History MadScientist / Comics

* Doctor Doom is an interesting case, as he is both a MadScientist ''and'' an EvilSorcerer. [[SorcerousOverlord As well as the leader]] [[EmperorScientist of a country]].
* ComicBook/SpiderMan's ArchEnemy, ComicBook/DoctorOctopus.
* Zorglub, from ComicBook/SpirouAndFantasio, is one. Champignac is often seen as one by the villagers, and he actually ''behaves'' like one on occasion.
* Bruce Banner usually isn’t this, but lately it’s been shown that, without [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk the Hulk]] as an outlet, he can start to lose it as all his anger and darker impulses build up.
* The original incarnations of Franchise/{{Superman}}'s archenemy, ComicBook/LexLuthor. In the years since, he's also been a CorruptCorporateExecutive and a [[PresidentEvil villainous politician]].
** He did return to being a MadScientist in ComicBook/PostCrisis after the ''Up, Up, and Away!'' storyline, where Clark Kent brings his VillainWithGoodPublicity status down through journalism.
** Most interpretations from the late 90's onward merge the corporate and scientist portrayals into one. Nowadays, Luthor is portrayed as building his company on his brilliant inventions, and he still gets actively involved in [=LexCorp=]'s development projects.
** Bertron, the alien scientist in ''ComicBook/SupermanDoomsdayHunterPrey'', who was responsible for the creation of Doomsday. He subjected the creature to the harsh environment of Krypton in the distant past, cloning it again and again every time it was destroyed either by the environment or by its resident creatures. Over the years it evolved into its current form, which would later be known as Doomsday. However, once the creature had reached the point where nothing on the planet could withstand him, he turned his attention on his creators and killed them and Bertron in the process.
* The Mandarin is a Mad Scientist enemy of ComicBook/IronMan. He spends his time inventing mind-controlling super-cancers that run around like a cross between the Blob and the Borg. Or inventing orbiting Hate Rays to destroy the world with madness.
* Doctor Sivana and his family are similarly the archenemies of [[Comicbook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] and friends. Sivana in particular may be the UrExample in comic books, predating Lex Luthor by several months. He's a five-foot-tall gnome of a man with a chrome dome, huge ScaryShinyGlasses, and more often than not a white lab coat. His stated goals (in no particular order): To become Rightful Ruler of the Universe in fact as well as in name; to spread evil, cruelty, and nastiness throughout the cosmos; and to humiliate, discredit, and ultimately ''KILL CAPTAIN MARVEL!'' Heh heh heh heh!!! What, exactly, his [[UglyGuyHotWife incredibly attractive and affectionate]] late wife saw in him is a total enigma.
** The original version of the character was actually a benevolent man who was ruined by being rejected by the scientific community [[TheyCalledMeMad for his ideas]]. When his wife died, he blamed the world and turned into the crackpot we love to hate. This was the pre-ComicBook/{{Crisis|on Infinite Earths}} origin, the current version seems to always have been mean.
** In ''[[ComicBook/TheMultiversity Thunderworld #1]]'', the Dr. Sivana of Earth-5 takes exception to being called 'mad'. He sees himself more as a radical genius.
* A heroic Mad Scientist in The DCU is Doctor Magnus, creator of the ComicBook/MetalMen.
* In the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, AIM (Advanced Idea Mechanics) are a terrorist organization of Mad Scientists, who wish to overthrow the world's governments and institute a technocracy.
** The Enclave is a similar group. Their most successful (or unsuccessful, depending on how you look at it) experiment created the being who would eventually become Adam Warlock (who eventually turned against them).
* Franchise/TheDCU comic ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'' had a secret conspiracy who was kidnapping Mad Scientists, good and evil, for a nefarious goal.
* The Ultra-Humanite (arguably comics' first supervillain) who actually transferred his brain from the standard baldie-in-a-labcoat mad scientist's body into that of a beautiful woman. He was only another Mad Scientist in the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] comics, but in the series ''Comicbook/TheGoldenAge'', he becomes the arch villain, [[spoiler:[[VillainWithGoodPublicity posing as a hero and getting the medal of honor]]. He saved Hitler's brain, too. And put it in an invincible super-body]].
