When it comes to the supervillains in the Marvel Comics Universe, few have stood at the level of Doctor Doom. With his genius intellect and his malicious mixture of science and magic, he is someone who is almost impossible to defeat. He proved his mettle when he turned good a few years back, took on the mantle of the Infamous Iron Man, and was able to defeat almost all the supervillains that Marvel's more famous heroes always had trouble bringing down -- and he did it by himself in one battle.

With that said, the stint as Iron Man proved that he could be a hero, but the years he spent as Doctor Doom proved that he was an unbeatable adversary and much of his success came due to the impressive armor he wore. Both scientifically advanced and mystically enhanced, Doom's armor is a match for anyone, making even the suits worn by Iron Man himself pale in comparison. The suit never made the man, but Doom did everything in his power to make the suit as formidable as he was in a fight. Now that Victor von Doom has finished his role as the Infamous Iron Man, the legendary Doctor Doom shouldn't be far behind. With the classic look ready for a comeback, here are 20 weird secrets about Doctor Doom's armor.

20 FORGED BY MONKS

To learn the secret of how Doctor Doom got his impressive suit of armor, look back to his origin as it was revealed in Fantastic Four Annual #2. It was here that the story of Doom shows how he grew angry and resentful at how the king of Latveria caused the death of his mother and father, and Doom set out to avenge their deaths. After the experiment that caused his facial scars and expulsion from State University in America, Doom left for Tibet.

It is here that he met an order of monks and continued to improve his mastery of magic that he added to his advanced scientific knowledge. Doom then took the last step and had them magically forge his armor, which, mixed with technological advances over time, resulted in one of the most powerful suits of armor in the Marvel Universe.

19 SPLINTERS OF THE TRUE CROSS

Latveria is very close to the nation of Transylvania, which is, of course, the home of none other than the king of the vampires, Dracula.  Being that close to blood-sucking danger made Doctor Doom take a proactive step to protect himself. The more recent comic book Captain Britain and MI:13 #10 explained exactly how Doom went about that.

In this comic book series, MI:13 was a British intelligence agency that went after supernatural beings with members like Black Knight, Captain Britain and Blade. With that last name, going after vampires is a given and in the aforementioned issue, they went after Dracula. It was in this issue that Doom explained that his armor had splinters of the true cross, making him immune to vampires and other mystical attacks.

18 HUMAN TORCH-RESISTANT

Doctor Doom's armor is made out of high-strength titanium alloy, so it was already highly durable to start with. However, when you are a villain of the Fantastic Four, it is important to make sure that the armor provides protection from their strongest attacks. When it comes to the Human Torch, Doom made sure to provide complete protection from his fire-based attacks.

While the armor already had mystical protection thanks to Tibetan monks, over the year's Victor added his own technological touches to the armor and added a significant protection against fire. In Fantastic Four #318, Johnny found his fire did no damage to Doom, as Victor said he spent years perfecting his armor's resistance to the flame.

17 HIGH VOLTAGE

One of the strongest and most useful weapons built into Doctor Doom's armor is his Electrical Field. This allows the outer surface of the armor to generate up to 100,000 Megavolts of energy, which Doom explained to Namor when the two battled in Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up #1.

This is mostly a defense mechanism. When Victor enables this, anyone who touches him has energy sent through their body, causing serious damage to the hero or villain who dares attack him. It is very powerful but Doom has needed to continue upgrading it as it doesn't always work, as Fantastic Four #319 showed that it had no effect on The Thing when the two grappled in the Negative Zone.

16 VARIOUS FLYING METHODS

For most of his early existence in Marvel Comics, Doctor Doom flew using twin jetpacks attached to his waist. However, over the years this has changed in a number of ways. His original suit was modified to have the jetpack attached to his back instead of on the waist.

There are also some instances where Doom flies without an apparent jetpack working at all. His best flight abilities came when Victor decided to no longer operate as a villain and took on the role as the Infamous Iron Man, since he had thrusters in the boots of Iron Man's armor and even proved at times to be able to stop a fall by using the repulsors in his gloved hands as well.

15 THE ARMOR CAN'T TAKE REPEATED BLOWS

Doctor Doom's armor can withstand almost any attack. It can take blasts, shrug off fire attacks, and protect Victor from just about any force unleashed against him. However, there is one major weakness that the armor was not built to withstand -- and it is something that The Thing might like to know about.

In Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #9, Cage went to pay a visit to Doctor Doom in Latveria. See, Victor hired him to find some robots but then never paid him the $200 fee and Luke wanted his money, honey. As they battled, Cage began to hit Doom over and over in the abdomen until the armor shattered. According to Victor, he forged the armor to withstand anything except repeated stress on a solitary point, which is how Luke rendered the armor inoperative.

14 FINGER CANNON

Doctor Doom can shoot concussive blasts from his gauntlets and his mask can even shoot a blast as well, as long as it is not on Doom's face when he triggers it. However, one of the hidden weapons comes from the fingertip of his right gauntlet.

From just that fingertip, Victor von Doom can shoot an atomic-powered blast at an enemy. While the blasts from his gauntlets can take out numerous enemies, the finger gun -- despite the idea of an atomic-powered blast -- is not quite as powerful as his other weapons. When battling Spider-Man in Amazing Spider-Man #5, Spidey blocked the blast with a web-shield and even clogged it with webbing to stop any future blasts.

13 VIDEO COMS IN THE WRISTS

Doctor Doom is not just a physically imposing fighter, but he is also one of the smartest men in the world. Victor knows that there is a time to fight and there is a time to work diplomatically. He also knows that there is a good time to taunt and antagonize people without lifting more than his right wrist.

Doom has a video communicator in the plate of his right gauntlet. This is an audio/video communicator that allows Victor to call and talk to anyone he wants, and thanks to his high-level technological knowledge, it has allowed him to hack into any network using this device to speak to anyone he wants any time he wants.

12 FORCE FIELD WORKS BOTH WAYS

Doctor Doom's armor is able to put up a force field that is impervious to almost any attack. Whether it is the Human Torch blasting down fire, the military firing a flurry of bullets or a superhuman raining down high-powered energy blasts, Doom's force field can protect him from just about anything.

However, the force field works both ways. As shown in Super-Villain Team-Up #4, Victor cannot attack his enemies when he is employing his force field as his blasts can't get through it either. On top of that, Doom's armor is self-sufficient but when the force field is up, it cannot absorb the energy it needs to power up, so while his force field protects Victor, it also makes him unable to do anything in retaliation.

11 INVISIBLE WOMAN-PROOF

Doctor Doom spent his entire career as an enemy of the Fantastic Four. He already had a great suit of armor before ever battling the team, but has -- over the years -- worked to improve the armor and tweak things needed to help him overcome the team's various superpowers.

An example is making it immune to the fire blasted by The Human Torch. His force field was able to keep out the physical attacks of The Thing. He always believed himself as a greater intellect than Reed Richards. As for The Invisible Woman, Doom added infrared vision to his mask so that he can see invisible people using their heat sources.

10 SELF-SUFFICIENT

Doctor Doom can live in just about any environment while in his armor. When in outer space or in the depths of the ocean, Doom's armor is able to provide oxygen through reserves in the armor. Not only that, but Doom's armor is able to recycle that oxygen for extended periods of time.

In Super-Villain Team-Up #1, Namor saved Doom after he crashed into the ocean, and when he said he was surprised Victor was still alive, the villain mocked him by saying that his armor will keep him alive for a very long time without needing food, water, or oxygen outside of what the armor provides for him.

9 ENERGY EFFICIENT

Doctor Doom's armor is also self-sufficient. Most suits of armor that run on power will start to lose energy after a time and that limits how long someone can fight or what they can do without expending all their energy. For Doom, the answer was simple.

Victor's armor has a thermo-energizer that allows it to absorb solar energy, allowing it to remain powered up. The energizer also powers up all the other systems of the armor using the heat and solar rays. While solar powered energy seems to be the most efficient way to manage power, Doctor Doom was always ahead of the curve and had the science perfected while the rest of the world just played catch up.

8 THERMO-ENERGIZER IN THIGH

When Doctor Doom is down and out, or when he needs something big in an instant to help him win a fight, Victor added a fail-safe in his armor that is easily accessible whenever and wherever he needs it. In the cuisse (the panel on his armor's thigh), there is a button that he can easily access with the touch of a finger -- even if tied up -- to help him out.

This button activates a thermo-energizer. In Astonishing Tales #5, Doom was battling the Red Skull and needed quick help. He pushed the button on his thigh and was able to immediately gather and control solar energy as it entered into his armor, allowing him to perform one major and powerful attack to win the fight.

