Regardless of whether the man is in control or the mushroom, the one in control proves to be aware of their wickedness!
Clinic of Horrors is possibly one of my favorite Webcomics. While Mister Yellow is definitely the big bad of the series, there is still not enough known about him to really consider him pure evil at the moment... Though with what is known, there is a chance he won't be. Can't say the same for this bastard.
What's the Work[]
Clinic of Horrors is a webcomic by Merryweatherey about a nurse named Bianca Abercrombie who lives in a crapsack world where all official medical providers are owned by Yellow Corp. Bianca works for an alley doctor named Dr. Albright.
Who is Dr. Adler and What Has He Done[]
Dr. Tyler Adler was a scientist who use to work in the same facility as Dr. Albright. He arrives to serve as a substitute teacher at Bianca's school. Everybody notices how he has a mushroom mutation on his head which he remarks as being harmless. This is a lie though as he infects the other students and turns them into his zombie army.
It's also revealed that Dr. Adler himself is a corpse being reanimated by the mutation. Also despite being a mutation himself, he goes on to proclaim other mutations to be abominations that need to be exterminated even when they are friendly ones like Michaelis and the trash blobs.
He also turns the other students against Bianca and Michaelis.
When Bianca gets hold of the cure to his infection, it is soon revealed he managed to infect her too as he makes her destroy the cure before turning her against Michaelis (he may not be in the room when this happens, but this is a hive mind, meaning he is very much in control). However, not all of the cure is destroyed as Michaelis manages to save Bianca allowing her to take what is left to the school's water supply. Adler meets her there, and he offers to let her cure the students in exchange that she lets him infect them again if they come back knowing full well that they would due to the aftereffects. The moment Bianca refuses though and dumps the cure into the water supply, he attempts to kill her before being injected with the cure himself while Bianca initiates the sprinklers to free the school from his control.
Unfortunately, his actions still leave an effect on the students. Even though the parasite would have killed the students, they end up gaining Adler's hate for Bianca as they subconsciously show disdain for her despite saving them. This includes Bianca's best friend, Sarah (though she at least tries to hide it as she still cares for her). After he is saved by Mister Yellow, he doesn't seem to show any appreciation toward it, only expressing desire for revenge against Bianca.
He even goes so far as to make a deal with Mister Yellow. To be precise, Mister Yellow was friends with Bianca when they were kids only to drift apart when Bianca was used in experiments that caused her to forget their friendship. Mister Yellow wants Bianca to work with him on his goal of what is intended as the next level of the Eternal Gaming Cafe (which is shown to be very messed up as those who go in stay in there with no proper nutrition or exercise and are thrown out to rot when they run out of money with no hope of recovering). Anyway, the deal is that Mister Yellow would hand Bianca over to Adler if she refuses to cooperate. Sure enough, when she hears Yellow's plan, she wasn't having any of it, so Adler is quick to demand she be handed over.
With Bianca captured, Adler explains his intent to her. Yellow won't allow him to kill her outright, but he does take satisfaction in what he is allowed to do. He tells her he is going to infection her with his mushroom parasite all over again. Before he can though, Bianca utters a phrase. "Big Father owes me!"
With this, a giant mutation invades the room to save Bianca. With this, Adler orders the nurses to get him out of there without showing any concern for their safety. Of course, they aren't fast enough as Big Father devours them all, leaving the mushroom broken out of its container and on the floor, confirming the end of this monster.
Mitigating Factors[]
Not too much is known about Adler's past. It is also unknown whether he is being controlled by his parasite or if he is in control. All that is known is that he was pretty run down before dying and being revived by the mushroom. If his past is revealed to actually have him be more benevolent that how he is currently shown, then he would definitely not be pure evil. Of course, even if the mushroom itself is controlling him the whole time (to the point where one could argue that Adler is the mushroom, which given the details, he likely is, making this proposal more about the mushroom), then even if Adler himself isn't pure evil, the mushroom still very much is.
In fact, let's go over the details of Mushroom Adler in question. First off, moral agency. It is in fact shown that mutations are more than capable of understanding right and wrong as demonstrated by Michaelis and the trash blobs. Adler is not an exception as he knows how to act like a good guy and knows that people commonly view environmental mutations as dangerous. However, he is ultimately a hypocrite as he labels all mutations as evil while being one himself, killing the trash blobs in front of Bianca and expressing intent to dissect Michaelis. Another thing to note is that the mushroom infestation is a hive mind with Adler at the top as a hive queen of sorts. This further shows the moral agency as he is the one in control of all the other mushrooms.
He also tries to pass himself off as a well-intentioned extremist claiming his goal is to make everybody happy with his mushroom infection. This is a load of bull for a multitude of details. First, the mushrooms are a hive mind, meaning that those infected aren't happy willingly. Second, the infection is treated like a drug where he fully expects those he infected to want to be reinfected with the student body subconsciously hating Bianca for saving them. Third, the mushroom infect is established to be dangerous as remaining infected for too long is fatal, with it being stated that Adler himself is effectively a corpse controlled by a sentient mushroom. Fourth, and this is in the second season, Adler basically demonstrates how full of crap he is by effectively admitting to merely wanting to make everybody a part of his hive mind for his own pleasure.
I should also note that he doesn't show to actually care for Mister Yellow at all as the deal he makes with him is purely so he can get revenge against Bianca if she refuses to cooperate, with it being clear that he expected her to refuse. Though he can't kill her like he wanted, this isn't out of respect for Yellow, as again, Yellow is much more powerful and would likely have Adler dealt with if he dared to doublecross him. He does however take satisfaction in the alternative that Yellow provided which is to force the infection into Bianca once again through surgical means to ensure she can't be cured of it by embedding it deep into her brain... which by all accounts would still very much kill her.
Heinous Standards[]
Mister Yellow is really Adler's main competition in the heinous department as he is the mastermind behind most of the villainy. While a lot of dangerous creatures appear in the series, Mister Yellow bought up all major medical companies to ensure his is the only one, thus forming a monopoly. Not just that, but he is the one behind the eternal gaming cafe, which is shown to cause those who use it to suffer from malnutrition (and whatever the premium is, fridge horror it may be, is clearly horrifying enough to make Bianca sick to her stomach from witnessing it). Then there is Mister Yellow's ultimate plan which is to link everybody in the world to a network where they can't ever leave once they have entered. Even if he claims he doesn't intend to force it upon others, it is still clearly dangerous.
That being said, Adler definitely has much less resources than Yellow as he isn't a corporate executive and is in fact a parasite who infects others to control them. It is even made clear that those infected would eventually be killed by the mushroom, and this would effectively render them nothing more than zombie extensions of him. Not just that, but even after Bianca cures those infected, the effects the parasite had on them linger as they subconsciously hate Bianca. He even clearly wanted to infect the world too, but had to start small with a school. When Bianca cured the school, that damaged him to where he was forced to work with Mister Yellow in building his goals. And while Mister Yellow's story is still ongoing, Adler's is very much done as he established to be killed off for real in Chapter 24 of Season 2.
So regardless of whether or not Mister Yellow ends up being worse, Adler's smaller amount of resources means he is more than able to stand out from him.
Verdict[]
I will do a yes, if not to Adler as a whole, then at the very least to the spore on his head that could be considered the man we are subjected to.