(Amazing Spider-Man Annual '97 (fb) - BTS) - Lowell's wife was mad at him for not getting the promotion Winkler got instead.

(Spider-Man: Legacy of Evil#1 - BTS) - Winkler was brilliant enough to seemingly be considered competition by Norman Osborn.

(Untold Tales of Spider-Man#7 (fb) - BTS) - Under the identity of Dr. Wilson, Winkler opened several temporary eye clinics all around New York City for two weeks. They were equipped with his brainwashing machine and he promoted them with flyers all over the city to get as many clients as possible. He also partnered up with Electro because he needed a muscle in case something went wrong.

(Untold Tales of Spider-Man#7) - Peter Parker used the alias Peter Palmer and went to the A-1 Eye Clinic for an eye test. Peter thanked Dr. Wilson for taking him on such short notice and was impressed by the machinery. Wilson put him into the machine and Peter blacked out and couldn't even remember the test after he was done. Wilson told him that his test results showed that his eye sight was extraordinary and would probably never need glasses. He made clear that blacking out was a minor side-effect for some people. Peter left without any further concerns. Electro called Winkler seconds after Peter was gone and wanted to know when they would see results. Winkler promised him that they would reap the rewards for their two weeks work that night.

(Untold Tales of Spider-Man#7 - BTS) - That night Winkler activated his machine to broadcast a signal that would activate the mental commands implanted into his "eye exam" patients to rob money or jewelry and deliver them to the derelict theater where he and Electro had set up the machine.

(Untold Tales of Spider-Man#7) - His brainwashed victims arrived with all the money and jewelry they could carry, including Spider-Man, who was carrying two bags of money from a bank robbery he had prevented. Winkler and Electro were shocked at first, but soon realized that Spider-Man must have been one of his patients. Peter's schoolmates Jason Ionello and Sally Avril had been following Spider-Man to snap photos of him. Sally took a picture of Spider-Man the moment Electro tried to remove his mask and inadvertently snapped Spider-Man out of his hypnotic state with the flashlight. Winkler sent his other brainwashed patients to attack Spider-Man, but when they surrounded him and Electro, he destroyed Winkler's machine by tossing Electro against it. Winkler fled the scene before anyone could recognize him as Wilson.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#59 (fb) - BTS) - Winkler came under the employment of the Kingpin (Wilson Fisk), who began calling himself the Brainwasher. He created a camera with a flash bulb that had a hypnotic quality and set up his brainwashing machine in a back room at the Gloom Room A-Go-Go club. As his first test Winkler used the brainwashing process on the assistant district attorney, who released three of Kingpin's men an hour after the machine was used on him.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#61 - BTS) - Kingpin believed that Winkler had designed the machine for him.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#59) - Winkler told the Brainwasher about the successful test, which was enough proof for Fisk to move forward with their plan to invite the city's top officials to the club and then brainwash them one at a time until he had the whole government all under his control.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#59 - BTS) - Kingpin henchman Slade hired Mary Jane Watson as an unwitting accomplice, who was instructed to take exclusively photographs using the flash bulb of the people at tables with a star between her dance routine.

   That evening Mary Jane took photographs as instructed and the flash bulb's hypnotic nature urged those she had taken pictures of follow Kingpin's men to Dr. Winkler's lab without resistance where they were brainwashed by his machine to follow the Brainwasher's orders.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#59) - Mary Jane took a photograph of Captain George Stacy and he was led to Winkler's lab where a councilman was still strapped into the brainwashing machine, but his willpower was too great and he began to question what was going on. Winkler ordered Kingpin's men to hold Stacy until the machine was free for him to go through the process. Peter Parker went looking for Captain Stacy as Spider-Man and found him after going through several of Kingpin's henchmen, but when he found Captain Stacy he had already been strapped into the machine by Winkler, who revealed that the Brainwasher aka. the Kingpin was behind this whole operation. Enter Kingpin grabbing Spider-Man by the hand.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#60) - Kingpin fought Spider-Man at the back room lab while Winkler stood by with Captain Stacy still strapped into the machine. He was afraid that Kingpin hurling Spider-Man into the electrical power source would cause a short-circuit. Weakened from an electric shock Spider-Man fled and Winkler was unable to activate the machine because the lever had grown too hot, but Kingpin had no problem pulling the lever. Winkler was still concerned about Spider-Man returning, but Kingpin promised to deal with him if he did and just wanted Winkler to put Captain Stacy through the process. It worked and Stacy became another obedient pawn of the Kingpin, but Stacy's was discovered stealing top secret data.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#61 - BTS) - Kingpin closed the Gloom Room A-Go-Go club after the incident and moved Winkler's brainwashing machine to his lab at Osborn Chemical Company.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#61) - Osborn was informed by the shipping department about expensive machines arriving at the lab without his authorization and he confronted Winkler about it. Winkler apologized and explained that he only ordered the machines because he needed them and Osborn was out of town at the time. Osborn forgave Winkler for the faux pas, but only because he was such a brilliant researcher. Winkler promised that nothing like that would ever happen again and as soon as Osborn was gone, informed the Kingpin that they were in the clear. Kingpin was glad that they had found a new hiding place for Winkler's machine at a respectable company where nobody would ever come looking for them.

