Richard "Rick" Mason is a major character in Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales. He is the brother of Phin Mason, a childhood friend of Miles Morales. Rick was a brilliant scientist who helped mentor both Phin and Miles before going to work for Roxxon. He was also the original Tinkerer, a title Phin claims upon his death.
He is portrayed by Todd Williams.
History[]
The elder of the Mason siblings, Rick Mason was born December 18, 1993[a] in Brooklyn, New York. He became the guardian of his sister Phin upon the death of their parents, providing for the both of them with their family's shop, Mason's Repairs. Rick eventually went to college at Empire State, taking night classes so that he could continue working at the shop.
Rick did his best to raise his sister alone, supporting her love and exceptional talent for engineering. Through Phin, Rick became good friends with Miles Morales, whom he made sure to include in events with his sister. When Phin and Miles won an engineering contest with an energy converter they designed, Rick joined them at the converter's exhibit at Oscorp Science Expo Center, taking a picture together to commemorate the event.
After Rick graduated from college, he was approached by Roxxon to lead their clean energy research. Rick accepted the position as Project Lead of Nuform, which would ultimately send him and his family on a dark path. During the development of Nuform, Rick began suffering from bone marrow decay. He realized that Nuform was sickening him and most of the project team, and requested that the project be shut down. Instead, his superior Simon Krieger covered up Nuform's problems and pushed forward with public testing.
In 2017, Roxxon Plaza broke ground ahead of schedule. Knowing it would be catastrophic for Harlem, and running out of time and options, Rick resorted to desperate measures. He and Phin entered Roxxon's main lab (with Phin masquerading as a co-worker) to shut down the Nuform reactor. However, they were caught by Krieger, who proceeded to trap Rick in an energy field with the reactor. As Rick attempted to shut down the reactor manually, and Phin tried desperately to reach him, the reactor overloaded, vaporizing Rick.
Legacy[]
Roxxon covered up Rick's death, attributing it to an accidental gas leak. However, as Rick had deleted his research prior to his death, Nuform production was halted.
Rick's death led his sister to assume her brother's nickname "Tinkerer" as her masked alias and form a partnership with the Underground to avenge him, but unwittingly furthered Simon's plan on taking over New York, should she unknowingly destroy Harlem.
Four weeks after Phin gave her life to save Harlem from Roxxon Plaza's Nuform reactor, Miles’ uncle, Aaron Davis, a former Roxxon affiliate, turned himself to the authorities to testify against Roxxon, allowing the authorities to immediately arrest Simon, avenging the legacy of the Mason siblings and the rest of Nuform's victims.
Notes[]
- ↑ Rick's grave in Harlem marks his birth.