Knightsaber Priss
Lone Wolf
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snazzy J said:Wow, I guess we only come out at night, huh guys?
Dude, I work the night shift so I'm used to being up at this time, even on days off.
snazzy J said:Wow, I guess we only come out at night, huh guys?
Did I Think That Out Loud?! 4.10.04
Posted By Jim Lemoine on 04.09.04
A glimpse behind the iron mask of Doom.
Suppose you had the chance to live in a fairy-tale kingdom, one that its residents almost unanimously consider to be the greatest place to live in all the world. Walking down the streets of its capitol city is like taking a step back in time; happy people in simple clothes greet you as you pass, the architecture of the buildings and monuments is a beauty to behold, and you can walk freely, even down dark alleys at night, without fear of crime... because there isn't any. The schools in this kingdom provide competitive education, unemployment is virtually nonexistent, and everybody is recognized (and promoted) for their talents. To make things even better, there is no pollution in this land, little disease, no risk of war or internal strife, and the government is like an open book - the ruling class is always available to personally speak with citizens. Outside the city you'd find a beautiful forest flanked by a grand mountain range, within which several other villages exist, all filled with happy people. There's no racism, either; the very concept of bigotry seems virtually unknown to the residents of this country.
Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?
But what if there were a price? Just one payment to make, a small thing, really... in order to live in this utopian community, you'd have to give up your freedom.
Oh, you'd still be pretty much free to go wherever you wanted - you could wander the country, and you could freely travel outside its borders. However, you couldn't speak out against the ruling class, under pain of death. You couldn't dispute any laws or judgements that you felt were unfair. And you couldn't expect a free press, elect your own leader, assemble publicly, or propose any kind of real change in the way the country is.
So... would it be worth it to you?
The concept of freedom is an intangible thing, and people lived without it for centuries. How easy would it be to give it up, especially considering the vast wealth of benefits offered in exchange? And how much easier would it be to simply appreciate what you had, if you never even knew what freedom was?
Now let's take it a step further. Let's say that you're the ruler of your country - you're the President of the United States or Russia, or the Prime Minister of Britain, or whatever: the important part here is, you're in charge. And let's say that, for argument's sake, the country's huge military LOVES you, and would do anything for you. And let's further say that by implementing some immediate form of martial law in your country, you knew for a fact that you could significantly reduce violent crimes - especially murders, rapes, and the like. You would be abridging some of the "freedoms" (there's that word again) of your citizens, but you would save lives. People that would have died, otherwise, would live under your more authoritarian policy. Would it be worth it?
Too hard? Here's an easier one, then. Let's say that you're a citizen of a democracy (or a republic, which is what most countries considered to be democracies actually are), and you have a chance to vote for an unprecedented, outrageous new proposal. Under this proposal, popular elections for President (/Prime Minister/Premier/Whatever) would be eliminated. No more voting for the lesser of two evils, no more obsequious pandering for votes, no more lies and distortion, no more selling out an entire country for business profit and/or special interests (note how the proposal's worded, of course). Instead, one new "Ruler For Life" would be installed, who would serve the country up until his death. And this ruler, though no politician, has a guaranteed track record of making his constituents happy by significantly reducing crime and taxes, and significantly increasing benefits and security. You know for a fact that if you vote for this proposal, you'll see those kind of immediate benefits under this new ruler... all you'd give up would be your right to choose a better leader. Would you vote for the proposal?
What, exactly, is freedom? Does it mean so much to people because we're conditioned to treasure it, or because we actually value it? How many of us have actually fought for our freedom? How much is freedom really worth to the average global citizen?
(What's that? You thought this was a column on comic books? You're right, it is... and here comes the payoff, true believer....)
Every leader has a choice to make about how he or she will lead. Most leaders go with the tried and true, staying similar to what's come before and not rocking the boat in a revolutionary way. But one world leader who's never been afraid of change or rocking the boat is Victor Von Doom... absolute monarch of Latveria, bane of the Fantastic Four, Penultimate Prestidigitator (since he scored second place in the competition to select a new Sorcerer Supreme), and arguably one of the greatest comic book villains of all time. Doom made his decision, and he would argue that he placed the good of his people over the frivolous desire for freedom. Reed Richards would argue that the citizens of Latveria are brainwashed and naive; Doom would counter that they're simply happiest with what they've been given, and that Reed is biased against him. So who's right?
