Marvel Universe
Brainwashed and Crazy in this franchise. open/close all folders
Comic Books
Comic Books
- The Avengers:
- Thor has been turned against his allies many times over the years, usually delivering a Curb-Stomp Battle until he comes to his senses.
- During the 80s, Quicksilver turned on the Avengers for petty and ridiculous reasons. After about a year of this, it turned out Maximus the Mad, of the Inhumans, had used his mind powers to do this to Pietro.
- During the "Ends of the Earth" story arc, Doctor Octopus does this to all the Avengers at once, but is tricked into increasing this to Villain Override over Thor, which renders him unworthy to wield his hammer.
- The infamous The Crossing saw Iron Man undergo this as it tried to retcon that Kang made Tony into a Manchurian Agent back when the Avengers first fought him and that Ant-Man's mental instability was from an early attempt by Kang to do this to him. Avengers Forever retconned that "Kang" was really his future self, Immortus, that his control on Tony only went as far back as Operation: Galactic Storm, and he never did anything to Hank Pym except only lie about being the cause of his issues.
- Following his resurrection in The Avengers (Jason Aaron), Phil Coulson was implied in Heroes Reborn (2021) to been subjected to this when Mephisto resurrected him. That doesn't absolve him of everything he's done, though as Heroes Reborn also revealed that he engaged in waterboarding, hence why he went to Hell in the first place after Deadpool killed him in Secret Empire.
- The Incredible Hulk: Betty Ross by M.O.D.O.K. when she was Harpy and the Leader early in her time as Red She-Hulk.
- Iron Fist (1975): Colleen Wing spends several days as an unwilling guest of Master Khan, who has Angar the Screamer break her mind so she'll kill Danny on sight. Danny's only able to stop her killing him by a dangerous use of his powers.
- The Black Panther storyline "Return of the Dragon" has the title hero fighting Iron Fist after the latter is brainwashed by the brother of the Dragon King.
- In Cable & Deadpool, Deadpool is brainwashed by the Black Box to kill the biggest threat to the public safety. After managing to convince Deadpool that this is not a) clowns; b) Simon Cowell; c) Galactus; or d) Karl Rove, Deadpool goes off to kill Cable, who he sees as the next biggest threat. After fighting Prester John and then going through several alternate universes in order to find (and save) that person, he then gets back and tells everyone that he was only looking for him to kill him. He is restrained until the others can remove the effects of the brainwashing. If you understand DP at all, a), b), c) and d) shouldn't have been too much of a surprise.
- Silent War: The final issue has Maximus reveal his mind-powers were responsible for Ahura being mistaken for insane and locked up, along with Pietro's post-House of M insanity (though he never reveals when he implanted the mind virus, and it's never brought up again...)
- Spider-Man:
- The reporter Ned Leeds once is captured by Hobgoblin (the original, Robert Kingsley) that brainwashes him making believe him to be Hobglobin, deciding it would be better to have a scapegoat in case he is unmasked. Ned's regular brainwashings by Kingsley cause his marriage and professional relationships to fall apart. Only years after Ned's death, his name is cleared.
- Mr. Negative, a new Spidey's villain on the block since Brand New Day, has this of a superpower to do to other people. Inverting their colour scheme, and having them proclaim glory for Mr. Negative while beating the tar out of others they're sent after.
- The title character of The Punisher, Frank Castle, premiered as a vigilante who kills criminals. Writers who disagreed with the concept sometimes took it, and Castle, over the top, having him kill or attempt to kill petty criminals such as jaywalkers. When Marvel made the decision to give The Punisher his own series, they had to retcon this to make him acceptable even as a dark hero. So they declared that during his crazy periods he had been under the influence of mind-altering drugs.
- A crossover event in the 90s called Over the Edge dealt with this trope and the Punisher. Doc Samson attempted to use a revolutionary new means of psychology involving drugs and hypnotism, but a combination of a villain sneaking in an a botched Mafia hit lead to Frank believing that Nick Fury killed Frank's family and going crazy in his attempt to murder him.
- X-Men: Has happened quite a bit. The fact Chris Claremont really likes using this one helps.
- Almost immediately after Claremont started writing, Havok and Lorna Dane were brainwashed by Erik the Red into being his minions for a few issues. On the plus side, Lorna got an actual codename in the bargain, which she kept.
- The Shadow King likes corrupting people into murderous insanity. He did it to an amnesiac Colossus, which was only undone by Professor X shredding the corrupted personality to bits.
- One storyline in X-Factor concerned a villain using brainwashed and crazy assassins to kill targets — including a woman's own mother, Monet, and Shatterstar.
- Pick pretty much anyone hijacked by Apocalypse to serve as one of his Horsemen. Even after they're rescued and deprogrammed, the former Horsemen suffer lingering emotional and physical effects, particularly over the things they were made to do while under Apocalypse's control.
