DOOM RULES!

 BY AJ DAZZY D

     Baron Victor Von Doom.  Dr. Baron Victor Von Doom to you.  I was first introduced to the best character in the Marvel Universe through Secret Wars and Super-Villain TeamUp.  The best, but also the most mishandled.  In the following mash letter to this grand poobah of villainy, I’ll be making the following contentions:  1) Doom is more powerful than the Illuminati all together; 2) Doom is in some ways like Batman; and sometimes Doom is an anti-hero.  All those wishing to challenge these points please line up neatly for the firing squad—because NONE DEFY DOOM!!!!!!
     Okay, I’m back.  Let’s just briefly mention that Doom is merely the gypsy son of a healer and a witch who was hunted by the Baron’s soldiers resulting in his father dying protecting him from the cold; who then through his genius attempted to rescue his mother from Hell and was stopped by Mephisto resulting in a demonic scarring of his face; only to find a sect of monks in Tibet that taught him mystic and techno secrets *draws a breath* and with whom he forged magical and technological armor and a variety of weapons which he used to take over Latveria and become a world power while he plotted his future conquests. *whew*
First appearing in The Fantastic Four number five (July 1962), Doom was something of a Cold War character.  The mechanical death’s head, a symbol of the new military/industrial complex which centralized power so much that an “Iron Curtain” could be draw across the continents by one “Steel Man,” and made us fear our own weapons technology (ever seen a little movie called The Terminator?).  In Ultimate Marvel and on the silver screen this rich, confusing, and somewhat inconsistent back story has been distilled to:  “he was with the FF when they changed and he became metal” and “he’s pretty smart.”  Luckily, Ultimate is starting to flesh him out a little, make him powerful, but still the complexity of the character leads to the old writers escape hatch:  “well, he’s too arrogant and insane and he’s not as great as he thinks he is, that’s his weakness.”  Yeah… I got an idea, how about: no.  How boring is another over the top, ego manic?  Doom has always been more tragic, more Vader than Luthor.

     I want to take you back to Secret Wars number one.  In those pages, the literal embodiment of dues ex machine, the Beyonder, brought the good and the bad to “battle world.”  But Doom immediately rejected the game, plotted to steal the Beyonder’s power, and was generally above the whole kill each other for a prize deal.  Not that Doom was polite about it.  When the slack-jawed villains ask him to join the battle he merely utters, “fools!” and levels the whole fortress.  That’s Doom.  Walking away in slow-mo after dropping a building on a lot of super-power idiots with “Battle Without Honor or Humanity” amping up in the background.  
And how about Super Villain Team-Up and Astonishing Tales?  In Tales many of the stories depict Doom as a king and a conqueror.

     Early on, he visits the French Rivera as an international celebrity and leader in a “the fantastic meets real world” bit that is rarely granted him now in the Marvel U.  In issue seven, Doom breaks off his invasion of Wakanda, not because he could not defeat the Black Panther, but because Panther had earned his respect as a ruler.  In issue eight, Doom continues his yearly battle with demons to free his mother’s soul.  Later, in Team-Up, Doom was wisely paired with the sometimes good, sometimes bad Sub-Mariner—both noble and vicious rulers.  In issue six, Doom prevents the FF from attacking him by convincing Henry Kissinger he is a nuclear power.  That’s right!  Dr. Doom has nukes—back up FF.  But then in next issue Doom tries to rape a peasant girl and is nearly taken out by—of all people—the Shroud!??  A perfect example of a complete and total about-face of character.  It happens again and again because Dr. Doom is a difficult character.  In fact, though the official bio lists his eyes as brown often, such as on the Doomsday cover, Doom appears to have green eyes; another example of Marvel not knowing it’s own character.  Luckily, in later Team-Up issues he returns to awesomeness when he saves the world (because no one may rule but Doom!) by defeating Red Skull, leaving Skull buried alive on the Moon.  But still Doom is constantly miswritten as insane or petty or, more recently, euro-trash.
Doom is a man from another time.  He is an Alexander, a Captain Nemo; a Napoleon.  Doom has/had three main goals:  godlike power, dominion, and freeing his mother’s soul (which he seems to have done).  The fourth, unofficial goal is revenge on Reed Richards for his part in many set-backs (Doom is never truly defeated).  On several occasion he’s actually achieved goals one and two.  Arrogant is a word applied to him often, even vain, but the reality is that he is everything he claims.  In Emperor Doom he took over the world, and the heroes were all like “other than the complete lack of free will Doom’s a pretty great leader.”  In Doom 2099 he saves and rules America.  He’s complicated man, and no one understands him, but his—actually nobody understands him.  He’s sort of like Tyr Anasazi from Andromeda.  They seek conquest and power because they dare to be more than human—they’re not insane or petty—they are the embodiment of the will to power.  Forget good or evil, how can a hurricane be good or evil? 