* D.A. Sinclair of ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'' is easily one of the most sadistic mad scientists in fiction. He started making zombielike techno-organic minions, Re-Animen, from dead bodies, which is bad enough. But he eventually moved on to ''live'' subjects, kidnapping his roommate and ''tearing out his vocal cords'' so that he couldn't scream while he operated on him (D.A. is a college student, after all, and can't afford anesthetic). And he tore his arm off and overrode his free will. Then he started duplicating the process on homeless people. Naturally, the US Government saw to it that he served no jail time when he was caught, and gave him a cushy job making Re-Animen for military use.
* ''[[ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero]]'' has featured two Cobra mad scientists:
** Dr. Venom (real name Dr. Archibald Monev) was Cobra's original scientist. He created the [[MindProbe Brainwave Scanner]], and developed a virus that was intended to be used as a biological weapon, first by tainting newly-printed $20 bills (a plot foiled by the Joes), and then by using the Cobra officer known as Scar-Face as a vector against the Joes (thwarted by Scar-Face himself when he found out he was being sacrificed like that, by stealing the antidote). Dr. Venom and his arch-nemesis, the mercenary Kwinn, [[MutualKill killed each other]] during the 1st Battle of Fort Wadsworth, but it was revealed years later (in [=IDW=]'s continuation of the original series) that [[spoiler:Dr. Venom [[BrainUploading copied his brain patterns]] into the Brainwave Scanner]].
** Dr. Mindbender was originally a benevolent orthodontist named Dr. Binder, who in researching ways to alleviate dental pain, used an experimental brainwave device on himself, which turned him twisted and evil. He auditioned for the role of Cobra scientist by creating the [[MechaMooks Battle Android Troopers]] and [[ManEatingPlant creeper vine spores]], and went on to create Serpentor[[note]]though, unlike in the [[WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero cartoon]], Cobra Commander commissioned Mindbender to create a SuperSoldier to serve as a field general, and only later realized too late that Serpentor would have the ambition to usurp the Commander[[/note]]. Mindbender is incredibly vain, usually going shirtless to show off his well-developed pectorals. He was also paranoid enough to [[spoiler: have a clone backup of himself in the event of his own demise, and create mind-control chips for high-ranking Cobra officers that, in conjunction with a Brainwave Scanner treatment, would ensure their loyalty]].
* Dr. Venom in ''ComicBook/TransformersVsGIJoe'' ([[ItIsPronouncedTroPAY pronounced Phe-nom]]) is mad [[UpToEleven and then some]], which is why the Joes (and later their allies, the Autobots) don't trust him after they liberate him from Cobra, even after [[spoiler: he shoots Buzzer in the head]]. He doesn't exactly give them much reason to trust him, either.
* Simon von Simon from ''LittleGloomy''. He's got it all, from his powerful machinery, futuristic inventions (such as the television and the microwave. Before you say anything, he invented them before anyone else did), hunchbacked HalfheartedHenchman, to his seething rage for everybody but himself. The fact that his plans for world domination were motivated by Gloomy dumping him, and the fact that the series calls him on not marketing his fantastic creations to get on top in a less freaky way undermines his menace somewhat; This, in turn, is offset by his army of ravenous zombies.
* Dr Scyk from the Danish comic-strip "Dr Merling".
* Several villains in the ComicBook/BlakeAndMortimer comics fall under this trope. The most notable being:
** Wade/[[spoiler:Jonathan Septimus]]in "The Yellow M"
** Miloch Georgevich in "Sos Météores" and "Le Piege Diabolique"
** Voronov in "La Machination Voronov". Who also ends up being something of a KarmaHoudini.
* In ''ComicBook/YTheLastMan'' geneticist Dr Allison Mann claims she was illegally cloning a nephew who needed a bone transplant. She later admits this story was fictional to gain Agent 355's sympathy rather than be thought of as a 'mad scientist'; her actual motive was to spite her father who was nearing success in cloning the first human. [[spoiler: After several red herrings we discover the REAL mad scientist is in fact Allison's father, who was seeking to clone his daughter so he could be a better parent the next time round, yet who also sabotaged Allison's cloning experiment out of sheer spite and may have accidentally caused the plague that all but wiped out all males.]]
* In addition to [[BigBad Dr. Robotnik/Eggman]], ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'' has Dr. Finitevus and Dimitri, both of whom work for the Dark Legion, a group who believe in self-augmentation with technology.
