Doctor Doom

Publication history

Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The Fantastic Four #5 (July 1962) wearing his trademark metal mask and green cloak.

Creation and development

Like many of Marvel's Silver Age characters, Doctor Doom was conceived by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby. With the Fantastic Four title performing well, Lee and Kirby were trying to dream up a "soul-stirring…super sensational new villain." Looking for a name, Lee latched onto "Doctor Doom" as "eloquent in its simplicity — magnificent in its implied menace."

Due to the rush to publish, the character was not given a full origin story until Fantastic Four Annual #2, two years after his debut.

Jack Kirby modeled Doctor Doom after Death, with the armor standing in for that character's skeleton; "It was the reason for the armor and the hood. Death is connected with armor and the inhuman-like steel. Death is something without mercy, and human flesh contains that mercy." Kirby further described Doctor Doom as being "paranoid", wrecked by his twisted face and wanting the whole world to be like him. Kirby went on to say that "Doctor Doom is an evil person, but he's not always been evil. He was [respected]…but through a flaw in his own character, he was a perfectionist." At one point in the 1970s, Kirby drew his interpretation of what Doctor Doom would look like under the mask, giving Doctor Doom only "a tiny scar on his cheek." Due to this slight imperfection, Doctor Doom hides his face not from the world, but from himself. To Kirby, this is the motivation for Doctor Doom's vengeance against the world; because others are superior due to this slight scar, Doom wants to elevate himself above them. Typical of Lee's writing characterization of Doctor Doom is his arrogance; his pride leads to Doctor Doom's disfigurement at the hands of his own machine, and to the failures of many of his schemes. There is also an idea that Doctor Doom placed his mask on his face before it fully cooled, burning his face. In some early stories glimpses of his face are shown, in which he appears to be bald.

While the Fantastic Four had fought various villains such as the Mole Man, Skrulls, the Miracle Man, and Namor the Sub-Mariner, Doctor Doom managed to overshadow them all and became the Fantastic Four's archnemesis.

During the 1970s, Doctor Doom branched out to more Marvel titles such as Astonishing Tales, The Incredible Hulk, and Super-Villain Team-Up, starting in 1975, as well as appearances in Marvel Team-Up, beginning with issue #42 (February 1976). Doctor Doom's origin was also a feature in Astonishing Tales when his ties to the villain Mephisto were revealed.

1980s–1990s

In 1976, Marvel and DC Comics collaborated on Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, and seeking to replicate that success the two companies again teamed the characters in Superman and Spider-Man in 1981. Marvel editor in chief Jim Shooter co-wrote the story with Marv Wolfman, and recalled choosing Doctor Doom based on his iconic status: "I figured I needed the heaviest-duty bad guy we had to offer — Doctor Doom. Their greatest hero against our greatest villain."

The same year, John Byrne began his six-year run writing and illustrating Fantastic Four, sparking a "second golden age" for the title but also attempting to "turn the clock back [...] get back and see fresh what it was that made the book great at its inception." Doctor Doom made his first appearance under Byrne's tenure with issue #236. Whereas Kirby had intimated that Doom's disfigurement was more a figment of Victor's vain personality, Byrne decided that Doctor Doom's face was truly ravaged: only Doctor Doom's own robot slaves are allowed to see the monarch without his helmet. Byrne emphasized other aspects of Doom's personality; despite his ruthless nature, Doctor Doom is a man of honor. Returning to Latveria after being temporarily deposed, Doctor Doom abandons a scheme to wrest mystical secrets from Doctor Strange in order to oversee his land's reconstruction. Despite a tempestuous temper, Doctor Doom occasionally shows warmth and empathy to others; he tries to free his mother from Mephisto and treats Kristoff Vernard like his own son. Byrne gave further detail regarding Doom's scarring: Byrne introduced the idea that the accident at Empire State University only left Doctor Doom with a small scar that was exaggerated into a more disfiguring accident by Doctor Doom's own arrogance—by donning his newly forged face mask before it had fully cooled, he caused massive irreparable damage.

After Byrne's departure Doctor Doom continued to be a major villain in Fantastic Four, and as the 1980s continued Doom appeared in other comics such as Punisher, The Spectacular Spider-Man, and Excalibur. Under Fantastic Four writer Steven Englehart, Doctor Doom became exiled from Latveria by his heir Kristoff, who was brainwashed into thinking he was Doctor Doom. Doctor Doom would spend most of his time in exile planning his return, but Englehart left the title before he could resolve the storyline. This storyline ultimately ended with the controversial Fantastic Four #350, where writer Walt Simonson had the Doctor Doom who had been seen in the book during the Englehart run being revealed to be a robot imposter and the real Doctor Doom, in a newly redesigned armor, returning to claim his country from his usurper. According to Simonson's retcon, the last appearance of the real Doctor Doom was in the "Battle of the Baxter Building" story arc, but Simonson's interpretation of the character was unaware of certain major changes at the time to the Fantastic Four. Simonson drew up a list of stories which featured the real Doctor Doom and those which did not but later writers ignored Simonson's choices, retconning these story elements as an attempt by Doom to blame his own past failures on unruly robots.

