MASTER OF THE WORLD: Page 4 of 4

BIOGRAPHY - Page 4

If he died at all, death never proved to be permanent for the Master of the World. Possibly his battlesuit and alien technology kept him alive, or possibly he was returned to life following the events of the “Chaos War.” Whatever the reason for his return, the Master soon set about his next diabolical scheme, this time to simply will humanity to his own way of thinking, to make them all as perfect as him. This included a complete molecular restructure of the body, a process called Unity, which was based on Plodex technology. An odd side effect of this, however, was that recipients of the process were left with only four toes on each foot. For his base of operations, the Master re-established himself within a Plodex spaceship, now located beneath Parliament Hill, in the nation’s capital. This enabled the Master to easily continue his manipulations behind the scenes. One of the earliest to undergo the Unity Process was Gary Cody, former government liaison to Alpha Flight, who was long-ago left braindead during a battle with the creature known as Bedlam. Cody formed the political party called Unity and, as Fear Itself spread across Canada and the world, Canadians sought stability in uncertain times. In the wake of this fear, the Unity Party was voted into power, with Gary Cody the new Canadian Prime Minister.

The Master secured one of his biggest wins yet when he recruited Canada's greatest hero, Heather Hudson, to his cause. Heather apparently did this voluntarily, due to having been denied custody of her daughter, Claire, who was sent to live with a cousin when Heather and James Hudson were both believed dead. Heather underwent the Master's Unity Process, completely subjugating herself to his will, which included turning her against her husband and friends in Alpha Flight. To combat the rising threat of the Serpent God and prevent Fear Itself spreading further, one of the earliest actions of the Unity Party was to revoke Canada's Charter of Freedoms and enable the Emergencies Act, essentially putting Canada under martial law. The Leader of the Opposition and other influential figures who spoke out against the Unity Party were arrested as a consequence, and Alpha Flight were captured. Several members of Alpha Flight almost underwent the Unity Process until two members, who were not captured, rescued everyone. Alpha Flight were branded terrorists and the Master manipulated other ways to strike out at them, such as forcing Northstar's partner, Kyle Jinadu, to undergo the Unity Process. The former ward of Alpha Flight, the Purple Woman, was also subjected to the process, making her one of the members of a team of villains, Alpha Strike. At the same time, Alpha Flight located the political prisoners, who had been outfitted with James Hudson's old Groundhog suits and were mining Plodex technology from a nature reserve. It was only then that Alpha Flight realized who they were really up against. [Alpha Flight (4th series) #0.1, 1-4]

The Master and his associates grew concerned when it became apparent that Alpha Flight were plotting against Unity. The Master was presented with an interesting proposition when Aurora, or at least her split-personality known as Jeanne-Marie, approached him, offering to reveal Alpha Flight's location if she could undergo Unity to restore her fractured mind. Using this information, Alpha Strike were able to launch an ambush on Alpha Flight at their resistance camp. It was then that the Master learned that Alpha Flight had created a device which could reverse his Unity Process, and all they needed was the powers of the Purple Woman. He was furious when Alpha Flight captured the Purple Woman and placed her into their reverse-Unity device.

Knowing he needed to take a more direct approach, the Master raised his Plodex ship, which erupted up through Parliament Hill, destroying it and killing Prime Minster Gary Cody. En route to Alpha Flight’s camp, he revealed to Department H's Agent Jeff Brown another part of his plan – to plunder Canada's resources and create a new species to conquer the stars. Upon arriving at the resistance camp, the Master was attacked aboard his spaceship by Guardian, who wanted to rescue his daughter. Heather tried to stop Guardian but, when the Master announced that he was going to take Claire to the stars with him, either as his heir or mate, this triggered something within Heather. She joined Guardian in fighting the Master and, when the situation arose, she took Claire and flew away, while the Master's ship crashed to the ground with him aboard. With the Master defeated, the Unity Process was then reversed on those who had undergone the “treatment.” [Alpha Flight (4th series) #5-8]

Apparently, the Master was killed in the crash, but the ancient being would continue to live in a new body, presumably regrown from Plodex technology. At some point, he adopted the guise of Philippe Beaulieu and positioned himself within the rebuilt Canadian Parliament. By this time, Department H had started to focus its operations on the Alpha Flight Space Station, a low-orbit defense station under the command of Carol Danvers, now known as Captain Marvel. Among its crew were a number of long-serving Alpha Flight members – Sasquatch, Aurora and Puck. As Beaulieu, the Master was appointed as Canada's ambassador on the space station's Board of Governors. The Board was comprised of representatives of each Earth nation (or interstellar planet) that had some shared interest and contribution into the running of the space station. When a second superhuman Civil War erupted, Beaulieu encouraged Captain Marvel, with the support of some of the Board, in her efforts against Iron Man and his allies.

