Doctor Doom
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Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom) is a fictional supervillain in the Marvel Universe. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, he debuted in The Fantastic Four #5 (July 1962). 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 awry, and perhaps from impatiently donning a steaming-hot iron mask forged by mystic monks.
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, Magneto, Nick Fury, Daredevil, Wolverine, Iron Man, Venom, Blade, and Spider-Man. 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, an element never previously used in comic books.
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[edit] Character history
Victor was born to noted healer Werner von Doom and Cynthia von Doom.
While a child, he discovered his mother's magical artifacts and von Doom began his studies into the occult as well as developing his innate scientific abilities. 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, permanently 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 long, jagged 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 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 sorcerous disciplines, he 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.
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, 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.
In 2003, 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 Möebius 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 deceased 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. In Civil War #2, 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. 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, enraged, attacked the Panther. Panther's costume turned into Light Armor as he fought back. Storm assisted her husband to retreat. Panther argued against Storm assisting him, and Doom mocked the two of them, ending the fight and sending them on their way. The two made up and continued on their journey, planning on visiting the Inhumans on the moon next.
In Captain America (vol. 5) #23, Doom is shown collaborating with the Red Skull on a weapon which will only "be the beginning" of Captain America's suffering.
[edit] Goals
Doctor Doom is driven by three principal objectives: the destruction of Reed Richards, world domination, and 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. 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 a 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 megacorporations 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. 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.
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, yet he also treats his subjects fairly and at times has even put himself at risk to protect his kingdom and subjects.
[edit] Adversaries
Although he is primarily a Fantastic Four villain, Doctor Doom appears all over the Marvel Universe. He has faced the Avengers and the X-Men on numerous occasions. He is not above using them to get what he wants either. Only recently, Doom used the Avengers to add more territory to Latveria.
Individual heroes such as Spider-Man, Iron Man, Dazzler and Squirrel Girl have become embroiled in his schemes (the latter handed him one of the most inglorious defeats of his career; it should be noted that she has been seen as undefeatable, easily defeating other powerful foes such as M.O.D.O.K. and Thanos). Luke Cage famously flew to Latveria on one of the Fantastic Four's rockets and pounded on Doom to get the $200 Doom owed him for a job. Doom has variously managed to usurp the powers of the Silver Surfer, Galactus, Aron the Rogue Watcher and the Beyonder. One of the few characters who have actually managed to forcibly humiliate and even outsmart and manipulate Doom is Hyperstorm, whose cosmic-scale power he tried to usurp but failed. Doom would have his revenge, but Hyperstorm was killed by Galactus a few time later. On one occasion, Spider-Man reluctantly foiled an assassination attempt on Doom as the latter arrived in New York City, representing Latveria as its head of state.
Doom has occasionally helped the super-heroes as well. Seeing how he cannot abide by anyone else ruling Earth but him, Doom assisted Earth's super-heroes in the fight against Onslaught and Thanos though he attempted to take the power of both titans for himself and failed both times. He would do anything to maintain his rule over the kingdom of Latveria.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Doom's most dangerous weapon is his genius-level intellect. He is, along with Reed Richards, 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 really to be 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 plot device: 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 sorcerous 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 transfer psionically 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.
[edit] Armor
Dr. Doom's iron-clad face is instantly recognizable to most of the world's population, a fact attributable to his infamous, 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 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 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 persons (unless they do not give off or can somehow mask their heat signature). The armor is self-supporting, equipped with internal stores & 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.
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.
[edit] Ultimate Doctor Doom
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[edit] Character history
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 position probably belongs 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 at an undisclosed location in Europe.
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".
Recently, his cloven feet have either mutated into a new form, been somehow surgically altered, or covered with conventional footwear. Another explanation for this sudden change is a mistake by the artist, drawing the 616 version of Doom instead of the Ultimate version, which would not be the first mistake of its kind to appear in the Ultimate Universe. However, according to Mark Millar he wished to keep the goat legs and editorial did not. In the end, they compromised - Ultimate Doom, according to Millar, still has the cloven feet, but they are covered by armored normal boots.
[edit] 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, but it is unknown if he is still able to do this. He can grow and fling porcupine-like volleys of quills 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 Van Damme's face remains, because it was done with one of his own quills.
The Ultimate Universe's Doom also appears to be an accomplished sorcerer, as Reed found out that Johnny did not get the lifeform inside him from the Negative Zone, but Victor "summoned" the creature inside Johnny, and when Doom used sorcery to exchange minds with Richards. (Ultimate Fantastic Four #30-31).
