Doctor Mindbender -- now there's a cat who had it all!! Introduced to the
G.I. Joe rogue's gallery in the mid-80's (officially 1986, though he was called "Dr. Brain-Wave in that first appearance), this
Cobra-affiliated
villain had the looks, the bod, fighting skillz,
fashion sense,
and a
vault of
intellect covering both the
mundanely
mechanical and the intricately
biomechanical. As G.I. Joe bad guys go, he might have been a
second banana, but he was
first class all the way.
For starters, check out that outfit -- knee-high black boots pulled over purple pants (to be fair, most Cobra employees seemed to go for high boots -- must be some wading involved in the job), and the sonofabitch
never wore a shirt!! But then who
would wear one when they could be showing off a totally ripped
musculature like that? But still, a roguish
cape with Cobra-themed
epaulets
and hi-tech
suspenders. Not sure if they're meant to be blue or silver, but they match that
holster by the way. (But two points against him for wearing
both suspenders and a
belt -- as
another great villain once said "How can you trust a man who wears both a belt and suspenders? The man can't even trust his own pants.") Oh, and purple gloves, too.
And hairstyle? Try
none -- as in
bald as a shaved
beaver (the woodland creature, O ye of dirty minds), but with a truly classic twisted handlebar
mustache, and a
monacle to match up with that heavy
German accent. For some reason, the
action figure came with a length of hose (maybe for spraying some devious gas?).
But Mindbender wasn't all about the looks. He was a man of action. While other Cobra high command members were always backbiting and looking to
snatch the
mantle of
leadership from
Cobra Commander, Mindbender didn't seek to become the new leader; instead he
designed and built one,
genetically engineering Serpentor from the
DNA of past
generals and
warriors. He also threw together some battle android troopers, made synthetic people, dallied about with varied
mind control gambits, and so on. And, though no
ninja, he had the chops to hold his own in a regular rumbleabout.
I'll leave the
comic book bio for another to discuss -- suffice to say that the official story is, he was once a mild-mannered
dentist who tested a pain-moderating machine on himself and it made him go nutsoblammo. In the convoluted
multiple Universes of GI Joe, Mindbender's been "killed" a few times in the comics, and
resurrected via the that standard Comic Universe devices (
cloning, it was a double that was done in, just plain ignoring the earlier death). But whatever twists and turns the plots have thrown this character through, he's remained true to his brilliant, deviant, insane creed -- a true hero for villainy everywhere.