When thinking of the best "Supervillains of Science" in comic book history, Marvel's Doctor Doom has to be near the top of your list. The Latverian leader has been a metallic thorn in the side of the Fantastic Four for 53 years, also battling other Marvel heroes like Iron Man, Silver Surfer, and Spider-Man along the way. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Doom is a particularly interesting character since he's essentially just a human. A human with a genius-level intellect and a mastery of the magical arts sure, but a human just the same.

We decided to take a look back at Doom's history to find his best super-science moments. Yes, this means his more mystical, magical adventures (ie the "Unthinkable" storyline in Fantastic Four 67-70, 500; and the sorcerer battle in "Dr. Strange and Dr. Doom: Triumph and Torment"; and an honorable mention for Fantastic Four #236 “Terror in a Tiny Town”) won't be included. However, we will explore Doom's use of science and technology to achieve his two main goals: taking over the world, and saving his mother's soul from Hell.

Meet Doctor Doom

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Image via Marvel Comics

What better place to start than with the not-so-good Doctor's introduction to comic book readers? It was the summer of 1962 and Doctor Doom was paying a visit to the Baxter Building - the Fantastic Four's headquarters - in order to take the Invisible Girl hostage. Why? So that the other members of the team would be forced to travel back in time in order to steal Blackbeard's treasure for him. Yup! A scientifically gifted genius with a time machine who needs pirate booty, that's our first intro to Doctor Doom!

OK so maybe this isn't the best use of Doctor Doom's intellect at work, but the villain was just getting started. He'd put that time machine technology to much more diabolical work over the years. But as the supervillain gained in popularity, it quickly became apparent that he'd be needing an origin story to explain just where the heck he came from.

Doctor Doom's Real Origin Story

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Image via Marvel Comics

Two years after his introduction, Doctor Doom's early days are laid out for readers. As it happens, Doom was the son of a gypsy healer father and a mother who dabbled in the mystical arts. When young Doom was made an orphan thanks to the local nobility killing both of his parents, he turned his studies to both science and sorcery. He used all of the skills at his disposal to protect his own people while also swindling the wealthy out of their riches. (This story also features one of the earliest instances of Doom's versatile and endless robotic copies, the Doombots.) While science and sorcery were both important to Doom's origin story and his character thereafter, it's the focus on the former talent that allowed him to travel to America on a full scholarship. This life event also caused him to ultimately cross paths with his greatest rival, Reed Richards. Doom's arrogance, however, led to his own disfiguration, first by ignoring Richards' warnings about a miscalculation that caused one of Doom's experiments to go horribly wrong, scarring his face in the resultant explosion; and second by placing a not-yet-cool iron mask onto his face despite the warnings by the Tibetan monks who made it for him. (Not the smartest move for a genius.)

Bonus: If it's Doctor Doom's origins you're really interested in, make sure to check out Ed Brubaker's "Books of Doom" series.

Doctor Doom Steals the Silver Surfer's Powers Through Science

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Image via Marvel Comics

Normally Doctor Doom resorts to complicated schemes and fiendish devices to accomplish his goals, which more often than not center on stealing the Fantastic Four's powers for one reason or another. This time around, Doom does indeed plan on siphoning superpowers from a fellow Marvel character, but he goes about it in a pretty interesting way -- by inviting the Silver Surfer to tour his castle. Once there, Doom distracts the homesick celestial surfer with a video of the universe (of course) in order to steal his powers.

Now's as good a time as any to talk about Doom's armor. Not just any armor, Doom's suit is Tibetan-forged (making it magical, of course) titanium, powered by a nuclear reactor (with solar energy absorption capabilities) and outfitted for battle with a computerized assistant. (If that reminds you of Iron Man, hold tight because he's coming up soon.) It grants Doom enhanced strength, durability, the occasional ability to fly, heightened sensory abilities and an interactive communication system. For offense, the suit can generate a powerful electric shock and fires concussive energy bolts from its gauntlets and mask. For defense, Doom is protected by a forcefield and, wait for it, splinters of the "true cross" which apparently keep him safe from undead assailants. The armor perfectly illustrates Doom's scientific genius and his penchant for blending magic and technology. Another fantastic example of his suit's abilities and his desire to use them to steal superpowers is his fight against the Beyonder (see Fantastic Four #319).

Who Is the Invincible Man?

