Von Doom, Victor (person)

Dr. Victor von Doom, Ph.D a.k.a. Doctor Doom is a Latverian politician who serves as the Monarch and Supreme Leader for the Kingdom of Latveria. He was scarred from an accident and wears an iron mask and armor to hide his true face. He is considered one of the most brilliant minds and scientists on the planet Earth. He is also a sorcerer with skills in magic matching the most powerful beings in the Universe, making him a potential candidate for Sorcerer Supreme. He hopes to bring order and betterment to humanity through world conquest. Unequalled in ability, ego, and will power, he has come into conflict with both superhumans and cosmic beings. He is best known as the rival of Reed Richards and archenemy of the Fantastic Four.
== History ==
=== Early Years ===
Victor Von Doom was born in Haasenstadt, Latveria, roughly forty to forty five years ago. He was born to Cynthia and Werner von Doom who were members of the Zefiro, a local Romani class in Latveria who were much maligned under the rule of King Vladimir. They were constantly forced to be on the run from the King's soldiers. While his father used traditional medicine and worked as a healer, Cynthia was a practitioner of sorcery. Victor has claimed that he has full recall of all his memories dating back from being in utero, and suspects that this might have something to do with his mother's practitioner of the dark arts. While Victor was still four years old, Cynthia was slain after foolishly making a pact with the demon Mephisto.} Wherein she gained the power to attack the King's enemies with magic, but it came at the cost of the lives of all the children in a nearby village. This horrified Cynthia, and she became hunted by the King's men and eventually slain. Found by Werner, she had him promise not to let her son learn of or use the dark arts. Cynthia was buried in an unmarked grave, and when the other members of the Zefiro began speaking poorly of Cynthia, her own articulate son spoke up in her defence, also warning the other Roma that continuing to speak poorly of her would force him to grow up to be just like his mother. Following the funeral, Werner hid the mystical artefacts of his late wife from his son in an effort to protect him.
Growing up, Victor often played with a young girl named Valeria. Valeria was Doom's only friend among his people and by the age of eleven that friendship grew into love. It was during this time that the King's wife became terminally ill with cancer and so he sent his guards to collect Werner to try and cure her. Saving the king's wife was out of Werner's power and she eventually died of her illness, the King ordered Werner's death. Werner then fled the Zefiro village with his son into the Latverian alps and had to spend their night out in the elements after their horse ran off. Werner wrapped his son in his clothing leaving him exposed to the elements. Werner and Victor were found by another Romani named Boris who brought them back to the village. There on his deathbed, Werner put Victor in the care of Boris. His dying words were a warning of protection involving Victor. Boris presumed that Werner believe that he was being told to protect the world from his son. Furious over his father's death, Victor vowed to eventually get revenge.
Boris then showed Victor his father's legacy: his collection of herbs and potions that he used to cure the ill, hoping the boy would carry on his father's craft. Searching through these meagre possessions Victor also came across the trunk containing his mother's various mystical artifacts. These he showed to Valeria, and while she feared their use. Victor then spent his years mastering the arts of both science and sorcery. One night about 37 years ago, while Victor slept, he was visited by the 6th century mystic known as Morgan Le Fay. Le Fay had travelled to this era to get revenge against Victor's future self who had wronged her, but before she could kill young Victor she decided against it, wanting his future self to know why he was being punished and also to prevent the potential of altering history in a way that would ill benefit her.
Eventually, Victor became a master of both science and magic and vowed to use these skill to become master of the world. This drew a wedge between he and Valeria, who feared that Victor was out of control. Seeing her as weak, this drove a wedge between the two. Victor started off by using his skills to sell various barons and lords of Latveria seemingly valuable objects, such as a violin that required no skill to play, hair salve that could cure headaches, and various other trinkets and sundries. However Von Doom usually tricked his wealthy clients, as most of the items he sold would go sour or break shortly after his departure. This earned him enmity among the ruling class of Latveria and the surrounding region. However, attempts to capture Doom and execute him for his crimes were always met with failure thanks to Doom's various devices that allowed him to evade capture. One of his early forays into robotics included a robot which he had stand in for himself before a firing squad. Doom also used his mastery of both science and sorcery to protect the Zefiro people, making him their leader and protector as they tried to stay a step ahead of the King who so persecuted them. One night while Victor went for a walk away from the village he was caught by one of King Vladimir's soldiers with nothing to defend himself. With a rifle pointed in his face, Victor suddenly lunged at the soldier and strangled him to death. Victor looked the man in the eye as his life was snuffed out and the experience left him feeling horrified, believing that he had finally become his mother's son. Victors hands shook well into the next day.
Eventually, stories of Victor's scientific prowess reached the United States. Original accounts state that and a scout from State University and offered him a scholarship. However it has since been revealed that the man seeking Victor out was from the United States Army who sought to recruit Victor's talents before he was tapped by foreign nations that were hostile to the United States at the time. Victor was offered a full scholarship at State University on top of being using his skills to develop new weapons for the United States. Victor accepted the offer seeing this as a new challenge, but also as a means to escape what his life had become in Latveria.
=== State University ===
At the time that Victor had arrived in America, he had come to the conclusion that his mother's soul was trapped in Mephisto's realm and became determined to reach that realm by studying alternate dimensions as a means of creating a device to reach her. Upon his arrival, Victor was given a lab facility on a US Army base where he was to conduct his experiments. Upon arrival at State U, Victor met another young genius named Reed Richards who took interest in Doom's work, although Doom was uninterested in forming a friendship with Richards and nearly came to blows with Richard's future roommate Ben Grimm. Accounts state that Victor was offered a chance to be roommates with Reed Richards and he refused, but in reality the government had set Doom up with a private dorm with a hidden soundproof lab. Richards remained beneath Von Doom's notice until a physics class where Victor got into disagreement with his professor over the work of Einstein pertaining to parallel universes. When Richards spoke up to defend Victor's theoretical point of view, Von Doom angrily told Richards he did not require his assistance, but was nonetheless impressed by him. Reed and Doom became rivals; while not friends, Richards and Doom saw each other as intellectual peers, constantly debating esoteric theories that amazed their professors. Needing a better computer than the university's, they designed a revolutionary new one together.
Doom mostly kept to himself and refused to involve himself in other activities that the other university students engaged in, namely athletics, drinking or fraternization with the opposite sex. His work did gain him admirers both romantically from the women, and his classmates for his scientific genius. He soon gained a lab assistant named Daniel Kurtz who worked with Doom devotedly. With the military, Von Doom began working on robots fr combat use while in his dorm room lab began building a device that would allow him to search for the soul of his mother. Doom continued his study into the black arts as well. One night, Victor had decided to accompany Kurtz to a party and allowed himself to partake in drinking and flirting with a girl. When the girl took Victor into the woods to make out, Victor was soon disgusted by her forthright nature -- contrary to the behaviour he was used to with Valeria -- and soon began to strangle her. Seeing the face of the soldier he killed, Victor suddenly became disgusted in himself and stopped, and girl fled. Victor did not get into trouble with the authorities because both State University administrators and the military hushed the incident up and forced the girl to leave the school, allowing Victor to continue his work unfettered, although his fellow classmates were terrified of him. Victor also continued working for the military where he continued to develop his robotics technology as well as the first working prototype of his Time-Platform.
One day, Reed happened upon Doom's notes for his device to contact his mother. In most accounts it is said that Richards found that some of his calculations were off. However, when Doom caught Richards looking at his notes, his pride, ego and anger prevented him from listening to Richard's warnings and he continued on with the experiment. However more recent accounts state that Richards was unable to fathom Doom's fusion of both science and magic to operate the device. The device worked for a few moments and Doom was briefly transported to Mephisto's realm where his mother begged him to turn back. However, Mephisto reached out and touched Doom, chilling him to the bone.
