Doctor Doom

Doctor Doom is the arch enemy of the Fantastic Four. Doctor Doom first appeared in July 1962 in The Fantastic Four #5.

Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Doom is one of the most popular Marvel comics villains of all time.

Alongside the Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom has also been a major villain in stories featuring; Avengers, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Captain America, X-Men, Thor, Doctor Strange and Black Panther.

Doctor Doom Biography

The character Doctor Doom was first known as Victor Von Doom.

Victor was the son of gypsy travelers from the fictional European country of Latveria His mother Cynthia was killed shortly after she requested the demon Mephisto’s assistance.

Cynthia asked Victor’s father to protect their son from Mephisto.

Victor’s father, Werner Von Doom, was a renowned doctor. He was later summoned the country’s King Vladimir to heal his ailing wife.

Despite his efforts, Werner was unable to heal the king’s wife. Werner soon fled with his son and subsequently passed away trying to protect Victor.

Victor Von Doom

After his father’s death, young Victor was left in in the care of Werner’s friend Boris.

As a teenager, Victor later discovered his late mother’s mystic books and artifacts. He soon taught himself sorcery in an attempt to free his mother from Mephisto’s clutches.

Victor designed several inventions as a young adult, His creations earned him a scholarship to Empire State University in New York.

There, Victor met fellow science whiz Reed Richards, who would later become his rival both in college and in the Fantastic Four.

While enrolled at ESU, Von Doom created a device designed to help rescue his mother.

Richards stumbled onto Doom’s work on the project and discovered an error in his calculations.

He tried to warn Victor of the potential danger in his error, but Doom’s arrogance prevented him from paying heed to Reed’s advice.

Doom tested his machine with disastrous results. The machine exploded, causing significant damage to one of the university buildings and scarring Doom’s face. Victor was expelled from the university as a result.

The Mask of Doctor Doom

Victor later traveled to Tibet, where he came across an order of monks. He stayed with them and learned their ways. Over time, Doom eventually became their leader.

Victor instructed the monks to create a suit of armor for him. They obeyed his commands as the suit was constructed.

Doom insisted that the face-plate be placed on his face, even though several monks warned him that it had not sufficiently cooled.

The mask was placed on his face, scarring him even further. Victor ran out into the cold, easing his pain somewhat by diving headfirst into the snow.

One of his first acts as Doctor Doom was capturing young prince Rudolpho and killing his father, the baron Vladimir.

Doom then became the leader of his home country of Latveria.

Rudolpho later escaped and would eventually resurface from time to time in attempts to thwart Doom’s plans.

Rudolpho’s brother Zorba also proved to be a thorn in Doom’s side, and briefly took over leadership of Latveria in Victor’s absence.

Doom used his intelligence and inventions to transform Latveria from a struggling area into a prospering nation.

The Fantastic Four

During Doctor Doom’s first meeting with the Fantastic Four, he captured the Invisible Girl (Sue Storm).

He forced her teammates Mr. Fantastic , the Human Torch and the Thing to use his time platform to go back in time to steal the stones of Merlin for him.

In their next conflict, Doom persuaded Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner to destroy the Fantastic Four. Doom was shrunken down to sub-atomic size during the battle.

Doctor Doom soon found himself in the microscopic world of Sub-Atomica.

Doom eventually took control of the tiny nation and began attacking the Fantastic Four with shrink rays. His foes were able to defeat Doom with the help of Ant-Man (Hank Pym).

Doom enlisted the aid of the Terrible Trio in his third encounter with the Fantastic Four.

The Terrible Trio were hardened criminals (Yogi Dakor, Bull Brogin and “Handsome” Harry Phillips) that Doom had granted super powers. At the end of the conflict, Doom was sent into space by a solar wave.

Rama-Tut later found Doom drifting aimlessly in space, and revealed himself to be one of Doom’s ancestors. The two considered the possibility that they might actually be the same person.

They agreed to send Rama-Tut to the future after Doom returned to Earth.

Doom was defeated by the Fantastic Four once again. This time, the heroes hypnotized Doom and led him to believe that he had killed his enemies.

A Latverian stage magician who had been brought to Doom’s castle to entertain him later broke the hypnotic spell. Doom was furious at the deception and rushed to America to battle the Fantastic Four.

