SOUL MASTERS
Membership: None named
Purpose: To conquer other dimensions
Affiliations: Screamers
Enemies: Captain Mar-Vell, Primus, Dr. Lyman Shaw, Stara
Base of Operations: Shadow Realm
First Appearance: Marvel Spotlight II#4 (January, 1980)
Powers/Abilities: The Soul Masters
possessed a number of (magical?) abilities, including the power to fire
blasts of energy from their hands, generate force fields, probe the
minds of others, and steal the souls of others. Their greatest power
was to transform their pawns ("Screamers") into living shadows. The
Soul Masters were unable to leave the Shadow Realm themselves, and
would use the Screamers as their agents on Earth.
History: (Marvel Spotlight II#4 (fb)) - The Soul Masters were residents of the Shadow Realm who invaded Archko, a neighbouring dimension, and subjugated its people using their Screamers. When their enemies' government had fallen, they brought their dimension into the Shadow Realm, and kept the remaining people alive so that they could feed on their souls. Primus, whose father had been a resistance leader, informed the Soul Masters of the planet Earth, which he had learned of through the experiments of a human scientist named Dr. Lyman Shaw, and bargained this information for his people's lives. The Soul Masters granted Primus the ability to become a "living shadow" so that he could assist them in their invasion plans for Earth.
(Marvel Spotlight II#4) - The Soul Masters had their Screamers murder Dr. Shaw to keep him from warning Earth, but Primus betrayed the Soul Masters and brought the hero Captain Mar-Vell to the Shadow Realm to help oppose them. Mar-Vell helped train resistance fighters to assault the Soul Masters, but the Soul Masters were aware of their plot, and once they had set out to attack the Soul Masters' citadel, they sent a Screamer to capture Primus' wife Stara. The Soul Masters extracted everything Stara knew from her mind, taking away her very soul. Although their Screamers fell before Primus and Mar-Vell, they were still strong enough to take the remaining heroes. Primus was enraged by what they had done to Stara, and attacked them. While he fought, Mar-Vell destroyed the machines which the Soul Masters had made to access Earth, then returned in time to slay the last Soul Masters with Primus.
Comments: Created by Archie Goodwin, Marv Wolfman and Steve Ditko.
It is unclear whether the abilities of the Soul Masters and those they conferred upon Primus were magical in nature, or simply super-science. I would think magic, given that the Soul Masters position their fingers just like Ditko's Dr. Strange.
I think the most disturbing thing about the Soul
Masters is that picture on the left of one almost flipping Stara the
bird.
Primus' home dimension was given the name Archko in
Marvel Monsters: From the Files of Ulysses Bloodstone and the Monster
Hunters#1.
by Prime Eternal
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Soul Masters should not be confused with:
The Screamers were the foot soldiers of the Soul Masters, and were soulless beings who existed as "living shadows," unleashing terrible shrieks to paralyze their enemies' nervous system as they obeyed their masters' will. They seemed to possess no will of their own. The Soul Masters used them as agents on Earth to assassinate Dr. Shaw, as they were unable to leave the Shadow Realm. The Screamers were all seemingly killed by Primus, Captain Mar-Vell, and Primus' resistance fighters.
--Marvel Spotlight II#4) 4 (fb), 4
Dr. Lyman Shaw was an innocent scientist who was conducting experiments from the Harlow Mansion on Earth. When he attempted to communicate with other worlds by harnessing ultra-high sonic frequencies, he was detected by Primus, who used the existence of Earth to bargain for his people's lives. The Soul Masters sent the Screamers to Earth by trailing Shaw's transmissions, and they killed Dr. Shaw before he could alert anyone else to what was happening. It was Shaw's death that led to Captain Mar-Vell's journey to the Shadow Realm.
--Marvel Spotlight II#4) 4 (fb), 4
Images taken from:
Marvel Spotlight II#4, page 22, panel 4
Marvel Spotlight II#4, page 14, panel 3
Screamers- Marvel Spotlight II#4, page 5, panel 2
Shaw- Marvel Spotlight II#4, page 1, panel 2
Last updated: 12/07/05
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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