The Story of the Other Other Dr. Doom

In mid-July of last year, when the Fantastic Four starter and movie were released, I explored some of the characters on the Doom team and their connection to Victor Von Doom himself. One character who got lost in the shuffle (no Vs. System pun intended) was little Kristoff. When we last saw Kristoff Von Doom in the Vs. System, he was still a young boy, Kristoff Von Doom, Ticking Time Bomb. Both his original version, Kristoff Von Doom, The Boy Who Would Be Doom, and the starter set version hinted at the truth behind his story. The Boy Who Would Be Doom, with an image of young Kristoff holding the Doom mask, light shining from the mask onto his face, shows a young boy who dreams of the power and majesty that the Doom persona commands. That version is a 2-drop that gives you effective control of Dr. Doom, and it represents how enmeshed the boy was in the Doom world by giving all of Doom’s Army characters a boost.

The Ticking Time Bomb version has its own hints. The 1-drop doesn’t give you control of Dr. Doom, and it has no power that affects Doom’s armies, but it does provide another clue to Kristoff’s connection to Victor through its flavor text, in the voice of the Thing: “The most rotten, despicable thing that creep's ever done was hypnotizing this kid into thinking he was Doom.”

Well, today we see the next chapter in Kristoff’s life—his newest version, Kristoff Von Doom, Pretender to the Throne. And today, I will connect the dots for you, giving you the full history of this would-be monarch of Latveria and introducing his newest version in full, showing you the card that is guaranteed to be the 5-drop of choice for most Doom decks.

To give you the history of Kristoff Von Doom, it is necessary to backtrack and fully explain how little Kristoff came into Doom’s life.

When Victor Von Doom originally took over the small Balkan country of Latveria, he did so by overthrowing its royal family. He wiped out most of those who could lay claim to the throne, but young Prince Zorba managed to survive, living among a group of guerilla freedom fighters—a revolutionary underground. At one point, Zorba gained the help of the Fantastic Four and successfully revolted against Doom, reclaiming the throne under the royal family’s banner. Zorba undid Doom’s laws, freed the country from oppression, and attempted to rule it as a democracy, even holding open elections, which he won. But as he tried to repair the damage Doom had done to the country, an unhappy citizenry, many of whom didn’t like raised taxes and the increased poverty and crime that ravaged the previously totalitarian state, resisted all of Zorba’s attempts to “make things right.” Increasingly frustrated at his inability to maintain control, Zorba became more and more of a dictator himself, shadowing Doom’s ways through his own Reign of Terror and program of revenge against the peasantry who dared to stand against him.

Meanwhile, Dr. Doom, through a network of loyalists, escaped imprisonment and regained the sanity he had temporarily lost when he suffered the humiliation of defeat. He also regained his armor, which Zorba had confiscated. He went to the Fantastic Four as well, and with an “I told you so!” showed them how Zorba had turned into a tyrant and dictator thousands of times worse than Victor ever was—after all, Doom had never attacked the general population (because he’d never needed to). So, in an ironic turn of events, the Fantastic Four helped Doom take his country back and capture Zorba. It was then, while being held by the neck over the balcony of Doom’s palace, that Zorba, in his final act of defiance, said that as long as he lived, Doom’s throne would never be safe. Doom agreed . . . and let go.

How does Zorba’s short-lived victory and death-by-gravity explain Kristoff’s connection to Doom? Well, one of Zorba’s maniacal edicts was to put a bunch of Doom’s robots out on the streets as a police force—and the punishment for most crimes was death. When a young, single mother was slaughtered by one of these robots right in front of Doom (and her young son, Kristoff), Doom destroyed the robot in a fit of fury and took the young boy under his wing, eventually taking him into the palace to care for him. Doom, for whom Boris was the closest thing to family, began to enjoy young Kristoff’s company, and he eventually named him heir.

Now Doom had a failsafe plan in the event that he were ever killed—his memories would be transferred through a special machine into Kristoff’s mind so that Victor would live on even in death. During a battle between Terrax and the Silver Surfer, Terrax died, causing a massive explosion that apparently took Doom with him. His Doom-Bots then began the transfer process.

