The Frightfully Fantastic Wizardry Of Mind Control

Today's entry hails from the latter days of Chris Claremont's run on Fantastic Four. By this time, in the aftermath of an interdimensional conflict that involved Doctor Doom, his Counter Earth armies and all the Celestials you could want, Mr. Fantastic was locked inside Doom's armor.

This fact wasn't made public, for fear of Doom's generals who might rebel and take over both Earths. To help sell his unexpected alliance with his most hated of foes, 'Doom' married the Invisible Woman who was believed to be widowed. This also meant Doom joined the Fantastic Four.

Having a feared and hated supervillain head a beloved team of heroes? Fun and games... 

For their first mission, this 'new' Fantastic Four went up against an equally new Frightful Four. The Wizard and his team had invaded the reservation of the Keewazi indians, looking for buried treasure. Fortunately for the Keewazi, their leader Wyatt Wingfoot used to be part of the FF. He managed to send out an SOS which brought the FF to Silver Rock Springs. 

So, just who is part of this new Frightful Four? Well, apart from mainstays Wizard and Trapster there's also Sharon Ventura, the former FF-member known as Ms. Marvel whose mental state was questionable after getting mutated by Dr. Doom during the DeFalco era... and the Punisher.

Now what would move Frank Castle to join up with bad guys, I mean, he...

"Ain't this that pipsqueak Punisher robot... what use ta work fer Galactus?!"

Ah, no worries Ben, if your hide's half as thick as that New York accent, you won't feel a thing. But as both the Torch and the Thing started in on their old foe, the Wizard played his ace.

"Behold fools, the final defeat of the Fantastic Four!"

Hmm, what could a villain do whose sole claim to fame is being the wingless Wizard (aren't we all?)

Ol' purple top will show ánd tell...

"That's what happens, dear boy, when the biological mechanisms that protect you from your own powers are... eliminated."

Is that clever or what? Turn the Torch vulnerable to flame, remove the Thing's mobility and making sure Sue would either get blinded when she turned invisible or suffocate when she tried to use her force fields. So, three down, one to go...

"Speaking of Reed Richards, where is he?"

So glad you asked...

"Susan Storm Richards has been proclaimed the Baroness von Doom!"

While the Wizard was momentarily startled by the arrival of 'Doctor Doom', his presence worked like a red rag on a bull... A bull called Sharon Ventura. She immediately jumped on the man who had ruined her life. The Wizard wasn't pleased with that...

"Are you demented, woman? You've ruined any chance of a peaceful resolution to this imbroglio. Now the Frightful Four have to battle Doctor Doom!"

And battle they did. Trapster tried to hit Doom with his pasteguns, but the Doctor redirected the sticky streams to the charging Sharon Ventura who found herself stuck. Doom was then jumped by the Punisher robot who actually seemed capable of doing some damage. Wizard, ever the valiant assailant, decided to attack Doom from the back with some of his electrified anti-grav discs.

Unfortunately for the Frightful Four, Doom was just stalling for time...

"Trust me, Johnny, our lives... and the Keewazi... depend on it!"

Doom managed to convince the Human Torch to conquer his fear of burning himself alive and flamed on. But, didn't the Wizard turn off his natural immunity to flame? Well, not exactly...

"As I suspected, the effect the Wizard created was illusory, not factual. He did not materially alter your abilities, but merely made you believe such was the case."

Ah, mind control through hypnosis and trickery. Claremont's decision to give the Wizard this ability makes a decent amount of sense. After all, before the advent of superheroes, Bentley Whitman used his near-superhuman genius levels to become a celebrity. It isn't unthinkable he relied on a bit of stage magic to help sell his performances.

But, speaking of mind control... Let's see how the threat of the Frightful Four was dealt with in the end... That is, after the Invisible Woman stuffed the Punisher's insides with Trapster's glue and Sharon Ventura had a change of heart...

"I am many things...
But I am not fool enough to want Doom as my enemy. 

I yield."

And with that, 'Doom' beat one of his oldest enemies without even lifting a finger. Talk about the power of intimidation...