Masked Man

Note: This soft redirect exists to avoid revealing a critical plot twist without warning.

Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.

The Masked Man (Japanese: 仮面の男), also referred to as the "Mask of Ice" (Japanese: マスク・オブ・アイス), is the main antagonist of the Gold, Silver & Crystal arc in the Pokémon Adventures manga. He is the leader of Team Rocket during the Gold, Silver & Crystal arc.

History

The Masked Man initially used Ho-Oh to kidnap Green, Silver, Keane, Chermaine, Will, and Karen as children based on their potential as trainers. Silver and Green escaped from him, and went to great lengths to figure out his identity. When Team Rocket disbanded in Kanto, he collected the remaining grunts and revived the organization in Johto with himself as the new leader and his kidnapped children as administrators. The Masked Man's goal was to capture Celebi and make use of its time travel powers.

Gold was able to retrieve a scrap of his clothing and gave it to Professor Elm, who examined it and later realized that there were particles of the substance used to make Gym Badges on his clothes, revealing to Gold that he must be a trainer.

The Masked Man first appears in the Ilex Forest, controlling the Charcoal Kiln and his Farfetch'd to battle Gold. He then appeared to Gold who thought that his Pokémon were wild and told him to leave this forest. He easily defeated Gold and disappeared. Later, he would show up to battle Silver and Gold at the Lake of Rage, defeating them and revealing Silver's past to Gold before defeating them both by freezing the entire lake and plummeting them both toward the rock bottom, a measure that would have been fatal had Entei not arrived and saved them.

He then lies low at the headquarters and commands grunts to capture Suicune. To keep Crystal and Eusine distracted, he sent a Ditto disguised as Suicune to battle them. The grunts failed in their mission however and Suicune escaped because of Parsee's Spore.

He is then confronted by Lt. Surge at Team Rocket's new base in Mahogany Town. He defeated Lt. Surge, but he was able to escape and have his Electrode blow the base up. However, the Masked Man was confident Lt. Surge would not report him to the police since he is an ex-member of Team Rocket and he would be arrested as well.

The Masked Man eventually gains the control of the legendary Pokémon, Ho-Oh and Lugia, both of which he captured before, and leads them to rampage at the Pokémon League.

Later on, by completing the GS Ball, he captures Celebi in the Ilex Forest and goes back in time. Gold follows him and reveals his real identity, and eventually succeeds in defeating him and freeing Celebi.

Pokémon

Delibird

Gastly

Ariados

Houndour

Released

Ho-Oh

Lugia

Celebi