Psycho Mantis

Psycho Mantis is one of the renegade members of FOXHOUND who took over Shadow Moses with the GENOME Army. He wears a gas-mask to help him, because when he's not wearing it people's thoughts "force their way into [his] mind."

Current status: Deceased

Story
Psycho Mantis was born in the Soviet Union. He first gained the ability to read peoples' minds at a very young age; the first mind he read was his father's, which he discovered hated Psycho Mantis, blaming him for the death of his wife (Psycho Mantis' mother), who died during childbirth. Fearing that his father would kill him, he became psychopathic and, using his telekinetic powers, burned down the village that he lived in, killing everyone who lived there, doing it as an attempt to "destroy his past."

Later, he joined the KGB as part of an experimental ESP Intelligence unit. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he was recruited by the FBI as a psychic investigator. However, after diving into the mind of a serial killer during an interrogation, he dove too far. As a consequence, he adopted the personality of this serial killer and became psychotic. After leaving the FBI and becoming a freelance psychic, offering his services to the highest bidder. Later, he was discovered and enlisted into FOXHOUND.

He took part in the Shadow Moses Incident, attempting to read Donald Anderson's and Kenneth Baker's minds. When Revolver Ocelot accidentally killed Anderson during a torture session, Mantis came up with the idea of tricking Solid Snake into getting the PAL Key from Baker and using the keys to activate Metal Gear REX while making Snake think he was de-activating REX. They made Decoy Octopus disguise himself as Anderson to talk Snake into the act. Psycho Mantis was later killed by Solid Snake, after a heated battle. Before his death, Mantis read Snake's and Meryl's minds, telling them their futures were intertwined.

Behind the Scenes
In Guns of the Patriots, Psycho Mantis will be making a semi-cameo appearence as one of Screaming Mantis' puppets.

The battle with Psycho Mantis is widely known for him "displaying" his mental powers. This include makes the controller move (by activating the rumble feature), making players think the channel has changed (turning the screen to black with the green caption "HIDEO") and reading the memory card (he comments on the number of saves so far, and comments on the saved games, first in their genre, then in specific ones - Konami ones in Metal Gear Solid, Nintendo ones and Silicon Knights' Eternal Darkness in The Twin Snakes).

Trivia
In a PC World article, Mantis was voted as #3 of the top 47 "most diabolical videogame villains of all time."

Psycho Mantis was chosen as one of the best boss fights ever by GameSpot.

Psycho Mantis is mentioned in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. When Snake fights Ness in Shadow Moses Island, if he uses his CODEC taunt, Col. Roy Campbell will feed him data on Ness, and Snake will instantly recall Psycho Mantis, to the point of even asking if Ness has telepathic powers as well.

Psycho Mantis