A villain published by Marvel Comics. Doctor Bong was created by Steve Gerber and first appeared in Howard the Duck #15.
Doctor Bong began his life as an overweight child named Lester Verde. Verde was often teased by other children because he shopped in the husky department at Sears and had a low self-esteem until he
found that he could hurt the other children with his words.
When Verde reached college, he majored in journalism. When one of his journalism professors anger Verde, he created a false story accusing the professor of dealing in drugs. The story, though false,
caused the professor to lose both his position at the university and his wife. While in college, Verde also sought to gain the affections of Beverly Switzer, a fellow student. When she rebuffed his advances, Verde published stories about Switzer and her boyfriend, that caused their relationship to become strained. Switzer's boyfriend subsequently died in a car accident under mysterious circumstances.
When Verde left college, he became a tabloid journalist, but continued to carry a torch for Switzer. He decided that he would become a rock musician and then expose the lifestyle in print, gaining public attention and hopefully Switzer's notice. When he had become part of a popular band and was preparing to publish his tell-all piece, Verde revealed to the other members of his band his plans. A scuffle ensued and Verde lost his left hand to a prop guillotine with a faulty release. The shock of the loss drove Verde mad and he fixated on the first thing he saw which was a large bell used by the band. On that day, Doctor Bong was born!
Verde disappeared for a few years and when he reappeared his left hand had been replaced with a large clapper and his helmet was bell-shaped. When Doctor Bong struck his helmet with the clapper, the resulting sound had a multitude of effects from paralyzing those who heard to disintegrating the molecular bonds in inorganic matter. Gone was the overweight physique, replaced by a top physical form. Doctor Bong captured Switzer and her friend Howard the Duck while they were traveling on a cruise ship. Bringing them to his island lair, Bong threatened to kill Howard if Switzer would not marry him. She agreed, but Doctor Bong performed experiments on Howard, transforming him into a human being for a time. Howard sought to rescue Switzer and was transformed back to his original form.
Switzer in the meantime used Bong's equipment to clone Bong and produced four smaller versions of Doctor Bong. Threatening to reveal to the world that Bong was a bad father, Switzer defeated Bong with the very weapon he had used years before on others: public opinion.
Bong has not made many appearances since his initial one. He has battled the She-Hulk when he attempted to break his children's addiction to Saturday morning cartoons by creating Bong-vision,
cartoons with realistic outcomes. He has also served as a psychologist for the deranged mercenary Deadpool.