Modern depictions

In 2003 Doctor Doom was the villain in the Fantastic Four story arc "Unthinkable", in which Doctor Victor Von Doom viscerally skins his childhood love Valeria alive to the bone, and turns her flesh into mystic armour, imprisons Franklin Richards in Hell, captures Valeria Richards, and succeeds in de-powering and imprisoning the Fantastic Four. Writer Mark Waid sought to redefine Doctor Doom's character in a way that had not been seen before. Waid punctuated this reinterpretation of Doctor Doom during his "Unthinkable" saga (Vol 3 #66-70 & Vol 1 (restart) #500) as an absolute sadist by having Von Doom ruthlessly murder Valeria (namesake of the Richards's daughter), his first love and granddaughter to his long serving faithful retainer Boris, in order to be granted access to powerful magic by a trio of demons, Valeria being the treasured possession that they demanded in exchange. He subsequently attempted to prove his superiority to Reed by giving him the chance to find his way out of a prison that could only be escaped by mastering magic, in the belief that Reed would fail to do so, but with the aid of the astral projection of Doctor Strange, Richards learned to utilize magic on a basic level by accepting that he could not understand it and escapes. With Doom still his superior in this particular field, Richard instead tricked him into rejecting the demons, resulting in them dragging Doom to Hell. This was the case until the events of Ragnarok, when Thor's hammer Mjolnir fell through dimensions and gave Doctor Doom a way out of Hell when it was lost after Thor's apparent death.

In 2005 and 2006, Doctor Doom was featured in his own limited series, Books of Doom , a retelling of the origin story by Ed Brubaker. In an interview, Brubaker said the series was a way to elaborate on the earlier portions of Doctor Doom's life which had not been seen often in the comics. The series also set out to determine if Doctor Doom's path from troubled child to dictator was fated or Doctor Doom's own faults led to his corruption — in essence, a nature versus nurture question. Brubaker's version of Doctor Doom was heavily influenced by the original Lee/Kirby version; responding to a question if he would show Doctor Doom's face, Brubaker stated "[F]ollowing Kirby's example, I think it's better not to show it."

The Mighty Avengers invaded Latveria, Doctor Doom's nation, due to his involvement in creating a chemical bomb that would infect people with the symbiote (though it was recently revealed that this attack was actually set up by Kristoff Vernard to put Doctor Doom out of the picture prior to Kristoff's future attempt at a coup). Due to Ultron's interference, the bomb was dropped on Manhattan, but the Mighty Avengers are able to stop the effects on the people. The Mighty Avengers proceed to invade Latveria. During the invasion, the Sentry, Iron Man, and Doctor Doom are sent to the past thanks to Doctor Doom’s time platform. Eventually, the trio breaks into the Baxter Building and make use of a confiscated time machine to return to the present era, the Sentry taking advantage of the fact he will soon be forgotten by the world to easily defeat the Thing. Doctor Doom transports himself to Morgana's castle to summon up a magical army and captures the Avengers, but they free themselves and he is arrested for terrorist crimes against humanity after a brief struggle that culminated with the Sentry tearing off Doctor Doom's mask.

During Dark Reign when Norman Osborn is in charge, Doctor Doom is released and sent back to Latveria. However, Morgana le Fay engages him in a magical battle, which he is losing until the Dark Avengers rescue him. He then magically rebuilds his kingdom.

The character is also featured in Siege storyline and in the five issue mini-series Doomwar written by Jonathan Maberry.

Doctor Doom soon allies himself with the isolationist group known as the Desturi, to take control of Wakanda. He attacked and wounded T'Challa, the current Black Panther, maiming him enough to prevent him from holding the mantle again. Doctor Doom's main objective was to secure Wakanda's store of vibranium, which he could mystically enhance to make himself unstoppable.

