YMMV / Doctor Doom

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• Ass Pull: Doomwar stated the Doom had seen many possible futures and the only one where humanity survived was under his rule, with the Panther God confirming he wasn't making it up. While it has been shown that Doom could make the world a better place the idea has been demonstrated in the past, these futures only work if you throw out the fact that Doom has in the past shown no interest in ruling the world if his rule is unopposed.
• Awesome Ego: Doom is no mere boaster, he has shown himself to be worthy of some of the things that he praises himself for. His crowning moment must be how, for a time, Doom was ruler of what remained of several universes.
• Awesome Music: The theme Capcom made for their fighting game, Marvel Super Heroes. Marvelvs Capcom 3 uses a very fitting and ominous remix of said theme for him. They also made a victory theme for him in Marvel Super Heroes.
• Base-Breaking Character: Doom is quite certainly one of Marvel's most polarizing characters, for some he's a cool Magnificent Bastard and one of Marvel's best villain for others he's an overrated Invincible Villain, and Marvel's most shilled character.
  • Another crowd of fans likes Doctor Doom in some storylines but feels dislikes how he's handled when writers like him too much and his Popularity Power and Character Shilling kicks in.
• Can't Un-Hear It: Fans tend to read Doctor Doom's lines and revelations from just about anywhere in the voice of Lex Lang, Julian McMahon, Simon Templeman, or Paul Dobson (along with maybe Maurice LaMarche).
• Common Knowledge:
  • Doom is often thought of and presented as someone who has superpowers, originating from the same accident that powered his nemesis team, the Fantastic Four. In actual fact, Doom's origins have little to do with the team — he did attend college with Reed Richards before his rise to dictator of Latveria, and that's where his hatred of Reed began, but much of Doom's story happened separately before menacing the family. Doom was born a peasant of Romani heritage in the fictional Latveria, before toppling a corrupt dictator and becoming a dictator himself, albeit not a personally corrupt one but still quite tyrannical and authoritarian. In regards to his powers, Doom isn't technically considered superhuman. He's primarily a brilliant scientist and genius, who is a political, legal, criminal and military mastermind, and powerful sorcerer who blends magic with science through the use of Magitek, and wearing armor that can stand up to Physical Gods while wielding enough power to take out some of Marvel's biggest heavy-hitters. This misconception arises from adaptations such as Ultimate Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four (2005) that gave him Adaptational Origin Connection with the Fantastic Four.
  • Also, Doom is often thought of a strictly an enemy of the Fantastic Four, as all adaptations of the team will portray Doom in such a manner. While he did debut off the pages of the team and is still essentially their most well-known enemy, with Reed Richards remaining his Arch-Enemy, it'd be more accurate to refer to Doom as the Big Bad to the Marvel Universe as a whole. His versatile skillset in magic/politics/science/military means that he's menaced the Avengers, Iron Man, the X-Men, Doctor Strange, Thor, Hulk, Spider-Man and Black Panther^note being a fellow tech-magnate ruler of a nation who also originated in the pages of Fantastic Four before spinning out, they actually have been known as "frenemies", among many others.
• Complete Monster: Not usually, but it does happen:
  • In the Roger Corman film: he was once a friend of Reed Richards who was nearly killed and crippled by an experiment gone wrong. In vengeance, Doom spent the next ten years plotting the death of Reed and anyone associated with him. When the titular team gains their powers, Doom captures them and plots to drain them. In order to steal a diamond to power a laser beam, Doom massacres the Jeweler's gang and takes Alicia Masters as a hostage. Giving the Four an ultimatum of either surrendering to him or have New York City be destroyed by the laser, Doom starts a painful process to drain their powers, and plans to execute Alicia just to torment Ben Grimm. When they escape, Doom fires the laser at New York and confronts Reed once last time. Defeated, Doom lets himself fall just to rid Reed of the satisfaction of saving him.
  • In the novelizations of Fantastic Four (2005) & Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, by Peter David & Daniel Josephs respectively, Victor Von Doom is portrayed as nothing like his regular incarnations, but rather a complete psychopath with delusions of godhood. Having a petty hatred of Reed Richards for not being as smart as him, Doom first attempts to leave his own fiancée, Sue Storm, to die alongside Reed and others to save his own skin. After gaining metallic skin and electromagnetic abilities, Doom murders his doctor for trying to tell others of his "condition", and later murders a business partner for insulting him. By the end of the first novel, Doom's true personality has come into full display, as he attempts to sadistically freeze Reed to death. In the second novel, Doom allies with Reed and rest of the Fantastic Four to stop the titular Silver Surfer; it is quickly revealed that it was a ploy on Doom's part to steal the Surfer's power, which he immediately uses to gruesomely kill an army general and numerous soldiers. In the end, as Gah Lak Tus arrives and begins destroying the Earth, Doom, rather than stop Gah Lak Tus with his power, only laughs as the world slowly starts to die around him, proclaiming he longer needs the Earth or anyone else, just himself.
