ID MACHINE

Classification: Terrestrial technology

Creator: Wizard (Bentley Wittman)

User/Possessors: Wizard

First Appearance: Fantastic Four I#41 (August, 1965)

Powers/Abilities/Functions: The Id Machine uses directed brain impulses to access the portion of the human brain containing man's primitive, evil instincts. Once the subject has been rendered vulnerable and receptive, the user can program the target using verbal commands spoken through a microphone attached to the machine. Effectively brainwashed, the target becomes enthralled and is willing to obey whatever command planted into his or her subconscious. The machine also allows for implanting additional commands, giving the user greater control over his subjects.

History:
(Fantastic Four I#41 - BTS) - The Wizard single-handedly thought up and constructed the Id Machine in his secret New Jersey headquarters.

(Fantastic Four I#41) - Terribly upset with his teammates in the Fantastic Four, an exhausted and emotionally distraught Thing (Ben Grimm) quit the FF and struck out on his own. Climbing into the bed of a pick-up truck, he fell asleep amidst the busy yet painfully slow-moving traffic out of New York City. Once the traffic cleared, the truck driver (unaware of the orange-skinned "hitchhiker" in back) stepped on the accelerator as he drove on a bumpy country road in New Jersey, and failed to notice the sleeping Thing had slipped off his vehicle. Snoozing on the road, the Thing was unaware when the Wizard's remote controlled anti-gravity devices carried him to the Frightful Four's headquarters. The Wizard placed the still unconscious Thing in his newly constructed Id Machine and used it to fill Ben with hatred for his former teammates.

    Meanwhile, Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards), the Invisible Girl (Sue Storm), and the Human Torch (Johnny Storm) were concerned about their absent teammate; but Johnny got a lead on the missing Ben from a motorist who sighted the Thing on the back of a pick-up truck barreling along Route 4 in Jersey, so the trio headed for the highway in one of Johnny's cars to search for Ben.

    After the Wizard's brainwashing procedure was completed, the newly hate-filled Thing was introduced to the Frightful Four as their latest member, just as the villains saw the Human Torch's flare lighting up the night-sky, indicating the heroes were on to them.

   The FF soon attacked the Wizard's base, but weren't prepared for the Thing's brutal assault, and the captured trio of heroes was placed in separate devices designed to neutralize their powers. After proving instrumental in defeating his former team, the Thing noticed his new teammate Medusa was becoming a bit too vocal for his taste and offered to silence her. However, the Wizard used the pre-programmed post-hypnotic control over the Thing to knock him out with the word "sleep" until he was needed again.

   After the Wizard awoke the confused Thing from his forced nap, the Wizard further cemented the Id Machine's reprogramming by reinforcing the notion that Mr. Fantastic was responsible for turning Ben into a monster. This newfound knowledge enraged the Thing to such a degree he was ready to kill.

(Fantastic Four I#42) - Influenced by the Id Machine, the Thing tried to smash the captured Mr. Fantastic, who used his elastic form to dodge the blow, allowing the Thing to shatter Reed's restraints instead. Now free, Mr. Fantastic kept the Frightful Four distracted while the Human Torch and the Invisible Girl managed to free themselves and joined the fight. Mr. Fantastic tried his best to free the Thing from the Id Machine's programming, but got stuffed and bottled up by him in a vase instead. The Invisible Girl heroically succeeded in escaping with the trapped Mr. Fantastic and freed him, even as the Human Torch was left to fight alone, eventually getting defeated by the Thing and turned over to the Wizard's Id Machine for processing.

(Fantastic Four I#42 - BTS) - Unbeknownst to the Wizard, the Thing and the other Frightful Four members, the unseen Invisible Girl used her powers to slightly tamper with the Id Machine, basically disabling its effects. When the Wizard exposed the Torch to the machine, the Torch pretended the device's mental reconditioning was effective and played along.

(Fantastic Four I#42) - A seemingly mind-controlled Human Torch joined the Frightful Four and the Thing as they prepared to take down Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl. The Torch almost burned his new ally Medusa's hair, much to her chagrin, but to the Wizard it was merely proof the treatment had worked: the Torch was showing his most evil, vicious side. The Torch joined the Thing and the Frightful Four in hunting down Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl.

    But Reed and Sue raided the Wizard's equipment storehouse, then attached one of the villain's anti-gravity discs to the Thing, rendering him weightless. Reed then lassoed the floating Ben with his arm and dragged him along, as he and Sue were being pursued by the "brainwashed" Human Torch.

(Fantastic Four I#43) - Mr. Fantastic noticed how clumsy the Torch seemed in his attacks, as he and the Invisible Girl managed to drive away in Johnny's car, towing the floating Thing along behind them. Sue revealed her tampering and the fact Johnny was merely play-acting. After they got back to the Baxter Building, Reed and Sue took the mind-controlled Thing (who was still hungry for blood) up to their headquarters. Reed managed to render the howling-mad Ben unconscious with some gas, then put Ben into a hastily constructed device designed to counteract the Id Machine's suggestions.

