Freudian Excuse/Comic Books: Difference between revisions

** The Joker himself likes to make fun of this trope, by making up horrible child abuse stories in order to mess with people's minds. He did this most notably in ''Mad Love''.

** Oh, and Killer Croc once teamed up with fellow biological misfit Baby Doll, and they were quite successful--but apparently being a [[Jerkass]] at heart, he decided to ditch her, at which point she snapped on him.

** The nature of Two-Face's father's abuse varies slightly depending on the story. One story suggested that his dad had a split personality himself, and would violently beat Harvey when he was angry with him before realizing in horror what he was doing.

** The Riddler is another of the "abusive father" strain. In particular, his father would savagely beat him every time he lied, so the Riddler feels the compulsion to always tell the truth... albeit in convoluted riddles.

** Scarecrow gets an [[Mommy Issues|abusive grandmother and maternal abandonment]], as well as vicious school bullying. In fangirl circles, this is taken as an actual excuse. If you can find a Youtube Scarecrow video posted by a female user who doesn't portray him as [[The Woobie]] or, after Cillian Murphy played him in the movie, a [[Draco in Leather Pants]], I will give you five bucks.

** A perfect example of the slimy psychiatrist appears in [[Frank Miller]]'s ''[[The Dark Knight Returns]]'', in the form of Dr. Volper, who attempts to present ''the Joker'' as being a mere victim of Batman's psychosis. In thanks, the Joker snaps his neck on live television (while gassing the studio) - although it's suggested that the psychiatrist, [[Strawman Political|irritating, blinkered and naive jerk]] though he may be, might have a point, as the Joker had spent the period that Batman had been absent from Gotham City in a catatonic state that he only emerged from when Batman returned.

** [[Alan Moore]]'s ''[[The Killing Joke]]'', during which the Joker has his [[Freudian Excuse]] explained as an extended flashback. Joker explains that the story might be entirely false due to his own unreliable psyche, but DC seems to be treating it as [[Canon]], given a later story arc where Riddler says he witnessed the murder of "Jack's" wife and offers to tell Joker who did it in return for protection.

*** Of course, the whole point of ''[[The Killing Joke]]'' is Joker trying to prove that all it takes is "one bad day" for even the sanest person to go off the deep end. He tries to drive Commissioner Gordon insane by shooting and brutalizing his daughter Barbara, then forcing Gordon to look at photographs of her naked, broken body. However, Gordon doesn't break and, when Batman rescues him, he tells Bats to bring Joker in by the book, to prove "our way works".

** This is turned on its head in ''[[The Dark Knight Saga|Batman Begins]]'', in which the corrupt psychiatrist, when his "clients" cease to be useful to him, uses a neurotoxin to render them ''legitimately'' insane.

** Roman Sionis a.k.a. Black Mask also had an abusive childhood. Whenever he suffered an accident that should have him taken to some hospital, his parents were more concerned with their image and covered the incidents. Despite hating the Waynes and not hiding it from Roman, his parents forced him to befriend Bruce for the sake of being connected to one of Gotham's elite families. When Roman started dating a secretary from his father's company, they opposed it. That was the last drop for Roman, who burned down the family home [[Self Made Orphan|with his parents inside it]]. Not being as good as a businessman as his father was, he drove the company bankrupt. His girlfriend left him, the irony being that his parents were right about opposing the relationship. Using a defective product from his company (the very same one that drove him into bankruptcy), he exacted his revenge on her. Feeling humiliated that Bruce Wayne took over the company, Sionis (now Black Mask) started kidnapping executives of Wayne Enterprises.

* Has been used at times to explain the motives of ''[[Spider-Man]]'' villains, and to possibly contrast them with Spidey himself, who did not exactly have the best childhood. The worst example was when Venom was given a cliched tragic backstory (complete with the drunk, abusive father) as part of a bad idea to turn the character into a hero.

** This was actually addressed in ''[[Ultimate Spider-Man]]'', where Nick Fury reveals that the reason he had given Spidey such a hard time was because he has assumed, due to the tragedy in his life, Peter was almost certain to become a villain.

* In ''[[Ultimate Fantastic Four]]'' #7, it is explained that on Victor Van Damme's tenth birthday he was presented with his family history dating back to Vlad Tepes Dracula and basically the blueprint for his entire villainous mindset, and from that day on at dinner he was required to recite said family history from memory, receiving beatings when he got it wrong and being forced to start over until he got it right. Not much of a Freudian Excuse, but... the last page of the flashback shows ten-year-old Victor sitting in the chair where he received the original lecture and instruction in five panels depicting it slowly getting darker. In the last one, he says "It's my birthday." If you don't feel sorry for him (at least the child version, not necessarily the one who proceeds to recite the names of his ancestors and ask if his father can hear him now while attacking the FF with a rocket launcher) after that, then you have a heart of stone.

** And then, once he and his soon-to-be wife Magda settled in Ukraine, a mob burnt down the inn where they were staying, and he was unable to do anything while his daughter burned to death. And ''then,'' when he lost control of the powers he didn't know he had and killed the mob, Magda ran from him, calling him a monster. Later, when he was hunting [[Those Wacky Nazis|Nazis]] for a living, the people he worked for (heavily implied to be the CIA) killed a female friend of his because he went after the "wrong" Nazis. Oh, and his [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|powers make him bipolar]]. The man has so many issues it's a wonder he's still able to function.

*** [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Of course the magnet guy is bi-"polar"...]]

* While not a villain persay, Rorschach from ''[[Watchmen (Comic Book)|Watchmen]]'' was raised by a prostitute who never cared for him. The Comedian is implied to have had a rough childhood as well.

** Rorshach states his reason for becoming a crime-fighter in a deconstruction of the superhero origin story. The therapist he speaks with sees it as nothing more than a shallow excuse for his violent life.

* [[Defied Trope]] in the first strip of ''The Grievous Journey of Ichabod Azrael (and the Dead Left in His Wake)'': the [[Narrator]] says he'd like to say Ichabod became a killer because his father beat him,but in reality, his childhood wasn't any harsher than any other kid at the time. Some people are just born mean.

* Barracuda from [[The Punisher|The Punisher MAX]] series. Though an [[Affably Evil]] character to the point of almost being likable, he's a [[Complete Monster]]. He turns on allies in an instant, given sufficient reason to do so, and tries to get revenge on Castle by {{spoiler|kidnapping his infant illegitimate daughter and planning to torture her to death in front of him}}. However, during a scene in which the tortured Barracuda snaps completely and utterly, a dialogue in his head reveals that his father had been abusive to the point of torturing his young son. When he goes off the deep end, Barracuda screams "I never did find you, Dad! I had to take this shit out on the goddamn world, instead!"