the mad scientist vs the evil corporation

[marycatelli]

Was pondering some of the differences between being experimented on by a mad scientist, and by an evil corporation R&D department (or a secret conspiracy's, or a government bureau's), that do not affect the meta-origins of superheroes produced that way. . . .

Cackling is the most obvious.  Sure, you'll have scientists in the lab, and some will probably be genuinely mad, but sociopathic rather than the cackling maniacs. Cold, clean labs where they work in silence, having muffled any screams, and with arrangements to have the blood washed neatly away. The mad scientist is a lot more personal about it. And of course though it will be rife with assistants and other employees, there will not be a mad scientist's beautiful daughter; putting her there would be nepotism, and not an impersonal corporation in action. Besides, they would have their lives neatly divided.

The corporation would be more vulnerable in some respects. Sure, you could probably make the HQ as hard to attack as the mad scientist's lab in the castle, but it would take more work, and you would have to plump it down in the city, or at least suburbia. Howling wilderness and mountain tops are right out. They have assets and charters to forfeit.

On the other hand, they have more powers, too. The mad scientist could drop the portcullis and head for the hills. The corporation could have the torch and pitchfork wielding mob arrested and hauled off to jail and charged with numerous offenses.  Probably convicted too.

Comments

[starshipcat.livejournal.com]

Also, with the evil corporation, you're apt to have a lot of punch-clock villains, people who aren't malicious in everyday life, but do terrible things because it's their job. Maybe they need the paycheck because there are bills to pay, or they assume that someone at a higher level knows something they don't that makes it not-evil, or whatever, but they're just following orders and see themselves as dutiful, obedient workers.

So your character might have a wedge there to turn one of those punch-clock villains, to make him doubt the validity of the assumptions that enable him to do terrible things and still go home at night to his happy home and family, and start asking the real awkward questions about what they're doing and why.

[marycatelli]

Hmm. . . yeah, you could not do that with an Igor. . . OTOH, that is the traditional role of the Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter, who has just got a SFnal veneer slapped over that fairy tale classic, the Ogre/Witch/Wizard/Devil's Beautiful Daughter. . . .

The treatment is subtly different.