- During the X-tiction Agenda event Storm and Wolfsbane where transformed into Genoshan Mutate slaves
- One of the scariest and most effective instances of this trope occurred when Hydra and the Hand teamed up under the Gorgon to target and kill low-powered but highly-skilled heroes, then resurrect them as Hand assassins. Their first target was Wolverine, who tore through most of Marvel's New York heroes before he was brought down. One of his victims, Northstar took years to get their brain unscrambled, and SHIELD had to resort to decapitating corpses to keep the Hand from getting at them.
- The Gorgon himself was recruited to the Hand through the same method. He was already bad though, the Hand just made him worse.
- X-23 (Laura Kinney) falls victim to this whenever she is exposed to the Trigger Scent. Thanks to the Facility's conditioning, Laura suffers a Pavlovian response to the scent that makes her into a true Living Weapon who will not stop until the people marked with the scent are dead. She blacks out all conscious thought during these times and only comes back after the scent is gone. Just to illustrate how powerful her response to the scent is, in her origin story X-23: Innocence Lost she killed the only two people she ever really cared for and who cared for her under the influence of the scent. She also nearly killed her aunt and cousin who only survived because they were able to wash off the scent in time. Emma Frost once claimed that the Trigger Scent response is so deeply ingrained into Laura's brain that Emma can't remove it with her Psychic Powers.
- Ultimate X Men: Multiple Man is not really an evil person, he was brainwashed into villainy by Lorelei.
Films
Films
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- The Avengers gives Loki the ability to easily turn people over to his side by tapping their heart with his scepter. Unusually for this trope, the brainwashing seems to simply change their perspective on the world rather than actual mind control or manipulation, and they maintain their usual personality and knowledge while working for the other side. It utterly fails when he attempts to do it to Tony Stark, thanks to his Arc reactor blocking the heart. All we hear is a "ding" of metal on metal. Tony makes a joke about "performance issues", further pissing off Loki.
- In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the title Winter Soldier (who oscillates between Walking Spoiler and It Was His Sled depending on whether you've read the comics) is revealed to have been brainwashed and turned into a weapon by HYDRA, and that he is really Bucky Barnes, Steve's best friend.
- X-Men Film Series:
- X2: X-Men United:
- Done to Nightcrawler with a mind-control serum to make him kill/try to kill the President (it's not clear if he was meant to succeed or die in the attempt). He snaps out of it and escapes when a bodyguard shoots him. This is also done to Cyclops later in the movie and had already been done to Lady Deathstrike.
- Also Charles Xavier, by William Stryker's mutant son Jason, who is himself Lobotomized and Crazy.
- X-Men: Days of Future Past: The prototype Sentinels were constructed entirely from polymer, but Magneto controls them through metal he fused to their components.
- X-Men: Apocalypse: Wolverine, when he's discovered by Jean, Scott and Kurt in the Alkali Lake base, has been turned into a mindless weapon. Jean mentions that Logan has lost his humanity and been experimented on. When he emerges, he massacres Stryker's troops in a rage without hesitation, and is only stopped when Jean reminds him of his humanity and removes his helmet.
- Unlike most versions of the character, the film version of Apocalypse notably does not use this method to "recruit" his Horsemen. This comes back to bite him during the final battle when two of his Horsemen turn on him and side with the X-Men, helping them to ultimately defeat him.
- X2: X-Men United:
Live-Action TV
Live-Action TV
- In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Daniel Whitehall uses the Faustus Device to brainwash valuble "assets" into working for HYDRA, often as hired thugs or assassins, including Carl Creel, Donnie Gill and Agent 33.
Video Games
Video Games
- Marvel Ultimate Alliance:
- Towards the end, Dr. Doom does this to several of the NPCs, turning them against their friends. Thanks to the fact that some of these characters were made playable in the next-gen versions as well as DLC content, namely Colossus, Cyclops, and the Hulk, this keeps them from getting brainwashed and the evil versions are instead presumably duplicates.
- Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: This is done by the Fold. It seems like the programmers like forcing you to beat the crap out of everyone in the game, regardless of whether they're on your side.
- Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of the Superheroes: The Secret Character known as Shadow Lady is Chun-Li from an Alternate Universe who was forcibly turned into a brainwashed cyborg for Shadaloo. In retaliation for foiling their operations, Shadaloo kidnapped and robotized Chun-Li for the sake of transforming her into M. Bison's top assassin. Unlike Shadow — a brainwashed Charlie Nash, who escaped shortly after being transformed — Shadaloo added a Restraining Bolt to Shadow Lady's programming so she would remain fully loyal to them. As Shadow Lady, her formerly cheerful personality was obliterated, transforming her into an emotionless minion. In her ending however, Shadow Lady overcomes Shadaloo's brainwashing, regain her original memories as Chun-Li, and join forces with Shadow in taking down Shadaloo.
Western Animation
Western Animation
- Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes: The Human Torch gets brainwashed in "Johnny Storm and the Potion of Fire", making him much more powerful and giving him more power over fire, but makes him attack his sister. His willingness to end her life was what snapped him out of it. The increase in power might make this also With Great Power Comes Great Insanity.
