What Doctor Doom Looks Like Under The Mask

The Marvel Comics Universe is full of heroes wearing all types of masks to keep their identities secret. However, one villain who has rarely ever removed his mask is the Fantastic Four villain Doctor Doom. While Doom’s metal mask has almost exclusively been on – he has taken the mask off before and revealed his true appearance.

Victor Von Doom has one of Marvel’s most tragic origins. Born in Latveria, his mother and father died when he was young. Doom had studied science and magic in an effort to help his village save his mother and he continued those studies in university. It’s there he began a rivalry with Reed Richards and his goal to be the best truly began. Victor was horrifically scarred when a machine he was building exploded in an experiment gone wrong. Kicked out of the school, Doom was given armor and began his villainous turn after encountering a group of Tibetan monks. He would become and still is one of Marvel’s greatest villains.

Besides hints at what his true appearance looks like, Marvel has gone back and forth when it comes to what Doctor Doom actually looks like under the mask. It’s shown in Fantastic Four #278 that Doom only had a small scar on his face and that his appearance is mostly fine – as he just sees the small imperfection as him being a monster. However, he’s also been hideously disfigured. In Secret Wars #3 by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic, Doom rules Battleword as Emperor Doom. When he confides in Sue Storm that he feels he’s the only flawed being in his entire perfect, created world, he removes his mask and is shown to be missing his nose as his entire face is badly scarred.

Secret Wars actually ends with Doom’s scar disappearing – which would lead straight into his time as Infamous Iron Man. His face would be burned again when he returned to villainy while fighting a demon-possessed version of The Hood.

Doom’s face underneath his iconic mask has been safely guarded by Marvel. It appears that depending on the story arc, he either has a small scar that his own dysmorphia makes him believe he’s hideous beneath his mask, or that his face is actually disfigured as you see in Secret Wars. Regardless, Marvel doesn’t often show Doom’s true appearance so either interpretation could be true – until he takes off his mask again, we don’t truly know Doctor Doom really looks like.

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Liam McGuire
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Lead writer for Screen Rant’s comic team. [email protected]. Find me on Twitter @LiamRMcGuire for comic news and reporting.

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