Here I am again, and I've got another proposal, being Dr. Moreau from the one shot comic Van Helsing: From Beneath the Rue Morgue. This is my second proposal of a character from the Van Helsing continuity, my first being Mr. Hyde. Funny cause in my original post when I wrote Hyde's competition for Heinous Standards, I wrote that I don't think Dr. Moreau could compete because he committed "standard mad scientist stuff". Well after finding the comic in my parents' basement and re-reading it for the first time in like 13 years....ooooh boy was I mistaken.
What is the Work?[]
Beneath the Rue Morgue is a one shot comic by Dark Horse, written by Joshua Dysart. It takes place in the time after Van Helsing killed Mr. Hyde and before he arrived back to the Vatican. He claims sanctuary in Notre Dame after being deemed a "murderer" for killing Hyde, and tries to get some rest. However a medium leads him to herself and another woman through her spirit, where they are being attacked by an invisible monster known as Beathán. The two women are killed and Van Helsing tracks the monster down to the sewers, were he comes across Dr. Moreau and his zoo of animal/human chimeras.
Who is He? What has he Done?[]
Dr. Moreau is a mad scientist who uses human DNA as well as animal DNA to make monsters in his own personal zoo, cause he sees himself as a manipulator of evolution, who in his own words, "[scratches] at [God's] eye. He'd also use dead body parts from corpses he stole from the morgue to finish his experiments. Now you might be thinking, what is so heinous about making human/animal hybrids? That's standard mad scientist stuff. Well...here's the kicker.
Remember that monster Beathan I told you about? Well it turns out the doctor created him when he ripped out the heart of an innocent man and placed it in the a body he made from amphibian DNA. When Van Helsing tracked the monster to Dr. Moreau's zoo, the doctor unleashed the creature onto Van Helsing, also releasing some of the other monsters in the process. The doctor is uncaring when Van Helsing kills some of them and proceeds to escape. After Helsing used the antidote to render the creature visible again, the ghost of the medium appears to Helsing, asking him to help the creature. Remember her and the other woman i mentioned who fell victim to the monster? It turns out they were his wife and daughter. We find out from her that the man's consciousness is still inside the beast, but is powerless to his animal instincts that drive him because of the doctor's experimentation on him. He had escaped the doctor to connect with his family, but his animal urges kicked in and he killed them. Now while Moreau may not have known they were his family and didn't order the monster to do it, there's quite a bit of evidence he wouldn't have cared. When Van Helsing confronted him and told him that he killed two women, he just responded with "Yes...he's a feisty one".
After Van Helsing continues to fight the monster, the doctor escapes and drowns the zoo out, killing all of his other creations and almost killing Van Helsing and the Beathan. Van Helsing looks for the monster to take him to the Vatican, but he is nowhere to be found. Meanwhile Dr. Moreau is apathetic to what had he just done and simply sails off, looking to continue his unethical experiments on an island. And that's the end of the comic.
Miltigating Factors?[]
Absolutely none. He's a god wannabe who is uncaring of the lives he ruins in his experimentations and does not truly care for his creations themselves. Considering that the Beathan still has human consciousness and is powerless to do anything, this would indicate that it is most likely the same for his other creations-meaning that he subjected several innocent lives to a fate worst than death for his own egotistical ways. And he drowned them all out to save himself. Even though Beathan survived, there's still the consciousness of a poor man whose life is now ruined as he is forced to give into his animal urges and possibly kill more innocent people. And all Dr. Moreau plans to do is start over from there like it was nothing, and continue with his unethical experimentations. Also while he does mention that he knew Dr. Jekyll, he was only fascinated by his research. Nothing more. And to say that he cares for his creations because he feeds them would be a HUUUUUGE stretch.
Heinous Standards?[]
Like I've said before, I don't believe the comic is canon because the author doesn't seem to be involved with the creators behind the two Van Helsing films, but let's assume that is and compare how he stands out to Mr. Hyde and Dracula.
- Mr. Hyde: Ok for the record, Mr. Hyde still counts as PE. He murdered 6 innocent women in brutal ways and drained their souls into a vile, to create a potion that would render Queen Victoria young which would erase the women's spirits from existence once she drank it. All for his own perverted mind. And he planned to kill more to keep the queen young. Mean while Dr. Moreau merges body parts from humans and animals, with the human mind still conscious somewhere and powerless to do anything about it. Both villains have subjected their victims to a fate worst that death. Hyde's victims can't wonder into the afterlife, while Moreau's victims are having their entire spirit taking over by the monsters he made them out to be. Perhaps Hyde is more heinous in that sense because he destroyed their spirits, but Moreau still subjected his creations to mental torture for the rest of their lives by doing what he did, which is pretty sick especially considering he has less resources than Hyde, who uses black magic.
- Count Dracula: I'd like to go into more detail with Dracula than I did my last proposal. Dracula’s issue isn’t how his plans are carried out as I said in my proposal on Hyde. His genocidal plans on the human race have potential to make him count (pun intended) but he cares for his children. However Moreau stands out due to having even less resources than Dracula, being the only human monster in the Van Helsing continuity, and he subjects his creations to probably the worst form of mental torture imaginable. It almost makes him on par with Dracula who is the first vampire and therefore responsible for siring other vampires. Essentially both turn their victims into their own monstrous creations. However with Moreau, their human conscious is still present, but they're powerless to do anything about it as they murder their loved ones.
Conclusion[]
A mad scientist who mutates an innocent man which causes him to kill his whole family? I say he counts.