Fantastic Four Annual #2

Issue Details

Synopsis

Doctor Doom is met by his minion Boris on the eve of his mother's death. Doom ventures out to the field where his life began and begins to reflect back... As a young boy, Victor von Doom's father --a gypsy healer-- is asked by the King's men to heal the King's wife. Werner von Doom tries his best but fails, and when the King's wife later dies of her illness he sends his troops to get Werner. Werner and his son Victor then fled into the mountains where the father wrapped the boy in his own coat while they hid in the snow and ice. They were later found by the rest of their clan and taken back to the village. There Werner died of exposure, but not before asking Boris to look after his son. Boris took this to mean to watch out for the boy, not look after him. Furious at the death of both his father and mother at the hands of the King, Victor dug up his mothers old chest filled with mystical potions and books. Doom soon became a master of both science and sorcery using both skills to protect his people and swindle the wealthy. He would avoid executions by allowing the King's guard to capture robot duplicates of himself. Eventually, Victor's technological know how attracted the administrators at State University who offered him a full scholarship in America. Victor agreed and while attending State University, he almost ended up sharing a room with Reed Richards. However Doom's arrogance and demands to have his own private quarters prompted him to leave, this snubbing led to Richards rooming with Ben Grimm. Victor became determined to contact the neitherworld and one day Reed entered Victor's room unannounced and looked over Victor's notes for a device that would allow him to achieve his goals. Victor caught him and instantly became angry, kicking Reed out and ignoring the warnings that some of his calculations were off. When his device was complete, Victor had his assistant activate it, but the miscalculations caused the device to explode in his face. Scarred, Victor bandaged his face and was ejected from school in disgrace for his unauthorized experiment. Victor later traveled the mountains of Tibet where he found an order of monks who taught them everything they knew about magic. After, Doom had them fashion him a suit of armor. Impatiently, Doom placed the iron mask on his face before it had time to cool. Doom then left the monks and eventually took over his homeland and became the arch-nemesis to the Fantastic Four. ... With his recollections over, Doctor Doom returned to his castle, leaving Boris to wonder when Doom will menace the human race once again. Quoted from Marvel Wikia