Kristoff Vernard (formerly known as Kristoff von Doom and Dr. Doom) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The adoptive son of Victor von Doom and biological son of Nathaniel Richards (and half-brother of Reed Richards), and direct ancestor of Kang the Conqueror/Rama-Tut/Immortus/Scarlet Centurion/Iron Lad, he has been involved mainly with the Fantastic Four, as an enemy, ally and even short-term member.
Publication history
Kristoff first appeared in John Byrne's "back to the basics" Fantastic Four run in issue #247 in October 1982. Kristoff served as heir to Doctor Doom, occasional ruler of Latveria, a probationary member of the Fantastic Four, and temporal adventurer alongside Nathaniel Richards.
The character next appears in Fantastic Four #258-259 (September–October 1983) and first appears as the second Doctor Doom in Fantastic Four #278-279 (May–June 1985). After a few scattered appearances, Kristoff Vernard becomes a semi-regular cast member in Fantastic Four #400 (May 1995). He recently reappeared in FF #2, ruling Latveria in Doom's absence.
An alternate future version appeared as an adult in the MC2 universe, beginning in A-Next #5 (1998), followed by scattered appearances, but was only featured regularly in Fantastic Five #1-5 (September–November 2007).
Doctor Doom received an entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89 #2, and the All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #12 (2007).
Fictional character biography
Heir
After being ousted as leader of Latveria, Dr. Doom returned to the country with the Fantastic Four to overthrow its then-leader, Zorba. Doom met the young Kristoff and his mother. While conversing with them, Kristoff's mother was killed by one of Zorba's robots for violating curfew. Furious at the death of a woman who was standing in his presence and therefore should have been regarded as being under his protection, Doom destroyed the robot and defeated Zorba. Dr. Doom adopted Kristoff as his heir and took him to live in Castle Doom.
Second Coming of Doom
Following the apparent murder of Dr. Doom by Terrax, Doom's robots took Kristoff and brainwashed and implanted within him Doom's mental patterns and detailed memories. However, he stopped the process before all of Doom's memories could be implanted (after his intellect had been duplicated).
Now believing that he was the real Doom, Kristoff's first action was attempting to destroy the Fantastic Four by blowing up the Baxter Building, a plan drawn from memories of the real Dr. Doom's plot to kill the FF while he was teamed with the Sub-Mariner. The FF survived the explosion thanks to the force fields of Sue Richards, something Kristoff had not anticipated because he had stopped the memory transfer at a point before Sue Richards had fully developed her force field abilities. The FF quickly traveled to Doomstadt and defeated their adversary. To the team's surprise, the armor held not Doom but a child, whom the team took with them.
Kristoff would be imprisoned in Four Freedoms Plaza, the new home of the Four, following his destruction of the Baxter Building. He was still convinced that he was Doom and Mister Fantastic hoped to restore him to his normal personality. At this time the real Dr. Doom "returned from the dead".
Kristoff would free himself with the aid of a Doombot sent to kidnap Franklin Richards, son of Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, by the recently resurrected Dr. Doom. Doom wanted to use Franklin as a bargaining chip for the soul of his mother which was held captive by Mephisto. Although still a child of about four or five, Franklin had powerful psychic powers which had enabled him to defeat Mephisto in a previous encounter. This time, Doom's power inhibitors prevented Franklin from fighting the demon, who agreed to the bargain. But at that very moment, Kristoff, in full armor, burst in with an army of Doombots and challenged Doom, whom he thought to be an impostor.
The FF, who had followed Kristoff in order to rescue Franklin, intervened and Mister Fantastic used a device of his own to enable his son to fight back against Mephisto. As the two Dooms battled, the Doombots stood by, unsure which to aid since they both claimed to be Doom and the brainscans seemed to confirm this.