   Kingpin sent his men after Captain Stacy when he got exposed and Winkler gave them a device that could register the encephalic vibrations of those that he had had brainwashed to help them find Captain Stacy. They returned with Captain Stacy and his daughter Gwen to Winkler's lab where Kingpin and Winkler were already waiting for them. Winkler bound Gwen and Captain Stacy and considered it unwise that Kingpin had sent away his other men, but Kingpin didn't want Spider-Man to get scared off by too many enemies. Spider-Man soon arrived, after finding an Osborn Laboratories plaque in the back room of the Gloom Room A-Go-Go, and Norman Osborn was also drawn to Winkler's lab when he saw that the lights were still on. Kingpin ordered Winkler to give Captain Stacy another brainwashing treatment, but the arrival of Spider-Man interrupted them. Winkler threatened to shoot Spider-Man, who had knocked Kingpin to the ground, but Norman tackled Winkler, who accidentally shot his brainwashing machine. The machine exploded and Osborn was sure that Winkler had been killed by the explosion.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#61 - BTS) - A police officer later confirmed to Osborn that Winkler was dead.

BTS - He got better. (see comments)

(Marvel Knights Spider-Man I#4 (fb) - BTS) - Winkler started working for Owl and drugged Electro with Haloperidol to neutralize his powers and motor functions.

(Marvel Knights Spider-Man I#4) - Winkler told Electro that the only thing keeping him upright where the ropes binding him to the chair. He began cutting into Electro with a scalpel after Owl made it clear that Electro's partner Vulture had already been caught and punished by the Black Cat for stealing money from Owl.

Comments: Created by Stan Lee, John Romita Sr., Don Heck & Mike Esposito.

His last name was first mentioned in Amazing Spider-Man I#61 (June, 1968). His first name was revealed in Norman Osborn's profile in All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z HC#5 (December, 2008).

Dr. Winkler's brainwashing machine is more famous than him actually because it became known as the Winkler Device, which had been used for years by Hobgoblin (Roderick Kingsley) to brainwash people like Lefty Donovan, Ned Leeds, Eugene "Flash" Thompson and others to become his Hobgoblin replacements and patsies.

The Winkler in Marvel Knights Spider-Man I#4 looks so similar to the original that it was either the real deal, a brother or maybe a son. Or he was never really dead and the police officer confirming his death was actually a crook.

This profile was completed on 12/16/2025, but its publication was delayed for Stan Lee's birthday on 12/28.

Profile by Markus Raymond.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Dr. Gerhard Winkler has no known connections to:

• any other character with a similar name

images:
Untold Tales of Spider-Man#7, p13, pan4 (main)
Amazing Spider-Man I#59, p8, pan4 (first appearance)
Amazing Spider-Man I#61, p18, pan5 (presumed dead)
Marvel Knights Spider-Man I#4, p20, pan3 (Winkler is back?)

Appearances:
Amazing Spider-Man I#59-61 (April-June, 1968) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), John Romita Sr. & Don Heck (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks)
Untold Tales of Spider-Man#7 (March, 1996) - Kurt Busiek (writer), Pat Olliffe (pencils), Al Vey & Pam Eklund (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Spider-Man: Legacy of Evil#1 (June, 1996) - Kurt Busiek (writer), Mark Texeira (artist), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Untold Tales of Spider-Man '97 (1997) - Kurt Busiek (writer), Tom Lyle (pencils), Robert Jones (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Amazing Spider-Man '97 (1997) - Roger Stern (writer), Tom Lyle (pencils), Robert Jones (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Marvel Knights Spider-Man I#4 (September, 2004) - Mark Millar (writer), Terry Dodson (pencils), Rachel Dodson (inks), Axel Alonso (editor)

First Posted: 12/28/2025
Last updated: 12/16/2025

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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