Publication history
Creation and development
Like many of Marvel's Silver Age characters, Doom was conceived by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. With the ''Fantastic Four'' title performing well, Lee and Kirby were trying to dream up a "soul-stirring…super sensational new villain" for the series. 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 full1980s–1990s
In 1976, Marvel and2000s–2010s
Writer Mark Waid sought to redefine Doctor Doom in the 2003 "Unthinkable" storyline (vol. 3 #66-70 & vol. 1 #500), by having him forsake technology and invest entirely in mysticism. The story took its title from the "unthinkable" act Doom had to perform to acquire this new magical might from a trio of demons: killing his first love, Valeria. With Valeria's flesh turned into new mystic leather armor, the story follows Doom as he imprisons Franklin Richards in Hell, captures Valeria's namesake, and succeeds in de-powering and imprisoning the Fantastic Four. He subsequently attempts to prove his superiority to Reed Richards by giving him the chance to find his way out of a prison that could only be escaped through magic, in the belief that Richards would fail to do so. With the aid of Doctor Strange, however, Richards learns to utilize magic on a basic level by accepting that he could not understand it and escapes. Richards proceeds to trick Doom into rejecting the demons, resulting in them dragging Doom to Hell. Doom remained trapped there until the events of the 2004 "Ragnarok" storyline in the pages of ''Thor'', which resulted in Thor's hammer Mjolnir falling through dimensions and giving Doom a way out of Hell. In 2005 and 2006, Doom was featured in his own limited series entitled ''Books of Doom'', a retelling of the origin story byFictional character biography
Victor Von Doom was born decades ago to a tribe ofPowers and abilities
Possessing vast amounts of wealth, knowledge, technology and power, Dr. Victor Von Doom is often considered to be one of the most dangerous villains on Earth and throughout the Marvel Universe. Doom is aPsychology
On many occasions, Doom's only real weakness has been his arrogance. Layla Miller once reflected that Doom is incapable of accepting that he himself might be the reason for his failures. This is most keenly reflected in Doom's continued refusal to accept responsibility for the accident that fully scarred his face, instead preferring to blame Reed Richards for sabotaging his experiment. While his high opinion of himself is generally accurate, he is 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 asInventions
Doctor Victor Von Doom's genius in science and technology has allowed him to build numerous devices to defeat his foes or gain more power. The most notable among them include: *Other versions
1602
In Neil Gaiman's alternative-universe tale, ''2099
Doom (Victor Von Doom) is aAge of Apocalypse
In the''The End''
In Alan Davis' mini-series, Fantastic Four: The End, Dr. Doom appears as a four-armed cyborg with little of his humanity left. Doom breaks during the "mutant wars" and is now a killing machine, focused on the deaths of the Fantastic Four. He engages in a final battle with the Four and is seemingly killed in an explosion when his powers react with those of Franklin and Valeria Richards. Doom is later revealed to be alive and conquers the Negative Zone after killing Annihilus and obtaining his power rod and immortality.''The Last Fantastic Four Story''
Dr. Doom is seen trying to destroy the Adjudicator, however he and his robotic planes are shown to disintegrate and he is last seen cheering the Fantastic Four (even though he will find a way to destroy them). How he survived remains unknown.House of M
In theMini-Marvels
Doctor Doom makes shortly cameos in Mini-Marvels. In the "Classic Mini Marvels" section, there's a short story about him in which he tries to read Marvel's comics. He can be seen in "Civil Guards" as one of the doctors that are experimenting with Spider-Man's body. The Avengers also have a photo of Doom in their house, as shown in "World War Hulk".MC2
In the Fantastic Five series, Doom is revealed to be held captive by the Sub-Mariner for ten years, after the destruction of Atlantis. Doom manages to escape, and uses the same device he once employed to imbueIron Man 2093
In an alternative future set in 2093, where a reborn King Arthur rules a renewed Camelot aided by Merlin, Doom and Iron Man are drawn to the future to oppose a plan to destroy most of Earth's population. While Iron Man confronts his descendant- wieldingMarvel Zombies vs. The Army Of Darkness
In more of an anti-hero role, the Earth-2149 version of Doom is still ruler of Latveria. Doom has fortified his castle to defend against the infected superheroes and refuses help from Nick Fury, and takes in refugees for the purpose of repopulating the planet once the situation is resolved. To the disgust of his allies, it is revealed Doom has only chosen the hardiest breeding stock of the Latverian survivors; there are no elderly people or children.Amalgam Comics
