DOCTOR DOOM

'Doctor Doom' ('Victor von Doom') is a fictional character, a 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 his jealousy of Richards and by facial scars received from an experiment gone wrong (later, it was known that it was really Mephisto's fault).
Doom is considered the archenemy of the Fantastic Four, but has also been added to the rogue galleries of the Avengers, the Punisher, the Silver Surfer, the Hulk, Captain America, the X-Men, Nick Fury, Daredevil, Squirrel Girl, Wolverine, Iron Man, Blade, and Spider-Man among many others. Doom has also faced villains like Magneto and Venom. He is one of the comic book industry's most recognizable and archetypal supervillains. His ruling of the small nation of Latveria provides him with diplomatic immunity, a rare trait for a comic book character. Doom is also the first comic-book villain that starred in his own collection (Astonishing Tales, 1970), before Joker did the same (The Joker, 1974). Doom also starred in another collection: Supervillain Team-Up. It happened when the "Two in one" concept in comics was popular in Marvel, and The "House of Ideas" chose three of his most popular characters to have this kind of collections: Spider-Man, The Thing and Doctor Doom.
Also, it must be noted that despite being a supervillain, Doom is considered a hero in his own land, Latveria, and in the Counter-Earth (now Planet Doom), a planet where heroes like Fantastic Four or Avengers are seen as traitors, because they abandoned it to return to the Earth, while Doom preferred to stay to protect its people. Doom has become very popular, considered by many to be one of the greatest Marvel Comics Supervillains.

Contents

Fictional character biography

Goals

Personality

Powers and abilities

Armor

Other versions

1602

2099

Age of Apocalypse

Amalgam Comics

''The End''

House of M

Iron Man

Mutant X

Ultimate Doctor Doom

Powers and abilities

Warlock

In other media

Television

Film

Unreleased film

2005 Film

''Rise of the Silver Surfer''

Video games

Footnotes

References

Fictional character biography

Victor Von Doom was born to noted healer Werner Von Doom and his wife Cynthia Von Doom, a witch. The Von Doom's 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 very 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 Von Doom 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 Doom's self-perceived superiority. Doom began conducting hazardous extra-dimensional experiments.
The focus of 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 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 Doom discovered that his mother was trapped in Mephisto's Hell. Then the device exploded, temporarily damaging 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 Doom's incredible vanity magnified into a hideous disfigurement. Refusing to acknowledge his own fault in the matter, 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.
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 Doom discovered a village of Tibetan monks amongst whom he lived for a number of years. Mastering their sorcery 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 disfigured 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, he 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, he helped Reed Richards into restoring Shadowcat from her phase form which would've led to her death if she was in that form longer.

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 '', 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.

★ World domination.

★ The liberation of his mother's soul from the demon Mephisto's realm.
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 challenges Magneto to defeat him, he is later defeated that issue by getting his mask knocked off and breathing the gas leading him to loose 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 of 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 of a lot of partial victories. Doom has also once tortured the Fantastic Four, and captured them lots of times.
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 in exactly one minute (the Minute Waltz is actually about three minutes long). 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 finished near to death, saving a Latverian child ten years ago, when an alien attacked his land, but he finally destroyed the monster and (obviously) survived.

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 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 averted 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: in an old episode from his first collection, Doom captured a soldier from Wakanda because he wanted information about Black Panther's vibranium. He strongly tortured him, but when he talked at last, Doom gave him food, money and paid 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. To deal with those who would dare to touch Doom, the armor is built to generate a massive electric shock up to 1 million kilovolts on command.
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; however, 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) use 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

1602

In Neil Gaiman's alternate-universe tale, ''Marvel 1602'', Dr. Doom is "Count Otto von Doom", also known as "Otto the Handsome". A mastermind genius of physics and even genetics, Von Doom keeps the Four of the Fantastick imprisoned in his castle, continually tapping Richard Reed for knowledge. The Four eventually escape during an attack on Doom's castle by the other heroes of the time, which also leads to the scarring of his face.
Otto von Doom returns in ''1602: The Fantastick Four'', in which he plans to visit a city beyond the edge of the world, believing they have knowledge that could restore his face. He kidnaps William Shakespeare to record these events.

