This article contains spoilers for Doctor Doom #8, by Christopher Cantwell, Salvador Larroca, and Guru-eFX.
Sorcerer Supreme if he didn't consider the title too much trouble to attain and keep.
But the last few months haven't been kind to Doom. He was framed for an attack on the Antlion Project, a super-science concept using black holes as a solution to global warming, and promptly became the world's Public Enemy Number One. Antlion appears to have opened a singularity to another universe, and Doom is catching haunting glimpses of the world as it might have been, had he just made different choices. Worse still, he received a horrific vision of his own mutilated children from the future, causing him to finally begin questioning his own judgment.
All that comes to a head in the latest Doctor Doom comic. Doom commits a last handful of atrocities, conquering the rival nation of Symkaria and forcing his servant Victorious to execute the leader of a Latverian rebellion, a leader who happened to be her own mother. Victorious is the person Doom considers closest to his own child, and he is shaken to realize the harm he has done to her.
"I have selfishly injured my herald's soul," Doom writes in his journals. "Zora is the closest thing to a daughter I may ever have. But who wants a monster for a father? A father who orders his daughter to kill her mother? And now... Zora may never be the same. And so here I record my new vow. I dare not say it aloud, as it still frightens me to even think it. I will transform myself. I will evolve the creature of Victor Von Doom and bring order and peace to this world. It may not unfold as I have envisioned, but I will dedicate myself to saving all living things... and hereby refrain from evil. I choose the good."
It will be fascinating to see how Doctor Doom intends to fulfil his vow. There is literally nobody on the planet who trusts him now, not even his own herald, and as a result, his every action will be viewed with intense suspicion. And yet, despite all that, the fact remains that Doom has the sheer potential to be the world's greatest superhero. His scientific knowledge could solve so many of the world's problems, and he could easily take on the kind of cosmic threats that frequently threaten to lay waste to the entire planet. Doctor Doom has already teamed up with Doctor Strange on occasion, and they've proved able to match some of the most horrific mystical forces of all.
But can Doctor Doom actually succeed in his goal? Notice the trademark Doom arrogance that runs through his vow; he assumes he can reinvent himself, literally evolve himself, by sheer force of will. That arrogance has frequently undermined his plans in the past, and there's no reason to assume it won't do so again. Redemption is unlikely to be possible for someone so steeped in evil as Doctor Doom.