From the moment when he was first created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Doctor Doom was earmarked for a very special place in the history of graphic literature. Sure, Marvel had thrown colorful villains at us before: the evil Mole Man, the nefarious Skrulls from outer space, and the conflicted Sub-Mariner among them, but never had there been one so villainous... so diabolical... so scheming... as the man most appropriately named Doom. Lee and Kirby meant for Doom to be the arch-nemesis of not only Reed Richards and the Fantastic Four, but also of the Marvel Universe entire. Between his constant battles with the Richards clan, he would sneak out to attack the likes of Spider-Man and the Avengers.
The original Doctor Doom of the early Fantastic Four was a multi-layered villain: a genius megalomaniac with a tragic past and an almost unbelievable sense of honor. We all know the story by now - Victor Von Doom's parents died when he was young. He went to college, got involved in the dark arts, and tried to contact the netherworld. As his one-time roommate Reed Richards had warned him, his calculations were off and the experiment blew up in his face. A scarred Von Doom was expelled from university and set out alone into the wilds of the Far East to learn a greater power. Monks found him, taught him their secrets, and helped him forge his armor. Doom swore vengeance on those who had opposed him, usurped control of Latveria from its rightful rulers, and became the ultra-villain Doctor Doom.
That's his whole back-story... or at least, as much of his backstory as we originally got from Lee and Kirby. Sounds like your pretty standard comic-book-villain origin sequence - at least until you peel back a few layers of the onion and get to the real story behind the story. Yes, Doom's parents died when he was young; but as Victor knew (and he respected them for it), they died so that he could live. Yes, he was power-hungry and ruthlessly ambitious; but it's painfully obvious that he used all of his knowledge to help his people, the ceaselessly persecuted wandering gypsies of Latveria. Yes, he learned Black Magic and tried to contact the netherworld; but he only did it to save his mother, who he'd learned was imprisoned and tortured in Mephisto's Inferno. Yes, he usurped control of Latveria; but this was only after he learned that his own family had once been the rulers of Latveria, and that the current ruling class had originally usurped power from the line of Von Doom.
Doesn't seem so black and white anymore, does it?
Now let's say that you read an independent comic (or even a novel, heaven help us) where a child prodigy wanted to use his talents to give something back to the world. Despite the fact that his parents were taken from him at a young age, and despite the fact that he was horribly scarred by an accident, he wanted to overthrow the despotic rulers of his home country. What's more, he wanted to use his mastery of science to eliminate disease, war, and strife, and he wanted to share these blessings with the entire world. Oh, and he would use any means necessary to make that happen.
Good guy or bad guy?
These are the kinds of questions that make Doom so interesting. One of the best character studies of Doom that I ever read was in Jim Shooter's Secret Wars #10. In it, the Beyonder pulled back the layers of Doom's psyche to better understand his desire - to learn what it was that really drove Doom. Evil was not a fundamental part of Doom's being, it turned out, but three desires were: freedom for his mother, restoration for his ravaged face, and a quest for power, to extend his rule. The first two driving needs obviously aren't evil in the slightest, and as for the last - well, it's been firmly established that Doom really did believe that the world would be a better, happier place with him in charge, and a lot of people agreed with him. So would that really make him evil?
Doom's only ever had two real problems that have made him seem like the bad guy: his "the ends justify the means" philosophy (which isn't really all that different from what real-world leaders practice, now is it?), and his maniacal fascination with making Reed Richards and Benjamin Grimm suffer. So yes, the guy's got character flaws, obviously. He still blames Reed for the accident which originally scarred him (although according to Doom co-creator Jack Kirby, that accident only gave him a small scratch on the cheek; Doom's vanity was the only real casualty), and he blames Ben for his most humiliating defeat during the Battle of the Baxter Building (which, by the way, is probably one of the greatest comic stories ever created, and can be found in Fantastic Four #39-40).
