SAINT OF THERAPISTS

Real Name: Sigmund Freud

Identity/Class: Human (Austrian) spirit

Occupation: Spirit;
    former psychologist

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Howard the Duck, Thrasher

Enemies: Deuteronomy

Known Relatives: Martha Bernays (wife, deceased), Anna Freud (daughter, deceased), five other unidentified children (deceased), Jakob Freud (father, deceased), Amalie Nathansohn (mother, deceased), Dolfi, Mitzi, Rosa, Pauli (sisters, deceased), two unidentified half-brothers (deceased), John (nephew, deceased)

Aliases: "Dude," "Higgy-Boy"

Base of Operations: London, England;
    formerly Vienna, Austria

First Appearance: (mentioned, last name only): Doctor Strange I#181 (July, 1969);
    (fully seen, full name mentioned): Howard the Duck II#5 (July, 2002)

Powers/Abilities: Sigmund Freud was one of the most prominent psychologists of his era and pioneered the practice of psychoanalysis.

Following his death, Freud existed as a spirit in the afterlife and could be returned to physical life if summoned by an angel from the urn containing his ashes. It was unclear if any others could also summon him from the afterlife. Upon being restored to life as the Saint of Therapists, Freud carried a cigar capable of projecting energy blasts strong enough to harm angelic beings.

Height: 5'7" (by approximation, see comments)
Weight: 145 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Gray

History: (Howard the Duck II#5 (fb) - BTS) - Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856 and for much of his life was based in Vienna, Austria.

(Marvel Atlas I#1 - Austria entry - BTS) - Freud became a prominent psychologist, pioneering the concept of psychoanalysis. Over time, Freud became one of the best known Austrian figures and was thought of as one of mankind's greatest minds.

(Howard the Duck II#5 (fb) -  BTS) - During his life, Freud failed to answer the age-old question of what women wanted.

(real life history) - In 1923, Freud began suffering mouth cancer due to being a heavy cigar smoker and he underwent at least 30 operations to stave off the cancer. Freud and his family eventually moved from Vienna, Austria when the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938 to London, England. Shortly after moving, Freud's cancer returned and the tumor was diagnosed as inoperable.

(Howard the Duck II#5 (fb) - BTS) - Following his death on September 23, 1939, his ashes were interred at a crematorium outside London, England.

(Doctor Strange I#181 - BTS) - In the modern era, when the mystic Doctor Strange was forcibly wrenched into Nightmare's Dream Dimension, he compared the Dimension to an ever-changing kaleidoscopic cosmos beyond the imagination of Sigmund Freud, Salvador Dali or even Wassily Kadinsky.

(New Warriors III#5 (fb) - BTS/Marvel Atlas I#1 - Austria entry - BTS) - At some point, Freud was commemorated alongside several other of Earth's greatest minds as one of the Mad Thinker's Intellectual Robots. Later, Johann Fennhoff perverted Freud's profession and work as the criminal Dr. Faustus.

(Carnage: It's a Wonderful Life#1 - BTS) - While trapped in the mindscape of superpowered serial killer Carnage, Dr. Ashley Kafka mentioned Freud and several other prominent thinkers throughout history while reminding Carnage that civilization was the progression of knowledge, thought, reason and healing.

(Howard the Duck II#5) - After the angelic being Deuteronomy merged with Earthly talk show host Iprah, the angel Gabriel sent the cherub Thrasher to awake Sigmund Freund on Earth as the Saint of Therapists. Thrasher then traveled to London, England and entered the crematorium where Sigmund Freud's ashes were kept and opened the urn housing the ashes. Slowly emerging from the urn as the Saint of Therapists, Freud instinctively blasted Thrasher's head with an energy blast projected from his cigar before fully emerging from urn and commenting on the unfortunate timing of his revival, as he was having a dream about flying. Admitting he was already aware of Deuteronomy's merging with Iprah, the Saint explained the folly of merging a being that was half-id, half-superego to a being that was entirely ego and sarcastically commended Thrasher on his involvement in the merger. When Thrasher nervously asked if the Saint was going to kill the merged being, the Saint replied in the affirmative, commenting that sometimes a cigar is only a cigar and sometimes it was a lethal weapon. Tracking down the Deuteronomy/Iprah being, the Saint of Therapists confronted the being, who was in the midst of arguing with Howard the Duck (then transformed into an anthropomorphic mouse). Psychoanalyzing the being, the Saint suggested that the being could not stand anyone disagreeing with her and that the being was viewing Howard the Duck's disagreements as personal insults. The being insisted that it was special and that everyone was special but the Saint argued that if everyone was special then specialness had become ordinary. When the Saint then asked the follow up question of whether Deuteronomy was ordinary, the being exclaimed that it was networked with angels and was the voice of God. The Saint then revealed that Deuteronomy was actually a failed genetic experiment conceived by the angel Gabriel to replace God, who had apparently been on a bender since 1938 and had not spoken to anyone since. Growing angry, the merged being then blasted the Saint of Therapists through the chest, destroying his revived body and knocking his cigar to the ground. Picking up the cigar, Howard the Duck used to destroy the Deuteronomy/Iprah merged being, driving out Deuteronomy and killing Iprah.