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Image via Marvel Comics

In this run of the comic, the title heroes have disbanded. Reed Richards has been mesmerized into working for a shady company that's using Psycho-Man's hypnotic powers. Meanwhile, the Invincible Man has been tasked with attacking the Fantastic Four with the ultimate goal of killing them. But who is this masked madman? Well I think it's safe to say you've had plenty of time to read this 1978 issue, so spoilers aside, the crazy color costume of the Invincible Man masks Reed Richards himself. He attacked his former team members against his will since he was under the control of a criminal mastermind who quite strongly resembles Victor Von Doom. When Reed defeats the Fantastic Three, this Doom Clone takes him back under his control while the real Doctor Doom arrives to prevent the Invisible Woman, the Human Torch, and the Thing from escaping. Pretty crazy, right? It gets crazier.

In a wild bit of storytelling that sees the hypnotized Reed travel into space to regain his powers, fight the Red Ghost, survive a crash-landing return to Earth, liberate his plane from S.H.I.E.L.D. in order to fly it to Latveria and ally with the country's rebel freedom fighters, ultimately he is captured by Doom once again. The mad scientist then transfers all of their powers into one of his clones whom he plans to raise as his son. While the Fantastic Four are busy escaping (again) and fighting their way through Doom's robot army, Doom himself is fighting off his own super-powered clone who has turned on him. This leads to Doctor Doom having to ostensibly murder his own son, an event that sends him into a rage spiral that culminates in a one-on-one fight against a re-powered Reed Richards. It's a crazy story run that may not make the best use of Doom, but does show the lengths he'll go to defeat his archenemies.

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Image via Marvel Comics

A Day in the Life of Doctor Doom

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Image via Marvel Comics

If you wanted to know more about Doctor Doom's daily activities, this issue is tailor-made for you. It doesn't feature the Fantastic Four at all. Rather it explores Doom's rebuilding of his kingdom at the same time that the title heroes are recuperating from a battle with the Skrulls and the Gladiator. It's a lovely little story that sees him checking in on orphans and Doombots alike. Oh, and remember when Doom stole the Silver Surfer's power? Well apparently his scientist Dr. Hauptmann built a device using Doom's specs that will restore that power to an individual. Doom chooses to use it on Hauptmann, correctly predicting that the cosmic power would consume him. Instead of subjecting himself to the transfer, Doom uses the recently de-powered Terrax as a vessel for the power, a vessel he can control and aim toward the Fantastic Four. Now in the guise of Tyros the Terrible once more, the super-powered being proves to be more than a match for the Fantastic Four, causing the Silver Surfer to interfere on their behalf. In a surprising twist, Doom double-crosses Tyros, but is not powerful enough to defeat him. This three-issue run ends with readers presuming Doctor Doom to be quite dead, or at least incorporeal. Rest assured, that doesn't last long.

Doctor Doom vs Spider-Man

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Image via Marvel Comics

Let's keep in mind that Doctor Doom wasn't resigned to fighting just the Fantastic Four; he had the entire Marvel Universe at his disposal. Enter: Spider-Man. In one of the zaniest scientific adventures in Doom's history, Doom attempts to team up with Spider-Man against the Fantastic Four. His reasoning behind this ill-advised plan of attack is based on J. Jonah Jameson's scathing exposé about the web-crawling menace. Don't worry, Doom didn't do anything as silly as inviting Spider-Man over for a castle tour; instead, he builds a device to contact Spidey through his "spider-sense." This misunderstanding results in a brief battle in which Spider-Man escapes and Doctor Doom realizes that he was not the partner he was looking for.

As Doom tracks down Spider-Man for revenge, a poorly timed prank by Flash Thompson leads him to cross Doom's path disguised as Spidey himself. Doom holds him hostage and tells the Fantastic Four he'll kill Spider-Man unless they meet him in battle. Instead, the real Spider-Man takes on Doom by himself and flees once the Fantastic Four finally show up to scare away Doom and rescue Flash. I love this story mostly because Doom's smart enough to contact Spidey through his spider-sense, but not with it enough to know what side he's on. It's always something simple tripping up these mad scientists.

Emperor Doom

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Image via Marvel Comics

Why stop at Doctor Doom fighting Spider-Man when he can take on all of Marvel's Avengers instead? Continuing the theme of Doom borrowing other super-powers, this time he uses a psycho-prism to imprison Purple Man and use his willpower-sapping abilities to force nearly everyone on Earth to obey him. (Even if half of those words didn't make any sense to you, this is a pretty bold plan that gets Doom as close to taking over the world as he was likely to get.) The only Avenger not affected by Purple Man's powers is the ionic-powered Wonder Man, who is horrified to find Doom in control of the world.

