A deliciously diabolical and devastatingly dangerous man of vast knowledge and awesome power who is brilliant but arrogant, egotistical and vain--adept in sorcery and sciences--rules the small European country of Latveria with an iron fist and equally strong will. He is Doctor Doom.

Real name: Victor Von Doom
Occupation: Monarch, world conqueror
Group affiliation: None
Identity: public
Base of operations: Latveria, Planet Doom (Counter-Earth)
Place of birth: Gypsy camp outside of Haasenstadt, Latveria (now Doomstadt) the capital of Latveria
First appearance: Fantastic Four (Vol. 1) #5 (1962)

Height: 6'2"
Weight: 225 lbs.
Eye color: Brown
Hair color: Brown

Powers: Dr. Doom possesses the ability, though not-often-used, to switch minds with others. Also, he is well skilled in science and sorcery.

Weapons: In his armor, Dr. Doom can lift about 2 tons. One of the world's most brilliant scientists, he has amassed a seemingly endless arsenal of high-tech weaponry. At the very least, his armor incorporates a forcefield and concussion beams.

History: Victor von Doom was born to Werner von Doom, a gypsy healer, and Cynthia von Doom, a woman who practiced the arts of sorceryin the tiny European state of Latveria.

The gypsies were persecuted by the baron of Latveria, whose soldiers frequently punished and sometimes even killed members of their tribe. One night Cynthia's meditations were interrupted by the demon called Mephisto. The evil demon promised that if she surrendered her soul, Latveria would become a true homeland for her people, and her infant son would someday become its monarch. She agreed to Mephisto's pact and was granted tremendous mystical power. Cynthia found the baron's soldiers in a village tavern and destroyed them in a fit of anger. But Mephisto had deliberately given her no absolute control over her powers - the deadly spell continued to spread, and every child in the village died horribly. Cynthia was consumed with grief, and renounced her new power. Consequently, she was killed by one of the dying soldiers.

When Victor was a young child, his father was soon contacted by a Latverian Baron to use his gypsy skill and magic to heal his wife but Werner failed and the ailing wife died. Consequently the Baron vowed revenge on Werner and his troupe. The gypsy troupe fled the steppes of Latveria with the Baron's troops close behind them. Werner and Victor fled separately from the rest of the group, into the mountains. They were soon caught up in a cold and harsh winter, and both nearly froze to death when the gypsy band found them. Soon thereafter, Werner died, his last words being, "You must protect . . . protect . . . oohhh . ." Werner's close friend, Boris, fully realized that Werner did not mean to protect his son from the world, but to protect the world from his son and his vengeful heart. On his father's death bed, young Victor vowed revenge against the rest of humanity for the deaths of his parents.

After having losing his parents, Victor Von Doom was raised by Boris whom his father entrusted the care to. Victor began to study the mystic arts of magic with the help of his mother's belongings, a chest of magical potions and tomes. He had established a relationship with his childhood friend, Valeria but soon abondoned it. Finding he had an affinity for the mystic arts, he set to work on deciphering his mother's magical tomes. Soon, he determined the fault in his mother's logic - she sought power from another being when all that was needed was power from within. He also learned that his mother's soul had been trapped by Mephisto, and had not actually died. Doom grew up to travel the Balkans, tricking people to buy magical objects, such as golden statues, that turned to dust after he had left the area. He continued to con people until the dean of an American University heard of the young genius' talents. He was offered a full scholarship to State University in New York City and accepted. At the university, Doom encountered his roomate Reed Richards whom he used to declare to be his intellectual equal and Ben Grimm.

