Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom) is a fictional Marvel Comics supervillain created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. He debuted in Fantastic Four #5 (July 1962), and his full origin was told in Fantastic Four Annual #2 (1964). Lee had previously used the name for a villain in a humor comic for Marvel's 1950s predecessor company, Atlas Comics.
A brilliant scientist, Doom was once a classmate of the Fantastic Four's Reed Richards. However, he became embittered by facial scars received from an experiment gone wrong, a failure which he attributed to Richards, beginning Doom's rivalry and obsession with the Fantastic Four leader. His ruling of the small Balkan nation of Latveria provides him with diplomatic immunity.
The rapper Ghostface Killah, a member of Wu-Tang Clan, titled his 1996 debut solo album Ironman, and has since continued to use lyrics related to the Iron Man comics and samples from the animated TV shows on his records. He has also adopted the nickname Tony Starks (cq) as one of his numerous alter-egos.
One episode of Seinfeld featured a debate between Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza about whether or not Iron Man wore underwear, to which George responded "and I still say he's naked under there!" In Iron Man vol. 3, #1, Tony Stark mentally runs through a list of people he has to contact and thinks, "I really have to drop him [Jerry] a note about that underwear thing".
Doom later took over the Baxter Building, and battled the then-powerless Fantastic Four and Daredevil before being defeated by the Thing.[14] Doom next assembled a host of superhuman criminals to attack the wedding of Reed Richards and Susan Storm.[15] Doom then battled the Avengers in Latveria.[16] He stole the Silver Surfer's cosmic power, and with it battled the Fantastic Four, until he was defeated by a barrier of Galactus and the power was returned to the Surfer.[17] Doom next exchanged consciousness with Daredevil, and fomented a battle between the Fantastic Four and Daredevil, Spider-Man, and Thor.[18] Doom later set robots of the Yellow Claw and his followers against the forces of S.H.I.E.L.D..[19] Doom next battled Diablo.[20]
Anthony Stark was born in Long Island, New York. He enters the undergraduate electrical engineering program at MIT while only 15 years old and graduates at the top of his class. At the age of 21, he inherits his father's company, Stark Industries, after his parents are killed in a car accident. One of the first things Stark does is buy out the company that made the faulty brakes on his parents' car and correct the mechanical problem.
While on a visit to Vietnam (later updated to the Gulf War) to see how his new mini-transistors could assist the American war effort, Stark is caught in a booby trap. Captured by a Vietnamese warlord named Wong Chu, and dying from a piece of shrapnel lodged in his heart from the booby trap, Stark is pressed into building weapons for Wong Chu, along with a fellow prisoner, the famed physicist Yin Sen (later called Ho Yinsen). However, Stark and Yin Sen use the workshop to secretly design and construct a suit of powered armor — an iron exoskeleton that gives Stark tremendous strength as well as other abilities — that will not only keep Stark's heart beating, but also allow him to escape. Yin Sen sacrifices himself to buy Stark time to charge the bulky suit of armor, and as Iron Man, Stark kills Wong Chu and his men. On the way back, Iron Man encounters a wounded American Air Force helicopter pilot, Jim Rhodes. Introducing himself as Stark's bodyguard, Iron Man and Rhodes manage to defend themselves against the pursuing North Vietnamese before making it back to American lines. On his return to the U.S., Stark continues to improve the armor, establishing a dual identity as the adventurer and superhero Iron Man. He also greatly expands his father's company, Stark Industries, eventually renaming it Stark International.
