Off THEIR Minds: Why Are So Many Villains Doctors?

Repaying Student Loans makes you Evil.

Because they didn't go through 4 years of evil medical school to be called "mister"?

It implies that they are more intelligent than the often under-educated, blue-collar heroes. Many of Marvel's heroes, for example, have never attended college nor completed the high school portion of their education.

@BoyWander: lol man.

It's pretty simple. It's not that being a doctor is menacing, it's that someone who was a doctor, someone you'd asume is working for the good of mankind, is menacing, is threatening, is nefarious. It's scary to think of a doctor, normally very trusted and well liked at least in theory, betraying that trust or making use of their brilliant intellect to do terrible things.

Plus, "scientist" isn't a thing, but "doctor" is, as far as society is concerned, even though it really just means "expert" ostensibly, and they have to be able to have an experiment with ill intentions go poorly or have ill intentions go into a sinister and successful experiment. Most villains are man made. Their powers, their brutality and menace comes from themselves. One part hubris, one part Dr. Frankenstein-esque ability.

Pffft. Villains are not always doctors. =P

Fine line between brilliance and insanity. Touched upon a dozen times over in comics.

If they wanted twisted people in the medical profession, start at orthodontists. I know from experience, a few of them have 'problems'. I've also heard horror stories.

Doc Ock is way underdone. He's written like a clownish, loser villian. Now he's a robot with no personality. Someone should come up with a good story with him in it someday. Just have him come out as he was, maybe ina new suit and stylish sunglasses. A villian with a scheme and a purpose.

Dr. Doom can't possibly be considered a doctor. After all Podiatrists aren't real doctors.:)

If we are seeking the origin of how "doctor" and villains are so closely related with terms of nomenclature, I can it all dates back to antiquity with regard to the "evil" or "mad scientist" stories that we have seen ever since the famed era of alchemy during the Renaissance era. After all, many of the so-called alchemists were associated with individuals who spurned Christianity and supposedly practiced dark arts. Then in literature you had many who adopted similar traits for deviant purposes, like Dr. Faustus and the Devil. Then you come to the pulp and weeklies era in the late 1920s/early 1930s and you have the rise of the "mad scientist" stories, and voila, there you go, there you see an association between doctor and villain that I say has been in place for some time. As for a more fun answer, I guess there's just more of a sense of professionalism when a villain has "doctor" in front of their name.

@Miss_Garrick said:

@Nerx: I'm certain that's why most villians use it even if they have no degree at all.

Then again most villains with Dr on their names can qualify as doctors anytime they want, pssh Doom can be a rocket scientist if he wanted to (seewhatididthere?)

- They find themselves unable to ever get out from under their mountain of student loans and are forced into a life of crime.

How does DOCTOR DOOM speak in all caps? I'm curious.

@Nerx: I'm certain that's why most villians use it even if they have no degree at all.

Other day I was think about how many magic doctors you found in comics.Dr; Strange,Dr. Fate,the above mentioned Dr Doom(sort of),Dr Voodoo and the Authority's Doctor,bonus points for his villain counterpart being an alchemist called the Surgeon.

It's kinda poetic in a way. I mean Doctors either save lives or as Scientist work to make them better. So in a comic world it would make sense that they try and end/destroy lives as well.

I thinks most of the "doctor ___" names come from Marvel

Just sayin'...

Dem loans.

The same thing happens to Barons: The Baroness, Baron Zemo, Baron Blood, Baron Swastika, Baron Blitzkrieg, Barons Strucker, Baroness Paula Von Gunther, Baron Mordo,Baron Bedlam, etc. Possibly the only good one is Baron Münchhausen!

Because the stress of grad school drives people crazy… or drives crazy people crazier. I think it could also be they turn to crime as a means to pay back student loan debts.

Other than Dr. Strange, and Dr. Mid-nite I can't think of any that are MDs. I imagine a lot of them are PhDs in things like biological engineering, or nuclear physics. Also, Dr. Fate is totally a Th.D (doctor of theology).

Because they all have PhD's...in Horribleness!

@gsGaret said:

Knowledge is power, power corrupts, so study hard be evil

true this is

Knowledge is power, power corrupts, so study hard be evil

@DocFatalis: welcome, and Your name at first glance looked like lord phallis, so thanks for that

@nonfiction91 said:

Not sure, But I suspect Doctor Octopus started out in gynecology.

That made me laugh. Congrats.

