Doctor Doom
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| Doctor Doom | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Fantastic Four #5 (July 1962) |
| Created by | Stan Lee (writer) Jack Kirby (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Victor von Doom |
| Abilities | Genius-level intellect, Command of magic, Diplomatic immunity, Ability to exchange consciousness with another humanoid, Powered armor grants:
|
Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom) is a fictional supervillain in the Marvel Universe. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, he debuted in The Fantastic Four #5 (July 1962). Wizard Magazine rated him the 4th greatest villain of all time.[1] His full origin was told in Fantastic Four Annual #2 (1964). Lee had previously used the name for a villain in a humor comic for Marvel's 1950s predecessor company, Atlas Comics.
A brilliant scientist, Doom was once a classmate of the Fantastic Four's Reed Richards. However, he became embittered by facial scars received from an experiment gone wrong, a failure which he attributed to Richards, beginning's Doom rivalry and obsession with the Fantastic Four leader.
Doom is considered the archenemy of the Fantastic Four, but has also been added to the rogue galleries of the Avengers, the Silver Surfer, the Hulk, Captain America, the X-Men, Nick Fury, Iron Man, and Spider-Man, among many others. Doom has also faced villains like Magneto and Venom. He even confronted Superman in a Marvel/DC crossover in 1981.
He is one of the comic book industry's most recognizable and archetypal supervillains. His ruling of the small Balkan nation of Latveria provides him with diplomatic immunity.
Fictional character biography
Victor Von Doom was born to noted healer Werner Von Doom and his wife Cynthia Von Doom, a witch. The Von Dooms were members of a gypsy tribe, traveling by caravan through various countries in Eastern Europe, including the fictional country of Latveria. As gypsies, they were often harassed by the locals, accused of thievery and witchcraft, and were constantly on the move. In the Triumph and Torment graphic novel (Marvel 1989), Cynthia Von Doom grew tired of their status and longed for a homeland for her people. She made a pact with Mephisto for the power to protect her people. But Mephisto had tricked her, and when she couldn't control the power she was murdered by the Baron's soldiers, and Mephisto trapped her soul in his hellish dimension. Cynthia was buried in an unmarked grave, and Werner and his young son escaped with the tribe.
Werner Von Doom raised his son on his own for some years and avoided undue detection, but when he was called upon to heal the ailing wife of the Baron of Latveria he was forced to comply. Knowing that the Baron's wife would soon die despite his best efforts, he returned to the gypsy camp and was forced to flee into the mountains to save his life, taking his young son with him. Werner and Victor evaded capture by the Baron's men, but were forced ever higher into the snowy range. Shielding young Victor in his own meager clothing, Werner Von Doom collapsed but was found by his tribe some time later. Werner Von Doom would not survive, and entrusted his friend Boris to protect his son (see Fantastic Four Annual #2, 1964). Victor Von Doom was left embittered by this experience, swearing he'd make the whole human race pay someday for killing off his father, as they did with his mother when he was still a child.
After his father died, Victor discovered his mother's magical artifacts and began his studies into the occult as well as developing his innate scientific abilities. Either due to tales of his sheer brilliance or due to the technical sophistication of an insurgency campaign against the Baron led by Doom, his astounding reputation came to the attention of the dean of science at Empire State University in America, and Von Doom was offered a full scholarship. At Empire State, Von Doom first met both Reed Richards and Ben Grimm, two men who would go on to become his enemies in later years as Mister Fantastic and the Thing, respectively. Richards, in particular, represented a substantial threat to Von Doom's self-perceived superiority. Von Doom began conducting hazardous extra-dimensional experiments.
The focus of Von Doom's research was to construct a trans-dimensional projection device with which he could communicate with his dead mother. There was a flaw in the design which Richards pointed out to him, but Von Doom's pride prevented him from accepting Richards' advice and fixing the device before testing it. The machine worked perfectly for two minutes and 37 seconds, in which time Von Doom discovered that his mother was trapped in Mephisto's Hell. Then the device exploded, temporarily damaging Von Doom's face; the most recent retelling of Doom's origin attests that this was the work of Mephisto striking at him, and by some accounts, the facial damage amounted only to one cheek being marked with a small scar, a scar that Von Doom's incredible vanity magnified into a hideous disfigurement. Refusing to acknowledge his own fault in the matter, Von Doom blamed Richards for the accident, finding it easier to believe that Richards had sabotaged his work out of jealousy than to admit to his own imperfection.
