The Face of Doom
There seem to be two standard opinions regarding the extent of scarring on Dr. Doom’s face. The first is that the explosion of Doom’s machine in college horribly scarred his face. This is the view that the current regime at Marvel seems to favor, at least given the appearance of Marvel’s new Dr. Doom bust. The second opinion is that Doom’s face is barely scarred, if at all. To his mind, however, his previously handsome face is horribly marred and that’s why he wears the mask. This is the view that Jack Kirby seemed to favor (scroll down a little).
I always favored Kirby’s view myself. Then I started thinking about Dr. Doom’s origin (as told in the classic Fantastic Four Annual #2 from 1964). That’s when I realized the truth: Doom’s face is horribly scarred…but only because he scarred it himself.
Look at the scene below: Doom puts a scorching hot metal mask up against his face and locks it into place. Steam and/or smoke is pouring out — that has to hurt. There’s no way that’s not going to cause serious burns and leave nasty scars. Doom is a brilliant man — he knew exactly what was going to happen. (I’m sure the monks couldn’t get that burnt protein/ bad perm out of their Himalayan cave for weeks.)
Of course, this particular version of Dr. Doom’s origin is 42 years old and has been adjusted countless times over the years, but I’ve always consider this origin the classic, and I really like the notion of Doom purposefully scarring his own face.
Now what would Doc Samson say about this?
Depending on your comfort with psychology, you can read as much or as little into this as you like. Did Doom scar his face so that his external appearance would match his negative view of himself? Maybe Doom has such confidence in himself that he doesn’t give a damn what other think about his face. Or possibly he did receive some minor scarring from the initial explosion and now he wants others to see the ruin in his face that he himself sees when he looks in the mirror
You could even take this a step further: Sure, Doom publicly blames Reed Richards for the scarring, but he knows the real truth: that Doom himself is the only one to blame for his scarring. That’s why he hasn’t had corrective surgery, not because he can’t — c’mon, this is the brilliant Dr. Doom we’re talking about — but because fixing the scars would be admitting that he made a mistake.
Other Unique Ruminations on Doctor Doom
Should That Be Mr. Doom?
The brochures from the Latverian Institute of Technology and Latverian State University
W.W.D.D. (What Would Doom Do?) Quiz and Answers
September 21st, 2006 at 1:45 am
I’d heard that it was the minor scarring, and he put the mask on like that, which resulted in the crazy kind scarring we see today on the bust. Thus, both are effectively true.
I don’t know how well that one holds up after decades of retcons, but I like it a lot, as you get the best of both worlds.
September 21st, 2006 at 2:56 am
In Chuck Dixon’s Doom series (set on Planet Doom, I mean, Counter-Earth, I mean Heroes Reborn earth) we see his face partially beshadowed. To be fair, Doom is naked.
I have realized for years that Kirby ad Lee had Doom scar himself this way.
Geez… I never imagine Doom having no nose.
September 21st, 2006 at 11:46 am
Regarding Jack Kirby’s intention for Doctor Doom versus what you read in FF Annual #2, it’s essentially to bear in mind that Lee and Kirby were working in what came to be known as “Marvel style” — Jack drew finished story pages which were only then turned over to an increasingly busy Stan for the addition of dialogue and captions. The plots were nominally devised in advance by Stan and Jack together…but how detailed these plots were, and how much they were a collaborative effort, is open to debate and surely varied over the years. Looking at Kirby’s original art reveals plenty of “story notes” to Lee indicating what was going on in the panels, suggesting that he was actually devising a great deal of the stories himself on the fly. And looking at those notes against the published versions reveals a number of times when they were working at cross-purposes — sometimes Lee didn’t get, or chose not to follow, what Kirby set out.
In the above sequence, Kirby may simply have intended a dramatic buildup to Doom donning his mask for the first time…but Stan decided to add his own emphasis in the dialogue to suggest massive scarring due to heat because he didn’t like Jack’s firm idea of a tiny scar. If the reader wishes to view Stan as the final authority on fact here, then it’s clearly as you say; if you consider Jack as equal “author” of the story (which I do) then it remains ambiguous at best.