It was at that moment the experiment literally blew up in his face, scarring it. For conducting the experiment in secret and without authorization from the university, Von Doom was expelled from State U and blamed Richards for his experiment going wrong.
In one account, it is stated that Doom's face only suffered a minor scar. but he believed that his face was hideously disfigured for all time. For months Victor stayed in a hospital bed, refusing to talk to the authorities regarding the explosion. The nights were sleepless as he was haunted by visions of his mother and the demon he met in the netherworld. He came to continue wearing the bandages across his face regardless of the true condition. Deciding that his time in America was done, Victor then developed a device that caused all his inventions built for the military to explode, forever denying them the various technologies that Victor came to create under their service. Before they could capture Victor, he had already fled the country.
=== In Hiding ===
Victor used the money he earned in America to go into hiding and was frequently moving from place to place in Europe to avoid the American authorities, while he continued to perfect his craft.
It was likely during this period that Doom founded two bases of operations around this time, a castle in the Adirondack mountains in New York as well as a castle in Romania where he commanded an army of loyal Roma. It was also during this period that Doom built a new Time-Platform. Seeking the aid of deceased scientist Dr. Olsen to further his goals of reaching his mother in the netherworld, Dr. Doom travelled back in time to the year 1942 during the height of World War II. This put Von Doom in a precarious situation as at the time Dr. Olsen was tapped by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler to create a device that would bring the Asgardian thunder god Thor through time and dimensions to that era to use against the heroic Invaders. The pair complied and succeeded in bringing Thor to that era and Hitler convinced the thunder god to fight the Invaders who were on a mission in Russia. When Dr. Olsen died of a heart attack shortly thereafter, Hitler became determined to pull Trolls into that era as well. Having had enough with Hitler's madness, and unable to get the aid he needed from Olsen, Von Doom set the device to detonate and left Hitler to his fate and returned to his own time.
Doom then sought to locate the pieces of the Claw of Bast seeking information of the locations of each part Professor Roderick Van Nuys. Doom sought to use the Claw to heal his scarred face and use its power to conquer the world, however due to mystical limitations placed on the Claw it could only be used one more time and only during the proper planetary alignment. Van Nuys himself sought the Claw to cure himself from the debilitating Sebert Syndrome, and sought the aid of his colleague Reed Richards to obtain it for him. Doom sent his minions to impede Richards' quest. Ultimately capturing Reed and his compatriots Francesca Fisher and Alyssa Moy in Romania when they attempted to steal the Eye of Bast from a museum there. Doom then had Francesca and Alyssa strapped into a machine based on the original experiment that scarred his face. Doom gave Richard's the opportunity to prove that his calculations were incorrect and if he could free Francesca and Alyssa, Doom agreed to let them go. Reed managed to free his compatriots and flee Doom's Romanian castle, but this only played into Doom's plans to follow them to the location of the final component of the Claw: The Paw of Bast. When the trio succeeded in collecting all the pieces, Doom and his minions jumped them and stole them. Doom then assembled the Claw of Bast, but in doing so also caused the spirit of Pharaoh Khafre to possess the Sphinx and attack them. Before Doom could utilize the power of the Claw for his own selfish ends, Reed trapped Doom by using a freezing compound to trap him in ice. Richards then used the Claw to banish Khafre's spirit, and cure Van Nuys, rendering the Claw useless. With their quest complete, Richards left Doom in the desert to eventually thaw out, allowing them time to escape.
During this period Victor was still plagued with horrifying dreams from his experience in the netherworld. He eventually sought refuge in France, and constantly dealt with an annoying drunk named Otto who continued to sleep in the doorway outside Doom's apartment regardless of how many times Victor chastised him for doing so. Soon Victor's location was discovered by the Russian KGB who also sought to recruit him into their service. Having had his filled working for other governments, Victor refused and fought off the KGB agents, warning them that he would kill anyone who was sent after him in the future. By this point the KGB were also allies of King Vladimir and used this connection to try and force Victor into their service. They paid off a member of the Zefiro, who claimed to be a fortune teller, to warn Valeria that their people were in trouble and that she needed to bring Victor back home. She complied and was soon reunited with Victor. Their time together was almost like magic as Victor warmly accepted her back into her life, and their whirlwind romance also kept the dark dreams at bay. However this happiness soon came to an end when the KGB returned and tried to use Valeria as a hostage to force Doom to comply with their demands. When all seemed grim, Doom was surprised when Otto came to his aid, using mystical powers to shield Valeria from harm and killing the KGB agents, but not before taking a number of their bullets himself. Dying, Otto explained that he was part of an order of monks who resided deep in the Himalayan mountains of Tibet who had a prophecy that a man hiding his true face would soon come to lead them. After Otto died of his wounds, Valeria begged Victor to come back to Latveria with her, but Von Doom refused, deciding to seek his destiny in Himalayan mountains.
=== The Birth of Doctor Doom ===
With no information other than that this secret order of monks lived in the Himalayas, Victor travelled there and spent months climbing the mountains and searching for clues to the whereabouts of this hidden tribe. Victor utilized his technological skills to build devices that made travelling through the harsh winter climates of the mountains easier, but the trek was still one fraught with difficulty and danger. In on account it is stated that Victor came upon the cave dwelling of the mystic known only as the Aged Genghis and attempted to force the elderly man his arcane secrets. The Aged Genghis refused however convinced Von Doom to seek out a secret order of monks by giving him directions to their most hidden society. This refutes Doom's encounter with Otto, although the Aged Genghis mental facilities are questionable at best. Doom himself has stated that he was able to divine the location of the monk temple from an ancient parchment that was over 600 years old.
Doom's evenings were still haunted by nightmares of his mother and the demon who took her. Eventually, Doom's resources were nearly exhausted, and he faced starvation and hypothermia. However, he found a minor repast from eventual death from the elements the day he was attacked by a Yeti which Victor slew. The creature's flesh gave him food, and his fur an extra coat to protect him from the elements.
Eventually his supplies ran out again and after months of travel and on the brink of death he found the temple collapsing outside. Victor was found by the monks and was nursed back to health, and managed to convince the monks. Doom found that the monks were masters of both magic and technology and upon reaching full health he mastered all they knew and surpassed their abilities himself within five years. So impressed were the monks that they named him their leader. He then constructed a device that allowed him to monitor all television, radio, satellite and internet transmissions and learned that his old school rival Reed Richards was working on a new experimental space vessel and grew furious. It was at this time that Victor insisted that the monks all begin referring to him as "Doctor Doom". Finally growing fed up of the constant nightmares and wishing to feel neither emotion nor pain, Victor began to design a suit of armor that not only protected him from the dreams but also severed his physical connection to the world making him a cold engine of logic.
Doom had the monks forge this armor for him, and when they were constructing the mask, Victor put it on before it could cool ignoring the searing pain which likely disfigured his face even more horrifying than before. Deciding it was finally time to get revenge against King Vladimir, the newly born Doctor Doom left the Himalayas for his homeland with Larin, one of the monks from the monastery to accompany him.
=== Conquering the Latverian Throne ===
When Doctor Doom first arrived in Latveria, he and Larin took refuge in a small, abandoned castle which overlooked the abandoned village where, many years ago, his mother was responsible for the death of every child that lived there. Doom made his presence known by confronting guards watching over a chain-gang of slave workers and slew the soldiers and freed the slaves telling them to spread the word that the tyrants of Latveria would fall to the might of Doctor Doom. Doom then returned to the castle where he and Larin began building an army of robots to face off against King Vladimir's armies. Victor then tracked down the Zefiro tribe and reunited with Boris, telling him to gather the elders to spread the word of coming takeover of Latveria, ordering them to have their people pass out holographic projectors showing Doctor Doom's opening salvo against Vladimir's forces.