2099

Main articles: Doom 2099


Doom held his own title in the Marvel 2099 continuity, appropriately titled ''Doom 2099''. In this comic, Doom was temporally displaced. Arriving in a future unsure of his true identity, he finds the entire world in the grip of corporations, who now surpassed any nation in might. Doom first sets about making himself powerful once more and recapturing Latveria from an ex-corporate mercenary. Turning Latveria into a relative utopia, he then intercedes in the various other 2099 storylines, notably often as the hero - though he often has his own aims. When placed alongside the sheer horror of the 2099 dystopian future, Doom takes on the mantle of saviour and decides to save the world from greed. Enlisting a large number of 2099 supporting characters, Doom conquers the United States, the seat of most of the larger corporations.
This led to the "''One Nation Under Doom''" cross-title storyline that involved the entire 2099 world. Doom is amazingly benevolent in this storyline and breaks the back of corporate power, bringing hope to the uniformly depressed 2099 setting. Unfortunately, Doom is then conspired against by the remnants of the corporations, aided by a clone of Captain America they control with drugs. As he is defeated in the United States, Latveria, defenseless without Doom, is completely destroyed by biological weapons.
Mad with grief, Doom rallies, attempting to genetically engineer the Latverian people in the past to be able to survive the coming biological attack. The 2099 series was being canceled at this point so the plot became notably fast-paced. Doom's efforts do help keep Latveria viable, but Earth is then attacked by an alien Hive-race. Doom, now almost completely redeemed by his exposure to the evils of the 2099 universe, defeats this alien attacker, dying in the process and saving the world.

Age of Apocalypse

In the Age of Apocalypse, Victor Von Doom is an agent of the Human High Council and the Head of Security for Eurasia. His facial scar is the result of a mutant uprising in Latveria. Like his 616 counterpart, Von Doom remains a ruthless and ambitious man, though he does not express his counterpart's goal to rule the world.

Amalgam Comics

Dr. Doomsday is an Amalgam Comics amalgamation of Doctor Doom and Superman-villain Doomsday, who first appeared as a foe of the X-Patrol. Formerly the head of Project Cadmus he injected himself with alien DNA, going insane and mutating into a super strong, but freakish creature. He is considered one of the deadliest foes in the Amalgam Universe, and was considered an ally of Thanoseid, although this may have been spoken in jest.

''The End''

In the alternate future presented in Alan Davis' mini-series, , Dr. Doom appears as a four-armed cyborg with little of his humanity left, Doom having been broken during the 'mutant wars", now but a killing machine, focused on the deaths of the Fantastic Four. He engages in final battle with the Four and is destroyed when his powers react with those of Franklin and Valeria Richards, (who had come to the aid of their father, Reed), to create an explosion which killed all three. The deaths become the inciting incident of the breakup of the Fantastic Four, and the events of the series, that finished with Doom alive, conquering the Negative Zone after killing Annihilus and obtaining his power rod, that gives immortality to his owner.

House of M

In the recent House of M continuity, Doom is still the ruler of Latveria, but his mother is still alive, he is married to Valeria, and he has adopted Kristoff. Reed Richards' test flight still encountered cosmic radiation, but rather than empowering Reed, Sue and John Jameson, who went up instead of Johnny Storm, the radiation killed them. Ben Grimm survived, but his intelligence appeared to be reduced. This inspired Doom to create a Four of his own, consisting of himself, the 'It' (Grimm), the 'Invincible Woman' (Valeria), and the 'Inhuman Torch' (Kristoff). However, due to Doom's arrogance and his brutality towards Grimm, the It betrayed the team, Valeria and Kristoff were killed, his mother was kidnapped, and Doom was left broken and humiliated. But he had his revenge to Magneto's cruel acts, because when the rebellion against him started, Doom helped him aimless, and quickly escaped, disappearing (perhaps to rescue his mother), leaving King Magnus alone to face a shamefully defeat by the Scarlett Witch's hands. In that reality, Doom possessed a liquid metal body, akin to the T-1000, which proved to be a major flaw when he tried to betray King Magnus.

Iron Man

In an alternate future set in 2093, where King Arthur rules a renewed Camelot aided by Merlin, Dr Doom meets his future double who relied on technology to extend his lifespan. He rejects him by pointing out that he would never do such a thing, for even if he seeks power, he always watches the cost of it. He then kills the older Doom. This Doom appeared in ''Iron Man'' #250.
===Marvel Zombies===
In this alternate universe, a version of Dr. Doom can be seen while the Silver Surfer scans the planets inhabitants. He is later seen again in issue #5 as one of the many zombie villains attacking Galactus. He was soon killed in a battle with the zombie heroes. It seems he might not be wearing his mask (his teeth are visible with only his cloak's hood covering the rest of his face).
In this version Doom was still ruler of Latveria. As shown in Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness #4, Doom has fortified his castle to defend against the superheroes. He has also taken in refugees for the purpose of repopulating the planet once the situation has been put to end. Unfortunately, the zombie Reed Richards has reconfigured Cerebro to find humans, and using it the zombie heroes descend upon and finally breach the castle. However, with Ash Williams's help as the zombies are held at bay by the summoned Army of Darkness, he constructs a makeshift portal to allow the refugees escape to another reality. With only himself and Ash remaining, he reveals he has been infected by the virus, and cannot go through the portal himself. As Ash escapes through it, Doom destroys the device, trapped with the now very enraged zombies.

