Fantastic Four Annual #2
Origin of Doctor Doom!
Doctor Doom is met by his minion Boris on the eve of his mother's death. Doom ventures out to the field where his life began and reflects back...
As a young boy, Victor von Doom's father --a Romany healer-- is asked by the King's men to heal the King's wife. Werner von Doom tries his best but fails, and when the King's wife dies of her illness, he sends his troops to get Werner. Werner and his son Victor flee into the mountains, where the father wraps the boy in his own coat while they hide in the snow and ice. They are found by the rest of their clan and taken back to the village. Before he dies from exposure, Werner asks Boris to look after his son. Boris interprets this to mean to watch out for the boy, not look after him. Furious at the death of both his father and mother at the hands of the King, Victor digs up his mother's old chest, filled with mystical potions and books.
Doom soon becomes a master of science and sorcery, using both skills to protect his people and swindle the wealthy. He avoids execution by allowing the King's guard to capture robot duplicates of himself. Eventually, Victor's technological know-how attracts the administrators at State University, who offer him a full scholarship in America. Victor agrees, and while attending State University, he almost ends up sharing a room with Reed Richards. However Doom's arrogance and demands for private quarters prompts Richards to leave. This snubbing leads to Richards rooming with Ben Grimm. Victor becomes determined to contact the neitherworld and one day, Reed enters Victor's room unannounced and looks over Victor's notes for the device that would allow Victor to achieve his goals. Victor catches him and instantly becomes angry, kicking Reed out and ignoring the warnings that some of his calculations are off.
When his device is complete, Victor has his assistant activate it, but the miscalculations cause the device to explode in his face. Scarred, Victor bandages his face and is ejected from school in disgrace for his unauthorized experiment. Victor travels the mountains of Tibet, where he finds an order of monks who teach him about magic. Later, Doom has them fashion him a suit of armor. Impatiently, Doom places the iron mask on his face before it has time to cool. Doom then leaves the monks and eventually takes over his homeland, where he becomes the arch-nemesis to the Fantastic Four.
... With his recollections over, Doctor Doom returns to his castle, leaving Boris to wonder when Doom will menace the human race once again.
Recurring Characters
Doctor Doom, Boris, Werner Von Doom, King Vladimir Fortunov, Reed Richards
Continuity Notes
The portions of this story that occur in the present take place after "The Final Victory of Doctor Doom!" in this issue.
This story expands on the origins of Doctor Doom that were first told in Fantastic Four #5. There have since been more expansions in Fantastic Four #278, and Books of Doom #1-6.
Doom's tribe is identified as the Zifero Clan in Books of Doom #1.
Based on the time frame referenced in Dark Avengers #2, a rough placement of Doom's birth can be made. At the time of this issue was published Doom was likely born 39 years prior to this story.
Books of Doom #1 places Doom's around 11 years old when his father died.
This story states that the ruler that Werner von Doom went to go and treat was a "Baron", but is later identified in Fantastic Four #278 as King Vladimir Fortunov. Books of Doom #1 clarifies that his wife was dying of cancer.
Marvel Graphic Novel #49 confirms that the King's men killed Victor's mother, Cynthia Von Doom, but this was after she made a pact with Mephisto to strike at the King's army for their persecution of her people over the years. The spell slew an entire town of people, including children.
Books of Doom #1 contradicts this story, stating that it was a representative of the United States Army who came to recruit Victor. In this story Doom is taken on to invent new weapons of the American military and that his attendance at State University was merely a cover. A possible explanation for this discrepancy is this this account is told by Doctor Doom. Given his personality, Doom would likely not want to admit that he was hired by the military of a government he has a tenuous relationship with.
Further while most versions of Doom's origins state that Doom simply refused to share a room with anyone, Books of Doom #2 states that the military provided him with his own private room and a private lab for him to work from while at State.
Doom's obsession with contacting the "netherworld" was due to the fact that his mother's soul was trapped in Hell, as first revealed in Astonishing Tales #8 while that and Books of Doom #2 show a more biblical type devil, Marvel Graphic Novel #49 verifies that the demon who had Cynthia's soul was Mephisto.
For years Doom lamented over the damage done to his face from the explosion, making it sound as though he was horribly disfigured. However Fantastic Four #278 reveals that he only received a single scar that ran down his face. It was not until he placed the burning hot mask on his face was his countenance horribly burned.
Books of Doom #4-6 go into more detail about Doom's time with the monks, and his overthrow of the Latverian monarch, ending in the death of King Vladimir.
The Final Victory of Doctor Doom!
While the Fantastic Four deal with some troubles with the Fantasti-Car, Dr. Doom is rescued from deep space by the time-traveling Rama-Tut. Conversing, they somehow illogically theorize that Rama-Tut is perhaps a future version of Dr. Doom. Inspired all the same, Rama-Tut returns Doom to Earth while the ersatz pharaoh resumes his wanderings.
Back on Earth, Doom reaches the Latverian embassy and begins formulating a trap. With the FF unaware that Doom is really the ruler of Latveria, he invites them to a party, putting a drug in their drinks to make them see illusions. He tricks each of them into thinking they're being attacked by the others, before they eventually realize his machinations.
Regrouping, the team battles at their headquarters. Reed offers Doom a chance to destroy him, providing Victor can use a mentally-powered weapon against Richards before Reed can do likewise. As the contest begins, Reed offers Doom one last drink. Engaging the device, Doom believes he destroys Richards and departs the Baxter Building triumphantly. However, Reed has given Doom a taste of his own medicine, by drugging him with his own hallucinogen.
Recurring Characters
Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Girl, Human Torch, Thing), Doctor Doom, Rama-Tut
Continuity Notes
Doctor Doom was lost in space following his defeat at the hands of the Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four #23
Rama-Tut appears here following his defeat at the hands of the Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four #19. It was later revealed that the time storm that prevented Rama-Tut from returning home was caused by Immortus, his future self, as revealed in Avengers #269. This was done to assure that Rama-Tut would eventually become Immortus.
Rama-Tut's assertion that he and Doctor Doom may be the same man from different points in history does not match the established origin of Rama-Tut in Fantastic Four #19. This was later revealed as an early deception by Rama-Tut to manipulate Doctor Doom as explained in Avengers #269 and Avengers: Forever #8. Fantastic Four (vol. 6) #35 reveals that Rama-Tut is actually related to Reed Richards.
This encounter with Doctor Doom later inspired Rama-Tut to become the Scarlet Centurion as seen in Avengers Annual #2. He became Kang later still as seen in Avengers #8.
Doom was tricked into believing that he had killed Reed Richards, however he will see through this deception in Fantastic Four #39.