Even though the Fantastic Four had recently lost their powers, they were able to defeat their nemesis with Daredevil’s help.

Doom later assembled an impressive army of super-villains to tackle his foes during Sue Storm and Reed Richards’ wedding.

Doom and Silver Surfer

The Silver Surfer later caught Doom’s attention. Doom defeated Galactus’ first herald and stole his power from him.

Doom then used that power to finally defeat the Fantastic Four.

Doom used his newfound power to cause chaos around the globe. He was soon confronted once again by the Fantastic Four.

After Doom was tricked into flying into the invisible barrier that Galactus had put around the earth, the surfboard and the powers that Doom stole were returned to the Silver Surfer.

Secret Wars

Doctor Doom was one of several costumed adventurers summoned to Battleworld during the first Secret Wars by the mysterious Beyonder.

Doom soon established himself as the leader of the group of villains that were assembled.

He began to manipulate certain events on Battleworld, and later constructed a new suit of armor for himself after his previous suit had been damaged in battle.

Doom later encountered the villain Klaw. He used the gullible villain as part of his plans to steal power from the world-consuming Galactus and even from the Beyonder himself.

Doom then became more powerful than ever before. However, he was soon defeated by the Beyonder, who took advantage of his alliance with Klaw to eventually relinquish his powers from Doom.

Heroes Reborn

Years later, a new menace known as Onslaught arrived on Earth. Doom examined the situation and decided to steal his powers.

Many of Earth’s heroes sacrificed themselves during their final confrontation with Onslaught. During the battle, Iron Man grabbed hold of Doom and brought him into Onslaught’s essence, seemingly killing the villain.

Reed Richards and Sue Storms’ son Franklin developed a pocket world for those heroes to occupy. Doom was very similar to how he used to be. Unlike the heroes he shared space in the pocket universe with, Doom seemed to recall Onslaught’s attacks on Earth.

Galactus later arrived on earth in an attempt to destroy the planet and feed on its energy. Doom then met a future version of himself.

This future version gave Doom the information and technology he would need to defeat Galactus. Doom’s first effort was an unsuccessful attempt to steal the powers that Galactus had bestowed upon his heralds.

Once Doom realized he alone couldn’t stop Galactus from devouring Earth, he decided to go back in time to prevent it from happening.

Doom tried twice more to stop Galactus. Both attempts were also in vain. He then joined forces with the heroes to defeat Galactus.

Valeria

Young Victor Von Doom fell in love with a Latverian girl named Valeria. She spurned all of his advances.

He later struck a deal with powerful demons known as the Hazareth Three. Doom agreed to sacrifice Valeria so that he could gain even greater power.

As he grew older, Doctor Doom later started to regret this act. Some say it was the reason why Reed Richards and Sue Storm named their daughter Valeria, to honor the noble woman that Doom had once loved.

To atone for this loss, Doom later named himself guardian of Reed and Sue’s daughter.

There is no mention in any current Marvel comics of a specific event that caused Doom to form an emotional attachment to the girl.

Doom was later sent to Hell after being tricked by Doctor Strange and his old foes the Fantastic Four.

Civil War

During Marvel’s Civil War, Doctor Doom lingered in the Mobius Dimension of Hell after having been abandoned there by the Fantastic Four.

Doom fought several demons during his time there. He was freed from Hell when the mighty Thor’s hammer passed through that dimension as it headed towards Earth.

Doom learned that the Prime Minister had taken over leadership of Latveria in his absence. Doom had been gone for two years.

The Prime Minister was about to make major changes to his home country when Doom defeated him. He then sought to find Thor’s hammer Mjolnir.

Doom battled with SHIELD agents and the Fantastic Four once again before finding the hammer.

This time, he found that he could not lift the hammer. He then returned to Latveria disappointed.

Dark Reign

After the events of Secret Invasion, we see Doom at the Dark Illuminati meeting. He was less than impressed by Norman Osborn’s efforts, but chose to agree with the plans of action.

Following the meeting, Doom and his one-time ally Prince Namor discussed their future plans.

Doom predicted that if things go their way that a battle unlike any other the universe has ever seen would ensue.

Powers and Abilities

Super-Genius Intelligence: Doom’s greatest asset is his intellect. He has one of the most intelligent minds on Earth. He even cured Ben Grimm from being the Thing at one point.