7 STRENGTH IS MAXIMIZED DUE TO ARMOR

As a normal human, Doctor Doom is no stronger than anyone else of his size and conditioning. However, thanks to the mystical additions to the armor by the Tibetan monks in the Monastery in Tibet, as well as Doom's other additions both using magic and science, his armor increases his strength to almost superhuman levels.

When wearing the armor, Doctor Doom is able to lift several tons. His level on the strength scale is a "4," which means lifting between 800 pounds and 25 tons -- a superhuman level. In Amazing Spider-Man #350, he was able to pulverize a diamond simply using his strength. He was also able to match up to Spider-Man in the strength department and has often battled The Thing in hand-to-hand combat.

6 MORE DURABLE THAN IRON MAN

When looking at the armor of Victor von Doom, it is easy to try to find a comparison to that of Iron Man. When Victor took on the role of the Infamous Iron Man after Tony Stark's injuries during Civil War II, those comparisons followed him there as well. What is interesting is that, while Doom took on Iron Man's armor at that time, his own armor is actually more durable.

Doom's armor is made of high-strength titanium alloy and was then enhanced by Tibetan monks. Iron Man has seen a lot of armored suits destroyed, as he makes them with different tasks in mind. However, The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe reveals that Doom's suit is more durable thanks to the titanium enhanced by magic

5 CLOAKING SKILLS

Doctor Doom has added a number of enhancements to his armor over the years, giving him an advantage when needed. Now, as a master of the mystic arts, there is not a need for him to disappear using technology as he has the power to transport himself or anyone else anywhere he wants, as he showed numerous times in the Infamous Iron Man series.

However, he takes nothing for granted, and as he showed in Infamous Iron Man #2, he has the technological skills to add cloaking devices to his armor, which allows him to disappear both from the naked eye as well as from tracking devices that are searching for him.

4 THE MASTER OF MAGNETISM

When one thinks of the Master of Magnetism, the first person that comes to mind is the mutant Magneto. However, as part of the electrical field that Doom has built into his armor, it also includes an Electro-Magnetic Amplifier.

In Infamous Iron Man #4, Doctor Doom as Iron Man was able to use his magnetic manipulation to take guns out of the hands of children scavenging the streets of Latveria after the entire country fell into disarray. Doom seems, at times, to gain whatever power he needs to achieve his goals, and controlling magnetism is just one of many that he has added to his formidable armor, which puts heroes like Iron Man at a disadvantage when facing off with him.

3 SUPER HEARING AND VISION

Doctor Doom has designed a large number of great additions for his armor that allows him to keep an advantage in whatever fight he is involved in. His mask itself allows him a number of advantages over people with no superhuman abilities.

His mask has infrared scanners that allow him to see invisible people and rays. It also has high-powered telescopic lenses that allow Doom to see long distances with ease. Add in night vision, and Doom is never at a disadvantage in a fight regardless of the available light. It also has optical sensor scanners that include ear amplifiers, allowing Victor to hear just about anything, even on frequencies that the human ear is incapable of picking up.

2 CAN SHOOT A YELLOW MIST

In Fantastic Four #199, Doctor Doom had created a clone of himself that he planned to abdicate this throne to -- a way to fool the people of Latveria who had grown to distrust him. However, thanks to the interference of The Fantastic Four, as well as insurgents in his own nation, his plans were foiled.

Doom's clone then attacked his master and the two did battle. Interestingly, the clone had the powers of the Fantastic Four, with a body of rocks, Reed's stretching ability, Johnny's flame control and Sue's invisibility and force fields. This is when Doom used a weapon in his armor -- a yellow mist that he shot into the air -- which made the invisible clone appear -- yet another failsafe Doom created to beat The Fantastic Four.

1 INVULNERABLE TO DOOM'S OTHER WEAPONS

Doctor Doom has a lot of weapons, including his Doom Bots. Over the years, Doom has seen many people try to take control of his robot army and has even had to fight them off during a robot uprising in Latveria. As a result, Doctor Doom has created a failsafe in his armor to protect him from his own weapons.

A perfect example of this came in Amazing Spider-Man #5 when Doom and Spidey were battling and one of the rays from his disintegrator struck him, doing no damage. While Spider-Man seemed surprised, Victor simply said that he always takes precautions and none of his weapons can ever do him harm.