Doctor Doom is a mystery wrapped up in an enigma, and seasoned with contradictions. At any given moment in time, he’s either been one of the most notorious supervillains in the Marvel universe, or one of its benefactors. This constant flip-flopping is a result of Doom’s inability to decide who and what he wants to be from one moment to the next.
Although Doom is currently trying to turn over a new leaf, that’s no consolation for the victims of his most horrendously evil deeds throughout his long history in comics. He has been responsible for such egregious acts that it casts serious doubt over whether he can truly be the benevolent person he apparently wants to be.
10 He Turned On The Monastery That Saved His Life
Nothing says gratitude quite like conquering the people who saved your skin, but that’s just what Doom did early on in life. Before he became the infamous Latverian dictator and the scourge of the known galaxy, Doom found himself at the mercy of a group of Tibetan monks who took care of him when he was teetering on death’s door.
Rather than pay back their kindness, he used them to gain knowledge of their mystical arts before forcing them to create his signature iconic mask. It was all downhill from there, with Doom putting his own ego, vanity, and selfishness before the lives and well-being of others.
9 He Attacked Reed Richards & Sue Storm On Their Wedding Day
It takes a special kind of jerk to attack your enemies on their wedding day, especially for such a petty reason as revenge. Leave it to Doctor Doom to do just that, when he learned that Reed Richards and Sue Storm were about to tie the knot. It was his excuse to deliver some payback against his enemies for a humiliating past defeat.
Doom manipulated the minds of the Red Ghost, the Super Skrull, and Hydra (to name a few) to botch the big day, forcing the X-Men, Daredevil, Captain America, Doctor Strange, and a host of other heroes to come charging to the rescue. Richards finally managed to foil the plan by utilizing a subatomic time displacer to essentially reverse everything that had happened up to that point.
8 His Invasion Of Wakanda Dealt The Country Great Damage
Doom is well known for turning Latveria into an isolationist uber-Communist state, but his aspirations weren’t locked within those particular borders. Aside from wanting to rule the entire world— and the universe, apparently— Doom was also fine with attacking and invading other countries.
He turned his eye to Wakanda in order to get his mitts on the country’s vibranium supply, feigning concern for the threats yet to come as his motivation. Like everything Doom does, it’s for selfish purposes, even if he tries his best to whitewash himself with a false coat of nobility.
7 His Philosophy Was Built On Totalitarianism
Doom took a page from every single Communist dictator and ideology in existence, put it in a blender, and somehow managed to turn it into a more potent cocktail than anything that had come before. His ambition to rule the world was obvious, but he got his start by taking over Latveria and then running roughshod across the populace.
To a maniacal tyrant, every kind of dissent needed to be stamped out. Opposing viewpoints, protests, and democracy were punishable by death. Doom achieved his vision of perfect order and peace, at the low cost of forcing everyone to give up their inalienable rights, freedoms, and thoughts.
6 His Behavior During The Secret Wars Was Unforgivable
The 2015 Secret Wars story arc threw the Marvel universe into quite a tailspin. It ended up with Doom becoming a literal god, with an entire universe under his control. Rather than use these powers to effect any sort of goodness, he capitalized on them to seize all the power he had so lusted after.
Along the way, Doom did a number of awful things, including seizing Sue Storm as his wife, murdering a bunch of people, and standing in direct opposition to the remaining heroes. Even with the powers of the Infinity Gauntlet and the Beyonders, Doom was almost impossible to take down.
5 He Used Mind Control On The Entire World
Doom eventually managed to conquer the entire world and achieve one of his most idealized dreams. He was able to control the minds of every single being on Earth by tying the Purple Man into a machine which amplified his powers across the globe. Doom’s sheer force of will was enough to shrug off the Purple Man’s influence, much to his horror.
While the idea of oppressing an entire planet and forcing down groupthink on its populace is the epitome of evil, it was especially callous due to the fact that Doom simply became bored with it over time. His own egotistical pursuit of raw, unfettered power ended up becoming a sour lemon when all was said and done.
4 He Held A Child Hostage To Spite The Avengers
Doom had long been one of the few Marvel supervillains to maintain consistency when it came to being a jerk, a fact he proved when a young boy’s life hung in the balance. The Avengers infiltrated Latveria, prompting Doom to shut down all the borders and prevent them from escaping.
In the midst of this showdown, a young boy desperately needed to leave Latveria to have important surgery, but Doom wasn’t having any of it. Realizing that re-opening the borders would give the Avengers a chance to escape, he chose to sacrifice the boy’s life by refusing to allow him to leave.
3 He Murdered His True Love For Power
Many supervillains fall victim to the charms of a good-natured woman, and sometimes it’s enough to make them rethink a life of crime. Doctor Doom encountered such a person when he met Valeria, a Latverian who immediately enchanted Doom. He spent a long time trying to woo her affections, only to be rejected due to his villainous nature.
Eventually, Doom tracked her down and tricked her into giving him her love, which he then used to cement a pact with a group of demons. He gained incredible powers as a result, while Valeria’s skin was torn clean off her bones and turned into a mystical suit for Doom to wear. What’s worse is the fact that he had the audacity to justify his actions, while expressing his life for Valeria in the middle of her agonizing death.
2 He Consciously Chose Evil At The Expense Of The Entire Alternate Universe
Doom is a character who seems eternally bound to wrestle his inherent evil with a smidge of goodness trying hard to claw its way to the surface. This makes him an incredibly complex supervillain, but also one prone to swing his pendulum so far into darkness that it’s almost impossible to dislodge.
No action signified this worse than when Doom consciously rejected an alternate good version of himself who was attempting to convince him to mend his ways. When it seemed like he may finally have seen the light, Doom turned on a dime, murdered his other, and then used the Ultimate Nullifier to wipe out the alternate universe. The death count was unfathomable, but to Doom, it was no big deal.
1 Sending A Child To Hell
Doctor Doom has been known to show compassion and goodness besides his typical villainy and ambitious lust for power, but there are times when he’s done some truly irredeemable things. The worst of the bunch was undoubtedly the time when he gained near-omniscient powers after taking down Valeria, and he wasn’t about to waste them.
He decided that it would be a lovely idea to send young Franklin Richards to Hell when he was just a child. The resulting experience was traumatic, to say the least. It proved once and for all that despite his holier-than-thou bluster, Doctor Doom was a full-fledged psychopath.
About The Author