Moreover, Ultimate Doom seems to be one of the most powerful beings yet shown in that universe, even more powerful than Ultimate Thor, as seen when a parasitic lifeform said to be heading straight for the most powerful being in the area bypasses Thor and goes to Doom's body. Notwithstanding the parasite, using Doom's powers and sorcery, Richards is able to defeat the "Frightful Four" in seconds. Doom reclaims his body just to be exiled to the Marvel Zombies universe. Thus, the last words he speaks before facing down a horde of killer zombie superheroes are, "Hmph. Well, this should be a challenge." (Ultimate Fantastic Four #32).
[edit] Doom in other alternate continuities
[edit] Warlock
On the planet Counter-Earth, Victor Von Doom is a doctor, a genius, but not as a nemesis to Adam Warlock, who had his own short-lived (8 issues) Marvel Comics series in the 1970's. 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.
[edit] 2099
Doom held his own title in the Marvel 2099 continuity, appropriately titled Doom 2099. In this comic, Doom was temporally displaced. Latveria was in disarray and many heralded Doom's return. After arriving to this time, Doom recovered Latveria and conquered America.
[edit] Age of Apocalypse
In the Age of Apocalypse, Victor Von Doom is an agent of the Human High Council and the Security Head of Eurasia. His facial scar is the result of a mutant uprising in Latveria. Like his 616 counterpart, Von Doom remains a ruthless man, though he does not express his counterpart's ambition to rule the world.
[edit] 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, and Doom was left broken and humiliated. 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.
[edit] Mutant X
In the Mutant X universe, Doom is a hero and leader of his own super-team.
[edit] Marvel 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 due to 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.
[edit] 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 superstrong, 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.
[edit] Fantastic Four: The End
This future version of Dr. Doom appears as a four arm robot with little humanity left and bent on finally killing the Fantastic Four. He is successful in battle against the Fantastic Four, but is destroyed in the first issue of this mini-series when his powers intereacted with Franklin's powers (who has come to the aid of his father) to create an explosion that killed him, Franklin, and Valeria.
[edit] Appearances in other media
[edit] Television
- Dr. Doom has also appeared in several cartoons, including Fantastic Four (2006-Present), The Fantastic Four (1967-1970), The New Fantastic Four (1978-1979), Spider-Man (1981-1982) and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981-1983).
- In The Fantastic Four (1994-1996), he was voiced by 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. By the series finale, when he got the Silver Surfer's power one final time, Mr. Fantastic tricked him into going out of Earth and returned the Silver's powers because Galactus trapped the Surfer for punishment. If the Surfer were to leave Earth, he would disintegrate. And since Doom did not know about this and went into space, he was vaporized and died. However, Mr. Fantastic said by the end of the episode, "With Doom, what you see isn't what you want." If the series were to continue, Doom would have likely returned, but unknown how.
- Templeman reprised his role for guest appearances in two episodes of The Incredible Hulk (1996-1997), in which Doom held Washington DC captive, only to be defeated by She-Hulk, whom he later attempted to claim revenge upon.
- 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 Secret Wars. In the last three-part episode of Spider-Man, Doom turned part of the alien world he was on into New Latveria (he stole this part from Doctor Octopus, in which he named it Octavia). However, he did not use his ruling powers for evil and had the aliens who lived in his country live in peace and harmony. He even kidnapped the Thing only to cure him of his deformity, turning him back to Ben Grimm. Doom then asked how they got to this alien world, since they were transported from Earth. Ben explained that he got the information from Spider-Man that a mystic god-like figure called the Beyonder had transported him, along with the Lizard, Dr. Octopus, Alistair Smythe and the Red Skull. Doom then stole the powers from the Beyonder and almost killed the superheroes that Ben fought aside with. But the Thing knocked Doom out and the powers of the Beyonder was returned to the mystic figure himself. Doom was then returned to Earth with no memory of these events, along with every other superhero, except for Spider-Man, as he would be leading different Spider-Men from different realities to save reality and defeat the evil Spider-Carnage, in which they did by the series finale.
- Doctor Doom appeared in #4 of The Avengers: United They Stand, where he attempted to execute the Avengers and Black Knight.
- Doom appears in the current Fantastic Four animated series, voiced by Paul Dobson.
