Mindstorm

*For the Dynamite version of the character, see Mind-Droid.*

Performer at Planet Vought Casino & Resort (formerly)

―Mindstorm to Hughie Campbell[src]

**Daniel**, better known as **Mindstorm** or just **Dan**, is a supporting antagonist in Season 3 of the Amazon series *The Boys*. He was a telepathic supe and a former member of Payback. Like the rest of his team, Mindstorm suffered from habitual abuse from his team leader Soldier Boy. During Operation Charly, he participated in betraying Soldier Boy to the Russians. Following Payback's disbandment, Mindstorm continued to work for Vought as a magic performer, but later became a recluse due to sensory overload. In 2022, he was confronted and killed by Soldier Boy, who returned to kill his former teammates for their betrayal.

## *The Boys* Series

### Background

#### Payback

##### Joining Payback

Dan joined Vought-American and became a superhero known as Mindstorm. Through the company, Mindstorm became a member of Vought-American's superhero team Payback alongside Crimson Countess, Gunpowder, the TNT Twins, Swatto, Black Noir, and his leader, Soldier Boy.

During his time on the team, Dan and his teammates were habitually abused by Soldier Boy, and excluding Gunpowder, all grew to resent him. Mindstorm additionally began to suffer from bipolar disorder at some point and was later prescribed lithium to treat his disorder.

##### Operation Charly

In late 1984, Vought American dispatched Payback to Nicaragua to aid the CIA in their illegal drug trade to fight against the Soviets in Operation Charly as a "trial run" to implement supes in the military. Having enough of Soldier Boy's abuse, Black Noir met with Stan Edgar to get rid of Soldier Boy, and they agreed to his request since they had already made his replacement. Noir informed Mindstorm, Crimson Countess and the TNT Twins on his plan to betray Soldier Boy to the Russians but didn't inform Gunpowder due to his loyalty to his partner. The Russians and Sandinistas attacked the camp, and due to Gunpowder's reckless, they were able to confront Soldier Boy. During the battle, Mindstorm used his abilities to distract Soldier Boy long enough for Countess to knock him out with gas, allowing the Russians to capture him.

#### Vought Career

##### Magic Show Host

At some point, Payback disbanded, and the team went their separate ways. Mindstorm remained with Vought and became a magic performer at the Planet Vought Casino & Resort in Las Vegas where he starred in his own live stage show called *Mental Magic with Mindstorm*. Mindstorm continued to perform for several years on his show, but it was later canceled after one contestant injured himself.

##### Incident in Barstow

Around this point, Mindstorm started to suffer from sensory overload due to hearing everyone's thoughts, and he often secluded himself to clear his mind. In 1986, during one walkabout in Barstow, California, he encountered a meth lab belonging to a motorcycle gang that attempted to kill him. Before they could kill him, Mindstorm used his powers to entrap all sixteen of them into a coma, and they died of terminal dehydration in the desert sun while trapped in an endless series of nightmares.

##### Mental Breakdown and Seclusion

Following his show's cancellation, Mindstorm suffered a mental breakdown due to his sensory overload and retreated to a cabin in the woods of Vermont to seclude himself from society. Dan lived as a paranoid recluse within his cabin, only occasionally leaving his forest when he needed to get prescription refills to treat his bipolar disorder.

### Season Three

#### Hunted Down

##### Confrontation and Death

Mindstorm's condition would be his downfall, as Hughie Campbell and Billy Butcher cross-referenced his public sightings with lithium refills. Hughie, Butcher and Soldier Boy entered the forest and began searching for Mindstorm. Soldier Boy warned them that Mindstorm can hear their thoughts and knows they're coming. He also warns them not to make eye-contact with Mindstorm, else he'll trap them in an endless nightmare. As they continued, Soldier Boy stepped on a landmine that incapacitated the trio. Mindstorm used the opportunity to trap Butcher in a nightmare before fleeing back to his cabin.

Hughie and Soldier Boy continued their hunt until they arrived at the cabin. They entered quietly as Soldier Boy noticed Mindstorm hiding around the corner. Soldier Boy gestured to Hughie where Mindstorm is. Before they could advance, Hughie teleported behind Mindstorm and teleported them to Butcher's body. Mindstorm panics as Hughie attempts to reason with him. Mindstorm insists he only wants to get away from the voices, while Hughie explains the situation that he doesn't want to kill Mindstorm. Hughie pleads with Mindstorm to wake Butcher, but Mindstorm is reluctant, insisting Butcher is crazy. Hughie is persistent, he insists Butcher is family to him. Hughie then offers to teleport Mindstorm somewhere safe if he wakes Butcher.

Mindstorm complies and wakes Butcher. Before Hughie can complete their deal, Soldier Boy throws a knife into Mindstorm's eye. As he panics, Soldier Boy tackles Mindstorm and wraps his head in a cloth. Mindstorm pleads that it wasn't his idea to betray Soldier Boy. Soldier Boy questions why Black Noir would betray him without Vought's orders. While Mindstorm reveals that it was Vought who authorized the betrayal, he also reveals to Soldier Boy that it was to make way for the latter's son. Shocked and outraged, Soldier Boy bashes Mindstorm's head with his shield twelve times until he dies.

## Personality

Mindstorm suffered from bipolar disorder. As a byproduct of his bipolarism, Mindstorm eventually lost control over his mind reading abilities and he suffered from both paranoia and agoraphobia. Because of these issues, Mindstorm was forced to isolate himself from mainstream society and became a hermit, preferring to be away from others. During his fight with Soldier Boy, he used his powers to force a nun and a priest to fight for him, indicating that he was more than willing to use others for his own gain.

