Doctor Doom - Powers and Abilities

Powers and Abilities

Doctor Doom is a polymath scientific genius. Throughout most of his publication history, he has been depicted as one of the most intelligent humans in the Marvel Universe. This is shown on many occasions, most famously by actually curing Ben Grimm of his Thing form, which Reed Richards has never repeated. Doctor Doom and Reed Richards have both demonstrated competitively matched intelligences and are officially ranked equally in genius. Doctor Doom has also shown on many occasions to far outclass Richards in matters of sorcery and has contended for the title of Sorcerer Supreme.

Doom has constructed numerous devices in order to defeat his foes or gain more power, including a time machine, a device to imbue people with superpowers, and numerous robots; Doom's calculating and strategic nature leads him to use "Doombots," exact mechanical replicas of the real Doctor Doom, for many missions, typically those where he fears defeat. Sometimes the Doombots even believe themselves to be Doctor Doom. The character has also used his scientific talents to steal or replicate the power of other beings such as the Silver Surfer, or in one case the entity Galactus' world-ship.

Doctor Doom also possesses originally minor mystical capabilities due to teachings from Tibetan monks, but later increased them to a considerable extent due to tutoring from his lover Morgan Le Fay. He is capable of energy projection, creating protective shields, and summoning hordes of demonic creatures.

The alien Ovoids taught Doom the process of psionically transferring his consciousness into another nearby being through a simple eye contact, as well as showing him other forms of technology which Doom uses to escape from incarcerations and to avoid getting killed; however, if his concentration is broken, it can transfer his mind back, and he rarely uses this power unless absolutely necessary due to his own ego about his appearance.

Doom can exert technopathic control over certain machines, most notably, the Doombots. In addition, Doom has a remarkably strong will, as demonstrated in the graphic novel, Emperor Doom when he dared his prisoner, the mind controlling Purple Man, to attempt to control him and he successfully resists.

Without his armor he proved himself to be a skilled bare-handed fighter, even capable of killing a lion.

Doom's armor augments his natural physical strength to superhuman levels, to the point where he is able to hold his own against Spider-Man in hand-to-hand combat, although he tends to rely on long-range tactics when engaging physically stronger foes. It is also highly resistant to harm, sufficient to withstand blows from Iron Man. The armor can generate a defensive force field and a lethal electric shock killing anyone who might come in contact with Doom. The armor is self-supporting, equipped with internal stores and recycling systems for air, food, water, and energy, allowing the wearer to survive lengthy periods of exposure underwater or in outer space.

As the absolute monarch of Latveria, Dr. Doom has diplomatic immunity- allowing him to escape prosecution for most of his crimes- and total control of the nation's natural and technological resources, along with its manpower, economy, and military.

Doom is known for the frequent plot device wherein it is revealed that his actions were actually those of a "Doombot", one of Doom's many robot doubles, either working on his behalf or as a result of rogue artificial intelligence.

On many occasions, Doom's only real weakness has been shown to be his arrogance, Layla Miller once reflecting that Doom is incapable of accepting that he himself might be the reason for his failures, as most keenly reflected in Doom's continued inability to accept that he himself was responsible for the accident that scarred his face, preferring to blame Reed Richards for sabotaging his experiment rather than accept that his calculations were wrong. While his high opinion of himself is generally accurate, he is notably generally unable to accept when others may have a better understanding of a situation than he does – although he has been noted to have enough respect for heroes such as Reed Richards or the Thing to at least listen to their recommendations about threats that he himself has not encountered rather than dismiss them instantly – and even when forced to team up with others to defeat a greater threat Doom has been shown to be willing to try to gain a personal advantage when the more expedient course of action would be to stick to the plan and try for greater rewards later, such as when he tried to steal the Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos during the heroes' initial assault against the Titan rather than adhere to Adam Warlock's plan of attack and attempt to acquire the Gauntlet after Thanos had been defeated.

Doom adheres to a strict code of honor at all times. Doom will keep his exact word, which may or may not be beneficial to the person to whom he has given his promise. For example, Doom may swear that he will not harm an individual, but that only means he will not personally harm that person, it does not mean he will prevent others from harming that person.

He has saved Captain America from drowning because Captain America had earlier saved his life, and on another occasion he thanked Spider-Man for saving him from terrorists attacking him in an airport by allowing him to leave alive despite Spider-Man subsequently insulting him. His code of honor also means that he will not attack a respected opponent who is weakened or at a severe disadvantage, as he regards any victory resulting from such circumstances as hollow and meaningless. He has even on several occasions battled opponents who were intent on killing the Fantastic Four, for no other reason than the fact that he does not want the ultimate defeat of the Fantastic Four to come from anyone's hands but his own.