"You twisted yourself around my hand? RICHARDS!!!!"
- From this moment on, there is no Victor Von Doom! He has banished... along with the handsome face he once possessed! But, in his place, there shall be another, wiser, stronger, more brilliant, more powerful than ever before!! From this moment on, I shall be known as Doctor Doom!
The Fantastic Four Annual #2 is a comic focused on Doctor Doom.
The first story, titled "Origin of Doctor Doom", is his Origin Story. His father was the healer of a gypsy caravan, persecuted for being unable to save the wife of a local baron. His son, Victor Von Doom grew to become an Insufferable Genius, and was invited to study at an American university. He damaged his face while conducting experiments, and was expelled. With his face disfigured, he created a body armor and a metal mask for himself.
The second story features the return of Doom in the present day, last seen hurtling off into space after an attempt to destroy the Fantastic Four. Rescued by the enigmatic time-traveller Rama-Tut, he returns to Earth, seeking his final victory against the Fantastic Four. As you may suspect, there's a catch...
Tropes for "Origin of Doctor Doom"
- Actually a Doombot: After playing so many pranks on the wrong people, Victor Von Doom (not Doctor Doom yet, and without armor) is captured and sent to the firing squad. They shoot him, only for their captive to A: keep talking even as he's being shot, and B: Not die."We did not capture the gypsy after all! It is some kind of mechanical man!"
- Aristocrats Are Evil: For all the evils that Dr. Doom may have come to commit in his time, the evil Baron of his origin story still takes the cake. He takes by force a poor healer with no resources and just the basic training for helping people in the countryside, forces him to save his dying wife somehow, and then tries to kill him when she predictably dies anyway.
- Bandaged Face: Doom's face is covered in bandages after the explosion. When he removes them, he's been disfigured. ... maybe.
- Cassandra Truth: Doom's father tries telling the baron he can't do anything to save the baroness, but he wouldn't listen.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Apparently one of Victor's antics annoyed someone in Latveria so much they send tanks after his caravan.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: And dads too. The story makes clear that while Doom may be EVIL, he cares about both his dead parents.
- Everyone Went to School Together: Reed, Victor and Ben went to the same college.
- For the Evulz: A teenaged Doom doesn't have any real motivation beyond using his scientific genius to be an utter nuisance to the rich of Latveria.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Doctor Doom builds his armor in a remote cave in Tibet, along with a nuclear-powered jetpack. In a cave. On a mountain. In Tibet.
- How We Got Here: The story starts in the present day, with Doctor Doom paying a visit to his mother's grave. Then we jump to the past, when he was a child.
- I Was Quite the Looker: Young Doom isn't exactly a hideous man. No wonder then he's so pissed about his face getting scratched up.
- Just Like Robin Hood: Victor, as a teenager, scams the rich and gullible of Latveria, then gives the money away immediately.
- Misplaced a Decimal Point: Doom made some mistakes in his equations and, despite Reed's warnings, didn't check them again. His machine explodes and his face is damaged beyond recovery.
- Misplaced Retribution: The baron's wife has a terminal illness. There's little a mere gypsy healer can do for her. So, when she dies, the baron sends his forces to destroy the gypsy village and kill the healer that failed to save his wife.
- No Social Skills: Victor Von Doom in college. Reed tries to be polite, and Doom basically closes the door on his face for no reason at all.
- Old Retainer: Boris, Doom's loyal second in-command, who was Father Doom's best friend back in the day. When he left Latveria, Victor told Boris to wait for his return, and it seems Boris did exactly that.
- Shameless Self-Promoter: The editors pat themselves in the back, in a narration box: "We confidently predict that you will call this one of the greatest, most memorable "origin" stories of all time!".
- Snake Oil Salesman: Before going to college, Doom got a small fortune by selling devices that seemed to provide instant solutions to mundane problems, but which malfunction as soon as he left and turns them off.
- Start of Darkness: Victor was a perfectly ordinary kid until his father died of exposure trying to save Victor. Then he found out his mother was a witch and... well.
- Teen Genius: Victor Von Doom was a scientific genius, building chemicals that could make wood and cloth tank-proof, in the isolated Latveria, with no formal education whatsoever.
- That Man Is Dead: "From this moment on, there is no Victor Von Doom! He has banished... along with the handsome face he once possessed! But, in his place, there shall be another, wiser, stronger, more brilliant, more powerful than ever before!! From this moment on, I shall be known as Doctor Doom!"
- Too Clever by Half: For all his arrogance, Reed was correct: Doom Misplaced a Decimal Point here and there, and that caused a disaster.
- The Un-Reveal: Whatever happened to Doom's face, we naturally don't see it, just his horrified reaction.
- Villain Episode: The story is all about Doom and his origins. Reed Richards and Ben Grimm only make a brief appearance in the middle.
- What the Romans Have Done for Us: The Latverians are shown to live in terror and awe of their new lord and master, Doom, but one citizen privately notes to himself that their country has been safe and prosperous since he took control.