A lone dissenter was slain, and the rest fell in line however they had all feared that Victor had become just what they feared he would one day be. Soon word spread of Doctor Doom's plans to liberate the people of Latveria from Vladimir's rule and soon a rebellion army was formed to overthrow the king. Valeria eventually came to see Victor and was horrified to see what he had become, when she spoke against him Doom had her removed from his audience. Soon Doom sent out his rebellion forces with his army of robots and gained many victories. More and more people joined Victor's rebellion including many of Vladimir's soldiers. Doctor Doom eventually sent a messenger with a holographic projector so that Victor could issue his ultimatum to King Vladimir: Surrender and live, or fight and die. Vladimir refused to surrender, so Doom ordered his people to prepare for the final battle.
Victor and his army then pushed through the last lines of defence before King Vladimir's castle. With his enemies about to attack Vladimir refused to surrender and ordered his second in command to have his sons Rudolfo and Zorba taken to safety. When Doom's army arrived in the capital city, the soldiers departed, not wishing to fight an unbeatable foe. Doom then entered the town alone and learned that King Vladimir was attempting to escape the city through a secret tunnel in the local cathedral.
There Doom confronted his most hated enemy, the man responsible for the murders of his mother and father, and strangled him to death. With Vladimir dead, Victor took his royal cloak as his own. Upon the death of Vladimir, Dr. Doom had his castle destroyed and relocated the new capital city of Latveria to the town where his mother died years ago, rebuilding the castle there as his new imperial centre. The town was renamed Doomstadt and Victor was then crowned king of the land. Prince Rudolfo was apparently captured trying to flee Latveria and was forced to abdicate his position as Latverian royalty and Doom sentenced him into exile.
Now with a kingdom to command, Doom then used his mystical skills to summon up Mephisto and the two entered into a pact: Doom would be offered a chance to try and save his mother's soul once a year. However, if Victor should fail, the price was that the people of his domain would slowly grow to hate and despise him. Victor agreed to these terms and over the years he tried time and time again to save his mother, only to be met with failure each time. For a time, Doom kept his rule of Latveria a secret from the outside world.
Following his conquest of Latveria, Doom kidnapped French scientist Professor LaFarge and his daughter Cosette. Doom then kept Cosette hostage for many years, forcing LaFarge to build missiles that became the first line of defence against any attack against Latveria by a foreign government.
=== Enemy of the Fantastic Four ===
Dr. Doom soon learned that his rival Reed Richards and his flight crew had gained super-human powers after being exposed to cosmic rays and formed a group of costumed adventurers known as the Fantastic Four. He attacked the group at their headquarters within the Baxter Building in New York City. During this battle he took the Invisible Girl (Sue Storm) prisoner and forced Mr. Fantastic (Richards), the Human Torch (Johnny Storm), and the Thing (Ben Grim) to accompany him back to his castle in the Adirondack Mountains. There Doom used Sue as a hostage to force Reed and the other members of the team to use his Time-Platform to travel back in time and recover Blackbeard's treasure chest which Doom believed to have contained a mystical gem that was once used by the 6th century sorcerer known as Merlin. While the three heroes succeeded in recovering the chest, they dumped its contents out in the past and replaced it with chains. Furious, Doom locked them up in a death trap but they were ultimately freed by the Invisible Girl and Doom was forced to flee.
Doom then sought an alliance with another Fantastic Four foe, the recently revived Sub-Mariner, promising to Namor that he could have the Invisible Girl once he vanquished Reed Richards. Forming an uneasy alliance, Doom convinced Namor to infiltrate the Baxter Building and plant a magnetic grabber within the building. While Namor kept the Fantastic Four occupied, Doom used his magnetic device to pull the Baxter Building into space, intending to toss it into the sun, betraying Namor to the same fate as well. Namor then put aside his differences with the Fantastic Four to stop Doom, sending him fleeing his ship into space and seemingly getting lost in a meteor belt, allowing the heroes to return their headquarters to Earth.
Doom was briefly plucked from time and brought a few years ahead into the future where he was forced by the Headmen and the monster Orrgo to battle their foes the Defenders. Doom and the other villains brought forward in time were easily defeated and returned to their own time, presumably with no memory of what happened. Returned to where he was stranded in space, Doom was rescued by the alien Ovoids who taught Dr. Doom the mental technique to swap bodies with another individual and then returned him to Earth. Doom then set a plan in motion to use this power against his foes the Fantastic Four. First he obtained the aid of Nazi war criminal Otto Kronsteig to develop a shrinking ray. When the ray was complete he then turned it against Kronsteig, shrinking him out of sight. Learning that Reed Richards had licensed the Fantastic Four's adventures to be adapted into comic books published by Marvel Comics, Dr. Doom went to their New York offices and took writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby hostage to lure Richards there. Doom then used the Ovoids technique to switch bodies with Richards then tricked the Fantastic Four in subduing Richards -- now trapped in Doom's body -- and subduing him in an air tight container that Doom planned to have him suffocate in. Doom then convinced the members of the FF that by using his shrink ray he could potentially boost their powers to great levels, intending to use the ray to shrink them to nothingness like he did with Kronsteig. However, Richards broke free and caused his teammates to doubt in the situation. When the Human Torch created a heat mirage of a stick of TNT which "Dr. Doom" selflessly shielded his teammates from, this convinced the group that Doom had indeed taken possession of their leader's body. With this revelation the process instantly reversed. In trying to escape his foes, Doom became victim of his own shrink ray, seemingly shrinking away to nothing.
In reality, Doom really shrink down so much that he passed through the dimensional barrier into the Microverse where he ended up on the world of Sub-Atomica. There he managed to wrest control of the planet from the king who lived there and began plotting revenge against the Fantastic Four. He used a shrink ray to cause the team to spontaneously shrink at random times, prompting Reed Richards to investigate. With the help of the size changing hero Ant-Man the group shrunk down to size and learned of Doom's conquest of Sub-Atomica. With Ant-Man's help, the Fantastic Four liberated Sub-Atomica from Dr. Doom's control forcing Doom to flee back to their universe. There Doom prepared a trap for the FF upon their return. Sending out androids to distract the group, they also served to scan their DNA enabling Doom to utilize a massive airship that used disintegration beams that were keyed into the FF's DNA to prevent them from boarding the ship. Doom also made a point to capture the Thing's girlfriend Alicia Masters to keep as a hostage. Doom then demanded that the United States surrender to him, but when the president refused, Doom activated a device that affected the electrical systems all over the country. Eventually the Fantastic Four came up with a means to stop Doom: using a serum to temporarily change the Thing back into Ben Grimm, he managed to slip past the disintegrator ray and shut it off. The FF then stormed the airship, and freed Alicia. While battling Dr. Doom, Doom attempted to escape but fell out of the ship to his seeming demise.
=== Examining the Superhero Community ===
Following his last defeat at the hands of the Fantastic Four, Doom spent a period of time clashing with other superheroes to see what he could learn from them.
Doom survived however thanks to his built in jet pack and from a secret hideout in New York began plotting to get revenge against the Fantastic Four. Reading news reports of the novice super-hero known as Spider-Man, Doom developed a device to contact the hero via his Spider-Sense. When Spider-Man came to Doom, he offered an alliance, an offer that Spidey refused. Furious, Doom decided to use Spider-Man as a hostage to lure out his foes instead. Using his communication device to track Spider-Man, Doom accidentally captured Spider-Man enthusiast Flash Thompson who happened to be wearing a Spider-Man costume as a prank to scare his classmate Peter Parker (who unknown to all at the time was secretly Spider-Man). Doom then issued an ultimatum to the Fantastic Four: rescue Spider-Man or he would be murdered. Feeling guilty, Peter Parker went after Flash Thompson in his alter-ego, facing up against Doom alone. Ultimately the arrival of the Fantastic Four prompted Doom to flee the scene, and Spider-Man left Thompson to be rescued by the group. With the recent formation of the Avengers, Dr. Doom decided to attack this group pre-emptively to eliminate their potential threat as well as sending a message to the Fantastic Four. To this end, he has his minions infiltrate the United States military to recover his airship. When the Avengers were sent in to secure the vessel, Doom utilized the ships traps to try and eliminate them. However his folly was in capturing the Wasp who communicated the ships plans to her teammate Giant-Man, who freed the others. Doom fled the battle, leaving the group to go after a Doombot instead while he set the ship to self-destruct.
