As well as being theFantastic Four’s nemesis,Doctor Doomis often considered Marvel’s greatest villain - and in theUltimate Universethat was truer than ever before. The Ultimate Universe upgraded Doctor Doom, giving him a range of superhuman abilities that made himmore powerful than Thor, the God of Thunder.
Here are the 10 greatest powers Doctor Doom gained in the Ultimate Universe, from metallic quills to necromancy and energy blasts that could kill Giant-Man in a single hit. While the mainstream Doctor Doom is an accomplished scientist and sorcerer, the Ultimate Doom was a superhuman transformed by Reed Richards' fateful experiment, becoming more monster than man.
Launching in 2000,Marvel’s Ultimate Universe was a new continuitywhere its most iconic stories played out in the modern day. The line was designed to give creative teams even more license to tell ambitious, consequential stories with Marvel’s greatest heroes and villains. And few characters profited from this approach more than Doctor Doom.
In the Ultimate Universe, Doctor Doom’s real name is Victor Van Damme - a descendant of Dracula who is transformed when the Fantastic Four test an experimental teleporter.
10Metallic Quills
Ultimate Doctor Doom Makes Wolverine Look Like an Underachiever
In the Ultimate Universe,the Fantastic Four gain their powersdue to a malfunctioning experiment that is meant to teleport them through the Negative Zone. Assuming his genius surpasses that of Reed Richards, Victor Van Damme changes the teleporter’s coodinates, causing Reed, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, Ben Grimm and Van Damme himself to be stretched across multiple dimensions, transforming them into new forms native to alternate realities.
In Doctor Doom’s case, his skin sloughs off, revealing a new metallic body with satyr-like legs. One of the natural abilities of this body was toproduce deadly metal quills from his arms, which he could fire at extreme speeds. Doom’s metallic quills are incredibly hard to break or melt, and easily injured the Human Torch. As well as being able to fire his quills as projectiles, Doom could leave them attached to his body, effectively giving him dozens of lethal claws.
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9Energy Blasts
Ultimate Doctor Doom’s Energy Blasts Can Down a Demi-God
Following his transformation, Doctor Doom began studying ancient Atlantean magic and equipping himself with cutting-edge technology. This gave him the ability to unleash bolts of supernatural energy as well as deadly bolts of electricity. Doom truly unleashed his energy powers when he was exiled tothe reality of the Marvel Zombies, where his bolts blew various zombified heroes to pieces in a single shot. He was also able to incapacitate Namor, who in the Ultimate Universe is incredibly powerful, comparable to Thor in terms of durability.
8Mind-Control Tattoos
Doctor Doom Unleashed an Enslaved Army Against the Fantastic Four
As well as being a superhuman,the Ultimate Universe’s Doctor Doom is a technological genius. One of his most dangerous inventions was a simple tattoo which bonded with the subject’s brain stem, forcing them to obey his commands. Doom initially applied these tattoos to the residents of ‘The Keep’ - an autonomous zone in Denmark - but later expanded their application to his subjects in Latveria. The tattoos could force anyone to obey Doctor Doom’s commands, even if it meant risking their lives, as seen in Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen’sFantastic Four #12. The tattoos could seemingly also influence their bearers subconsciously, with Doom’s Latverian subjects uniformly adoring and respecting him.
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7Poisonous Breath & Concrete Bile
Doctor Doom’s Organs Converted into a Horrific Toxins
As well as his metallic quills,the Ultimate Doctor Doom was able to breathe a deadly neurotoxin so painful that its victims broke their backs thanks to the resulting convulsions. In his first fight with the Ultimate Fantastic Four, Doom theorized that the toxin was the result of his body converting his internal organs to a new techno-organic form, purging his prior human components.
However, it was later implied that Doctor Doom actually had the power to deliberately brew specific chemical cocktails within his body. This was shown in Mark Millar, Greg Land and Mitch Breitweiser’sUltimate Fantastic Four #32when Doom was able to vomit a fast-hardening, flame-retardant substance, custom-designed to take out the zombified Human Torch.
6Mosquito Robots
Doctor Doom Built a Lethal Swarm With Scraps
While the mainstream Doctor Doom is a genius, Victor Van Damme arguably makes him look like a novice.While living on the streets of Denmark, Doom scavenged various scraps and spare parts, turning the results into his mind-control tattoos, a bazooka that could down the Thing, and a swarm of deadly mosquito-like robots. He unleashed these on the Baxter Building in his first attack on the Ultimate Fantastic Four. Each individual robot was capable of killing a regular human, targeting the eyes with vicious stingers which may have been adapted from Doom’s quills.
