NOTE: This article is specifically about Dr. Neo Cortex on his original continuity and not of his reboot incarnation as he fails the standards, and thus, only information about Dr. Neo Cortex from that continuity should be put here. |
“ | I've ruined the lives of so many, I can't be expected to remember them all. | „ |
~ Neo Cortex in Crash Twinsanity. |
“ | Darn you, Crash Bandicoot! | „ |
~ Neo Cortex at the beginning of his boss fight in Crash Bandicoot |
Dr. Neo Periwinkle Cortex, more commonly known as just Dr. Cortex, is the main antagonist of the Crash Bandicoot video game series. He is an evil scientist who constantly attempts to conquer the world and is known for his creation of mutant animals with the Evolvo-Ray. He is the arch-nemesis and creator of Crash Bandicoot and the right-hand man of Uka Uka.
In the first game, he was voiced by the late Brendan O'Brien. From 1997 to 2003, he was voiced by Clancy Brown, who also voiced Lex Luthor in the DC Animated Universe and Mr. Krabs in the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise. Since 2004, he has been voiced by Lex Lang.
His Evil Ranking[]
Debated Validation[]
- He originally cared for his niece Nina, even risking his life to protect her from the Deathbot. However, given his actions in Mind over Mutant, where he abandoned her in horrible conditions and hadn't brought her up even once during the game, it's unlikely this redeeming quality still holds up.
- It's unknown why he chose to paralyze Coco after considering killing her, whether he genuinely thought killing her was too much or was afraid of what Crash would do to him if he learned. Considering he has no problem having his minions try to kill Coco in other games, it’s probably the latter, although it’s possible that he didn’t want to kill her when she was completely defenseless.
- Although he shows care for Tiny in Warped, saying he had a good heart and lamenting his defeat, and in Nitro Kart, and he believes in him when Tiny said he could squash the Bandicoots, it is debatable whether he still cares for him in Mind Over Mutant, as he does not appear in the game and Cortex does not mention him, implying that he may have abandoned him just like he did with N. Gin and Nina.
- While he takes a Znu with him when he escapes the exploding Space Head in Mind Over Mutant, it’s unclear if it was out of kindness or if he only did it out of pragmatism.
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
- He had stated to have ruined the lives of so many that he doesn't remember them all.
- He ruined Nina's life, as she was originally an innocent child, but then he had the idea of making her evil by operating on her body and brain, then he would choose the Academy of Evil for her studies. And even though he used to care about Nina, it's just because she was evil and there's no excuse for this action he made.
- He tested the prototype Evolvo-Ray on his pet parrots, Victor and Moritz, despite them being the only creatures he didn't loathe or eat. This caused them to get stranded in the Tenth Dimension and grow vengeful towards their master, making Cortex responsible for their fall to villainy.
- Although Cortex was unaware of the Evil Twins' tenth dimension travel and descent into villainy at first, after he remembered it in Twinsanity and learned of their current state, he showed no remorse but pride in it.
- He and N. Brio brainwashed many mutated animals with the Cortex Vortex.
- When Crash didn't get brainwashed as intended and escaped, Cortex resorted to trying to kill him and brainwash Tawna instead.
- He attempted to brainwash the entire planet and tricked Crash into helping him.
- He and Uka Uka attempted to steal the power crystals from different time periods to continue with their plans.
- Although he was portrayed as sympathetic in Crash Bandicoot: Warped, with him shown to be tired of his fights with Crash and wanting to retire but is being forced by Uka Uka into doing so this time, this is subverted in the later games, where it is shown that he is still determined to end Crash and delights in his villainy, and it is shown in Crash Twinsanity and Mind Over Mutant that he can still be evil without Uka Uka's involvement.
- He agreed to Uka Uka's idea of powering Crunch with the Elementals, despite them being very dangerous and unpredictable.
- He shrunk the entire Earth to the size of a grapefruit.
- He and Ripto teamed up to defeat Crash and Spyro, framing them for crimes in each others' worlds to make the two heroes fight each other.
- He paralyzed Coco and disguised himself as her to lure Crash into a trap.
- He paralyzed Farmer Ernest to take his power crystal without having to help him.
- He killed a penguin minion of his just because they complained about a bounced check and refused to accept the fish he offered them instead.
- Although he may have shown a sympathetic moment in Twinsanity, when he and Crash defeated the Ants Drones in his laboratory, in which he showed terror when offered to be killed by Aku Aku and Uka Uka, and giving his motivational speech to Crash, this does not hold for the following reasons:
- It's understandable from the masks, given everything he's done and his lack of consideration for people, not to mention the fact he indirectly led the Evil Twins to villainy.
- Although he showed support for Crash, he throws it away in the end when trying to get rid of Crash with Psychetron without being considerate, showing that he only used him for his plans.
- He violently killed Willie Wumpa Cheeks (although one can argue he had it coming) and attempted to kill the bandicoots right after that.
- He frequently abused N. Gin by spitting scalding hot drinks on him and kicking him in the backside and other gentle places, although N. Gin usually enjoyed it.
