Appearing in "Meeting of the Minds"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Professor Power (Anthony Power) - Mentallo (Marvin Flumm)
- Fixer (Norbert Ebersol)
- Frederick Duncan (Mentioned)
Other Characters:
- Matthew Power (First appearance)
- J. Jonah Jameson (Referenced)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth
- United States of America
- New York
- Westchester County
- Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters
- Scarsdale (First appearance)
- Professor Anthony Power's mansion
- Westchester County
- New York
- United States of America
Items:
- Spider-Man's Web-Shooters
- Spider-Man's Suit
- Professor Power's Psychoplastic cage
Synopsis for "Meeting of the Minds"
After fighting Professor Power's Roman soldiers upstate, Wolverine invites Spider-man to a training session in X-mansion. Spider-Man finds the session to hard and mentally ask Professor X for stopping the session: he would have preferred a donut and a cup of coffee.
So soon Spider-Man shares the breakfast table with Colossus, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde and Professor X, himself. After breakfast Spider-Man accompanies Professor X in his trip to Professor Power's mansion where Charles was invited for a meeting. They do not know still that Professor Power is the man who attacked them in the previous issue of the series.
While Professor X talks with Professor Power about their later political ideas, Spider-Man senses something troubling in the mansion and enters secretly, but he is attacked by the same Roman soldiers he fought in the previous issue. Professor Power reveals that his real intention meeting Professor Xavier is to ask him for trying to heal the mind of his son, which was seriously injured in the Vietnam war.
Professor X finds the young man's mind is beyond healing, and also that Power's mind is hidden. When he tells Power that he is not able to heal his son, Professor Power captures Professor X inside a psycho-plastic cage. And then Power explains how he has been able to hide his mind to Professor X's scanner: he controls Mentallo's mental powers. But he needs also to feed Mentallo's mind and he needs Professor X's mind to do it.
Professor Power then drains Professor x's powers into Mentallo's mind and plans to activate a machine to propagate a mind war against the Soviet Union. But Spider-Man enters and fights Fixer (an agent of Power) while Mentallo and Professor X fight a mind battle. In the end, Professor X wins, but some remaining connection among his mind, Power's draining machine and the young boy's mind makes this later be injured again.
Professor X frees himself after defeating Mentallo and explains Professor Power that his machinations may have destroyed his son's mind forever...
Notes
Continuity Notes
- In this story, Sprite states that she has been following Spider-Man's career "almost since [she] was born." At the time of this story, per X-Men #129, Kitty was about 13 years old. Per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616, Spider-Man has been active for roughly five years. As such Kitty would have been eight years old when Spider-Man first appeared on the scene. Her statement here could be viewed as an exaggeration on her part.
- Likewise, when Colossus points out that Kitty idolizes Shawn Cassidy and Brooke Shields, and Spider-man's dream of a castaway fantasy with Diane Keaton, these are topical references per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616.
- Professor X is shocked to discover that Anthony Power knows about his connection to the X-Men. At the time of this story, Xavier's connection to the X-Men was not known to the general public until he revealed it years later in New X-Men #116.
- Anthony Power states that his son was rendered brain dead during his service in the Vietnam War. This should also be considered a topical reference.
- Professor X recognizes Mentallo as a former SHIELD agent who betrayed the organization. This happened in Strange Tales #141. Power mentions how Mentallo's mind is currently burnt out, that happened to him in Micronauts #25.
- Power also mentions how he developed a psi-ops unit. That was in Captain America #268 and Defenders #106.
