Doctor Doom Has Always Been Marvel’s Most Complicated Villain, and This Story Proves Why

Doctor Doom is about to finally hit Marvel’s greatest stage with Avengers: Doomsday, but as usual, if fans really want to understand him, they need to read Marvel Comics. Doom is in a very interesting place in the comics. He became the Sorcerer Supreme in Blood Hunt and used that power to take over the world in One World Under Doom, a story that ended with his death. However, this is Victor Von Doom and he has enemies in realms beyond, including Mephisto’s infernal Hell, his soul snagged by his old enemy. However, he isn’t alone in Hell, as Steve Rogers was put into a coma by Red Hulk, his soul also pulled to Mephisto’s realm. The two of them have teamed up to help free Hell from the demon lord’s power in “Hell’s Angel”, but he has his own dark paladins to use against the rebels – Red Skull and Doom’s first and only true love Valeria Franzen, who Doom killed and sold to demons for power.

Captain America (Vol. 14) #14 sees Doom and Valeria face off, but that’s just a vehicle for something else – Cap and Doom working together and the Sentinel of Liberty seeing a different side of the Latverian monarch. Doom may seem like a simple villain – evil king who hates Reed Richards – but there’s always been more to Doom than meets the eye and “Hell’s Angels” has been giving readers and Cap the other side of the man in the iron mask. In fact, Captain America (Vol. 14) has dealt with the villain in a very interesting way and this latest story is all about revealing another facet of Victor Von Doom.

Valeria’s Defeat Brought Out Another Side of Latveria’s Greatest Monarch

Captain America (Vol. 14) started with a flashback story about Cap’s first mission for the government after being thawed out. It introduced new Captain America David Colton, with the two of them going on a mission to Latveria. Cap ended up fighting Doom, working with Latverian rebels that the villain squashed like a bug. This was Doom at his most evil; he and Cap did have something of a heart to heart over how much Victor respected Cap’s actions in freeing Latveria in World War II. He tried to manipulate Steve and when that didn’t work, he attacked, trying to kill the man he just praised.

The next story in the book took place in the present day, as the various governments of the world tried to steal Doom’s tech after his death in One World Under Doom, a story which dealt with the consequences of Doom’s evil. “Hell’s Angel”, so far, has given us the other view of Doom, not as the armored tyrant, but as Victor. He was still hard-edged, but there was a feeling of remorse to him about what he’d done. Valeria showing up in issue #13 had a chance to bring out the worse in him, but instead, we get him begging her for her forgiveness.

This is honestly a huge moment in Doom history. His sacrifice of Valeria is one of his most despicable acts. Marvel has tried to redeem the villain in various ways over the years, with stories like Secret Wars and Infamous Iron Man presenting him as the man under the mask, much like “Hell’s Angel” has been. Valeria’s murder was the one thing that no fan could forgive and it always hung over his head during any of these attempts at redemption. It would be one thing if we saw him talk about his guilt over it, but having the two of them meet and him beg her forgiveness shows how Doom has grown since “Unthinkable”.

I love Doom as a monster, but I, like many other fans of the character, also love the more human moments of Victor Von Doom. Secret Wars gave us the villain actually telling Reed Richards that he would have done a better job of being God, admitting that Richards was the better man. Now, we get to see him begging forgiveness for his worst act. “Hell’s Angel” is a story that’s going to go down in history as one of the most important Doom stories ever because of this moment. It feels like Marvel may be laying the grounds for another big redemption of the villain; the story is even making a point of Steve seeing Doom in a different light. At this point, one of the two things is going to happen – we’re either getting a big redemption arc (which says interesting things about the MCU version of Doom and what directions he can go; Feige is more in control of the comics than ever) or he’s going to betray Steve at the end to try to take Mephisto’s power. Regardless of which way it goes at the end, this story still represents a massive moment in Doom in history.

Doom’s Growth Over the Last Decade Has Been Astounding

Valeria Franzen represents a very important part of Victor Von Doom’s history. In a lot of ways, she represented the human parts of him. She was the his first friend, his first love, and their relationship was one of the few normal things in his life, even before the death of his parents, as they ran from the forces of the Baron. When readers first learned about her, she tried to get him to abandon his life as a monarch and live a simple life with her. He refused and would later sacrifice her for more power, using her skin for his armor. It was his most ghastly act, the one that is always over his shoulder when he saves the multiverse from destruction or fights evil as Iron Man or gives everyone universal health care and education. “Hell’s Angel” makes him stare his sin in the eye and he does something that would have been previously been unthinkable for him – he begged forgiveness, even offering the death of his immortal soul to Valeria.

This is a very different Doctor Doom. While there is still a chance that he could betray everyone, it feels like the events of the end of One World Under Doom – him frantically trying to save Valeria Richards’ life, using all of his considerable magical knowledge to find a solution to accidentally killing her – really had an effect on him. “Hell’s Angel” is playing into that event, paying off changes to the character that began a decade ago in Secret Wars. He’s met the Valeria he killed on purpose and instead of blustering, of making excuses, of trying to downplay what he did, he apologized. Marvel is growing Doom in some astounding new directions and it could mean bold new things in his future.

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