Lady Mastermind
Lady Mastermind is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Salvador Larroca, the character first appeared as Regan Wyngarde in X-Treme X-Men #6.
Regan Wyngarde is the daughter of Jason Wyngarde, the original Mastermind. Her half-sisters are Martinique Jason, the second Mastermind, who now shares her codename, and the X-Men's Pixie. Like her sister and father, Regan possesses the ability to cast telepathic illusions. Although the character originally appeared as a villain, she would later have a brief stint as an X-Man, betraying the X-Men a short time after joining them.
Fictional character biography
X-Treme X-Men
Lady Mastermind is one of three daughters of Jason Wyngarde, the original Mastermind. She has an intense hatred for her half-sister, Martinique. She is hated by her sister for "stealing the spotlight", while she hates her sister for being a "skank", with the two of them constantly insulting each other.She was originally involved in a plot created by Sebastian Shaw to have his revenge against Sage and gain control of the Sydney underworld. This plot was created by using Regan's telepathic illusionary powers to assassinate Miles Warbeck, an Australian underworld crime lord known as Viceroy, and framing Gambit over his death.
In an attempt to make Sage work for Shaw again, Lady Mastermind placed her in a series of illusions. However, with the assistance of Lifeguard, the daughter of Viceroy, Sage was able to break the illusion and reflect Regan's powers back against her, leaving her in a vegetative state.
Joining The X-Men
Regan is one of few mutants who retain their powers after M-Day. Cannonball and Iceman find a comatose Regan, along with a partially disassembled Karima Shapandar. It is stated that Regan fell victim to scientists of the Fordyce Clinic who were trying to determine if a person can catch mutation like a disease.Regan finally awakens from her coma after her powers are temporarily hijacked by Serafina. She joins Rogue's strike force/field team, but Rogue tells Regan that she is only wearing the X-Men uniform because she was found with nothing more than a white sheet. Soon afterwards, the team is ambushed by Pandemic's forces, which capture Rogue and teleport to an unknown location. Eventually, Shapandar restarts the teleportation device, but Regan is teleported up high into the air and fell from an enormous height. Luckily, Iceman catches her before she hit the ground. Mystique, who was also teleported by the machine, was not as lucky as she was, and vanished. Regan and Iceman soon regroup with Shapandar, and the trio begin to search for Pandemic. They find Pandemic and defeat him, but Rogue is infected with Strain 88 in the process. The team goes to Cable's island utopia of Providence to find a cure for Rogue. While there the island is attacked by an ancient Shi'ar superweapon known as the Hecatomb, forcing Regan and the rest of the team to fight the psionic horror. The weapon is eventually defeated thanks to Rogue's power-absorption abilities, now supercharged due to Strain 88.
Marauders
When Rogue's team of X-Men goes to one of Mystique's safe-houses an intruder alarm later goes off. Initially confused by the seemingly invisible nature of their opponents, the X-Men are caught off guard when Regan drops her illusionary cloak to reveal the Marauders. Regan later fights alongside the other Marauders in Flint, Michigan, against Iceman and Cannonball, as both sides try to obtain the Diaries of Destiny.Messiah Complex
Along with fellow Marauders Sunfire, Gambit, Prism, Blockbuster, Malice, and Scalphunter, Regan travels to Cooperstown, Alaska to find the baby but instead come across the Purifiers and they come to blows. The next time Regan is seen is when the X-Men send a strike force to confront the Marauders. Working with Malice, she disguises an unconscious Scrambler as Angel and Malice drops him on Wolverine cancelling out his healing factor. Malice says this illusion is courtesy of Regan and boasts how she is a retired X-Man. Nightcrawler teleports in and kicks her in the head knocking her out. When the X-Men, X-Factor, and X-Force arrive on Muir Island, Lady Mastermind attempts to cast an illusion to hide the Marauders. However, Wolverine picks up her scent and stabs her in the abdomen.Sisterhood of Mutants
The Sisterhood approaches Regan, who is at a graveyard mourning her father. At first, Regan points her gun to Madelyne Pryor's head. When Madelyne promises to resurrect Regan's father, Regan joins - this, however, disgusts Martinique. Later in San Francisco, the Sisterhood perform a spell involving Kwannon's body and a captive Psylocke, restoring her to her original body. Later, when the Sisterhood attack the X-Men, Regan takes out Emma Frost by trapping her in an illusion and then leaving her bound and gagged in a dark room, cutting her off from her senses. While trapped, Emma unexpectedly finds what seems to be Jean Grey communicating to her, and seemingly aiding Emma. Emma becomes the first person not to fall for Regan's illusion, prompting Regan to worry. Emma then savagely beats Regan, calling her a traitor to her kind. Emma leaves Regan's bruised and battered body upon the ground, though the Sisterhood later pick her up and escape.When they return to base, the Red Queen orders Regan, Martinique, and Psylocke to stay while she and the other members of the Sisterhood go to Jean Grey's grave. They take on Storm, Dazzler, Karma, and Emma Frost, who savagely beats her again. After the Red Queen's defeat, Spiral collects the Sisterhood and teleports off.