- He started constructing the Doominator robot, which he planned to use to destroy the Wumpa Island. When asked by Coco why he would do something like this, he replied that it just seemed fun to him, and that she should try it some time.
- Even after getting replaced by Nina and imprisoned, he assisted her by setting the Doominator on a course for Wumpa Island.
- After getting freed by Crash, he expressed no gratitude and instead gloated that his robot was still unstoppable.
- He dropped Nina off at Evil Public School for betraying him, where she had to endure constant abuse by her classmates.
- Even after N. Gin helped rescue him in Titans, he still abandons him in Mind Over Mutant, showing that he has no sense of gratitude whatsoever.
- He frequently makes announcements about the events in Evil Public School, some of which include:
- Asking the students to chain and gag their "homework assignments".
- Implying that an exchange student may have been eaten, and asking to clone him if that's the case.
- Threatening to put students who worship Uka Uka to death.
- Demanding to poison Evil University team's food and water.
- Ordering students who encounter Crash Bandicoot to stage an elaborate fight with only a few of them attacking at once to make it more exciting.
- The entire fourth grade having been disintegrated for tardiness.
- Demanding to have the student who claimed that "Doominator" is a stupid name disintegrated.
- He and N. Brio created and mass-produced NVs, entertainment devices with a double purpose of mind-controlling their owners. Despite being mind-controlled, its victims regain their original personalities and can also communicate with others, as Crunch begs Crash to stay back, saying he can't control himself, before obeying N. Brio's command to attack him, showing that the victims are at least partially aware of what they are doing with no way to resist, making this an "and I must scream" situation.
- And although he was happy to get back with N. Brio, he doesn't seem to care about him and is more interested in his N.Vs, and doesn't even make a comment about him leaving after his defeat by Crash, not to mention how he stole N. Brio’s mutagen.
- To have a power source for the NVs, he betrayed Uka Uka and had him imprisoned, with the Bad Mojo being milked out of him. And although Uka Uka deserved it, it did not justify his action and was motivated by selfishness rather than justice for what he did.
- He mind-controlled most of the Wumpa Island's titans, as shown by their villages being mostly empty and every enemy titan wearing an NV.
- He distributed the NVs across the entire planet and was hours away from activating them, which would make all of Earth's population his slaves.
- He planned to use the Wumpa Island's rhythm to power his Cortex Matrix Chamber and create an unstoppable army with it before Fake Crash stole it.
- While he has some heroic roles, such as saving Earth from Nitros Oxide and Velo as a playable character in Crash Team Racing and Crash Nitro Kart respectively, and teaming up with Crash against the Evil Twins, Fake Crash and Kaos, they are motivated by selfishness and pragmatism, such as keeping Earth for his own rule and self-survival, and even in these cases, he still tends to act mean and malicious towards others, so he's not On & Off or redeemed.
- In Twinsanity, he even attempted to banish Crash with the Psychetron after having endured his company over the course of their adventure.
- And he almost says he wants to get the Imaginators ready for world domination before correcting himself.
- While he does get defeated in a bunch of humiliating ways such as being trapped on an iceberg and frozen or being trapped inside of Crash’s brain that are sometimes played for sympathy, he deserves them for how far his actions can go at times, so it doesn’t make him a scapegoat.
- Unlike his version from the reboot continuity, who saw Crash as a surrogate son before he became his enemy and didn't even consider himself evil, Cortex in the original continuity never had such affection for the bandicoot and is fully aware that he is evil and proud of it.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- While he was originally taken at least partially seriously until Crash Nitro Kart and Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage, he became entirely played for laughs during all the following games of the original timeline, starting with Crash Twinsanity until the abrupt end of said timeline during the PS2 era of Crash.
- He is largely incompetent, often failing due to his own arrogance and miscalculations.
- His backstory is played for sympathy, as it involves him getting an N tattooed on his forehead as a toddler because of his interest in science, causing him to flee at only 5 years old, as well as his mother being implied to be abusive given how he says "Who's hitting who now, Mom?!" during his fight in Mind Over Mutant. He's also shown to be terrified of Madame Amberly, implying the abuse he went through at the Academy of Evil. And while he deserves most of it, his suffering in the present is sometimes played for sympathy, especially the abuse he suffers from Uka Uka.
Trivia[]
- He and Moritz are the only Crash Bandicoot Inconsistently Heinous so far.
- Only his version from the original continuity counts as Inconsistently Heinous, as Cortex from the It's About Time timeline never passes the in-universe Heinous Standards.
- Not only that, but Cortex in this timeline, despite taken more seriously with the absence of games like Twinsanity and becoming an actual threat to Crash’s (and to some extent, Coco's) existence later on in the game, never subverts his sympathetic qualities in that timeline, as he saw Crash as like a son of his and does most of his evil actions because he just became so tired of the cycle of him doing evil plans and Crash always foiling them that he was content with being sent to the end of the universe.
External Links[]
- Dr. Neo Cortex on the Villains Wiki