Doom's Day Has Come! (Let's Read Marvel's Doctor Doom)
- Thread starter Roarian
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The Fantastic Four seem to have ditched most of their recently acquired nonsense pretty quickly after the last issue - the vests are gone in this issue, at least, and there's no guns in sight. It's something!
Sorry i've been totally traumatized by being a xmen casual fan during the bad old days of the 'cable saga'. Tiny hands and feet and belts everywhere (including belts in the head as bandanas).
I still don't understand why apparently generations of artists decide to switch Sue haircut every year for another outlandish variant but always so mom, but i guess it's part of the character now. One day, she'll have a punk haircut like x-men Ororo/storm sometimes does.
I still don't understand why apparently generations of artists decide to switch Sue haircut every year for another outlandish variant but always so mom, but i guess it's part of the character now. One day, she'll have a punk haircut like x-men Ororo/storm sometimes does.
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SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Dammit Marvel there's enough serious problems with this storyline (that @Roarian largely addressed) that you don't have to throw insult onto injury by ripping off names from She-Ra for it.
No, I'm not joking, Huntara appeared in She-Ra Princess of Power eight years before this character was introduced. At least limit yourself to stealing good names.
EDIT: Although, as far as Masters of the Universe names go it wasn't that bad. It could have easily been worse.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
The scene of Doctor Doom working on the cure for the legacy virus was interesting. I didn't know he was working on that. He had two long absences from Latveria in the next 10 years, so that must be why he never finished it.
Doom giving the remains of his meal to a peasant family is another great example of him trying to hammer out the image of himself as a gracious monarch. And yet, just like the way he ORDERED "spontaneous" outpourings of joy, here he order the family to enjoy his gift, though they probably would anyway. It doesn't matter, because in Latveria, dissatisfaction is tantamount to treason.
Doom giving the remains of his meal to a peasant family is another great example of him trying to hammer out the image of himself as a gracious monarch. And yet, just like the way he ORDERED "spontaneous" outpourings of joy, here he order the family to enjoy his gift, though they probably would anyway. It doesn't matter, because in Latveria, dissatisfaction is tantamount to treason.
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Yeah, you'll see why he didn't get around to it in like... two updates, heh.
The interesting thing is that Doom also says these things in his own thoughts. He's not just a megalomaniacal tyrant who pretends to be a benevolent monarch, he actually believes he is the latter. Note that mere issues after he decides to conquer the universe with his new powers, he's already recontextualized his defeat as the Fantastic Four preventing him from solving all the world's ills. And yet... when he got such power in several previous storylines he actually tried to do that.
It's the most interesting aspect of Doom, I think, that beneath the scars is the potential for a hilariously great hero.
- Location
- Wörms, the half continent
Living in Latveria, in many cases, is actually one of the better places to live in Marvel World. I know I'd prefer to live there than in Marvel Canada, for one. And unlike the USA, when Latveria is invaded it's usually by people who care about collateral damage (heroes). Especially if you're a Romani, I might imagine. Go on, try to be bigoted to one in DOOM's homeland. Where his mother lived.
(Do not try to do this. While Lateriva is a relatively decent place to live, do not, under any circumstances, annoy Doctor DOOM.)
(Do not try to do this. While Lateriva is a relatively decent place to live, do not, under any circumstances, annoy Doctor DOOM.)
- Location
- Netherlands
I keep being reminded of those issues where the country was being ruled by Zorba Fortunov, and how the entire nation quickly rose up in protest when all the societal ills Doom was suppressing flared up and made the place an actual nightmare to live in. Like, theft was essentially unheard of, and the place was rich and with plenty of food even in the middle of the Cold War while surrounded by Soviet nations. Somehow.
And of course, when Zorba quickly started losing it and tries to force the issue by replicating Doom's cruel methods, his generals point out that it's not working because Doom was certainly threatening enough to cow the populace, but he rarely actually acted on his cruelty. He did it enough to keep the people reasonably scared of what their monarch might do to any perceived slight... but it was also rare enough that large swathes of the population never actually encountered his wrath even by proxy. That's a very delicate balance to hold for decades...
Doom is the scariest type of oppressive dictator, the kind that is good at it...
- Location
- France
That really hurts after the latest issue of Doctor Doom. I think some writers don't like that interpretation of him.
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- Netherlands
It's the way of things. One writer makes him a hero, or gives him worth, another makes him a horrific villain who skins babies or whatever.
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
I think he only ever skinned his ex-girlfriend and sent a baby to hell.... That was a weird storyline.
155: Fantastic Four v1 #380 - Comes the Hunger!