  • In Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes: He lacks the redeeming qualities of his original comic counterpart. Responsible for the incident that led to Fantastic Four getting their powers, Doom later switched bodies with Reed Richards to ruin his reputation, to the point of deciding to overload the power core of Fantastic Four's base to destroy everything within several city blocks. Afterwards framing Reed for supposedly "experimenting on his friends", Doom tried to use his inventions to unleash the energy of the Negative Zone upon New York, which threatened to kill thousands. In his most ambitious scheme, Doom stole Annihilus's power source and brought it to Earth, threatening to destroy the entire universe, solely so he could use it to conquer and destroy everything he sees. Despite losing the way of controlling the power source, Doom still clung to it, not caring that it was close to wiping out all life in the cosmos.
  • In FANT4STIC: Victor Von Doom is a gifted young genius who worked for the government to develop a device that would be capable of transporting people across dimensions. After joining with Reed Richards, Johnny Storm, and Sue Storm, he was able to finish and together with them he traveled in an alien dimension where, after an accident, he gained superhuman powers. Desiring to create his own world in that dimension, Victor was not happy when government agents retrieve him, and thus slaughtered many of the scientists and soldiers in the base, including Johnny's father, before planning to use the teleporter to create a black hole on Earth and destroy the entire planet, solely out of God complex and hatred for humanity.
  • Marvel 1602: Count Otto "The Handsome" von Doom is the narcissistic ruler of Latveria, and the ancestor of Victor Von Doom, but lacking any of the latter's positive qualities. Obsessed with his self-aggrandizement, Otto believes that his supposed genius and handsome face entitle him to world domination. Using the birthing pens he inherited from his father, Otto breeds up armies of brainwashed vulture flier assassins and craven dwarfed servants to do his bidding, keeps the crew of the Fantastick imprisoned in specially made prison cells, sends killers after Sir Nicholas Fury and Virginia Dare, and has Queen Elizabeth I murdered lest her agents beat his to the Templar treasure he covets. In the sequel, he murders his lover, Natasha, plots to sell Susan and Jonathan Storm to Numenor of Bensaylum and his cousin as sex slaves—after hypnotizing them into killing Richard Reed and Benjamin Grimm—and finally betrays Numenor, murdering him and sinking the city of Bensaylum beneath the waves. Utterly vain and innately treacherous, Count Otto and his ego left a trail of ruined lives in their wake.
• Creator's Pet: Depending on the Writer. Some writers who really love Doom to the point where they will go out of their way to make him look good while making the universe bend over backwards for him. Jonathan Hickman is particularly infamous for this. This also extends towards writers giving Doom wins that he doesn't deserve or hasn't earned in any meaningful way, such as the time he defeated Taskmaster while he was mostly unarmored (save for the mask) and didn't use magic or high-tech weaponry to pick up the win in Dr. Doom #4. Considering how for most of his comic book career, Doom has never really been known for being an unarmed martial artist/combatant who battles skilled fighters out-of-armor, his victory over someone who basically specializes in that field can be a serious moment of scrutiny towards those who write for Doom.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Innumerable readers seem to see Doom for the pragmatic, confident, brilliant ruler that he boasts he is, while ignoring the myriad of atrocities he has committed.
• Evil Is Cool: Many comic fans find themselves impressed with Doom's costume, power and intelligence. He is often called, "the greatest villain in comics".
• Fountain of Memes: Doctor Doom's counterpart in the 2005 duology is the most quotable.
• Fridge Brilliance: Doom's face is hideously scarred because of an experiment that literally blew up in his face back in college. The experiment itself was a machine to let Doom contact hell, and it's often explained that Doom, due to his outrageous arrogance, ignored a flaw in the design which Reed pointed out to him, and it was this flaw that led to the machine's failure. However... Doom is an incredibly smart man, always has been and always will be. Yes, he's arrogant to the point of stupidity, constantly shooting himself in the foot through the sheer size of his ego, but even he is smart enough to notice a blatant design flaw. So what if the machine actually worked? It's revealed in a later story that Doom's mother is trapped in Hell, full of fire and brimstone. And what happened when Doom activated his machine? He got blasted in the face by a cloud of searing flames. What if the machine, that we've all thought for years malfunctioned, actually worked perfectly...?
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • His creator once called him his favorite villain. Even if Doom would object to his terminology "villain", he would have nonetheless respected the fact that Mr. Lee did appreciate him.
  • No matter how you feel about Doom, him marching into hell and saving his mother's soul is heartwarming.
