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Curated playlist

Fictional mad scientists

  • Doctor OctopusDoctor Octopus, the Marvel Comics villain known as Doc Ock, began as a name before he was anything else. Stan Lee, who created him with the artist Steve Ditko, later described how the idea arrived. "For some reason, I thought of an…
  • Poison Ivy (character)Poison Ivy exists because of a television show, and the artist who sketched her said so plainly. Carmine Infantino recalled: "The only reason she came about was because of Catwoman on the Batman show. They wanted more female villains."…
  • Lex LuthorLex Luthor has no superpowers, no secret identity and no alien heritage, yet he has outlasted nearly every other enemy of Superman. Writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster created him, and he first appeared in Action Comics #23 in April…
  • UltronUltron first showed up in Marvel Comics in The Avengers #54, dated July 1968, and nobody reading it could have known his name. He appeared only under a borrowed title, the Crimson Cowl, in a brief and unnamed cameo. Within a single issue…
  • Scarecrow (DC Comics)The DC Comics supervillain known as the Scarecrow has given himself a title: the Master of Fear. Behind the stitched burlap mask is Dr. Jonathan Crane, and he is not chasing money or power. His crimes are experiments. He releases a…
  • Doctor DoomDoctor Doom is a comic book villain who answers to no court outside his own country. He rules the fictional eastern European nation of Latveria, and his status as head of state has historically shielded him from prosecution for crimes…
  • Harley QuinnHarley Quinn, the DC Comics character, first appeared on screen on the 11th of September 1992, in the 22nd episode of Batman: The Animated Series. The episode was called Joker's Favor, and she was supposed to appear in it once and never…
  • Lizard (character)In The Amazing Spider-Man #6, published in November 1963, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko introduced the Lizard. He is a Marvel Comics monster whose human side is a scientist named Dr. Curtis Connors, known as Curt. Connors wanted one thing. He…
  • Doctor EggmanDoctor Eggman, the scheming roboticist of Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog games, once refused to answer to his own name. In Sonic Generations, Classic Tails calls Classic Eggman "Dr. Robotnik." The older villain snaps back, "Nobody calls me that…
  • Mister SinisterMister Sinister once helped sell pasta. In 1994, Chef Boyardee put the Marvel Comics villain in its advertising, which is an odd career for a character who experiments on mutants and orphans. He was popular enough by then to carry a brand.…
  • MODOKMODOK is a Marvel Comics villain whose name is an acronym: Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing. He first appeared in Tales of Suspense #93, dated September 1967, the creation of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The name sounds like a warning…

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