** The [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW IDW Sonic comics]] have, in addition to Eggman, Dr. Starline, a fan of Eggman's who is just as brilliant and devious.
* Hank Pym (a.k.a. ComicBook/AntMan a.k.a. Giant-Man a.k.a. Goliath a.k.a. Yellowjacket a.k.a. The Wasp). Just take for example his origin story:
-->'''Panel of Scientists:''' You should stick to practical projects.\\
'''Hank Pym:''' No! I'll work only on things that appeal to my imagination... like my latest invention.\\
'''Panel of Scientists:''' Oh... what's that?\\
'''Hank Pym:''' I won't tell you yet! You would only laugh at me as you've done before! But when I've finished it, I'll show you! Then you shall know I'm a greater scientist than ''any'' of you!
** His long-lost daughter Nadia takes after him in terms of both brilliance (creating a pocket dimension lab at an age where pink crystal castles are the obvious go-to aesthetic) and obsessive tendencies (not having anything resembling a day[=/=]night cycle in said lab because anything indicating the passage of time is too distracting).
* Marvel's High Evolutionary. The man built his own '''''planet'''''!
* Several of Franchise/{{Batman}} enemies qualify for this trope:
** Mr. Freeze used to be one of these, with no real backstory, just the whole freezing schtick. Then came ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' which gave him [[IncrediblyLamePun chillingly]] tragic backstory and motivation, turning him more into a villainous [[TheWoobie Woobie.]] This new version of the character was {{Retcon}}[[CanonImmigrant ned]] into the main DCU.
** Scarecrow is an expert psychologist who creates fear gas that preys on the target's most deeply seeded phobias.
** ComicBook/PoisonIvy is a botanist that became a plant-controlling metahuman following a freak accident. While she also qualify as a HotScientist due to using her [[TheVamp feminine wiles as a weapon]], she is still very much a mad scientist due to her disturbed unhinged love for plants outweighing humans.
** Hugo Strange is the most archetypal mad scientist. He's an expert in everything from chemistry and genetics to psychology, and uses it for evil. And with his typical wardrobe of lab coat and goggles, he dresses the part as well.
* StarterVillain Alfred Stryker experiments on guinea pigs in his spare time when he's not being a CorruptCorporateExecutive.
* ComicBook/{{Blade}}'s arch-enemy Deacon Frost was an amoral scientist that performed experiments to gain immortality and upon and injecting himself with vampire blood, he become a unusual type of vampire with bizarre powers. He continued to perform his experiments such as producing clones of his victims (one of the special powers he gained) all so he could usurp Dracula's position as Lord of the Vampires.
* Barry Ween, the 10-year-old with a 4-digit IQ in the eponymous series ''ComicBook/TheAdventuresOfBarryWeenBoyGenius''. A representative quote: "Hey -- put that down! That's the controls to my weather satellite! You just flooded Norway!" [short pause] "Well... it's only Norway..."
* Krona (of ''ComicBook/JLAAvengers'' fame) is a mad scientist from a species of humanoids who had discovered immortality and realized the potential of the mind's raw power well before Earth's solar system had formed. He was determined to unlock the secret of existence: How had the universe come into being? To this end, he created a "time window" that would allow him to peer at the moment of creation. Unfortunately, apparently the act of looking caused the creation to go awry, and instead of a single universe, a multiverse was formed. Unfortunately, this included one evil antimatter universe... and the seeds for the ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths were sown. Krona was banished, but eventually was employed by Nekron (the Lord of the Unliving) and turned into the embodiment of entropy. As such, he gradually grew in power, until he reached a point where he ''vivisected entire universes'' in his restless quest for answers. He forcibly interrogated Galactus to find out what he knew. All in the name of ''science''.
* Professor Merson, an American scientist working for Germany, was the source of countless [[StupidJetpackHitler Nazi superweapons]] (including the [[MonowheelMayhem War Wheel]]) in the 1982 ''Comicbook/{{Blackhawk}}'' revival.
** It can be hard to tell -- ''Comicbook/{{Blackhawk}}'' seems to feature gadgetry unbelievably ludicrous enough to fall under mad science in every issue, and frequently right on the cover.