(X-Treme X-Men I#25 - BTS) - A bust of Sigmund Freud decorated the office of Dr. Maureen Lyszinski as she met with mutant Kitty Pryde.

(Ms. Marvel III#3 - BTS) - When new Inhuman Kamala Khan was testing out her polymorphing abilities, she attempted to transform herself into Taylor Shift, only to end up looking like her Ammi, an act she found to be Freudian.

(Infamous Iron Man I#11 - BTS) - While speaking with the sorcerer Dr. Strange, Victor von Doom admitted seeing a woman identical to his mother interact with some sort of shapeshifter before also admitting he sounded like some sort of twisted Sigmund Freud patient.

(Legion I#5 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, Hannah Jones became aware of the works of Sigmund Freud and others, works that eventually inspired her to become a psychologist.

(Legion I#1 - BTS) - After becoming the "Psychologist to the Stars," Dr. Hannah Jones owned a bust of Sigmund Freud in her home and when the rogue psychic identity Lord Trauma spoke to her through the bust, Dr. Jones assumed she was suffering from auditory and visual hallucinations and threw the bust to the ground, shattering it.

(Legion I#2 - BTS) - The pieces of the Sigmund Freud bust remained on the floor as the mutant Legion met with Dr. Jones at her home.

(Legion I#4 - BTS) - While helping Legion against Lord Trauma, Dr. Jones began trying to psychoanalyze Lord Trauma, remarking on Lord Trauma's attack on Legion as being what the Freudians call a desire for self-annihilation.

Comments: Fully adapted into Marvel Comics by Steve Gerber and Phil Winslade.

Sigmund Freud also appears in Crazy Magazine I#22's "If Historical Figures Were Psychoanalyzed" story but as the story title suggests, this is an alternate reality showing what would happen if historical figures were psychoanalyzed, so this would not be an appearance of Earth-616's Dr. Freud. Similarly, he appears in a humorous, non-Earth-616 story in Crazy Magazine I#78 entitled "Freud for Today's Kids" and the "If They Were Alive Today" alternate reality story in Crazy Magazine I#80. Online sources also say Freud appears in Crazy Magazine I#26 but I wasn't able to find him in that issue. On a similar "non-Earth-616 story published by Marvel" note, Freud also appears in the licensed comics Bill & Ted's Excellent Comic Book I#1 & #12, published by Marvel but based on the Bill & Ted movie franchise.

Freud's role as the Saint of Therapists was a direct parody of DC Comics character, the Saint of Killers, from the popular "Preacher" comic book series.

Freud's real life historical information included in this profile is taken from a variety of online sources including brittanica.com. As this profile focuses mostly on his Marvel Comics appearances, a majority of his real life history is somewhat glossed over to focus mostly on his Marvel Comics appearances but some real life information regarding his family and stats information is included, as his Earth-616 counterpart likely mirrored his real life history to a point.

This profile was completed 09/26/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary's celebratory event.

Profile by Proto-Man.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Saint of Therapists has no known connections to:


images: (without ads)
Howard the Duck II#5, p13, pan1 (Saint of Therapists, main image)
Howard the Duck II#5, p13, pan3 (Saint of Therapists, headshot)


Appearances:
Doctor Strange I#181 (July, 1969) - Roy Thomas (writer), Gene Colan (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Carnage: It's a Wonderful Life#1 (October, 1996) - David Quinn (writer), Kyle Hotz (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Howard the Duck II#5 (July, 2002) - Steve Gerber (writer), Phil Winslade (art), Stuart Moore (editor)
X-Treme X-Men I#25 (July, 2003) - Chris Claremont (writer), Igor Kordey (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Mike Raicht (editor)
New Warriors III#4 (November, 2005) - Zeb Wells (writer), Skottie Young (art), MacKenzie Cadenhead (editor)
Marvel Atlas I#1 (November, 2007) - Michael Hoskin (head writer, coordinator), Anthony Flamini, Stuart Vandal, Eric J. Moreels (writers), Eliot R. Brown (cartographer), Jeff Youngquist, John Denning (editors)
Ms. Marvel III#3 (June, 2014) - G. Willow Wilson (writer), Adrian Alphona (art), Sana Amanat (editor)
Infamous Iron Man I#11 (October, 2017) - Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Alex Maleev (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Legion I#1 (March, 2018) - Peter Milligan (writer), Wilfredo Torres (art), Darren Shan (editor)
Legion I#2 (April, 2018) - Peter Milligan (writer), Wilfredo Torres (art), Darren Shan (editor)
Legion I#4 (June, 2018) - Peter Milligan (writer), Lee Ferguson (art), Darren Shan (editor)
Legion I#5 (July, 2018) - Peter Milligan (writer), Wilfredo Torres (pencils, inks), Lee Ferguson (pencils), Marc Deering, Belardino Brabo (inks), Darren Shan (editor)


First Posted: 09/28/2021
Last updated: 09/27/2021

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
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