Kristoff had just reached the point in Doom’s memories when Doom had allied with the Sub-Mariner in an attempt to eradicate the Fantastic Four through the theft and destruction of The Baxter Building. But the memories were affecting Kristoff’s mind, creating a psychosis—Kristoff was beginning to think he was actually Doom, trapped in a child’s body due to some scheme by an enemy, probably Reed Richards! He commanded that the transfer process be stopped, and he decided to attempt his Baxter Building plot again, but this time without any fool allies to ruin his plans.

He failed, and the Fantastic Four, discovering a young child in the guise of Dr. Doom, took him back to try to reverse what they assumed to be some form of brainwashing.

Victor’s body, meanwhile, was re-formed by the Beyonder. The new Doom regained his consciousness, but Kristoff never lost the memories, and he eventually freed himself with the help of a Doom-Bot. Kristoff returned to Latveria, where he encountered Doom in a battle against Mephisto. During the battle, Doom was forced to admit weakness, and his Doom-Bots believed him to be an impostor, defeating him and booting him out of Latveria. Kristoff returned to the throne, believing that the “impostor” Doom must have been the one who put his mind into the child’s body. Doom, however, was not to be defeated, and he fought to be returned to his throne. He eventually deposed Kristoff, who then deposed him right back again, and so on, until Doom was finally able to get close enough to say a code word into Kristoff’s ear, removing the memories and Doom personality from the boy’s mind. The young boy was sent up the river, so to speak, under the watchful eye and care of Tibetan Monks in a monastery under Doom’s control.

Kristoff in the Game

The latest version of Kristoff is the Kristoff who sat on the throne of Latveria and engaged in a civil war against the real Dr. Doom, believing himself to be the true Doom and Victor to be the pretender. You effectively control Dr. Doom while playing Kristoff, because even Doom’s own robots thought Kristoff was the real Doom. He had much of Doom’s memory, allowing him to think, strategize, and act as Doom would. This is why he has the Latverian Embassy ability of preventing your opponent from playing plot twists that are the same as the face-up resources in his or her resource row. However, because the memory-transfer process was never completed, Kristoff was bound to repeat the mistakes that Doom made, and his Doom personality wasn’t quite up to Doom’s snuff, so his abilities have some limits. His ability doesn’t include Team-Ups, nor is it as strong as those of Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius and Dr. Doom, Victor Von Doom. He does work nicely in tandem with one or the other, however—remember that even though you control Dr. Doom with Kristoff, he doesn’t stop you from playing Dr. Doom, as they’re different characters with different names.

What makes Kristoff especially nasty, however, is his size. A 10 ATK / 9 DEF body with range and without drawbacks is vicious. (It would only be better if he could actually gain the Doomstadt bonus, though alas, he is not actually Dr. Doom, so no +3 DEF for him.)

Kristoff has a high ATK, and his abilities offer several specific advantages over the other 5-drops. For one, you control Dr. Doom at drop 5, which was previously impossible via a character. That means if your Diabolic Genius is somehow taken out, you can still use Latveria, Faces of Doom, Boris, Personal Servant of Dr. Doom, and all of the other Doom cards that need him to be controlled. Kristoff also keeps the anti-plot twist theme going from turns 4 through 6, which will remove the need for Latverian Embassy in several decks and help deal with canny opponents. Many players when facing Doom decks tend to build their strategy specifically around the Doom 4- and 6-drops, guessing how they will be able to play their plot twists. Kristoff will throw that strategy off.

Right now, the typical Doom play on turn 5 tends to be either Robot Destroyer or a 4-drop Doom (if you missed him on turn 4) and Boris. Kristoff will definitely be a better choice than the latter, as there are few reasons to prefer a 4-drop Doom, even with Doomstadt, over Kristoff, who provides you with control of Dr. Doom and has much higher stats. With Robot Destroyer, it’s a situational decision, but it will be better to play both Kristoff and Robot Destroyer in your deck than just the latter alone.

I doubt that Kristoff will replace Mr. Fantastic, Stretch in Common Enemy decks (though he may enter those decks as a backup 5-drop), but in Doom decks, especially stall ones, I can see him being the standard.

NEXT WEEK: Want the lowdown on the X-Men? X-History begins!

Questions? Queries? Comments? Send ’em along, and I’ll try to get them answered in the column! Email me at Kergillian (at) hotmail (dot) com.