Doctor Doom Appreciation - 2021

[Iron Maiden]

Lol Doom's ice skating? Lord of Latveria knows how to have fun.

He must have some retractable blades in the boots of his armor.

As I mentioned in the other thread, it is a little known fact that as a youth Doom wanted to try out for the Latverian figure skating team and compete in the Olympics.

[Doom'nGloom]

He must have some retractable blades in the boots of his armor.

As I mentioned in the other thread, it is a little known fact that as a youth Doom wanted to try out for the Latverian figure skating team and compete in the Olympics.

Doom sure likes to keep his inner child alive.

[Iron Maiden]

That's a good way to put it. To take a more serious bent, there's no doubt that his childhood was pretty bleak, dealing with the death of his parents and being pretty left much on his own. Boris showed him his parents' belongings and it was like "here you go, now carry on with life." We don't know just how he managed but I imagine Boris was there to provide some guidance. But I get the sense that he was pretty much left to his own devices. Undoubtedly he attended school and I think once again he did that on his own. Boris may have been his de facto guardian but nothing official was ever done as far as we know. The legal system in Latveria was probably pretty archaic in those times. We know of no childhood friends other than Valeria. Someone had to be feeding and clothing him in those times but things were left pretty sketchy in his origin.

[Doom'nGloom]

What I really like about Doom is that he's kinda relatable in the sense that he's a normal guy who was born into hardships. He's extremely intelligent and he may has an affinity for magic from his mothers side but aside from those everything he accomplished in life was through effort. He's not a mutant, he didn't go through some accident that gave him powers and he wasn't born a royalty. In essence I think he embodies what humanity can accomplish if they put their mind to it. Which makes it really tragic he usually chooses to be the villain when he can be one of the greatest heroes. I like the implication that Reed is what keeps Doom on his dark path. His hate for one man is keeping him from seeing the world through different eyes. It makes him flawed and human. When Doom saw what happened at the end of Secret Wars in 2 in 1 annual it clearly showed Reed is his achilles heel. I hope there are some juicy interactions in the coming reckoning war.

[Iron Maiden]

What I really like about Doom is that he's kinda relatable in the sense that he's a normal guy who was born into hardships. He's extremely intelligent and he may has an affinity for magic from his mothers side but aside from those everything he accomplished in life was through effort. He's not a mutant, he didn't go through some accident that gave him powers and he wasn't born a royalty. In essence I think he embodies what humanity can accomplish if they put their mind to it. Which makes it really tragic he usually chooses to be the villain when he can be one of the greatest heroes. I like the implication that Reed is what keeps Doom on his dark path. His hate for one man is keeping him from seeing the world through different eyes. It makes him flawed and human. When Doom saw what happened at the end of Secret Wars in 2 in 1 annual it clearly showed Reed is his achilles heel. I hope there are some juicy interactions in the coming reckoning war.

I do too. And IMO I think Reed feeds Victor's hate subconciously. Reed has a lot of passive/aggressive qualities as Cantwell implies in that great exchange between the two in Doctor Doom #9. Reed handling of that phone call (and why did he feel he had to call?) was pretty suspicious. Why did he feel he had to call? Reed has had a bumpy relationship with his teammates over the years and would get on Sue's nerves a lot. Slott pretty much sugarcoats him these days. In fact the does that with the whole team except maybe for Sue. To tell the truth I enjoyed the rambunctious Fantastic Four of old instead of the watered down version.

I think even Cap is suspicious of Reed's decision to give Victor a call while he's busy in space trying to stop the Antlion facility on the moon from blowing things up to Kingdom come.

[Doom'nGloom]

Reed is probably aware he's playing with Doom's insecurities but he just doesn't care much about it. As for Susan the fact that she stayed with Reed despite all the roadblocks shows how patient she can be and how much they care for each other although Reed doesn't always show it. I like it when they have to work things out with their relationship like after Civil War when T'challa and Ororo filled in for them. Makes their marriage more realistic.

[Iron Maiden]

Yes, I believe that rift and reconciliation with Sue and Reed in the issues written by the late and greatly missed Dwayne McDuffie. IIRC Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch were due to take over the FF but for some reason they weren't ready or there was some kind of delay and McDuffie filled in and did a great job along with Paul Pelletier on the art. I wish he hadn't gone to DC. It would have been great if McDuffie had his own shot at the Fantastic Four but maybe he was too tied up with a creator owned company at the time. I never agreed with the Millar/Bendis or whoever did the plot choices of putting Reed so squarely in on Tony's side and the hero registration stuff. Apparently they didn't reed Simonson's FF where he shows the team going to testify against a similar government initiative. Anyway, I don't know about you but I don't like Slott's run on the Fantastic Four and am looking forward to someone else taking a shot at it. I think Slott's swan song will be this Reckoning War event.

As for Reed, I think there are times when he is envious of some of Doom's projects. After all when Doom showed up with a time platform right off the bat, Reed had the device dismantled at one point and moved it to the Baxter Building for study. That's a big plot hole BTW because we never see Reed putting it back without Doom knowing. Although Bendis does bring it up years later in Mighty Avengers. I am going to have to make a post about some of my research. Doom's Liddleville technology is another that gets hijacked by other characters from time to time. Come to think of it we don't see a lot of that classic Doom tech much these days.

