Doctor Doom & a Blow-Up Sex Doll: Marvel’s Weirdest ‘Team-Up’ Explained

Given the campy nature of the “Marvel Swimsuit Special” comics, this particular panel isn’t too out of place. It features Daredevil and Black Panther playing a practical joke on the unsuspecting Doctor Doom and Kingpin. While it might seem weird to have a bunch of chimps attacking the two villains, it’s all in good fun, as the caption on the page suggests. Still, seeing Doom hanging out in the Wakandan jungle with a blow-up doll is quite unusual, even in this quirky context. This explains why Marvel fans still approach the scene with a mix of confusion and humor.

“Is Dr. Doom fighting with a monkey over a sex doll?” questioned one deleted Reddit user in a thread about the image. In response, another user, DukeVaungur, joked that it was merely a malfunctioning Doombot. Broadening the discussion, a user named hibryd highlighted that someone at Marvel actually took the time to draw this strange scene, which likely took days to complete. While another user, stink_182, noted Doom’s fashionable choice to wear a tank top and shorts over a full suit of armor, emdeemcd brought the conversation back to the questions on everyone’s minds: “Why does Dr. Doom have a sex doll? What is going on here???”

The “Marvel Swimsuit Special” comics may not be regarded as classics, but their absurdity and wackiness have allowed them to endure for decades. Of course, the image of Doctor Doom — the fearsome leader of Latveria and rival of the Fantastic Four — holding a blow-up doll, has contributed significantly to their lasting appeal.