Doctor Doom
- For other uses of this name, see Doctor Doom (disambiguation).
Doctor Doom is a male comic supervillain who features in Marvel Comics.
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Biography
Origin
Victor Von Doom was originally born to a gypsy family in the European nation of Latveria. Von Doom's father Werner was a gifted hearler while his mother Cynthia was a practicing sorceress. Von Doom's tribe of gypsies was frequently persecuted by the Baron of Latveria. Cynthia was visited by the demon Mephisto and sold her soul in exchange for Latveria becoming a gypsy paradise and her son Victor its king, as well as gifted with great power, which shortly destroyed her. Werner was summoned to the Baron's castle and ordered to save the life of his wife. When Werner failed to do so, the Baron ordered his and Victor's deaths, and the two fled. Werner died during the winter, and Victor promised vengeance.
As a teenager, Victor was taken in by Boris, a friend of his father's. Victor soon discovered a gift left to him by his mother, a chest containing herbs, medicines and other artifacts of great power. He began to delve into their secrets, growing obsessed with knowledge and power and while doing so, becoming distant to his girlfriend Valeria.
Von Doom was later offered a science scholership at Empire State University in New York City, and upon arriving met another student named Reed Richards. Later he began pursuing forbidden experiments, trying to figure out how to communicate with his mother's soul in Hell. Richards discovered Von Doom's notes and an error in his calculations. Von Doom refused to listen and threw Reed out. Von Doom began his experiment with his machine which exploded, injuring Von Doom. While recovering, Doom was expelled, and forever on Von Doom blamed Richards for his failure.
The accident also left a thin scar along one side of his face, the egotistical Von Doom believed this one scar had ruined his entire face, and soon left America for Tibet where he was taken in by a secret order of monks, learning their secrets and eventually becoming their master. The monks helped him forge a suit of armor and a metal mask. In his haste to cover his face, Von Doom donned the mask before it had completely cooled, thereby truly and permanently disfiguring Von Doom's entire face.
Calling himself Doctor Doom, Doom left Tibet and returned to Latveria and quickly overthrew the ruling monarchy and established a new monarchy with himself as master of Latveria. Doom succeeded in bringing peace and prosperity to Latveria while ruling it with an iron fist. He renamed the capital Doomstadt and built a castle as his new home and headquarters. He then desired to bring this same peace and prosperity to the entire world, and began to plan world conquest.
Doctor Doom
Doom then captured the new superhero group led by Richards called the Fantastic Four and failed to use and destroy them, but became their greatest and most bitter enemy. He has also encountered and become enemies with many other heroes such as Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Avengers, the X-Men and many others.
In one of his early schemes to destroy the Fantastic Four, Doom encountered an alien race called the Ovoids and from them learned an alien secret to transfer his mind and soul into another body and back. He also grew in his sorcerous skills becoming second only to Doctor Strange. Recently, with help from Strange, Doom succeeded in freeing his mother's soul from Mephisto.
One of Doom's most infamous moments was stealing the Silver Surfer's Power Cosmic and almost conquering the world. But he lost the Power Cosmic when he flew into the barrier left by Galactus to keep the Surfer trapped on Earth.
Doom has been thought dead numerous times but has always come back, and if alternate futures we've seen have shown anything, Doom will remain a threat to the world for a very long time.
He was then attacked by Skaar and seemingly by the Hulk himself though this turned out to be the Cosmic Hulk robot. However, the robot was rigged with a radiant neural anesthetizer designed by the Leader to remove Doom's intelligence. Thus, he lost his status as among the top minds on the planet and unable to work his own technology thus crippling him in the process. (Incredible Hulk v1 #606)
Time Runs Out
Infamous Iron Man
With Tony Stark disappearing, Doom began to debate on someone taking over the mantle and making the world a better place. He first struck at Diablo's lair in order to save the captive Maria Hill after which he went to Stark Tower before deciding to take the mantle of Iron Man. (Infamous Iron Man v1 #1) He then struck at the Mad Thinker who was operating in Bolivia where he eliminated him along with his robotic creations. Victor then approached Amara Perera in Cambridge once again who tended to his wounds when he was confronted by the Thing who was operating as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. sent to hunt Doom down. (Infamous Iron Man v1 #2)
He responded to a Chronosite infestation by the Baxter Building and helped the Avengers by eliminating it. Doom then asked for their aid to help shut down demonic rituals that were being conducted at the Susan Storm for Girls Leadership. (Avengers v7 #7)
The thought of Reed perishing at someone else beside his hands was something that Doom could not tolerate. Thus, he decided to look for clues at to Richard's possible survival and went through the Baxter Building. Whilst there, he uncovered the Multisect and gave it to Ben Grimm as his 'inheritance'. (Marvel 2-In-One v1 #1)
Return of Doom
In the aftermath, Doom decided to seclude himself in his abandoned castle as the country fell to a tyrant regime. During this time, a resistance formed against the cruel tyrant with one of their number being a young woman named Zora Vukovic. She infiltrated the castle to confirm the rumour of Doctor Doom's return and begged for his return to the throne. Initially, he was reluctant but the words of Zora came to inspire Victor to return to being the ruler of Latveria. Without any aid or his armour, he went to confront the tyrant that was causing pain to his homeland where he deposed them and returned to being the monarch of the nation. (Fantastic Four v6 #1)
Overview
Personality and attributes
For a time, he took the identity of Iron Man following the disappearance of Tony Stark. (Infamous Iron Man v1 #1)
Considered the equal of Reed Richards, von Doom noted that he had one weakness in that he could never fully understand other human beings. (Fantastic Four v1 #17)
He believed that the most beautiful moment of the day was when the dawn was being born with him replaying it constantly for himself. (Fantastic Four: 1234 v1 #1)
Powers and abilities
Doom's bionic armor is equal to Iron Man's, as he can fly, breathe in space or under water and fire energy blasts, and features numerous hidden weapons and gadgets as well as control over his minions. Doom also has robotic doubles called Doombots which can serve as perfect doubles and decoys.
