Dr. Ilsa Caligari (Mort the Dead Teenager character)

caligari-dr-morttdt-fullseat caligari-dr-morttdt-face Dr. ILSA CALIGARI

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Human

Occupation: Psychologist

Group Membership: Likely the American Board of Clinical Psychology or a similar organization

Affiliations: Kimberly Dimenmein, Mr. Weisenheimer

Enemies: Mort Graves

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: "old bag" (from Weirdo), "the shrink" (from Slick)

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
she was present at an unidentified high school in the vicinity of Mistake Beach, Long Island, New York

First Appearance: Mort the Dead Teenager#2 (January, 1994) caligari-dr-morttdt-latseat

Powers/Abilities: Dr. Caligari was an experienced psychologist, apparently experienced with grief counseling.

Height: Unrevealed (approximately 5'5"; not seen in proximity of anyone of known height)
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 135 lbs.)
Eyes: Unrevealed (not seen clearly; but brown seems likely)
Hair: Gray (likely brown or black in youth)

History:
(Mort the Dead Teenager#2 (fb) - BTS) - Psychologist Dr. Caligari was assigned to help the other students deal with the deal of their classmate Mort Graves.

(Mort the Dead Teenager#2) - When students George "Slick" Slikowski arrived late with Reardon "Weirdo" Weedlow, Weirdo questioned who was the old bag with the Walkman (presumably a hearing aide) and Slick suggested that maybe their homeroom teacher, Mr. Weisenheimer, had gotten lucky. Having tripped Slick and sent the boys to their seats, Mr. Weisenheimer introduced Dr. Caligari to his homeroom and explained that she was their to help them deal with Mort's death, although many kids in the class didn't even recognize the name.

Dr. Caligari told the class that she knew how depressing the loss of a friend could be, but she encouraged them to look at this with an eye toward reality. She also told them that it was essential to the healing process to express their grief, at which point Kimberly Dimenmein interrupted, telling Dr. Caligari that she had written a poem about Mort and asked if she could read it out loud. Dr. Caligari told her "Certainly," but also told her that she would have to speak up because the batteries in her hearing aid were getting weak. However, as Kimberly began, Maureen Redding, who had actually liked Mort (while Kimberly had largely ignored him), shot Kimberly in the bridge of her nose with a spitball. After Mr. Weisenheimer sent Maureen to (presumably principal or vice-principal) Dean Marten's office, Dr. Caligari asked how many of the students felt so depressed that they couldn't even do their homework. To this, all of the students readily agreed. caligari-dr-morttdt-shocked

    Having never appreciated Maureen and resenting her treatment of Kimberly, whom he loved in vain, Mort, who was present in invisible ghost form, took his frustration out on Dr. Caligari, applying an ectoplasmic shock that shorted out her hearing aide.

(Mort the Dead Teenager#2 (fb) - BTS) - Mort later manifested himself to his friends Slick and Weirdo, confirming that he had shorted out Dr. Caligari's hearing aides.

Comments: Created by Larry Hama and Gary Hallgren.

    I think Mort could fit in to Earth-616 circa 1993-1994, which thanks to the sliding timescale would be around 18 years before the Fantastic Four's space flight as of the time of this profile's publication in 2026...and getting a year more before that event with every year passing in real time.
     Courtesy of Loki, who suggested Dr Ilsa Caligari to represent Mort the Dead Teenager for the event.

No. I think it'd fit into 616 fine. A potential fly in the ointment is the "it was all a dream" bit just before the end of #4, but given that it looks very much to me like Mort was about to go off to repeat the events of #1 he's arguably either in a timeloop, or the dream was a precognition.

This profile was completed 05/14/2026, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25^th anniversary 's celebratory event.
Thanks to Loki for recommending Dr. Caligari to represent Mort for the event.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Dr. Ilsa Caligari should be distinguished from:

MOON, Dr. ILSA - ally of X-Force (M Branch), attempted to save them from radiation poisoning, assisted them in hiding out from M Branch--Cloak & Dagger III#10
other "Ilsa" or "Caligari" characters, groups, items, events, races or places...

images: (without ads)
Mort the Dead Teenager#2, pg. 8, panel 1 (full, seated);
          panel 2 (seated profile);
       pg. 9, panel 3 (face);
       pg. 10, panel 5 (shocked)

Appearances:
Mort the Dead Teenager#2 (January, 1994) - Larry Hama (writer), Gary Hallgren (artist), Rob Tokar (editor)

First posted: 09/22/2026
Last updated: 05/14/2026

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
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Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

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