In the Mark Millar penned Fantastic Four 566-569 Doctor Doom received a significant power upgrade. He was thrown back in time (perhaps about 50 million years) by the Marquis of Death. Doctor Doom then fought through time and space to get back to the present to seek revenge on the Marquis of Death. Doctor Doom stated, as he killed the Marquis, he had rebuilt every molecule of his being and increased his power all to destroy the Marquis. In later issues this seems to have been ignored however, with writers treating Doctor Doom the way they have always before in terms of power. Doctor Doom later joins the supervillain group known as the Intelligencia, but is betrayed when they captured him to complete their plan. With the help of Bruce Banner, he escapes and returns to Latveria. He appears to have been damaged by this experience.

At the start of the story arc Fantastic Four: Three, Doctor Doom feels that he needs to be "reborn" and makes plans to abdicate his throne and give it to Kristoff when Valeria teleports to his room unexpectedly asking for his assistance to help her father. Valeria quickly notices that Doctor Doom has suffered brain damage and makes a deal with him to restore his mental capacities if he helps Reed and the Fantastic Four. Doctor Doom agrees to her proposition. Later, Doctor Doom appears among those in attendance at Johnny Storm's funeral.

Due to the agreement, Doctor Doom is recommended by Nathaniel and Valeria Richards to be a member of the Future Foundation. Objecting, Thing attacks Doctor Doom out of anger, but the fight is stopped by Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, who welcomes Doctor Doom to their group.

Leading to the Secret Wars, Doom usurps the power of the Beyonders with the aid of Doctor Strange and the Molecule Man, collecting what he can of the destroyed multiverse and forming a new Battleworld consisting of different alternate realities. He also assumes the role of God and claims complete dominion of this new world and its inhabitants, controlling them into thinking he was always the almighty force of creation; he takes Sue as his wife, Franklin and Valeria as his children, condemns the Human Torch to be the sun and Ben Grimm to be Shield wall. Richards and a ragtag collection of heroes and villains that survived the destruction of all universes are able to challenge him and, with the help of Molecule Man, are able to take his power and restore the multiverse. Opting to heal rather than harm, Reed finally uses the Beyonder's power to heal Doom's face.

Doom returns to Latveria where he saves Iron Man and vows he is a new man.

Fictional character biography

Victor Von Doom was born decades ago to a tribe of Latverian Romani people under the rule of an unnamed nobleman called the Baron. Victor's mother was witch Cynthia Von Doom who died by Mephisto's hand while Von Doom was young. His father, Werner, was the leader of the tribe and a renowned medicine man who kept his wife's sorceress life quiet in order to protect Victor from a similar fate. Soon after Cynthia's death, the Baron's wife grew incurably ill from cancer and Werner was called to the capitol to heal her. When she succumbed to illness, the Baron labeled Werner a murderer and called for his death. Werner escaped with young Victor, having realized the night before the woman would die. He goes on to die of exposure on the mountainside, cradling the boy in a final embrace and giving him his garments to keep him warm. Victor survived and, on return to the Romani camp, discovered his mother's occult instruments and swore revenge on the Baron. Victor grew into a headstrong and brilliant man, combining sorcery and technology to create fantastic devices which would keep the Baron's men at bay and protect the Roma people. His exploits attracted the attention of the dean of Empire State University, who sent someone to the camp. Offered the chance to study in the United States, Von Doom chooses to leave his homeland and his love, Valeria, behind.

Once in the United States, Victor met fellow student and future nemesis Reed Richards, who was intended to be his roommate, but Von Doom disliked him and asked for another roommate. After a time, Victor constructed a machine intended to communicate with the dead. Though Richards tried to warn him about a flaw in the machine, seeing his calculations were a few decimals off, Victor continued on with disastrous results. The machine violently failed and the resulting explosion seemingly severely damaged his face. It is later revealed that Ben Grimm, a friend of Richards who despised Victor for his superior attitude, tampered with the machine. He would later blame himself for Doctor Doom's eventual rise to power, but never revealed this information to anyone. Expelled after the accident, Victor traveled the world until he collapsed on a Tibetan mountainside. Rescued by a clan of monks, Victor quickly mastered the monks' disciplines as well as the monks themselves. Victor then forged himself a suit of armor, complete with a scowling mask, and took the name Doctor Doom. As Doctor Doom, he would go on to menace those he felt responsible for his accident—primarily, Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four. He succeeded in taking over Latveria, taking an interest in the welfare of the Roma.

