In a surprise announcement last night at San Diego Comic Con, Noah Hawley, creator of F/X hits Fargo and Legion, teased a new project: Doctor Doom. He’ll be directing the film for 20th Century Fox. There’s no word if he’ll also be writing it.
The Comic Book Database provides this bio of Doctor Doom, aka Victor von Doom, who first appeared in comics in The Fantastic Four #5 (July 1962):
A descendant of a Latverian nobleman and a Gypsy witch, Victor von Doom lost both of his parents early on in life, leading him to become strongly embittered against the world around him. Intellectually advanced, he studied both science and the secrets of his mother’s witchcraft early in life, and came to the United States on a scholarship to Empire State University.
At school, von Doom became acquainted with both Reed Richards and Ben Grimm, later of the Fantastic Four. His studies focussed on trans-dimensional communication and travel, fixated especially on methods of communicating with his dead mother. Due to his feelings of insecurity at Reed Richard’s scientific genius, von Doom ignored Richard’s advice, and his experiments led to an accident in which he was facially scarred. Following this event, Victor was expelled from school, and went out into the world, seeking a cure for his condition (which may or may not have been that serious in actuality). All of this, reasonably or not, would lead him to a life-long enmity towards Reed Richards and the Fantastic Four.
In Tibet, Victor spent time with Tibetan monks, learning further sorcerous secrets. When the monks crafted a suit of mystical body armor, von Doom donned his mask before the iron face-plate had cooled, further disfiguring himself. Later, the suit would be significantly improved by way of technological and magical enhancements.
Now calling himself “Doctor Doom”, he returned to Latveria and promptly overthrew the country, installing himself as a (relatively) benevolent dictator. Swearing himself to world domination and revenge on Reed Richards, Doom proceeded to enact any number of schemes to extend his personal power.
In later years, after Doom extended his knowledge of mystical powers even further, his soul was consigned to Hell following further conflicts with Reed Richards. Most recently, he appears to have returned to life after Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir, passed through the Hell dimension on its way back to Earth.
His powers include advanced knowledge and abilities in both science and magic. He wears powered armor that provides superhuman durability, strength, and flight, and incorporates various weaponry systems.
