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Victor Von Doom was raised by
gypsies in a small European county called Latveria. He lost both of his
parents at a very young age. Swearing revenge, Victor began to increase
both his scientific and mystical knowledge with such determination that
he was given a full scholarship to Empire State University. It was at
ESU that Victor met Reed Richards and Ben Grimm, and where he started
his extra-dimensional research. Doom's vanity prevented him from
adjusting the schematics to one of his experiments, and the end result
was an explosion that scarred Victor for life. Expelled from school,
Victor began to travel the world, eventually stumbling upon a village of
Tibetan monks who trained him and crafted him a suit of body armor,
complete with face plate. He soon returned to Latveria, overthrew the
government and crowned himself King. Ruling with an iron fist, Doom began to
turn the resources of his small nation to his plans of world
domination.
He's a Doctor of What, Exactly? Although Von Doom is the monarch of the country
of Latveria, he lacks an advanced university degree. He apparently liked the
alliteration of "Doctor Doom" and just started calling himself that.
Such is the awesome power of an absolute ruler! First Appearance:
Ah, word of advice; don't mention "appearances" around Doom. He's a
little sensitive. Doom first ... came to our attention ... in
Fantastic Four 5. What's His Problem? Well, he has a couple. His
mother was trapped in a demonic dimension for many years, a fact
that caused Victor great mental anguish. A machine he built for the
purpose of trying to communicate with her blew up in his face,
filling him with an intense dislike of Reed Richards, who warned
Doom of mistakes in his calculations before the explosion.
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Doom wears his iron mask to hide the scars from that
explosion, although whether he was hideously
deformed or just received some small marks that his
pride forces him to conceal is unclear. (In fact, fans of
the original it-was-the-explosion storyline and fans of the
it-was-the-hot-mask retconn stillperiodiclyduke it out in the newsgroup rec.arts.comics.marvel.universe)
Abilities: Although Doom has some native sorcerous ability, his real power lies
in his genius level I.Q. and his brilliant mechanical designs. He has
constructed a time machine, something beyond the capabilities of his arch-rival
Reed Richards. His "Doom-bots" are so like him few people can tell if
they are speaking to the Master of Latveria or just an incredible facsimile. His
nuclear-powered armor is capable of generating a force field only psis can
penetrate, as well as strong blasts of energy he shoots from his armored hands.
Heroes He Keeps Running Into: Even though the Fantastic Four consider Doom to be
their villain, Doom actually pops up all over the Marvel Universe, casually
stomping on anyone who gets in his way. |
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He has faced the Avengers
numerous times. Individual heroes like Spider-Man, Iron Man
and the Dazzler get caught up in his schemes. It's hard to
avoid Doom if you have super-powers; he's always trying to
find a way to use those powers for himself. |
