Psych Ward: Mister Sinister

Professor,

Thank you for the invitation to speak to your class “Criminological Theory in the Age of Costumed Offenders.” I am excited for the lecture and discussion. Enclosed is a brief write up on the criminal known as “Mister Sinister.” Please distribute it to the students and ask them to read it in advance of class as I will be referring to it and calling on them to participate. Again, thank you, and I will see you next week.

The client, Nathaniel Essex — far better known as the criminal Mister Sinister — discovered that, while he was assumed dead, this writer did a presentation on him as a guest lecturer to a “Criminological Theory in the Age of Costumed Offenders” course. He claimed to be visiting to “meet the arrogant plebe who would think so highly of himself to believe himself my better,” and no other reason.

He presented with a poorly hidden wounded narcissism and insisted on being called “Mister Sinister”—as I hypothesized he would in my class presentation—throughout session. I will therefore treat that as his name for the purpose of this note.

Despite his insistence on being my better and my work being completely “misinformed and off the mark,” the client confirmed many of my hypotheses in short order. He demonstrated an underdeveloped sense of morality, a rejection of conventional rules in place to protect others besides himself, and a fulfillment of several categories necessary to diagnosis Antisocial Personality Disorder.

His narcissism also seemed to make it impossible for him not to, in essence, tell on himself. After confirming that his seeming obsession with the Summers family—especially the late Scott aka Cyclops—has also admitted that since that person’s death, he has found himself searching for a new purpose and found it with turning his genetics fixation to the so-called Inhumans.

As in the presentation, I feel comfortable predicting that any kind of meaningful healthy change for the client is unlikely, even with therapeutic intervention. Overall, the subject is smart, arrogant, and nearly entirely without empathy. The only reliable means of “controlling” him would seem to be to give him a project that captures his imagination and give him the free rein to explore it fully. However, what he might do in his quest to solve that problem and/or when he became bored would be, undoubtedly, wholly unacceptable.

Given this, I also would predict that it is highly unlikely Sinister will return. His arrogance permits him to see no other outcome but that he bested this writer the moment he showed up at the offices, so the actual outcome of our session is immaterial. His ego integrity returned by “showing” me, he’ll now have no compelling reason to return.

That said, this writer did do his due diligence and made a follow-up appointment for the client. However, given the dynamics in the room, should he return for the next appointment on December 13, he will be seeing Doctors Matthew Rosenberg and Javi Garron. Any session notes will be found in SECRET WARRIORS #10 file.

Psy D. Candidate Tim Stevens is a Staff Therapist who welcomes Mr. Sinister — or ANYONE else — to try and out-arrogant him.