Mutant X

In the Mutant X universe, Doom is a superhero and leader of his own super-team.

Doctor Doom appeared in #4 of the spin-off comic from the TV series, where he attempted to execute the Avengers and Black Knight.

Ultimate Doctor Doom

In the Ultimate Marvel universe, Doctor Doom is 'Victor Van Damme', a direct descendant of Vlad Tepes Dracula, and was part of the Baxter Building, a government think-tank of young geniuses, such as Reed Richards and Susan Storm. Van Damme in this continuity is no longer the 'Marvel-wide threat' that he is in the normal continuity (that role instead went to Magneto). He worked to help Reed Richards develop a teleporter to the "N-Zone," but reprogrammed its coordinates without telling anyone. This caused the accident that gave the Ultimate Fantastic Four their powers, though Victor maintains that the original Richards programming was so bad that even he couldn't fix it, and that it was this that led to the accident. Van Damme was caught in the same accident, and his flesh was changed into a metallic hide (with a somewhat reduced ability to perceive tactile sensations and pain), clawed hands, his legs transmogrified into demonic goat-hooved legs, and he re-appeared on Earth in Copenhagen.
For a time, he was the charismatic leader of a small micronation called "Free State", "Freezone", or "The Keep", a Permanent Autonomous Zone located in Copenhagen, Denmark, where citizens lived without rent in a shanty town under squatter's rights, and were given free comforts and necessities in exchange for loyalty to Van Damme. There, a dragon tattoo was given to new settlers, incorporating microfibers that interfaced with the brain and acting as a cunning mind control device. However, the Fantastic Four eventually freed them from Doom's control during their first battle, and all subsequently left.
During the Namor fiasco, the mother of Sue and Johnny Storm returned to New York. After the adventure, it was revealed that she possesses a similar dragon tattoo, and is presumably under Doom's control.
After the collapse of the Keep, Van Damme returned to Latveria, and in six months turned the country around. Latveria went from being a Third World nation to the ninth-richest country in the world. While seemingly happy, the citizens of Latveria are bearers of Doom's Dragon tattoos. He is revered by the citizens, who refer to him as "the good doctor".
In the same story arc, he switched bodies with Reed Richards in order to gain a life he felt was rightfully his, though leaving Reed with the wealth and control of Latveria; in his own form of honor, he felt this made him better than Reed. This turned out to be part of his scheme to gain recognition by doing what Reed couldn't do by saving Johnny Storm's life, by absorbing a parasite from him; however, the plan failed when Doom mispronounced part of the spell and caused the parasite to manifest a physical body, which it subsequently used to possess Doom's real body. However, Reed was able to return to the Baxter Building in Dr Doom's body and defeat the Zombie Fantastic Four, who had recently escaped captivity, revealing the truth about the switch as he prepared to sacrifice himself to return the Zombies to their world. However, Doom, refusing to let Reed be the one who saved the day in the end, transferred their minds back into their respective bodies, subsequently casting himself and the Zombie Fantastic Four back to the Zombie-verse asking only that he be remembered as the one who saved the world. This last part was not honoured as the Fantastic Four received all the credit.
He has since reappeared in issue six of Ultimate Power, a crossover between the "Ultimate Universe" and the universe of the revamped Squadron Supreme, seemingly intent on taking over the Supremeverse.
According to Mark Millar, he wished to keep Doom's goat legs and editorial did not. In the end, they compromised - Doom still has the cloven feet, but they are covered by armored normal boots.

