DOOM

"Rivals... No one rivals Doom! NO ONE! Doom is supreme! There is no power on earth, no intellect in all creation to equal Mine!"-Victor Von Doom
The excellent Land of Cerpts and Honey http://landofcerptsandhoney.blogspot.com/ 

 is currently running  a selection of Comic book covers featuring Doctor Doom. This got me thinking about this, my favourite ever comic book villain (thanks Cerpts).

Fantastic Four issue 258: Interlude an issue that does not have the FF in it and is entirely about Doom. The definitive day in the life of the man.

Victor Von Doom aka Doctor Doom is the greatest villain in comic books. Clearly the influence on George Lucas’ creation of Darth Vader and based on every dictator from Hitler and before, Doctor Doom is a character who has never been adequately captured on the silver screen. There are elements of The Phantom of The Opera in the tragedy of his birth and subsequent disfigurement and he has pomposity of Mussolini.

What’s truly remarkable about Doom is that he is a mainstream comic book villain that has a level of complexity that was unheard of when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created him in the sixties. His story is a gothic tale and his evil is both deeply seated but with an underlying sense of honour. A grand guignol in pen and ink.

His nemesis, aside from the whole human race, is Reed Richards, leader of The Fantastic Four. Forget the movie; the Fantastic Four are the characters that got me into comic books and for a great deal of people they are the Beatles of the Comic book world with their creators Stan Lee & Jack Kirby the Lennon & McCartney.

Ruler of Eastern European republic Latveria, Doom is a benevolent ruler who has a fist of iron. A scientist, genius and master of the dark arts, Doom is only truly happy when he has the upper hand. Like a scheming political Machiavelli Doom must be obeyed and must have control. But beneath the urge to control is a man who has made huge errors in his scientific experiments and cannot ever forgive Reed Richards for being, for want of a better word, smarter than him. This inferiority is at the root of all he does.

That the Fantastic Four were the vanguard of the modern comic industry is indisputable and therefore a suitable villain needed to be created. Thus was born Doctor Doom.

I still to this day find it hard to understand how Lucasfilm were not sued by Marvel for the blatant plagiarism of Doc Doom when creating the Darth Vader character; Acolyte of dark powers, disfigured, evil, armour and cloak, fits of rage, hatred of nemesis, one and the same.

The enduring appeal of Doom for me is his arrogance, code of honour, intellect, scheming instincts and the feeling that there are always wheels within wheels where he is concerned. A bond villain a political bad guy and a ruthless dictator. Doom is the ultimate bad guy. A tragedy under the layers and a dark mystery at his heart.