   Meanwhile, the Frightful Four realized Johnny's deceit, and incapacitated him before traveling to the Baxter Building in their anti-grav ship for their final engagement. Once there, the Frightful Four used Johnny--who was held captive, magnetized to a flying life-size anti-gravity disc--as a bargaining chip in their fight with Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl; but the tide turned when the Thing, freed from the Id Machine's influence, seized the Wizard and disabled all his gadgets, including the control over the Torch. The reunited Fantastic Four quickly overpowered their evil counterparts (...although Medusa got away in the anit-grav ship, later to be reunited with her fellow Inhumans).

(Marvel Super-Heroes I#15/1) - At his hideout in France, the Wizard modified the Id Machine into a larger and more powerful ray-gun configuration, and planned to use it for world conquest; but needing a concentrated power source to make its operation practical, he schemed to steal a sample of the fissionable material Quadranium 99 from a NATO laboratory. Along with the Sandman and Trapster, the Wizard used trickery to coerce the reformed Medusa into rejoining them for the robbery.

    The reconstituted Frightful Four flew to the NATO lab in the Wizard's anti-grav ship, where they used their individual skills to get past the perimeter of defenses, and Medusa herself obtained the Quadranium container; but as they made their getaway in the anti-grav ship, Medusa learned she'd been tricked by the other three, so she tossed the container from the ship and made her escape--consequently, the Wizard was never able to use the Id Ray.

(Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#12/2) - Disgusted by the fact his former Frightful Four teammate the Sandman was now an active superhero, the Wizard kidnapped him. Figuring Sandman's sterling reputation as a hero, with connections to Silver Sable and her Wild Pack, suited his future plans, Wizard decided to use an updated version of his Id Machine to alter Sandman's mind. Using simple vocal commands, the Wizard reprogrammed Sandman, forcing him to revert to a vicious, callous and uncaring criminal state of mind. Pleased with the effects of his handiwork, Bentley Wittman left his erstwhile ally alone.

(Thunderbolts I#40 (fb)) - Hawkeye revealed to fellow Thunderbolts members Moonstone and Songbird how he had learned that the Wizard had recently mucked with Sandman's head, turning him back into a full-fledged bad guy with a mad-on for everyone he used to work with when he was on the side of the angels. This still didn't deter the Thunderbolts from seeking out Sandman for a covert mission to Symkaria.

(Thing II#6 (fb)) - During a fight with the Thing, Sandman was backed into a corner by Ben, who wanted to know what had made his old pal turn evil again. Momentarily startled, the villain involuntarily recalled how the Wizard used his Id Machine on him. Unable to break free from the machine's conditioning, Sandman lashed out in a blind rage, trying to drown the Thing by vomiting sand in his face.

Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta.

It's interesting to note that the Wizard, a natural genius capable of constructing devices like the Id Machine, had so much trouble finding loyal members for his Frightful Four over the years. One would imagine he'd use it during his recruitment drives, assuring the loyalty of his subjects/teammates without too much hassle. He could even have added the mind control technology to his arsenal of disc-shaped gadgets, but that would have put the Controller (Basil Sandhurst) out of a job years before he was even created.

   It took over 30 years (for us at least) for the Wizard to remember he had the Id Machine lying around before he used it again on Sandman. You'd think he'd used it in more recent times to ensure the blind faith, love and loyalty to all things viciously evil of his 23+ clones. After all, the technology itself seemed to work.

In regards to why he didn't use it for his clones, perhaps he designed it with a fail-safe and it couldn't work on the Wizard himself (and thus any clones that might share near-duplicate brain patterns).
--Madison Carter

Thanks to Ron Fredricks for the new images and for adding the missed Marvel Super-Heroes appearance.

Profile by Norvo.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Id Machine has no known connections to:


images: (without ads)
Fantastic Four I#41, p9, pan1-4 (main image, Wizard uses Id Machine on Thing)
Fantastic Four I#43, p3, pan5 (allegedly controls the Human Torch)
Marvel Super-Heroes I#15/1, p3, pan4 (Id Machine converted to ray gun; Trapster, Wizard, Sandman)
Peter Parker Spider-Man II#12/2, p6, pan1 (Wizard uses Id Machine on Sandman)


Appearances:
Fantastic Four I#41 (August 1965) - Stan Lee (writer), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Fantastic Four I#42 (September 1965) - Stan Lee (writer), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Fantastic Four I#43 (October 1965) - Stan Lee (writer), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Marvel Super-Heroes I#15/1 (July, 1968) - Archie Goodwin (writer), Gene Colan (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Stan Goldberg (colors), Irv Watanabe (letters), Stan Lee (editor)
Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#12 (December 1999) - Howard Mackie (writer), John Romita Jr. (pencils), Scott Hanna (inker), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Thunderbolts I#40 (July, 2000) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Mark Bagley (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Thing II#6 (June, 2006) - Dan Slott (writer), Kieron Dwyer (artist), Tom Brevoort (editor)


First Posted: 11/23/2013
Last updated: 10/11/2023

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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