Appearing in "The Books of Doom: Book 1"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Zefiro Clan
- Werner von Doom
- Cynthia von Doom
- Gustav von Kampen
- Boris
- Valeria
- Sylvana Rosetti
Antagonists:
- The Baron's Men
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Earth-616
- Earth
- Europe (Main story and flashback)
- Balkans (Main story and flashback)
- Latveria (Main story and flashback)
- Mount Doom (Unnamed) (Only in flashback)
- Latveria (Main story and flashback)
- Balkans (Main story and flashback)
- North America
- Europe (Main story and flashback)
- Earth
Items:
Synopsis for "The Books of Doom: Book 1"
Doctor Doom begins narrating his life's story for an interviewer, stating that he remembers every single moment of his life. He tells the interviewer that his self-awareness began in his mother's womb, something his father never believed. He speculates that this was an effect of his mother's dallying with demons, which also gave her perpetually cold hands. As a child, Doom was oblivious to this, and it would take him many years to realize the truth about his mother. His father tried to get his wife to stop dabbling in the dark arts, fearful that it would bring death to her and their family, but she claimed that she was seeking power to improve their lives, and the life of their son.
One night, she was manipulated by a demon and filled with a thirst for vengeance on the Baron's men, who constantly tormented their band of gypsies. She cast a spell that allowed her to gain great power from the demon, and used it to kill all the soldiers in a village, unknowingly also killing every child in the village at the same time. By the time she realized what she had done, it was too late, and she was killed by a soldier. At his mother's funeral, the rest of the gypsy camp tried to banish young Victor and his father, Werner. Young Victor intervened however, telling them that if they cast them out, he would grow up like his mother, acquire the same dark magics, and use them to take vengeance on them all. The gypsies relented, and Victor and Werner were allowed to stay.
Victor grew up somewhat lonely, since most of the children kept their distance from him after the death of his mother, but he had one constant friend by the name of Valeria. One day, some of the Baron's soldiers came for Victor's father, asking him to use his knowledge of medicine to try and cure the Baron's dying wife. Despite Victor's objections, Werner left with the soldiers. He returned in the middle of the night, telling Victor that the two of them needed to leave. Werner was unable to save the Baron's wife, since her body was already riddled with cancer, but the Baron would not accept this and blamed his wife's death on Werner. The two escaped into the night, hiding successfully for four days. On the fifth day however, the two became trapped in the cold. Werner gave his jacket to his son and warmed him in his embrace, at the cost of his own life, as he froze to death while the two slept.
Victor was rescued by the gypsies, and after his father's death, he found his mother's strongbox, full of spell books and magical supplies. Victor began studying the magic arts, believing that his destiny was to find his mother and rescue her from the hellish torment she now endured at the hands of the demon. As the years passed however, magic brought him no success, causing him to turn to science instead, which he quickly mastered. He created weapons that he used to defend the gypsies from the Baron's men, and became the leader of the gypsy clan at age 16. After one of many failed attempts to rescue his mother, Victor became careless, and walked onto the patrol route of a soldier who captured him. Victor managed to disarm him, and choked him to death. Taking another person's life for the first time traumatized Victor, and when a representative of the American military came to their gypsy camp one day and offered him a scholarship in America in exchange for working for them, Victor eagerly accepted.
