It’s Official: Doctor Doom Is Smarter Than the Avengers and Fantastic Four COMBINED

The Marvel Universe is filled with brilliant minds, but the smartest of them all may be the villainous Doctor Doom. If you ask a Marvel fan to name some of its smartest characters, you’ll hear names such as Iron Man, Mister Fantastic, Beast, Black Panther, and even Moon Girl. These are characters on teams like the Avengers and Fantastic Four. Doctor Doom wouldn’t be too far down on the list, and knowing him, he’d take exception at not holding the #1 spot. Doctor Doom puts his intellect to the test in One World Under Doom, and he’s managed to outsmart both Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and Marvel’s First Family at the same time. WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for One World Under Doom #1. Continue reading at your own risk!

One World Under Doom #1 comes from the creative team of Ryan North, R.B. Silva, David Curiel, and VC’s Travis Lanham. The limited series follows up on Doctor Doom stealing the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme and finally making his first move — declaring himself Emperor Doom and getting all of Earth’s nations to bow to him. As you can imagine, the Avengers aren’t going to sit around while Doctor Doom attempts to take over the world. Together with the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man, they take the fight to Doom and his new allies, Baron Zemo and Hydra. But just as it seems they’ve gotten one over on Doom, the villain turns the tables on them in an unexpected way.

How Doctor Doom outsmarts the Avengers and Fantastic Four

As the Avengers and Fantastic Four gather to discuss how to deal with their Doctor Doom problem, Baron Zemo and Hydra march on Latveria to take out Doom themselves. But when our heroes arrive on the outskirts of Latveria, they pick up a broadcast showing Zemo and Doom side-by-side. Zemo says that he was wrong about Doom and that Hydra will work with Doom to build schools and hospitals. In other words, Hydra doing good in the world instead of being a group of Nazis.

When the Avengers and Fantastic Four ascend on Hydra’s floating base, they discover that Baron Zemo is replaced by a Doombot. Looking inside the Doombot’s history reveals Doctor Doom killed Zemo and replaced him with a Doombot. Iron Man does his own public broadcast to the world to show how Doctor Doom has been lying, but the tables turn when Doom admits to his deception. Doom killed Baron Zemo and Red Skull because they were evil racists, taking care of a problem Earth’s Mightiest Heroes have been trying to solve since World War II. Whereas it only took Doom one day.

[RELATED: The Fantastic Four Get Help From She-Hulk to Deal With Doctor Doom’s Marvel Takeover]

Doctor Doom turns what should be a victory for the Avengers and Fantastic Four into a win for himself. He frames the heroes as being jealous of what he’s accomplished in such a short amount of time. “If they couldn’t save you — then they would ensure no one else could,” Doom says. It’s rather ingenious and shows how Doctor Doom is multiple steps ahead of our heroes. Doctor Doom knew Baron Zemo wouldn’t be able to resist attacking him, so he prepared for it and let Zemo into Latveria. And Doom also knew the Avengers and Fantastic Four wouldn’t be able to resist revealing the truth to the world, and prepared for that as well. Insert the “pointing at your head” meme here to represent Victor Von Doom.

Doctor Doom continues his takeover of the Marvel Universe

It’s one thing to get one over on the Avengers and Fantastic Four, but it’s another to convince the general public that Doctor Doom is more trustworthy than them. But that’s exactly what Doctor Doom has accomplished in One World Under Doom #1. You would think Iron Man and Mister Fantastic are used to battling wits with Doctor Doom, but they still got played by him. There was a time when Doctor Doom headlined his own Iron Man comic titled Infamous Iron Man, so Tony Stark is no stranger to dealing with Victor Von Doom. As for Reed Richards, he and Doom are always going back and forth in the ongoing debate of who is smarter. Sometimes Mister Fantastic is the winner, and other times it’s Doctor Doom.

One World Under Doom is shaping up to redefine Doctor Doom for the foreseeable future, while also altering the Marvel Universe as we know it. The first issue probably won’t be the only time we see Doom’s vast intellect on display, but there will come a time when he’s on the ropes and will have to show that he can adapt and pivot as different challenges present themselves.

So what did you think about One World Under Doom #1? Did it live up to your expectations? Let us know your thoughts about the comic down in the comments below!