In his first appearance, Doctor Doom captures the Invisible Girl, using her as a hostage so the Fantastic Four will travel back in time to steal the enchanted treasure of Blackbeard which will help him conquer the world, but he is fooled by Reed Richards, who swaps the treasure with worthless chains. Doctor Doom then forms an alliance with the Sub-Mariner, who places a magnetic device in the Baxter Building. However Doctor Doom uses this to pull him and the Fantastic Four into space, thinking this will rid him of those capable of preventing him conquering the world. But the Sub-Mariner gets to Doctor Doom 's ship and returns the Baxter Building to New York, while Doctor Doom is left on an asteroid. Returning to Earth after learning the secrets of an advanced alien race, the Ovids, Doctor Doom exchanges consciousnesses with Mister Fantastic; Richards, inhabiting Doctor Doom 's body, switches the two back, and Doctor Doom ends up trapped in a micro-world when he is hit with a shrinking ray he had intended to use on the rest of the Fantastic Four. Doctor Doom takes over the micro-world, but leaves after the Fantastic Four end his rule. He is then thrown into space when he attempts to do this to the Fantastic Four. Doctor Doom is saved by Rama-Tut, and he returns to Earth to destroy the Fantastic Four by turning each member against the other using a special berry juice. Richards outwits Doctor Doom by using the hallucinogenic juice against the villain. Doctor Doom, believing he has killed Richards in a test of willpower, departs certain of his victory and superior intelligence.

During the 1960s, Doctor Doom attempts to recruit Spider-Man into joining forces with him, and he also menaces the Avengers when Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch travel to Latveria to find a long-lost relative. He steals the Silver Surfer's powers in 1967, but he loses them after breaching a barrier Galactus set for the Surfer on Earth.

During the 1970s, Doctor Doom branched out to more Marvel titles, with a battle between Doctor Doom and Prince Rudolfo over control of Latveria being featured in Astonishing Tales. Doctor Doom also attempts to use the Hulk as his slave during two issues of The Incredible Hulk. The character also made several appearances in the story arcs of Super-Villain Team-Up, starting in 1975, as well as appearances in Marvel Team-Up, beginning with issue #42 (February 1976). In August 1981, Doctor Doom also made an appearance in Iron Man when the two travel to Camelot where Stark thwarted Doctor Doom 's attempt to solicit the aide of Morgan le Fay and Doctor Doom swore deadly vengeance for that interference, which had to be indefinitely delayed in the interest of returning to the present day. A particularly detailed plan saw Doom ally with the Puppet Master to trap the Fantastic Four within the miniature artificial city of "Liddleville", their minds trapped inside tiny cybernetic, part-organic copies of their original bodies. However, Doom perverts what had been intended by the Puppet Master as a chance to give Alicia and Ben a normal life into a trap, deliberately disrupting Reed's connection to his copy to make it hard for him to concentrate while 'Vincent Vaughn'- Doom's alias as he monitors the project- belittles him, and the Puppet Master eventually helps the FF learn the truth and escape Liddleville while trapping Doom in the android body he had used to monitor the FF.

During John Byrne's run in the 1980s, Doctor Doom attempts to steal the cosmic powers of Terrax, but Doctor Doom's body is destroyed in the resulting fight between Terrax and the Silver Surfer. Doctor Doom survives by transferring his consciousness to another human, and is returned to his original body by the Beyonder (Who had reached into the relative future to 'recruit' Doom for the conflict on Battleworld that the FF had participated in a few months ago from their perspective). While on Battleworld, Doom attempts and briefly succeeds in stealing the Beyonder's power, but it proves too vast for him to control and the disembodied Beyonder is able to take his power back.

When Franklin Richards was kidnapped by Onslaught, Doctor Doom joined the Fantastic Four, Avengers and the X-Men to battle Onslaught in Central Park. An enraged Hulk was able to crack open Onslaught's shell. However, Onslaught remained as pure psionic energy, separated Hulk and Banner, planning to spread across the planet. Thor plunged into Onslaught, trying to contain him. The Fantastic Four, the majority of Avengers, and the Hulk-Less Banner followed in short order, with Doom being forced to join the sacrifice when Iron Man tackled the villain into the energy mass. Thanks to this sacrifice, the X-Men finally managed to destroy Onslaught. Doom, the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers and Banner were believed dead, but were instead saved by Franklin, who created a pocket dimension called Counter-Earth to keep them safe. After several months away, the missing heroes returned from Counter-Earth, except for Doom, who remained there for a time. Doom uncovers the secret power at the heart of the planet, an avatar of his arch-foe Reed Richards' son, Franklin, the super-powered youth who conjured this globe and left a bit of himself behind to guide it from within. Doom manages to convince the little boy to relinquish control of this world with little more than a few errant promises of a better life.

