Reed Richards (Earth-6160)

Doom
Name	Reed Richards
Current Alias	Doom
Aliases	Editorial Names: Doctor Doom
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Ultimates, Project 4
Marital Status	Single
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Eyes	Irises: Brown
Hair	No Hair At All, Brown (formerly)
Unusual Features	Mutilated face melded to his mask
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Human
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-6160
Personal Information
Identity	No Dual
Citizenship	American
Occupation	Scientist; former astronaut
Education	University
Base of Operations	Formerly The City, Latveria
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Jonathan Hickman, Bryan Hitch
First	Ultimate Invasion #2 (July, 2023)
First	Ultimate Invasion #2 (July, 2023)

 I am Doom. I come and go as I please. And I am with you now. 

—Doom

History

Early Life

Reed Richards of Earth-6160 lived a life somewhat similar to that of his Earth-616 counterpart, such as becoming roommates with Ben Grimm during his teens. When Reed became an adult, he became a scientist employed by the North American Union military in a classified research project investigating a cosmic radiation storm directed by Franklin Storm, meeting Storm's children Johnny and Susan, and starting a relationship with the latter. When The Union decided to shut down the project, as Reed went over budget and failed safety inspections, after spending years on it, Reed refused to give up on years of work and convinced Sue, Ben, and Johnny to secretly board the rocket designed to observe the cosmic storm. After arriving in space, Reed was surprised to find that they had missed the cosmic storm and that his calculations had been incorrect. But before they could assess their situation, the rocket's console equipment suddenly exploded, burning Johnny to death.

Soon after returning to Earth, the three surviving members were arrested by the Union and sentenced to life imprisonment for destroying the rocket, breaking a hundred laws and the death of a minor (Johnny). In the following months, Ben seemingly killed himself out of shame, and Sue was dying of cancer from trace exposure to the radiation, with her last wish being to say goodbye to Reed, as Franklin cursed the day he met him.

The Maker's Doom

In an untampered version of history, the exposure to the cosmic ray storm would have caused Reed and his friends to develop super-powers, becoming the super hero team known as the Fantastic Four. However, Reed's reality had secretly been invaded by the Maker, a villainous alternate version of Reed himself, who had set out to reshape a world to his image. Using a time-travel device called the Immortus Engine, the Maker altered history to his whims, veering the world off its intended course. As part of his plan, the Maker delayed Reed's fateful space flight by hours by altering Reed's calculations, which delayed the flight by several hours and caused the crew to miss the cosmic storm.

Following Reed's life collapsing, the Maker further toyed with Reed by abducting and imprisoning him within The City, his base of operations in Latveria. Using the temporally accelerated environment of the City, The Maker repeatedly tortured Reed, surgically disfiguring him and goading him into accepting that his name was Doom, claiming that he doomed his loved ones and that he should just accept him. Reed resisted at first but cracked after the Maker melded a metal mask to his face, imitating a similar faceplate once worn by the Maker's nemesis, Doctor Doom.

A New Hope

Seeking to replace the Immortus Engine after a battle with the future warrior Kang, the Maker introduced genius inventor Howard Stark to Reed, so that they could work together. Opting together to betray the Maker, Reed snuck into the City's mainframe and deactivated its temporal shield while Howard delivered the second Immortus Engine to the Maker, giving Kang and his army an opening to strike. Howard defeated both the Maker and Kang before the City closed itself off. Reed fled with a copy of the Maker's files that he used to quell the Age of Heroes, and the original damaged Immortus Engine to bequeath it to Howard's son Tony for repairs. Under Reed's guideance, Tony created his own armored persona, Iron Lad, and together they set out to reverse the Maker's influence in the world on Howard's behalf.

Escaping with resources from the Maker's trophy vault, Doom and Iron Lad battled Captain Britain of Maker's Council and absconded with what they needed to restart the origins of other heroes. However, Maker's Council used a Stark weapons satellite in cruel irony in an effort to kill the heroes, forcing them forward in time to escape.

Returning six months later in June 2024, Doom helped Tony postulate their initial moves, sending back in time the origin packs to a list of heroes, only for one of them to have proven successful. With direction from Captain Rogers, Doom began Project 4 while the Ultimates recruited Giant-Man and The Wasp.

Personality

Like his Earth-616 counterpart, Reed was originally optimistic and inspiring in life and into the years he worked with Ben, Sue, and Johnny. But after the failure of the project and death of his family, Reed's imprisonment and torture by The Maker scarred him as mentally as it did physically, rendering him nigh-robotic in behavior until he had the chance to betray The Maker and join the Ultimates for his own objectives. Learning the truth of who he was supposed to be and the extent of the Maker's machinations, he became obsessed with finding a way to change history to save his family, with saving the world being incidental.

Despite empathy from his compatriots, Reed feels offense as they don't know the extent of the Maker's time making Reed into Doom. This is especially so for Stark, having been sheltered and nurtured by his father, reminding the young Iron Lad that he will work with him only for so long as he feels.

Attributes

Powers

Due to negligible exposure to the cosmic rays, Reed can barely elongate his form before needing to revert to normal, as laboring stretching can cause him pain.

Abilities

• Super-Genius Intelligence: Reed was considered the smartest man in the universe, even by his alternate counterpart.
• Marskman: Reed has demonstrated proficiency with his pair of laser guns, consistently achieving hits on multiple targets with remarkable accuracy.

Weaknesses

• As a man of science, Reed lacks experience in close-quarters combat, rendering him susceptible to overwhelming force if attacked in large numbers.
• After the suffering from the Maker and learning the truth of the life he should have led, Reed suffers bouts of depression. He has dubbed his mind entering this "negative" state as his "Negative Zone." In these periods, he is closed off and withdrawn while obsessively conducting a particular experiment or fighting to break the timeline and save himself or the others.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

• Mask: Under the control and cruelty of the Maker, Reed's face was melded to a mask that covers his face entirely.

Weapons

• Laser Guns: While serving with the Ultimates, Reed began utilizing a pair of laser pistols in their operations during combat.

Notes

• Ironically, Reed's origin mirrors Doctor Doom, except the failure was deliberate sabotage.

Trivia

• The Maker torturing Richards and killing his friends before they could become the Fantastic Four, is a response to Earth-616's Reed Richards who expressed that if given the chance he would've erased the Maker.

See Also

• 8 appearance(s) of Reed Richards (Earth-6160)
• 1 minor appearance(s) of Reed Richards (Earth-6160)
• 1 mention(s) of Reed Richards (Earth-6160)
• 74 image(s) of Reed Richards (Earth-6160)
• 4 quotation(s) by or about Reed Richards (Earth-6160)