Latest / Vigilante Vibes Podcast / Ep. 251. Who is Doctor Doom?!

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Ep. 251. Who is Doctor Doom?! · Vigilante Vibes Podcast

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Hello comic. He smelled nerds in between My
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Name is Megan and I'm here with another character breakdown by
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the guy who is the talk of the town.
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All because of Avengers Doomsday, which I want to say is
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right around the corner but it feels so far away.
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But maybe a trailer's right around the corner.
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Unless the trailer is posted before this episode comes out,
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then check out my reaction to it.
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So I have made an episode like this before about Victor Von
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Doom, but that was about a year ago.
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My quality has gotten better and so much has happened with Victor
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Von Doom in the comics that we have to go through it all.
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So let me take you down the history of Victor Von Doom
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because he's a complex character, he's a cool character
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and he's one of my favorite villains and I think that's a
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pretty normal take. So let's get right into it.
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So Victor von Doom has many first appearances because he's
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taken on so many roles. His first appearance was in
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Fantastic Four Number 5 in April of 1962.
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That was as Doctor Doom. His first appearance as God
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Emperor Doom was in Secret ward #2 in May of 2015.
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His first appearance as Iron Man was Infamous Iron Man #1 and his
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first appearance as Emperor Doom was in Fantastic Four Volume 7
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#28 in January of 2025. He was created by Stan Lee and
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Jack Kirby. Victor von Doom came into the
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world in a Romani camp outside of Laviria.
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He his life started rough and only got worse.
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His mother, Cynthia died after a deal with Mephisto went terribly
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wrong. His father tried to save her,
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but failed, and the two fled into the brutal winter night.
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Victor made it through, his father did not.
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But that loss did stick with him.
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And then from there on out, Victor was driven by one goal.
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Master both science and magic, so he could free his mother's
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soul and make Mephisto pay. Which is a worthy goal, I'd say.
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But, you know, aim for the stars.
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As a young man, Victor fell very, very hard for a woman
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named Valeria. Or Valeria.
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I've been asking this for years and I don't know how to say her
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name. Everyone says it different, it's
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either Valeria or Valeria. I want to say Valeria cause
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Valeria sounds kind of like a disease.
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Unless the name of my listener's name is Valeria and I'm very
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sorry. But anyways, she did not return
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the feelings. But keep that name in mind.
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Not long after, he earned a scholarship to a university in
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New York where he met Reed Richards and Ben Grimm.
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Right away, there was tension. Victor and Reed clashed hard.
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They were equals intellectually, constantly pushing each other
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with wild, cutting edge ideas that left professors comparing
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them to legends like Einstein and Davinci.
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But where Reed focused on space travel, Victor became obsessed
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with building a machine to project souls into other
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dimensions, which would be a way for him to reach his mother.
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Reed spotted a flaw in Victor's calculations and warned him.
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Victor ignored it because it's Reed.
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You know who doesn't ignore Reed?
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The machine blew up, scarring his face and getting him
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expelled. From that moment on, Victor
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blamed Reed for everything. His injuries, his disgrace, all
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of it. Also, Reed Richard, the villain,
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and I will die on that hill. Bitter and determined, Victor
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disappeared and traveled the world until he found a group of
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monks in Tibet who helped him forge his iconic armor.
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Then he went home, took over Latveria, and crowned himself
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ruler, Which makes for a very interesting Tuesday.
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With a whole country behind him, he set his sights higher.
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Total domination. Naturally, that put him on a
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collision course with the Fantastic Four again and again
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and again. Doom's early battles were wild.
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Kidnapping Sue Storm, forcing the team through time, teaming
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up with Neymour, swapping minds with Reed, even shrinking
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himself into a subatomic world and taking it over.
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No matter how big or bizarre the plan.
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The Fantastic Four kept stopping him.
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But Doom never stayed down for long.
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He kept getting smarter and angrier and more dangerous and
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more spiteful. At one point he stole the Silver
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Surfer's cosmic power and actually defeated the Fantastic
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Four running rampant across the planet, until he lost that power
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again. Another time, he nearly took
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over the entire world using mind control, creating a strange,
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perfect society with no war, no hunger, but also no free will.
