Welcome back, nerd squad.
Today we take a closer look at one of the greatest villains in the Marvel universe,
Doctor Von Doom.
Doom is a complex character which is what makes him so fun to explore.
While he does some of the most dastardly things in comics and has practically been a god twice,
he is also one of those villains you can almost get behind.
When it's Doctor Doom versus the Fantastic Four, you almost want to cheer him on.
A lot of the time, he is trying to act for what he believes is the good of humanity.
Sure he's prideful and he has an insane ego but ultimately he doesn't hurt people to hurt
them, he sees it as hurting others for the greater good.
The crazy thing is that he actually is a pretty decent leader and sometimes the most powerful
person in the room, definitely the smartest, meaning he gets called upon for all kinds
of heroic tasks.
Today that is what we are going to be taking a look at as we count down the top 10 heroic
things Doctor Doom has done.
Let's get counting.
10 Killed Himself
Well more specifically killed his future alternate self in 2093 AD in Camelot.
This scenario comes to us from Iron Man vol 1, issue 250.
Iron Man and Doctor Doom must team up and travel to the future.
Once there they team up with Merlin.
By the way this Merlin has a beard that appears to have the end of it wrapped in an elastic
blue rubber band.
Why?
I don't know.
It's the future?
I guess we are just over 70 years away from that weird trend.
During the course of their adventure, Doctor Doom crosses paths with his future self who
is almost full cyborg at this point.
Doctor Doom feels shame at his future self, considering him undignified and desperate,
living beyond his prime.
As a result of this, he kills his future self.
Yikes.
9 Saved the World
So admittedly he also sort of took it over and made himself a god but during the 2015
Secret Wars event, Doctor Doom is the only one strong enough to save the existence of
the world.
Granted it's kinda messed up, it's not perfect, but at least it still exists.
Comprised of Earth 1610 and earth 616, as well as bits of other realities, it is a mashed
together reality split up into different territories.
Doctor Doom rules over it as a god and Doctor Strange even later confesses that he is really
really good at it.
Doctor Doom was the only one strong enough to take in the power of the Beyonders and
use it to build this reality, however in the end it is still Mister Fantastic that usurps
him and resets the Multiverse as we know it.
Still, you gotta admit for a last minute job, Doctor Doom did an outstanding job of saving
the universe.
8 Saved His Mom
In the Marvel Graphic Novel #49, we see Doctor Doom team up with Doctor Strange to save his
mother.
His mother was trapped in hell many years ago after a deal she made with a Mephisto
went unsurprisingly sideways.
Yet the only way to save her soul would be to make her pure enough to no longer be able
to reside in hell.
In the issue it is made to look like Doctor Doom sacrifices Doctor Strange to secure her
safety but it is later revealed that this was actually most likely a ploy of the brilliant
Victor's.
Something he had done simply to make his mother renounce him as a son and thereby free her
soul by making it as pure as it could be.
Whether or not this is true is not confirmed in the comic, though Doctor Doom was the person
who gave Doctor Strange the device which helped him to break free of Mephisto's grasp.
7 Saved the Survivors of the Zombie Apocalypse
While Doctor Doom doesn't survive in the Marvel Zombieverse, he certainly helps others to
escape it.
He is one of the last known survivors hiding out in his castle Doomstadt in Latveria where
he also houses many non-zombified refugees.
Sure they all happen to be the kind of attractive ones who are of a "breeding age" and are younger
but still he is saving people.
Unfortunately the horde eventually breakthrough to Doomstadt and Doctor Doom becomes infected
but even while the zombie virus is fighting to take hold of him, he manages to get the
survivors out through, well, basically a portal gun, straight out of Rick and Morty.
Ash of Evil Dead is also in the castle at the time and Doctor Doom even resists the
urge to devour the wise-cracking individual and also helps him escape.
He breaks the teleporter device just as the horde breaks in and the Thing threatens to
clobber him.
Pretty selfless stuff.
6 Defeats Thanos
During the Secret Wars event of 2015, God Emperor Doom defeats Thanos and handily.
These few panels that we find is issue 8 of Secret Wars were considered by many to be
controversial but ultimately God Emperor Doom has the power to single handedly defeat the
Mad Titan.
The Mad Titan tries to intimidate Doom and loses.
The weird thing isn't that Thanos used this tactic but that he used this tactic on someone
so narcissistic and powerful as Doom.
Thanos mocks Doom, telling him that when he wielded the powers of a God, the Infinity
Gauntlet, he used them better.
Doom asks if Thanos now possesses an infinity gauntlet but Thanos concludes he doesn't need
one for someone as low and weak as Doom.
Thanos demands that Doom bow down to him, that Thanos in his ordinary form is enough
to defeat Doom and earn his respect.
Disagreeing, Doctor Doom kills Thanos, not with the snap of his fingers but with one
swift life disintegrating blow to the chest, turning Thanos into bones.
