The Puppet Master's first appearance was in Fantastic Four #8 (November 1962), and he was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

[2] 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.

(According to Spider-Man Family #4, his mother died when he was young and he was often picked on, which caused him to turn to his puppets for "friendship".)

The two of them break into a fight which results in an explosion that kills Reiss and blinds his daughter Alicia, who was also caught in the blast.

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.

[24] He is defeated by Doom in Liddleville [25] and seemed to have been destroyed,[26] but his mind is then resurrected in a body of living radioactive clay.

[volume & issue needed] The jealous Puppet Master often uses his clay to manipulate the lives of the Fantastic Four, especially where his stepdaughter was concerned.

[volume & issue needed] With the Thinker and the Wizard, Masters attempts to disrupt the wedding of the Human Torch and Alicia.

[30] Later, Masters is reformed, remarried, and has a stepson; the toys he crafts for his son inadvertently caused a battle between Power Pack and the alien Ciegramites.

[volume & issue needed] Masters at some point left this cult, and entered a S.H.I.E.L.D.-maintained witness protection program, using his abilities to aid the government through the dulling of memories of other so-protected criminals' previous associates.

[volume & issue needed] The Puppet Master returned to criminal life and affiliated himself with the Mad Thinker.

Utilizing a device constructed by Mad Thinker, he was able to control a large number of non-super-humans, most notably members of the Yancy Street Gang to escalate a battle between the two different factions in the superhero Civil War.

Some of those under his control are superhuman females captured by members of the Chilean Army, and among those held captive are Dusk, Tigra, Silverclaw, Stature, and Araña.

[34] Once again the Puppet Master is presumed dead when he detonates explosives hidden beneath the house he used as a base, in a battle against Ms.

Purple Man spared Puppet Master and took control of some inmates to attack Elektra and Shroud before escaping from the Raft.

The crime took place in a sealed room that even Mister Fantastic could barely enter with Alicia as the only witness, and even she cannot decipher what has happened.

[40] 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.

The clay he mixed within this solution can be mystical, slightly radioactive, and found in a remote area near Wundagore Mountain (Transia), site to the prison of an elder god Chthon.