He views himself as superior to all other entities including such powerful ones as Eternity and Odin.
Dormammu respected those who could challenge his might, although he was too egotistical to ever consider them as equals.Īny good traits were more than counterbalanced by Dormammu’s bloated sense of self and terrible temper. When Dormammu did torment important characters it was revealed to be part of a bigger scheme, usually an attempt to bait Doctor Strange into rescuing the hapless victim. The punishments themselves were usually limited to short-term banishment into alternate dimensions. He was willing to punish those who betrayed him or failed to carry out his orders, but had no interest in torturing those too weak to challenge his power. Dormammu lacked sympathy for “lesser beings” but was not a sadistic ruler. His sense of nobility also led him to berate Baron Mordo for interfering during an arranged duel with Strange. The one time he unintentionally reached Earth, his own oath acted to drain him of power (Doctor Strange #173). Before he “died”, Dormammu has never deliberately broken this oath. At the very least he recognized those who help him and keeps his word: after Doctor Strange helps him to save the Dark Dimension, he promised to never invade the Earth dimension despite his personal rage at being in debt to an enemy. Similarly Dormammu shared the mixture of positive and negative traits common to his aforementioned counterparts. Strange went from a crippled neurosurgeon to a talented magician under tutelage while Dormammu began as a powerful, intelligent entity and increased his clout through subjugation Dormammu seeks to conquer all realms in contrast to Strange’s desire to defend the Earth dimension the Dread Lord possesses little empathy or tolerance towards other living beings even as Strange is willing to die for the innocent.
He is the opposite of Strange in many different aspects. Like many Marvel antagonists created during the early 1960s ( Doctor Doom, Magneto, Green Goblin, etc.), Dormammu functioned as the “dark mirror” to the protagonist. He governed his realm as an absolute dictator. He was partially responsible for this state due to conquering neighboring dimensions and merging them into his territory. Character Evolutionĭormammu was introduced as the ruler of the Dark Dimension, a hodgepodge of intersecting dimensions and realms that defied conventional laws of physics. His first physical appearance is in Strange Tales #126 (November 1964). Although he was originally intended to be a mere name to flesh out the Strange Tales mythology, popular interest led Lee and Ditko to turn him into a full-fledged entity. Creationĭormammu was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko for use in Marvel Comics. Later on Dormammu would banish Umar after the same had given birth to Clea into one of the pocket dimensions under his control, taking sole custody of the Dark Dimension. They secured rulership of the realm under the guise of heroes for ages.
When Olnar died in an attempt to conquer the realm of the Mindless Ones, the siblings used the opportunity to murder most of the Mhuruuks (the magical priest class under Olnar’s rule) and successfully sealed off the Mindless Ones from the rest of the populace.
In exchange for power and protection, Dormammu and Umar taught Olnar how to exploit the natural pocket warps of the Dark Dimension and absorb other dimensions/universes into it. The siblings eventually discovered the Dark Dimension and insinuated themselves into the role of advisors to King Olnar. They were banished from their home dimension for turning Sinifer into matter, which was considered the equivalent of murder. Unlike other Faltinians they were not perfect copies of their progenitor Sinifer given some unknown mutation and they hungered for matter instead of energy. Dormammu, along with his sister Umar, is a mutant member of an extra-dimensional society of energy beings called the Faltine.