  • Sure, he's killed people, ruined lives, terrorized millions, but he once saved the life of Sue Richards and her unborn daughter during childbirth, and ever since then, Doom's been considered Valeria Richards' godfather, and he's been nothing but kind and indulging towards her. She may be smarter than him and her father, but Doom treats Valeria with kindness and respect, and paves a way for her future.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In the 1981 compilation movie Doctor Doom Conquers the World, Doom's first words are "Of course." This echoes the words of a certain Internet reviewer and a certain less-successful fellow would-be conqueror of the world.
• Ho Yay: Many readers look at Doom's relationship with Richards and Doom's self-righteous hatred and obsession with him as merely a crude mask for sexual desire.
• Hype Backlash: Much like fellow uber-Memetic Badass Squirrel Girl, the rabidity of Doom's fanbase and the way that authors seem to bend over backwards to retcon any defeat of Doom, not to mention the amount of Character Shilling he gets, has led to a devout group of Marvel fans who can't stand him.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Marvel Comics: Doctor Doom has been Marvel's go-to Big Bad since the 1960s, and with good cause. An Evil Sorcerer, Mad Scientist, and tyrannical despot, Doom is respected and feared throughout Marvel's supervillain community, with both a Norse God and the Devil seeing him as someone to step lightly around. While many villains want to Take Over the World, Doom is one of the few who can actually pull it off, and at times he's reached well beyond even that goal, grasping for godhood with both hands. Capable of punching well out of his weight class, Victor Von Doom is the most dangerous man in the Marvel Universe and always bears watching.
  • Marvel Animated Universe: Doctor Victor Von Doom is the ruler of Latveria and a master of both science and the mystic arts. After losing his parents under a tyrannical regime and being disfigured in a horrific lab accident, Doom declared he would bring peace to the world under his iron fist. He feuded with the Fantastic Four on numerous occasions and was the one who destroyed their headquarters at the Baxter Building. Doom has twice stolen the powers of the Silver Surfer and tricked the Hulk into nearly killing the Thing. When the UN ordered him to be tried for war crimes, Doom trapped Washington D.C. under a force field and forced the Hulk to destroy the entire capital. Doom was the most successful villain during the Secret Wars and transformed the territories he conquered into utopias free from conflict or strive. Managing to even steal the powers of the almighty Beyonder, Doctor Doom has proven he has one of the most cunning and audacious minds in the Marvel Animated Universe.
  • Marvel Heroes: Doctor Doom is the ruler of Latveria, and the first Big Bad of the story. Hacking into Tony Stark's archives, Doom discovers the existence of the Cosmic Cube, and seeks to harness its reality-warping powers for himself. Doom employs various supervillains to keep the heroes occupied while he continues with his plans behind the scenes, using both sides to gather various powerful artifacts for him. Once he has gathered all the artifacts, Doom promptly destroys them to ensure that they would not be used against him. He also employs Mister Sinister to clone the mutant Bishop, utilising the mutant's energy absorption powers as a conduit to safely harness the Cube's energy. With the Cube's powers, Doom intends to reshape the world in his own image. Returning from his defeat, Doom exposes the Skrull's secret invasion of Earth and forms an Enemy Mine with the heroes to stop them. A cold and taciturn schemer, Doom always stayed one step ahead of the heroes, and came close to attaining the power he had long sought.
  • Marvel Ultimate Alliance: Doctor Doom is the charismatic leader of the Masters of Evil. Before the events of the game, Doom stole top secret information from S.H.I.E.L.D. on how to deal with Asgard should it ever become a threat. Doom then refined the plan as a way to steal the All-Father Odin's godly powers for himself. Through a series of clever diversionary tactics, Doom constantly stays one step ahead of the heroes as he gathers all the necessary tools he needs to defeat Odin. Colluding with the God of Mischief Loki, Doom successfully conquers Asgard and defeats Odin in battle. Not wanting to share Odin's power with his lieutenants, Doom implements a series of Uriah Gambits to have the heroes take out his lieutenants for him. He quickly consolidates his control over the entire world, using his newfound powers to crush any form of resistance, and brainwashing the remainder of Earth's heroes into his loyal servants. A brilliant mastermind who managed to ascend to godhood, Doom establishes himself as a truly diabolical genius.
