DOCTOR MIME

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Human mutate (possibly, see comments; pre-modern era)

Occupation: Adventurer

Group Membership: First Line (confirmed teammates with Effigy/Velmax, Eternal Brain/William Carmody, Firefall, Mr. Justice/Tim Carney, Morph, Oxbow/Sam Matonabbe, Pixie, Rapunzel, Walkabout; see comments)

Affiliations: Unrevealed, though he was most likely on friendly terms with the First Line's associates

Enemies: Unrevealed, but most likely whoever opposed the First Line

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Carmody Institute, New England

First Appearance: Marvel: The Lost Generation#11 (April 2000)

Powers/Abilities: Doctor Mime hasn't exhibited any on-panel superhuman abilities (see comments).

Height: 6'2" (by approximation)
Weight: 180 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Unrevealed, possibly white
Hair: Unrevealed

History: (Marvel: The Lost Generation#11 (fb) -BTS) - Sometime in the late-1980s, Doctor Mime joined the First Line--at that point in time, the team operated as a loose-knit band of heroes based at New England's Carmody Institute off the coast of Maine.

(Marvel: The Lost Generation#11 -BTS) - Doctor Mime and his teammate Rapunzel were unavailable for the First Line's fight against Nocturne, who threatened to destroy New York with his Alchem-Tech virus. When they returned to the Carmody Institute after an unrevealed mission, they found Effigy and the others questioning the recently apprehended Skrull spy Zankor.

(Marvel: The Lost Generation#11) - Dr. Mime looked on with quiet, grim resolve after Zankor revealed to the First Line that the Skrulls were planning an imminent invasion of Earth. He also didn't speak up when Effigy assured Zankor that the First Line would call in every super-powered ally they knew in an attempt to oppose the aliens' plans.

Comments: Created by Roger Stern (writer), John Byrne (pencils), Al Milgrom (inks).

    Ahhh, Doctor Mime. Apart from his blink-and-you'll-miss-him appearance in the closing pages of M:TLG #11, there's not a single scrap of additional information available on him. Be he animal, vegetable or mineral? Is he an alien, genetically engineered or maybe a mystical creature from a dimension where that outfit is considered tasteful?
    Possibly all of the above. The codename suggests he's able to mime or mimic people or objects. Then again, names can be deceiving, he's probably not a certified doctor either. Also, with Effigy on the team, the shapeshifting was pretty much taken care of (perhaps Mime could duplicate powers?--Snood). Mime wasn't seen in the First Line's final battle against the Skrull invasion fleet. He might have quit, disappeared or died before then...Or he might actually have been there, proving he was better at miming than we give him credit for.
    Regarding the Skrull Fleet assault/final battle: We see that at least three ships of First Line members and allies, etc. approached the Skrull fleet and that at least two of those had been shot down and crashed on the moon; we don't know how many ships took flight, and we have no idea who were on the ships that crashed. Doctor Mime may well have been among them. Regardless, either way, we don't know if he was alive or not following that battle.
--Snood

    Doctor Mime is one of the characters whose chronology DOES NOT suffer from attaching the First Line to "just before the Modern era." He was only seen on-panel for a single issue (#11), which would have either occurred somewhere in the mid-to-late-1980s or shortly before the start of the modern era. Whether issues #10-12 get distorted by decades or not does not affect him, as it does other characters in the series.
    Ultimately, my vote would be to make the interactions with Reed Richards and Ben Grimm as being topical (just like them being shown to have been active in World War II in early Marvel stories was shown to be), with Marvel: The Lost Generation#12 taking place around 1988-1990.
--Snood

    We have only listed confirmed teammates under First Line membership. It is indeed possible that Dr. Mime was a member far earlier than he referenced (or that he was a long time ally of the team), and it seems very likely that he may have been one of those involved in the Skrull fleet assault, either on one of the ships that crashed to the moon or just unseen in the battle against the Skrulls. Given we don't know his powers, it's hard to speculate under what circumstances he might have survived if he was present. Ultimately, all we know for certain is that he was a member circa #11, anything else is speculation.
    Other known members he was not seen to be teammates with include:

• Yeti was already gone from the First Line when Dr. Mime was shown to be a member, but whether he left before Mime joined is unrevealed. It also seems likely that Dr. Mime might have been part of the team during the unspecified "Rapunzel Tragedy."
• Black Fox left the First Line on bad terms after the 1980 Halwan adventure and retired not long after, but it's hard to believe he didn't get together with any of them at any point thereafter, and he did get together with them to oppose the Skrull invasion; their interaction in that battle would depend on whether Dr. Mime was there, too!
• Similarly, Flatiron, Nightingale, Positron, and Reflex were not shown to be part of the team after the Halwan adventure, and they all returned to oppose the Skrull invasion. Nightingale MAY have been inactive but still allied with team.
• Katyusha's and Templar's period of membership only extended up to the early-1970s, but they did return to oppose the Skrull invasion.
• Vulcan's period of membership only extended up to the early-1970s, and we didn't see him in the Skrull invasion, though he certainly could have been there.
• Frank, Major Mercury/Makkari, and Rebound were only shown to be part of the First Line in a single adventure taking place in 1967, though any or all of them may have joined very soon after the November, 1963 adventure and may have left shortly before the July, 1969 adventure (or maybe some or all of them joined shortly before the 1963 adventure and/or died or left shortly after the 1967 story). There's nothing to say any or all of them couldn't have interacted with the team again over the succeeding decades, though there's nothing to support that any of them actually did so.
      Further, it's not clear whether Frank from the First Line is definitely the Frankenstein monster or not. The First Line and Frankenstein Monster profiles in the OHotMU are contradictory in this regard, with the former saying they are the same and the latter saying it is "unknown."
      As the head writer of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe at that time, I can tell you, the official policy is: Frank of the First Line is apparently either a Frankenstein monster - meaning a creature created in the manner of Victor Frankenstein's first creation - or just a being with a similar appearance and abilities who adopted the name Frank due to the notable similarities. However, it as yet remains unrevealed whether Frank is actually the original creation of Victor Frankenstein, aka "the Frankenstein monster". Previous entries referencing Frank as "Frankenstein monster" were unclear in specifying/clarifying this point.
  --Snood.
      On a similar note, Norvo has speculated that Riot-Act could be an older version of Rebound.
• Blackjack died in 1980, years before Dr. Mime was shown to join.
• Liberty Girl died and the Yankee Clipper disappeared in 1963, close to two decades before Dr. Mime's known period of activity with the First Line.

    How's that for making the most of a character appearing in just a handful of panels?
--Snood

Profile by Norvo.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Character should not be confused with

• MIME - Nibelung, son of Alberich, raised Siegfried, attempted to poison him to gain ring of the Nibelung, consumed own poison--Thor I#297
• MURDEROUS MIMES () - criminals led by General, sought to terminate Spider-Man--Peter Parker: Spider-Man#21
• Any other "Doctor" or "Mime" characters (and oh boy, there's plenty of those!)

images: (without ads)
Marvel: The Lost Generation#11, p21, pan4 (main image)

Appearances:
Marvel: The Lost Generation#11 (April 2000) - Roger Stern (writer), John Byrne (pencils), Al Milgrom (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)

First Posted: 02/09/2014
Last updated: 05/26/2014

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com

Special Thanks to http://www.g-mart.com/ for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

Back to Characters