Why Does Doctor Doom Hate Reed Richards? ‘Avengers: Doomsday’s Enemies, Explained

Avengers: Doomsday (2026) finally introduces Doctor Doom to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and will showcase his immense power, pettiness, and vanity against many heroes, including his rival, Reed Richards. But one thing that has always been a constant for the character in comics and media has been how much he hates the leader of the Fantastic Four.

Doctor Doom may be a master of magic, leader of a country, and one of the smartest minds in the world, but all of that pales in comparison to how much he hates his college classmate. But how have comics and movies explored the hate Doctor Doom has for Reed Richards?

Doctor Doom Hates Reed Richards For Absurd Reasons in the Comics

Victor von Doom and Reed Richards first met in the comics while in college. Intellectual rivals, Doom was more focused on blending science and magic to figure out a way to save his mother's soul from Hell. But in the case of Richards, he felt that magic wasn't even real, and this was just one frustration Doom had about him.

As he worked on his device to send him to where his mother is, Richards looked at his notes and told him it was flawed. Because of his ego, Doom didn't listen to Richards, resulting in a failed experiment and a scar under his eye. Due to his vanity, however, Doom felt he was hideous and created an iron mask that he placed on his face, which, while hot, scarred him in a way that he looked the way he felt with his simple scar.

Doom blamed no one else but Reed Richards for what had happened to his face, even blaming him for the decision to scar himself further with his mask. Doom's vanity and ego also made it impossible to accept that he wasn't as smart as Richards, even if the two are on even footing. Since then, Doom has made it his life mission to humiliate Reed Richards any chance he gets.

Doctor Doom’s Hate For Reed Richards in the Movies Makes Sense

The Fantastic Four movies make things a lot more streamlined for audiences regarding Doom's hate for Richards and outright change the story altogether. In the unreleased film The Fantastic Four (1994), Doom and Richards do go to college together, and the experiment is the only thing that scars him. The feud is there, and it remains one of the most accurate depictions of his origin on film.

In Fantastic Four (2005), things are shifted as Doom joins Richards and the others on a space mission to study a cosmic storm. But rather than Doom miscalculating, it was Richards who led to the transformation of everyone on board. Doom has powers in this film as well, and while he starts with a small scar, his hatred of Richards makes sense, as his origin wasn't his fault.

Fantastic Four (2015) has Doom join Richards on a mission to another dimension, but the only crime that Richards is guilty of is making an unauthorized trip that trapped Doom in this dimension, changing him. Of all the versions on screen, this is the only one where the two don't have a feud, and Doctor Doom is treated more as a basic but powerful villain who must be defeated.

Why Does Doctor Doom Hate Reed Richards in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’?

There's a lot we still don't know about Avengers: Doomsday, but one of its most recent trailers revealed that Doom wasn't always a bad man and was actually a friend to the Fantastic Four. He once had a family, but when they were lost, Doom's mindset shifted, and he grew colder, likely orchestrating the incursion events that brought the film's heroes together.

It's possible that Reed Richards' choices led to the death of his family, but if Doom is as vain as ever, we won't need to know why he despises Reed Richards. Because he now has things Doom always wanted and Richards gets more praise than he does, and this is enough to challenge Doom's ego and turn him against his old friend.

Ego and pride have always been the greatest strengths and weaknesses of Doctor Doom, and if those are shown, we don't need to know why he hates Reed Richards fully. That said, it would be nice to get an understanding that they were college friends and that everything that transpired between them was similar enough to the comics to drive them apart.