Now that I'm not in class, allow me to expound upon the facts of my original post.
The greatest villain of all is Doctor Victor Von Doom.
Doctor Doom's appearance was representative of a change in the portrayal of "mad scientists" to full-fledged villains, often with upgraded powers. Doom is also emblematic of a specific subset of supervillain, referred to as the "megavillain". These supervillains are genre-crossing villains who exist in adventures "in a world in which the ordinary laws of nature are slightly suspended"; characters such as Professor Moriarty, Count Dracula, Auric Goldfinger, Hannibal Lecter, Lex Luthor and Darth Vader, also fit this description. He has been compared to William Shakespeare?s characters Richard III and Iago; all of them "are descended from the 'vice' figure of medieval drama", who address the audience in monologues detailing their thoughts and ambitions.
Described as "iconic", Doom is one of the most well-received supervillains of the Marvel universe, as well as one of the most recurring; in his constant battles with heroes and other villains, Doom has appeared more times than any other villain.
Doctor Doom was even one of the inspirations for Darth Vader.
Doctor Doom is commonly used as a villain to oppose entire teams of superheroes, like The Avengers, and Doom tends to be more than capable of dealing with them all simultaneously.
It has been said that in crossover events between Marvel and DC, Doctor Doom is never used as a villain because Marvel considers him to be so powerful that DC couldn't contribute characters to meaningfully contribute to the battle against him (Superman, for example, would be rendered almost useless due to his weakness to magic.).
Tony Stark once evaluated the armors of his various enemies, with the Iron Man armor always rating higher, with the one exception of Doctor Doom.
Tony Stark:
People say I'm a genius, but Doom operates on a level I can only begin to comprehend. I have a feeling that if Doom ever put his mind to it, he could make a suit of armor that would demolish mine like tinfoil.
Doctor Doom is also an incredibly powerful sorcerer, and has been named as one of the possible successors to Doctor Strange's position as Sorcerer Supreme of Earth (Doctor Strange himself has been described as "the mightiest magician in the cosmos", and as "more powerful by far than any of your fellow humanoids" by Eternity, the sentience of the Marvel Universe..)
Indeed, when Doctor Strange was forced to step down from his position as Sorcerer Supreme, Doom elected not to accept the position....because the responsibility of maintaining cosmic balance wasn't worth such a "minor" increase in power.
Beyond Doom's status as a megavillain cultural icon, super genius, and ultra-powerful sorcerer, are the actual reasons I like Doom.
Doctor Doom KNOWS he is the rightful ruler of mankind. He doesn't just incorrectly THINK it. He KNOWS, and he's RIGHT.
Doom has managed to conquer the Earth and various nations several times, he's done it in alternate timelines, the future, the past, and in the present where he was then overthrown.
Every time Doctor Doom manages to conquer the world it immediately begins to experience improvements.
As President Of The United States in the year 2099, Doom fought against the corrupt corporations who controlled all aspects of every day life in 2099. Doom recreates S.H.I.E.L.D., assigns agents to take down the Red Market (illegal trade in humans for experimentation). He also made the X-Men 2099 the law enforcers of Halo City, a place where mutants and humans could live in peace. He appointed Punisher 2099 to be Minister Of Punishment and Director Of S.H.I.E.L.D., and appointed Spider-Man 2099 to the post of Minister Of Super-Human Affairs.
Under Victor Von Doom's leadership the planet Earth has progressed closer and closer to world peace than it has through any other means.
Doom is merciless to his enemies, but he's a benevolent ruler to the people under his protection and rule. He has gone so far as to once having sacrificed his own life to bring back to life all of the citizens of his own country, Latveria.
Von Doom, as the supreme monarch of Latveria, has diplomatic immunity from the law of other countries, and has even had Captain America appointed as his bodyguard.
In fact, Captain America and Doctor Doom actually have great respect for each other, despite being opponents quite often.
Captain America once found himself without his costume, for some reason (it had been destroyed or something), and he somehow wound up in Latveria, where he encountered Doctor Doom....who provided Captain America with a replacement of his uniform which Doom had on hand for him.
Doom has a very strict sense of honor, and will keep his word no matter what (you just have to be careful as to what his exact word actually IS). Doom keeps a Mauser auto-pistol as a sidearm for the sole purpose of executing enemies Doom deems to be dishonorable or unworthy of execution by his armor's weapon systems or his magic.
He has saved Captain America from drowning because Captain America had earlier saved his life, and on another occasion he thanked Spider-Man for saving him from terrorists attacking him in an airport by allowing him to leave alive despite Spider-Man subsequently insulting him. His code of honor also means that he will not attack a respected opponent who is weakened or at a severe disadvantage, as he regards any victory resulting from such circumstances as hollow and meaningless. He has even on several occasions battled opponents who were intent on killing the Fantastic Four, for no other reason than the fact that he does not want the ultimate defeat of the Fantastic Four to come from anyone's hands but his own.
Doctor Doom also basically went to Hell and back to save his mother's soul.
Doom's only real weakness is his arrogance and his hatred for Reed Richards. Exploiting these things tends to be how he is eventually defeated.
^(It should be noted that he secretly WAS sabotaged, though by Ben Grimm, not by Reed Richards as he believes.)
Doctor Doom, as with many of the best villains, treads suspiciously close to being a hero.
Indeed, I'd say that he's both the greatest villain AND a great hero.
Doom has done some seriously horrific shit though, in the interests of his own power. While he may ultimately strive to be the thing that brings peace and protection to the world, his methodology and steps towards achieving that goal are almost completely merciless.
He's the type of guy who wouldn't hesitate to burn down an orphanage if he knew it would somehow grant him some sort of power that MIGHT very well be the difference between saving the world or having it destroyed one day.
But, on the other hand, if the orphanage was under his rule and thus part of his responsibility, and there was no potentially game-changing power to gain from it burning, Doom would rescue the orphans, put out the fire, save the day, and probably order a new high tech fire-proof orphanage be built in its place.
But then, if Doom was on some OTHER major time-sensitive quest, and stopping to help the orphans would cause him to fail...he'd probably let them burn.
Doom is a very complicated guy.
