It seems every known hero in the Marvel Universe has encountered Dr. Doom at some point in time. The Invaders are no exception (even thought they didn't know it). But then who's this mystery man to the right? It's certainly not the iron-clad tyrant we've all come to know and love. Doom's appearance in the Invaders took place right after he left college, following the lab fire he wrongfully blamed on Reed Richards (the future Mr. Fantastic). That fire horribly scarred his face, and explains his bandages. Victor von Doom had left the USA to return to Europe. He began dabbling in the occult as part of his mission to free his gypsy mother's soul from Mephisto. While in Norway, von Doom took the alias 'Hans' and became an apprentice to a Dr. Olsen. Shortly afterwards, Hitler himself called on Dr. Olsen and 'Hans' to create a machine which would bring the Thunder God Thor from Asgard to Earth. Olsen did discover a way to bridge Asgard and earth, and brought Thor to Germany for Hitler. The insane fuhrer then commanded Olsen to bring more Asgardians to earth. The strain gave Olsen a fatal heart-attack, and caused the machine to explode. Hitler called for 'Hans' to help him out of the rubble caused by the explosion, but he refused. Victor von Doom then revealed to Uncle Adolph that he, 'Hans,' was in fact a gypsy--one of those Hitler was eradicating in his concentration camps. Von Doom then walked off into comics history, declaring that he would learn from Hitler how the world would one day deal with him.
That Might've been the end of the story, but several years later Baron Wolfgang von Strucker revealed that he had witnessed the explosion and followed 'Hans' out of the building and into an alleyway. There, 'Hans' activated a portal. Strucker followed, and found himself in the 1960s. He encountered the Dr. Doom of the 60s and learned that he had travelled back to the 40s in order to slay Hitler for persecuting the gypsies. Instead he decided to leave Hitler to the defeat history held in store for him. Doom then sent Strucker back to the 40s.
INSIDE STORY: Although it made for an interesting story in 'Marvel Universe,' it seems pretty obvious Roy didn't have any time-travelling in mind when he wrote Doom's appearance in the Invaders. He went to such great lengths to match the time-frame and make the young Victor von Doom's appearance plausible that he wouldn't have resorted to some time machine trickery. But then Roger Stern's re-tooling of Roy's continuity is similar to what critics accused Roy of doing to Golden Age continuity with the Invaders. Oh well!
First Appearance: FANTASTIC FOUR #5 (1961)
Invaders Appearances: INVADERS #32-33 (1978); MARVEL UNIVERSE #2 (1998)
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