However, when Captain Marvel withheld information concerning a precognitive Inhuman who could assist in her efforts against Tony Stark, the Board was not happy with her. After an intensive interrogation of Captain Marvel, the majority of the Board, including Beaulieu, instructed Captain Marvel to use the skills of the Inhuman in putting together a taskforce to prevent crimes and disasters happening before they took place. During the interrogation, Beaulieu appeared firm but kindly towards Captain Marvel. The Master's machinations this time were more personal to him: revenge against Carol Danvers and Alpha Flight for his past defeats at their hand, and to obtain a new form of power from an old artifact, the Thundersword. Beaulieu's manipulations increased, having Captain Marvel retrieve the Thundersword from its owner and setting up Aurora to take the fall for leaked information involving the predictive justice unit that Carol led. When Aurora was placed in custody and Puck and Sasquatch sided with her over Captain Marvel, Beaulieu appeared on the Alpha Flight Space Station to represent them. When the opportunity arose, he then promptly shunted the three of them into space. Now that the Master had had revealed himself, Captain Marvel promptly rescued her teammates, having suspected the Master was behind the troubles with the predictive justice unit all along.

Having located the Thundersword, the Master claimed that power for himself and battled his old foe, Carol Danvers. During the battle, the Master relished his newfound power but Captain Marvel forced him from the space station and down to Earth. They continued to battle, until Captain Marvel took the Thundersword from the Master and threw it towards its original owner. That person took the sword back and, to the Master's dismay, he was stripped of his new powers. [Captain Marvel (8th series) #6-10]

It's not clear what happened to the Master following this defeat but, apparently, he was incarcerated. Although he was yet again unsuccessful in his machinations, the Master did at least have a small win, as his manipulations forever damaged the relationship between Carol Danvers and her Alpha Flight teammates.

After escaping incarceration, the Master returned to Canada, where he sought once again to save the world, this time by contributing to battling climate change. He established a facility in Nunavut that could repair damage done to the surrounding glaciers. The Master also began using insect-like drones, which were likely derived from Plodex technology, to assist him with his day-to-day activities. The local residents were not happy with the Master's scheme, however as they believed he was draining the essence of the Inua spirit known as Sila. In fact, that's exactly what he was doing, using Sila's power to repair the planet now so that it would be in perfect condition for when he took over as the planet's ruler.

When the teenage heroes called the Champions became involved in the Master's plot, they believed what he was doing was a good thing. Knowing it would be many, many years before he could take over as ruler, they saw fit to leave him to repair the planet now and for heroes of the future to deal with him when the time arose. The Master was delighted when Captain Marvel and members of Alpha Flight arrived on scene to stop him and more so when the Champions sought to fight on the Master’s behalf and the work he was doing to save the planet. However, when one of the Champions infiltrated the facility and discovered the captive spirit Sila, the Champions realized her essence was being drained for the Master's own benefit and the young heroes sided with Alpha Flight. Not wanting to battle the two teams, the Master escaped when he forced the destruction of his facility. His plans to save the world were thwarted again. [Champions (2nd series) #20-21]

The Master retreated to one of his hidden bases of operations and from there he began to monitor the teenage Champions, their initial decision to side with him having piqued his interest. At the same time, he continued to seek out new power to aide him in his goal of saving the planet. His monitoring of the Champions enabled him to locate a powerful energy source when the teenage heroes visited the African nation of Tanzania. The Master arrived in Tanzania but found that the Champions had vanished, and the locals did not know where they went. His drones soon located the source of great power he had detected: a portal. When the drone he sent through the portal did not return, the Master stepped through the portal himself to investigate and found himself in the pocket dimension known as Weirdworld.

After slaughtering a large dragon, the Master found the portal that brought him to this strange land had closed, so he was unable to retrieve more drones and return. As his armor's internal power began to decrease, he explored his new surroundings and located two of the missing Champions, the new Wasp and the young Nova. Since his arrival, Nova had found himself with the ability to activate and control the mysterious crystals that gave life and power to this realm. Taking one of the crystals, the Master was able to re-power his failing armor and, with Nova and the Wasp at his side, the three of them making their way through Weirdworld, eventually establishing a kingdom, where the Master ruled.

As the Master of Weirdworld, the Master sought to once again exert his will on others and, using the Crystal Labryrinth, he would be able to do so thanks to Nova's ability to control the crystals of this realm. Unfortunately for him, the Master found that, even in a pocket dimension, there would always be someone who opposed him. The remaining Champions had regrouped across Weirdworld and rallied to stop the Master from executing his plan using Nova. When one of the Champions was able to reverse the effect that Weirdworld had over the team, returning them to their true versions, Nova was freed from the Master's influence. With Nova no longer controlling the crystals of Weirdworld, the Master lost his power source and, with no chance of regaining control soon, he apparently fled into the wilds of Weirdworld. [Champions (2nd series) #23, 25-27]

At some point, the Master found a way back to his true world. He attended a criminal technology expo show. Despite not needing food or drink, he was seen drinking with Hydra agents, as M.O.D.O.K attempted to retrieve a password from him to enable him to attend a special auction. It's possible the Master attended the expo to learn about other technologies, as it seems unlikely he would be wanting to provide his Plodex technology to other villains. [M.O.D.O.K. Head Games #2]

At any rate, the Master is likely to now be plotting his next scheme to bend humanity to his will, create the perfect species or take over the world. Or, as he sees it, save the world.