Last week, in the commentary after taking yet another silly Internet test, one that happened to reveal that the supervillain that I’m best suited to be is Doctor Doom, there were others who also tested as Doctor Doom. In order to separate the real Doom from the Doombots, I asked a few simple questions to which Doom would know the answer:
1. Can any of these Doom impostors, without reference to the Internet or other references, tell us the name of Victor von Doom’s father and what it was he did for a living?
2. Who was von Doom’s faithful retainer back in the early days?
3. What is the vow that Doom made over his mother’s grave?
The answer to #1 is apparently no, none of the Doom imposters can tell us this. However, Doom is a benevolent despot; so now, without further ado, below the fold find the answers to these questions:
1. Answer: Werner von Doom, a gypsy healer who got into trouble when he was unable to heal the wife of a powerful Baron, as seen below.
Werner von Doom ultimately died escaping the Baron’s wrath and in the process gave his life to save his son Victor’s life. Victor von Doom nursed healthy grudge after that. After his father’s death, while looking through his father’s possessions, he found a chest containing his dead mother’s potions and implements of magic and realized that she had been a sorceress. He then started to learn the magic arts and how to combine them with the latest science, using it to make money, sow fear, and assert his domination. Ultimately, Doom’s talents got the attention of the President of State University, who (apparently unaware of the unsavory uses to which he had put his knowledge) invited him to attend on a scholarship, and State U. is where he first met Reed Richards. It’s also where his experiments combining science with sorcery went awry and left him with a horribly scarred face.
The rest is history.
2. Answer: Doom’s faithful retainer was named Boris.
3. Answer: Here is the vow that Doom made over the grave of his mother.
Never let it be said that I don’t answer the questions I pose!
(Source: Fantastic Four 1964 Annual, as reprinted in Bring on the Bad Guys, by Stan Lee. No, unfortunately I don’t own the FF 1964 Annual, which is worth quite a bit.)
