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Freudian Trio / Comic Books

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  • The Avengers:
    • Ego: Captain America — Charismatic, idealistic, peacemaking; the face of the group and ideal hero
    • Superego: Iron Man — Intellectual, pragmatic, and paranoid; can get a little Knight Templar without balance
    • Id: Thor — Loves fighting, storytelling and good company; the 'smite first and ask questions later' guy
    • In the Earth X timeline, the Avengers are remade with a new trio and shifted roles:
      • Superego: Loki (the new "Thor") — Undergone a Heel–Face Turn and is the most devoted to created a new Avengers
      • Ego: The Black Knight (the new "Iron Man") — Is emotionally temperate and regal like his father, Black Bolt
      • Id: The Reject (the new "Captain America") — Holds a lot of wangst being a handsome member of the hideous race of Deviants

  • The three Batgirls formed this dynamic in Batgirl (2000):
    • Superego: Oracle/Barbara Gordon — The rational adult who tries to keep her younger, more impulsive companions in check.
    • Id: Spoiler/Stephanie Brown — The youngest of the group, a reckless and emotional teenager who is equally passionate in anger or cheerfulness.
    • Ego: Batgirl/Cassandra — The most heroic and driven of the group, who works to keep Stephanie from getting herself hurt, while reminding Barbara what she's fighting for.

  • Batman According to this article the three identities of Bruce Wayne function as such.
    • Superego: "Billionaire" Bruce— "Benefactor for change in Gotham City"
    • Id: Batman— "creature of vengeance; pure brutality"
    • Ego: "Boy" Bruce (aka the "real" Bruce Wayne)— "the rational Bruce; controls Batman's brutality and the Billionaire's drive for change"

Birds of Prey:

  • (The classic line-up)
    • Superego: Oracle/Barbara Gordon — intellectual, rational, the little voice telling you what to do.
    • Id: Huntress/Helena Bertinelli — brilliant but impulsive and emotional, fundamentally amoral.
    • Ego: Black Canary/Dinah Lance — more balanced, mediates between the other two.
  • In DC Rebirth, Batgirl and the Birds of Prey brings back this Power Trio, but switches around the roles.
    • Superego: Huntress/Helena Bertinelli — the former head of secret spy agency Spyral, Helena is intellectual, largely logical and practical, to the point that she can often come across as cold and humourless.
    • Id: Black Canary/Dinah Drake-Lance — headstrong, impulsive and wears her heart on her sleeve.
    • Ego: Batgirl/Barbara Gordon — the voice of reason and the one who can act as a mediator between the other two.

  • Bone:
    • Phoney Bone (Id), Smiley Bone (Ego), and Fone Bone (Superego).

  • Deadpool Is arguable the trio all by himself. The various voices in his head do tend to flipflop roles but most commonly they are as follows:
    • Id: Yellow boxed internal monologue — One part of the constant internal voice of Deadpool constantly narrating his life because he can see straight through the fourth wall. Generally the childish, selfish, and impulsive part of Deadpool that puts self gratification along with preservation first.
    • Superego: White boxed internal monologue — Depending on source this is either another part of Deadpool or a supervillain called Madcap who got fused with him, it's a long story but either way these usually serve the same functions. Generally the more heroic or reasonable half of Deadpool depending on situation that advocates for things like saving his friends or allies despite danger, not murdering innocent children, and avoiding collateral damage so he gets paid more by whoever is currently employing him. Ultimately self-serving but more reasonable and logical.
    • Ego: Deadpool speaking aloud — Despite also being his speaking voice anything he states aloud that isn't directed specifically at another character or is said as a form of bragging is Deadpool making deals between the other two voices in his head. While Yellow may want to murder the children making fun of him and White will urge him not to Deadpool's speaking voice is usually around to make a compromise between the two, following the previous example that would be not murdering the children but breaking their arms to teach them a lesson.

  • Doom Patrol:
    • (During Arnold Drake's original run)
      • Ego: Elasti-girl — Most well-adjusted, often the voice of reason.
      • Superego: Negative Man — Tends to view things at a remove because of his powers.
      • Id: Robotman — Prone to bouts of mania or depression.
    • (During Grant Morrison's run)
      • Id: Crazy Jane — unpredictable, can change between her different personalities anytime, many of the personalities show little self-restraint.
      • Superego: Rebis — contemplative, sees things from a higher perspective, often oblivious to mundane matters.
      • Ego: Robotman — the informal reader, highly practical, tries to keep both Jane and Rebis focused on whatever their current mission is.

  • In the early 90s The Incredible Hulk writer Peter David had psychologist Doc Samson use hypnosis to the integrate the Hulk's different personalities which he described as
    • Id: The savage, green Hulk,
    • Ego: The cunning grey Hulk aka "Joe Fixit", and
    • Superego: Bruce Banner, and combine them into one new Hulk.

