The Evils of Free Will in Comic Books.
- This is the core philosophy of Darkseid, and one he seeks to bring about through obtaining the Anti-Life Equation. The creator of the New Gods, Jack Kirby, defined being alive as the ability to think and choose; therefore, his ultimate villain was a being inherently opposed to that very concept. Whenever he has gained the Anti-Life Equation, such as in JLA: Rock of Ages or Final Crisis, Darkseid has used it to enslave all of humanity to his will, breaking their minds and destroying their very volition. There is no concept of "self" under his rule. There is no "free will". There is no "choice"...but to submit. For in his world, you are nothing, and Darkseid is.
- Deadpool once went up against an wannabe alien messiah of the Lotus-Eater Machine mold.
- Marvel had the Emperor Doom storyline. It was about Doctor Doom creating a giant Mind Control device using the Purple Man and actually taking over the world with it, without anyone (except Wonder Man) noticing, and turning it into a real utopia. It was interesting, first because there was an argument between the heroes about the rightness of stopping it, and second because Doom answered the "why should I be the one in control" question by literally removing his protective mask in front of the Purple Man and challenging him to try to control him. And it worked.
- The Brain Drain in Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance promises to unite all of mankind and make all our lives easier by invading our minds for its sinister purposes.
- In Gotham City Garage, Lex Luthor designed his mind-control devices "Lexlocks" -later "Ridealongs"- to free the masses from a pesky thing called "independent thought".Luthor: I have a problem that needs solving.
Harley: Premature hair loss?
Luthor: Free will. There tiny machines can be gradted to every human mind in my garden. They can control thought, behavior, preference, happiness. Wash away the sins of the Dark Age and give the world a clean slate. But they must do so without driving the cattle insane. - Green Lantern: The Guardians of Oa came around to this line of thought in the aftermath of the Sinestro Corps War, the Blackest Night, and the Brightest Day. At first they believed chaos was caused by emotion, so they created an army of robotic Manhunters that lacked it. But without emotion the Manhunters had no qualms about following orders to murder a space sector's population. Then they believed chaos was caused by fear, so they created the Green Lantern Corps to fight it. But then they saw that fear wasn't the only source of chaos — love, rage, greed, compassion, hope, and even the Green Lanterns' willpower could also add chaos. So the Guardians decided that emotion and free will were the source of chaos and created a Third Army that would replace the Lanterns and eradicate free will from the universe. It didn't work.
- The Dark Judges in Judge Dredd present a particularly dark form of this trope - since all crime is committed by the living, life itself was outlawed in their universe, and now they seek to accomplish the same goal in Dredd's.Judge Death: On Deadworld there is no robbery, no murder, no arson, no littering, no noisy parties to disturb the neighbors. No neighbors. No evil lurking in the hearts of men. No crime.
- Legacy: After killing his master Darth Krayt, Darth Wyyrlok sets into motion his plan for uniting the galaxy under the One Sith. How? By making everyone in the galaxy a Sith.
- This is the motivation of the Big Bad, Accord in issues 48 to 50 of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW). After turning himself into a Spirit of Order, Accord begins brainwashing all of Equestria into a single massive Mind Hive, with himself as the Hive Queen. When confronted on this, he points out he's just being true to his nature: individual thoughts and personalities are inherently chaotic, and the ultimate root of disharmony. By making all creatures think with one single mind, removing individuality, he's bringing the ultimate from of order and harmony to Equestria.
- Scooby Apocalypse: The Four, Velma's superiors at the Complex (who are also her brothers), came to the conclusion that free will was the root cause of humanity's problems. That's why they altered Project Elysium, Velma's plan to use nanites to remove people's negative impulses, to instead turn people into obedient sheep. Of course, this instead made the nanites go haywire and turn people into monsters.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW):
- This is given as the reason behind Dr Eggman's world-conquering dream. Utterly despising how "filthy" and "irregular" the world is, Eggman, as the greatest genius that has ever lived, feels compelled to mold it into his image of perfection by eliminating of what he deems as imperfections, including free will.
- Dr Starline shares Eggman's dislike of the chaotic and unorganized nature of the world he's planned to conquer and bring it to total order as envisioned by him. The main difference is rather than extolling the superiority of blind robotic obedience as Eggman does, Starline believes that living beings are superior to mindless machines and plans to create an army of cyborgs mentally programmed to be at his beck and call that would enact the world conquering for him.
- A mild version appears in the Squadron Supreme limited series. As part of their efforts to eliminate crime and war, the Squadron invents a behavior-modification machine and uses it (on a voluntary basis) on convicted criminals.
- In Superman: Red Son, Superman believes this school of thought, having been raised by the Soviet government during the Cold War. Anyone who willingly disobeys Superman or Soviet Russia become a mind-controlled slave and work hard labor for the rest of their lives. The whole way through, however, Superman is genuinely convinced he is doing the ultimate good for the world and cannot understand why Lex Luthor would so adamantly refuse to submit. Unlike many of the examples on this list, Soviet Superman cares for everyone on Earth from the bottom of his heart (even Luthor) and cannot bear to see any physical harm come to them, which is why he goes to such extremes to prevent that.
- The Transformers (IDW): Megatron holds these views. His endgame, after killing every Autobot, would be to rebuild Cybertron as the perfect utopia, with himself in charge, obviously. When asked by Optimus Prime about things like freedom, free will and personality responsibility, Megatron's response is simple: "They won't be missed." Which is Dramatic Irony, because these were all things Megatron started the entire war for. Motive Decay at its finest.