When Susan Richards experiences problems with her second pregnancy while Reed is away, Johnny contacts Doom for help, correctly guessing that Doom will be unable to pass up a chance to succeed where Reed failed (Due to the complex events involving the recent resurrection of Galactus, this pregnancy is a 'repeat' of an earlier one where Sue miscarried). Doom not only saves Sue's daughter, but also cures Johnny of a recent problem with his powers where Johnny was unable to 'flame off' without technological support after becoming overcharged with energy from the Negative Zone by channelling Johnny's excess energy into Sue to keep her alive. After the birth, Doom's only apparent condition for his aid is that he be allowed to name Sue and Reed's daughter, calling her 'Valeria' after his long-lost love. However, this inspires a new plan where Doom makes Valeria his familiar while seeking out her namesake as part of a deal with a trio of demons; by sacrificing his old lover, Doom is granted magical powers on the level he would possess if he had spent the past years studying sorcery rather than science. With this new power, Doom traps Franklin in Hell, immobilises Doctor Strange, and then neutralises the FF's powers, torturing the other three while taunting Reed by leaving him in his magical library, comparing it to giving a dog a road-map as he concludes that it will be impossible for Reed to master sufficient magical skill to be a threat to him. However, Reed is able to release Doctor Strange's astral self from Doom's traps, allowing Strange to give Reed a sufficient crash-course in magic for Reed to free the rest of the team and trick Doom into angering his demonic benefactors, prompting them to take him to Hell. Determined to ensure that Doom cannot be a further threat, Reed takes control of Latveria to dismantle all of Doom's equipment, simultaneously subtly driving his family away so that he can trap Doom and himself in a pocket dimension so that he can make sure Doom never threatens anyone again. However, this plan backfires when the rest of the team attempt to rescue Reed, resulting in Doom transferring his spirit into Sue, Johnny and Ben respectively, forcing Reed to kill his best friend to stop his greatest enemy. Doom is returned to Hell, but Reed is later able to use the same machine Doom once tried to create to travel to Heaven and restore Ben to life. Doom remains in Hell until Mjolnir falls to Earth after the events of Ragnarok as it creates a dimensional tear during its fall that allows Doom to escape, although he decides to focus on rebuilding his power base when he proves unable to even lift the hammer.

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 Doctor Doom himself remains to be seen, as does his role in the overall conflict. Doctor 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 Doctor Doom 's robots could destroy his ship. Later on, Doctor Doom is then shown collaborating with the Red Skull on a weapon which will only "be the beginning" of Captain America's suffering. Doctor Doom gave the Red Skull the weapon because the Red 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 Doctor Doom. Doctor Doom states that the technology the Red Skull gave him is more advanced than what he currently has, and that he will become the Baron of Iron in his future. The Red Skull is currently in the process of reverse-engineering Doctor Doom 's weapon for multiple uses, rather than the single use Doctor Doom agreed to.

At the end of the first chapter of the X-Men event Endangered Species, Doctor Doom is among the supervillain geniuses that Beast contacts to help him reverse the effects of Decimation. He spurns Beast by stating that genetics do not number among his talents.

In Spider-Man: One More Day, Doctor Doom was among those that Spider-Man contacts to help save Aunt May.

Doctor Doom also makes Latveria into a refugee camp for the Atlanteans following the destruction of their underwater kingdom as well as becoming allies with Loki in his plot to manipulate Thor into unwittingly release his Asgardian enemies.

Doctor Doom later defends Latveria from the Mighty Avengers, following a revelation that it was one of Doctor Doom's satellites that carried the 'Venom Virus' released in New York City. In a battle with Iron Man and the Sentry, the time travel mechanism within his armor overloads, trapping Doctor Doom and his opponents at some point in the past. Doctor Doom continues a relationship with Morgan le Fay using his time machine. He and Iron Man managed to get back to the present, but Doctor Doom has left Iron Man in his exploding castle. Despite this, Doctor Doom ended up incarcerated at The Raft.

During the Secret Invasion storyline, Doctor Doom was among the villains who escaped the Raft when a virus was uploaded into its systems by the Skrulls.

In the aftermath of the Secret Invasion, Doctor Doom is a member of the Dark Illuminati alongside Norman Osborn, Emma Frost, Namor, Loki's female form, and Hood. At the end of this meeting, Namor and Doctor Doom are seen having a discussion of their own plans that have all ready been set in motion.

Doctor Doom soon allies himself with the isolationist group known as the Desturi, to take control of Wakanda. He attacked and wounded T'Challa, the current Black Panther, maiming him enough to prevent him from holding the mantle again. Doctor Doom 's main objective was to secure Wakanda's store of vibranium, which he could mystically enhance to make himself unstoppable. Doctor Doom was also a part of the supervillain group known as the Intelligencia, but was betrayed when they captured him to complete their plan. With the help of Bruce Banner, he escaped, and returned to Latveria. He appears to have been damaged by this experience.

