This Magnificent Baddie was Headlined on July 2024.
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Not the move I would have made. Still-- it's a fair question. Why do look like me? Doesn't it create the possibility that I am one? That Doom may, at any moment, be a mere machine? That I am not myself? Of course it does. That is how I wish it. I once let Arcade strike a match on me, just to maintain that confusion. Think, boy. If I am ever defeated, or dishonored-- If I ever act in ways unworthy of myself... If I ever die... The word goes out: "It must have been a Doombot." And the reverse is true. My robots often fool my foes--I may be a robot now, speaking these words. How would you know? How would I? What is Doom? The flesh and blood that I can swap in and out of at my convenience? The mind I have copied to a thousand machines? No. Doom cannot fit in such small containers. I am not my body. Not my mind. I am... I am the old trunk, filled with ancient mysteries. I am the explosion in the college laboratory. I am the mask that burns with the fires of vengeance. I am the legend that unites this nation. I am the story of Doom. And if Doom is a creature of story...
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~ Doctor Doom to Ikol, referring to his Doombots.
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No one rivals Doom! NO ONE! Doom is supreme! There is no power on Earth, no intellect in all creation to equal mine!
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~ Doom to one of his henchmen, stroking his own ego.
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Actually, I am the gentlest, the most unambitious of monarchs! My only desire is to make my people happy--and to further the cause of peace, and of brotherly love! I have been informed that my devoted subjects actually dance in the streets, at the merest mention of my name!
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~ Doom to the Silver Surfer.
Dr. Victor von Doom, also known as Doctor Doom, is one of the main antagonists of the Marvel Universe, most commonly serving as the main antagonist of the Fantastic Four franchise, a major antagonist in both the Spider-Man and one of the main antagonists of the Avengers franchise.
He is the tyrannical ruler of the technologically-advanced European country known as Latveria, and is so destined to prominently seek and expand his rule over the Earth as well as the entire universe, as he believes it is the only way for them to survive. He is the arch-nemesis of the Fantastic Four, especially Reed Richards AKA Mr. Fantastic.
For starters, he's the trope namer for "Actually a Doombot". He's always one step ahead of the heroes by leaving behind a convincing robot decoy of himself to fight said heroes in his place, planning his next step for another day behind the scenes. Whenever he appears to make a dumb decision that results in immediate defeat, die embarrassingly, etc. it'll always turn out to be just a Doombot and not Dr. Doom himself, meaning he can always come back for future stories.
He has a tragic backstory of lacking social skills and getting orphaned as a child; his father froze to death in his arms after his mother got killed by an angry mob of her people for accidentally committing mass child murder while possessed by a demon.
He owns the entire country of Latveria after meticulously liberating its people from King Vladimir Fortunov, a monstrous dictator responsible for ethnic cleansing and mass murder (including mass child murder) towards the Romani people. Depending on the writer, Doom is shown to be fairly benevolent towards his subjects, and they love him for it. It's because of this that Earth's heroes legally can't do anything to stop him even if they wanted to; it would only start a massive war.
Although most comic book villains want to take over the world, Doom is one of the few to succeed in doing so twice, ridding it of hunger, disease, and crime before purposely giving up the power due to his boredom and lack of self-worth:
In Emperor Doom, he kidnaps and uses Purple Man as a living battery for a psycho-prism powerful enough to dominate the minds of everyone on Earth into submission, even asserting Namor the Sub-Mariner under his thumb by giving him a miniature psycho-prism with the false promise of allowing him to control the entire sea. Keeping a known serial rapist imprisoned against his will, even staring him down to lord his power over him by rejecting his commands through sheer force of will, is an act one can hardly call evil.
In Secret Wars (2015), he saves everything that he possibly could of Earth-616 and Earth-1610 during a multiversal cataclysm caused by the Beyonders, reshaping the surviving remnants to create Battleworld.
In Secret Wars (1984), while being dismembered and dissected on the verge of death's doorstep, he uses his last remaining limb to grasp godhood in the palm of his hand by obtaining the Beyonder's powers. He also reprograms Ultron into servitude.
In Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment, after repeated yearly failures in battle on Midsummer's Eve, Doom finally succeeds in rescuing his beloved mother Cynthia's soul from Hell so that she can finally move on to Heaven. Precisely, Doom purposely makes his mother forever hold him in contempt by betraying Strange to Mephisto, committing emotional self-harm simply to redeem and thus save the woman he loves most from an eternity of torment.
In Black Panther:Doomwar, he cripples T'Challa to the point where he and his sister Shuri are forced into hiding, all the, while Doom stages the Desturi's terrorist attacks from behind the scenes in an (ultimately successful) attempt to conquer Wakanda in its weakened state and steal enough Vibranium to, upgrades his Doombots and armor.
Despite being one of the most widely-recognized supervillains and narcissistic dictators in the entire Marvel Universe, Doom's genuine care for certain people, tragic backstory, being a well-intentioned extremist who wants world peace, and the fact that he always keeps his word in deals with others (although he's likely to find a loophole in the exact words both sides use) make him come off as a lesser evil compared to other villains, especially compared to his enemy Mephisto.
Overall, he's one of the smartest, most regal people, as well as the most talented sorcerers and scientists in all of comics. His brain is even compared to a sophisticated computer in-universe, to the point where even Loki and Thanos are wary of him.
What Makes Him a Baddie?[]
His entire vendetta against Reed Richards, by his admission, stems from petty envy as he can't fathom the possibility of Reed being smarter than him, trying to kill Reed and his friends/family multiple times over the decades because of it.
With that said, however, Doom has some genuine moral standards when it comes to that hate. He acts as a loving godfather towards Reed's daughter Valeria (who Doom had named after his childhood lover), and one time he even saved Reed's wife Sue from getting raped by deception to "respect the intimacies of man and wife".
In Black Panther:Doomwar, not only is he directly responsible for the deaths of several Wakandans (including Black Panther and Storm's loved ones), but he is also planning a genocide on the whole country.
In Avengers: The Children's Crusade, he manipulates Scarlet Witch in an attempt to take over the world, even killing a young Cassie Lang (although Doom brought her back from the dead in later comics).
In Thor #603-606, he abducts, vivisects, and cybernetically augments unsuspecting Asgardians and even makes them fight other Asgardians for his experiments, hoping to discover a way to obtain immortality.
While serving as God Emperor in Secret Wars (2015), he suppresses people's memories, personally hosts fights to the death, turns a blind eye to "minor" transgressions, kills Dr. Strange and Thanos, and even keeps Human Torch and Molecule Man imprisoned as living batteries to keep Battleworld stable.
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