Von Doom was expelled from school afterward, and traveled the world searching for a cure for his scarred face, which he viewed as a symbol of his failure. Eventually Von Doom discovered a village of Tibetan monks amongst whom he lived for a number of years. Mastering their sorcerous disciplines, he soon took control of the monastery and had the monks assist him in crafting a suit of body armor. In his eagerness to finish donning the suit and begin his new life as "Doctor Doom," however, he donned the armor's freshly-cast mask before it had been properly cooled, ensuring that if his face had not been seriously damaged before, it now most certainly was. This suit would become his trademark, and thanks to his technological enhancements, it puts him on par in terms of personal power with most superheroes in the Marvel Universe. After this, Doom returned to his homeland, overthrew the standing government, and crowned himself king. Ruling with an iron fist and an equally strong will, Doom began to redirect the small nation's resources to help him realize his goals. He also brought to the country of Latveria a renewed vigor and prosperity, unlike any of their neighboring countries.
During the Mutant Massacre storyline, Doom helped Reed Richards restore Shadowcat from her phase form, which would have led to her death if she had remained in that form.
Art by Salvador Larroca.
Doom was briefly deposed by Zorba, a prince from the royal family Doom had previously overthrown. After months in exile, Doom managed to convince the Fantastic Four to aid him in taking back Latveria by showing them that under Zorba's corrupt rule, the nation had fallen into crime and poverty. When Zorba learned that Doom had returned, he ordered his robot forces to massacre his own people to prevent a coup led by Doom. Realizing that Zorba was a greater threat to the Latverian people than Doom, the team reluctantly agreed to assist their enemy. Doom soon killed Zorba and reclaimed his throne, but in the process, one of his loyal Latverian subjects was killed before his eyes. Doom adopted the fallen woman's son, Kristoff Vernard, and raised the boy as his heir. In addition, as Doom considers his genius and leadership to be priceless assets to the Earth, he used Kristoff as a fallback plan to be used in the unlikely event of his premature death. When Doom was indeed seemingly killed in a fight with Terrax, his robots enacted this plan and copied Doom's knowledge and memories into young Kristoff's brain. For a time, Kristoff even believed himself to be Doom, but eventually realized the truth and submitted to the true Doom's rule. Kristoff seems to be the half-brother of Doom's hated rival Reed Richards, though none of the three seem to be aware of this fact.
Later, Doom realized he was unnecessarily limiting himself by focusing on technology, and only occasionally his magical birthright. He sold his childhood sweetheart's soul to a trio of demons in exchange for unlimited magical ability and new leather armor made of her skin. As a direct result of this storyline, Doom was confined to Hell, but was later recovered by Reed, who intended to trap him in a small Möbius strip dimension forever. To effect his escape, Doom's consciousness possessed Ben Grimm, forcing Richards to kill them both. Ben Grimm was later brought back from the dead, while Doom's consciousness returned to his imprisoned body.
When the hibernating Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, fell to Earth, it passed through time and space, momentarily breaching the gateway to Hell itself, providing Doom a way to escape. Upon his return to Earth, Doom regained control of Latveria, and used its forces to locate the crash-landing site of Mjolnir and attempt to seize its power for himself. Later, a Doombot was taken down by Reed Richards, Henry Pym, Iron Man, She-Hulk and others in New York City; whether or not it was sent by Doom himself remains to be seen, as does his role in the overall conflict.[2] Doom was not invited to the wedding of Storm and the Black Panther; however, he did send a present: an invitation to form an alliance with Latveria, using the Civil War currently going on among the hero community as a reason to quite possibly forge an alliance between their two countries. When Black Panther, on a diplomatic mission to other countries with Storm, did show up in Latveria, he presented them with a real present, and extended another invitation to form an alliance with Black Panther. He demonstrated behavior very uncharacteristic of him, however, which may or may not become a plot point later. Panther spurned the invitation, detonating an EMP that blacked out a local portion of Latveria before Doom's robots could destroy his ship.
