Updated March 29, 2021 18.1K votes 2.5K voters 176.4K views
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Vote up the wildest comic book characters.
You almost have to be insane to be a comic book villain. They concoct grandiose schemes despite numerous failures, only to fail and be thrown back into prison by the seat of their spandex pants. It's hard to tell the difference between listing Batman's Rogues Gallery and flipping through the pages of the DSM-IV.
Heroes aren't exempt from having mental problems. Nothing drives drama like a hero losing his or heror her marbles and turning against his allies. The power that makes them great often comes with a precarious fragility and it's that imbalance that draws us to their struggle.
The Clown Prince of Crime is so insane, he's almost sane. His steadfast commitment to chaos is so consistent, it's almost more of a philosophy than an ailment. He seems to enjoy being locked up in Arkham Asylum to the degree where it's fair to wonder if he likes being caught. His cunning betrays a vast intelligence, but at the end of the day, he's still a psychotic, sociopathic mass murderer.
Appears In: Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Batman: The Animated Series, Fight Batman Fight!, Batman: New Times, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
Anarchist Cletus Kassidy was already a serial killer who burned down the orphanage he grew up in and killed at least 20 people before bonding with an alien symbiote that gave him super powers. There's no better way to level up your serial killer XP.
It's hard to tell if the "Merc with a Mouth" is the craziest character in the Marvel Universe or the only sane one. Deadpool has become aware that he is a comic book character. He speaks directly to the reader, and recognizes the absurdity of his Spandexed world, but barely knows his own origin as a result of Marvel's sloppy continuity.
Appears In: Deadpool, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Hulk Vs, Marvel Universe
Serving as a psychiatrist in Arkham Asylum, Harleen Quinzel was supposed to be one of the sane ones, but she fell in love with The Joker and joined him as his psychotic sidekick. This is what happens when mental professionals don't maintain boundaries.
Appears In: Batman: The Animated Series, Birds of Prey, Batman: New Times, DC Universe
Legion is the mutant son of Professor Charles Xavier who suffers from dissociative identity disorder. Each of his personalities is a superhero with a unique power that he can use at the expense of surrendering self-control. If he could control his powers without the mental problems, he would be the most powerful mutant ever... but he can't.
Appears In: Marvel Universe
Powers & Abilities: Psychokinesis, Telepathy, Time travel, Empathy, Pyrokinesis
Most of the time, when a character has a split personality, only one persona is active at a time. That's not the case with Harvey Dent. Both his good side and his bad side are always present and in control to an equal degree. Both sides know the other exists, which means the really scary thing about Two-Face is that he knows he's insane and he likes it that way.
Appears In: Batman: The Animated Series, The Dark Knight Rises, Batman, The Dark Knight, Batman Forever
