Doctor Doom’s reputation precedes him. Frankly, his ominous name precedes his reputation. Since his first appearance in Jack Kirby and Stan Lee’s 1962 Fantastic Four #5, Doom has wreaked havoc on the Marvel Universe. Using his magic powers and unrivaled intellect, the villain has founded his own country and even achieved the ultimate goal of all supervillains: world domination. But for all the bad he’s done, Doom is also capable of great heroics. His capacity for altruism is best illustrated in Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev and Matt Hollingsworth’s 2016 Infamous Iron Man series where Doom becomes Iron Man.
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After the events of Civil War 2, Tony Stark is presumed dead. Riri Williams carries on his legacy as Ironheart, but Stark’s Iron Man armor collects dust in his office. Meanwhile, Victor Von Doom is in the middle of an existential crisis. He achieved his goal of absolute power but felt unsatisfied, so now he feels compelled to try a different approach. He reflects on his relationships with Reed Richards and Tony Stark. While they were always on opposite sides of the law, the scientists had a lot in common, and Doom always admired the two brainy do-gooders, so he decides that rather than continuing to use his gifts for personal gain, he’s going to be a hero. With his powers and his intimate knowledge of the criminal underworld, he is primed to be the scourge of evildoers everywhere. Stark’s unused technology will give him the edge he needs to be an incredible hero.
Iron Man’s are some pretty big shoes to fill, but Doom rises to the occasion. In fact, he does a better job fighting crime than Tony Stark did. Doom’s first act as a hero is to rescue Maria Hill from the villain Diablo. After that, he surprises the Mad Thinker in his office in Bolivia and defeats him before handing him over to SHIELD. From there, Doom travels to his old country, Latveria, where he works to dismantle the military dictatorship that sprung up after he left. Doom demands that the Latverian land be returned to its citizens.
In issue #7 of Infamous Iron Man, the good doctor cements his reputation as a hero when he pulls off what The Thing describes as “One of da biggest costumed-criminal takedowns in the history of costumed-criminal takedowns.” After his battle with the Mad Thinker- Wizard, Jigsaw, the Wrecker and countless other supervillains gather together to discuss a solution to the Doom problem. They all agree that they need to band together to stop him from putting them all out of commission, but what they don’t know is that Doom expected them all to meet. He crashes their party and knocks them all out before they can put up much of a fight. When they wake up, they are all in SHIELD custody. Tony Stark captured his fair share of bad guys, but he never single-handedly brought that many to justice. And he certainly never fought that many adversaries without getting knocked down a few times. Doom, on the other hand, handles the nefarious crew with ease and emerges from the battle without a scratch on his armor.
Victor’s accomplishments are all the more impressive considering the fact that he is being pursued by The Thing and SHIELD throughout the whole process. Where Tony Stark had allies in the government, Doom has only enemies, but that doesn’t stop him from acting as the most powerful iteration of Iron Man to date. If he’d had the resources and agency afforded to Tony Stark, his impact could have reached boundless heights. Doom didn’t wear the armor for long, but his time as Iron Man left an undeniable impression on the people he saved and the ones he put in jail. Doom will be remembered as one of the greatest villains of all time, but he also earned the title for being the best Iron Man in history.
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