     Although probably an affront to God, Doom wants to be a god and he keeps getting pretty close.  On Planet Doom, Franklin Richards (who later turned out to be a construct) gave his world and powers to Doom because he was the only one that could straighten the mess out—and give him ponies.  Dressed in a cowboy outfit Franklin rushes towards the ponies only to be incinerated by a power gauntlet blast.  That panel might be the reason nobody can write Doom very well from appearance to appearance.  There he is saving the world and gifting ponies and then murdering a child—a child that was a threat to his world and his rule.  Noble but terrifying eventually just breaks down because it is such a hard line to walk.  Eventually, you get stuff like Fantastic Four: Unthinkable where Doom seems to forget all past dealings with demons and their previous torture of his mother and acts maybe a little too evil.  Or you go the other way like in a recent Black Panther issue and make Doom an insane loser.  Recently, in Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four Spidey tricks Doom into helping because “Reed couldn’t figure it out.”  Dr. Doom manipulated like a teenager—great twist Marvel, really working hard over there.  Don’t worry you can always say it was a Doom Bot.  Of course, people want to see Doom, but Doom can’t win, so this leads to the problem of how do you stop a guy like Doom?  Eventually, Marvel seems to just give up and let Doom get slapped around, like in the infamous Squirrel Girl incident (shudder).

Reality check; Doom is more powerful than all the Illuminati.  

Iron Man:  Doom had his armor before Iron Man and his armor is magic and high-tech.  He’s had his armor so long that he just said, “screw it” and started wearing clothes over the armor.  What Iron Man is Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. now?  Can you say “diplomatic immunity” for the sovereign of Latveria? 

Dr. Strange:  Doom can do magic, he’s all about the magic, plus he carries a C96 "Broomhandle" Mauser.  In a recent New Avengers Strange couldn’t stop a plane crash, so, how’s he going to stop a 7.63x25 mm Mauser cartridge? 

Black Bolt:  According to the official Marvel site Doom has same the durability as the Hulk and we all know who won Hulk vs. Black Bolt.  Plus, Doom could just shrink him down so the sonic attack would be reduced. 

Namor:  Look, in Amazing Spider-Man number 350 Doom crushed a grapefruit-sized diamond into dust with one hand—ever see fin-face do that?  Namor and he have played this game before, and Doom can go blow for blow with him or better, but he can also threaten to nuke, gas, or otherwise destroy Atlantis. 

Professor X:  He can control minds!  Doom can switch minds, baby, and back in Team-Up he created a mind control gas and Professor X was helpless like everyone else, hell, he even beat his on mind control (which was where they probably ripped off the whole Emperor Doom thing).  Doom’ll just hook the Purple Man up to a machine again.  And Doom has robots, lots of robots; they don’t have minds to control. 