Doom is then shown collaborating with the Red Skull on a weapon which will only "be the beginning" of Captain America's suffering.[3] Doom gave the Skull the weapon because the Skull gave Victor pieces of technology from an old German castle. The castle was owned by a "Baron of Iron" centuries prior, who had used his technological genius to protect himself and his people. The map the Red Skull used to find the castle bore a picture of Doom. Doom states that the technology the Skull gave him is more advanced than what he currently has, and that he will become the Baron of Iron in his future. The Skull is currently in the process of reverse-engineering Doom's weapon for multiple uses, rather than the single use Doom agreed to.
At the end of the first chapter of the X-Men event Endangered Species, Beast consults some of the Marvel Universe's greatest minds on a solution to the stagnant mutant population; among them is Doom, who spurns Beast and notes that genetics do not number among his talents. Future solicits and interviews have revealed that Doctor Doom will be making appearances in Mighty Avengers and Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's Fantastic Four.
Goals
Doctor Doom is driven by three principal objectives:
- The destruction of Reed Richards.
He has so far achieved two of these aims. With the help of Doctor Strange, Earth's Sorcerer Supreme, he wrested his mother's spirit from Mephisto; a vital step in this process was tricking his mother into renouncing her love for Victor.
He has also achieved world domination more than once, though various reasons always end his reign. In the graphic novel Emperor Doom, he achieved control of the world by using and amplifying the mind control power of the Purple Man. However, Wonder Man escaped the mind-control effect, and managed to break Doom's hold over several selected Avenger colleagues. An enraged Sub-Mariner smashed the device, ending Doom's control over Earth (although it should be here noted that Doom, bored with the fruits of his success and the world peace that resulted, decided not to activate a special nerve gas of his own design that would have killed almost every Avenger in the hangar where they were assembled). Doom again takes over the world in an issue number 14 of Super Villain Team-Up where he released a gas that made everyone on earth his slave, but again growing bored with his achievement of world domination, challenged Magneto to defeat him. Doom is later defeated that issue after his mask is knocked off and he breathes the gas himself, leading him to lose his world domination.
Later, when the Fantastic Four returned from the alternate Earth to which they had been shunted following their confrontation with the sentient psionic being Onslaught, Doctor Doom remained behind and conquered that planet, which he dubbed "Planet Doom".
He led the world into an unparalleled prosperity and eventually abdicated, returning to the original Earth as he missed his homeland Latveria.
In an alternate future, Doctor Doom was transported to the year 2099 from some point in our present and upon seeing the decrepit state of Latveria, he becomes the President of the United States in order to curb the power of the mega corporations based there that were oppressing his people.
As a side effect, he began improving the quality of life in the U.S. as well, re-instituting democracy and an effective non-corrupt police force.
Despite repeated attempts through the years, Doom has been unable to completely defeat Mister Fantastic, although several of their encounters have resulted in temporary victories for Doom. The authors of the collection "What If", knowing this fact, have given to Doom on the last thirty years a great number of comic-books where he succeeds killing Richards. Arguably, on the real Marvel Universe, the closest of these to an absolute victory was when Reed Richards had found himself teleported inside Doom's armour, and wound up assuming his identity. A facet of the armor's programming ensured that if anyone other than Doom were to wear it, they would over time become more and more like Doom himself. As Richards' behavior grew more and more despotic, the rest of the Fantastic Four found themselves having to turn to an armourless, yet extremely smug, Victor von Doom. Doom, with the help of the other members of the Fantastic Four, was able to overcome Richards in combat and strip him of the armor, leaving him humiliated over the lengths he had gone to under its influence. However, as Reed Richards was not in his right mind at the time, and his defeat would not have occurred without his team assisting Doom, Doom may not consider this incident defeat enough. In hand-to-hand battle, he has also been physically beaten by the Thing, and Doom has vowed to take revenge on both men. He has come close on several occasions but has failed to permanently defeat either, despite quite a number of partial victories. Doom has, on many occasions, captured the Fantastic Four.
