"Mad science" is still not a recognized discipline, but if it ever is, Dr. Sandor Varkoff would be an excellent candidate for accreditation in the field. Varkoff has a vast body of knowledge in a wide range of specialties, and is unquestionably a genius. Unfortunately, this brilliant man is also extremely twisted, and has a penchant for hatching plans that can only be called "crackpot".
Dr. Varkoff's career path as a mad scientist has led him to butt heads with Captain Satellite, Shelly Ericson, and the Invincible Alliance. He has never been particularly successful in any of these clashes, but he's persistent. You have probably heard the popular wisdom on doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Dr. Sandor Varkoff's chief claim to fame is being the creator of Elektroid, the robot which rebelled against him and later joined the heroes of the Invincible Alliance. Varkoff was also responsible for unleashing Gargantua Maximus, the size-changing giant gorilla, on an unsuspecting world before losing control of the beast. Notice a pattern here?
I never intended to do a profile for Dr. Sandor Varkoff. I created him because Elektroid needed an inventor of some kind. However, I sort of latched onto the idea of a mad scientist whose schemes never quite worked out, and decided it might be fun to give him a little more to do.
"Sandor", by the way, is totally a real name. Look it up! The distinctive Sandor Varkoff moniker was inspired by the actor who used "Zandor Vorkov" as a stage name. Mr. Vorkov is best known for the playing the part of Dracula in the Al Adamson DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN.
Visually, I got a lot of cues for Dr. Varkoff from Bela Lugosi, a veteran at playing mad scientists and other movie villains and oddballs. I was especially taken by stills of him from the film WHITE ZOMBIE. In designing Sandor Varkoff, my proudest and happiest moment was the decision to give him a widow's peak. To me, it defines his look.
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