5Techno-Organic Biology
Doctor Doom Is Unbreakable
Doctor Doom’s inhuman biology was one of his greatest strengths, as his body gradually transformed into a solid metallic construct. This protected Doctor Doom against almost all traditional attacks -the zombie Invisible Womanwas totally unable to harm him by summoning a force field inside his body, and the zombie Luke Cage shattered his teeth trying to bite Doom, despite his unbreakable skin. The only substance capable of damagingDoctor Doom’s metal was seemingly his own quills, which Reed Richards used to scar Doom after their first battle.
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4Necromancy
Doctor Doom Took Down the Zombie Fantastic Four Like They Were Nothing
After taking over Latveria,Doctor Doom used his new resources to gather and study lost Atlantean magic, specializing in necromancy. This came in handy when a zombified version of the Fantastic Four attacked New York. Doom was able to unleash a range of magic abilities against them, including increasing the breakdown of their bodies and summoning maggots to feast on the undead Mister Fantastic. Doom also employed his knowledge of necromancy to aid in cloning experiments and to strike down the various superhuman zombies of the Marvel Zombies universe, as seen inUltimate FF #4from Joshua Hale Fialkov and Mario Guevara.
3Superstrength
Ultimate Doctor Doom Tore the Thing to Pieces
One of the most surprising parts of Doctor Doom’s transformation was his incredible superstrength. Doom was able to tear the zombified Thing to pieces with seemingly little effort, and matched Iron Man blow for blow when the two fought. Trapped in the reality of the Marvel Zombies, Doom matched the strength of the zombie Hulk, managing to kick a hole through the gamma-powered monstrosity.Shockingly, when the extra-dimensional being Zvilpogghua was looking for a host inUltimate Fantastic Four #32, it bypassed Thor and the other Ultimates in favor of bonding with Doctor Doom.
2Body Swapping
Ultimate Doctor Doom Stole Reed Richards' Life and Family
Among Doctor Doom’s magical abilities is the power to permanently swap bodies with anyone of his choosing.Doom revealed this poweras part of a scheme to humiliate and disgrace Reed Richards, seizing the young hero’s body while using the fate of the Human Torch as a bargaining chip. The body swap spell seemed to take very little effort on Doom’s behalf, though thankfully his sense of honor eventually forced him to return Reed’s body.
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1Summoning Demons
Ultimate Doctor Doom Could Destroy the World With a Gesture
Easily Doctor Doom’s most powerful ability in the Ultimate Universe is the power to summon and command demons.InUltimate Fantastic Four #30(Mark Millar, Greg Land, Mitch Breitweiser), Doom summons the demonic being Zvilpogghua, aka the Feaster from the Stars. A Galactus-like entity, Zvilpogghua is capable of consuming an entire dimension once it finds a human host, with Doom implanting the demon within Johnny Storm’s Human Torch. While Doctor Doom used Zvilpogghua as part of his bargain to steal Reed Richards' body and be hailed as a hero, he could easily have simply allowed the demon to grow to its full power and end the world, with the Fantastic Four and Earth’s other heroes none the wiser and unable to stop the eldritch abomination.
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The Ultimate Universe’s Doctor Doom showed the character at his most arrogant and cruel, with Victor Van Damme becoming pathologically obsessed with proving his superiority over Reed Richards. His predatory powers represent who Doom is inside, with his spikes and toxins showcasing his vicious nature. The comics link Doctor Doom’s obsessive malice to his superhuman transformation, and his inability to accept that he is to blame for his new satyr-like form and inhuman biology.
While the Ultimate Doctor Doom hasn’t been seen in decades, it’s likely he’ll return sooner or later. The Ultimate Reed Richards may have started out as a hero, but he gradually lost his moral compass,renaming himself ‘The Maker’and becoming a multiversal threat. Indeed, the Maker is the current big bad of Marvel’srebootedUltimate Universe, launched in 2023. Fans shouldn’t be surprised to see theUltimate Doctor Doomreturn to take on the Maker, as nothing would make Victor Van Damme happier than being celebrated for standing against his hated rival, especially if he can lead his own version of theFantastic Fourto really twist the knife.