However, Doom's world order is not all that bad. Peace reigns, crime is nonexistent, nuclear weapons have been destroyed, and apartheid was ended. That being said, the people were not truly free since they still lacked the willpower to overcome Doom's control. Wonder Man sets to freeing the Avengers who have the strongest willpower so they can team up to overthrow Doom, setting the world back to its former order. The question that readers of this issue have continued to debate is whether or not Doom's peaceful but zombified population was the preferred reality.

Doomquest

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Image via Marvel Comics

Let's cut the number of Avengers back down to just one and have Doctor Doom take on Iron Man, shall we? In the "Doomquest" storyline, we get a battle of scientists, which then transitions into a clash of science vs. magic, which is then resolved through cooperative science. It's a most excellent exploration of Doctor Doom's two skill sets, augmented by the arrival of Tony Stark's genius which rivals the bad doctor's.

In a slip-up that's probably pretty common among major international corporations, Stark International has filled a sizable order for a foreign nation. But when Stark figures out that Doom actually placed the order and it's headed to Latveria, he flies to the rescue to prevent the delivery. Stark offers to compensate Doom, but the latter ruler is pretty miffed at having to give up his rightfully purchased technology and so sends Doombots to retrieve it (as you do). Stark then travels the rest of the way to Latveria and confronts Doom about the misunderstanding.

Doom, of course, isn't the most level-headed of villains so almost as soon as Iron Man arrives, the two super-scientists start fighting. Lurking in the shadows is Doom's tortured assistant Dr. Hauptmann, who waits until the two are on Doctor Doom's time machine. He throws the switch and sends the two power-suited characters back to the past to the 12th century, during the time of the equally fictional Camelot. There, they choose sides in a swords-and-sorcery fight between King Arthur and Morgana La Fey. Ultimately Stark and King Arthur are victorious, but in order to get back to their normal time, Stark and Doom have to combine their armor suits and ingenuity. It's a rare example of cooperation between comic book heroes and villains to achieve a mutually beneficial result.

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Image via Marvel Comics

Doom 2099

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Image via Marvel Comics

I'm not sure how the 2099 imprint of Marvel Comics sits with fans these days, but as far as supervillain science goes, Doom 2099 was steeped in antagonistic technology. The first issue of the series kicks off with a bewildered Doom arriving in 2099 to find descendants of the Zefiro clan of gypsies mutated but still alive. Though he's still able to take down minor enemies with his power suit, he quickly finds his technology to be woefully out of date when he's defeated by the current leader of Latveria, Tiger Wylde.

After a chain of events that sees a defeated and further disfigured Doctor Doom making allies with the Zefiro gypsies and traveling to an island facility of Pixel Corporation, Victor Von Doom gets himself a tech upgrade. A Cybermesh interface interacts with his new nanotech brain and blood enhancements, all under a new adamantium-lanxide armor which makes him stronger, faster, and more powerful than ever. In a rebirth of his villainous form, he declares that, "Doctor Doom is dead. Long live Doom!"

No Time Like the Present or... It Ain't Funny How Time Slips Away!

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Image via Marvel Comics

This issue could be the ultimate presentation of a time-traveling comic book story. Once again, Doctor Doom has returned from his travels and managed to subdue all of the Fantastic Four except for Reed Richards. Before they square off, they propose a battle within time, a fight for the survival or destruction of Reed's teammates. While readers get to watch Doctor Doom and Reed Richards battling between the smallest increments of time thanks to Doom's Null Time Sequencer, they also see the other members of the Fantastic Four existing in a more traditional timeline. These two scenes are shown side by side, with the current timeline in color panels beside black-and-white panels depicting the epic battle through time. A clock provides a handy counter to help readers stay oriented in the unorthodox story presentation.

This battle does not end quite the way you think it would. Doom and Richards' battle in time gets the attention of the Time Variance Authority. This organization is responsible for monitoring timelines throughout the multiverse and has the authority to "prune" certain branches should they be deemed too dangerous. Apparently Doom vs Richards was one such dangerous conflict, so the TVA showed up to put a stop to it. Doom outsmarted them by substituting Kristoff in his place, and the TVA managed to capture the Fantastic Four. Don't worry, they survive to fight again another day, and to give us plenty more adventures against Marvel's supervillain of science, Doctor Doom.