* Dr Rot from the ''Insane in the Brain'' storyline of the ''{{Wolverine}}'' comic, a lunatic running an asylum, whose particular flavour of insane science is psychic machines made out of human brains. Adequately summed up by the following quote, while he flees Wolvie with a fresh brain in one hand and a handful of cables in the other:
-->"We Rottenwells, like to make our own way, yes we do. And all I need to make mine now is [[NoodleImplements a paper clip, a cheese grater, a nine volt battery, a still-beating hummingbird heart, and the exhaust fan from a 1979 Chrysler LeBaron]]. Make way boys! Medical science is on the march here!"
** Even better, ''he pulls it off''. By the time Wolvie catches up with him, he's turned the brain into a psychic grenade that drives everyone else insane for thirty seconds so he can escape. He uses a slightly-different set of improvised components, sadly.
* ''ComicBook/TheAwesomeSlapstick'' has Dr. Denton, Destroyer of Worlds, a five-year-old genius who built a giant robotic teddy bear.
* There is a double subversion in ''ComicBook/UniversalWarOne''. [[spoiler:The scientist who invented the wormhole is the only one to care about a possible TimeParadox, so he kills the fools who want to "go home" even if it endangers the universe. However, when Kalish explains to him there is no way to create a time paradox, the scientist becomes mad.]]
* Samantha Argus of ''ComicStrip/SafeHavens'' is a personable, enthusiastic grad student who has unlocked the genetic code. She has the power to transform practically any living creature.
* German comic ''ComicStrip/NickKnatterton'' once had Professor Bartap, who invents a shaving foam which is also a very effective explosive. Unintentionally. (Comedic version, definitely.)
* Dr. Billy Joe Robidoux from ''ComicBook/WynonnaEarp''. To quote Wynonna: "He's a southern-fried gumbo of Dr. Josef Mengele, Dr. Frankenstein and runs a real-life version of ''Literature/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau''."
* The Military Doctor in ''ComicBook/{{Sturmtruppen}}'': He believes he's discovered the Invisibility Elixir without getting insane, while his attendants point out that's actually the other way around. He also thought that a case of anemia was actually caused by a Vampire.
* Creator/WarrenEllis's ''ComicBook/DoktorSleepless'' intentionally invokes this: nobody listens to "real people," so he becomes the cartoony mad scientist character of Doktor Sleepless to draw attention.
* ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'': Chase's parents, Victor and Janet Stein, are a pair of these.
* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersAllHailMegatron'' makes Brainstorm into one. He seemingly has no qualms about [[spoiler: putting suggestion ideas inside Kup's mind]] at Prowl's request to exert more control over the army. In ''ComicBook/TheTransformersLastStandOfTheWreckers'' Brainstorm works at the Kimia Facility, an R & D lab full of mad scientists. And Brainstorm in particular is considered especially insane even by ''their'' standards. He makes a hobby of creating weapons so horrible, they're classified as unmentionable by the Ethics Committee. In ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' he builds all sorts of weapons [[spoiler: and a holding cell]] for the crew [[spoiler: and to hold Overlord]], including a gun designed to shrink people, a bomb designed to break the fourth wall, an overpowered laser gun labelled My First Blaster (complete with flashing lights and sounds), and a gun that turns Cybertronians into ''Spark-devouring monsters''. Tellingly, when someone asks him about one of his inventions snuffing out a sun, he dismisses it as "filthy, stinking lies"... because they got a small detail wrong. The sun in question did get snuffed out.
** Also from Wreckers is Ironfist, whose weapons have been responsible for the death of millions of cons, but he himself is quite naive and doesn't know of their effects as well as the war's toll outside of statistics. He builds a gun which targets the brain, and that was banned by the ethics committee.
** Skyfall is a less comedic and naive example; [[spoiler: he isn't as smart or successful as the others, but he's quite mad, and sold Ironfist's most deadly invention to the Decepticons, and rigged one of those brain bullets to lodge inside Ironfist's skull and kill him.]]
** Jhiaxus. If his attempt to introduce gender to Cybertron by force doesn't count, or his experimenting on six beings to make an insane combining mecha, then what does? Perhaps finding a planet and influencing the local civilisation to begin turning themselves into cyborgs, then into fully mechanical beings capable of altering their bodies into vehicles. And all of this? He just does it because he can. It backfires when one of his "test subjects" dedicates her life to hunting him down and repaying him for what he did.