Pixie Strikes Back
In the second issue of X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back, the mother of X-Man Pixie, Mrs. Gwynn, teleports herself to the Wyngarde Mansion, where Regan is fighting with Martinique and reveals Pixie is their half-sister. Teaming up with Mrs. Gwynn who offers the sisters power in exchange for their help, they attempt to track down Pixie after being kidnapped by Saturnine. During the final confrontation with the demon, Pixie teleports both Regan and Martinique away when X-23 attempts to attack them.All-New X-Men
Sometime later, Regan ends up incarcerated in the Raft. Together with Sabretooth, Mystique breaks Regan out of jail and offers her a chance to get rich as well as informing Regan of Charles Xavier's death. Regan agrees to join them and after being held up by S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers, Regan casts an illusion to make it seem the soldiers are being attacked by zombie Avengers so the trio can make their escape.Regan is shock to see a live, although time displaced, Jean Grey back in the present. She uses this opportunity to create an illusion of her father from his time with the Inner Circle, when he tried to seduce the Dark Phoenix, causing what seemed to be the rebirth, or arrival, of the Phoenix Force once more. However, it was later revealed to be a telepathic illusion created by the time displaced Jean Grey, much to Regan's disappointment. She later boasts to the young Jean that she knows her more than Jean knows her and projects an illusion of Scott making out with Emma. Out of anger, Jean tells her that she projects very convincing illusions, but the difference between Jean's illusions and Regan's was that Jean projected reality, delving into Regan's mind and making her see her darkest fears, which was an image of a sad young woman sitting in a wheelchair. Regan manages to temporarily escape the team by projecting an illusion of the Avengers who had come to take the time displaced original X-Men. She, however, is thwarted from her attempted escape when Shadowcat phased through the aircraft, causing it to malfunction. Regan is knocked unconscious with one punch from Kitty. Whilst Mystique was put in prison, it would seem Regan gave the authorities the slip once more, as she was soon seen causing trouble again.
Despite Regan's apathetic attitude, at times she clearly wanted to become better at using her powers and strived to push herself to create even more realistic illusions. She just needed practice. To that end, when she saw Anole, one of the X-Men's students, she realized she had found the perfect guinea-pig. Anole had skipped out on a first date with a guy because he was afraid that his reptilian appearance would scare him off. Regan latched onto this insecurity and trapped Anole in an illusion that preyed on his fears of rejection. She was having a wonderful time watching the boy succumb to his fears and it got better when a couple of X-Men turned up to help. She immediately trapped them in their own fear-based illusions and the trick worked, for a while at least. As he had faced his fears numerous times, Nightcrawler broke out of Regan's illusion and forced Anole to do the same. Regan's over-confidence worked against her once more when she allowed herself to get too close to the X-Men and she was knocked unconscious.