Doctor Doom's plans are fueled by his ego and his conviction that he is not only capable of world domination, but also worthy and deserving of it. While he places little value on the lives of others, he also follows a code of honor. Several times, he has struck bargains with various characters in the Marvel Universe, and has upheld those bargains. He is a cruel and ruthless dictator, willing to deliver swift and cruel punishments (he once atomized a personal orchestra that failed to complete the Minute Waltz, a song reasonably played in three minutes, in exactly one minute[volume & issue needed]). He also has a secret, hidden guillotine used to kill dissidents, yet he also treats his subjects fairly and at times has even put himself at risk to protect his kingdom and subjects. He even was seriously wounded and nearly killed saving a Latverian child ten years ago when an alien attacked his land, but he eventually destroyed the monster.
Personality
When Stan Lee talks about Doom and introduces the character to someone, he explains that Doom is a villain, but is also a man of his word, who has a great sense of honor. Doom contains a sense of unique morality for a villain, setting him apart from most others. One example of Doom's honor was shown years ago, when he wanted to steal the cosmic cube from M.O.D.O.K. When he realized that he would need Namor's help, he kidnapped his girlfriend. While she was held prisoner, one of Doom's soldiers attempted to rape her, but Doom prevented it and killed the soldier. He also risked his own life to save Namor when M.O.D.O.K. captured his pawn, because Doom respected the Sub-Mariner. Doom even destroyed all of M.O.D.O.K.'s droid army to save the king of Atlantis. In the 2003 storyline Unthinkable, Doom had imprisoned Franklin in Hell and captured Valeria. When the Fantastic Four confronted him and were caught in stalemate, Doom agreed to set the child free on the condition that Richards surrender. Richards agreed and Doom, in his skewed manner, set Valeria free and left Franklin in Hell, claiming the "bargain upheld."
Another example appears in an old episode from his first collection. Doom captured a soldier from Wakanda because he wanted information about Black Panther's vibranium. He tortured the soldier terribly, but when the soldier talked at last, Doom gave him food and money, and paid for his travel back to Wakanda. He even killed one of his own henchmen that suggested killing the captive, saying that "Doom doesn't kill innocent people."
Doom wants to conquer the world because he thinks that, in his hands, it would be a better place. In "Emperor Doom" or "Doom 2099," he proved that he had the reasons to do it. Many times, the perceived problem is that heroes don't want to trade the freedom of everyone for safety under Doom, so if he wants to rule the planet, he must first conquer it, and it is often believed that he would do anything to achieve this goal.
Doom's honor has been forgotten sometimes, especially in the movies that want to expose a very simple image of Doom. A critic of the comic-books described the image of Doom when he is correctly presented as "a mix between General Erwin Rommel, Captain Nemo and Erik, the Phantom of the Opera".
Powers and abilities
Doom's most dangerous weapon is his genius-level intellect, which has allowed him to make significant progress in virtually all branches of the sciences; he is even an able statesman and diplomat. He along with Reed Richards, is one of the smartest men in the Marvel Universe. Doom has constructed hundreds of devices, including a working time machine (the first of its kind on Earth), devices which can imbue people with superpowers, and many types of robots. His most frequently-used robots are his "Doombots," exact mechanical replicas of the real Doctor Doom. They look like him, talk like him, and even act like him. Individually, Doombots have an advanced A.I. program that causes them to believe themselves to be the real Doctor Doom. In order to prevent his duplicates from harming or out-performing him, Doctor Doom installs each Doombot with a dampener program that reduces all of its abilities when activated. This program is triggered whenever a Doombot enters Von Doom's presence or the presence of other Doombots. These imitation Dooms have been created to impersonate Doctor Doom when he either cannot be present or is unwilling to risk his own life (such as when confronting powerful foes). They are also, in a way, a deus ex machina: often, if Doom is apparently defeated, acts out of character in a story, or even seems to die, "it was only a robot". Another common sight around Latveria are the purple-and-grey Servo-Guards, who resemble hulking humans in metallic armor and enforce Doom's laws.