Doom's ego prevented him from calculating properly in inventing a trans-dimensional projection device for the purpose of making contact with Mephisto's realm. The invention worked perfectly...for two minutes, 37 seconds. It, however, resulted in an explosion. Consequently Doom was disfigured by his own experiment which malfunctioned. Although Richards previously had warned his classmate of a miscalculation, Doom refused to acknowledge it. Instead, he blamed Richards for the accident. For Doom, it was easier to be convinced that Richards had sabotaged his work out of jealousy than admit to his own mistakes. Thus the two scientists became mortal foes

Expelled from University for the accident, Doom bitterly traveled the world swathed in bandages. Eventually, Doom traveled to Tibet and discovered a village of Tibetan monks who had cast his suit of body armor that concealed his scars. He then went back to his homeland, planning to topple the previous Latverian king and usurp the throne of Latveria . He cleverly infiltrated King Vladimir's castle as his royal science advisor. He abducted and casted a robotic duplicate of Prince Rudolpho while deceiving a rival of the King, a count of the Drassen family, that he would aid him in a coup for the throne. The count quickly assassinated King Vladimir, thus allowing the robotic doppelganger to ascend to the throne and attend the funeral of his "father". Having fulfilled its programming, the now-king robotic Rudolfo abdicated the throne to Doom. Doom immediately established a peaceful and powerful dictatorship, which he dubbed an "enforced monarchy."

Doom continued to rule Latveria, occassionally using Doombots in his stead. Feeling a need for change, he began conducting cloning experiments to give himself an heir. While successful in cloning himself, he was forced into killing his clone on the day of Victor II's coronation. The ensuing battle left Victor incapacitated and Rudolfo's brother Zorba took control. Like his brother before him, Zorba was a poor king. Latveria quickly lost much of its previous prestige and wealth. Doom, having regained his sanity, was able to convince the Fantastic Four that he was a better monarch and Doom led a coup that resulted in Zorba's presumed death. It was during this uprising that Doom took a young Kristoff Vernard under his charge as an adopted son and heir after Kristoff's mother was killed.

Doom's memories,which as his robots were instructed, was to be transferred in Kristoff if Doom were to die. When, in a massive struggle between all super heroes and villains called the Secret Wars, Doom battled the Beyonder, a cosmic being of immense power, and defeated him, usurping his cosmic power. The power proved too great for Doom to control, and he was soon destroyed by the weakened Beyonder. As per instruction, his robots transferred all of his memories, which had been copied into a computer, into Kristoff, who took control of Latveria.

Doom's life has been shaped by the three goals, namely the ultimate destruction of his hated rival, Reed Richards and fabled Fantastic Four; world domination; and the liberation of his mother's soul from the demon Mephisto's realm which has been one of Doom's most sympathetic qualities. He has accomplished two of these objectives. Accompanied by Dr. Strange, Doom made contact with Mephisto and struck a bargain. Doom's deal includes a limited lifespan for his damned mother in exchange for the soul of Doctor Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme. By doublecrossing Mephisto, he succeeded in rescuing his mother's spirit from Mephisto's possession. While beating the Devil at his own game, which is considered Doom's crown achievement, Doom also got Strange out of there. And the next objective is world domination. Not satisfied with one nation, Doom begun preparing his schemes of conquest to claim the Earth. while the world's mightiest heroes returned from the alternate Earth after their last battle with the psionic being called Onslaught, Doom stayed behind and conquered that planet which he named "Planet Doom."

In spite of his repeated attempt, Doom has yet to defeat Richards physically or intellectually. He has, however, earned some psychological victories, of which one occured when Reed was forced to wear the armor inserted by the Dreaming Celestial while battling Doom. Unfortunately for Mr. Fantastic , he let himself to be influenced by the mystical properties of Doom's armor. Consequently, the longer Richards is trapped in Doom's armor, the more he becomes Doom. Only Reed's wife, Susan Storm Richards became aware of the fact that Richards is under the influence of Doom's armor, and was greatly disturbed by it. She concluded the only way to free her husband from the armor is to join forces with Doom. Then Susan Richards (Invisible Woman) helped transport Doom back to his Earth from Heroes Reborn Earth and managed to convince her teammates Ben Grimm (Thing) and Johnny Storm (Human Torch)to aid her. Richards battled the true Dr. Doom and lost. In the process, Doom reclaimed his armor triumphantly. The Fantastic Four returned home from Latveria to help Reed recover from the neural-interface withdrawal caused by Doom's reclaiming of his armor.