We can then infer that vanity is Doom's Shakespearean "tragic flaw," the one thing that's really held him back all of these years. He's vain about his appearance, he's vain about his battles, and he's most vain of all about his intelligence. It's not enough that he knows deep down that he's the most intelligent human being on the face of the earth; he needs everyone else to admit it, too. It doesn't matter that there's so much evidence to back up his claim of superiority (witness the technologically advanced Latverians, or his dual mastery of both Magic and Science, or perhaps most telling: the fact that after Reed had been trying for years and years to find a way to change the Thing back into a human, Doom accomplished this easily, in the span of one issue, in Fantastic Four #350!). Doom is a great, great man, admittedly; but he has a deep-seated need to be acknowledged, by everyone, as a great, great man. And therein lies his downfall.
Some of the most enjoyable Doom stories are the ones where he manages to get past his vanity, the ones where the Doom he keeps locked within gets a chance to show just why this character's been so successful. One of my favorite Doom stories is the Doom/Strange graphic novel Triumph and Torment, in which Doom enlists the help of Earth's Sorcerer Supreme in freeing his mother's soul from Mephisto. It's a genuinely touching story, showing what kind of man Doom really is when he's not fighting superheroes. In the end, Doom's triumph comes, surprisingly, from his ability to not be vain, to not need the love of others... even those whose love he truly desires more than anything else. Writer Roger Stern turned in one of his very finest works in this graphic novel, and it's worth hunting for in your comic shop.
Where are Doom's successes? They have, almost universally, come from the times when he's thought of others rather than himself. He succeeded in taking control of Latveria (and later, retaking Latveria in both Fantastic Four and Doom 2099) because he saw his friends, family, and countrymen abused and exploited by tyranny and bigotry. As head of Latveria, the people were happy, and injustice simply ceased to exist.
Doom succeeded in becoming a master of the magical arts, second only to Doctor Strange. He did this not out of his own need for power, but because he wanted to rescue his mother.
Doom succeeded in protecting Latveria from numerous dangers. It was established that this protection (both in Doom 2099 and books like Fantastic Four #381) was not so much to protect his own power base as it was to serve his citizens. Even when Doom was at his most one-dimensional (DeFalco's otherwise-mostly-enjoyable run on FF), his love for his people and need to serve as their protector remained.
Doom succeeded in taking over the entire planet, and later saving it from extinction, in the alternate future portrayed in Marvel's old 2099 line, in stories by Warren Ellis and many others. In this alternate future, without a need to strike at a Fantastic Four or deal with an immense number of superheroes, Doom was portrayed as a hero, though a flawed and arrogant one. And he took over the world, and later saved it, first and foremost to protect his beloved Latverians.
So Doom is, in many of the ways that really count, a hero. Sure, there are lots of villainous moments in his past that would make one doubt that assessment - for instance, his hand in the Acts of Vengeance affair, or his partnership with Arcade to destroy the X-Men just after Phoenix died. However, it has since been proven that the real Victor Von Doom was not present at either of those events - these were examples of his nearly indistinguishable Doombots acting independently (and yes, that means that in Uncanny X-Men #145-147 when Storm had the hots for him, she was attracted to a robot). There has been a great deal of evidence (most especially in Fantastic Four #350 and #352) that the vast majority of Doom's standard, one-dimensional "villainous" appearances in the Marvel Universe were actually his Doombots. And while it's true that the real Doom must share responsibility for the acts of his creations, one could argue that it at least partially excuses him from many of their nastier deeds.
John Byrne's Doom Magnum Opus, Fantastic Four #248, also went a long way toward establishing Doom as a flawed but basically well-meaning man. Byrne showed Doom as a caring ruler and even a devoted father... but a man whose vanity could stir him to unspeakable acts (such as striking his adopted child). All very consistent with what else we know about Doom.
Victor Von Doom even served as a member of the Fantastic Four, although unofficially, in two separate occasions. The first time, Sue asked him to lead the team when Reed was the mental thrall of the Overmind, and Doom did indeed serve and battle the FF's enemy. Later, he hitched along with Ben Grimm's Fantastic Four, just after Crystal left the team, and guided them on an otherdimensional odyssey. In both instances, Doom acted with honor, if not with a true love for his teammates.
