Marvel Comics: Doctor Doom - What is This Guy's Problem?

Well, Victor Von Doom's troubles really began before he was even created at Marvel Comics by the great Stan Lee & Jack Kirby. Doctor Doom was rushed into the comic book world to face the Fantastic Four without a proper background story behind him, in fact, he didn't have anything but his name and a fancy costume. So right from the beginning Doom was a confused character who was angry at his creators for reasons he didn't even understand. It wasn't until two years later that Stan Lee began to fill in the background of Doctor Doom.

Victor was suddenly the child of gypsies, and he was born and raised in Latveria, his father didn't have a name, and his mother was a witch. Most of the comic book world has no idea where Latveria is, but it was made famous because of Doctor Doom. Victor's father was killed by lackeys employed by the ruler of Latveria. Victor swears revenge, but then suddenly is offered a chance to journey to America and study in college. He jumps on the opportunity and leaves Latveria behind.

At college Victor befriends a young man named Reed Richards (later of the Fantastic Four). There Doctor Doom sets up an experiment to try and talk to the dead. Richard Reed warns him that it's not the right thing to do and it was dangerous. The machine blows up in his face and disfigures him, and then he is kicked out of school on top it all.

The real reason that Doc Doom was trying to build a machine at college was because his mother was trapped in a demonic dimension for many years, and he was going to use this machine to communicate with her. Many issues later we find out that his face is not totally disfigured but has a tiny thin scar on it. Victor is such a perfectionist that this tiny scar causes him shame and he does not want the world to see his disfigurement.

Not only does Doctor Doom have to put up with the Fantastic Four and is always being bothered by another group called the Avengers, and even gets into it with Spiderman, Iron Man and various others do-gooders. It seems that Victor cannot get any peace as he tries to take over the world.

He has a genius level IQ but it seems that have to be more than smart in this world where do-gooders won't leave you alone. They were bothering him so much that he created advanced robots called "Doom Bots" so that the heroes could not tell whether or not he was a robot or himself. This allowed him to go about his daily routine without the heroes who were a lot like paparazzi to him.

On numerous occasions he has actually captured heroes and tried to use their powers for his own, but, somehow they figure out a way to slither out, and escape him. Of all Marvel's villains, Victor seems to be the one that is always almost there in carrying out his dastardly plans, but for various reasons (maybe bad luck) they are spoiled.

So here we have it, Doctor Doom, it's like that kid in the basement who just got some awesome new toy but the other kids in the neighborhood won't leave him alone long enough to figure out all the cool things that it will do. And, just when he gets to the point of figuring out something spectacular about it, there's a knock on the door and it's someone interrupting his plans. No wonder he seems like a man who is constantly in need of a long nap and a couple of aspirin.

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