(artwork: artgerm)
“I AM DOOM… DESTROYER OF WORLDS… WHAT GODS DARE STAND AGAINST ME?”
-DR. DOOM
Because Doom is a villain that is not a villain.
In short he was raised in a monarchy by Gypsy parents, both of whom died at an early age. His mother was a sorceress who was killed by a mob. Taking up her practices he battled Satan (Mephisto) yearly to try to save her soul from eternal damnation, and each year he would fail. In his mid teens he started a revolution against the oppressive regime until he got a scholarship to Empire State University.
He then created a machine that was supposed to save his mother, but ended up failing and scarring his face.
Fast forward through a Tibetan misadventure where he gains his armor and further scars his face.
Dr. Doom returns to Latveria. He overthrows the ruler and catapults his third world nation into a first world pseudo-paradise with the lowest unemployment rates, best education levels, lowest crime rates, and lowest suicide rates in the world. Of course, though, Doom is the ruler. It is not a democracy, but the people love him. After all he saved them, and he loves them.
He then invented a time machine and planned to kill Hitler before considering the paradox he would create. So he went to the future and was horrified by what he saw. Everything since, has been to achieve the following goals.
1. save his mother from eternal damnation.
2. Save the earth from its fate
3. Prove his superiority to Reed Richards
(He saves the multiverse from its fate in the second Secret Wars.)
All actions henceforth have been done in order to achieve those goals.
So he is, at heart, an arrogant hero. With some of the purest motivations. Contrary to popular belief, he is not heartless, or sociopathic. He just legitimately believes he is the best hand to guide the world.
Doom is unique in the fact that he is a super villain in name only. His backstory is that of a superhero, but he is seen as a villain because of his ideology and willingness to do whatever necessary to protect his people.
He even cares about the superheroes. He respects fellow geniuses such as Stark and feels such affection for Reed Richards and Ben Grimm that he has a framed photograph of them in his castle.
And if it comes down to it he will save their lives.
He just truly believes that he is the best thing that could happen to Earth, and when he does gain control of the Earth (or the multiverse), which he has done several times, he always realizes he is wrong and puts everything back to normal.
Recently he went full on superhero after saving the multiverse and making a utopia before losing it all. What caused this was he embraced his own imperfections. And strived to be better.
And man, even as a hero he’s still a badass.
Criminals reactions to hearing he went straight:
Right after Doom went straight, villains started turning themselves in, in droves.
Doom orchestrated the biggest super powered criminal takedown in history, DAYS AFTER GOING STRAIGHT.
I need to wrap this up, so, in conclusion, Dr. Doom is a badass, sympathetic villain, or should I say misunderstood anti-hero, with a great backstory that will fight gods, cosmic entities, heroes, villains, you name it, but he will always,
Always,
Find a way to win.
– Mark Specter
