SCOTT: Doctor Doom's look is pretty iconic but what's under that metallic mask of his? Is he truly
horribly disfigured or is he overreacting about his looks? Let's dive into the truth
behind Doctor Doom's biggest secret.
Welcome to Comic Misconceptions, the show that takes
you into detail about the things you think you know about comics. I'm your host Scott
Niswander, and a couple weeks ago I asked you guys to vote on the topic that you would
like to see for a future episode. The choices were between the real origins of Fantastic
Four and what Doctor Doom's face looks like, and obviously, judging by the title, I assume
you know which one won. But to my surprise, the voting was actually a lot closer than
I thought it would be. Doctor Doom only won by two votes, which tells me that sometime
in the future I have to revisit the Fantastic Four origin because obviously you guys still
want to see that one as well, and there could also be more voting in the future as well
if you guys like that. But for right now, let's talk Doom. Victor von Doom is your classic
comic book orphan whose parents' death sent him on a path to super-villianism. When he
was in college, he built a machine that would hopefully allow him to retrieve his mother's
soul from a powerful demon named Mephisto, but the whole thing blew up in his face, literally.
Von Doom was left hopelessly disfigured after the lab accident. He couldn't even stand to
look at himself in a mirror, and vowed that no one else would ever gaze upon his face
again. He was expelled from college and went to master the secrets of black magic. He was
taken in by some monks who forged his armor and mask, and from then on, he kept his face
hidden from the world, determined that no one would ever see how hideous he was. But
was he even hideous? Well, if you go by the action figures, it's kind of a toss-up. Marvel
has put up several Doctor Doom toys over the years with removable masks. Some have Doom
looking like he desperately needs to see a dermatologist, where others show him having
just a small scar. Here he looks almost Deadpool-esque, and here he just has a tiny, measly scratch.
Then there's this one that I'm kind of uncomfortable with. So, which one is it? Is he horribly
malformed or is he just turning a small scar into a bigger deal than it needs to be? Doctor
Doom was created in 1962 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, as were probably all of your favorite
classic Marvel characters. But it seems like these two had kind of different opinions about
what Doom's face looks like under the mask. I want to believe that they both started out
thinking that Doom's face is hopelessly disfigured. As we can see in Fantastic Four #10 when we
get this reaction of Doom removing his mask. The kicker? The comic was written by Stan
Lee and Jack Kirby, and the two guys freaking out over what Doom's face looks like are Stan
Lee and Jack Kirby. So, at least in this point in time, it seems the two were on the same
page about Doom's face. Literally, because they were on the same comic book page as Doom's…figuratively,
as well. And that's how the story played out for a while. Victor von Doom was scarred beyond
the help of medical science. But then, in 1983, Jack Kirby sat down and drew this. This
is a picture of Doctor Doom unmasking himself to reveal a small scar. So now, this kind
of poses a problem because, again, in that issue of Fantastic Four #10, an issue that
Kirby himself drew, we now see that he and Stan Lee are freaking out when Doom reveals
his face, but it's just a small scar. So, it seems like the co-creator of Doctor Doom
didn't even know what was under the mask at the start, and only went back to decide upon
a small scar many decades after the debut. I just wish that we could know what was going
through Jack Kirby's mind as he was drawing this picture. Oh, wait! We totally do. Take a listen.
SCOTT: I really like that explanation, and I fully accept it into my headcanon. Doom can't stand to see his
scarred face because, to him, it's an abomination, even though it's really not that bad. But
the problem is that now we have to explain why everybody else is freaking out about it.
Two years after Kirby drew that drawing, John Byrne steps up to the plate to give us what
might be considered the definitive answer as to what is behind Doom's mask. Is he disfigured
or just sporting a little scar? The answer is yes. In Fantastic Four #278, we see a retelling
of Doom's origin that is basically the same as we saw the first time, only now we get
to see what that lab accident actually did to him. When he unwraps his bandages and looks
in the mirror he see -- drum roll, please -- one single scar. The weird part about this
to me is that this is the only interpretation I can find where the scar is on his left.
In the toys, the Kirby drawing, and even the movie, it's always on his right. Interesting.
Doom looks upon his scar and declares his face too horrible for any human eyes to ever
gaze upon. He heads to the mountains where the monks build his armor, and they place
the freshly forged mask on his face before it has a chance to cool down, thus burning
his flesh. In trying to cover what he thought was a hideous disfigurement, he actually mutilated
himself further to create a hideous disfigurement. In the medical world, this could be diagnosed
as body dysmorphic disorder or BDD for short. People with BDD obsessively focus on what
they consider to be imperfections in their appearance. These perceived defects are greatly
magnified in their minds whereas, in reality, they could be very slight or even completely
imaginary. In Doom's case, there's definitely a scar there. But in his mind it's way worse
than what we actually perceive it as. But having a strong belief that your perceived
imperfections make you look repulsive is just one of the symptoms of BDD. Other symptoms
include the need to cover up the areas of insecurity, seeking surgery to fix the perceived
flaws, avoiding social interaction, frequently examining yourself in a mirror or avoidance
of mirrors altogether, all things that could fit Doctor Doom quite nicely. But I want to
know what you guys think is more interesting: a Doctor Doom with a legitimately disfigured
face that makes other people cringe or a Doctor Doom with BDD who thinks that his tiny scar
makes him unworthy to be seen by human eyes. Let me know in the comments. I'm very interested
to hear what you guys have to say. Thank you guys so much for watching this video, and
if this is your first time hanging out with NerdSync, we'd love to have you subscribe.
We do weekly comic book videos every Wednesday, and we don't want you to miss out on any of
it. Once again, I'm Scott, and we'll see you right here next week for more things that
you thought you knew about comics. See ya!
In the Savage Dragon/Destroyer Duck comic
book, Duke and Howard bump into each other and notice that they're both ducks. This prompts
Melf to start spawning hundreds and thousands of anthropomorphic ducks inside of this warehouse.
In the chaos, everybody gets away and kind of goes their separate ways, but here's the
brilliance of it all. In the Marvel comic book, we see that Spider-Man leaves the warehouse
with Howard and Beverly, but in the Image comic book, we see that Duke grabbed the real
Howard the Duck, and says that Spider-Man actually took off with a clone.