[edit] Film
- In the 2005 film version of the Fantastic Four, Doom seems to be (like other characters in some of the new films in the recent Marvel resurgence) more based on, or at least incorporating many elements from his Ultimate counterpart. In the film he is a billionaire industrialist and old college rival of Reed Richards. 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 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 original 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, rather than being an ability he learned through sorcery. Also, an injury caused by a piece of irradiated shrapnel from the shields intended to protect the station steadily begins to mutate his body into an organic-metallic compound, also much like his Ultimate version. 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 end of the movie, Doom was apparently killed, and his body was transported back to Latveria; there's a hint that he's not quite dead, though. Similar to reactions to Ultimate Doom, some viewers have also panned the film Doom's origins and powers due to their vast divergence from the original comic-book source material, as most fans relate to the original Doom's origins. Others believed that the script, combined with McMahon's performance, did not befit a villain such as Doom. While some fans liked Doom's mask and costume (which, unlike the comic book version, did not expose his primary limbs and had a second layer on underneath, and the mask is remarkably similar to that in the comic book, the mouthpiece being almost identical), many others criticized McMahon's physical and vocal performance (e.g. his actions when blasting people with electricity were not exaggerated enough), suggesting that a fully-masked villain requires a matching voice talent, such as James Earl Jones' fearsome Darth Vader voice in Star Wars.
- Several comic-industry publications have lampooned the film's portrayal of Doctor Doom, and in a recent 2005 issue Toyfare magazine claimed that "Doom (i.e. the original comic book character) should sue for defamation of character".
- Director Tim Story has confirmed that Doom will be in the sequel, though in response to criticisms stated, "He will be back in full DOOM, not like we had him in the first film."[1] Maybe Doom was not fully at grips with his powers in the first film, and he definitely had not forged his schemes and plots known so well from the comics, as he was just on the rebound from losing his Von Doom Enterprises. As Doom is sent back to Latveria in the closing of the film, this raises hopes that he will become the ruler of this country instead of just a corrupt businessman.
- Doom also appeared in 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 and brought back to life by loyal henchmen as a cyborg.
[edit] 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 Spider-Man 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 Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects.
- Doom is the primary antagonist of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. He is voiced by Clive Revill.
[edit] Influences
- Rapper Daniel Dumile has launched a career under the Dr. Doom-esque pseudonyms MF DOOM and more recently, Viktor Vaughn. In the 2004 release, MM..Food?, Dumile used samples from old Fantastic Four read-along records, as well as featuring a fellow rapper named Mister Fantastik on the song 'Rap Snitch Knishes'. Additionally, Dumile's album under the name Viktor Vaughn, Vaudeville Villain, is ripe with samples from various Fantastic Four records. MF DOOM also almost always performs in a metal mask, and appears as such in nearly all promotional photos. Finally, several MF DOOM album covers have featured Dr. Doom, including Operation: Doomsday and Volumes 1-6 of his Special Herbs series.
- The band 13th Floor Elevators have a song on the last album Bull of the Woods entitled, "Dr. Doom". The first lines are, "Dear Doctor Doom, I read your recent letter..."
- Alice Cooper included a reference to the character in his song "Sanctuary." The lyric reads, "I'm the king of my room/I'm Dr. Doom."
- Some fans suspect that he was an inspiration for the Star Wars villain, Darth Vader. Mark Hamill noted that when he saw the preliminary designs for that character, he temporarily confused him for the Marvel supervillain. George Lucas has on rare occasions admitted the influence, although not in recent years, as cited in the book The Science of Supervillains.
- In Stephen King's Dark Tower series of books, robots wearing green hoods and iron wolf masks are apparently Doombots, according to Eddie Dean, one of the main characters. They, however, carry lightsabers (probably a reference to the Doom/Vader comparison), along with other assorted weapons, and ride mechanical horses.
- The DC Comics supervillain Lord Havok of The Extremists is based on Doctor Doom.
- In a Duck Dodgers episode titled "Enemy Yours", Dodgers appears as Dr. Destructocon with the exact costume, minus the iron mask.
- South Park features a Doctor Doom parody named Professor Chaos. He wears a similar costume and also has similarly high ambitions, but he is limited by scale.
- KRO and the House Band of the Apocalypse recorded a tune called "Doom (I'm the Doc)", an obvious reference. The song features a sample "Murdered by Doctor Doom" from the Fantastic Four comic as well as lyrics that relate to the villain.
- The MMORPG City of Heroes features a supervillain named Nemesis who is in many ways a homage to Doctor Doom. He is never seen outside of his steam-powered suit of Brass armor and even has duplicates of his armor that are autonomous and appear often in the game as Fake Nemesis. The player can fight the supposedly 'real' Nemesis three times in the game, but never knows if he finally got the real one as Nemesis has a knack for faking his own death.
- A Jewish children's audio series called "The Marvelous Middos Machine" contains a character named "Doctor Doomstein" as the primary villain.
- The webcomic Rob and Elliot features a recurring character named Baron von Doomsday, who appears mostly the same except for wearing a purple cloak and shares his predecessor's hatred of Reed Richards. He also maintains a MySpace account in which he details his plans for world conquest.