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Even then, he grew bored. Victory without challenge meant
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absolutely nothing to him. Despite everything, Doom did
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eventually succeed in freeing his mother's soul with help from
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Doctor Strange. The scheme to free his mother
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required Doom to incur her undying hatred by volunteering
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Strange to take her place. Cynthia Von Doom was so
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disgusted at her son that she became too pure to remain in
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hell and departed for heaven. Strange wondered out loud if
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Doom had been aware of this outcome when he made the deal,
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but Doom simply said that his mother's hatred was a price that
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he was willing to pay to ensure her freedom.
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For him, results mattered more than anything.
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So you can say a lot of things about Doctor Doom.
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You say he's a bad dude. You can say that he was a awful
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ruler, but you can't say he was a bad son.
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Over the years, he fought alongside and against just about
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everyone. Avengers, X-Men, cosmic beings,
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even saved reality itself from. In his own twisted way, he's
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ruled worlds, built entire universes, and even at one point
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literally became a God. But even with ultimate power,
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which unlimited power, he couldn't escape one truth.
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Deep down, he believed he was the flaw in his own perfect
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world. That realization pushed him in a
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new direction for a time. He tried to be better, working
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with heroes, giving up his throne, even stepping into Iron
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Man's role, which is infamous Iron Man.
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And if you're interested to know exactly what happens in that
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run, I have a video all about it.
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But Doom being Doom, that path never stayed simple.
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He kept slipping between savior and tyrant, always chasing
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control, always trying to prove he knows what's best for
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everyone. Out of nowhere, the entire
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planet got swallowed in dark force.
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A total blackout, no sunlight at all, which basically opened the
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door for vampires to take over globally.
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This was a fantastic run called Blood Hunt, and I don't care
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what anyone says, I loved it. So most of the world fell fast,
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but Doom was ready for it. He already put a spell on
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Latveria that instantly killed any vampire who tried to cross
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the border. While everyone else was
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scrambling, Doom saw an opportunity not just to survive,
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but to come out looking like the hero and grab even more power.
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He pulled in the students of Strange Academy from Madreport
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and brought them back to Latveria.
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Not long after, Doctor Strange showed up an Astro form
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alongside Clea, who is his wife, asking for Doom's help.
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That's when Doom dropped the real bomb.
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The whole invasion was orchestrated by Vernai, the
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original vampire who had taken over Blade Body.
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Doom then made his move. He asked Strange to hand over
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the title of Sorcerer's Prem so he'd have enough power to stop
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Vernai. Strange did not like it, but
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agreed on one condition. Doom had to give the title back.
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Once the world was saved, Doom accepted, at least on the
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surface he accepted. Now powered up as a Sorcerer's
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Prem, Doom combined his magic with the students abilities.
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Together they took down Vernai. Doom even cleared the dark force
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from the sky. But there is a catch.
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Vampires lost their weakness to sunlight.
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And right after the win, Doom immediately twisted the deal.
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Instead of giving the title back, he sent Strange back into
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his body and announced the entire world that he was now the
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Sorcerer's prim and their savior, which was diabolical.
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Then he vanished. Doom locked his self away in
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Latveria, shielding it with magic so no one could track him.
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Like they didn't know where you were from there.
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An astral form of course. He summoned The Avengers to the
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desert and basically called them out, asking why they never used
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their powers to actually fix the world.
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He even showed them a vision of a perfect utopia they could have
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created. The Avengers push back, saying
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forcing people into change would only make things worse, that
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their job was to protect the world, not control it.
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Doom did not care, he had bigger plans because of the Sorcerer's
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Supreme Mantle. Doom inherited a magical
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obligation to fight the scions of Sidorak, but he had zero
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interest in doing himself. So he dumped the job on Spider
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Man, gave him enchanted armor and the Reeds of Raggedore,
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which would resurrect him up to 8 times if he died fighting
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them. Problem solved, Very much in
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Doom style. Meanwhile, some magical beings
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tried to forge a weapon to kill Doom in the Astral Plane.
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He took them out, but they managed to hide the sword in
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medieval Europe before dying. Annoyed, Doom manipulated the
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Black Knight into tricking Reed and Sue Richards into finding
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the sword for him so he could destroy it.
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Then, of course, he immediately tried to kill them.
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But Reed, now with some magical skills of his own, got them both
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out safely. And then Doom made his biggest
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play yet. In a single day, every world
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leader supposedly willingly pledged loyalty to him.
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The entire planet became united. Latveria governments were
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allowed to exist, but only under Doom's authority.
