Considering I have a retrospective about the guy, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Doctor Doom is my favorite villain. But it goes further than that: he’s my favorite character, period.
So because I don’t talk about Doctor Doom enough already, I decided to list a few reasons WHY.
1) Doom is complex
While the list is not exactly in order of importance, this is easily the biggest one.
For a character known for giving endless bombastic speeches about himself, Doom is not an easy character to predict. There are several aspects to him that have similar importance, and it’s not always simple to guess which one will take precedence in any given situation.
He has an obsession with honor, and yet he can be absurdly petty.
He will always keep his word, and yet he can twist his words to get his way.
He loves his people, and yet he’s not above murdering them if they displease him.
He has a deep love for the arts, and yet he burns priceless paintings he doesn’t like.
He wants to conquer the world to fix it, and yet he keeps world-changing technology to himself.
He hates the Fantastic Four, and yet he saves them time and time again.
2) Doom is versatile
Pick any hero or villain. Doctor Doom can interact with them and he’s not out of place.
Pick a setting, at any point in space and time, in any universe. Doctor Doom works there.
Pick a kind of story. Action, comedy, tragedy. Doctor Doom works there.
3) Doom can be the hero or the villain of the story
Sometimes he’s both in the same story!!!
More importantly, this doesn’t diminish his status as an adversary. He’s not like, say, Magneto: he may “join” the Fantastic Four for a bit or become Iron Man for a while, but Doom will always be Doom.
4) Doom is more of a force of nature than a man
5) Doom is painfully human
These two points should not work together, and yet with Doom they absolutely do.
He’s a character who punches way, WAY above his weight class, who boast about being basically invincible and most of the time having a good record of backing it up… and yet he’s deeply insecure, pathologically petty, and deeply inside him (very very deeply) he knows he’s not a good person who doesn’t deserve happiness.
6) Doom is ALMOST never out of character
You can DEFINITELY take him to far, of course. But he can be a hammy theatrical old-school villain that chews up the scenery, he can be a moody tragic figure, he can even be funny to a degree.
And of course if you DO take it too far, 90% of the time you have a built-in retcon device thanks to the Doombots.
7) Doom has THE best gadgets
8) Doom has the best insults and comebacks
9) Doom never lets you without a reason to cheer
Doctor Doom just won? That’s great, he deserved it!
Doctor Doom just lost? That’s great, he deserved it!
Doctor Doom only showed up for one panel and didn’t do anything? That’s enough to read the entire story!
Okay the last one is probably just me. I might need help.
10) Doom is just freaking cool
ALL HAIL DOOM!!!