Doom also possesses a good deal of magic ability which he learned from his time with a secret order of monks in Tibet, as well as knowledge passed on from his magically-inclined mother. He is able to fire blasts of mystical energy from his hands, create protective shields of magical energy, ensnare foes in bands of energy (the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak), and create portals to other planes of existence, such as Mephisto's hellish realm or the Dreamtime of the Australian Aborigines. Doom has also developed the ability to psionically transfer his consciousness into another nearby human being with whom he's made eye contact, a process which he learned from the alien Ovoids. However, Doom prefers his own body and only uses this transference power as a last resort. It has been stated that Dr. Doom is, in fact, next in line for the title of Sorcerer Supreme after Dr. Strange. Though he more or less shunned the mystic arts for scientific pursuits, he recently made a pact with the Haazareth Three, a group of demons who amplified his powers greatly so he could kidnap Franklin and Valeria Richards, simultaneously imprisoning the FF and Doctor Strange to prevent them interfering with his schemes.
Armor
Dr. Doom's iconic iron-clad face is a part of his high-tech, nuclear powered, computer assisted battle suit. Doom's first (and truly "original") set of armor was magically forged at a hidden monastery in the high mountains of Tibet; since then, his dark plated armor has been enhanced and repaired by normal technological means. Although a skilled practitioner of the mystic arts, Victor von Doom more often relies upon his armor for most of his powers. The armor is fashioned of a high-strength titanium alloy. Built into the right wrist is a video communicator, which he can use to stay in contact with all his bases from any point on Earth. As a defensive measure, his armor is built to generate a massive electric shock up to 1 million kilovolts disabling anyone who might come in contact with Doom.
The armor is equipped with twin jetpacks mounted at the waist which permit flight, though some suits contain a back-mounted single jetpack. Concussive bolts of force can be fired from the gauntlets and faceplate of the armor, though the mask only generates force blasts when it is not being worn. The suit's best defense is the force field generated by the armor, which has a maximum radius of eight feet (and so can encompass others); Doom's force field has been shown to provide protection even from Magneto's mutant ability to affect metal. This force field has also protected Doom from a direct attack of the Beyonder, and then a laser blast with the force of a nuclear warhead, as seen in the Secret Wars. Doom cannot attack without lowering his force field. Infrared scanners in the helmet allow the wearer to detect heat sources, permitting night vision and the ability to see invisible people (unless they do not give off or can somehow mask their heat signature). The armor is self-supporting, equipped with internal stores and recycling systems for air, food, water, and energy, allowing the wearer to survive lengthy periods of exposure underwater or in outer space.
Optical scanners in the helmet allow the helmet's eyepieces to be used as high-powered telescopes, and parabolic ear amplifiers fitted inside the helmet allow Doom to detect extremely faint sounds and unusual frequencies within the audible range for humans. A thermo-energizer allows the armor to absorb and store solar and heat energy, and use it to power the armor's other systems; this system can only be used while the force field is deactivated. The computers inside his armor have been used to analyze magical invocations during a battle, noting which ones were effective and which were not. In addition, Doom often carries a pistol (a C96 "Broomhandle" Mauser, at least in older stories) to dispose of weaker enemies whom he considers unworthy to kill with his armor's weaponry.
His armor is also equipped with a Molecular Densifier, allowing him to enlarge Dust Particles suspended in the air to boulder size, then propel them at adversaries at high speeds.
Being the leader of a sovereign nation, Doctor Doom enjoys the grace of diplomatic immunity while in America during the few times he is there for non-pernicious, political actions and diplomacy. He has even been accompanied and escorted by Captain America himself.
It should be noted that despite his scientific genius, Doctor Doom, having been expelled from college, does not have a Doctorate or any university degree (at least not one he earned; he may have granted himself an honorary doctorate from a Latverian institution). His naming may be in the early trend for scientist supervillains to have Doctor in their name (such as Doctor Octopus). However, in recent years, the trend has been to drop the "Doctor" from his name. In conclusion, it can be deducted that perhaps, Doom possesses a Latverian title of "Doctor Honoris Causa", something that real dictators (Salazar, Franco) used to give themselves. It should also be noted that many stories portray Doom as extremely egomaniacal, and he often refers to himself in the third person.
Other versions
In other media
References
- - Doomscribe's Den of Madness (fan site)