- Location
- Netherlands
Fantastic Four v1 #380 (September 1993)
Cover
Well, this cover kind of spoils what's going to happen in the issue, doesn'it? We see a worried Ben (variously with and without his dorky helmet) strapped to one of Doom's operating tables while half a dozen images of his wounded face surround him alongside the looming form of Doom from directly above. My favorite part, however, is the design of the title at the bottom - it's a vaguely tarnished metal version of Doom's name with his mask design reflected in the O's. It's quite stylish, and we'll see it get used in some other places outside this one comic. Incidentally, this comic boasts about the 'face of Doom', but that'd be quite a shocker - I've only gotten a single post-accident look at him in all the comics I've covered, so something radical would have to change for his face to show up here…
Story Overview
Comes the Hunger!
Shortly after the end of the last comic, after Ben got shot down by Latveria's air defenses, we pick up with two servo-guards of the classic design - silly antennae and all - dragging the unconscious form of the hero from the fetid swamp in which he crashed. Nearby, a pair of more tactically clothed gentlemen - Gustave and Jerrold - look over the robots as they work, and discuss their mission. Jerrold is convinced something's wrong, since while they were first at the crash site, so far they've only been able to find a single occupant, rather than the four that they expected. Gustave puts his mind at ease, noting that the transmission he just received told him the rest of the team is still in New York. For now, their orders are to secure the captive and deliver him to headquarters, where a medical team is on standby to receive him.
Jerrold is quite happy to be part of a mission that captured a member of the Fantastic Four - it'll look good on their permanent records, they'll be hailed as heroes! Who knows, perhaps the Master will even express his gratitude! Gustave wonders if he's mad - their lives will surely be more rewarding, and certainly longer, if they never come to the personal attention of Doctor Doom! As they drag Ben into a transport shuttle, Jerrold says that he heard stories of the Thing once humiliating Doom by crushing his armored hands, and Gustave warns him that such talk is treasonous, and could lead to their deaths. Jerrold tells him he worries too much, and gets curious as to the reason Ben is wearing an iron helmet these days. What is he hiding? He removes the mask, and nearly loses his lunch when he sees what's beneath - he's ravaged beyond repair! It's too horrible to describe!
Within the royal castle, Doctor Doom speaks to Dr. Gittelsohn again, getting an update which resembles the one from previous issues - the space probe beam he launched is luring in some sort of creature from space which is speeding towards Earth. Doom approves, but before anything more can come of it, a servo-guard arrives to tell Doom that the Thing is now safely secured within the castle. Doom admits he's disappointed the rest of the team couldn't make it, but he figures they'll come when they learn Ben has been captured. Then they shall die in their foolish attempt to rescue him! He decides this whole affair needs his personal touch, so he leaves Gittelsohn in charge of the space probe project for now, and the man swears he will not fail. Doom agrees, and threatens him, stating that death is a mercy which his torturers deny to failures! Meanwhile, in space, the mysterious space entity draws nearer…
Over in the United States, we see the damaged headquarters of the Fantastic Four - due to lack of time and money, it hasn't yet been repaired from the events of Infinity War. Right now, though, that's the least of their woes. Much like at the start of the previous issue, the team are gathered around Sharon, but this time she's been shoved into one of those fancy stasis-tubes everyone seems to have these days, and put in suspended animation until Reed can figure out how to reverse her transformation. Johnny comes flying in declaring that there's an emergency, and Sue glumly notes that's the only kind of news they get, these days. Johnny explains that Ben took the Pogo plane to Latveria, and he's not responding on radio - so either he's out of range, or Doom already captured him. Sue complains that Ben is a stubborn fool - he went off on his own without even checking whether Sharon was alive or dead, caught up in his vengeance!
While Reed explains that they shouldn't dwell on past mistakes, and plans to arrange for a ride to follow Ben to Doom's place - maybe by borrowing a quinjet from the Avengers - he suddenly yells out in pain and collapses from another seizure - he's still suffering from those psychic wounds he got from Huntara, and it's become a recurring issue. Sue catches him and tells him off for disregarding his health, even as she admits she's barely any better off - even a single force field is nearly enough to wipe her out at the moment.
Johnny watches in dismay at his two hurting teammates, and worries what'll become of Ben. Even at the height of their combined power, the Fantastic Four were only barely a match for Doom. What are their chances now?
Elsewhere, future teenage Franklin is wandering the halls of HQ and brooding over the way his mother keeps looking at him with distrust and anger; she hates him! Sue will never accept him the way he is now. She desperately wants her baby back, but that's impossible because - his thought is interrupted when he hears a crash nearby. He's shocked to find the cause is a collapsed Lyja who's writhing in pain on the floor. He helps the green alien to a chair, but she immediately demands he keep her weakened condition from the rest of the team - especially Johnny! Franklin agrees, but thinks to himself that her mind abuzz with alien images he can't block out - and they're all centered around the baby that she and Johnny conceived while they were married. But there's something wrong - terribly wrong!
