Dr. Victor Von Doom (commonly known as Doctor Doom, or simply Doom) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The son of a Romani witch, Von Doom has been depicted as a supervillain, the archenemy of the Fantastic Four, and the leader of the fictional nation called Latveria. While his chief opponents have been the Fantastic Four, he has also come into conflict with Spider-Man, Iron Man, Black Panther, and multiple others. Von Doom has also been depicted as a superhero, being the third character to take up the mantle of Iron Man and joining the Avengers.

Like many of Marvel's Silver Age characters, Doom was conceived by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. With the Fantastic Four title performing well, Lee and Kirby were trying to dream up a "soul-stirring...super sensational new villain." Looking for a name, Lee latched onto "Doctor Doom" as "eloquent in its simplicity -- magnificent in its implied menace."  Due to the rush to publish, the character was not given a full origin story until Fantastic Four Annual #2, two years after his debut.  Jack Kirby modelled Doom after Death, with the armor standing in for that character's skeleton; "It was the reason for the armor and the hood. Death is connected with armor and the inhuman-like steel. Death is something without mercy, and human flesh contains that mercy." Kirby further described Doom as being "paranoid", wrecked by his twisted face and wanting the whole world to be like him. Kirby went on to say that although "Doom is an evil person, but he's not always been evil. He was [respected]...but through a flaw in his own character, he was a perfectionist." At one point in the 1970s, Kirby drew his interpretation of what Doom would look like under the mask, giving Doom only "a tiny scar on his cheek." Due to this slight imperfection, Doom hides his face not from the world, but from himself. To Kirby, this is the motivation for Doom's vengeance against the world; because others are superior due to this slight scar, Doom wants to elevate himself above them. Typical of Lee's writing characterization of Doom is his arrogance; his pride leads to Von Doom's disfigurement at the hands of his own machine, and to the failures of many of his schemes.  While the Fantastic Four had fought various villains such as the Mole Man, Skrulls, the Miracle Man, and Namor the Sub-Mariner, Doom managed to overshadow them all and became the Fantastic Four's archnemesis. During the 1970s, Doom branched out to more Marvel titles such as Astonishing Tales, The Incredible Hulk, and Super-Villain Team-Up, starting in 1975, as well as appearances in Marvel Team-Up, beginning with issue #42 (February 1976). Doom's origin was also a feature in Astonishing Tales when his ties to the villain Mephisto were revealed.

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