WERNER von DOOM

Real Name: Werner von Doom (middle name possibly Josef; see comments)

Identity/Class: Human

Occupation: Healer

Group Membership: Zefiro

Affiliations: Boris, Dominic Fortune, Amanda MacLain

Enemies: Baron Sabbat and his royal guardsmen

Known Relatives: Cynthia von Doom

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Mobile throughout Latveria

First Appearance: Fantastic Four Annual I#2 (1964)

Powers/Abilities: Werner von Doom was experienced in folk medicine.

History:
(Doom 2099#25) - A time-traveling Doom 2099 briefly passed through Latveria's past and saw Werner Von Doom as a youth. The young Werner was fascinated by the iron mask he saw on Doom 2099, so much so that his father created puppets with iron masks, which were later used to amuse young Victor...

(Fantastic Four Annual#2/1 (fb) - BTS) - Werner was a healer within the group of Latverian Gypsies known as the Zefiro.

(Books of Doom#5 (fb) - BTS) - Torval of the Zefiro played fiddle at Cynthia's wedding to Werner von Doom.

(Astonishing Tales: Dominic Fortune#4) - <1937> Werner encountered Dominic Fortune and Amanda MacLain in Haasenstadt, Latveria and helped them escape the city when he saw that Amanda had injured her leg. He took him with his cart to a Gypsy camp in the countryside because he knew Nazis were after them and Nazis were no friends to the Gypsy. In his camp he introduced Dominic and Amanda to his pregnant wife Cynthia.

(Astonishing Tales: Dominic Fortune#5) - When Dominic asked Werner why he and his people didn't just leave Latveria Werner told him that they were not cowards. When Dominic picked up a Torus statue made of the metal the Nazis sought, Werner explained to him that the metal was used to silence Mephisto's howls and that his people received it generations ago from deep within Africa (Wakanda). Dominic and Amanda decided to go to Wakanda next and were led to the Kine River Airfield by Werner. They overpowered the guards and Werner was impressed by Johann Shmidt's experimental plane, which Dominic and Amanda stole to fly to Wakanda.

(Fantastic Four Annual#2/1 (fb) - BTS/Astonishing Tales: Dominic Fortune#6 (fb) ) - Werner and Cynthia had a son, Victor.

(Marvel Graphic Novel: Dr. Strange and Dr. Doom: Triumph and Torment (fb)) - Unlike his wife, Werner accepted his lot in life, including the abuse the Zefiro received from the Baron.

(Books of Doom#1 (fb)) - Werner fruitlessly tried to dissuade Cynthia from using the black arts.

(Marvel Graphic Novel: Dr. Strange and Dr. Doom: Triumph and Torment (fb)) - Cynthia made a magical pact with Mephisto, inadvertently slaughtered some townspeople, and was subsequently killed. Werner found her seconds before she died; she only had time to tell him what had happened and to make him promise to shield Victor from the demonic power she had unleashed. Knowing the Baron would destroy the Zefiro if he knew Cynthia's involvement, Werner buried Cynthia in an unmarked grave.

(Marvel Comics Super Special#1 (fb) - BTS) - The Latverian mystic who would later use the alias "Dizzy the Hun" spoke Cynthia's eulogy.

(Books of Doom#1 (fb)) - At Cynthia's funeral, Boris and some of the other Zefiro asked Werner to take Victor and leave to spare them the further persecution of the Baron. Victor, barely more than 4 years old, swore that if the Zefiro cast them out that he would grow up to be just like his mother and that he would track them all down and bring a blackness upon them that would make his mother's actions as nothing.

(Marvel Graphic Novel: Dr. Strange and Dr. Doom: Triumph and Torment (fb)) - Werner led the Zefiro to flee before the dawn. At the first bridge they crossed, Werner dumped Cynthia's trunk of arcana into the water, but three nights later he found the trunk, dry and whole, back in his wagon.

(Marvel Graphic Novel: Dr. Strange and Dr. Doom: Triumph and Torment (fb) - BTS) - Over the next year, Werner tried over and over to destroy the Trunk, using fire, large rocks, an axe, etc., but it could not be destroyed. Eventually, Werner gave up and tried to lose the trunk amongst his own meager belongings.

(Fantastic Four Annual#2/1 (fb)/Books of Doom#1 (fb)) - Eventually returning to the Latverian Steppes, Werner's fame as a healer drew unwanted attention. He was ordered to minister to the Baron's dying wife. Werner realized that the cancer that consumed her was beyond his ability to heal and that she would not survive the night. He gave her a potion and returned to the village, knowing that the Baron's men would come for him when she died, and he took Victor and fled into the woods. The cold harsh winter devastated them and Werner froze trying to keep Victor warm. Victor was trapped for hours within his father's frozen grasp.
    Werner's old friend Boris found them and returned them to the camp, but Werner, briefly recovering, died soon after. His last words were "You must protect...you must protect...protect."
    Only Boris understood that Werner had not meant to protect the lad, but rather that the world would need protection from the boy who bore the name of Doom.

Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Chic Stone.

I don't have Fantastic Four Annual#2; the images used are from the retelling of Doom's origin from Fantastic Four I#278.

Thanks to Per Degaton for adding the Doom 2099#25 appearance!

    In Doom 2099#5, Eduardo Vargas, head of PIXEL, reviewed the history of the modern era's Victor von Doom, and his father's name was listed as "Werner Josef <von Doom>."

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
No known connection to:

• not so much

images:
Fantastic Four I#278, p4, panel 2 + 4

Appearances:
Fantastic Four Annual#2 (1964) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks)
Marvel Comics Super Special#1 (1977) - by Steve Gerber (writer/editor), Alan Weiss, John Buscema, Rich Buckler, & Sal Buscema (pencilers), Al Milgrom (inker)
Marvel Graphic Novel: Dr. Strange and Dr. Doom: Triumph and Torment (1989)
Doom 2099#5 (May, 1993) - John Francis Moore (writer), Pat Broderick (penciler), John Nyberg (inker), Joey Cavalieri (editor)
Doom 2099#25 (January, 1995) - John Francis Moore & Warren Ellis (writers), Pat Broderick (pencils), John Nyberg (inks), Joey Cavalieri (editor)
Books of Doom#1 (January 2006) - Ed Brubaker (writer), Pablo Raimondi (penciler), Mark Farmer (inker), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Astonishing Tales: Dominic Fortune#4-6 (September-November, 2009) - Dean Motter (writer), Greg Scott (artist), Michael Horwitz (editor)

First Posted: 07/01/2004
Last updated: 03/07/2022

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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