In theMutant X
In the Mutant X universe, Doom is a superhero and leader of his own super-team.Earth-X
In the dystopian future ofOld Man Logan
In the alternative Wolverine-centric future shown on Earth-807128, the supervillains of the Marvel universe finally won and divided America (later renamed Amerika) up amongst themselves. Doctor Doom has his own area of land called New Latveria (also called Doom's Lair). He is seen for only a few panels dressed in all gray standing atop a cliff watching a now old Logan and Hawkeye driving the Spider Buggy built by theGod Emperor Doom
God Emperor Doom is the most powerful version of Doctor Doom with the power of the Beyonders and other heroes. During the "Combat Colin
Doctor Doom made an appearance in Marvel UK's ''Spider-Man: Life Story
In ''Spider-Man: Life Story'' a reality in which the Marvel superheroes aged in real time and started their careers the same year as their publication, Doctor Doom has taken overUltimate Marvel
In thePowers 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. 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.''Ultimate Fantastic Four'' #30-31 The creature Doom summoned selected his body as the most powerful it could find, passing up Thor and Thing. The Ultimate Universe's Doom is also an accomplished sorcerer. Richards discovers that Johnny did not get the life form inside him from the Negative Zone. Rather, Victor "summoned" the creature inside Johnny. Later, Doom used sorcery to exchange minds with Richards. He proved powerful enough to fight with the Zombie Galacti and survive. Originally, in ''Ultimate Marvel Team-Up'', Doom (visually identical to his normal Marvel self) was presented as president and "his holiness" of a theocratical Latveria. The country was said to be impoverished and starving, and Doom had declared a holy war (though without any open conflict) on the United States. This would be ignored andWarlock
On the originalWhat If?
There are some "Earth-111
In this reality, visited by Ben Grimm while attempting to recover the coordinates of the Ultimate Nullifer, divided between the subconscious minds of four alternative Johnny Storms, Doom was the leader of the 'Challengers of Doom' consisting of himself, Reed Richard, Sue Storm, and the Hulk-, with Latveria having been destroyed in an unspecified past disaster and Doom relocating to New York to become a hero. When Galactus came to Earth and landed in Russia, Doom dismissed it as a hoax, prompting Grimm to note that this Doom was more arrogant than the version he knew as the Doom of Earth-616 was at least willing to listen to even his enemies if the situation was serious enough rather than dismiss their views as automatically irrelevant.Earth-1191
Unlike most Dooms this version is portrayed as an old, senile man with delusions of retaining his old authority and physique- seen by Layla Miller as a natural 'evolution' of Doom's inability to accept that ''he'' might be the reason for his failures-, although with periods of lucidity in which, while physically decrepit, he is still as smart and devious (and in turn, dangerous) as ever. Currently he's been taken in by Layla Miller and Madrox who hope that he can aid them in traveling back to their present. After finding and reactivating a time machine provided by the future X-Men, Doom, while in another lucid moment, betrays them, ordering the time traveling "Cortex" to use his abilities to "Destroy all the mutants". Doom also is able to take control of the heavily cyberized Cyclops though his cybernetic implants, forcing Cyclops' daughter Ruby to take him down. After this battle, Doom vanishes.Original Guardians of the Galaxy/Earth-691
In the alternate 31st century of the originalMarvel Two-In-One (2017) / Earth-TRN667
When the Thing and the Human Torch search the multiverse for the missing Richards' family, their first new universe visited is a world where the Thing died in the Fantastic Four's first battle with Galactus. This universe's Doctor Doom saved Earth by transferring his mind into Galactus, with the result that Earth has been spared but Doom's hunger for power has led him to devour every other planet in the universe. With the help of Earth-TRN667 Reed Richards and Emma Frost, they are able to defeat him by transferring his mind into Emma Frost's body, while she becomes the Life Bringer.Marvel Universe vs the Avengers