Powers and abilities

Ultimate Doom is a scientific genius, though unlike Richards he approaches science as an art rather than as a system. While the Fantastic Four's powers are compared to the four classical Greek elements, Doom has attained the power of one of the additional Chinese elements, metal - his body is almost completely solid metal, possessing no discrete internal organs, somewhat similar to Colossus (though Doom cannot switch back to a flesh-and-blood form). In his first post-transformation encounter with the Fantastic Four, he expelled the remains of his internal organs as a poisonous gas. It is unknown if he is still able to do this, but the manner in which he defeated the Zombie Human Torch suggests that he can. He can grow and fling porcupine-like volleys of metal spikes from his forearms, and also possesses a regenerative power, but he cannot heal any wound caused by his own body. Thus, the scar Reed made on Doom's face remains, because it was done with one of his own spikes. Doom exhibits super strength as well, as he is able to break the arms off the zombie version of Ben Grimm^[4].
The Ultimate Universe's Doom is also an accomplished sorcerer. Richards discovers that Johnny did not get the lifeform inside him from the Negative Zone. Rather, Victor "summoned" the creature inside Johnny. Later, Doom used sorcery to exchange minds with Richards.^[4]
Moreover, Ultimate Doom is one of the most powerful beings in that universe. When a parasitic lifeform is said to be heading straight for the most powerful being in the area, it bypasses Thor and goes to Doom's body. ^[6]. It is assumed that Doom's mastery of Atlantean magic has enhanced his power levels beyond the other superhumans, as his physical powers are not in the same league.

Warlock

On the original Counter Earth, Victor Von Doom is a genius, but not a villain. He appeared in the original ''Warlock'' series. Von Doom's armor is now represented only by the metallic mask and the green hood/cape is gone. He died early in the series' run.

In other media

Television

★ Dr. Doom's first animated appearance was in 1966 on the Sub-Mariner's segment of ''The Marvel Superheroes Show''.

★ Doom subsequently appeared in several episodes of Hanna-Barbera's ''Fantastic Four'' series from 1967, where he was voiced by Joseph Sirola.

★ In 1978, Dr. Doom appeared in two episodes of DePatie-Freleng Enterprises' ''The New Fantastic Four'', and was voiced by John Stephenson.

★ Perhaps most significantly, Dr. Doom appeared in no less than six episodes of the 1981 ''Spider-Man'' series produced by Marvel Productions. Voiced by Ralph James (with heavy modulation akin to Darth Vader), the latter five episodes, written by Larry Parr, comprised a complete story arc, and four of them were at one point edited together into an animated feature.

★ Dr. Doom's final 1980s animated appearance was in ''Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends'' voiced by Shepard Menkin. He appeared in an episode entitled "The Fantastic Mr. Frump!"


★ In ''The Fantastic Four'' (1994-1996), he was voiced by John Vernon and subsequently, Neil Ross in season one, retelling his classic origin and his theft of the Silver Surfer's power, and by Simon Templeman in season two, as he struck at a powerless FF, had his hand crushed by the Thing, directed the Hulk to attack the team and once again acquired the Power Cosmic in the series finale.

★ Templeman reprised his role for guest appearances in two episodes of ''The Incredible Hulk'' (1996-1997), in which Doom held Washington, D.C. captive, only to be defeated by She-Hulk, whom he later attempted to claim revenge upon. With his appearance on this show, it can be assumed that Doom survived the fate he met on the Fantastic Four series, if both shows are to be considered within the same continuity.

★ Tom Kane took over the character for a three-part guest spot in the final season of ''Spider-Man'' (1994-1998), re-imagining Doom's role in the . In the third part of the episode, Doom turned part of the alien world he was on into "New Latveria" after overthrowing Doctor Octopus and renaming Octavia to New Latveria. However, he did not use his ruling powers to oppress, and allowed the aliens who in his country live in peace and harmony, protecting them from the other villains. He even kidnapped the Thing only to cure him of his deformity, turning him back to Ben Grimm, and healed his own face as an afterthought. With Ben's cooperation, he then stole the powers of the Beyonder, and with this newfound power, Doctor Doom sent the other villains back to Earth and almost killed the superheroes that Ben fought along with. However, the Thing turned Doom's weapon on him, and the powers of the Beyonder were returned to the mystic figure himself. Doom was then returned to Earth with no memory of these events (as well as, presumably, his scarred face), along with every other villain and superhero apart from Spider-Man.

★ In the ''South Park'' episode Krazy Kripples, Dr. Doom has a brief cameo as part of a version of the Legion of Doom which includes David Blaine, Saddam Hussein, Professor Chaos, General Disarray and led by Christopher Reeve.


★ Doom is the main villain in the current ''Fantastic Four'' animated series, voiced by Paul Dobson. In the pilot, "Doomsday", he is revealed to have diplomatic immunity, allowing him to evade arrest.

