>>96867338I've always pegged him more as a vain, venomously bitter autist who hyper fixates on his "image" so hard that he's bled nearly all the humanity out of himself in his rigid perfectionist pursuit to excel as far as possible in as many fields from the practical to arcane that his unique genius can absorb. He's a straight-up megalomaniac who wants to compensate for his humbling eastern europoor upbringing by achieving absolute power and reverence over any scale of territory that he could possibly have the potential to conquer, but that theoretical "potential" is constantly contrasted against the harsh reality that it's frankly stunted by his own toxic personality, along with the inconvenient fact that the world is inherently chaotic and unpredictable and even doesn't like him (even if he COULD be a viable option for world peace), and not to mention it isn't already under his micro-managing will so he has to waste his own precious time to remedy that oversight.
The fact that he envies Reed isn't just because his dick is infinitely longer and he has a loving unconventional family unit, but he's happy and contented with who he is despite his flaws. Science is a genuine passion that he loves- it isn't just some material means to an end for some ridiculous scheme that won't even work. Reed's the smartest man alive, but he doesn't have that nagging impulse achieve a gorillion stupid power level feats and always be "the best", he just happens to naturally be that in a few respects without any ulterior motive. THAT is something that burns Doom worse than any white hot mask, no matter how overhyped and badass he is he's still just a pathetic joyless loser who barely even exists outside of his own monumental pathological hang-ups.