@Durakken: that the dumbest most stupid thing I have ever heard.

although Victor Von Doom is a doctor, Reed Richard is a professor which is even higher.

Doctor strange, Doctor Fate, The Doctor...

the flash has super thinking and super memory.

I have at least 300 examples of smart characters as heroes only from marvel and dc alone

and half of them have fought against dumb, mindless, or average intellegence villains.

Its a pride thing I think the title strike your ordinary person as of higher intellect. Plus your dim villians need someone inteligence to lead them.

Originally the dr. pre-fix was used to covey to the reader that this particular villian was intelligent and would have the reader think how can generic hero beat dr. whatever he hasn't even finished college/highschool. Then through the hero's natural goodness he would defeat the evil dr. showing that good triumphs over inteligence. Now the root of the villian Dr. most likely comes from Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll. If you also look at the earlier 1900's you find many dr.'s both real and fictional did horendously immoral acts in the name of science. Nowadays in the really world people are more aware that just because someone is a Dr. it doesn't mean you should trust them that they may have a degree in something or other but it doesn't mean they are right, and if they are trying to make you believe something stupid like there isn't alternate realities where super-heroes really do exist. Than you just ignore them because oviously there imaginations are dead and there perception of reality is as fragile as an eggshell.

It shows that you're a professional evil-doer and take you work very seriously.

Not so much doctors as scientists specifically. The answer: boundaries. Scientists are meant to think they have no boundaries yet most of them adhere to those boundaries, be it personal or societal. These super villains either cross or want to cross those boundaries and some of them are driven mad by it. Some of them would be bad people with or without the doctorate.

Because dum villains only get to be henchman, and the smart ones go to collage and gradute school then they do internship in A.I.M. or something like that. My point is that they are not the mayority of evil people just the ones that are on top.

@Durakken: While i agree with you that our culture does seem to be increasingly anti-intellectual, at the time when the vast majority of the major evil Doctor characters were created it was just the opposite.

commanding respect, i like that...

probably because in a universe where spilt chemicals can give you super powers, you have a lot of scientists/doctors getting these powers on both sides (the flash, Mr. terrific and the hulk on the hero side, doctor octopus and doctor doom on the other) and there's usually dozens of villains running around for each hero, so you see why theres so many doctor villains

Because our culture is anti-science and anti-intellectual. People that are smart and like to think about things and to delve deeply into subjects are seen as evil and thus that is reflected in our media. It's really simple...

Perhaps the description of doctor should now include: If involved in serious scientific accident, one might become a supervillain, turn to a life of crime and fight a new arch-hero only to be beaten every time, thrown in jail then escape and fight the superhero again. :P

As a PhD student in a scientific field myself, i find it very easy to understand all the evil doctors around. I mean, do you realize how frustrating it is doing the same experiment over and over and over because one little thing messed up? It's literally MADDENING! I mean, that's pretty close to the definition of insanity, but it's totally expected in the scientific field. Then you need to try to get grants and submit manuscripts and get responses from people that don't know what they're talking about half the time, or want you to do inane bullcrap that doesn't work the first three times and on and on and on......

As you can see, i myself am one disfiguring experiment-gone-wrong from becoming a super villain. I hope the Guild of Calamitous Intent has some sort of analogue in the real world. Anybody got David Bowie's number?

jim palmiotti...what the hell are you talking about

@LordRequiem: yeah, hes done some pretty wild stuff, somebody else said he should become Dr. Fantastic, I agree with that, lets work him into a status above hero, Dr.Fantastic...Master of the Scientific arts! *poses with peace signs conducting electricity*

Not sure, But I suspect Doctor Octopus started out in gynecology.

Doctors are awesome lol :D

They've been watching Grey's Anatomy. It's all about the chicks.

Because we have to start by studying a lot in order to assemble dreadful machines and evil yet cunning plans for World domination.

It's not everyone who can build an army of robots or a time machine before the age of thirty.

Why are so many villains doctors? Dude have you tried doing a PhD, that would drive anyone insane

Simple reason. Doctor Doom sounds much better than Nurse Practitioner Doom.

Just sayin'.

During the Golden Age, many villains were created as doctors to play on children's fears of visiting the doctor.

@Nefarious: Like Doctor House!

@Atary77: you know there are times when, i've heard people ask, where did Doctor Doom get his Doctorate?

@spiderbat87: ok what about bill nye the science guy? or mr wizard? macgyver?

@Herx: Ha!

do you mean villainous?

Two words... Doctor Guerrero - maybe he will come back evil? :)