed in the letters page of Fantastic Four #42 (September 1965), as suggested by a reader, who was given a No-Prize for her service to Marvel. The Puppet Master's origin is told in Marvel Team-Up #6 (January 1973).
Fictional character biography
Philip Masters, the man who becomes the Puppet Master, was born in Dragorin, a town in the small fictional Balkan nation of Transia. His family immigrated to the United States when he was eight. Growing up, he was socially maladjusted and had no friends.
After finishing college, Masters went into business with Jacob Reiss. Overcome with jealousy towards his partner's success and happy family life, he attempts to sabotage Reiss' projects, but is caught in the act. A fight breaks out, and Masters causes an explosion that kills Reiss. However, he also unintentionally injures Reiss' young daughter Alicia, leaving her blind. Masters claims that the explosion was accidental and starts a relationship with Reiss' wife, Marcia. He marries Marcia and adopts Alicia, who becomes a sculptor after admiring her stepfather's work. Later, Marcia dies, leaving Masters stricken with grief. Blaming the world for his misfortune, he devises a means of creating puppets of real people and uses them for crime.
When the Human Torch interferes with one of his experiments and gets him arrested and convicted, he sets about bringing down the Fantastic Four. He captures the Invisible Girl and the Thing, and masterminds a mass jailbreak by fashioning a puppet of the warden's trustee. He then falls through a window after tripping over Alicia's hand.
Though the Puppet Master's fatal fall is alluded to in his subsequent appearance, it is never explained how he survived. He has himself committed to a sanitorium for several months in the belief that this will allow the world to forget him. Upon release, he takes control of Namor and uses him to battle the Fantastic Four.
With Doctor Doom, the Puppet Master traps the Fantastic Four within the miniature artificial city of "Liddleville", their minds placed in small, partially mechanical copies of their original bodies. However, Doom perverts what had been intended by the Puppet Master as a chance to give Alicia and Ben a normal life into a trap, and he eventually helps the Fantastic Four learn the truth and escape Liddleville while trapping Doom in the android body he had used to monitor the Fantastic Four. He is defeated by Doom in Liddleville and seems to have been destroyed, but his mind is then resurrected in a body of living radioactive clay. He battles the Thing on the mental plane, and his physical body is destroyed. He is eventually resurrected in his original body by the Sphinx.
Powers and abilities
The Puppet Master has no true superpowers, but he does possess a very gifted mind, as well as doctorate in biology, including extensive knowledge of craftsmanship and experimental science. His greatest strength was the skill to create lifelike marionette puppets with extreme speed after Masters molded on those real people. Through intense concentration, Masters is able to control the physical actions of anyone whom that he sculpts from. For how he did this had never adequately explained other than using some type of special neurokinetic clay. The clay he mixed within this solution can be mystical, slightly radioactive, and found in a remote area near Mount Wundagore, site to the prison of an elder god Chthon. He cannot control the actions of essentially mindless creatures or supremely strong-willed beings. His manipulative skills are limited to one person at a time, even by far distance. While in his clay form, he possesses its unique features. Masters could split himself into 1/10 smaller replicas, each with a psychic link and shape-changing capabilities. Fortunately, these abilities were lost, thanks to the Sphinx.
In other media
Television
The Puppet Master appears in The Incredible Hulk (1982) episode "Bruce Banner: Unmasked", voiced by Bob Holt.
The Puppet Master appears in the Fantastic Four (1994) two-part episode "Origin of the Fantastic Four", voiced by Neil Ross. This version despises Alicia Masters, treating her as a burden and a pawn to be used against the Fantastic Four.
The Puppet Master appears in Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes, voiced by Alvin Sanders. This version is an African-American sculptor whose clay gained mind-controlling properties after being hit by a fragment of the Fantastic Four's space station.
Video games
The Puppet Master appears in Fantastic Four (2005), voiced by James C. Mathis III. This version is able to bring inanimate objects to life.
Reception
In August 2009, TIME listed the Puppet Master as one of the "Top 10 Oddest Marvel Characters".