At the start of the Siege storyline, Doctor Doom is with the Cabal discussing the current problems with the X-Men and both Avengers teams. Doctor Doom demands that Osborn at once reverse his course of action against his ally Namor, to which Osborn refuses, saying that he and Emma Frost had "crossed the line" with him. Doctor Doom, loathing Thor and the Asgardians all the more due to his recent defeat at their hands, claims that he will support Osborn's "madness" should Namor be returned to him, but Osborn refuses. Osborn's mysterious ally, the Void, violently attacks Doctor Doom, and an apparently amused Loki tells the Hood that he should go, as there is nothing here for either of them, which the Hood, now loyal to Loki due to his hand in the restoration of his mystical abilities, agrees. However, it is revealed that "Doctor Doom" is actually an upgraded Doctor Doom bot, which releases swarms of Doctor Doom bot nanites against the Cabal, tearing down Avengers Tower and forcing its denizens, such as the Dark Avengers, to evacuate. Osborn is rescued by the Sentry, who destroys the body. When Osborn contacts Doctor Doom, Doctor Doom tells him not to ever strike him again or he is willing to go further.

It has been revealed that the Scarlet Witch seen in Wundagore Mountain is actually a Doctor Doom bot which apparently means that the real one has been captured by Doctor Doom sometime after the House of M event. It is revealed that Wanda's enhanced powers were a result of her and Doctor Doom's combined attempt to channel the Life Force in order to resurrect her children. This proves to be too much for Wanda to contain and it overtook her. With Wiccan and Doctor Doom's help, they seek to use the entity that is possessing Wanda to restore mutantkinds' powers. This is stopped by the Young Avengers (who are concerned at the fall-out that would ensue if the powerless mutants are suddenly re-powered) only to find out Doctor Doom 's real plan: to transfer the entity into his own body and gaining Wanda's god-like powers for himself. Doctor Doom becomes omnipotent with powers surpassing those of beings as the Beyonder or the Cosmic Cube. The Young Avengers confront him, but Doctor Doom kills Cassie just before Wanda and Wiccan stole his new-found powers.

At the start of the story arc "Fantastic Four: Three", Doctor Doom felt that he needed to be "reborn" and was making plans to abdicate his throne and give it to Kristoff when Valeria teleported to his room unexpectedly asking for his assistance to help her father. Valeria quickly notices that Doctor Doom has suffered brain damage and makes a deal with him to restore his mental capacities if he helps Reed and the Fantastic Four. Doctor Doom agrees to her proposition. Later, Doctor Doom appears among those in attendance at Johnny Storm's funeral.

Due to the agreement, Doctor Doom was recommended by Nathaniel and Valeria Richards to be a member of the Future Foundation. Objecting, Thing attacks Doctor Doom out of anger, but the fight was stopped by Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, who welcomes Doctor Doom to their group. When Valeria asks Doctor Doom if he has a backup for restoring his memories, he reveals that Kristoff Vernard is his backup. Afterward, Mister Fantastic, Spider-Man, Nathaniel, Valeria, and Doctor Doom head to Latveria to meet with Kristoff and request his help. Mister Fantastic sets up a brain transfer machine in order to help restore Doctor Doom's memories and knowledge, which is successful. When Kristoff wants to return the throne to him, Doctor Doom states that it is not time yet because of a promise he made to Valeria. When Mister Fantastic asks what promise Doctor Doom made to Valeria, Doctor Doom states that he made a promise to help defeat Mister Fantastic. Doctor Doom decides to hold a symposium on how to finally defeat Reed Richards. The Thing and the evolved Moloids give an invitation to the High Evolutionary. Dragon Man and Alex Power give an invitation to Diablo. Upon receiving an invitation from Spider-Man, Mad Thinker is convinced to take part in the event. Bentley 23 even gives an invitation to his creator, the Wizard, along with two A.I.M. lieutenants. However, it is subsequently revealed that the 'Richards' they have been invited to defeat are actually members of the "Council of Reeds" (alternate versions of Reed who were trapped in this universe by Valeria a while back, possessing Reed's intellect while lacking his conscience). While Spider-Man and Invisible Woman make sandwiches for the kids, Mister Fantastic, Doctor Doom, Valeria, and Nathaniel Richards meet with the supervillain geniuses and Uatu the Watcher about what to do with the Council of Reeds.