Doom then became interest in what the future had in store for him, utilizing a Seer who could give him visions of the future. He was shown visions of a powerful psionic creature called Onslaught a being that would become a menace in the future. Hoping to exploit Onslaught's power, Doom sought to learn more but the Seer was unable to determine any more from that era. Noticing a resemblance between Onslaught and the mutant terrorist known as Magneto, Doom then utilized both his time machine and the Seer to learn what he could, using a cloaking device to hide their presence. They travelled to the recent past to view Magneto's first battle with the X-Men. Finding no sign of Onslaught, they went forward to the future to witness a battle between Magneto and the next generation of X-Men. However a psionic attack from the Phoenix compromised their cloaking device and time machine forcing them to flee. The damage caused them to overshoot their next destination sending them to the future of Earth-811, a world where mutants were nearly exterminated and the United States was conquered by mutant hunting Sentinel robots. There Doom broke into the Baxter Building to seek the parts needed to repair his Time-Platform, witnessing the death of that reality's X-Men. On their way back to Earth-616, they passed through the exact moment of time that Onslaught was active, but the Seer was barred from gaining any knowledge other than a connection between Onslaught and X-Men founder Charles Xavier and so Doom began researching this connection. He witnessed the deaths of the X-Man Thunderbird, Xavier's battle against Dark Phoenix, Xavier's possession by a Brood queen, and a period of time when Xavier was gravely wounded and left the X-Men in the charge of Magneto. Growing frustrated with the lack of results, Doom travelled a number of years into the future following the Onslaught conflict to question Magneto directly. After a battle, the only information that Magneto would impart was that Onslaught was defeated but Earth's heroes and Doom himself were lost, yet the heroes eventually returned except for Doom who was still missing. Doom made one last trip back in time and found a period in which Xavier used his mental powers to shut down Magneto's mind. Slipping into the Astral Plane, they witnessed as a dark entity was travelling from Magneto's mind into Xavier's. Doom sought to harness the creature's power, but this entity proved too powerful and they were forced to flee back to their own era to avoid destruction. Believing that the knowledge of Onslaught's coming alone was enough to prepare for its eventual arrival, Doom then slew the Seer as his usefulness had come to an end. However, Doom would not come to face the threat of Onslaught until at least a decade later, apparently telling nobody or doing nothing to prevent the crisis from happening, likely in an attempt to capitalize on it for his own ends.
=== Renewed Focus on the Fantastic Four ===
Doom then began to focus his efforts on the Fantastic Four again, this time deciding to create super-humans that could compete with his super-powered foes. To this end he recruited brawler Bull Brogin, con man "Handsome" Harry Phillips, and former circus performer turned robber Yogi Dakor. Using his scientific skills he enhanced Brogin's strength, Phillips' hearing, and made Dakor totally fireproof. He then sent his Terrible Trio against individual members of the Fantastic Four, with Doom himself going after Reed Richards. Doom succeeded in capturing Mr. Fantastic with the aid of a robot designed to imitate the Thing. With the rest of his group successful, Doom then placed all the captured members of the Fantastic Four in a room specially treated to open a portal into space once a "solar wave" passed through Earth's atmosphere. However the Fantastic Four managed to break free and leave Doom to get caught in his own trap. Doom found himself trapped in space out near the planet Jupiter with limited life support in his armor. However instead of perishing in space, he was rescued by the time-traveller known as Rama-Tut who was on his way back to his native time in the 30th century of Earth-6311 following his defeat at the hands of the Fantastic Four in ancient Egypt. Tut explained to Doom that he was a possible ancestor as he found Doom's original Time-Platform and developed his own time machine based on its technology. When Dr. Doom suggested that they might be both the same man living in two different eras, Rama-Tut did not correct Doom from this way of thinking, and returned him to Earth. There, Doom used his position as ruler of Latveria into tricking the Fantastic Four into attending a party at the Latverian Embassy in New York. There his aids fed them drinks that were laced with a drug that caused them to see hallucinations that pitted the Fantastic Four against each other. However, the group saw through this when Doom exposed himself during a moment of vanity where he looked upon his scarred face and shot the mirror to remove it's horrid sight. Doom then fled to the Baxter Building where the FF fought him. Richards then challenged Doom to a fight to the finish using a device that would pit their brain power against each other and destroy the lesser mind. Doom accepted this challenge, however this was another one of Reed Richards' tricks. Doom then fell for his own ploy: accepting a drink from Richards before their battle he was drugged into thinking that Richards was slain and he left the rest of the Fantastic Four to pursue his own efforts. Not long after this, the Human Torch sought to make a name for himself by attacking Doom at his New York embassy. Doom cryogenically froze the hero, but the Torch was later rescued by Spider-Man who briefly tricked Doom into thinking he had reconsidered the evil monarch's previous offer of an alliance.
Returning to his kingdom, Doom believed Richards to be dead until a magician came to entertain him. Using his powers of hypnosis the magician learned that Doom's mind had been tampered with and reversed the effects of the drug he had taken. Furious to have been so tricked by his hated foe, Dr. Doom went after the Fantastic Four for revenge, attacking them during a period in which they had briefly lost their powers and were being trained to use mechanical variations of their abilities. Doom took control of the Baxter Building and began using the FF's own technology against them, but the group was assisted through the initial onslaught by the blind crime fighter known as Daredevil. The FF and Daredevil managed to fight their way into the Baxter Building and during a clash with Doom, Richards used a special ray to restore their powers. Furious over being transformed into the Thing again, Ben Grimm launched a brutal attack on Doom. With his hands crushed and his armor gutted of many of its devices, Doom's pride was the most damaged and he fled the battle. Taking time to allow his hands to heal, Doom began developing a device called an "Emotion Changer" plotting to use this in his next scheme against the Fantastic Four.
Doom found the perfect opportunity to use the device: on the day of the wedding between Reed Richards and Sue Storm. The device cast influence to super-villains all over the globe and even in different times and dimensions, compelling them to attack the wedding. Doom took control of regular Fantastic Four foes such as the Puppet Master, Red Ghost and his Super-Apes, the Mole Man and his Moloids, the Mad Thinker's Awesome Android, the Super-Skrull, Attuma, and Diablo as well as other villains such as Kang the Conqueror, Grey Gargoyle, the Black Knight, the Mandarin, members of the terrorist organization known as Hydra, the Cobra, the Executioner, the Enchantress, Mr. Hyde, Electro, the Melter, the Beetle, the Unicorn, Human Top, Plantman, Batroc the Leaper, the monster Grogoom, and the Eel. These attacks were fended off thanks to the various super-heroic guests including Nick Fury and his agents of SHIELD, the X-Men, the Avengers, Dr. Strange, Daredevil, Spider-Man, and members of the Fantastic Four. During the course of the battle, Doom took the time to send a holographic projector to taunt the Invisible Girl while her husband-to-be and their friends and allies fought against the horde of villains. This did not intimidate Sue who instead destroyed the projector and joined the fray. Eventually Uatu, Earth's Watcher, intervened and teleported Reed to his base on the moon. There Richards was allowed to choose one device to help in his battle. Reed chose a Sub-Atomic Time Displacer which when used transported all the villains back in time to prior to the battle and erased all memory of the incident, this also apparently affected Doom. However when all media pertaining to the attack was also affected, Doom apparently remembered. This proved to an even more infuriating defeat as not only did his hated foes get married, but there were no reports of Doom's attack either.
Doom then focused on his usual stand-by plot: targeting another super-hero group as a means of intimidating the Fantastic Four. In this regard he targeted the Avengers once again by sending members Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch a phony letter claiming that the orphaned mutants had a relative who lived in Latveria who knew who their parents were. The Avengers joined their teammates in going and upon their arrival were arrested and imprisoned by the local police. As Doom expected, the Avengers broke out of jail, and so he erected an impenetrable barrier in order to trap his foes. Doom was so focused on his task he refused one of his people who begged him to lower the barrier so she could take her son out of Latveria to seek a medical treatment that would enable him to walk. Ultimately, the Avengers confronted Doom and destroyed the device trapping them in Latveria and managed to escape.
=== Power Cosmic ===
Doom's kingdom was soon visited by the exiled herald of Galactus known as the Silver Surfer and Doom began plotting to steal his vast cosmic powers. Doom sent an invitation inviting the Silver Surfer to his castle where Doom convinced the cosmic powered being to show off his abilities. Impressed, Doom then offered to show the Surfer his own wonders. However this only proved to be a distraction for the Surfer. While the Surfer was marvelling at a view screen that showed the open universe, Doom attacked using a device that drained the Silver Surfer of his Power Cosmic, transferring it to Doom. Using the Silver Surfer's board, Doom flew off to use his new found power to make himself the master of the world.
First Doom sent a warning to his foes the Fantastic Four before attacking them directly. Doom bested each member of the group and the efforts of their friend Wyatt Wingfoot. Convinced that his foes were incapable of stopping him, Doom decided to spare their lives until after he had conquered the planet with his new powers. While Reed Richards convinced the United States government to allow his group to deal with Doom, other governments decided to act on this new threat. When the Russian government sent fighter planes after Doom, he quickly atomized them before returning to his castle to gloat over his victory to the imprisoned Silver Surfer. Doom then went out into the world, plunging one city into complete darkness, flash freezing a tropical island, and mutating a gorilla into a powerful monster, losing it on the jungles it inhabited. Having tested the fullest potential of his power, Doom decided to turn his attentions to his foes the Fantastic Four and destroy them once and for all.
Doom clashed with the FF one more time however Reed Richards had developed a device called the "Anti-Cosmic Flying Wing" to attack Doom and then fly into space. Unaware of the barrier that Galactus had put around the Earth, Doom flew after it and slammed into the barrier and was seemingly destroyed. The Surfer's board however returned to him, and the captive alien managed to break free from Doom's castle.
However, Doom was far from dead, when he crashed into the barrier it alerted Galactus that someone else other than the Silver Surfer had hit the barrier he put around the Earth to keep his wayward herald planet bound. Looking upon Doom, Galactus decreed the dictator beneath his notice and used his vast power to trap him in a "molecular bubble" that slowly transported him back to his castle in Latveria. Doom decided to take this time to lay low and work on other schemes.
=== Laying Low ===
While recouping from his previous loss, Dr. Doom created a new robot dubbed the Prime Mover to test his strategy making skill. Doom then created robots based on another international terrorist, the legendary Yellow Claw, his niece Suwan and the Yellow Claw's lackey the Nazi war criminal Karl von Horstbadden. Doom and the Prime Mover than used these robots as a test against SHIELD and its director Nick Fury. The Yellow Claw robot had various clashes with SHIELD and Nick Fury, who were assisted by Captain America, Reed Richards and the Thing. But ultimately, after a number of clashes, SHIELD managed to bring down the faux-Yellow Claw and its organization revealing that "Yellow Claw" was really a robot. However, they did not learn of Dr. Doom's involvement. Doom was impressed with the Prime Movers abilities and gracefully accepted defeat in their "game" but vowed to one day deal with SHIELD directly.
After the hero Daredevil came to the Fantastic Four's aid to stop the Trapster from attacking the Baxter Building, Doom decided to come out of hiding to use the hero in his latest scheme. Battling a near exhausted Daredevil in a subway tunnel, Dr. Doom took the hero prisoner and brought him to the Latverian embassy. There Doom locked DD in a cell, but the hero used his enhanced senses to break free. Doom was prepared for this and set up a series of elaborate traps that played havoc with Daredevil's senses, ultimately incapacitating him. Doom then used a device to swap minds with Daredevil and take possession of his body, while Daredevil was trapped in the body of Dr. Doom. Locking Daredevil in a cell, Doom then went out in Daredevil's body in order to attack the Fantastic Four. However, Daredevil took advantage of the fact that Doom did not tell his embassy staff of his plot and convinced them that he was locked up by "Daredevil" and sent the thugs after their master. However, after a battle, Doom convinced his men that he swapped bodies with his foe and sent them after Daredevil. Daredevil then used trickery to get Doom to reverse the process. Going back to the embassy, Daredevil then ordered the Latverian military to prepare for an all-out military strike against its neighboring countries. Hearing reports of this, Doom rushed back to the embassy and reversed the body-swapping process. Daredevil then smashed Doom's device and escaped. After calling off his military, Doom then used a device to contact the Fantastic Four and convince them that Daredevil's body was possessed by Dr. Doom. This ultimately led to the Fantastic Four battling Daredevil, Spider-Man and Thor, but ultimately the nature of Doom's trickery was revealed.
=== Rebellions ===
Doom returned to Latveria where it was approached by another Fantastic Four villain, the alchemist known as Diablo. Diablo offered an alliance between the two, and when Doom refused Diablo showed Victor that he had his old childhood love Valeria as his prisoner. Doom tried to brush this off as of without consequence, but soon found that he could not ignore is old feelings for her and went after Diablo. Doom found Diablo hiding in his castle in the Adirondack mountains, which had been under military guard since his first defeat there. After driving out the soldiers, Doom learned that Diablo wished to utilize Doom's time machine so that they could both alter history and rule the world. However, Doom had no interest in this plan, nor a desire to share his plans with a mere lackey. He then betrayed Diablo and rigged his Time-Platform to transfer the alchemist to the distant future, gloating over Diablo's getting his wish -- to be the sole master of Earth, albeit a dead world. Freed from Diablo's exile, Valeria was horrified by how much Victor relished utterly defeating his foe and left, vowing to never return to him again.
Doom then began working in a new army of Doombots, garnering the attention of SHIELD who sent spies to investigate. Doom caught these spies, but not before some of his robotics technology got into their hands. As Doom planned, SHIELD enlisted the help of the Fantastic Four to try to sneak into Latveria and investigate more on the robots. When the FF tried to sneak into the country they were ambushed by Doom's new robots and easily captured and taken prisoner. Doom had the FF mentally conditioned to be unable to use their powers and instead of destroying them had the people welcome them as celebrated guests of Latveria. However when they attempted to flee Doomstadt, Doom barred their paths, telling his old foes that they would be welcome guests in Latveria for the rest of their lives. Doom then became aware of those who wished to overthrow them and while continuing to condition the FF To be unable to use their powers, Doom unleashed an army of new robots on his own people. The Fantastic Four led an armed rebellion against the robots and when the heroes began winning the fight, Doom activated explosives he set below Doomstadt that would destroy the entire village around his castle. However the explosion was deflected thanks to the timely arrival of the Invisible Girl (who was taking time off from the team to care for her and Reed's newborn son Franklin). The Fantastic Four the entered Doom's castle to face him directly. While the male members went one way, the Invisible Girl and Crystal found themselves in Doom's banquet hall as honoured guests. Doom intended to use his specially built organ to emit a lethal sonic attack on Reed and the others at the opportune time, however when one of Doom's scientists named Hauptman endangered a number of valuable paintings in Doom's art gallery, he killed Hauptman instead and having grown tired of his conflict with the Fantastic Four, allowed them to leave with their lives. Returning to his embassy in New York, Doom provided asylum to his old ally the Sub-Mariner who at the time had lost his ability to breath underwater and fly. Doom attempted to convince Namor to join him in taking over the world, however by this time Namor had given up aspirations to be a world conqueror. Doom then had all the water in the embassy removed in the hopes of pressuring the weakening monarch into doing his bidding. However, the Sub-Mariner outsmarted him by starting a fire and when local fire crew showed up to put out the blaze, the water from their fire hoses revitalized Namor's strength allowing him to escape from Doom's clutches.
=== Camelot ===
Doctor Doom and Iron Man traveled to Camelot where Stark thwarted Doctor Doom's attempt to solicit the aide of Morgan le Fay and Doctor Doom swore deadly vengeance for that interference, which had to be indefinitely delayed in the interest of returning to the present day.
=== An Heir to the Throne ===
After reclaiming the Latverian throne from a mad Prince Zorba with the help of the Fantastic Four, Doom took a young Latverian boy named Kristoff Vernard who was orphaned by Zorba's forces under his wing and made him his heir.
=== Battleworld (Beyonder) ===
Another coup came on Battleworld during the first of the so-called Secret Wars, an event during which the powerful and mysterious Beyonder kidnapped several heroes and villains from the Earth to have them fight with the promise of giving the winners their heart's desire. Doom became the leader of the villains, and after their defeat, escaped his holding cell and constructed a device out of the body of Klaw, to drain the power of Galactus. Using his stolen power he was able to attack his true target, the Beyonder. Doom lost the battle, but as the Beyonder came closer to dissect and study Doom, he managed to activate a device in his chest plate which hovered barely within his reach. Doom drained the Beyonder and became even more powerful. Too powerful, in fact--Doom was unable to rest, lest he destroy the universe with a dream. The Beyonder had however survived. He took possession of Klaw's body and used Klaw's guile to trick Doom into losing control of his stolen power, reclaiming it and defeating him. The Beyonder then vanished, with Doom and Klaw.
=== Emperor Doom ===
As part of a plan to conquer the world, Doom kidnapped Zebediah Killgrave, the mind-controlling super villain known as Purple Man and imprisoned him within a gigantic Psycho-Prism which not only bestowed Purple Man's powers on Doom, but also augmented them to a global scale.
Using this device, Doom manipulated the United Nations and every government to legally name him emperor of the Earth. Under Doom's command, the planet saw prosperity, equality, and the end of war and hunger, but at the cost of every citizen's free will. Additionally, Doom began to feel that his victory was almost meaningless, due to any lack of challenge to achieve or maintain his goal.
One challenger to Doom's rule surfaced in the form of the Avenger Wonder Man, whose unusual physiology rendered him unaffected by Doom's mind-control. After freeing several of his fellow teammates from Doom's control, Wonder Man attacked Doom Island, the location of the Psycho-Prism. Doom's dissatisfaction caused him to give up on a chance to prevent the heroes from destroying the Psycho-Prism. Thus, the citizens of the Earth broke free from Doom's control, and the Earth soon returned to its status quo.
=== Freeing his Mother ===
Doom eventually freed his mother's soul with the assistance of Doctor Strange. Strange had won the Aged Genghis' contest and was obligated to answer the request of the runner-up. The scheme to free his mother required Doom to incur her undying hatred; by volunteering Strange to take her place, Cynthia von Doom was so disgusted at her son that she became too pure to remain in Hell and departed for Heaven. Strange wondered if Doom had been aware of this outcome when he made the deal, but Doom simply mused that his mother's hatred was a price he was willing to pay to ensure her freedom.
=== Counter-Earth ===
When Franklin Richards was kidnapped by Onslaught, Doom (who saw this as an opportunity to steal the being's powers) joined the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and the X-Men to battle Onslaught in Central Park. An enraged Hulk was able to crack open Onslaught's shell. However, Onslaught remained as pure psionic energy, and separated Hulk and Banner, planning to spread across the planet. Thor plunged into Onslaught, trying to contain him. The Fantastic Four, the majority of Avengers, the Hulk-less Banner, and even Doom (who was grabbed by Iron Man) followed. Thanks to this sacrifice, the X-Men finally managed to destroyed Onslaught.
Doom, the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers and Banner were believed dead, but were instead saved by Franklin, who created a pocket dimension called Counter-Earth to keep them safe. After several months away, the missing heroes returned from Counter-Earth in a massive ship breaching the dimensional barriers. Doom attempted to take over the ship in mid-flight, leading to a battle with Thor which left both men adrift in dimensional space for a time.
Doom's travels took him back to Counter-Earth. He took over the world and moved it from the pocket universe to his original universe with magic and technology, putting it in the same orbit as Earth, only on the opposite side, creating a Counter Earth. Eventually he was overthrown and returned to his rightful planet.
=== Valeria ===
Due to a series of complex events involving the resurrection of Galactus, Susan Richards experienced became pregnant with a child she had previously miscarried. Once again, she experienced problems with her pregnancy. With Reed away, Johnny Storm contacted Doom for help, correctly guessing that Doom would be unable to refuse a chance to succeed where Reed failed. Doom used a problem Johnny had with his powers, an inability to 'flame off' without technological support, caused by being overcharged with energy from the Negative Zone, to save Sue's daughter. Doom channelled Johnny's excess energy into Sue to keep her alive. After the birth, Doom's only apparent condition for his aid was that he be allowed to name Sue and Reed's daughter, calling her 'Valeria' after his long-lost love.
Valeria's birth inspired a new plan where Doom made Valeria his familiar while seeking out her namesake as part of a deal with a trio of demons known as the Hazareth Three. By sacrificing his old lover, Doom was granted magical powers on the level he would possess if he had spent the past years studying sorcery rather than science. This began by making Valeria's skin becoming his new armor. With this new power, Doom trapped Franklin Richards in Hell, immobilized Doctor Strange, and neutralized the FF's powers. He tortured Sue, Johnny, and Ben and taunted Reed by leaving him in his magical library. Doom compared this to giving a dog a road-map and concluded that it would be impossible for Reed to achieve sufficient magical skill to be a threat to him. However, Reed was able to release Doctor Strange's astral self from Doom's traps, which allowed Strange to give Reed a sufficient crash-course in magic for Reed to free the rest of the team and trick Doom into angering his demonic benefactors, prompting them to take him to Hell.
=== Hell & Back ===
Determined to ensure that Doom wouldn't be a further threat, Reed took control of Latveria to dismantle all of Doom's equipment. Simultaneously Reed subtly drove his family away so he could trap Doom and himself in a pocket dimension where Doom would never threaten anyone again. However, this plan backfired when the rest of the Four attempted to rescue Reed, which resulted in Doom transferring his spirit into Sue, Johnny and Ben respectively. Reed was forced to kill Ben his best friend to stop his greatest enemy. Doom was returned to Hell, and Reed was later able to use the same machine Doom once tried to create to travel to Heaven and restore Ben to life.
When Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor, fell to Earth, it passed through time and space, momentarily breaching the gateway to Hell and providing Doom with an escape route. Upon his return to Earth, Doom regained control of Latveria, used its military to locate Mjolnir, and attempted to seize its power for himself, believing the hammer had chosen him to be its wielder by freeing him from Hell, but he soon discovered that he was not worthy.
=== Death ===
Sue kills him with blades made from her powers.
== Attributes ==
=== Powers ===
Magic: Doctor Doom was introduced to the mystic arts by his mother (who was of Romani and Latverian blood). He further developed his abilities by traveling through time and learning lost Dark Arts from individuals such as Morgan Le Fey. After Dr. Strange stepped down as the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, Doom was amongst the candidates considered suitable to replace him. However the majority of his powers came from the Haazareth Three, and upon angering them most of his sorcery was removed and he was trapped in Hell as punishment. While they enhanced his powers he could achieve the following:
* Mystical Blasts: Doom's mystical expertise was only the minor magics of the Earth.
* Mystical Force-Fields
* Invoke Entities
* Spell Casting
* Spell Reversing
* Summoning: Doom could summon hordes of demonic creatures.
* Teleportation
* Dimensional Travel: Doom could travel to other dimensions, including accessing the dreamtime.
* Mystical Ensnaring
* Mystical Portals
* Healing: Doom is able to heal himself and others from injuries.
* Banishment
* Time-travel
* Power Absorption
* Elemental Manipulation: Doom could create a blizzard within seconds.
* Telekinesis: After being sent to the dawn of time by Marquis of Death, Victor claimed that he spent a millennium transforming his body and mind, mastering long lost dark arts. This resulted in him to being able to use notable telekinesis as well as levitate himself.
* Power Nullification: Doom has repeatedly blocked the Fantastic Four's powers via sorcery.
Psionics: Throughout his history, Doom has mastered some minor psychic abilities. Those skills originate from his encounter with aliens and mutants, naming the Ovoids and the Marquis of Death. Doom once claimed that he had evolved as a being, though it is not clarified how or to what extent and in later issues this seems to have been ignored by writers. The following powers however are usually considered to be a part of Doom's skillset. Finally, those skills are the result of personal mental development and are not to be confused with magic.
* Mind Transference: By training with an alien race, Doom has gained the ability to switch his mind with that of another nearby human being with whom he has made eye contact, a process which he learned from the alien Ovoids. Doom once changed his body with Human Torch. However, Doom prefers his own body and only uses this transference power as a last resort.
* Hypnotism: Doom is able to hypnotize individuals, as he did with a kraken on Counter Earth.
* Technopathy: Doom can exert technopathic control over certain machines, most notably the Doombots, but can control other technologies too, as he did with his suit's charger, describing his ability as latent telepathy.
=== Abilities ===
Super-Genius Intelligence: Doctor Doom's most dangerous weapon is his intellect. He is one of the top mortal minds on the planet. He even cured Ben Grimm of his Thing form. Doctor Doom's Time Platform is one of numerous inventions; others include devices that can imbue people with powers, and many types of robots. He often uses "Doombots", exact mechanical replicas of himself. They look like him, talk like him, and even act like him. Individually, Doombots have an advanced AI (artificial intelligence) so that each one believes itself to be the real Doom. As a safety measure, each Doombot has a dampener program that is triggered whenever the real Doom (or another Doombot) is nearby. These "body doubles" appear when Doom cannot be present or is unwilling to risk his own life, and are often responsible for Doom's seeming return from certain death. Another common type of robot used is the Servo-Guard, the police force of Latveria. Doom specializes in all levels of physics, robotics, cybernetics, genetics, materials science, weapons technology, biochemistry, and time travel. He also has natural talents for leadership, strategy, politics, and manipulation. He was taught under leading roboticist Dr. Cronos. He has been shown as a prodigious electrical and mechanical engineer, admired by Tony Stark, an inspired theoretician with extensive knowledge of parallel universes and dimensions,[citation needed] and even a practiced neurosurgeon, having surgically separated Hulk from Bruce Banner. His knowledge extents to virtually any scientific field and his mind is said to work as fast as a sophisticated computer. Doom's knowledge of magic enhances his scientific brilliance; the time platform is a result of combining the two skills. Doom’s consciousness was vast and powerful enough to download a planet’s worth of data.
Master Martial Artist: During his time in Tibet, Doom was presumably trained in martial arts by the monks. He is vastly skilled in many combat techniques, both armed and unarmed. He has been trained by the best sword masters on Earth and can achieve very powerful nerve strikes. His combat skills are so great that he managed to kill a lion with his bare hands, to be indistinguishable to Daredevil while in his suit, and to wield Captain America's shield as skillfully as Steve Rogers himself. He was also able to defeat Black Panther in close combat even when his suit was depowered and incapacitate Taskmaster on pure hand to hand, without the aid of technology or magic.
Peak Human Conditioning: Doom has trained his body to the level of the finest human athlete. He is well-built, fast and agile. He has also displayed great reflexes and equilibrium. Victor once claimed that he was training and building himself physically for years, so as to be ready to face the demonic beings called from Mephisto during their annual confrontation. His physical strength and durability match even those of Daredevil.
Indomitable Will: Doom has phenomenal determination, fearlessness, and strength of will. Indeed, he has the strongest will on Earth. Hence, he was able to resist psychic attacks from Emma Frost and the mind control of the Purple Man using only his will, to reject the mystical armor that the Soulsword provides the wielder on sheer willpower alone and while he was tortured in Hell, he refused to let a single audible indication of pain exit his mouth. Doom's willpower could be considered even godly as, after having stolen the Beyonders' omnipotent abilities for himself, he was capable of creating an entire new planet from the remnants of incursion points between collapsing worlds, that new planet was Battleworld. He held this world together with his will.
Highly Influential Connections: As Monarch of Latveria, Doctor Doom has access to technological and military hardware. He also has command of conventional military forces; see Doctor Doom's Generals.
Charismatic leader: Doom is able to attract people's positive attraction, especially on the citizens of Latveria, even when his plans are failing. He is also a skilled politician and strategist and has occasionally been the leader of numerous teams, including the Cabal and the Fantastic Four.
Diplomatic Immunity: As the leader of a sovereign nation, Doctor Doom often visits the United States or the United Nations for political reasons. He enjoys diplomatic immunity during these trips, and his embassy is considered foreign soil. He has even been escorted by Captain America himself. After renouncing his status as ruler of Latveria, it is likely he lost this status. After reconquering Latveria, it's likely he regained it.
Artist: Doom has shown himself to be a talented artist. He painted a duplicate of the Mona Lisa while using Layla Miller as his model.
Pianist: Doom has shown himself to be a talented pianist. He has played various compositions of his own creation.
Master Swordsman: Doom has been shown being proficient in sword combat, having been trained by the best teachers - until he overcame them all - and being able to out-duel Warlord Krang in swordsmanship.
Weapon systems and vehicles proficiency: Victor is highly proficient in the use of weapons, mostly those of his own creation, such as battle suits, ray weapons and bombs, but he also utilizes rifles, guns and grenades with great aiming ability. He has also been shown as a capable driver of vehicles such as the Excavator and the Gyroscopic Aircraft
Multilingual: Besides English, he speaks all languages spoken in Latveria, those being Latverian, German, Hungarian, and Romany and possibly several others.
Master Chef: Doom is an expert cook. He described his potatoes dauphinoise as "the stuff of legends".
=== Weaknesses ===
Ego: It has been shown in the past that Doom can be manipulated by pandering to his sense of superiority, especially over Reed Richards. Spider-Man was able to gain his assistance concerning unknown technology by saying Reed could not figure it out. This ego is also the main reason for his vendetta against Reed, as he cannot accept that Reed understood his equations better than he did.
Deal with Mephisto: Doom made a deal with the demon Mephisto; he was allowed to summon and challenge Mephisto once a year and try to win back the soul of his deceased mother, but each time he fails the people of Latveria will grow to despise him more and more. He later "rescued" his mother's soul and she left Mephisto's afterlife to a better one.
== Paraphernalia ==
=== Equipment ===
Titanium Armor: Dr. Doom's original armor is a nuclear-powered, computer-assisted battle suit. It was magically forged at a monastery in Tibet, but since then has been repaired by normal (technological) means.
* Enhanced Strength: The armor gives Dr. Doom the ability to lift (press) several tons. He has held his own against Spider-Man and Hulk in hand to hand combat. The armor also grants him such strength he can pulverize a diamond with no effort.
* Enhanced Durability: The armor is fashioned of a high-strength titanium alloy enchanted with magic and has been shown durable enough to take a blast from the Infinity Gauntlet to point-black range, with little to no harm. The armor managed to withstand a massive explosion of energy at ground zero , from the Marquis of Death - which destroyed the entire capital of Latvia and the rest of the country.
* Video Communicator: Built into the right wrist is a video communicator, which he can use to stay in contact with his bases from any point on Earth.
* Electric Shock: The outer surface of the armor can generate a massive electric shock on command.
* Electrical Field: Also known as Electrical Force Field, the Electro-Magnetic Amplifier and Neural Disruptor, this mechanism allows Doom to generate a point-blank electric shock causing enormous damage to anyone daring enough to touch Doom - for example, someone in melee with him. It also affects, to a lesser extent, nearby people not in direct contact with Doom's armor. Anyone affected is susceptible to falling unconscious. Doom used this device to kill his clone and also to knock down Elvin Haliday and even Colossus, who had resisted previous attacks. It was however not enough to stun The Thing in the later's mutated, "spiky" state.
* Magnetic Polarity Controllers: Besides manipulating metal, this device allows Doom to redirect Magneto's power against him.
* Teleportation device: Doom's armor is able to teleport him across a short-range of distances
* Link to Doom's Time-Platform: An invention Doom can use to travel through time
* Flight: Dr. Doom's suits of armor are upgraded to give him the power of flight without the use of jet-packs.
* Jet-Packs: The typical suit of armor has twin jet-packs mounted at the waist, though other suits (or modifications of the original suit) contain a single jet-pack mounted on the back.
* Concussive Blasts: Concussive bolts of force can be fired from the gauntlets, fingertips, palms and faceplate of the armor, though the mask only generates force blasts when it is not being worn.
* Force-Field: 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 Vision: 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).
* Recycling System: 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.
* Sensor Systems: 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.
* Vacuum Resistance Doom's armor allows him to survive in space, underwater or at toxic environments.
* Solar Energy Absorption: 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.
* Thermal Units: This device hidden on Doom's gloves allowed him to spray a cloud of yellow mist with special properties to nullify invisibility powers of a character in an area. Once this enemy was located, Doom could easily change to a different attack.
* Personal Adapters: Using this device Doom can absorb multiple forms of energy.
* Special protection against other machines: Doom's armor is impervious to some of his other devices, such as the Disintegrator. His suit was also unhackable by the Extremis
* Splinters of the True Cross: Doom claims that his armor contains splinters of the True Cross, along with other such defenses (presumably to protect him from undead enemies, i.e Dracula) Considering Doom's capabilities to time travel, there is possibility of this being true.
* Optional systems: The following devices could be added to Doom's armor at his whim, but Doom himself only carried them if he felt he would need those:
** Energy Fist
** Fingertip Darts
** Image Projector
** Inhibitor Ray
** Instant Hypnotism Impulser
** Intensified Molecule Projector
** Ionic Blade
** Knuckle Rockets
** Mini-Missile Launcher
** Nerve Impulse Scrambler
** Neuro-Space Field
** Sleeping Gas
** Refrigeration Unit
** Sonic Drill
** Stun-Shocker
As a genius-level inventor and monarch of a sovereign nation, Doom can attain many other pieces of equipment as needed.
* Iron Man Armor: A suit of armor seemingly stolen by Doom from one of Tony Stark's labs, potentially the Iron Man Armor Model 51 retrofitted to suit Doom's style. This armor has been used by Doom in combination with his magical abilities, and it grants him the following abilities:
* Flight
* Cloaking
* Repulsor Blasts: A concussive blast of energy.
* Enhanced Strength
* Enhanced Durability
* Magnetic Manipulation
* Doctor Doom possesses two different Infinity Gauntlets from two alternate realities, but due to that, they don't work the same way in his home reality.
* Silver Surfer's Surfboard
* Mystical Armor: Doom used mystic armor obtained through a bargain with the Hazareth Three. The exact specifications of this armor are unknown and it was apparently lost when the Hazareth Three withdrew their support and empowerment of Doom.
* Destroyer Armor Replica: A replica of the enchanted Destroyer armor of the Asgardians Doom created after experimenting on the Asgardians. Powered by the life force of the Asgardians Doom experimented on, the armor was physically manned by Doom himself and provided him with enough power to go toe-to-toe with Thor. However, Thor eventually managed to destroy the armor with Mjolnir.
* Magnetic Grabber
* Sleeping Gas Pistol
* Sub-Miniature Transistor-Powered Atomic Blast Gun
* Reducing Ray
* Idento-Disc - These tissue-thin plastic discs allow Doctor Doom to track what ever they are attached to.
* Lighter-than-Air Robots
* Holographic Image Projector - Doctor Doom developed device that allows him to project holographic images of himself, complete with sound.
* Ultra-Heat Beam Pistol
=== Weapons ===
* Doom often carried a "broomhandle" Mauser pistol, which he used to dispatch targets "unworthy" of his other means of attack.
* The Tactigon
=== Transportation ===
* Time Platform
* Flying Fortress
* Aerosub
* Silver Surfer's surfboard.
*
== Notes ==
* In Latveria, Doom has his own holiday - Doom's Day, which is an enormous celebration.
* One of Doctor Doom's traits that often makes him stand out is his tendency to refer to himself in third person.
* Because of his status as ruler of Latveria, Doom typically 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 resulted in Captain America acting as Doom's escort/bodyguard whilst he was making a diplomatic visit to America.
* Doom has learned magic from several powerful individuals, including Doctor Strange and Morgan Le Fay. Doom has also taken apprentices of his own, such as Layla Miller.
* A limited series titled Victor von Doom was written by Nick Spencer with artist Becky Cloonan before being cancelled.
== Trivia ==
* In one retcon, the scar that Doom originally received from the explosion of his arcane device was, while large, not horribly disfiguring. In his eagerness to assume his masked persona, he donned the faceplate of his first suit of armor while the metal was still smoking from the forge. The burns he suffered from this act were thought to have made him truly hideous. However, this was later itself retconned in the series Books of Doom.
* The original story of his scar was that the explosion of his demonic portal actually did cause a hideous disfiguring scar, and to suit his own hubris, he donned the infamous mask.
* After the Secret Wars, the Beyonder appeared in Fantastic Four #288, where he explained that he had pulled Doom from a different time. He then rectified the situation by reordering Doom's appearances to fit the time-stream.
* Doom is allegedly a user of the FaceSpace social network, and friend to Nuwa.
* Doctor Doom made a cameo appearance in the pages of DC's JLA #1. In the scene, Doom and Wolverine are executed by a super villain team known as the Hyperclan. The scene was written by Grant Morrison.
* In Captain Britain and MI13 #10, Doom states he has studied under one of Dracula's greatest enemies, suggesting that Doom has traveled back in time to study under Abraham van Helsing. He has also shown that he did not recognize Dracula's title of Count.
* Doom killed his first person at the age of sixteen, however it was in self-defense.
* Doom states that his self-awareness began when he was within his mother's womb. Doom theorized that his mother's contact with demons is what made this possible, further stating that their "... touch opened [his] mind too clearly and too early".
* Benjamin Grimm may have been responsible for the accident that disfigured Doom, saying that he had tampered with Doom's machine some time before the accident.
* Doom owns three Renoirs, having previously possessed four, but ordered one to be destroyed merely because it displeased him.
** Latveria has its own version of The Beatles' song All You Need Is Love, which replaces "love" for "Doom."
** Even though Doom was expelled from college before finishing his only known higher studies, he claims to possess multiple doctorates.
** Doom has splinters of the True Cross which was said to be the Cross where Jesus Christ was crucified. Doom holds these stakes in his armor in case he comes across Dracula.
** Doom has a shrine wall to Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal.
** Victor appears to see some of himself in Jesus, since he considers himself a savior, and has quoted him during a confrontation with Mephisto.
** Doom believes that Mutants are not the next step in humanity's evolution, but instead serve to force the humans to evolve.