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Survey Results - All About Doom
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Appearance: Please enter as many aspects of Doctor Doom's appearance as you can think of.
| Mentions | |
| Green Cape | 212 |
| Metal armour | 187 |
| Metal Mask | 186 |
| Green Hood | 119 |
| Scarred face | 85 |
| Green tunic/skirt | 57 |
| Gauntlets | 51 |
| Eyes visible | 47 |
| Gold disk clasps | 47 |
| Leather belt | 32 |
| Rectangular/Grill in mouth | 24 |
| Gun on hip | 23 |
| Square eye holes | 23 |
| Rivets | 19 |
| Metal Boots/Jet boots | 14 |
| Tall | 12 |
| Red/brown hair | 10 |
| D-shaped belt buckle | 8 |
| Gritted teeth/Scowl | 6 |
| Robotic looking | 6 |
| Doombot nearby (or he is one) | 5 |
| Discs on joints | 5 |
| Blasters in hands | 5 |
| Muscular | 3 |
| Brown Eyes | 3 |
| Triangular nose | 3 |
| White | 2 |
| Medieval | 2 |
| Other | 26 |
The "Other" category featured a range of signifiers that were only mentioned by single respondents, most of which were ones that belonged in other categories, such as "over the top speech patterns" or "Wine goblet".
The value of using a survey to find aspects of Doom's character, rather than simply deciding on my own, was demonstrated very clearly during the analysis of this category as there were several aspects of Doom's appearance that I would not have thought to include myself, but are entirely obvious when pointed out - this includes things like "Gauntlets", "Eyes visible" (often stated as "angry eyes visible") and "Rivets".
Some aspects that seemed important to me, however, did not rate highly in the survey at all, such as the discs on his knee and elbow joints which were only mentioned five times. Other characteristics mentioned were perplexing, such as the "D-shaped belt buckle" mentioned by five respondents. I had never seen a "D" on Doom's belt in any media, within or without my sampling area, but when I mentioned this to a younger comics reader (my nephew Noah) he immediately knew what I meant and fetched an image of Doom from a character guide which featured a belt buckle stylised to look something like a "D".
Names and titles: Please enter ways that Doctor Doom is addressed, either by other characters, the narrator, or himself.
| Mentions | |
| Doom | 145 |
| Victor von Doom | 132 |
| Dr/Doctor Doom | 123 |
| Victor | 85 |
| Ruler of Latveria | 35 |
| Master | 31 |
| Emperor/God Emperor Doom | 27 |
| von Doom | 23 |
| Lord Doom | 19 |
| King of Latveria | 17 |
| Doc Doom | 16 |
| Vic | 13 |
| Your highness | 13 |
| Lord of Latveria | 10 |
| Doomsie/Doomie/Doomsy | 10 |
| Monarch of Latveria | 9 |
| Majesty | 8 |
| Excellency | 6 |
| Doc | 6 |
| Lord | 6 |
| Doctor | 6 |
| uncle doom | 6 |
| Sire | 6 |
| Infamous Iron Man | 4 |
| Sorcerer Supreme | 4 |
| Victor Van Damme | 2 |
| Honey | 2 |
| Invincible Man | 2 |
| Leader of Latveria | 2 |
| my liege | 2 |
| Other | 46 |
As can be seen, there were a lot of variations on "Doctor Victor Von Doom", all of which were recorded separately as I was aware that a character addressing him as "von Doom" had very different connotations to another using "Victor". Similarly, the different titles relating to Latveria ("Ruler", "King", "Lord" etc.) were retained separately. Others, such as "Doomsie/Doomie/Doomsy" were compacted into one simply because they were different spellings on the way that he is often referred to by the Thing.
What is abundantly clear from this category is that while other titles do exist, Doom is generally called either simply "Doom", various permutations of "Doctor Victor Von Doom" or some version of "Ruler of Latveria".
Physical actions: Please enter specific physical actions that you associate with Doctor Doom.
| Mentions | |
| Bolts of energy from hands | 80 |
| Shakes or clenches fist/hand gestures | 72 |
| Magic/Dark Arts | 58 |
| Dramatic pose/Power pose | 57 |
| Flies/hovers (often with jetpack) | 45 |
| Builds/invents things | 40 |
| Sits on Throne | 36 |
| Manipulates machinery (buttons/levers) | 35 |
| Doombot (uses or is one) | 26 |
| Monologues | 19 |
| Curses reed richards | 17 |
| Makes a speech/Addresses crowd | 16 |
| Strides (through crowds) | 15 |
| Arms in the air (while speaking) | 14 |
| Fighting/hand to hand combat | 14 |
| Rules Latveria | 12 |
| Rants/Shouts | 12 |
| Cape flourish | 10 |
| Broods (often on parapets) | 10 |
| Gives Orders | 10 |
| Arms crossed | 10 |
| Combines science and sorcery | 9 |
| Uses Weaponry/gadgets (in armour) | 9 |
| Pointing | 9 |
| Drinks Wine | 9 |
| Experiments/works in lab | 8 |
| Looms | 8 |
| Time Travel | 7 |
| Zaps things with electricity | 7 |
| Fist hits table | 7 |
| Laughs manically | 7 |
| Kidnaps/traps people | 6 |
| Gloats | 6 |
| Howls with rage | 6 |
| Shoots gun | 5 |
| Glares | 4 |
| Grimaces/Scowls | 4 |
| Attempts to conquer the world | 4 |
| Hands clasped behind back | 4 |
| Backhanding/swatting enemies | 3 |
| Speaks in third person | 3 |
| looking at monitors/video screen | 2 |
| Plays chess | 2 |
| preside over sumptuous feast | 2 |
| Removes mask | 2 |
| Blows the seahorn | 2 |
| Other | 42 |
A major problem with coding for this section was that many of the responses were not really physical activities at all. Answers such as "Magic" or "Dark Arts", "Combines science and sorcery", " Builds/invents things" and "Time Travel" refer to more general activities which would be better suited in the "Behaviours" category, while a lot of the unique answers in the "other" category referred to past events ("Putting on his mask and scarring his face forever", "being attacked by squirrels").
Clearly there was an issue here with the description of what was meant by "Physical actions", and if this exercise was repeated there would need to be a reappraisal of how this question was phrased. Having said that, the benefits of undertaking this survey were once more made clear, as several responses arose which I would not have considered. These included "Bolts of energy from hands" or "Shakes or clenches fist/hand gestures". Conversely, aspects such as "looking at monitors/video screen", which to my mind is one of Doom's defining characteristics, was only mentioned by two people.
More of this next time, when we look at what Doom says and the very complicated question of the way he acts!
posted 11/8/2020 by Mark Hibbett
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