Around this time, Doom performed brain surgery on the Hulk to separate him from Bruce Banner, extracting the uniquely Banner elements from Hulk's brain and cloning a new body for Banner, in return for a favor from the Hulk. This clone is killed soon afterward. Later, Doom is apparently killed by the Mad Celestials. With no knowledge as to how he survived, Doom awakens in the ruins of the Interdimensional Council of Reeds, where Valeria had left him a present: the full army of lobotomized Doctor Dooms from alternate realities who were previously captured by the Council, along with two Infinity Gauntlets from alternate universes. With these resources, Doom created the Parliament of Doom. He later returned to again rule Latveria. An ill-fated excursion into the alternate universe of the one of Infinity Gauntlets resulted in Reed and Nathaniel Richards rescuing Doom.

During the a confrontation between the Avengers and the X-Men, Doom allies with Magneto and others against Red Skull's Red Onslaught form. In an attempt to atone for past deed, Doom absorbs the Scarlet Witch reality-altering powers resurrects the dead Cassie Lang. He subsequently makes a Faustian deal with an unspecified demon to resurrect Brother Voodoo. After returning to normal, Doom is taken into captivity.

With the final Incursion imminent during the Secret Wars storyline, Doctor Doom, Doctor Strange, and Molecule Man leave to confront the Beyonders. In the aftermath, the multiverse is destroyed, leading Doom and Strange to try to recreate some semblance of the universe for life to exist, leading to the creation of a new Battleworld. There, God Doom is undisputed ruler with Strange serving as his Sheriff. Later, the Molecule Man transfers Doom's powers to Richards, who with the Future Foundation and his family remakes existence. Following the death of Tony Stark at the hands of Captain Marvel at the end of Civil War II, Doom felt he had found his calling. Remembering that he did not feel satisfied as a god, Doom decided that it was his role to help heal the world. To do this he donned armor, inspires by Stark, and now fights for his unique brand of justice as the Infamous Iron Man.

Powers and abilities

Doctor Doom is a polymath and scientific genius. Throughout most of his publication history, he has been depicted as one of the most intelligent humans in the Marvel Universe. This is shown on many occasions, most famously by actually curing Ben Grimm of his Thing form, which Reed Richards has never repeated. On the other hand, Reed Richards managed to process all the computer calculations necessary to save the life of a disintegrating Kitty Pryde by himself, which is a feat that Doctor Doom at the time professed to be unable to do.

Doctor Doom also possesses originally minor mystical capabilities due to teachings from Tibetan monks, but later increased them to a considerable extent due to tutoring from his lover Morgan Le Fay. He is capable of energy projection, creating protective shields, and summoning hordes of demonic creatures. Even at a time when his abilities were consistently referred to as minor, with assistance from his technology and by tag-teaming with Doctor Strange, Doctor Doom managed to come in second in a magic tournament held by the ancient sorcerer the Aged Genghis. After Strange relinquished the title of Sorcerer Supreme, he admitted that Doom had enough magical ability that he might become the new Sorcerer Supreme.

Doctor Doom has also used his scientific talents to steal or replicate the power of other beings such as the Silver Surfer, or in one case the entity Galactus' world-ship.

The alien Ovoids taught Doctor Doom the process of psionically transferring his consciousness into another nearby being through simple eye contact, as well as showing him other forms of technology which Doctor Doom uses to escape from incarcerations and to avoid being killed. However, if his concentration is broken, his mind can transfer back, and he rarely uses this power unless absolutely necessary due to his own ego about his appearance.

Doctor Doom can exert technopathic control over certain machines, most notably the Doom bots. In addition, Doctor Doom has a remarkably strong will, as demonstrated in the graphic novel, Emperor Doom when he dared his prisoner, the mind controlling Purple Man, to attempt to control him and he successfully resisted. Doom also has the ability to use touchscreen devices even though he wears metal gauntlets all the time

Doctor Doom’s armor augments his natural physical strength to superhuman levels, to the point where he is able to hold his own against Spider-Man in hand-to-hand combat, although he tends to rely on long-range tactics when engaging physically stronger foes. It is also highly resistant to harm, sufficient to withstand blows from Iron Man’s armor. The armor can generate a defensive force field and a lethal electric shock killing anyone who might come in contact with Doctor Doom. 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.

Even without his armor, Doom has proven himself to be a skilled bare-handed fighter, once even killing a lion with a single punch.

As the absolute monarch of Latveria, Dr. Doom has diplomatic immunity – allowing him to escape prosecution for most of his crimes – and total control of the nation’s natural and technological resources, along with its manpower, economy, and military.

Doctor Doom is known for the frequent plot device wherein it is revealed that his actions were actually those of a "Doombot", one of Doctor Doom’s many robot doubles, either working on his behalf or as a result of rogue artificial intelligence.