He created a new version of his armour that was similar in appearance to that of the Iron Man Armour. (Infamous Iron Man v1 #1)
Among his creations included:
- Bio-Enhancer :
- Victorium :
- Solartron :
- Robotron :
- Followers : humanoid shaped constructs that operated in a phased-state that meant that they could not be harmed and they were sent by their master to follow specific targets of interest. (Fantastic Four v1 #17)
- Invincible Robots :
- Latviathans : giant robots that were akin to Sentinels with these titanic machines tasked with the protection of Latveria. (X-Men / Fantastic Four v2 #4)
- Prime Mover : a machine recovered from a downed alien vessel that allowed him to alter reality itself and shape it according to his desires where he used it to make subtle changes to events akin to chess pieces. (Fantastic Four: 1234 v1 #4)
- Time Platform :
He built a backdoor access in all his machines allowing to speak through any of them. (Fantastic Four: 1234 v1 #1)
Victor had built a variation of the Power Cosmic that he could imbue in others and gift them superhuman abilities. (Fantastic Four v6 #7)
He maintained an huge flying ship that was known as the Flying Fortress which was one thousand feet long and two hundred fifty feet at its widest. (Avengers v1 #1.5) The vessel served as an incredible floating laboratory(Fantastic Four v1 #17)
Notes
- Doctor Doom was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby where he made his first appearance in Fantastic Four v1 #5 (July, 1962).
- In Incredible Hulk v3 (2011), a character named Amanda von Doom appeared who had some unknown tie to Doctor Doom and the von Doom family though this was never elaborated on with her operating as part of the Mad Squad who hunted mad scientists on behalf of the U.S. government.
Alternate Versions
- In Exiles v3 #10 (2018), an alternate version known as Caliph Doom appeared in a world in the Multiverse that was modelled after an Arabian setting. This version sought the Ring of Solomon where he commanded the Djinn Mephisto to serve his will. Caliph Victor Doom took on many wives some of whom he forcibly married with one being Nocturne.
In other media
Television
- In Spider-Man, Doctor Doom appeared as an antagonist in the 1980 animated television series where he was voiced by actor Ralph James.
- In Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, Doctor Doom appeared in the 1980 animated television series in the episode "The Fantastic Mr. Frump" where he was voiced by actor Shepard Menken.
- In Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Doctor Doom appeared as an antagonist in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Christopher Britton.
- In The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Doctor Doom appeared as an antagonist in a number of episodes in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Lex Lang.
- In Ultimate Spider-Man, Doctor Doom appeared as an antagonist in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Maurice LaMarche.
- In Avengers Assemble, Doctor Doom appeared as an antagonist in the animated television series where he was voiced once again by actor Maurice LaMarche.
- In Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., Doctor Doom appeared as an antagonist in the animated television series in the episode "Red Rover" where he was voiced again by actor Maurice LaMarche.
Films
- In Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom appeared as an antagonist in the 2005 live-action film where he was portrayed by actor Julian McMahon.
- In Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Doctor Doom appeared as an antagonist in the 2007 live-action film where he was once more portrayed by actor Julian McMahon.
- In Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom appeared as an antagonist in the 2015 live-action film where he was portrayed by actor Toby Kebbell.
Video games
- In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Doctor Doom appeared as a major antagonist and final boss in the 2006 roleplaying video game where he was voiced by actor Clive Revill.
- In Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth, Doctor Doom appeared as a playable character in the 2012 fighting video game where he was voiced by actor Fred Tatasciore.
- In Marvel: Avengers Alliance, Doctor Doom appeared as a character in the Facebook video game with his own Dossier.
- In Marvel Heroes, Doctor Doom appeared in the story mode, as a non-playable character and as a playable character in the MMORPG where he was voiced by actor Lex Lang.
- In Marvel: Future Fight, Doctor Doom appeared as a playable character in the setting of the mobile video game.
Appearances
- Fantastic Four v1: (1962)
- Thor v1:
- Incredible Hulk v1:
- Mighty Avengers v1:
- Dark Avengers v1:
- Infamous Iron Man v1:
- Avengers v7:
- Marvel 2-In-One v1: (2018)
- Fantastic Four v6: (2019)
- Doctor Doom v1: (2019)
- Savage Avengers v1: (2019)
- X-Men / Fantastic Four v2:
External Links
Internal Links
External Links
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