Doom 2099
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Doom (Victor Von Doom) is a Marvel Comics anti-hero featured in the Marvel 2099 comic book Doom 2099. The character is based on Doctor Doom, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The comic was written by John Francis Moore for its first two years and by Warren Ellis for its third.
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[edit] Publication history
Doom first appeared in Marvel Comics Presents #118, in a preview of Doom 2099 #1. Doom 2099 would run for 44 issues (Doom 2099 1-44), with Doom making notable appearances in 2099 AD, 2099 Unlimited, 2099: World of Tomorrow, Ghost Rider 2099, Hulk 2099, Punisher 2099, Ravage 2099, Spider-Man 2099, and X-Men 2099. Doom also received his own special one-shot after conquering the United States titled 2099 A.D..
[edit] Fictional character biography
In the year 2099, Doom appeared in the ruins of Castle Doom in Latveria, after disappearing 50-100 years before. Latveria was now in the hands of a cyborg, Tyger Wylde. Doom confronted the new dictator of the nation, but was quickly defeated, as his armor was damaged and depleted of energy. Defeated, Doom found refuge with the last remnants of his gypsy tribe, the Zefiro, who assisted him in creating a new, more powerful suit of armor capable of competing with Wylde's futuristic technology. Doom was able to defeat Wylde and gain control of his home nation (issues 1-4). Doom decided that the world has become chaotic and corrupt and to save it, he had to conquer it. Doom was assisted by several Zefiro gypsies:
- Fortune, a Zefiro fortune teller and former advisor of Wylde.
- Wire, a Cybersavant, capable of finding information on the worldwide Cyberweb.
- Xandra, Wire's girlfriend and a Wakandan soldier. Adopted into the Zefiro.
- Vox, the Zefiro's magical adept. A mute boy who has one of the Eyes of Agamotto.
- Poet, Fortune's former lover and capable martial artist, not a Zefiro.
Several weeks later, Doom conquered the country, Myridia. (issue #23)
[edit] The Real Doom
Throughout the first half of the series there was speculation that Doom may not be the real Victor Von Doom. Doom was younger than the real Victor von Doom would be, his face was unscarred and his memory was fragmented; he had no recollection of how he came to 2099, and only a few memories of conflict with the Fantastic Four. Doom would later in the series recall the end of the Age of Heroes, killing Reed Richards, growing old, and some vague memories of a war.
His confusion increased when another man showed up, claiming to be the real Doctor Doom. This man was accompanied by Margaretta von Geisterstadt, a woman Doom remembered he once loved. Myridia's ruler, General Czerny told Doom that he was in fact Erik Czerny, his son, kidnapped by the real Doom and Margaretta as a pawn in one of their lethal games. Doom faced his duplicate and in the battle, he learned that he was the real Doom. Several years ago, his body had been nearly destroyed after an accident and Maragareta had placed him within a regenerating bath which would repair his damaged body and rejuvenate him. Margaretta had brainwashed Erik Czerny into believing that he was Doctor Doom to amuse herself during Doom's regeneration. To make the 'game' even more interesting, Margaretta decided to implant some of Czerny's memories in Doom's to see who would win in their inevitable battle. Doom defeated Czerny and left Margaretta to die in her base.
[edit] President Doom
With his mind restored, Doom set out to conquer the USA, but by now he had lost several of his allies: Wire's body had died though his mind lived on in Cyberspace, Poet died battling drug-traders and Xandra had left to train in Wakanda. Doom conquered the United States in issue #29 and he left Fortune as regent behind in Latveria. As president, Doom fought against Alchemax, the Pixel Corporation and the other corporations who controlled all aspects of every day life in 2099. Doom recreated S.H.I.E.L.D., assigning Junkpile to take down the Red Market (illegal trade in humans for experimentation). He also made the X-Men 2099 the law enforcers of Halo City, a place where mutants and humans could live in peace.
In response, his enemies banded together and under the leadership of Herod, they briefly deposed Doom and replaced him with a man masquerading as the original Captain America. Herod then ordered the death of every inhabitant of Latveria, killing the entire country with a neurotoxin. Doom was believed to be dead, but he returned to kill the Captain America-imposter and left Herod disabled, in pain for the rest of his life.
[edit] Death of Doom
Doom returned to Myridia, the world's source of information, hoping to find a way to save Latveria. He travelled back to the 20th century, and introduced an immunity to the neurotoxin in the population of Latveria. He returned to 2099, to find Fortune and about 50% of the population of Latveria alive, due to the genetic immunity.
During an invasion by the Phalanx, Doom would give his life to defeat the robotic aliens. However, he wouldn't leave Latveria without a ruler. For the role that Nostromo played in the defeat of the aliens while being manipulated by the hands of Doom, he named the boy next ruler of Latveria. (2099: World of Tomorrow)
[edit] Other versions
Doom would find new life during the World Tour run of the Exiles (issues 75-76). He is revealed as the current monarch of Latveria and hacks into a public eye camera to offer the Proteus-possessed Hulk a safe haven in Latveria. After Proteus decides to leave, Jordan Boone (the creator of the Virtual Unreality portal that Proteus traveled through) is fired from Alchemax but Doom, intrigued by the thought of inter-dimensional travel, offers Boone a new job.
Of course, Proteus and the Exiles' involvement in the reality of 2099 creates a divergent timeline that is different from the events of the Marvel 2099 series.
[edit] The Black Cabinet
When Doom conquered the United States, he gathered his Black Cabinet, a group of talented and unique individuals:
- Indigo Eshun, a brilliant British "Netglider" and head of an elite Cadre of Netgliders. (Minister of Signal). Wire's body was rebuilt and he was Doom's instant link to the Indigo and her Netgliders, though he had become insane and would commit suicide shortly afterwards. Indigo was killed during Herod's coup.
- Nkrumah, a Wakandan mercenary and head of Panther's Rage, a group of elite warriors. (Minister of Enemy Relations) Xandra was one of his Panthers.
- Morphine Somers, a mutant activist with the power to age anything he touched thousands of years in mere seconds. (Minister of Humanity)
- Sharp Blue, head of the Mercenary Elite Guild (Minister of Order)
- Jacob Gallows, The Punisher 2099 (Minister of Punishment).
[edit] Powers and abilities
After being defeated by Tyger Wylde, Doom underwent special surgery: nano-machines were inserted in his blood, speeding up his neural and motor responses, allowing him to interface with technology and heal himself from serious injuries. Due to his fragmented memory, Doom's mystical abilities were drastically decreased. For mystical matters, Doom therefore had to rely on Vox. When his memory was restored, he had full access to his mystical abilities. Doom wears an adamantium-lanxide laced armor with such abilities as flight, phasing, protective forcefields, increased strength, invisibility and gauntlet energy blasts. His armor also possesses a wide array of sensors and scanners.
[edit] Note
- Doom's change from a supervillain to an anti-hero was not so much a change in Doom's own personality or actions as a result of the differences between the "Age of Heroes" (Marvel's regular timeline) and 2099.
- The "2099" characters appearing in Exiles are not the same as the characters appearing in the 2099 comics according to writer Tony Bedard. Instead it's a slightly different timeline. All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #5 confirms this, referring to the timeline shown in Exiles as Earth-6375 in the entry for Hyperion (as opposed to Earth-928, established as the timeline for the "original" 2099 setting).
- After Doom conquered the U.S.A., all 2099 titles added the letters A.D. (Anno Doom) to their titles.