Master Martial Artist:

Doom trained in martial arts during his time in Tibet. He is well-skilled in many forms of armed and unarmed combat He is an expert at very powerful nerve strikes and has studied under some of the greatest swordmasters on the planet.

Doom’s skills are proficient enough that he has bested Daredevil in hand-to-hand combat, wielded Captain America’s shield just as well as Steve Rogers himself, and had once killed a lion with his bare hands.

Peak Human Conditioning:

Doom has trained his body to be in the same peak condition as many professional athletes. His body is strong and agile.

His durability and physical strength exceed those of contemporaries such as Daredevil. He has shown great equilibrium and reflexes in battle.

Indomitable Will:

Doom has great willpower. He has been able to endure psychic attacks from the Purple Man and Emma Frost using just his will.

He has been able to resist the temptations of the Soulsword thanks to his willpower.

When Doom was tortured relentlessly in Hell, he refused to let a single sound of pain escape from his lips.

You could say that Doom’s willpower has been godlike at times.

During the first Secret Wars, he built an entire planet from the remnants of other collapsing worlds using the power he had stolen from the Beyonder.

He held that new planet of Battleworld together with his will.

Highly Influential Connections:

Victor has access to many powerful military and technological resources as monarch of Latveria. He commands many impressive military forces.

Charismatic Leader:

Doom has been able to effectively gain peoples’ positive attraction, even when his plans are unsucessful. Most Latverian citizens are loyal followers of Doom.

He is an adept strategist and politician. He has led several groups at different times, including the Fantastic Four and the Cabal.

(Former) Diplomatic Immunity:

As leader of Latveria, Doom has frequently visited the United Nation and United States for diplomatic purposes.

His embassy has been designated as being on foreign soil, and he has been granted diplomatic immunity during those visits. Captain American himself has been known to have escorted Doom.

It’s assumed that he has since lost diplomatic immunity after renouncing leadership of his country.

Magic:

Victor’s mother Cynthia (who was of both Latverian and Romanian descent) first introduced him to magic. Some of his abilities were taught by individuals such as Morgan le Fey and were further developed during his journeys through time.

When Doctor Strange stepped down as Sorcerer Supreme, Doom was one of the top candidates in contention for that title.

However, most of Doom’s magic powers were given to him by the nefarious demons known as the Hazareth Three. When Doom angered the demons, they stripped him of most of those powers.

He was stranded in Hell as a consequence. With the powers gained from the demons, Doom could achieve the following abilities:

Mystical Blasts:

Doom’s mystical efforts are only minor Earth magic.

Summoning:

Victor Von Doom has summoned all sorts of demons and other dangerous creatures at times.

Dimensional Travel:

Doom has been able to travel across dimensions, including the dreamtime, repeatedly.

Healing:

Victor has been able to heal both himself and others from potentially serious injuries.

Elemental Manipulation:

Doom has been able to create a powerful blizzard in seconds

Psionics:

Victor has always sought ways to improve himself. Doom evolved as a being after his encounters with the Marquis of Death and the alien Ovoids.

He gained telepathic abilities after these encounters, although no one really knows to what extent these powers have been developed.

This ability was gained due to personal mental growth and shouldn’t be interpreted as magic.

Mind Transference:

Doom spent some time training with the alien race known as the Ovoids. During this time, he learned how to trade places with the mind of another being that he has made eye contact with.

Doom prefers using his own body, and has only used this power as an absolute last resort.

Hypnotism:

Doom has practiced hypnosis on several opponents, including the DC Universe hero Aquaman.

Technopathy:

Doom uses technopathic control over many of his inventions, most notably his numerous Doombots. He has described this ability as latent telepathy.

He has used technopathy to control his suit’s charger and other forms of technology.

Telekinesis:

Victor Von Doom claimed to have spent a millenia training his mind and body in order to become a supreme being after being dispatched to the dawn of time by the Marquis of Death.

As a result of this training, he was able to levitate his body and practice telekinesis.

Power Nullification:

Doom has used his mind to block the Fantastic Four’s powers on many occasions.

Enhanced Senses:

Doom’s hearing is at superhuman levels, even when he isn’t wearing his mask.

Doctor Doom is one of the top Marvel villains listed in our page of comics fans favourites.