Doyle Dormammu

Origin

Doyle is the son of a human single mother. As a child, he had an inoperable brain growth. In her search for a cure, his mother ended up joining a group who worshipped Dormammu. His magic saved him, but it also infected him, as if he was Dormammu’s real child. To control his new power, he was enrolled at Strange Academy. Although he initially was very competitive with some of the students, his student evaluation described him as having a “softer touch” than his father. His place at the academy continues to be a controversial one, as it has been prophesized that he would become a great villain. On Parent’s Day, The Mindless Ones on staff cornered Doyle, who was defended by Calvin Morse. There is hope that his time at the academy can put him on a different path.

Creation

Doyle makes his first appearance in Strange Academy #1 by Skottie Young and Humberto Ramos.

Major Story Arc

Asgard Field Trip

When the Strange Academy went on a field trip to Asgard, Iric peeled off from the group to speak to Enchantress, currently imprisoned. Doyle Dormammu followed him to get dirt on him. The two had been feuding, especially over their shared feelings for Emily Bright. When Doyle overheard them and learned Enchantress was his mother, he briefly became spiteful as Iric often bullied him for being the son of The Dread Dormammu. That spite very quickly became empathy. Doyle understood what it was like to be the child of a villain and promised Iric he would keep his secret.

Time Hop

While Doctor Voodoo teaches the class how to time hop, Doyle finds himself at the academy in the far future. It was run down and falling apart, but he sees many of his classmates as their older selves, specifically Emily, Iric, Zoe, and Calvin. They were commanding a group of sorcerers against the one that was prophesized to be the end.

That is when they are interrupted by another group led by Doyle’s own adult variant, leading Gus, Alvi, Dessy, and Shayla. This concerned Doyle about his own uncertain future. As the fighting broke out, Voodoo dragged Doyle back to the present.

Relationship with Emily Bright

It was apparent to many, including Doyle’s roommate, Iric Brorson, that Doyle had a crush on fellow student, Emily Bright. When Calvin was taken prisoner by a magic cult known as The Hollow, Emily rounded up a posse of students to go save him. Doyle was eager to join. However, when they reached The Hollow, they immediately turned their attention to him. They referred to him as “The One” and proceeded to kill him to feast on his power.

The students were ultimately saved by the academy’s staff, but they were too late to save Doyle. They tried their best to revive him, but only Emily was able to bring him back with a magical kiss. After that, the two of them started to date. Doyle would eventually return the favor when Emily’s innate magic became too much for her to handle, and he created a special ring from his crown to help her maintain her power levels. Unfortunately, its connection to the Dark Dimension had a bad side effect on Emily.

Despite the fact that their relationship was going well, Doyle was still too nervous to ask her to the academy’s first dance. She obviously said yes and lovingly teased him for his insecurity. However, the night of the dance, Calvin was expelled from the academy. Emily decided to comfort him rather than meet Doyle, who took it pretty hard.

Finals

Once Emily Bright heard that Calvin was expelled, it was the last straw. She led a student walkout, which Doyle refused to join. Emily’s increasingly erratic behavior eventually scared off some of the protesting students, who returned to the academy with open arms. Reunited, they learned that Calvin never went home and instead stayed in New Orleans to work with Gaslamp. Doyle joined a group of students to save him. They were able to find the secret door to Gaslmap’s hideout, while Zoe distracted him. This gave the others the chance to find Calvin, who had fallen more in to debt and was being tortured to produce more drug magic. Their attempt to save Calvin from Gaslamp’s clutches caused a massive explosion of magical energy. While the local magic-users scolded Doctor Voodoo for letting the students run wild, Zoe and her fellow students threw a carnival fundraiser to pay for the damages.

Some time after, as the school got back to normal, Iric returned, having rejected Emily’s ways when she made a deal with Dormammu. He tried to convince the students to leave, but Doyle and the others decided to protect the school. When Emily and her forces show up, Doyle receives most of her attention. A fatal blow was shielded by Iric. Upon losing his friend, Doyle embraced his true nature and absorbed the Dormammu power from Emily, causing her to retreat. He began feeling the power corrupting him and demanded his fellow students and faculty run away. Instead, Hoggoth appears and saps him of his power, returning him to normal.

While the academy celebrates a new school year, Doyle speaks on behalf of Iric during the unveiling of his memorial statue.

Solve for X

Still grieving the loss of his dormmate, Doyle was approached by Germān to join the brand new mathlete team at the academy. Zelma had surprised them with a field trip to New York City where they will compete in the Multiversal Math Bowl. This year, it was being held at Brooklyn Visions Academy. In addition to Doyle and German, the team consisted of: Shaylee, Toth, and Guslaug. Once there, they get to meet Dr. Erasmus Dawnbright, aka Equation, the fairyworld exile and leading expert on “enchantimatics,” the math of magic. Between defending him from a fairy posse with the help of Spider-Man (Miles) and both Earth schools getting first and second in the math bowl, Strange Academy made quite the impression on Equation. He has an important project he was looking to recruit for, and he believed Doyle and Shaylee were the two for the job.

Doyle and Shaylee were mind-controlled by Equation into helping him derealize magic out of existence. Their first target was Moon Knight, through whom they could target the entire Egyptian pantheon. Recovering the Eyes of Horus made it easier to keep Doyle and Shaylee under control, or so he thought. Doyle was able to overwhelm the Egyptian artifact but pretended to be in Equation’s thrall until he could figure out what he was up to. Unfortunately, Equation realized that and decided to derealize him.

Thankfully, his classmates were able to defeat Equation and with the help of Spider-Man (Peter), who overheard Equation repeat Doyle’s constant, and Doctor Strange, who had just been resurrected, they were able to use enchantimatics to bring him back.

Blood Hunt

When the vampire cult, The Structure, flooded the sky with darkforce energy in a bid for world domination, Voodoo recalled all the students back to campus, where he put up a protection spell. A scrappy group of students, including Doyle, overheard him talking to the astral form of Doctor Strange. He needed Voodoo to go to Madripoor, where Strange had sensed the Darkhold, an ancient book that includes the Montessi Formula, which would eradicate all vampires. Voodoo refused, but the eavesdropping students decided to take matters into their own hands When they teleport themselves to Madripoor, they find a young boy, the Darkhold made flesh.

Darkhold was already considering the Montessi Formula, however, the newly enrolled Pia revealed her vampiric nature when she attacked him. She was afraid of being destroyed with the formula. Her fellow students were shocked at first, but they ultimately agreed with her concern. They thought they could negotiate with Darkhold, since he genuinely wanted to save the world. Unfortunately, when their former professor, Agatha Harkness, showed up to take guardianship of Darkhold, he teleported away with Pia as his prisoner.

The students were forced to fight through hordes of vampires looking for Pia and Darkhold. When they finally caught up with them, Pia was defending Darkhold from Agatha and the doubles she had conjured. They joined the fight, eventually defeating Agatha and inviting Darkhold to join their school.

Powers and Abilities

Magic: Toth is a magical apprentice and is currently being trained in multiple crafts of magic.

Faltine Physiology: Doyle has the appearance of a Faltine and is capable to generating and controlling fire.

Variants

Doyle’s Time Hop

When Doyle travels to an alternate future, he sees a showdown of adult Strange Academy students over a prophecy where either himself of Emily Bright would destroy the world while the other opposes them. Doyle’s future counterpart was on the villainous side, appearing more like his father than ever.