Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Doctor Doom #4.
Doctor Doom has long been recognized as one of the most skilled scientists and sorcerers in the Marvel Universe, but a recent battle with Taskmaster proved that he may also be ranked among its greatest physical combatants as well. The one-on-one fight ended in a decisive victory for Doom, proving that he is a threat even without his trademark armor, his robots, his magic or the resources available to him as the ruler of Latveria.
The battle with Taskmaster was the latest in a series of trials facing Victor Von Doom in the wake of his being framed for a terrorist attack on a scientific research facility on the moon. Originally content to work with SHIELD and the United Nations to prove his innocence, Doom was forced to go into hiding and seek answers on his own. He sought refuge with an ally in New York City, only to fall victim to a sniper’s bullet. Hell proved insufficient to hold Doom’s spirit, however, but Death herself restored Doom to life; not because she feared his taking over Hell, but because she foresaw his becoming her greatest champion ever.
Restored to life, Doom sought out his assassin, presuming they had to have been hired by whoever was framing him. Having determined that his assassin was Taskmaster, Doom entered into the Manhattan headquarters of Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) and began fighting his way up to the most secure floors. Dressed in a green hoodie and jeans along with his famous mask, Doom still made short-work of the guards using a combination of spells and the high-tech gun he had taken from one of the guards in the lobby. When the battle finally lured Taskmaster out of hiding, however, Doom abandoned his weapons, electing to fight Taskmaster with his own bare hands.
Taskmaster expected an easy victory, noting that while both he and Doom are “two armored killers” famous for their distinctive masks, Doom was without his armor. Despite this, Doom held his own in dodging and deflecting Taskmaster’s attacks. In the end Doom would turn Taskmaster’s own weapons against him, retrieving the shield based on Captain America’s famous weapon and throwing it directly into Taskmaster’s face. The blow knocked him off-balance, throwing Taskmaster into the razor-sharp blades of a large fan. Doom noted ironically that Taskmaster’s famous skull mask was “of inferior quality” to his own, as he began to twist the broken metal in Taskmaster’s wounds and demand the name of Taskmaster’s client.
This result was impressive given that Taskmaster is widely regarded as one of the best assassins and physical combatants in the Marvel Universe. It is also worth noting that Taskmaster trained himself in a variety of martial arts so as to not be overly dependent on his power to mimic any physical action he’s seen accomplished once. It’s possible that his overconfidence got the better of him, allowing Doom to plan something Taskmaster could not predict, having presumed Doom to be helpless without his armor and magic.
However, underestimating Doctor Doom is always a mistake. That being said, it seems far more likely that Doom, trusting in himself above all other things, had trained himself physically for those rare occasions where his science and sorcery were not available. Of course base fisticuffs are beneath one such as the ruler of Latveria, but that does not mean Doom would not strive to be excellent in all things, if only to humble an arrogant assassin by beating him at his own game.
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