It's a fact that Doom seeks power and dominion because he feels he can do a better job than current world leaders, that he can make the world a better place and help people live happier, more productive lives. Would the world be better off with Doom in charge? Depends on who you ask; Reed Richards and the citizens of America would say no, but Victor Von Doom and the citizens of Latveria would say yes. But the question isn't quite as black and white as most think it would be.
Most comics readers call Doom the greatest villain of the Marvel Universe, if not the greatest villain of the entirety of comics. There's a reason why we love to see this guy in action; he's a deep, multi-layered character with complex motivations and emotions. Within the Marvel Universe, some see him as the most evil villain; others see him as a benevolent savior.
So which is really the truth?
A few months ago, Jim Lemoine completed the manuscript for his first book, an examination of business leadership. Oddly enough, his second book is being published this summer, while his first book is still delayed by guys in expensive suits. He's still waiting for Victor Von Doom to join the Avengers.
That's the one. Much gratitude, Sardaukar.Sardaukar said:snazzy, is this that article you were thinking about?
http://411mania.com/comics/columns/article.php?columns_id=2337
Senshi said:Well this might sound really horrible but you guys asked for an alternative to installing a weapon on the space station so here it goes... What if Doom knew about the "cosmic rays"? Maybe it could be his mission to go in to space and try and collect the comic energy and harness it so that he could create a new weapon of mass destruction. The cosmic energy could be 100 times more powerful than a nuclear blast and it would give Doom the edge he needed over the rest of the world in order to reclaim Latveria. While in space Doom begins to draw the cosmic energy towards the space shuttle in an attempt to collect it. Reed discovers Doom's plan and stops him. Doom uses an escape pod and gets away, But his tampering with the cosmic waves cause them to become unstable and tear through the shuttle. Doom watches from the escape pod as his rivals and his dream seem to die. When the Esacpe Pod comes back to earth there is a crash and Doom is horribly disfigured....
Well that's all I have to say.
bosef982 said:...the similarities were just too many to be forgiven?
A huge scientific project that could make or break this company if it fails. It fails, and he's in big trouble.
An obligatory getting fired and put off by the board sequence, and the dreadful stare as we know what the villian is going to do next.
A killing of the head of the obligatory getting fired or put off scene where we saw the dreadful stare of the villian as we know what he's going to do next NOW actually doing it.
The killing of a second-string character there just to introduce tension or drama, Dr. Stroom and Doctor in lab, both are grabbed by their necks and FLUNG into or through glass.
Goblin is rejected by Spider-man after a proposal to work together. Thus, he fights back and attempts to destroy Spider-Man, believing all along that he is better than most of the people in the world. Doom is rejected by Sue STorm and the Fantastic Four. Thus, he fights back to destroy their interpersonal all along beliveing the he is better than most of humanity nad embracing his destiny, which Goblin alos talked about.
Did they just drain the AUTOMATIC VILLIAN PLOT DISPENSER and had to reload?
bosef982 said:...the similarities were just too many to be forgiven?
A huge scientific project that could make or break this company if it fails. It fails, and he's in big trouble.
An obligatory getting fired and put off by the board sequence, and the dreadful stare as we know what the villian is going to do next.
A killing of the head of the obligatory getting fired or put off scene where we saw the dreadful stare of the villian as we know what he's going to do next NOW actually doing it.
The killing of a second-string character there just to introduce tension or drama, Dr. Stroom and Doctor in lab, both are grabbed by their necks and FLUNG into or through glass.
Goblin is rejected by Spider-man after a proposal to work together. Thus, he fights back and attempts to destroy Spider-Man, believing all along that he is better than most of the people in the world. Doom is rejected by Sue STorm and the Fantastic Four. Thus, he fights back to destroy their interpersonal all along beliveing the he is better than most of humanity nad embracing his destiny, which Goblin alos talked about.
Did they just drain the AUTOMATIC VILLIAN PLOT DISPENSER and had to reload?