And finally Reed Richards:   First off, (and I’m not bucking it) being a super genius is kind of an odd superpower.  I mean that annoying kid from WWH, Amadeus, can like hack a S.H.I.E.L.D. Hover-carrier with an electric toothbrush and a gameboy.  I mean genius is something people have right now—no spider bite required.  Does that qualify the main character from Good Will Hunting as superpowered?  Reed and Doom are the two smartest people on the planet.  Doom often is written as some Mr. Fantastic stalker, but in the past it was game betwixt the greatest players in the world.  But Reed gets all the glory.  Doom went from dying in the snow to ruling a country, and Reed is the top dog because he horribly mutated his friends.  Doom created the first time machine, for crying out loud—I can understand why the Doc sometimes gets a little tried of Reed showing up and acting like he’s not playing god over at the Baxter building.    Plus, you know Reed is still jones-ing to get back in that armor (Sue liked him better when he kept the gauntlets on).  Besides, what’s his power?  He’s stretchy.  He stretches.  Like a rubber band.  Doom is shaking in his jet-boots.  Marvel loves to tangle Doom up with Reed in their battles, but that’s lame since Doom has force-fields and electrical shocks and lots of gadgets to stop any would-be bungie cord attacks.  So, that leaves the genius thing, but Doom has an advantage.  Doom dares.  Doom is willing to build a machine to go into Hell, while Reed is always tip-toeing around. 

      Of course, Doom’s greatest skill is planning ahead.  He’s always manipulating enemies or forming temporary alliances.  Some of my favorite Doom stories are when the FF must ally with him, playing it out until his true intentions are revealed.  He plans ahead.  Because of this, in many ways, Doom is like Batman.  In Hush Batman narrates a gem about how deep down inside he’s a bad person.  Batman sees his parents killed and symbolically avenges their death by becoming the ultimate crime fighter.  Doom’s parents are killed, according to The Books of Doom, by a corrupt ruler (Doom’s mother carelessly attacks the Baron’s soldiers with the aid of a demon only to be killed by the remaining villagers and his father freezes to death hiding his son from the Baron’s soldiers, wrapping Doom in a now well known green cloak) and Doom symbolically avenges their death by seeking to be the ultimate ruler.  Both men have no special powers to start with, only an unbreakable will.  Both have trained and prepared for years.  Both have wards, secret lairs, capes, gadgets, crests they emblazon on everything, masks which are really their true faces, suits with automated defenses, unique sense of honor, and huge homes.  Well let’s not go over board, Doom and the Bat are different, but the difference is that Doom is a bad person and it isn’t deep down inside.  Batman chooses to do the right thing, but he has darkness in his heart.  Doom isn’t worried about right or wrong what with the nightly image of his mother suffering in Hell.  Ask yourself this:  “what if Batman’s parents had been assassinated by a corrupt monarch and he hadn’t chosen to be a ‘good guy,’ what would he have become?”

     If your answer is an anti-hero then you may be right.  Why is Doom always getting drafted into to saving the world or stopping other, lesser villains?  Because Doom has a sense of honor.  Doom’s brilliance and will power make him a powerful ally.  Like another anti-hero, Wolverine, he’s the best at what he does.  Like the Punisher he makes no exceptions, no half-measures.  Heck, stories like the ones in Tales and Team-Up have him as the protagonist, with the audience rooting for him (stories which can be found in The Essential Super Villain Team-Up, which can be purchased at your friendly neighborhood Heroes and Villains).  There are those that are drawn to him, like Lancer or even perhaps Silver Sable, but Doom isolates himself.  But most anti-heroes he is alone in life, and tragedy follows his victories.  Even saving his mother required her to denounce her love of him.  He is scarred in more than one way.  “Doom needs no one!”  Sound familiar?  Often Doom is considered a hero in Latveria, but he didn’t set out to be the savior of his country.  Doom has to be the anti-hero, he has to be the wrong guy in the right place ever so often, and then push away the audience and revert to evil.  Allow the reader of indulge in admiring his strength only to recoil as he rejects our praise.  A sort of Darth Vader, but not saved.  But Doom’s heroic leanings are for not in part because he is constantly being warped by poor writing, and because Doom is forever seeking more.  As such, Doom ebbs and flows from noble emperor to satanic monster. 
     Thus it is little surprise movies and random issues fail this character.  Like Stoker’s Dracula, Dr. Doom is a seductive character, but the trick is Doom’s appeal is real and not an illusion.  For the magic to happen Doom must be very powerful; he must have Batman-like will power, and he must lure the audience into liking him.  Is it any surprise Hollywood and even “the House of Ideas” fail to do it right?  Even Stan Lee has stooped to mocking Doom in his “Stan Lee Meets…” series.  But in the end the Master of Menace will rise again, because some characters are more than what is printed on a page. 

Until then, Doom rules!