Film

Unreleased film

Doom also was the main villain of a film based on the Fantastic Four, which was produced by Roger Corman in 1994, though never publicly released. In it, Doom (portrayed by Joseph Culp) was a college classmate of Reed Richards, who was nearly killed in an accident when both he and Reed try to capture the power of a comet called Colossus, Reed would tell Doom before the experiment that Doom's calculations were not right and to do a test run of the machine before hand. Doom stated that there wasn't time for the comet was near. Doom's loyal henchmen dressed as doctors would tell Reed that Doom was dead; they would then sneak him out of the hospital back to Latveria. Years later Doom has already taken his armor; Reed would again try harnessing the power of the same comet crossing the Earth's path like before during college by going into space. Only this time with Ben, Sue, and Johnny. He would dedicate this mission for Doom, believing his friend was dead. After the Fantastic Four gained their powers Doom would try to obtain this cosmic power for himself by extracting it out of them. The ending is interesting: it seems that Doom dies, but there is a direct clue to discover he’s safe (we see his gauntlet moving).

2005 Film

Main articles: Fantastic Four (film)


In the 2005 film version of the Fantastic Four, Dr. Doom seems to be more based on his Ultimate counterpart. In the film he is a billionaire industrialist an old college rival of Reed Richards, and fiance to Reed's ex-girlfriend Susan. In addition to funding Richards' trip to space, he also accompanies the future Fantastic Four on the ship. In this newer film, Doctor Doom is played by Julian McMahon (''Charmed'', ''Nip/Tuck''), and, similar to Ultimate Dr. Doom, receives superpowers in the same accident that creates the Fantastic Four. Here, he is endowed with two abilities by the cosmic rays - exposure to the rays imbues him with electrokinesis, which, similar to his technologically-derived power from the comics, allows him to project bolts of superheated energy, the only difference being that it is derived from the accident in space. Also, an injury caused by a piece of irradiated shrapnel from the shields intended to protect the station embedded in his flesh, is steadily beginning to mutate his body into an organic-metallic compound, also much like his Ultimate version. Dr. Doom accelerates the process to completion by exposing himself to a duplicated version of the cosmic rays. However, this process deforms his face, so Doom angrily dons his familiar mask to hide his face (which is portrayed as a mask given to him by the people of Latveria as shown on a plaque on display in his office/boardroom). In the climax, Dr. Doom's metal body is super-heated and then immediately cooled with water from a fire hydrant, which turns him into an immobile statue. He is later transported back to Latveria via a cargo ship.

''Rise of the Silver Surfer''

''Main articles: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
''
In Rise of the Silver Surfer, we see Dr. Doom in a coffin, still solidified after his fiery defeat from the first film. After the Silver Surfer flies by on a quick patrol around the Earth, disrupting the energy waves all around him, it inadvertently awakens him. After removing his mask and killing a welder that was trying to separate his face from his body, it is unclear what happens next- though he is only seen in his castle there, there is a slight implication he may take over Latveria. He now hides his horribly scarred face behind a dark green cloaked hood. He begins to study the Silver Surfer in an attempt to steal the extra-terrestrial's vast array of cosmic power. During an encounter with the Surfer, Dr Doom is hit by one of the Silver Surfer's cosmic bolts and his scarred visage disappears and his previous face is restored, although he retains his electricity-based powers.
He filmed the encounter and goes to the United States military, under the leadership of General Hager with a plan to stop the Surfer's destruction of the Earth. He discovers that the Surfer's power comes from his board. After teaming with the military and the Fantastic Four, they subdue the Surfer with an energy device that separates the silvery menace from his board and capture his board. The five of them accompany General Hager to a Siberian military base. The Fantastic Four are held captive and Doom receives permission to study the cosmic surfboard that is the source for the Surfer's power under Hager's strict supervision. He knocks out all the guards guarding the board and kills General Hager .
He dons a new mask and full-on body armor, along with a dark green leather cloak. Using a tachyon-pulse wrist device that he designed while in Reed Richard's lab, he attaches himself to the surfboard and goes on a rampage throughout the Earth, disintegrating and killing General Hager in the process. During a chase with the Four in their new Fantasticar, Reed attempts to tell Dr. Doom that the board is drawing Galactus to Earth and he must get rid of it, but Dr. Doom either disbelieves Reed or doesn't care, as he simply says "I've never been the ''giving'' kind". After the team crash-land in Japan, Dr. Doom attempts to kill the Silver Surfer (whose real name is revealed to be Norrin Radd), but Susan steps in with her force shield. Doom throws a spear made from cosmic energy that goes right through the shield and into Sue, killing her, although she is is later revived by the Silver Surfer.
Out of options, Reed and Ben, along with Sue, transfer their powers to Johnny who goes to face the cosmically charged Dr. Doom head on with nearly unlimited power; no one of the Four can get close enough to Dr. Doom to stop him, but all of them combined could have a chance. Using Sue's invisibility and his flight powers to get in close to Dr. Doom, as well as the Thing's strength and Mr Fantastic's flexibility to hold him down, Human Torch swiftly defeats Dr Doom after destroying his tachyon-pulse wrist device (separating him from the surfboard), who is then bashed into the Shanghai River by a very human Ben Grimm, who has taken control of a crane. We last see Dr. Doom sinking to the seabed, though his ultimate fate remains open (although Julian McMahon has signed on for another film, possibly indicating a return).
Dr. Doom's appearance in this film was much more in keeping with the comic then that of the first one. The mask design is also different from the first, gaining a more sinister tone. He is also clad in body armor with mystical figures carved into the pieces, and his chest armor has a giant dragon carved into it. He also replaced his cloth green cloak that he lost in the first film with a much darker green leather cape. His powers haven't differed very much from the first chapter as he retains his electric powers, other than the fact that when he acquires the Silver Surfer's cosmically charged board, he has near limitless power (his metal body also appears to have vanished, although whether this is because his encounter with Sliver Surfer restored his skin or his metal skeleton is actually gone is unclear). Another change to note that makes the character more in line with the comics is in the manner he refers to Reed Richards; while previously referred to as Reed, at the climax of the movie he calls him "Richards", much like his comic counterpart.