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He promised to end war and provide top tier healthcare and
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education for everyone. He even killed Baron Zemo,
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replaced him with a Doombot, and turned Hydra into a force for
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good. When heroes exposed that trick,
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Hydra snapped back to being evil, which Doom spun to his
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advantage to win public support. He even rode a dinosaur version
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of himself as a symbol of his rule and sent Doombots around
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the globe to clean up any rogue copies.
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Reed Richards challenged him publicly on TV, but it was a
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distraction. While Doom was occupied, Scarlet
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Witch, Invisible Woman, the Black Widow infiltrated
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Doomstad, and what they found was horrific.
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Lavarian citizens had been imprisoned in Doom's castle for
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months, their souls being harvested to fuel his magic.
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They broadcast the evidence worldwide.
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Doom did not try to deny it. He straight up said he'd
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sacrifice millions more if that's what it took.
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You got to, you got to appreciate his gumption.
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That was the turning point. The entire world turned on him.
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Doom went to war against The Avengers, the Fantastic Four,
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and the X-Men, all trying to stop him from locking reality
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into a fixed point under his control.
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He fought Reed in the astral plane and completely outclassed
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him, a magic even absorbing Reed's power, but spared him
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because of Valeria or Valeria. I don't.
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I don't. So if you don't know who she is,
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yes, she was named after a woman that Doom loved.
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Sue gave Doom permission to name their child after he saved them
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and he chose Valeria or Valeria. And he's also her godfather who
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Valeria really really respects and she has a really big part in
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this one World under Doom event. So then Valeria or Valeria
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confronted Doom in his own mind. She thanked him for sparing her
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father, but begged him to stop. Doom brushed it off, saying he'd
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prove he could control everything.
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But back in the real fight, he pushed back even harder, using
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chaos magic to shut down mutant powers, shrugging off attacks,
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and finally unleashing his end game.
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He poured all of his power into one massive strike to create a
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fixed point in reality. His armor shattered from the
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force, shards flying everywhere as the plan succeeded, but he
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did not know that Valeria had arrived to stop him in Laviria.
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She got caught in the blast, impaled by a fragments in his
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armor. She tried to call out to him but
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then died right there. That absolutely broke him.
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One thing to know about Doom, as I said, he was very he's very
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complex, but there is one person he has loved more than anyone
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and that is the daughter of Reed and Sue Valeria.
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Doom immediately grabbed her soul before it could pass on and
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tried everything. His own magic, then the
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Vashanti. Nothing worked.
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In desperation he went to the Living Tribunal, begged them to
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undo what he'd done and bring her back.
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They refused at 1st until Doom showed them his soul and how far
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he was willing to go. Everything, no conditions.
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That was enough. They agreed.
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Valeria was brought back, that fixed point was undone, and Doom
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paid the price. Dying.
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He went to Reed Richards, not for help, not for forgiveness,
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but to tell him what he'd done. He gave up everything, his
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power, his rule, even his soul, just to save her.
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Reed told him Valeria was alive. Doom's answer was simple.
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It was worth it. His body faded away, leaving
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only his mask behind. And inside it, Reed found Doom's
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final message, his will carved into the one thing he left
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behind. So that continues on to the will
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of Doom and Dungeons of Doom. And you would think that who is
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he going to leave everything to? It must be someone we're not
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thinking it was Valeria, that he left everything to her, which
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makes sense. It it makes the most sense.
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But it was also like, I think we all saw that coming.
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And if you haven't checked out Dungeons of Doom, this is when
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the, I wouldn't say the world's leaders, but the world's
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governments, the world's shady outlets that no one should know
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about. They all go inside Castle Doom
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to take whatever he has left because he's dead.
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What's he going to do with it? And it is a terrifying and
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horrific comic because it heavily leans on the horror
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aspect of it. And it it was just really good.
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And if you haven't checked it out, you absolutely should.
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So in the end, everything comes back to the same core.
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Victor von Doom is driven, brilliant, and completely
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convinced that the world would be better if he ruled it.
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And whether he's saving reality or tearing it apart, he never
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does anything halfway. Because in his mind, Doom isn't
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just a man. He was the answer.
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And now he's dead. So that is Victor Von Doom.
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That is his full history of Marvel Comics.
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I understand this was a lot. This is a really big episode.
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Usually my character breakdowns are not this long, but it's
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Victor Von Doom and you can't leave out any details.
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So I hope you enjoyed this character breakdown.
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I hope we find out more about Robert Downey Junior's portrayal
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of Doom in the MCU coming up, and I hope you will like and
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subscribe. So with that being said, have a
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marvelous day.