5 Helped Deliver Sue Storm's Baby
When Sue Storm is ready to give birth to her and Richard's second child, Valeria, she almost
loses the baby.
Granted before she had actually lost it but that is a story for another time.
The baby which was originally stillborn the first time around, got a hard reset but Sue
is stuck with the same problem she was last time, namely that her unborn daughter is throwing
off waves of radiation that are harmful to Sue and the unborn child itself.
Last time every conceivable brilliant mind was called upon including even Doctor Octopus
and despite Reed Richards best efforts he could not save their child.
Now Reed Richards is occupied and unable to be at his wife's side as she goes into labour
and Johnny Storm calls upon the only person he can think of, Doctor Doom for some reason.
He is brilliant but I feel like calling upon your archnemesis is risky.
Doctor Doom agrees to help and manages to use Johnny Storms external energy--Johnny
could not flame off at the point due to this excess energy without the help of technology--to
save Sue Storm and her baby.
This also fixes Johnny problem as well.
When Reed Richards makes it back to his wife, she has already been successfully delivered.
Doctor Doom's price was that he would simply get to name her.
He named her Valeria and bestows her with the full protection of Latveria and his own
powers should she ever need it.
He then leaves, gloating that he did what Richards could not but still seeming to be
a pretty great godfather all things considered.
4 Latveria
Latveria is the nation that Doom rules.
Within his nation he is like a King but although his rules are somewhat strict, and he rules
with a literal iron fist, he actually is a pretty decent leader.
Sure, he demands your undying devotion to him and sure you may not have all the freedoms
you would have in another country.
But the people of Latveria do seem to truly love Doctor Doom, even Doctor Strange believes
it is more than show and is sincere.
Under his rule, Latveria prospers.
They have a good economy, healthy citizens, no one seems to go hungry or suffer from undue
ailments.
It is a relatively peaceful and calm place to live.
Sure he sometimes uses mind control on his citizens but hey mind control for a peaceful
existence seems like a not so awful trade off.
3 Prevents a War
Doctor Von Doom joins up with Winter Solider and Black Widow in the Winter Soldier 2012
series.
What's more amazing is he does so after Bucky breaks into his castle.
Doom almost kills him, thinking him some kind of vile spy as well as Cap's sidekick who
he thought had already died.
But before he can amend Bucky's existence, Bucky confesses that they are only there to
help Doctor Doom.
They share that Doctor Doom is being framed and that one of his Doombots, programmed to
look and behave just like Doom, is being manipulated into attacking the United Nations.
This attack would result in a war, potentially even a world war, who knows.
To avoid such events coming to pass, Doctor Doom agrees to help them and with Bucky and
Black Widow they work together to defeat the villainous plot and save the world.
2 Made a More Peaceful World
In the Marvel Graphic Novel series from the 80s, in issue 27, we see Doctor Doom become
Emperor Doom when he conquers the world.
He does this by harnessing Purple Man's mind control abilities and magnifying them with
the use of a giant Psycho-Prism.
When he takes control of the world, he actually proves himself to be a relatively astounding
leader.
Apart from the mind control, that is.
He uses his powers for good, not evil.
Sure, he makes himself leader of the world but he also ends war, works towards eliminating
world hunger and improves the economy.
He basically turns the world into a paradise.
Unfortunately this is short lived as although Doom enjoys being Emperor he soon finds that
mind control makes everything kind of safe and boring, too easy.
There is no gratification in it.
No struggle.
Which makes it kind of strange that he would later use mind control in his own nation of
Latveria.
1 Infamous Iron Man
No, I'm not talking about Tony Stark's Iron Man here.
I'm talking about Doctor Doom as Iron Man, he became Infamous Iron Man in his own 12
issue series in 2016 when he adopted Iron Man's mantle and decided to pursue a life
of heroics.
That's right.
Doctor Doom did for a time want to be a hero and aspired to it.
The best thing about him as a hero is he still has the flaws we know and love.
He is still prideful to a fault, making him appear rather flippant.
But he is still very powerful and shows remorse even in the villainous deeds he has formally
perpetrated.
He even manages to defeat a ton of villains as they plot to kill him, saying that he was
worse enough as an ally but as a hero he would be unstoppable.
Thank you so much for watching, nerd squad.
I hope you enjoyed this list.
Do you think Doctor Doom would make a good hero?
Do you want to see him join the MCU?
Do you think he needs the Fantastic Four to do so or could perhaps standalone as his own
character slash villain?
Let me know in the comments below.
He is personally one of my all time favourite villains because he is so complex and frequently
helps others just to prove he can and that he is smarter.
I also just love that even while being a villain he can easily perform noble actions and it
is still in character for him.
So complex!
While you're on your way down to the comments to share you thoughts and feels,
be sure to tap that like if you love Doctor Doom as much as I do and remember to smash
that sub and ring our bell.
We love it when you do.
This has been top 10 nerd and I'm your host Amanda McKnight, reminding you as always to
stay nerdy, YouTube.