## Powers

―Mindstorm regarding Billy Butcher[src]

* **Telepathy:** Mindstorm was able to see into the minds of others, hear their thoughts and search their memories for any information that he desired. Unlike Mesmer, who could only read the minds of those he made physical contact with, Mindstorm could hear the thoughts and search the memories of any person within a three-mile radius of himself through sheer concentration. However, as a byproduct of his bipolarism, Mindstorm eventually lost control over his mind reading abilities and was forced to isolate himself from mainstream society as it was no longer possible for him to coexist with others without hearing all of their thoughts with no means to silence the noise.
	+ **Dream Imprisonment**: By making visual contact with someone, Mindstorm could imprison his targets within a psychically induced coma where the victim was forced to relive their most traumatic experiences within a never-ending nightmare sequence that was created from their own memories. According to Soldier Boy, the only means to escape the nightmare was for Mindstorm to voluntarily release them. If Mindstorm refused, or if Mindstorm died before having the chance to free his victim, the person would remain comatose until they eventually expired from a psychogenic death.
	+ **Mind Control**: Mindstorm could influence the actions and behaviors, memories and perceptions of others through the transmission of telepathic brainwaves. Supposedly, during his years as a stage performer in Las Vegas, Nevada, Mindstorm would often mesmerize volunteers to act and behave abnormally for the purpose of entertainment. He apparently stopped using this ability after an incident where one of his audience members, whom Mindstorm compelled into believing that he was a Spanish bull, was hospitalized after he charged through a storefront window with red-colored rugs on display. It is possible that just like the TNT Twins, who also lost the efficiency of their powers after years of neglect, Mindstorm also lost some of his effect of this power as he was seemingly unable to influence neither Soldier Boy nor Hughie Campbell. Nevertheless, Mindstorm still managed to mesmerize a nun and a priest into attacking Hughie and Soldier Boy after one or both of them had let their guard down.
* **Superhuman Strength**: There is some evidence to suggest that Mindstorm had a degree of enhanced strength. In Black Noir's cartoon reenactment of Payback's betrayal of Soldier Boy, he was depicted as physically attacking Soldier Boy. It is apparent, however, that whatever degree of strength he had, it was considerably less than that of Soldier Boy.
* **Superhuman Durability**: It took several blows to the head for Soldier Boy to kill Mindstorm, using a shield so heavy that a depowered Hughie Campbell was incapable of lifting it.
* **Superhuman Hearing**: Mindstorm, being a supe, has better hearing beyond that of ordinary humans, capable of hearing certain frequencies.

## Weaknesses

### Psychological

* **Distraction**: Despite his ability to detect all minds within a three-mile radius of himself, it appears that Mindstorm could be taken by surprise if his attention was focused on something else. This was proven after Mindstorm was successfully ambushed by Soldier Boy due to him being focused on Hughie Campbell.
* **Agoraphobia**: Since the loss of his telepathic control, Mindstorm was no longer capable of comfortably existing within mainstream society due to the fact that he was often overwhelmed by a sensory overload from hearing the thoughts of every person within a three-mile radius of himself with no means to silence the noise.
* **Mental Instability**: Due to his uncontrollable power to read other people's minds, Mindstorm developed a number of mental problems including Paranoia and Bipolar disorder.

### Biological

* **Visual Contact**: Mindstorm could not psychically imprison someone without making eye-to-eye contact with his victims. It is unknown if visual contact was also required for him to control someone's mind.

## Relationships

	+ Stan Edgar - Boss
	+ Payback
		- Gunpowder † - Former Colleague
		- Black Noir † - Former Colleague
		- Swatto † - Former Colleague
		- Crimson Countess † - Former Colleague
		- TNT Twins † - Former Colleagues

* Russian Special Forces
* The Boys
	+ Billy Butcher
	+ Hughie Campbell
* Soldier Boy - Former Team Leader, Betrayer, Killer

## Trivia

* Mindstorm doesn't share the same name as his Dynamite counterpart, Mind-Droid.
* Mindstorm is the final member of Payback to be murdered by Soldier Boy.
* While Mindstorm is shown wearing a turtleneck underneath his jacket in Grace Mallory's flashbacks and the Payback team poster, in Black Noir's animated flashback he is seen wearing a shirt with a tie and a waistcoat.
* Mindstorm is a parody of Charles Francis Xavier also known as Professor X of the X-Men franchise.
	+ In the show, Dan is unable to control his powers, causing him to have sensory overload. This is a reference to Charles Xavier suffering from sensory overload after being overwhelmed by several negative thoughts in the film *X-Men: Days of Future Past*, due to his own negligence of his powers when he used Cerebro for the first time in ten years.
	+ As a byproduct of his bipolarism, Mindstorm lost control over his powers, forcing him to isolate himself from mainstream society. Similarly in the film *Logan*, an elderly Charles Xavier is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and as a byproduct of his illness, he starts losing control of his powers and has destructive telepathic seizures, forcing him to isolate himself from mainstream society.
* Alternatively, Mindstorm shares a lot of similarities to David Haller, aka Legion (Marvel Comics), the son of Professor X in the X-Men franchise. Just like Dan, David has the powers of telepathy, mind control and absorbing people's psyches (leaving their bodies in a vegetative state), as well as a debilitating psychiatric disorder (Dissociative Identity Disorder, formerly known as multiple identities disorder). He also has recurring problems with using his powers as his alters overwhelm him and take over his body.
* As stated by The Legend, Mindstorm suffers from Bipolar Disorder. This makes him the first Supe known to have BP in *The Boys* universe, with Andy being the second.

1. ↑ Bob in *First Day*: *"Did you know Supes have a wider range of hearing than us? Like dogs."*