WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR FINAL #4! Marvel Comics recently introduced fans to a brand new Doctor Doom Who debuted in the newly formed Ultimate Universe of Earth-6160 and now the face beneath the mask is revealed. Fans are well aware that Victor Von Doom’s original face is horribly scarred and disfigured, but they had no idea what to expect with this new Doctor Doom, and the reveal is even scarier than the original.
The Ultimates #4 by Denise Camp and Phil Noto provides the full backstory of the new Ultimate Universe’s Doctor Doom aka Reed Richards. In this universe, Richards’ history is similar to that of his Earth-616 counterpart, although several critical changes to the timeline were made by the Maker (Reed Richards of the original Ultimate Universe) that led to vastly different outcomes. Instead of gaining superpowers after flying into space, the Fantastic Four all died in different yet equally horrific ways. All of them except Reed Richards.
The creator had other plans for his form, one thing in particular: torture. Originally just for fun, the Maker tortured his variant by trapping him in a time-displaced dome to drive him insane, and he physically tortured him by using his flesh-cutting mutant rats and a specially-built device to inflict pain and mutilation. . Maker was creating his own Doctor Doom from a version of himself, so naturally, he had to mess up his face.
Ultimate Doom’s face is worse than the original for more reasons than just looks
Earth-616 Doom was responsible for his own injuries while Ultimate Doom was the victim
It’s clear that the Maker’s torture makes Ultimate Doctor Doom’s face look pretty bad, and even worse than Earth-616’s original Doctor Doom, who was scarred after a laboratory accident in college. However, this is not why his deformation is worse than the original, as the real reason is that Ultimate Doctor Doom was brutally tortured unlike the Earth-616 Doctor Doom, who only suffered the consequences of his own psyche.
While he was in college with Reed Richards, Doom of Earth-616 created a device that allowed him to travel to other dimensions. Reed noticed that his calculations were slightly off and tried to warn Doom about it. Doom didn’t listen, and when he used the device, it exploded, scarring his face. Doom couldn’t accept that he was wrong, so he developed a paranoid theory that Reed had destroyed the device. So, not only was Earth-616’s Doom responsible for his own perversion, but Reed actually tried to save him – a far cry from the Ultimate Universe.
Doctor Doom’s Ultimate Universe Origins Are a Dark Reflection of the Original
The Ultimate Universe version of Doctor Doom’s origin story is a twisted reversal of the original. As if revealing Doom’s paranoid delusions on Earth-616, Reed Richards (as the Maker) is directly responsible for the scars on Doom’s face, as he literally puts Doom inside his iconic metal mask. Not only that, but Reed Richards was technically doing this to himself, cementing Reed’s connection to Doom’s origins in a much more personal and intimate way. Honestly, it’s absolutely brilliant, and only speaks to the care and quality that went into Marvel’s new Ultimate Universe.
Ultimate Doctor Doom’s face looks pretty rough under his mask, though the real horror lies in how and why he now has to hide it, the poetic connection to the original adding more depth to this well-crafted origin. In fact, Marvel’s new Doctor DoomIts face is even scarier than the original, and that’s because of the origin of its distortion – and only time will tell how it will shape its future in the final universe.
Final #4 Available now by Marvel Comics.