Video games

★ Doctor Doom has appeared in several video games. He was the final boss in the 1989 computer game ''Spider-Man and Captain America in Doctor Doom's Revenge'' and next-to-last boss in Sega's 1991 '' arcade game. Later, he was featured as a boss character in the Capcom fighting game, ''Marvel Super-Heroes'', who only became playable after the game was beaten once and a code was entered. He returned as a selectable character in ''Marvel vs. Capcom 2'' (pictured). He is particularly notorious for the so-called ''Strider/Doom trap'' in the latter game. He also appeared in ''Marvel Superheroes: War of the Gems'' for Super NES.

★ Most recently, he appeared in the game based upon the 2005 Fantastic 4 movie, and was an exclusive character for the PSP version of ''.

★ Doctor Doom is the primary antagonist of '' voiced by Clive Revill. In the game, he attempts (and succeeds) in stealing the power of "Odin". To do this, he forms a new Masters of Evil and makes a pact with Mephisto to obtain his Twilight Sword. While the players were obtaining the Muonic Inducer and the M'Kraan Crystal, Doctor Doom defeated every hero that tried to stop them and discovered that Odin's powers allowed him to corrupt the defeated heroes to serve him and then used it to corrupt Earth. At the end of the game, once the heroes selected by the player of the game beat Doom, the powers of Odin are returned to Thor's father and then Odin strikes a bolt of lightning at Doom, where there is nothing left of the villain but his iron mask. Doom is a playable character downloadable for owners of the X-Box 360 version of the game. If the player uses Doctor Doom and challenges himself in the last level, the game takes a strange but interesting turn. The Doctor Doom that is fought is, in reality, a Doctor Doom from a future in which Ragnarok has occurred, and all the gods of Asgard are dead. Doctor Doom, in an attempt to remedy this, travels to the present to usurp the power of Odin, and in the process, forms the Masters of Evil. However, the Doom from the present notices the presence of Doombots uncontrolled by himself, suspecting Reed Richards or Tony Stark. It is only until he meets his future self that he realizes that it is necessary to defeat the future Doom to keep the world from being destroyed, even though he is not without reluctance of relinquishing command over the power of Odin. This gives a complex and positive vision about the character and shows his high sense of honor.

★ Doom appears in the '' video game. He plays a bigger role in the game than in the film as after he acquires the surfer's powers, he intends to use them to fight Galactus and save Earth (Though he only does this so he can conquer it afterwards). Unlike the film, he builds a machine to strip Galactus of most of his cosmic power for himself, but the F4 use his machine against him to defeat him.

Footnotes

1. ''Wizard'' #177
2. ''Civil War'' #2
3. ''Captain America'' vol. 5 #23
4. ''Ultimate Fantastic Four'' #30-31
5. ''Ultimate Fantastic Four'' #30-31
6. ''Ultimate Fantastic Four'' #32

References

★ - Doomscribe's Den of Madness (fan site)