Doctor Druid

Real Name: Doctor Anthony Ludgate
AKA: Doctor Anthony Druid
First Appearance: As Doctor Druid, Weird Wonder Tales 19
Died in: Druid 4
Didja Know: Druid first appeared as Marvel's first Silver Age super hero, Doctor Droom, in Amazing Adventures 1 (1961); he was later retroactively renamed Doctor Druid to avoid confusion with Doctor Doom.
What's His Problem? A minor Celtic mystic empowered by the Ancient One as a trial run for the empowerment of Doctor Strange, Druid used his meager mystic might for good until his underlying lusts (notably for power and women) began to corrupt him. Frustrated by his many failures and determined to take charge of his own destiny, Druid ultimately embarked on an obsessive quest to augment his power at all costs, committing unspeakable atrocities along the way and even endangering the Earth itself.

Powers: Originally, Druid had an eclectic array of minor physical and mystic abilities: complete mental control of his involuntary bodily functions, telepathy, mesmerism (only applicable to minds less formidable than his own), illusion-casting, psycho-kinetic levitation, limited astrological precognition, sensitivity to magical forces and the knowledge of various mystical Druidic rites and rituals. In his final days, Druid acquired near-limitless magical abilities including transmutation and elemental powers. Originally vulnerable only to iron (which disrupted his mystical energies), Druid later discovered that his "Geis" or mystical Achilles heel was the love of witches--he had a weakness for bad girls, whose affections sapped both his will and his mystical power.
Favorite Quote: "I...just didn't want...to be hurt anymore." (Druid 4. A dying Druid tries to rationalize his many crimes with these poignantly pathetic last words.)
Heroes He Kept Running Into: In the good old days, Doc Druid was an ally to such heroes as the Hulk, Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze), Power Man, Iron Fist, Captain America, Doctor Strange and Spider-Man; he even joined several super-teams, serving as leader of the Avengers, the Shock Troop and the Secret Defenders at one time or another, but he managed to alienate most of his old allies even before he turned truly evil. It was actually the reanimated villainess Nekra who finally seduced and killed him on behalf of Daimon Hellstrom.
People Who Think He's Not So Bad: Druid's old heroic associates tolerated the arrogant mystic to varying degrees before he went bad, notably his two-time teammate and former love interest Shadowoman, but Druid was justly feared and despised by all who knew him in the end. As Daimon Hellstrom said to Druid, who was then dying at Hellstrom's feet, "You're a lunatic, a religious maniac, a bad idea. You should have been stamped on at birth. And in the end, you're a failure. And now you're dead. And it's no loss at all." Hellstrom and Nekra then burned the deceased Druid's body in a garbage can and called it a day.
Most Despicable Act: Prior to embracing evil whole-heartedly, Druid was most infamous for mentally manipulating his fellow Avengers and causing the group's near-destruction after he was seduced and enslaved by the Terminatrix. Later, in his days of full-blown vilainy, Druid menaced the entire planet and killed more than a few people in such nasty ways as making trees grow from their stomachs, burning their brains and turning their blood to crust; he sank to his lowest, though, when he slew his loyal disciple Hemingway as a human sacrifice just to replenish his depleted mystical power.

by Sean McQuaid

Dr. Druid Mug Shots

Weird Wonder Tales
1973

Gohst Rider 26
1977

Avengers 294
1988

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