Set weeks after a highly infectious pathogen has turned the majority of the Earth's population into homicidal cannibals, Dr. Doom arrives during the Avengers last stand against the growing number of infected and assists in repelling the attackers. Knowing of the Pathogen's unpredictable nature of transforming anyone who is infected at any point in time, Doom offers the heroes a solution to prevent anyone else from succumbing to the pathogen in the form of Doom Stones that he claims stalls the pathogen from transforming anyone who potentially carries it. However, Doom refuses to give them the Doom Stones unless they swear absolute loyalty to him. Desperate and out of options, the majority of the Avengers accepts Dooms terms except Thor who instead returns to Asgard. While they accept Doom's stones, the Avenger's distrust of Doom lead them to meet secretly to investigate the nature of the Doom Stones. Hawkeye eventually discovers that Doom himself is actually infected after witnessing him about to eat Mystique's corpse and discovers that the Doom Stone's do not stop the infection but instead gives the Cannibal's full cognitive function instead of devolving them into savages as well as speeding up the transformation process of anyone infected. Hawkeye's discovery leads Doom to active the later function of the Doom Stones and turns most of the surviving heroes left in New York into Cannibals leaving only Hawkeye, the Punisher, and Black Widow as the only uninfected heroes left in the city. Despite his victory against the Avengers, Doom is later killed in retribution by Hawkeye with an arrow tipped with one of Wolverines severed adamantium claws.Venomverse
InKing Thor
In King Thor's timeline, Doom acquired the powers of Iron Fist,Old Woman Laura
In an alternate timeline, Doom gathered most of the supervillains on Earth into an army, attempting to conquer the world. When his "soldiers" were defeated and imprisoned, Doom retreated to Latveria, creating an impenetrable forcefield over the whole country. Decades later,Heroes Reborn (2021)
In the 2021 " Heroes Reborn" reality, a variation of Doctor Doom appears as a member of the Masters of Doom and can turn into Doctor Juggernaut using the Gem ofDoom Supreme
A Doctor Doom from an alternate reality has gone by the name of Doom Supreme and is the master of the darkest arts. He used to love a woman named Valeria so much that when she died, he removed the flesh from her bones and forged it with an armor through the power of sacrifice which he also did the same thing when he tortured anyone who defied him when he became his world's Sorcerer Supreme. To power his armor, Doom Supreme went after some alternate versions of himself and sacrificed them while intimidating others like a giant Doctor Doom to swear their allegiance to him. He has described himself as "the Doom who breaks other Dooms".''Avengers: Forever'' Vol. 2 #5. Marvel Comics. Doom Supreme later witnessed the fight between the Prehistoric Avengers and a younger Thanos. After watching that battle, Doom Supreme is approached by Mephisto who advised him to put together a variation of the Masters of Evil from the evilest villains throughout the Multiverse and to conquer it while saving Earth-616 for last. Doom Supreme was able to do that by gathering Black Skull, Dark Phoenix and her Berserkers, Ghost Goblin, Kid Thanos, and King Killmonger. They attacked the Prehistoric Avengers of different Earths, slew them, and took over their worlds. Though they violated the order to save Earth-616 for last and arrived there where Doom Supreme slew Orb, broke the Watcher's eye in his possession, and sent some of his Multiversal Masters of Evil to fight the different members of the Avengers. Doom Supreme and Kid Thanos attacked Avengers Mountain where they fought Black Panther, Namor, and Valkyrie before Avengers Mountain exploded. After a talk with Mephisto's dog form and Iron Inquisitor, Doom Supreme puts the unburned fragment of the Watcher's eye into his own eye and leaves with Kid Thanos so that the Multiversal Masters of Evil can get back to work. After reminiscing about his past and the conquest of Earth-91, Doom Supreme notes that the Multiversal Masters of Evil are "so very small". It is also shown that he had talked about it to a variation of Doctor Doom that is a Man-Thing called Doom-Thing. When Doom-Thing threatens him, Doom Supreme stated that he saved him from being slaughtered by the Multiversal Masters of Evil. Doom Supreme brings in some alternate versions of Doctor Doom as Doom Thing breaks free and immolates some of them where they are not Doombots as he suspected. Doom-Thing is nailed back to the cross as Doom Supreme explains that he collects alternate versions of Doctor Doom. After that story is done, Doom-Thing begs for Doom Supreme to not make him look anymore. Doom-Thing then swears his allegiance to Doom Supreme as Doom-Thing is instructed to remove this tongue and clean up the mess he made. It is then shown that Doom Supreme's lair is on a Doctor Doom version of Ego the Living Planet called Doom the Living Planet. When it comes to the Multiversal Masters of Evil conquering another Earth before they can revisit Earth-616, they are attacked byIn other media
Collected editions
Doom 2099
Infamous Iron Man
Cultural impact
RapperMerchandise
Since Doctor Doom is one of Marvel's most popular villains, he has been featured in many forms of merchandise, including variousReferences
External links