History of Tinkering

Phineas Mason is an insanely brilliant inventor who works for super villains designing their weaponry and gadgets, though he has been known to undertake criminal enterprises of his own. As his alias, the Tinkerer, he runs an underground military-style engineering bay disguised as a simple radio repair shop. Several times, customers have confronted Mason by entering his shop and presenting a radio to assist in his guise. Often times letting out a witty quip such as, "I've got a radio here that just can't carry a tune." The original scheme of the Tinkerer involved the employment of several thugs and placing bugs in repaired radios to gain secret information on people and blackmailing them.

It was believed for a short time that the Tinkerer's genius came from an alien culture and that Tinkerer himself was an alien. During an escape from Spider-Man he left behind a mask resembling his own face, and took off in a very UFO-like hovercraft. The next time he encountered Spider-Man, he deployed the Toy. The Toy is a high-tech robot Tinkerer uses as a lieutenant of sorts, he assists around the shop and acts as a lackey.

The Tinkerer can be linked to several mainstream villains. He created the illusion-suit for Mysterio, as well as Rocket Racer's gear and rocket-board. He has fixed Grizzly's power-suit, and worked for Black Cat on several occasions. The Tinkerer, regardless of all his criminal endeavors, has never been caught or brought to justice.

Because of his loner style, apart from the Toy, Tinkerer takes numerous precautions in his arming of criminals. For instance, Killer Shrike commissioned the Tinkerer to improve his power gauntlets. When it came time for the product to be delivered, Shrike decided to use the gauntlets to avoid payment. Tinkerer activated a fail-safe protocol and the gauntlets backfired, severally wounding Killer Shrike.

Tinkerer's son, Rick Mason, is known as the Agent. The Agent, is a world-class spy for the American government, and despite their obvious moral disagreements the two have remained on good terms and meet often. The Tinkerer has often aided his son, however Rick was killed in action, and though his action greatly hurt the Tinkerer it motivated him to mend his ways and begin working with law enforcement agencies. He maintained his connection to super villains, however this was only done to give information to SHIELD discreetly.

Nick Fury discovered a link between the weaponry of most known technology-based villains and the kingdom of Latveria. The Tinkerer is revealed to have received nearly all his funding and presumably his resources and technology from investments made by Dr. Doom.

SHIELD agents made a raid on the Tinkerer's workshop by using Killer Shrike as a mole. When the agents finally converged on the workshop, Tinkerer fled to Latveria to avoid justice. Several agents and Killer Shrike were struck down by Tinkerer's security systems.

Tinkering in Civil War

In the beginning of the Civil War series Phineas is seen as a broken and defeated man. After losing his son in action, he loses his grandson in the Stamford, Connecticut explosion. He becomes drastically suicidal, but continues work hoping that super heroes and villains will simply wipe each other out. Because of his actions and exchanges with super villains Frank Castle stabs Tinkerer in the back. Phineas begs for death, but the Punisher simply leaves him paralyzed.

Phineas, for the rest of the Civil War series, is seen bound to a wheelchair.

The Ultimate Tinkerer

In the Ultimate Marvel universe, the Tinkerer is a man by the name of Elijah Stern. Stern is a former employee of Roxxon Corp. who has hired Killer Shrike Omega Red, and Vulture to torment his former boss. All of this transpired after Stern had discovered a way to use vibranium as an endless power supply, but this plan was discovered by SHIELD and Stern was offered the choice to work with SHIELD or be killed. Tinkerer, almost always avoiding conflict, now works for SHIELD.