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Technically, there can’t be a mad mad scientist. But I am sure you realise that. Now that we are past that tiny issue, let’s come to think of his appeal as a motif in modern myth of the corny variety. Having appeared extensively in comic books and movies over decades, his characteristic nuances are unmistakable.

He operates on a grand scale. He is driven by overpowering ambition. He has a thing for monologues (this also goes for super villains and evil overlords) that frequently end with, ‘…once and for all’ or ‘…mine, all mine.’ More often than not, he breaks into manic laughter that echoes in his innermost sanctums or his courthouse (if he is the court-holding type).

He spends most of his time working on world domination schemes. Indeed, most ‘…mine, all mine’ monologues are about world domination. His schemes are simplistic, usually themed on regular blackmail, ransom or beat-the-world-to-pulp-and-into-total-submission strategies.

He understands the value of useful threat perception and has elaborate sub-routines built into his world domination scheme to take care of short-sighted heroes, self righteous defendors of freedom, agents of secret world protection forces and others like that.

He has a penchant for order (though he could use a better sense of colour) and has his minions wear garish uniforms. Many a time, infiltrators use these uniforms to make there way into the secretmost parts of the headquarters. Often it is the his obsession with order that prompts the mad scientist’s assault upon the world. The world, he strongly feels (and he is likely to tell the hero before feeding him, his family, and his sidekicks to hungry crocodiles), is too chaotic for its own good.

He operates from inaccessible remote islands. His headquarters are often underground and its passages teeming with guards. Security codes seal all gateways, important or inconsequential. An interrogation chamber, suitably furnished with state-of-the-art equipment, is something most mad scientists maintain as a rule.

The mad scientist’s claim to fame, his doomsday device, is attended to by hundreds of kidnapped lab assistants and factory standard worker robots which also double as expendable assasins if needs be. The device itself is magnificent in bearing and surprisingly easy to render ineffective. There is usually a big red button or a clearly labelled lever reserved for the purpose. Also, the device’s shut down almost always triggers a self destruct program that (after the traditional minutes long countdown) blows the island and everything on it to smithreens.

Most important of all, the mad scientist always has backup plans. One to trap heroes, then one to trap them again if they escape. Even one to eventually get off his island during the final few seconds of the self destruct countdown. Then weeks, months, years later he is back in news, holding the world to ransom with a brand new doomsday device or infernal scheme.

Posted on Sunday, January 29th, 2006 at 10:50 am and filed under Myth, comics.

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