- Adult Swim's animated series The Venture Bros. features a villain known as Baron Werner Ãœnderbheit. Like Doom, Ãœnderbheit rules a small fictitious European country known as Ãœnterland (although a recent episode has changed this to be a small country on the border between Canada and Michigan), and has a rivalry with one of the protagonists (Doctor Thaddeus Venture to be precise). Werner Ãœnderbheit was a classmate and lab partner of Dr. Thaddeus Venture in college, whereas Doom blames Reed Richards for scarring his face, Ãœnderbheit blames Venture for violating a so-called sacred pact of lab partners, resulting in the loss of his lower jaw. Ãœnderbheit is the dicatorial ruler of the Ãœnterlands and wears a metal jaw. Fellow villain The Monarch once referred to him as a "dime store Dr. Doom!"
- PS238 student Victor Von Fogg's father is based on Dr. Doom. Victor's father is the major villain of a Green Lantern parody the Emerald Gauntlet who also has a child who attends PS238.
- The superhero roleplaying game called Champions has a villain called Dr. Destroyer who appears in the suppliments Classic Enemies, The Island of Dr. Destroyer and Day of the Destroyer.
[edit] Trivia
- Although Von Doom has significant scientific knowledge and ability, he lacks an advanced university degree; hence, he should more appropriately be called Mr. Doom. Von Doom apparently likes the sound of "Doctor Doom"; as the absolute ruler of a country, he simply started calling himself that. It has been suggested that Doom granted himself an honorary doctorate from a Latverian university, though he has never formally obtained a doctorate and considers it a mere technicality. In the recent origin miniseries, he gives himself the title after viewing Reed Richards being addressed as Professor. It can be assumed that the addition was made both to satisfy Doom's ego and put them both on an equal intellectual footing in the eyes of the public.
- One of Doctor Doom's traits that makes him stand out is his tendency to refer to himself in the third person (e.g. "Doom will crush you where you stand!") In Marvel Adventures #9, Spider-Man notes "Wow, it really is cool to talk about yourself in the third person. I think Spidey's gonna do that from now--" shortly before being attacked by an enraged Doom.
- Doctor Doom has a strict honor code that regulates his dealings with others. First and foremost is, "Doom always keeps his word." However, Doom tends to keep his exact word (should he promise, for example, when he says "Doom will not harm you," Doom himself does not do anything, but his henchmen and robots do). Doom also tends to prefer to engage foes (if he has to personally) face-to-face and dislikes sneak attacks from behind, though he will carry them out should he deem it necessary.
- Because of his status as ruler of Latveria, Doom has diplomatic immunity. This is perhaps his greatest asset, as any attempt to kill him would be a breach of international law - it has been used to prevent his death at the hands of the Fantastic Four, and has resulted in Captain America acting as Doom's escort/bodyguard whilst he was making a diplomatic visit to America.
- The exact nature of Doctor Doom's scarring varies based on the will of the current writer. While current tellings feature a single scar, previous writers had suggested more extensive scarring, while creator Jack Kirby remarked in Comic Book Masters that Doom had "a perfect, unmarked face that he will never let himself look at."
- In Latveria, Doom has his own holiday - Doom's Day, which is an enormous celebration, which could be celebrated several times a year. Doom's Day could be celebrated in place of Christmas, New Year's, Doom's Brithday, or whenever Dr. Doom feels the need to do so.
- He should not be confused with the obscure Fox Comics villain Dr. Doom, introduced in Science Comics #1 (Feb. 1940), and who, like Marvel's Dr. Doom in Astonishing Tales, was the star of his own features in Science, Big 3, and The Green Mask. Nor should he be confused with the even more obscure DC comics villain Dr. Doom, who appeared in Detective Comics #158 (Apr. 1950) as an enemy of Batman and Robin. Finally, Marvel's Dr. Doom should not be confused with Marvel's first Silver Age superhero feature character, Doctor Droom, renamed in the 1970s Doctor Druid.
- Doctor Doom is known in Brazil as Doutor Destino, which means Doctor Destiny
[edit] Previous Marvel Doctor Doom
Stan Lee previously used the name Doctor Doom for Marvel's 1950s predecessor, Atlas Comics, for a bald, goateed mad scientist who vexed the title charcter of the humor comic Adventures of Homer Ghost #2 (Aug. 1957), in a story drawn by artist Tony DiPreta.
[edit] References
- Marvel.com - Doctor Doom
- Ultimate Doctor Doom on the Marvel Universe character bio wiki
- MDP: Doctor Doom - Marvel Database Project
- The Latverian Embassy: Curt's Doctor Doom Shrine
- Frequently Asked Questions About Doctor Doom
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