The Mad Scientist Personality Problem Graph

Back when I was writing the first draft of "A Match Made in Space," I sent a snippet of Spiff/Douglas interaction to Tracy, who liked the greaser/nerd dynamic and suggested that I do a story with similar characters who weren't actually aliens in disguise. So I've been mulling over that recently--not an urgent project, just something to play with when I'm bored.
I don't have names for them yet, but the greaser character is going to be one of those semi-sympathetic, S.E. Hinton, Judd Nelson in "The Breakfast Club" types. Sullen, aggressive misfits with lousy home lives who are smarter than they think. Loves his car, works in a garage.
The nerd character was more difficult to pin down. I originally thought he was going to be a George-type nerd, very quiet and submissive, but that's not an interesting relationship to write about. I had to imbue him with some more personality...and it turns out the little bastard's a budding mad scientist. Well, of course. Mad scientists were never asked to the prom in high school (and whether that's cause or effect is anyone's guess).
The problem is that now his personality is even harder to pin down. Should I make him bitter? Cocky? Creepy? With this in mind, I created a Mad Scientist Personality Problem graph:



Lex Luthor scores high on both Megalomania and Vengefulness--he wants to take over the world, and he wants to get revenge on Superman. Why? Well, if you believe "Smallville," it's because Clark dumped him for Lana or Lois or whoever. I'd be pissed too. However, the real reason--I swear, this is canon--is that Lex and Superboy used to be best friends until Superboy blew all the hair off Lex's head with his Super-Breath, and that is why he is bald. I am not kidding.
As to why he wants to take over the world, "Smallville" says that it's because his daddy wanted him to. I don't know what the official DC reason is, but you can bet it is not out of benevolence. Anyone who says they want to rule the world because they love it so much is either lying through their teeth or much scarier than honest megalomaniacs.

Herbert West scores high on Megalomania for obvious reasons (that little Ayn Rand speech in "Bride"? Yeah) but low on Vengefulness--he isn't really vengeful at all, at least in the first two movies (which are all that I have watched). He does kill Dr. Hill, but that's out of self-preservation, as Dr. Hill wants to hypnotize him, kill Daniel, and steal their work. After Hill is dead, Herbert mostly just taunts his head, which is more immature and silly than anything. Likewise, he resents Dan's girlfriends, but he seems to want them out of the way more than wishing them any actual harm.

Wade Ormont is a character from an obscure story that I think may have been by A.E. van Vogt but I wouldn't swear to it--it was in the Damon Knight-edited story collection "A Science Fiction Argosy." The main character is a scientist who decides to blow up the world because he got teased as a boy, which is a perfectly decent reason to want to do so. He scores high on Vengefulness, but low on Megalomania--as he explains, he shudders at the thought of having to rule the damn thing.

Dr. Emmet Brown scores low on both Megalomania and Vengefulness. He is a nice old Gyro Gearloose comic relief-type (who is nevertheless EXTREMELY DRAMATIC) who mainly wants to putz around with his time machine. No menace there.

I tried to place Dr. Thaddeus Venture on the scale, but wasn't sure where to place him. He isn't megalomaniac or vengeful, just selfish and kind of bitter. And he's not even a very good scientist, honestly. He doesn't really seem to care about his inventions besides how much money people will pay for them. Obviously he was pushed into the field of super-science by his dad. I think he'd be much happier sitting in a trailer eating cornflakes, or haunting seedy strip clubs.

Of course, this graph doesn't take the Frankenstein Complex into account, but that's a different scale altogether, and isn't an independent variable. Your attitude towards your own abominations of nature creations is going to be tempered by how megalomaniacal or vengeful you are in the first place, anyway, as will other variables like paranoia or sociability.