September 21st, 2006 at 12:00 pm
Official Comment
RAB,
That’s good point regarding the Marvel Style, but I think that Kirby’s art is as evocative of searing as Stan Lee’s words — the blast furnace, the steaming mask, the steam flowing as the mask is put on …
September 21st, 2006 at 12:08 pm
in the last retelling of doom’s history in the doom series he also put the boiling hot mask on his face.
September 21st, 2006 at 1:11 pm
When John Byrne retold Doom’s origin in the mid 1980s, he went with a small scar from the explosion (actually shown on panel) and presumably hideous, unseen scarring from the uncooled mask.
September 21st, 2006 at 3:56 pm
I love the idea that the one small scar on Von Doom’s cheek would make him say, “aw, screw it,” and just burn the rest off.
September 21st, 2006 at 6:46 pm
Two arguments against the self-scarring:
1) Look at his posture. Doom is tough and all, but if that mask were really hot enough to burn flesh, I think he’d at least *flinch* a little.
2) The lackey who’s helping him put the mask on is touching it with his bare hands. No indication that he’s in pain either.
September 22nd, 2006 at 9:10 am
Doom? Flinch? Bah! He is DOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! Flinching is for lesser men.
My understanding was, like most of the folks here, the scarring from the accident was small, and that his disfigurment is the result of the red-hot mask you show. Why? Because, to Doom, once his “perfection” was marred, what’s the point? Putting on the mask was not about adding to the scarring–it was that he didn’t care about his appearance anymore.
To get all psychobabbly, it’s Victor’s equivalent of being a cutter. He took the inner pain of his only failure, a failure his now-marred face could never let him forget, and externalized it with massive burns. The physical pain distracted from the psychic one. Also, with the red-hot mask, he chose to be scarred. His disfigurement became no longer the result of his carelessness, but rather a symbol of (what he takes to be) his iron will. Deeper down, it was an act of self-loathing and mortification. Least, that’s my theory.
September 22nd, 2006 at 11:18 am
The psychological theories are fun. But the flashback in Doom’s first appearance from FF#5 shows him bandaged like a mummy, which supports the idea that originally the disfigurement was intended to be from the accident and not self-inflicted.
You’d have to retcon that the accident damage was extensive in terms of area, but ultimately superficial for the most part, and eventually healed well except for a remnant (which might be very annoying in a psychological sense in his mind – to get to *almost* perfect, with the nagging reminder always “in your face”).
September 22nd, 2006 at 11:58 am
The way I always understood it was that the origin showcased Doom’s two main flaws: vanity and impatience. When the apparatus exploded, Victor was only scarred superficially, but in his mind it amounted to terrible damage. In the most emo/melodramatic move in history, he decided to hide his hideous face behind a metal mask, but didn’t wait for the metal to cool. Thus, he was left with just the sort of scarring he’d imagined before, and blamed it all on Reed Richards.
September 22nd, 2006 at 12:02 pm
I thought Doom had the bandages so no one would see his “ruined” face, not for any real medical reason.
September 22nd, 2006 at 12:04 pm
Official Comment
Now I can just see Doom sitting in his room in the castle, listening to Fallout Boy, and whining on his MySpace page (and writing overwrought poetry) about how nobody understands him.
September 22nd, 2006 at 3:37 pm
Conor: I don’t think that works, since the medical personnel who treated him after the explosion, and anyone else at the scene, would know the extent of his facial injuries. So that can’t be a secret. Reed relates the story saying he was disfigured. You’d have to say that Reed’s relating it second-hand, that everybody took Doom at his word of being badly scarred. Remember, at the time, Doom is not a fearsome dictator, but a student who blew up a dormatory room, and several people were around when it happened. That sort of event is going to be talked-about for a while (although in the Marvel universe, maybe it’s more ho-hum – cosmic beings going on rampages put one-room dorm fires into a different perspective).
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