Criminal career
Phineas Mason is a brilliant inventor and technician who designs advanced weaponry for criminals and sometimes undertakes crimes of his own. As "the Terrible Tinkerer", he runs an underground fix-it shop disguised as a radio repair shop. On at least one occasion, a potential customer gained the inventor's attention by presenting a transistor radio and telling Mason that "I've got a radio that just can't carry a tune". The Tinkerer's original scheme involved the employment of a team of petty has-been stuntmen and thugs. They specialized in placing bugs into radios and blackmailing state officials and politicians. The Tinkerer tried to present himself as an alien to confuse his pursuers by leaving behind a mask that looked like his face when he escaped from Spider-Man in a hovercraft shaped like a flying saucer. [6] [7]
The Tinkerer's next encounter with Spider-Man resulted in deploying the Toy, a hi-tech robot that serves as an assistant and lackey. [8] The Toy also helped the Tinkerer escape from his hideout when raided by the police. [9] The Tinkerer is known to have created the suit for Mysterio, a man that once worked as one of his alien-suited servants. [10] Much later, he was hired by the Kingpin to rebuild the Spider-Mobile to destroy Spider-Man. [9] The Tinkerer redesigned Rocket Racer's rocket-powered skateboard, [11] designed the armed wheel-shaped Big Wheel vehicle, [12] repaired the Goldbug's bug-ship., [13] and designed some technological hardware so that Joseph Rambo can become Binary Bug. [14] He robbed loan companies by using remote-controlled toys until stopped by Spider-Man. [15] The Tinkerer also provided Whirlwind with improved armor and weaponry, [16] provided Diamondback with new throwing diamonds, [17] built the Grim Reaper's scythe-like weapon to go over where his right hand was, [18] provided Mac Gargan with a modified scorpion tail during the "Acts of Vengeance" storyline, [19] and even fixed Grizzly's exo-skeleton harness and grizzly suit. [20] He has worked for Hammerhead (who was mentioned to have made Hammerhead's exoskeleton), [21] the Beetle (who Tinkerer helped to make a new Beetle armor), [22] the Black Cat (who received special equipment from him that enhanced her agility, senses, and strength), [23] the Jack O'Lantern, Owl (who made special equipment for him), the Ani-Men, Jester (who made a number of gimmicks for him), [24] and the Constrictor.
Since he is a small business operator who works alone (and arms criminals), the Terrible Tinkerer takes precautions to prevent being cheated. For instance, Killer Shrike commissioned the Tinkerer to improve weapon gauntlets. At delivery time, the criminal decided to use the weapons to threaten the inventor and avoid paying. The gauntlets backfired on Killer Shrike, wounding and immobilizing due to a failsafe the Tinkerer engineers into his products for such situations. [25]
Mason is forced to work for the Vulture (Adrian Toomes) interested in freeing Nitro from custody. This falls apart when the heroic mutants Rusty Collins and Skids chance upon the situation and defeat the villains. The Tinkerer is arrested off-panel. [26]
The Trapster later sued the Tinkerer for selling faulty equipment. The Trapster's character witnesses in the case against the Tinkerer include the Beetle, Blacklash, Blizzard, Boomerang, Jack O'Lantern, Mad Thinker, Porcupine, Ringer, Stilt-Man, Spymaster and Taskmaster. When Taskmaster accuses the other villains of not properly using the equipment that the Tinkerer provided, it resulted in an in-court brawl that was broken up by She-Hulk which leads to the villains getting arrested. When the Tinkerer and Mad Thinker ask She-Hulk who is superior, She-Hulk says to sort it out themselves and storms off. [27]
His son Rick Mason is a world-class mercenary for the American government and freelance operative. Despite the two being on opposite sides of the law, father and son remained on good terms and met frequently. The Tinkerer even aided Rick from time to time, and once provided his son with information about a coup in South America. [28] After Rick was seemingly killed in action, the grief-stricken father decided to mend his ways while still maintaining links to supervillains to give information he could discreetly pass along. [29]
In the Secret War miniseries, Nick Fury discovered a link between the weaponry of most of the known technology-based villains in the Marvel Universe and the kingdom of Latveria. The Tinkerer was revealed to have received a vast portion of his funding and presumably the resources and technology from which he has developed most of his clients' arsenals over the years from Latveria. This was part of an ongoing "terrorist" initiative fostered by the kingdom's despotic leader Doctor Doom and minion Countess Luciana Von Bardas. [30] S.H.I.E.L.D. agents discovered the Tinkerer's workshop by using Killer Shrike as a mole. When the agents converged on the workshop, the canny villain detected this. Killer Shrike was struck down by the Tinkerer's security systems, and the Tinkerer fled to Latveria rather than face justice. Early in the Marvel Knights imprint of Spider-Man, Eddie Brock sells the Venom symbiote through an auction put on by the Tinkerer. [31]
The Punisher finds and confronts the Tinkerer after a confrontation with the murderous Stilt-Man to which Tinkerer begs for death. Not only was his son dead, but his grandson perished in the Stamford, Connecticut explosion that heralded the Civil War's beginning. Without his beloved son or grandson, he was suicidal and continued his work in the hope that both superheroes and supervillains would wipe each other out. The Punisher stabs the Tinkerer in the back, likely leaving him paralyzed. [32] Now reliant on a wheelchair, Mason has been contracted by Silas "Cyber" Burr to subject the resurrected villain's new body to the Adamantium-epidermal bonding process. Mason agrees to create a "pacemaker" for the ailing Cyber's heart condition, as well as three carbonadium bullets for Logan in exchange for the use of Logan's mysterious carbonadium synthesizer. Cyber awakens from the procedure to discover the deadly radioactive device permanently attached to the chest and that Logan has disappeared with the C-synth. Phineas is last seen in the enraged Cyber's clutches. [33] Surviving his encounter with Cyber, he is seen attending the Survivors' Guild, a therapy group for survivors of the Punisher. [34] He is later apprehended by Iron Man for ties to a super WMD black market. [35]
During the "Secret Invasion" storyline, he is freed from Prison 42 to help Human Torch, Thing, Franklin Richards and Valeria Richards return to the Earth dimension. It is mentioned that Mason had retired the Tinkerer identity but is imprisoned for breaking the Registration Act anyway. He is initially reluctant to help his old foes, but Franklin's and Valeria's resemblance to his own grandchildren causes him to relent. [36] It was revealed Rick is in fact still alive, under deep cover, and in a conspiracy which resulted in Carol Danvers's apparent murder for Norman Osborn in exchange for his father's release and cleared record. [37] The Tinkerer is later seen in jail where he repairs Hypno-Hustler's costume. [38]
Phil Urich later visits the Tinkerer to have the Hobgoblin's gear upgraded to evade the Superior Spider-Man (Doctor Octopus' mind in Spider-Man's body). It is shown that the Tinkerer has taken in Tiberius Stone as a secret apprentice as Stone gets revenge on the Hobgoblin by making it so that the Hobgoblin's tech fails. [39]
He fabricated the identity of his own brother Hophni Mason via a robotic suit. [40] As Hophni, he acted a confidant of various superheroes (such as Ant-Man and Captain America), [41] and both provided technology and an acquaintance to Teresa Parker. [42] His façade is revealed to which he used his said disguise as a battlesuit which gets defeated by Spider-Man. However, it is revealed that Tinkerer is an ally to the Vedomi alien race of sentient A.I.s. [43] After escaping from custody, the Tinkerer (equipped with the Vedomi's battlesuit) battles Spider-Man. Spider-Man realized the Tinkerer was sorrowful and resentful towards humanity and help change his point of view and stay with the Vedomi to help guide positively. [44]
