10 Best Doctor Doom Stories in Marvel History, Ranked

Doctor Doom is truly a Marvel Comics villain like no other, not because he’s arguably the smartest person in the universe, and not because he’s both a master of science and magic, but because it could be argued that he’s not even a villain at all. Of course, Doctor Doom has done some heinously villainous things, but he only does them because he genuinely thinks that he could make the world a perfect utopia – if he was its unchallenged ruler.

The benevolent dictator of Latveria, Victor Von Doom has proven to be a generally great leader. Doom wants the best for his people, he wants the best for the world, and he’s frustrated that his plans to take over keep getting foiled by Earth’s so-called ‘heroes’. While that’s a nice sentiment, Doom definitely isn’t without his faults. He’s a complicated character, to be sure, but Doom is still more of a villain than he is a hero – though that line is blurred more often than one might think. Here are the 10 best Doctor Doom stories in Marvel history, ranked!

10 Doctor Doom’s Marvel Comics Debut is Utterly Iconic (Albeit Incredibly Silly)

Fantastic Four #5 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

The first appearance of Doctor Doom is obviously a historical moment in Marvel Comics, as it not only marks the introduction of perhaps the greatest villain ever created, but it presents his threat-level brilliantly right from the start. Doom proves capable of kidnapping the Fantastic Four, reveals that he’s smart enough to develop time travel, and even gets away after the superhero squad gets the upper hand. That being said, Doom’s debut – while noteworthy – is incredibly silly.

The majority of this comic shows Reed Richards, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm battling swashbuckling pirates. The Thing even dresses as one to fit in, as they locate Blackbeard’s treasure and return it to Doom. Again, very silly, but also a lot of fun while being a great story to show how dangerous Doctor Doom is right away.

9 Doctor Doom’s New Ultimate Universe Origin is Absolutely Mind-Blowing

Ultimate Invasion #1-4 by Jonathan Hickman and Bryan Hitch

Victor Von Doom isn’t the only Doctor Doom in the multiverse, especially recently, as the newly-formed Ultimate Universe just unveiled an all-new Doom: Reed Richards. When the Maker took over Earth-6160 and reshaped it to his liking, he prevented the Fantastic Four from ever being created before kidnapping Reed Richards, forcing him to wear Doom’s iconic mask, and making him his personal slave, imprisoned in the most high-tech laboratory ever created.

Since Ultimate Invasion, this Doom helped form the Ultimates, and is effectively a founding Avengers in Earth-6160. Only time will tell if Reed Richards’ Doom will remain a hero, or succumb to the villainy of his moniker. But, regardless of his future, Ultimate Doctor Doom’s origin is utterly mind-blowing, and absolutely essential to Doctor Doom’s wider lore in the Marvel multiverse.

8 Doctor Doom Uses the Ultimate Nullifier to Destroy an Entire Universe

Doctor Doom #10 by Christopher Cantwell and Salvador Larroca

Despite his villainous history, Victor Von Doom has proven countless times that he genuinely cares about Latveria, with a desire to take his leadership status global for the betterment of humanity. However, Doom is not willing to collaborate or take anyone’s advice when it comes to creating a perfect world-wide utopia – not even his own. In Doctor Doom #10, Doom travels to another universe where a version of himself did what he continuously failed to do: create the ideal world.

Every success of this alternate universe only highlights the failures of Doom’s own life, all the way down to a personal level. So, rather than learning from his variant and changing his ways to accomplish what this world had, Doom uses the Ultimate Nullifier to destroy this universe in an act that’s as much petty as it is evil.

7 Doctor Doom Proves He CAN Be a Legitimate Hero as the Infamous Iron Man

Infamous Iron Man #1-12 by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev

When Tony Stark finds himself in a coma following the events of Civil War II, Doctor Doom decides that he’s grown weary of his life as a super-villain. In that effort, Doom takes up the mantle of Iron Man, becoming the Infamous Iron Man – and he gets right to work trying to live up to that moniker.

In fact, Doctor Doom does such a good job being Iron Man that Mephisto himself tries to take him down. Doom has bested Mephisto time and again, but the devil wasn’t going to allow Doom to redeem himself and thus worm his way out of going to hell when he died. This proves that Doctor Doom really does have what it takes to be a legitimate hero, even if his time as Iron Man was relatively short-lived.

6 Doctor Doom Nearly Dooms Doctor Strange to Save His Mother

Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment by Roger Stern, Bill Mantlo, Gerry Conway, Mike Mignola, Kevin Nowlan, and Gene Colan

Doctor Doom has a long history with Mephisto, one that stretches back to Victor’s very origin. In this comic, Doom attempts to put their rivalry to rest once and for all by finally rescuing his mother from the depths of hell – and he tries to use Doctor Strange to do it. At first, Doom simply recruits Strange to battle Mephisto, given Strange’s proven strength as Sorcerer Supreme. But then, it becomes clear that Doom brought Strange to hell in an effort to bargain with Mephisto, giving him Strange’s soul in exchange for his mother’s.

