Dr. Doom, AKA Victor Von Doom was born in a gypsy camp in Latveria. His mother died due to a botched deal with Mephisto, and his father died in the family’s attempt to flee. Growing up, Doom looked to increase his powers in both science and magic, to achieve revenge against Mephisto who he blamed for both of his parents’ deaths. Doom was offered and accepted a scholarship from the State University in Hegeman New York, where he met Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) and Ben Grimm (Thing).
While there, Doom tried to create a machine that would allow him to project his astral form into other dimensions, a tool he would use to save his mother’s soul from Mephisto’s grasp (which happened as a result of her dying in the previously mentioned botched deal). Reed Richards saw that there was a flaw in Doom’s calculations and told him about it, but Doom refused to listen and went ahead with his experiment. The machine malfunctioned and exploded in his face, scarring it, and Doom was eventually expelled for conducting unethical experiments. He blamed all of this on Reed Richards and swore revenge, though it was revealed recently that Ben Grimm (Thing) might have tampered with the machine some and caused it to malfunction.
Doom traveled the world and eventually met a small establishment of Tibetan monks who aided him in forging a suit of armor as well as a mask to hide his face. Doom then returned to his birth country of Latveria and overthrew the leader and declared himself the king. Doom would use Latveria’s resources in his quest for world domination and even his quest for revenge against Reed Richards.
Doom first fought the Fantastic Four when he captured Sue Storm (Reed Richards’ wife AKA Invisible Woman) and forced the Fantastic Four to travel back in time and retrieve items for him. He also tricked Namor the Submariner (the king of Atlantis) to aid him against them, though he ultimately lost and was shrunk to sub atomic size.
Since then, Doom has fought many opponents from Thor, Silver Surfer, Annihilus, Galactus, the Watcher, Iron Man, Hulk, the X-Men, Black Panther, the Avengers as a whole, and more and has won on more than one occasion.
His more famous exploits include stealing the Silver Surfers powers and nearly taking over the planet with them, draining the Watcher of his powers using his technology and the cosmic cube, draining Galactus’ powers and taking on the entire Earth and even Odin himself, draining Galactus’ powers again and using THEM to drain the Beyonders powers (which gave him nigh omnipotence), successfully conquering the world several times (with mind control gas, and with Purple Man’s powers) and even giving it up of his own will, taking over Wakanda’s vibranium and enchanting it, and experimenting on Asgardians and making his own personal Destroyer Armor.
One great exploit in particular, one where he ended being “killed” by Marquis the Death (a universal reality warper) and surviving off of pure willpower and hate for millions of years while he honed his magical craft (enough to become unrecognizable and kill a Watcher) just to get revenge on his master (Marquis the Death) for trying to kill him in the first place, has not been referenced since, but it was an amazing series of events and a great showing of Doom’s determination and power.
As far as his “powers” go, Dr. Doom is a scientific genius unmatched by nearly anyone (only Reed Richards and T’Challa AKA Black Panther and a few others can even contend, though none of them have the inventions he does), and a sorcerer that has been said to be more powerful than Dr. Strange. He has used his technology to defeat the likes of Namor, Adam Warlock, Thor, Silver Surfer, Galactus, Franklin Richards, the X-Men, The Fantastic Four, Black Panther, Storm, Iron Man, the Beyonder, and more and has used his magic to defeat Sentry, Hulk, Thor, Nightmare ( a fear lord who conquered the planet), Doctor Voodoo (the sorcerer supreme at the time), Dr. Strange, the Fantastic Four, The Avengers, Morgana La Fey (a powerful Sorceress who taught Doom a lot), and more.
A list of some of his most impressive technology includes: an electro paralyzer that affected Thor himself, an anti-matter gun, forcefields that have taken attacks from the Beyonder (that knocked out Galactus), blasts from the Infinity Gauntlet, and more, offensive forcefields that have held the likes of Hulk, energy draining that has worked on Silver Surfer, Galactus, Nightmare, X-Man, The Beyonder, The Watcher, and more, a chair that can give anyone the Power Cosmic (what Silver Surfer and Galactus use), many hypnosis machines, a machine that nullifies forcefields, technology that can control other people’s teleportation, a teleportation device (works interdimensionally), time travel, time rays, armor that can release up to 500,000 megavolts of electricity, a machine that can increase the size of molecules to the size of boulders, an orb that can turn anyone into chrome, a psionic refractor that reflects psychic energy on the user, and more that haven’t been mentioned.
Doom’s armor itself gives him the strength to knock the Thing out in one hit and take blows from Hulk, Thor, Sentry, and more.
Doom’s repertoire of spells include: enchanting people to forget they have powers, draining sorceresses magicians of their powers, knocking out the Hulk with a spell, summoning the Mindless Ones (who give Dr. Strange and the Avengers trouble), transporting people throughout time, healing injuries, teleporting, and more.
But magic and science aren’t the only applications of Doom’s intelligence and willpower. Over the years Doom has outsmarted the likes of Black Panther, Reed Richards, Mephisto, Dr. Strange, Tony Stark, Magneto and more. His intelligence is also shown in his cunning when using Doombots. Doombots (the Doombots in question, since there are a variety of them) are exact copies of Doom that believe they are the real Dr. Doom and are used in Doom’s place when he sees fit. Many of Doom’s defeats have ended up being mere Doombots, meaning either he foresaw a possible sour conclusion to his plan, or was simply overly prepared. Doombots are so much like the original Doom that even telepaths can’t tell the difference, making them the perfect tool for such a venture.
His willpower has also aided him against telepaths as strong as Emma Frost and even the powers of Purple Man (who Doom used to control the ENTIRE Earth). It has also stopped him being warped from one of High Evolutionary’s machines and has even kept him alive against Marquis the Death and the Beyonder.
In fact, when Doom’s body is destroyed, it is likely that he can merely possess another body in the vicinity (or even another body that merely resides on the same planet as him).
Doom has also shown great fighting ability, outfighting the likes of Black Panther, Daredevil, Thing, and a Lion (when armorless).
Overall, Doom is a dangerous villain who is a threat to anyone. The likes of Thanos (someone who took over the entire universe twice) keep tabs on him, and he’s outmaneuvered Mephisto, Galactus, and other nigh-omnipotents when it comes to him achieving a goal. His willpower (which results in him being stubborn)and arrogance lead to his downfall AND his success many times and he is an iconic villain with no equal.
Copyright © WarWithWords 2014
