With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'': Raven must suppress her anger, otherwise she takes on a far more evil side that has no mercy and takes up a form that can border [[Eldritch Abomination]]

** [[Lex Luthor]] creates a super suit ostensibly to help the police fight crime. The officer testing it builds an unhealthy bond with it and becomes drunk with power, forcing the Man of Steel and John Henry Irons to take him down.

*** Irons later worked out the flaws in the suit that caused this behavior and created his iconic "Steel" armor. Interestingly, the first opponent he fights as Steel is Metallo, the below example.

** Luthor poisons unwitting gangster John Corben, then offers to save his life with the Metallo project. Corben, advised only that there may be "some adjustments needed" to help him live a normal life after the process, accepts. But in his new robot body, the hedonistic Corben can't feel, smell, touch or taste anything, and becomes destructive in his rage at his human sensations being lost.

*** To be fair, Corben was already a criminal and card carrying psychopath.

* In ''[[Ben 10: Ultimate Alien]]'', this is revealed to be the reason behind Kevin's villainy in the first show. Absorbing energy causes insanity in people with his powers: before he'd even met Ben he was hooked on electricity and was planning to do things like crash trains full of people together to make a buck. After accidentally absorbing energy from Ben's Omnitrix he ''really'' goes nuts, and turns into a full on [[Psycho for Hire]]. After the [[Time Skip]] in Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, he is noticeably wary about doing it.

** Aggregor claims that this is BS. However, since he is already an insane supervillain, he probably isn't the most reliable source.

** {{spoiler|Kevin ends up proving it by absorbing Omnitrix energy to stop Aggregor, but looses his sanity and takes the power Aggregor stole in the process. He then proceeds to try to drain energy from anyone with power, right after giving out [[Disproportionate Retribution]] to anyone he's had problems with. He is barely stopped long enough to cure him.}}

* Dark Danny of ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' arguably. Though the whole thing about watching helplessly as your family and friends get blown up and getting your super-powered ghost half removed did give a good start... but he only started a murderous rampage ''after'' getting his enemy's power. His [[Future Me Scares Me|past self]] is extremely horrified.

** Vlad may also apply as he seemed to be largely content with his life before the accident.

*** Well, except that his one true love went and married their idot friend who Vlad thinks caused the accident anyhow.

* In ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' Aang can enter the Avatar State, channeling the power of all his previous incarnations. You'd think channeling all those former Avatars would make him calm, wise and experienced, but no... Instead he gets all [[Glowing Eyes of Doom|incandescent]] and frags everything in sight. However, true mastery of the Avatar State includes being able to control it, {{spoiler|which he finally manages to achieve in the series finale}}.

** In the series finale, {{spoiler|after being made Fire Lord, Azula}} ''loses it''. {{spoiler|In an inversion, it's because she's ''losing'' power and she knows it - her friends had shown themselves insufficiently scared of her and defied her, and her dad appointed her Fire Lord right before turning the position into "irrelevant figurehead". Paranoia of further betrayals if she didn't instill fear in everyone around her, and insecurity that no one (especially her [[Missing Mom|mother]]) truly loved her for who she was caused her to finally snap.}}

* In ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]],'' three [[Super Villain|Supervillains]] become as such when they get bonus mental instability with their powers. Electro and Doctor Octopus each suffer a [[Freak Lab Accident]]. Electro gets [[Power Incontinence|volatile]] [[Psycho Electro|electricity]]-based powers, then [[Freak-Out|freaks out]] at his loss of humanity. Doctor Octopus' [[Artificial Limbs|robotic arms]] are [[Hollywood Cyborg|fused]] [[Unusual User Interface|to his spine]] during a massive electromagnetic [[Lightning Can Do Anything|shock]], which causes an [[Not-So-Harmless Villain|extreme]] [[Mad Scientist|personality change]]. The Green Goblin ''claims'' that he suffered no blackouts and no change in personality from his [[Psycho Serum]], but he may be in denial considering that he actually keeps acting crazy and speaking in rhymes while he's hovering above the prison in season 2 while no one can hear him.

** In the case of Doc Ock it wasn't so much a case of the new powers messing with his brain, but rather stripping away his inhibitions.

** More recently, John Jameson was infected by alien spores, which made him super massive, super strong, and essentially a [[Flying Brick]] without the flying, but, over time, messed with his head, making him filled with rage and aggression. After Venom threw him into a rage (making him think the one messing with him was Spiderman), Spidey was able to purge the spores from his system, making his body return to normal, but he was severely addicted to the power, and had to be admitted to an insane asylum. The effect was made more evident due to John having a cell right next to the now completely insane Electro, who babbles on about how [[That Man Is Dead|he has no more human identity]].

*** Eddie Brock would also qualify as an example. When he's stripped of the symbiote in a battle at Peter's high school, he is strapped to a stretcher and removed by two hospital orderlies, screaming at a crowd of spectators that "WE'RE VENOM!"

* [[Swat Kats|Dr. Viper]] was formally one of two biochemists who invented the Viper mutagen, which was intended to regenerate plants. Then he decided to try and steal it so he could sell it, directly leading to his transformation into the crazed, lizard-like Dr. Viper.

* <s>Professor Lapton</s> [[Insistent Terminology|Professor Von Madman]] in the [[Buzz Lightyear of Star Command]] episode ''Eye of the Tempest'' after he tested his revolutionary crystal/human hybrid technology on himself. But he has [[Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter|a daughter]]...

** Beast Boy ends up falling [[The Hobbit|Gollum]]-style to the allure of Jessica Cruz's [[Green Lantern]] ring during the second part of the "Space House" ''[[DC Super Hero Girls]]'' [[Crossover]] episode. It's not a proper [[Artifact of Doom]] [[Artifact of Attraction|or Attraction]], though, [[Green-Eyed Monster|he just ''really'' really wanted it]] - though once he finally puts it on, the Power Ring interacts badly with his own superpowers and drives him feral.