Doctor Doom appeared in the 1962 comic book called Fantastic Four.
He's actually 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.
Powers and Abilities[]
- 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.
- Super-Genius Intelligence: Doctor Doom's most dangerous weapon is his intellect. He is one of the top mortal minds on the planet. Doom even cured Ben Grimm of his Thing form. Doom has constructed hundreds of devices, including a working time machine, devices which can imbue people with powers, and many types of robots. His most frequently used robots are his "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 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.
- 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: (formerly) 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.
- 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: Except English, he speaks all languages spoken in Latveria, those being Latverian, German, Hungarian, and Romany and possibly several others.
Arsenal[]
- 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.
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.