What Marvel's Doctor Doom Looks Like Under The Mask (Warning: It's Disturbing)

Of all the villains to take on the heroes of the Marvel Universe, Doctor Doom is among the most formidable. The Latverian ruler has given even the most capable do-gooders a run for their money, most famously duking it out with the members of the Fantastic Four throughout his time in print. While exhibiting his awesome power and superior intellect, Doom wears a striking costume to bring it all together. The look he has become synonymous with consists of his suit of silver armor, green robes, and signature mask, which hides his scarred and damaged face.

Doom's facial damage is tied to his rivalry with Reed Richards, better known as Mr. Fantastic. During their younger years, they work together on a machine to project astral forms into different dimensions. However, the machine explodes due to Doom's miscalculations, resulting in his face being heavily damaged — something he blamed Reed for. Though he later repairs his face, it's burned and reinjured by a demon. Readers get a clear look at Doom's charred, noseless face in "Secret Wars" #3 when Sue "Invisible Woman" Storm removes his mask.

These panels and others show Doom to be disfigured to a disturbing extent, hence his near-constant mask-wearing. However, one of the biggest names in Marvel Comics history initially wanted to take Doom and his mask in a vastly different direction, totally recontextualizing the character.

Doctor Doom's facial scarring has become one of the character's hallmarks. It spawns his hatred for Reed Richards and, therefore, his many clashes with the Fantastic Four while giving a compelling reason for the use of his signature metal mask. However, when Doom's backstory was still in development, Jack Kirby — the Marvel Comics icon behind the creation of various enduring elements of the Marvel Universe — wanted to take him, his injuries, and his mask-wearing in a different direction.

During an August 1992 interview, Kirby explained that he initially envisioned Doom's perfectionism playing a bigger role in his origin story. "So what happens to Doctor Doom — who wasn't even Doctor Doom at the time? He was just a chemist. He gets a cut on his chin! The perfectionist suddenly finds himself imperfect, small as that scar may be. So he can't live with the rest of humanity," the artist said. Thus, due to this one little scar, Doom feels grossly imperfect, prompting him to swear revenge on Richards and encase his face in a mask to hide the damage (via The Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center).

Had Kirby and the folks at Marvel gone in this direction, Doctor Doom would've been a vastly different character than the one we know today. Sure, Doom is a vain, self-obsessed person, but for him to become a supervillain all because of a small facial imperfection could've taken that vanity to a whole other, potentially comedic level. But as it stands, and as difficult on the eyes as it is, Doom's extreme face scarring has worked wonders for him.