This story not only highlights Doom’s ruthlessness and cunning, but also his magic abilities, which are oftentimes overshadowed by his technological genius. Sorcery is a major aspect of Doom’s character, with his understanding of science and magic being one of the main reasons why he’s so incredibly dangerous.

5 Doctor Doom’s Even More Villainous Variant, Doom Supreme, Nearly Conquered the Multiverse

Free Comic Book Day 2021: Avengers/Hulk #1 – Avengers Assemble Omega #1 by Jason Aaron and Iban Coello

Doctor Doom has no shortage of equally dangerous variants scattered across the Marvel multiverse, and in one Avengers storyline, fans get to meet practically all of them – including the deadliest of the bunch: Doom Supreme. Doom Supreme is the Sorcerer Supreme of his universe, and he formed a team of villains called the Multiversal Masters of Evil before taking to the multiverse, conquering every world he went to. However, Doom Supreme’s true mission wasn’t to claim worlds, but to claim Dooms.

Doom Supreme kidnapped and stole the power from countless Dooms across the multiverse before killing each one of them. Doom Supreme was hellbent on being the strongest Doom in any existence, thereby allowing him to claim the multiverse as his own – making this storyline a grim reminder of how truly terrifying Doom really is.

4 Doom Becomes Strong Enough to Battle a Rampaging Galactus

Doom #1 by Sanford Greene and Jonathan Hickman

Doctor Doom’s genius intellect and ruthless cunning are what have made him the iconic villain he is today, but there’s another reason why he’s so dangerous: Doom’s power-level. Doctor Doom has the capacity to wield cosmic power the likes of which no other mortal could even fathom, and in one such instance, Doom becomes strong enough to battle a rampaging Galactus who had already devoured most of the known universe.

Doom finds himself as one of the last surviving life forms in the universe when Galactus decides he’s going to spark a universal reset after growing weary of his own existence. This motivates Doom to receive a cosmic upgrade and battle the Devourer of Worlds one-on-one. Their conflict is epic on a cosmic scale, and goes down as one of Doom’s greatest feats in Marvel Comics history.

3 Doom Takes on the Avengers After Taking Over the World

The Avengers: Emperor Doom by David Michelinie and Bob Hall

It has always been Doctor Doom’s goal to take over the world and show everyone how great of a leader he could be if simply given the chance to rule – and in this story, Doom finally does it. Using the power of the Purple Man amplified in the Psycho-Prism, Doom mind-controls every world leader to come together and grant him total control over the entire world. Once in charge, Doom succeeds in eliminating war, ending world hunger, and generally making the planet a better place to live.

However, as good a job as he was doing, the Avengers couldn’t just sit by and allow Doctor Doom to rule the world. What makes this story especially interesting is that the world was a better place under Doom’s rule, meaning the Avengers only served to make things worse by taking him down.

2 Doctor Doom’s Definitive Origin Story is Essential Reading

Books of Doom by Ed Brubaker and Pablo Raimondi

While Doctor Doom’s origin has already been revealed in both Fantastic Four #5 and Fantastic Four Annual #2, Books of Doom tells his origin story in a far more in-depth and comprehensive way. The plot-points are all the same, but the level of detail and character development that is added in Books of Doom is integral to properly telling Victor’s story, expertly capturing what motivates him as a character.

Everything Doctor Doom does and strives for throughout his Marvel Comics history is explained in Books of Doom. That being said, the comic isn’t simply a history lesson or a bullet point presentation on Doom’s past, but a captivating story in its own right. Indeed, Doctor Doom’s definitive origin story is essential reading, and that story can only be found in Books of Doom.

1 No Story Has Captured the Essence of Doom Quite Like SECRET WARS

Secret Wars (2015) by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribić

Above all others, there are two aspects of Doctor Doom’s character that are ever-constant: his calling to rule and his desire to wield god-like power – and both are perfectly captured in 2015’s Secret Wars. After the Earth-616/Earth-1610 Incursion that saw the end of both universes, Doctor Doom was granted the power of the Beyonders to take what remained of those two worlds and reshape them into a new one: Battleworld. Doom was the God King of Battleworld, whose omnipotence had no equal.

Secret Wars was the culmination of every ‘Doctor Doom’ comic that had been written thus far, as it captured the essence of Doom like no other story had. Which is why Secret Wars can be confidently called the best Doctor Doom story in Marvel Comics history.