[Doom'nGloom]

So for someone who didn't appear physically Doom got mentioned a lot in Timeless. Oh and Kang is definitely jealous.

[Iron Maiden]

So for someone who didn't appear physically Doom got mentioned a lot in Timeless. Oh and Kang is definitely jealous.

Thanks....I just got home a llttle while ago so will be reading this soon. Then we can get spoilery if needed.

[ImperiusWrecked]

What I really like about Doom is that he's kinda relatable in the sense that he's a normal guy who was born into hardships. He's extremely intelligent and he may has an affinity for magic from his mothers side but aside from those everything he accomplished in life was through effort. He's not a mutant, he didn't go through some accident that gave him powers and he wasn't born a royalty. In essence I think he embodies what humanity can accomplish if they put their mind to it. Which makes it really tragic he usually chooses to be the villain when he can be one of the greatest heroes. I like the implication that Reed is what keeps Doom on his dark path. His hate for one man is keeping him from seeing the world through different eyes. It makes him flawed and human. When Doom saw what happened at the end of Secret Wars in 2 in 1 annual it clearly showed Reed is his achilles heel. I hope there are some juicy interactions in the coming reckoning war.

This is well written, it's also what draws me to Doom as a character, his personal internal conflict is so compelling.

[Iron Maiden]

So for someone who didn't appear physically Doom got mentioned a lot in Timeless. Oh and Kang is definitely jealous.

How about that scene where Kang is in the distant past without his mask and armor fighting a mastadon. Do you think he had to try and show up Doom and his lion wrasslin' feat?

Now I understand what that preview image was from a while back in the one version of Doom we did see. It reminded me of another story were Reed dressed himself in Doom's armor. I had almost forgotten about the Alex Ross/Jim Kruegar projects from some 20 years ago.....Paradise X and Earth X. It was an alternate version of the Marvel Universe where Sue dies in an early battle involving the Fantastic Four and a team up of Doom and Namor. During their fight, Sue and Doom die in an explosion and Namor kills Johnny. Reed is overwhelmed by grief and takes refuge in Doom's castle. In order to avoid all the security traps, etc. he wears Doom armor. This in Timeless Reed also put himself in seclusion as his Earth was being slowly destroyed. It does show that much like with Victor, when Reed loses his family or gets into a hopeless situation as we see here, he does down a dark path. He always benefited from having a stable life and doesn't handle it well when he loses that stability and security.

Cover from Earth X - Reed in Doom's armor

[Doom'nGloom]

How about that scene where Kang is in the distant past without his mask and armor fighting a mastadon. Do you think he had to try and show up Doom and his lion wrasslin' feat?

Now I understand what that preview image was from a while back in the one version of Doom we did see. It reminded me of another story were Reed dressed himself in Doom's armor. I had almost forgotten about the Alex Ross/Jim Kruegar projects from some 20 years ago.....Paradise X and Earth X. It was an alternate version of the Marvel Universe where Sue dies in an early battle involving the Fantastic Four and a team up of Doom and Namor. During their fight, Sue and Doom die in an explosion and Namor kills Johnny. Reed is overwhelmed by grief and takes refuge in Doom's castle. In order to avoid all the security traps, etc. he wears Doom armor. This in Timeless Reed also put himself in seclusion as his Earth was being slowly destroyed. It does show that much like with Victor, when Reed loses his family or gets into a hopeless situation as we see here, he does down a dark path. He always benefited from having a stable life and doesn't handle it well when he loses that stability and security.

Cover from Earth X - Reed in Doom's armor

Lol it sure seems so but when Victor did it he was alone. Kang accuses Doom of craving adulation yet he brings a whole tribe to watch him fight

[Habis]

So for someone who didn't appear physically Doom got mentioned a lot in Timeless. Oh and Kang is definitely jealous.

I see it as Hard Working Kang envying Innately Talented Doom...

Yeah, Kang has conquered galaxies ... but he had to train and study and plan and work for thousands of years to become what he is now and earn what he has...

Doom, on the other hand, has achieved everything he has done during the years in between his college days and his current middle age. At the beginning of his career he invented the time machine that became the foundation of Kang's power (Kang didn't even discover time travel on his own). He has gained cosmic divinity several times... etc.

Another man than Kang would think "Who cares if Doom is smarter than I am? My hard work has achieved more than his arrogant genius!" But Kang NEEDS to be the best man... he doesn't care about gains, he only cares about WINNING... so he can't stand being less than Doom in any aspect...

[juan678]

[Doom'nGloom]

I see it as Hard Working Kang envying Innately Talented Doom...

Yeah, Kang has conquered galaxies ... but he had to train and study and plan and work for thousands of years to become what he is now and earn what he has...

Doom, on the other hand, has achieved everything he has done during the years in between his college days and his current middle age. At the beginning of his career he invented the time machine that became the foundation of Kang's power (Kang didn't even discover time travel on his own). He has gained cosmic divinity several times... etc.

Another man than Kang would think "Who cares if Doom is smarter than I am? My hard work has achieved more than his arrogant genius!" But Kang NEEDS to be the best man... he doesn't care about gains, he only cares about WINNING... so he can't stand being less than Doom in any aspect...

When you put it that way Doom and Kang are quite similar.

Thanks for this. Cautiously waiting for it.