  • Justice League, and the recent (2008) comic series Trinity: "The triumvirate" of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman often match this (although the position each occupies can change depending on the situation and who's writing). Most of the time:

  • The Three Old Men of the Justice Society of America:

  • The Injustice League:
    • Ego: Lex Luthor — The most reasonable of the trio and the brains.
    • Id: The Joker — Most likely to go utterly Ax-Crazy at a moment's notice.
    • Superego: Cheetah — The one to have moral objections to having Dr. Light on the team.

  • Legion of Super-Heroes, the Founders Three note :
    • Ego: Cosmic Boy
    • Id: Lightning Lad/Live Wire
    • Superego: Saturn Girl

  • Lost Girls: Alice is the Id (adventurous sexual deviant), Dorothy is the Ego (easy-going and laid-back) and Wendy is the Superego (neurotic and repressed).

  • Planetary:
    • Elijah Snow (Superego)— Cold (both literally and figuratively) and detached, with a serious and standoffish personality that contrasts with the almost sibling-like bond between Jakita and The Drummer.
    • Jakita Wagner (Id)— A Blood Knight driven almost entirely by boredom, more in touch with her emotions that Elijah and The Drummer.
    • The Drummer (Ego)— Laid-back and down to earth. Often the one to raise moral objections.

  • The main characters of Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter had this dynamic.
    • Superego: Richard Dragon— Calm, controlled, and devoted to the spiritual side of martial arts.
    • Id: Lady Shiva— Impulsive, violent, and driven solely by addiction to danger and violence.
    • Ego: Ben Turner— Neither driven by his base desires like Shiva, nor entirely zen like Dragon. Ben acts as a humanizing factor for both of them, especially Dragon.

  • The Robins, traditionally
    • Superego: Dick Grayson, the original Robin — Trained the rest.
    • Id: Jason Todd, the second Robin — Violent, aggressive and vengeful.
    • Ego: Tim Drake, the third Robin — An Audience Surrogate who always wanted to be Batman's sidekick.
      • At the tail end of the Post-Crisis continuity Jason was replaced by Damian Wayne and the dynamic changed to:
      • Dick Grayson/Nightwing/Batman — the charming, optimistic, charismatic, compassionate Big Brother Mentor; mediates between Tim and Damian (Ego)
      • Damian Wayne/Robin — the violent, spoiled, arrogant, reckless assassin turn Kid Sidekick (Id)
      • Tim Drake/Red Robin — the moody, emotionally detached, reserved, intensely serious detective (Superego)

  • Robin (1993) — Before Ives integrates Tim and Callie into his group of school friends Ives and "Hudster" make a perfect Freudian Trio:
    • Superego: Kevin Hudson — rational, cool headed, intellectual and studious
    • Id: Hudson — incredibly impulsive, outgoing, makes rash decisions and gets into arguments often
    • Ego: Sebastian Ives — studious and playful, he makes his emotionally instigated decisions based on logic

  • Strangers in Paradise:
    • Id: Katchoo
    • Superego: Francine
    • Ego: David

  • Teen Titans (Silver Age, but some aspects went into the Bronze Age)
    • Superego: Dick Grayson/Robin I
    • Id: Roy Harper/Speedy I
    • Ego: Donna Troy/Wonder Girl I

  • Thunderbolts during the original run when they were pretending to be heroes.
    • Id: Baron Helmut Zemo — He was evil and wanted to use the Thunderbolts to replace the recently thought dead Avengers and Fantastic Four's place as the media beloved heroes so he could conquer the world
    • Superego: Jolt/Hawkeye — She was an idealist who thought the Thunderbolts were true heroes. Later Hawkeye took over as the team's moral compass when he began pushing the team to be true heroes.
    • Ego: Moonstone — She had to balance the evil nature of her boss, the influence of an idealist Jolt who didn't know the Thunderbolts were the Masters of Evil pretending to be superheroes, and the unstable personalities of her other colleagues to manipulate the Thunderbolts into what she saw as more realistic and beneficial options than trying to rule the world or making it a better place.

  • Tintin: The three main characters:
    • Ego: Tintin (level-headed hero)
    • Id: Captain Haddock (short-tempered sea captain)
    • Superego: Professor Calculus (Absent-Minded Professor)

  • Transformers: More than Meets the Eye deliberately does this with the commanding officers of the Lost Light:
    • Ego: Rodimus — reckless and emotional but willing to listen to reason. In Season 2, after Drift leaves the ship, he switches to the Id and Megatron takes over as the Ego.
    • Id: Drift — extremely spiritual and emotional, always proposing less conventional solutions.
    • Superego: Ultra Magnus — rational and by-the-book on everything.

  • Yoko Tsuno:

  • Young Justice — Red Tornado puts the three original members of Young Justice into these groups in Issue 1.


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