  • The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes: Doctor Doom is the tyrannical ruler of Latveria and the Arch-Enemy of the Fantastic Four. Upon learning that the Skrulls were infiltrating humanity, Doom went to work to find a way to detect and expose the alien threat to his rule. To get the data he needed, Doom sent an army of Doombots to kidnap the Wasp and the Invisible Woman, whom he suspected of being Skrull agents. His Doombots attacked both the Baxter Building and Avengers Mansion to distract both teams while his targets were brought back to Latveria. When the two teams launched an assault on his castle, Doom effortlessly held his own in the fight and defeated all the heroes without breaking a sweat. After getting the data he needed from the Skrull who replaced Invisible Woman, Doom developed a computer chip that would reveal the Skrulls' true forms. He then delivered the chip to Tony Stark so he could stop the invasion; all while claiming such a task was beneath him. Proving instrumental in stopping the Skrull invasion, Doctor Doom's skills and intellect were more than a match for the Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
• Mainstream Obscurity: Despite being considered Marvel's number one Big Bad, being hailed by comic book fans/critics as being one of the best comic villains alive, and getting plenty of Character Shilling from various writers, Doom hasn't quite made an impact on a mainstream audience's mind the same way other villains like The Joker, Lex Luthor, Magneto, or Thanos have, despite having starred in several cinematic adaptations of the Fantastic Four. A big reason for this is that the various cinematic versions of Doom are seen as being seriously lacking in some way and the general consensus is that with only a few exceptions, many incarnations of Dr. Doom in both the television and movie medium have failed to fully capture the character's complexity and tragic persona. As such, Doom can be seen as occupying that awkward niche of being highly praised by comic book fans but at the same time, a mainstream audience might not see the big deal with Dr. Doom based on cinematic and television adaptations of the character that they've seen.
• Memetic Badass: Doom is one of the few people who can give Batman a run for his money in this camp.
• Memetic Loser: Some fans emphasize his pride and pettiness particularly with him blaming Reed Richards for everything even though Richards has nothing do with anything.
• Narm:
  • It's doubtful that Hanna-Barbera could have picked a cheesier-sounding man to voice him in the Fantastic Four's first animated series.
  • The 2015 cinematic adaptation reduced him to a whining Straw Nihilist programmer, who later turns into a glowing green mannequin wrapped in trash bags.
• Never Live It Down:
  • The time that Doctor Doom was defeated by Squirrel Girl; the ultimate scheming badass of the Marvel Universe got owned by someone who was essentially a joke. And the losses was never retconned as being Actually a Doombot due to the obscurity and ridiculousness of the story, allowed Squirrel Girl to become a popular Memetic Badass.
  • The scene of him crying in response to 9/11 is universally reviled knowing he's routinely been shown to do as bad if not worse.
• Nightmare Fuel: With his Super Science and Literal Magic, Doom has resources for policing, supervising and brainwashing his peons that make Oceania's Thought Police look like bumbling Clouseaus. At least some versions of Latveria are consequently very dystopian, with every citizen living in perpetual fear, knowing that Big Brother Is Watching all they do. As with real totalitarian dictatorships like North Korea, it's often far from clear how much of Doom's all-pervasive personality cult is genuine admiration by the people of their leader and how much it is enforced through terror. Made doubly worse by the fact that some depictions of Doom are not Noble Demons, or even just generic evil overlords, but narcissistic psychopaths who seemingly enjoy abusing this surveillance and people control technology to torment their hapless subjects. In such stories, Doom will often subject his servants to violent verbal and physical abuse, suddenly change the rules on them or feed them to his wild robots on a whim. The most creepy versions basically subject the Latverians collectively to a sort of nationwide Romanticized Abuse — including literal rape of at least some of the women.
  • Doom's face just before he kills his Utopian self in his 2019 series. He's looking at his hand, his entire face completely shrouded in darkness with only his irises visible. A chilling hint of what he's about to do, the darkness that Doom has embraced...
• Rooting for the Empire: Dr. Doom's charisma, cool, and compelling story makes it easy for fans to root for him or at least not feel too bad when their favorite hero gets outdone by him. This also applies in stories where he fights Reed, between a poor Romani peasant kid immigrant who is a literal Self-Made Man and a middle-class academic who's living The American Dream, it's hard not to find Doom the more sympathetic and relatable character.
• Tear Jerker: The end to "Triumph and Torment". Doctor Doom suceeded in finally saving his mother's soul from Mephisto, but she saw Doom attempt to barter the soul of Doctor Strange in exchange for hers (whether or not Doom was actually planning that was up in the air). Doom never got the chance to explain he had actually gave Strange a means to escape Mephisto. Even Strange felt bad for him at the end.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The Spanish-community is quite divisive when it comes to translations. Doom's name was translated to "Muerte" (Death), and while that name was accepted in Spain for many decades, the Latin American community despises the translation, even bashing the Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes Mexican dub for using said translation, adding it to another pile of off-putting translations coming from Spain.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: In an inverse of the above mentioned Rooting for the Empire, Doom's critics have reacted to attempts to pass Doom's desire for world domination this way. No matter how much writers try to say Doom's intentions are selfless, none of it changes that he's spent years of life pursuing a petty grudge against Reed Richards, showing he cares more about that than actually helping people. That is without the long list of other acts committed for equally petty reasons.

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