Comics
Published October 31, 2024

Doctor Doom’s Biggest Battles with the Avengers

From 'Secret Wars' to the 'Children's Crusade,' learn about the major confrontations between Victor Von Doom and Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

While he may be forever known as the arch-nemesis of Reed Richards and the Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom has also posed a threat to the entire Marvel Universe on more than one occasion.  
 
Whenever Doom becomes too big a menace for the Fantastic Four to handle alone, the Avengers step up to stop the genius villain's latest plot to shape reality to his iron-fisted will. This has resulted in plenty of super-powered showdowns between Doom and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, with the fate of the Marvel Universe often hanging in the balance. 
 
While the Fantastic Four will always be Doom's personal rivals, the Avengers also recognize the masked super-villain as an important enemy to take down. Here are the major confrontations between Doctor Doom and the Avengers throughout Marvel history.

AVENGERS (2023) #19 cover by Todd Nauck
AVENGERS (2023) #19 cover by Todd Nauck

ENTER DOCTOR DOOM!

After several years of battling the Fantastic Four with little success, Doctor Doom set his sights a different super hero team. In AVENGERS (1963) #25, Doom moved to strike the Avengers while they recovered from a recent confrontation with Kang the Conqueror. Immediately suspecting Doom, Captain America led Hawkeye, the Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver to face him at his castle.

Doom quickly proved himself to be more than a match for the heroes, outmaneuvering even Quicksilver and Captain America in the opening skirmish. However, as Doom underestimated the Scarlet Witch’s magical abilities, the heroes managed to turn the tables on the smug super villain. Outmatched by another super hero quartet, Doom's defeat at the hands of the Avengers, resulted in a long history of animosity between him and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

AVENGERS (1963) #25 by Stan Lee and Don Heck
AVENGERS (1963) #25 by Stan Lee and Don Heck

SECRET WARS (1984)

When the Beyonder whisked heroes and villains away from Earth to battle for supremacy on Battleworld in SECRET WARS (1984) #1, Doctor Doom also partook in the showdown. However, rather than destroying the assembled heroes for the Beyonder’s entertainment, Doom decided to steal the Power Cosmic from Galactus and confront the Beyonder, stealing his reality-altering powers for himself.

After transforming Klaw’s body into a device capable of stealing Galactus’ powers, Doom stole both the Power Cosmic and the Beyonder’s omnipotent abilities in SECRET WARS (1984) #10.

Although he used his new powers to heal his face and destroy the heroes, Doom found himself ill-prepared for his sudden rise to godhood. He began to gradually lose control of his powers and an alien healer resurrected the heroes for an epic rematch.

The Beyonder revealed he merely pretended to lose to Doom. After reclaiming his powers, the Beyonder cast Doom back to his lowly mortal status and sent the heroes and villains away from Battleword and back to their homes. 

SECRET WARS (1984) #11 cover by Mike Zeck
SECRET WARS (1984) #11 cover by Mike Zeck

Doom vs. The Mighty Avengers

Iron Man and Doctor Doom have come face-to-face on more than one occasion. This super-powered feud has spanned space and time, sometimes even shaking the Marvel Universe to its core.

After a symbiote invasion triggered by a crashed satellite nearly overwhelmed New York, the newly formed Mighty Avengers tracked the satellite’s origins to Latveria. This prompted Tony Stark to lead a retaliatory strike against Doom’s kingdom in THE MIGHTY AVENGERS (2007) #9, with Iron Man confronting the cloaked dictator directly.

When Tony's advanced technology clashed with Victor's dark magic, the reaction projected the combatants back in time. Joined by the Sentry, Iron Man and Doctor Doom learned to temporarily put their differences aside in order in order to return to their native timeline. However, after the trio successfully returned to present-day Latveria, Doom exacted revenge on the Mighty Avengers for attacking his homeland in THE MIGHTY AVENGERS (2007) #11.

THE MIGHTY AVENGERS (2007) #9 art by Mark Bagley
THE MIGHTY AVENGERS (2007) #9 art by Mark Bagley

AVENGERS: THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE

Throughout the years, Doctor Doom has battled the adult Avengers many times. He also proved he has no qualms about fighting teenage heroes if they happen to stand in his way.

In AVENGERS: THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE (2010), the Young Avengers pursued the missing Scarlet Witch to reunite her with her children, Wiccan and Speed. Their search led them to Latveria, where they found an amnesiac Wanda Maximoff about to marry Victor Von Doom. To Doom's dismay, the Avengers and Young Avengers interrupted their nuptials.

The planned wedding wasn’t all romance for Doom, of course, with the villain plotting to steal the Scarlet Witch’s reality-altering powers for himself after their marriage. The restoration of Wanda’s memories cut this blissful moment short; she happily reunited with her sons, then engaged Doom in an all-out battle.

Though the super villain was defeated, not all of the Young Avengers walked away from the battlefield — sending the team into a tailspin as they deal with their tragic loss.

AVENGERS: THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE (2010) #8 by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung
AVENGERS: THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE (2010) #8 by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung

SECRET WARS (2015)

The most grandiose plot Doctor Doom ever pulled off was the formation of a new Battleworld, a realm composed of disparate elements from the shattered Marvel Multiverse. After a harrowing fight against the Beyonder during the collapse of the Marvel Multiverse, Doom gained the powers to create this new Battleworld. 

Unfolding in SECRET WARS (2015)SECRET WARS (2015), the cosmically empowered super villain took on the title of God Emperor and ruled over Battleworld from a throne built into Yggdrasil, the Asgardian World Tree. To execute his will, Doom commanded the Thor Corps, a security force of Thors from throughout the former Multiverse.

Few survived the destruction of the Multiverse, but when Reed Richards, Miles Morales, and the Maker emerged in the strange world Doom created, they vowed to defeat him and restore reality. With Doom as the supreme ruler of all reality, a team of heroes from multiple broken universes rallied together to topple the god-tier enemy Doctor Doom became.

SECRET WARS (2015) #4 by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic
SECRET WARS (2015) #4 by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic

THE ROAD TO ONE WORLD UNDER DOOM

In BLOOD HUNT, the vampires of the Marvel Universe emerged from the shadows when the planet was plunged into darkness. With Earth's Mightiest Heroes completely overwhelmed by the vampires, Doctor Strange made the impossible choice of passing the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme to the only person who could stop the invasion of the undead: Doctor Doom.

While he did put an end to the Blood Hunt, Doctor Doom did not return the powers of Sorcerer Supreme to Strange. Instead, he vowed to use them to save the world... on his terms.

Doctor Doom now makes a play for the world stage. With the powers of the Sorcerer Supreme in Victor Von Doom's hands, the Marvel Universe must brace itself for ONE WORLD UNDER DOOM. Will the Avengers have what it takes to stop him?

BLOOD HUNT (2024) #5 by Jed MacKay and Pepe Larraz
BLOOD HUNT (2024) #5 by Jed MacKay and Pepe Larraz

Pick up AVENGERS (2023) #19 by Jed MacKay and Farid Karami to get your first glimpse at the upcoming status quo under Doctor Doom!

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