* Everett Ducklair, the creator of [[ArtificialIntelligence One]] and many of the gadgets [[ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures Paperinik]] uses, is a unwilling case: because of his ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder, he simply can't create something without turning it in a weapon. He eventually retreats to a monastery to meditate and search for the better part of himself.
** In the reboot "Pikappa" we have Vendor who is much less concerned about creating dangerous inventions.
* The Weapon X project in its entirety is built on the backs of mad scientists, experimenting on mutants to create powerful and deadly weapons.
** Its civilian offshoot, the Facility, carries on the practice. Dr. Sarah Kinney's proposal to ''clone'' Wolverine, when mainstream science had only ''just'' begun having success with sheep and cats, is initially considered outright absurd by Zander Rice (though it owed as much to Rice's hatred of Wolverine for killing his father). Kinney outright equates cloning a mutant with [[AGodAmI godhood]].
* Escariano Avieso from ''ComicBook/{{Superlopez}}''. White lab robe? Check. SinisterShades? Check. A heaping helping of {{Evil Plan}}s? Check. Wacky and Escarolitropic-Gmnesic circuit-ridden inventions? Double check.
* Profesor Bacterio from ''ComicBook/MortadeloYFilemon''. Both T.I.A. agents have ''very good'' reasons to run away really fast when ordered to test one of his inventions.
%% * [[Comicbook/TheMultiversity Earth 44's]] Doc Tornado (a combination of the Metal Men's Doc Magnus and Red Tornado) is another heroic Mad Scientist.
* The ''ComicBook/MickeyMouseComicUniverse'' has Mickey occasionally face a trio of simian mad scientists named Professors Ecks, Doublex, and Triplex, with their first appearance, the Floyd Gottfredson comic strip arc "Blaggard Castle", having them capture Mickey Mouse and Horace Horsecollar to test a HypnoRay on them with the intention of using their machine to take over the world and kill a bunch of people. The original story ended with Mickey [[HoistByHisOwnPetard using their ray against them]] and [[HeelFaceBrainwashing hypnotizing them into being good scientists]], but they would still return in subsequent comics back in their old evil ways.
* Rhona Burchill from ''ComicBook/UltimateFantasticFour''. She was rejected from the Program despite having the natural talents as a scientist, implicitly due to failing the psychiatric evaluation -- since she went on to cut her brother's brain out and graft it to her own, justifiably so. As for what makes her mad... did you just read the previous sentence?
* ''ComicBook/RequiemVampireKnight'' features an ''entire faction'' of these with the Archaeologists. They were originally scientists who made disastrous inventions in life, and were damned to become [[{{mummy}} mummy-like beings]] on [[PlanetHeck Résurrection]]. The Archaeologists are the only beings allowed [[FantasyGunControl to control human technology]] in order to keep it out of the hands of the lower masses in the setting and prevent them from overthrowing the current regime. And then you have the Hierophants, the higher-ranked Archaeologists who embody the "mad" part of this trope by wearing [[GenuineHumanHide other people's skin when they come out from their sarcophagus]].
* "The Vampire Maker" in ''Uncanny Tales from the Grave'' #4[[note]]Which originally appeared in ''Weird Worlds'' #13.[[/note]] presents a rare ''heroic'' example in Dr. Gottfried, who creates an artificial vampire that preys on other vampires shortly before being killed by a [[TorchesAndPitchforks misinformed mob]].
* Grant [=McKay=] from ''ComicBook/BlackScience'' is a genius physicist, but his expression of it is tied to his [[TheParanoiac paranoid rejection of all authority figures]] and [[ItsAllAboutMe insanely overblown ego]]. While exploring his mind Doxta specifically asks whether his madness caused or held back his genius. Apparently it runs in the family; Grant's similarly genius father was mentally ill and ended up [[DrivenToSuicide committing suicide]] when Grant was young.
* In ''ComicBook/RainbowBrite'' Murky Dismal has been reimagined as this.
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* In addition to Dr. Robotnik/Eggman, the Archie ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehog'' comic has Dr. Finitevus and Dimitri, both of whom work for the Dark Legion, a group who believe in self-augmentation with technology.