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Quote1 When you get driven helplessly insane -- you're really quiet about it. (...) "Snikt"? Whups! If you want me to say ouch, you have to warn me before you do something like that. Now that's funny. Hand it to you, most people I make loony, it lasts. What do you think it means? You think you're saner than most? Or already crazy? Quote2
Madcap[src]

History

The Accident[]

The man who would become Madcap was a religious man belonging to a group that organised a trip. This man, his parents and his sister Katy went to the trip in a bus, with some other forty people.

Chemical X07 from Captain America Vol 1 309 001

"Chemical X07"

Terrorist scientists from A.I.M. were trying to destroy a chemical developed by themselves, Chemical X07, which apparently included enzymes to incite a rapid healing in human bodies. The accident killed all of the people in the bus, except for the man who would become Madcap. Coincidentally, this man laid unconscious for hours on a pool of X07, which would eventually evaporate. He would recover consciousness in a hospital, but then discovered that he was the sole survivor and his faith in a rational universe collapsed. He ran away from the hospital and threw himself to a car trying to commit suicide. To his surprise, he was unharmed and felt no pain at all. This drove him completely mad. He correctly suspected that the accident had given him this immunity to damage, but could not understand why he was to obtain power from an accident who had killed forty people, including his family and friends.[2]

Madcap (Earth-616) from Deadpool Annual Vol 3 1 001

Madcap

Becoming Madcap[]

Finally, this man decided that things happen without a reason, and that nothing has a purpose. He soon discovered his other power, which allowed him to drive people crazy. He bought a bubble gun in a general store and stole a harlequin costume. He called himself the Madcap and wandered through New York City driving people crazy. He had no compunction about putting people in danger: as he could not be hurt, he could not understand that other people could be hurt.[2]

During one of his first trips, he met newbie adventurer Nomad, who was at that moment Captain America's partner.[3] Nomad befriended Madcap, trying to understand his origins, motivations and powers. However, when Madcap began to threaten lives, Nomad was forced to knock him out and overcome him.[2]

Daredevil[]

Madcap accidentally thwarted a heist, which put him in the sights of heist organizer the Rose and in the sights of amateur TV producer Dollar Bill. A docudrama on Madcap staged by Bill led the Rose's men to Madcap with nefarious intentions. Daredevil tried to help Madcap, but could not prevent Madcap from burning to his apparent death - although soon Madcap reappeared to plague desperate Bill, demanding a TV show called Mystery Hour of Madcap.[4]

Power Pack[]

Madcap was sent to a psychiatric hospital, but used his powers and became the host of The Mystery Hour of Madcap in New York TV. Madcap found child super heroes Power Pack and tried to convince them to live adventures with him, but his adventures became dangerous and Power Pack left him. Madcap then moved away, dancing and singing about the fun of further adventures.[5]

She-Hulk[]

While She-Hulk was walking around London, the crazy Madcap decided that he was funnier than her, and that both She-Hulk and him should have owned her comic book, but he didn't know how would it end, and confronted her. In a park, he found her eating ice cream and started attracting people with jokes and tricks, and even making them join in with him. When children were put in danger, She-Hulk appeared to save them. Before she could do anything, Madcap took over her mind. After recovering her senses, She-Hulk confronted Madcap, only to be subdued again. While she was under his mind control, she started to fight against a fake whale, until she recovered again. Jen ran into a fake castle, where she tried to fight Madcap, who subdued her again. In that state, she grabbed him and took him somewhere he couldn't control anybody. After hurling him around and testing his regenerative abilities, she decided to give up, but when Madcap demanded her to give him the book, she ripped apart the page (with Madcap on it) into small pieces, dropped it into a garbage can and burned it. She explained that Madcap wasn't dead because he was "just a drawing."[6]

Karl Malus[]

A further encounter with Dr. Karl Malus led to Madcap accidentally touching one of Malus' inventions and, for the first time in a while, Madcap could be hurt and feel pain. It is unclear which of Malus' discoveries led to this. Madcap is left trying to find Malus, but he would lead his search through unusual methods, and likely unsuccessful ones. Malus is not aware of Madcap's search.[7]

Madcap (Earth-616) from Ghost Riders Heaven's on Fire Vol 1 4 0003

Ghost Rider[]

Madcap went on a rampage, but was stopped when he felt Ghost Rider's Penance Stare. The experience left Madcap even more unhinged, and he began to crave the intense pain of the Ghost Rider's stare before being arrested.[8]

Deadpool[]

Shortly before the Secret Invasion, Madcap ran into Deadpool on a rooftop while the Merc with a Mouth was attempting a hit on Matt Murdock. There was a short quarrel between the two, where they compared healing factors, and a failed attempt to drive Deadpool insane lead to a battle with Daredevil and Thor. Thor electrocuted the pair to dust while they were holding each other, so when they regenerated, only Deadpool seemed to survive. Madcap lived on inside Deadpool's mind, manifesting to Deadpool in the form of a white caption box until after the conflict between the Avengers and the X-Men, where similar circumstances split the pair apart once more.[9]

Mercs for Money[]

Madcap was left emotionally damaged by his experience inside Deadpool's mind, mainly by the way Deadpool's subconscious interacted with Madcap, and Wade's ability to feel pain, something Madcap had never felt before.[10] Madcap's first attempt to defame Deadpool involved telepathically controlling security agents to kill the ambassador visiting the United States they were protecting, and pinning the murder on Deadpool, by luring him to the place of the crime with a phony job offer.