On many occasions, Doctor Doom’s only real weakness has been his arrogance. Layla Miller once reflected that Doctor Doom is incapable of accepting that he himself might be the reason for his failures. This is most keenly reflected in Doctor Doom’s continued refusal to accept responsibility for the accident that scarred his face, instead preferring to blame Reed Richards for sabotaging his experiment. While his high opinion of himself is generally accurate, he is generally unable to accept when others may have a better understanding of a situation than he does – with the occasional exception of hearing the recommendations of heroes such as Mister Fantastic or the Thing when it is to his advantage. Even when teaming up with others against a greater threat, Doctor Doom will often try to subvert the alliance for personal gain. For instance, while allied with Adam Warlock and other heroes against the Titan Thanos, he attempted to steal Thanos’ Infinity Gauntlet before its owner had been defeated.

Doctor Doom adheres to a strict code of honor at all times. However, Von Doom will keep his exact word, which may or may not be beneficial to the person to whom he has given his promise. For example, Doctor Doom may swear that he will not harm an individual, but that only means he will not personally harm that person, it does not mean he will prevent others from harming that person.

Doctor Doom’s honor code led him to save Captain America from drowning because Captain America had earlier saved his life, and on another occasion he thanked Spider-Man for saving him from terrorists attacking him in an airport by allowing him to leave alive despite Spider-Man subsequently insulting him. His code of honor also means that he will not attack a respected opponent who is weakened or at a severe disadvantage, as he regards any victory resulting from such circumstances as hollow and meaningless. He has even on several occasions battled opponents who were intent on killing the Fantastic Four, for no other reason than the fact that he does not want the ultimate defeat of the Fantastic Four to come from anyone’s hands but his own.

Doctor Doom is shown to be devoted to the welfare and well-being of his subjects. In fact, one future premonition that was explored explicitly stated that of all the possible futures that could exist for Earth in the Marvel Universe, the only one where Earth is truly safe and peaceful is the one where Doctor Doom rules supreme.

Inventions

Doctor Doom has constructed numerous devices in order to defeat his foes or gain more power including:

Other versions

Doctor Doom's status as one of the Fantastic Four's greatest villains has led to his appearance in many of Marvel's alternate universes and spinoffs, in which the character's history, circumstances and behavior vary from the mainstream setting.

In other media

Doctor Doom has been included in almost every media adaptation of the Fantastic Four franchise, including film, television, and computer and video games.

Cultural impact

In the book Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre, Peter Coogan writes that Doctor Doom's appearance was representative of a change in the portrayal of "mad scientists" to full-fledged villains, often with upgraded powers. These supervillains are genre-crossing villains who exist in adventures "in a world in which the ordinary laws of nature are slightly suspended"; characters such as Professor Moriarty, Count Dracula, Auric Goldfinger, Hannibal Lecter, Joker, Lex Luthor, and Darth Vader, also fit this description. Sanderson also found traces of William Shakespeare’s characters Richard III and Iago in Doctor Doom ; all of them "are descended from the 'vice' figure of medieval drama", who address the audience in monologues detailing their thoughts and ambitions.

Described as "iconic", Doctor Doom is one of the most well-received supervillains of the Marvel Universe, as well as one of the most recurring; in his constant battles with heroes and other villains, Doctor Doom has appeared more times than any other villain. The comics site Panels of Awesome ranked Doctor Doom as the number one villain in their listing of the top ten villains in comics; Wizard Magazine went a step further by declaring Doctor Doom the fourth greatest villain of all time.

Comic Book Resources ranks Doctor Doom as their fourth favorite Marvel character. Journalist Brent Ecenbarger cited him being able to "stand up against entities like Mephisto, the Beyonder, and Galactus and often comes out on top", as well as the tragedy of any "other number of circumstances could have led to Doctor Doom being a savior, but as it is, instead he remains Marvel’s greatest villain." Fellow journalist Jason Stanhope called his "master[ing] of sorcery and technology an unusual combination", and also felt "his inner sense of nobility sets him apart from lesser villains, in a similar manner to Magneto." Doctor Doom has also been favorably regarded by those who wrote for the character; Stan Lee declared Doctor Doom his favorite villain, saying that Doom "could come to the United States and he could do almost anything, and we could not arrest him because he has diplomatic immunity. Also, he wants to rule the world and if you think about it, wanting to rule the world is not a crime." Mark Waid echoed Lee's assessment of the character, stating that Doom "[has] got a great look, a great visual design [and] a dynamite origin."

A ride called Doctor Doom's Fearfall is located at Islands of Adventure in the Universal Orlando Resort.

Rapper MF DOOM bases his persona on Doctor Doom.

Merchandise

Since Dr. Doom is one of Marvel's most prominent supervillains, he has been featured in many forms of merchandise, including various action figures and trading cards: