Baron Von Gloom

### Occupation

Supervillain, astrophysicist, sorcerer, geneticist, astronaut, explorer, inventor, engineer

## Appearances

### Debut

The Vengers #5 ("Invasion of the Zorgoths!")

## Summary

**Kiel Von Gloom**, more commonly known as **Baron Von Gloom**, is a major supervillain and the ultimate nemesis of the superhero team **The Vengers**. Von Gloom was born to great wealth in **Sweden**, and went to college alongside **Michael Ike** (aka Vengers member **Buckethead**) at **Carnegie Mellon University** in **Pittsburgh**, **Pennsylvania**. There the two became intellectual rivals, and while Ike seemingly moved on, Von Gloom only grew more obsessed with proving his superiority following graduation. In the years following graduation, Von Gloom notably constructed his own spacecraft and traveled the cosmos, meeting aliens and races such as **Thumb-Boy**, **Maximus Farquadth** (aka **the Seafarer**), **the Tieflings**, **the Zorgoths**, **the Gnozerians**, and more. He studied interstellar technology and Gnozerian sorcery, and brought this knowledge back to **Earth**, where he discovered that the new detective vigilante Buckethead was actually Michael Ike. Von Gloom vowed to become Ike's complete opposite and antithesis, and became determined to become the world's greatest supervillain in response. Von Gloom constructed small hovering camera devices to watch Buckethead and the Vengers' progress in crime-fighting, while mastering his evil plans to defeat them.

Following **the Zorgoth Invasion** **of Broburg**, Von Gloom revealed his existence to the Vengers by sending one of his self-constructed experimental **Ghoul-Bots** to **Buckethead's apartment** in **Broburg** to teleport them to his castle lair in Sweden. There, he rigged a tape recorder to reveal to them his plan to use genetically modified bats and a honing device atop **the Bates Building** to cause an indefinite solar eclipse while automatically locking the doors and filling the room with poison gas. Luckily, the Vengers escaped and were able to return to Broburg. Upon return, the Vengers traveled to the Bates Building and confronted Von Gloom on its roof. There, they battled and defeated Von Gloom's henchmen, known as **the Gloom Goons**. Buckethead confronted Von Gloom personally, resulting in him revealing his identity and path to villainy to the hero. Von Gloom managed to easily overpower the Vengers in physical combat by using his superior sorcery and agility, but failed to realize it was a diversion for Butterfly-Man to command a butterfly to press the self-destruct button on Von Gloom's bat frequency honing device. The Vengers escaped down to the street and left Von Gloom atop the building as the device exploded, where he seemingly died. Knowing Von Gloom's genius level intellect and sense of vengeance, however, he could very well still be alive and plotting once again to defeat the Vengers.

## Abilities

Baron Von Gloom is easily one of the most powerful foes the Vengers have faced. He is undoubtedly one of the smartest people on Earth, having a complete understanding of various sciences including astrophysics, genetics, biology, and engineering. He has achieved feats such as single-handedly designing, constructing, and piloting a spaceship, genetically modifying bats to respond to certain frequencies, and developing creations such as teleportation technology and robots. Additionally, he has managed to not just learn but master at an incredibly advanced level alien magic. Finally, he possesses great wealth, being able to afford ownership of a castle estate and having an official title as a Swedish baron.

## Appearance

Von Gloom wears an unmistakably evil outfit. He wears a purple cape with a high pointed collar, a green tunic with a symbol of a pointed black bird on the chest, black tights and boots, a black belt, and golden gloves. Most striking however, is his green mask which covers all of his face except his eyes, and features a golden visor with three upward points.

## Characteristics

Von Gloom is extremely intelligent, yet incredibly obsessive. This obsessive nature paired with his immense ego can be his undoing, blinding him to certain factors that could lead to his downfall.

## Stats

**Combat:** Extremely high. Von Gloom's mastery of Gnozerian sorcery and high skill level at hand-to-hand combat makes him extremely dangerous.

**Speed:** Average.

**Reflexes:** Extremely high. Von Gloom is capable of catching a bolt of pure Tiefling magic energy.

**Intelligence:** Extremely high. Von Gloom is one of the smartest people on Earth.

**Stamina:** Above average.