Yes. Mad Scientists do exist. Before you dive willy-nilly into the field of madscience, take into account very few practitioners ever hang up the lab coat with their dignity still intact.
Well what makes a scientist mad? There seem to be a few repeated subjects. One is intelligence; absolute, total, profound unstoppable brainpower with the will to implement it. Another is isolation, we know it’s not true but they may have it. Mad scientists don’t consume noble review, no wonder they’re never published. The other key factor is lack of attention for consequence. For a scientist to truly be “mad” they must push past current limitations without the realization that science, like nearly every other human struggle is a double-edged sword and caution is logical to prevent potential tragedy.
People fear the unknown. It does get much worse than a complete blank because then whatever fright you have can be superimposed on whatever is simply not known. Science is the pursuit of diminishing the unknown. Scientists actively analysis the darkness for answers. It’s scary, if even only from a philosophical viewpoint. What we find in the darkness we drag into the light to show everyone else.
Most mad scientists slave away their entire lives in pursuit of godlike powers. The most common tool of mad scientists in this era was electricity. It was viewed widely as a quasi-mystical force with chaotic and unpredictable properties by an ignorant public. Also a number of physicians were called mad for their bizarre experimentations.
Physiologist Dr. Moreau kicked off his mad science career in classic style. He declared himself god-king of all his twisted human/animal hybrids, and as if this weren't weird enough, he also went ahead and made a miniature version of himself.
Dr. Kurt Leopold had a dream to conquer the universe and, also, to turn himself into a giant catfish. From the crushing solitude of his North Florida laboratory, he planned to release a highly mutagenic chemical called Zaat into the ocean, enabling all sea life to rise up and decimate the surface world. Leopold finally stumbled into the ocean, wounded by police gunfire.
Robert White, the neurosurgeon whose goal was to achieve a total body transplant. He’s the guy who was doing the monkey head transplants: cutting the head off one monkey, and science, like comics, is oft misunderstood, and like Batman has learned, you’ll always fear, what you don’t understand. Maybe that should be my ultimate goal here, to make both comics and science a little less scary to the uninitiated or even just the unfamiliar. But I don’t think the mad scientist should go away, it’s a fun conceit I just don’t want it to be an overwhelming cultural perception.