Madcap (Earth-616) from Deadpool Vol 6 1 001

Madcap as a Merc for Money

However, Madcap accidentally hired another mercenary, Solo, who had been impersonating Deadpool to take jobs at a higher pay-rate. When Solo went to the scene as Deadpool, he caught notice of the oddity of the set-up and protected the ambassador, rescuing his life and causing the popular view on Deadpool to drastically change for the better.[11] When Deadpool founded his Mercs for Money based on Solo's M.O., Madcap showed up uninvited and managed to join the team simply because they couldn't get rid of him. Madcap's performance was deplorable, he missed numerous missions, and the ones he did go on, he acted disastrously. Despite this, Deadpool still didn't know of Madcap's true intentions.[12]

Madcap began impersonating Deadpool to kill innocent people in his name and threaten his allies, he also used his mental manipulation to incite violence throughout the city so people would fear Deadpool again.[10] Once he discovered Madcap was the responsible behind the chaos in his life, Deadpool used his daughter Ellie as a bait to lure Madcap and confront him once and for all. With the help of his ally Masacre, Deadpool continuously chopped down Madcap's limbs as they continued to regenerate. Madcap still managed to fully regenerate and threatened to use a Chitauri hand cannon on Deadpool that would disintegrate him molecularly. Seeing as he had had enough fun, Madcap wondered if he would be able to regenerate at the molecular level, and fired the weapon at himself.[13]

The End of the Feud[]

Deadpool Vol 6 21 Textless

Madcap attached to Bob's torso

As he began to regenerate, Madcap bonded to Deadpool's ally Bob, becoming a malformed small creature attached to his abdomen and forcing him to do his bidding.[14] He carried out a new plan, luring Deadpool to a zoo and injecting him with a substance that turned him into the carrier of a fatal airborne virus, causing him to unwittingly infect the members of his family and put their lives at risk.[15] Deadpool managed to find a cure for the virus, and tracked down Madcap afterwards. He confronted the villain and Bob, just then discovering he was Madcap's host, and ultimately forcing Madcap to detach from Bob and run away.[16]

Once Madcap fully regenerated, he resurfaced and set out to destroy all aspects of Deadpool life. However, he soon learned that Wade had done that to himself as a consequence of Hydra's short-lived empire of the nation. Wade tracked down Madcap and confronted him, and used a beacon to call the Collector, with whom he had previously negotiated Madcap's capture. To Wade's surprise, Madcap actually looked forward to his captivity, since he had become bored of his feud with Deadpool, and argued that Wade did a more brutal job at ruining his own life than Madcap could've done.[17]

Attributes

Power Grid[23]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/Single Type: Short Range:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Superhuman:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Normal

Powers

Emotional Control: Madcap has a specialized form of mind control that makes targets highly susceptible to suggestion by him. Even without specific suggestions, Madcap's influence makes victims behave in a wild, uninhibited manner, in a form of temporary madness.[18] Madcap requires some form of medium to transmit his psionic power, but that medium can vary with his needs. He originally used a soap bubble gun to influence people who came into contact with the bubbles.[3] Deprived of the gun, he could still influence people by making eye contact with them.[2] If his opponent blindfolded themselves, Madcap could influence them by his voice alone.[19]

Healing Factor: Madcap heals at extraordinary speed and recovers his vitality and stamina quickly. He possesses no sense of pain since the chemical accident that gave him his powers. He tried many suicide attempts, but failed, as he was able to survive each and every injury.[18] He could even recover being entirely disintegrated, though it took quite a while for him to fully regenerate.[13][20][17]

Weaknesses

Mental Illness: Madcap has a serious mental illness which makes him believe that life is meaningless.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Deadpool's Suit: as a member of the Mercs for Money he was provided with a version of Deadpool's suit.[21]

Weapons

A bubble gun, common toy without special properties, but Madcap uses them to attract attention and people usually think that the bubbles are what drives them crazy.

Notes

  • Deadpool himself has stated that Madcap's healing factor was stronger than his own.[10]
  • Deadpool has surmised that Madcap was always a monster, and that his origin is fake and that his dead family members (including his sister, Katy) and friends never existed. This has yet to receive any further elaboration, leaving it unclear if any of it is true.[14]

See Also

Links and References

References

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