- Where It All Began: The mother of Doctor Doom has been buried at the place where Doom lost his father.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Latveria is established as being nestled in the Balkans, though the natives dress in leiderhosen and speak the occasional bit of German (a policeman adresses Doom as "Herr Doktor").
- Who Dares?: "Who dares to enter the chamber of Doctor Doom?"
Tropes for "The Final victory of Dr. Doom!"
- Badass in Distress: Doctor Doom is floating helplessly in space, with barely enough air for a couple of minutes. It was fortunate that he's rescued by Rama-Tut.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Reed and Doom have a final battle, mind-against-mind. Doom wins, and erases Reed from existence. Is Doom gone? He's done gloating? Very well, let me explain. That drink that makes people see visions... he took a glass of it during the toast!
- Big Beautiful Woman: Ben chats up a well-built gal at the embassy, and is a little miffed when their conversation is interrupted by Johnny burning through the wall to attack him.
- Diplomatic Impunity: At the end, Doom literally walks away scot-free. Reed explains that as the head of state for Latveria, and having committed no actual crime (uh...) the team can't do anything to him.
- Evil Is Petty: Good old Doom again. His first act on getting back to Terra Firma? Lure the FF to a nice party, get them to drink some 'fruit juice' which is spiked with hallucinogens, and watch them tear one another apart.
- Frothy Mugs of Water: It was the 1960s. The Comics Code Authority reigned supreme, so the FF drink a 'special fruit juice'. Not wine. Definitely not wine. Just your ordinary fruit juice made from a berry served as high society functions. Fruit juice. Can't stress that enough.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: Doom's scheme might've worked if not for Doom's own presence. It was all going swimmingly, until Victor decides to chance looking at his unmasked face. He... has a Freak Out, and the noise grabs the team's attention. Later on, Reed slips him some of his 'berry juice'.
- Internal Reveal: The Fantastic Four discover just who the mysterious master of Latveria is. Surprise, it's Doom.
- Jerkass: The story begins with Ben having to deal with an obnoxious guy hassling him for damaging his car, even threatening to sue Ben and call the police on him for it. Making it extra jerky, when a passing millionaire offers to buy the remains of the car, the guy admits he'd been planning on getting rid of it anyway.
- Lured into a Trap: "Dear Fantastic Four, please come to the Latverian Embassy in New York, in costume, for a scientific award." All there on the invite. They go. It's a trap.
- Mistaken for Exhibit: The Thing breaks a car by accident and the owner is angry, but no problem, a millionaire wants to buy it for a huge sum. And now that he got it, mr. Thing, please total it, do a good number! He accepts, but then asks why. "It will be a new type of pop art! An original 'clobber creation' by the famous Thing!"
- No-Sell: Doom's forcefield is naturally able to withstand Ben Grimm's best punches.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Even Johnny realizes there's something up with Ben being more belligerent towards him than usual. It's actually part of the Mushroom Samba.
- Puppet King: Latveria has a Prime Minister, but it's pretty clear a large part of the man's job is "do whatever Doom tells him to when Doom tells him to do it... or else".
- Scully Syndrome: Rama Tut is a man from the 25th century, who committed crimes in several time periods using a time-travel device invented by his ancestor, Doctor Doom. So far, fine. But Doom has another theory: what if it is him who traveled to the future and did all that, meaning, what if Rama Tut is actually Dr. Doom? Or what if Rama Tut ended among the gypsies at some point, meaning, what if Dr. Doom is actually Rama Tut? And even worse... why do both of them even consider for a moment that such wild nonsense has any merit? Doom at least has the excuse he was just running out of air... decades later, Avengers Forever would have Kang recount the incident. He was just playing to Doom's ego.
- Series Continuity Error: Stan Lee had a tendency to forget details about his writing sometimes. In his previous appearance, Rama-Tut had said he was from the 30th century, where he was bored, then time travelled back to Ancient Egypt with no stops in-between.
- Shadow Dictator: Before this story, nobody knew who was the actual ruler of Latveria. They have a Prime Minister, but it's rumored that someone else rules instead. The ambassador dismisses this as baseless rumors.
- This Is Reality: The Latverian ambassador is entertaining some reporters who want to know the truth about the rumours about the shadowy ruler of Latveria, which he dismisses. He's halfway through saying this phrase before he spots Doom striding through the corridors, and has to hurriedly go see what his boss wants.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Doom's first thought on being rescued from certain death in space? How he can enslave his would-be rescuer. Good old Victor, never change.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Doom reads out his plan to the Latverian ambassador, then has him read it back to him, but we don't actually see a word of the plan itself, until it's underway.
- Woman Scorned: Sue gets pretty angry thinking Reed's cheating on her.
- Worthy Opponent: Doom actually says this of Reed in their showdown. Of course, he wasn't expecting Reed to walk away from it, so he didn't think the word would get out.
- You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good!: Reed tells Doom he could've used his scientific genius to help the word, but Doom rejects the notion.Doom: The world which made me an outcast?? The world which rejected me?? What do you know of the world?? What does anyone know??
Reed: Then nothing more remains to be said! We must always be foes!
