In Warlock #5-7, Victor von Doom was employed at the Livermore Valley Lab in California where he worked on "Earth-Corer-1", a vehicle designed to tunnel into the Earth. He warned the president of a massive earthquake that would be caused by a nuclear bomb test. The resulting earthquake accidentally activated "Antipersonnel missiles, nicknamed deathbirds" which began killing people indiscriminately. Von Doom was able to destroy them with Adam Warlock's help, using one of his inventions called the "deactivator". He died while helping Adam Warlock stop the Brute from absorbing all of Counter-Earth's geothermal energy, turning him back into Reed Richards.