He also never succeeded in finding a permanent replacement for her. He twice brought Medusa back into the ranks, but, as she was no longer a criminal, having since regaining her memories, she betrayed them both times. In his continued quest to crush the Fantastic Four, the Wizard has tried many iterations of the Frightful Four. Using her powers, she managed to counteract his and send him fleeing away. Next, he created more powerful ones that would mimic the powers of the four, however he was unprepared to face the elemental powers of their newest member-Susan's replacement and the sister of Medusa-the Inhuman Crystal. He created a set of wonder gloves to enchance his powers, but the four (minus Susan) beat him and took his gloves. The Wizard later broke out from prison, after helping the Sandman escape, and fought the Fantastic Four on his own. The Fantastic Four finally managed to subdue the Frightful Four, then all but Medusa were turned over to the authorities. Capturing the Thing, the Wizard used his "Id Machine" to simulate the Thing's natural tendencies toward violence and brainwash him into obeying the Wizard's commands. Weeks later, the Frightful Four made their third attempt. Later, kidnapping the Invisible Girl, they lured the Fantastic Four to a Pacific atoll where they rigged an experimental "Q-bomb" to detonate. Then, together they beat the Frightful Four until the Wizard and the Sandman exploded the Wizard's ship as a distraction, and escaped. Johnny soon appeared and forced the Wizard to use his anti-grav ship to free his team members before they floated into airless space. The Frightful Four raided the Fantastic Four's Baxter Building headquarters, and affixed the Wizard's anti-gravity discs to the four-minus Johnny-but with Alicia Masters, who managed to alert the Torch with the Invisible Girl's flare gun. The Frightful Four proved to be one of the most formidable menaces that the Fantastic Four had yet encountered. After he suggested they team up, a suggestion by the Trapster inspired him to form a team that would be a criminal counterpart to the Fantastic Four, with himself, his two rescuers, and Medusa, who was then suffering from amnesia becoming the Frightful Four. He was rescued by two other adversaries of the Torch: the Sandman and Paste-Pot Pete (soon after, the Trapster). The Wizard clashed many more times with the Human Torch until the conclusion of one encounter sent him flying uncontrollably upward by one of his anti-gravity discs, unable to descend safely. The Wizard then impersonated the Torch, launching a crime spree to destroy the Torch’s reputation, before being captured by the Fantastic Four and sent to prison. Pretending to be a victim, he was rescued by the Torch and invited him to his high-tech, futuristic mansion on Long Island where he captured the Torch with ease. Intellectually bored, however, he decided to defeat Johnny Storm, who had just appeared to the world as the Human Torch. He became known as the Wizard by legally assuming this stage name and using his advanced scientific inventions to perform feats of "magic." Bentley Wittman grew up possessing near-superhuman levels of genius and, as an adult, became an inventor of great renown, selling his futuristic inventions to the wealthy and becoming quite rich.
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