I've got to admit, there are certain aspects of mind wiping that I find more acceptable than others. If a supervillain uncovers your secret identity and you have the means to erase that knowledge from his mind? You damn well do it.Jabroniville wrote: ↑Tue Feb 06, 2018 3:25 am
-The Blob has an obvious mutation, and like a lot of '60s villains, was born ugly and turned into a miscreant. Performing in a circus sideshow, he is contacted by Charles Xavier and asked to join the X-Men. However, his obnoxious behavior makes him an outcast, and he declines the invitation, saying he's better than all the other X-Men. Xavier then tries to ERASE HIS MEMORIES of this event (because even SIXTIES Xavier is a giant dick), but the Blob escapes and leads the circusfolk against the X-Mansion. Ultimately, the X-Men are captured, but sprung by Marvel Girl's telekinesis, and the entire circus gets brainwashed into forgetting. Keep in mind, this is like 35 years before the whole "Zatanna" thing in the DC books, and nobody stops to consider the ethics of such things in this story at all- it's simply that these guys are douches, and the X-Men's secret must be protected- basic as that.
Here it's a bit more muddy, but since the X-Men do act in secret, the memories being erased are from clearly antagonistic individuals, and the only things being removed are relevant to protecting the X-Men's location and identities, I'm also not really against it. I also doubt that Xavier would mind-wipe everyone who decided not to join. In the Blob's case, he's clearly antagonistic, and if it had been done then it would have spared them some grief.
My issue with mind-wipes are when it's done to innocent people for petty reasons. There's an issue where the Stepford Trio of psychics are approached by a young man, wearing a cocky grin on his face. He starts to introduce himself, but suddenly he realizes he doesn't know his own name. The girls then say "That's right. We made you forget all knowledge of your own name. Think thoughts about us again like the ones you were just thinking, and we'll make you forget much more than that."
THAT is a horrible abuse of power. Those girls had no right being inside that kid's head, and they erased all knowledge OF HIS OWN NAME from his brain, apparently because he was imagining having a foursome with the trio. I'm not saying those thoughts are classy, but they literally thought policed him and screwed with his head because he thought they were hot.
Likewise, I REALLY hated the Ultimate versions of Prof. X and Jean Grey, because they were constantly reading other people's minds and violating their thoughts. It turns out Iceman had a girlfriend, and when he took a vacation home he told her pretty much everything about his life as an X-Man. So Prof. X completely erase all of that knowledge from her mind, and then erases THEIR ENTIRE RELATIONSHIP as well. Bobby doesn't even recall having a girlfriend once Xavier is done with him.
Similarly, I hate it when these mind wipes are used to cover up "guilt". Prof. X mind-wiping Spider-Man during the Secret War or the Justice League mind-wiping Batman are two especially bad examples. These are people erasing memories from their friends because they got caught doing something and it's easier to just make the problem go away than deal with it.
Lastly, I consider what the League did to Dr. Light I very different from a "mind-wipe". They didn't just erase his memory, they completely butchered his brain and re-wrote his personality. That is just . . . evil. You keep a villain from knowing some crucial information, okay, I can understand that. You start messing with their character, with the fundamentals of who they are as a person, and you've done a terrible thing, IMO.