Comic Book Diagnoses: Brains! Brains!
It doesn’t always take a strong body or superhuman physical abilities to make it as a superhero — or supervillain. Sometimes all it takes is brains. Or a brain. All alone. Usually in a jar or glass case.
Who can forget the eponymous Brain, once a French surgeon and then the leader of the Brotherhood of Evil? (And are there any heroic teams that use the name “brotherhood” or is only villainous ones?) Or Martha, from Grant Morrison’s run on the X-Men.
A step up are those characters whose exist primarily as a brain that can be transplanted between bodies, human or otherwise. A classic example would be the Ultra-Humanite. Robotman would be a good example of a hero in the same situation. Gorilla-Man from the Headman is close enough to count.
Then there are those who have no body at all. They exist as only a soul or free-floating personality. They have to possess an unwilling victim to take on physical form. The Shadow King and Malice are a good example of entirely bodiless characters. (I’m not counting Deadman or any purely supernatural characters here. I’m just focusing on those that are considered alive but without bodies or form).
Finally, this being the computer age, there are characters that were originally human but wound up existing only as a computer program. The best examples are the villains Thinker and from the Jihad (opponentes of the Suicide Squad), Djinn (and later Ifrit).
Other Media:
Evil brains are prevalent in science fiction movies and television? Who could forget such wonderful films as Donovan’s Brain, The Brain that Wouldn’t Die (particulalry the MST3K version) and Steve Martin’s The Man with Two Brains. And brains don’t come any eviler than the giant flying brains from Futurama.
Real Life:
Sorry, medical science has not reached the level where brains can be kept alive in a jar or transplanted from one person to another.
March 13th, 2006 at 1:55 am
If only they could bring back the Fiddler as a brain in a jar. I just want to see the Old Flash Villains arguing, one last time.
(Sorry, I get misty when you mention one of the 3 Golden Age Flash Greats)
March 13th, 2006 at 2:17 am
Ah, don’t forget the Gil D’shpan (or however it was spelled), those evil Brain-in-globe aliens from the LSH! :-)
March 13th, 2006 at 4:56 am
Would you include Hector Hammond, who had a (vestigial) body attached to his enormous head, but was paralyzed? Or Ostrander’s Bete Noir?
How about Marvel’s Hate-Monger, literally Hitler’s disembodied mind?
March 13th, 2006 at 8:53 am
Official Comment
Hector Hammond will be addressed at a later date.
I think Hte-Monger would fit in the same category as Malice and the Shadow King.
March 13th, 2006 at 12:11 pm
Um, there were two different Malices.
Malice the disembodied personality who possesses others, formerly of the Marauders. And if anybody cares, I hate everything to do with Mr. Sinister.
and, the one shown, Malice the villianous identity Sue Storm took under the influence of I forget Hate Monger ? Psychoman?, but anyway not a separate entity from Sue.
March 13th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
Official Comment
M,
For some reason, I always thought the two Malice’s were connected. Though I will admit I have only superficial recollections of that particular FF storyline. I remember disliking the Polaris-as-Malice storyline because she and Alex were two of my favorite characters and it seemed unfair. Other than Peter David’s brief run on X-Factor, they haven’t caught a break since.
Anyway, I changed the image to reflect the Malice I was talking about, this one the big reveal from Uncanny X-Men #221-ish.
March 13th, 2006 at 2:42 pm
Don’t forget Lex Luthor’s brain (and eyes) swamp into a new, non-dying clone body. That cover where they revealed it was cool. It was made up like a 50’s B-movie poster, with the title “They Saved Luthor’s Brain!”
The issue was Action Comics #678, BTW.
March 13th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
Speaking of brains, Scott, there’s a new manga title called “Monster” from Viz about a neurosurgeon, with lots of medical jargon and hospital scenes. It’s begging for a Medical Review. Begging, I say!
March 13th, 2006 at 7:07 pm
How would you classify Jericho (of the Titans)? He has a body, but it disappears whenever he uses his powers.
March 13th, 2006 at 10:54 pm
Brainiac, Brainiac, Brainiac.
Has, at one time or another, been ALL of these things. Pre-Crisis, a scientist (with a monkey!) that moved into a robot body (type 2), Post-Crisis, an A.I. (type 4) who hopped into organic bodies, including Milton Fine, Superman, and Doomsday (type 3). And Morrison’s Earth-2 version was thing in a jar (type 1).
Currently, um, I don’t know WHAT he is. Organic, it looks
March 13th, 2006 at 11:03 pm
I’m pretty sure there’s no connection between Malice and Sue as Malice.
Is this Thinker, the Mad Thinker or a different character? Cool graphic.
On the theme:
What was with that choker that manifested on anyone Malice possessed? On the one hand she’s a mutant who exists as an acorporeal psychic entity and on the other she’s a necklace with a cameo? Time to review the guidelines on the differences between ’science’ based characters and abilities versus ‘occult’.
And remember the Shadow King is/was whatever (hate him too) a telepath who managed to live on as a psychic entity on the astral plane, following the death of his physical body as a result of a psi duel with young Charles Xavier. So his state was neither a natural development as for example Malice’s presumably was nor intentional like a digitized persona.
March 15th, 2006 at 1:00 am
Any intention of handling the Kingpin soon? That whole “His stomach is made of muscles” thing never struck me as believable.
April 1st, 2006 at 2:20 pm
What about that brain-thingy from another dimension from TMNT? Forgot the name, shame on me.
July 8th, 2007 at 11:44 am
That would be Krang, jokergirl. He only existed for the 1987 cartoon and the comic books and games based off of the cartoon. Although he was based off of the Ultroms of the original comic strip, later seen in the new animated series and related merchandise.
April 13th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
President Rexall in Miller’s _Give Me Liberty_ (geez, do ya remember *that* Frank Miller? Whatever happened to him?) also ended up as a brain-in-a-jar. Not to be confused with Raggy Ann, who kind of looked like a brain-on-legs. (I always wondered whether Morrison’s X-Martha was a nod to the brain characters in Miller’s Martha Washington books.)
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