The alien entity that Dr. Gittelsohn was luring in arrives on Earth. Sensing the cornucopia of life on the planet's surface, it begins to hunger. Chaos immediately ensues in the laboratories below as one of Gittelsohn's minions declares that their tracking equipment began to malfunction the moment the alien reached the atmosphere. Gittelsohn says that's impossible since that equipment was designed by the Master himself, but nevertheless the creature vanished from their screens. It unexpectedly dropped like a stone beneath their 'space radar', as if it was deliberately trying to avoid them, so the minion declares they must inform Doom immediately, but Gittelsohn dismisses this option since it would constitute failure on their part, and they all know the punishment for that. Instead he commands search patrols to be sent out to scour the countryside for the creature and capture it - their very lives, and those of their families, depend on it!
In a nearby room, Ben wakes up from unconsciousness to find himself shackled with a pair of shiny metal bracers, but otherwise free - he's actually in Doom's dining room, where a lavish banquet is being served at that very moment - again. Doom magnanimous declares that Ben must feel hungry after his recent adversities, and he's prepared a feast in his honor! Dig in! Ben isn't having any of it, immediately confronting Doom with what he did to Sharon and asking for some last words before he's splattered like a rotten tomato. Doom just looks at him and points out that even an imbecile would question the purpose of the manacles on his wrists - maybe a demonstration is in order? With an agonizing cry Ben is brought to his knees with a neuro-shock, and he's told that the pain increases in intensity with proximity to Doom - the closer he gets, the greater the agony. Removing the manacles won't be any easier - they'll hurt coming off, too.
Ben swears he'll continue to fight no matter how bad the pain gets. He can beat it! While Doom has himself a refreshing goblet of wine, he admits that Ben has certainly shown himself to be tenacious in the past, and he's sure the hero would eventually triumph - if Doom allowed it. Unfortunately that won't be the case, so Ben is a guest here - and as a guest of Latveria, he must follow the law of the land. Doom's land, Doom's laws. Still, the villain assures him, he is not the epitome of evil Ben imagines, and his good name has been unfairly maligned. His good intentions and words were misinterpreted. Compare his beautiful Latveria to the rest of the world, and he'll soon see there is no poverty, crime, mounting deficits or healthcare crises. His people are free of discontent and unhappiness, as he has ordered them to be. Latveria is a paradise, and Doom will gladly extend his benevolence to the rest of humanity!
While Doom is yapping on about his homeland's magnificence, Ben tries to fight through the increasingly painful neuroshocks to reach him, even as the tin-plated tyrant finished up by once more proclaiming that the price for all this is total, blind obedience - I feel like I've read this line a few dozen times before. Recently. Ben is quite done with it too, and decides the only thing he can try is a leap for the throat with everything he's got left. He goes for a final blow, but he's shocked into unconsciousness before he can reach the table, and Doom dismissively looks down at his knocked out body and tells his servant Maurice that it's time to clear the table. This meal was particularly satisfying, he decides, and he's curious what's for dessert…
Two miles away, Jerrold and Gustave make their way through the wilderness, annoyed that they were sent out again after their successful retrieval of the Thing - they should be celebrating, not wandering in the woods! Gustave complains that they should have kept a low profile, but Jerrold had to brag about how they were the most efficient search team of all, and that's what got them a new assignment! Shows what you get! Image is all that counts - nobody judges by results anymore.
Nearby, two servo-guards accompanying the pair run into a sparkling mass on the floor - the alien entity which descended from space just minutes before. And it hungers. In a fiery explosion the robots are consumed, and the two guardsmen quickly close in, thinking it was an aerial attack at first before taking a closer look. They're disturbed to realize the bots were somehow exploded from the inside. They'd better inform headquarters! When they try, though, the radio signal is jammed - and a sparkling being sneaks up on them…
A harried Jerrold tells Gustave that they have to get out of there, that their primary responsibility is to sound the alarm, but he's interrupted by the energetic alien as it crashes into him like a wave, eliciting an agonized scream while the man shoots his gun blindly at nothing. Gustave quickly approaches and is disturbed by the glowing field of energy that engulfed his friend, then realizes that the man looks like he's been fried by intense electricity and all the fluids have been sucked from his body, leaving him little more than a sallow husk, a corpse. He concludes there's nothing more he can do for Jerrold and he has to flee from whatever weapon caused this. It's no weapon, though, it's a hunger. With that, the mass of energy jumps from the dead guardsman towards the living, ignoring his laser-fire entirely. Uh-oh…
Inside the castle, Doom has strapped Ben to the operating table from the cover, and the hero identifies it as an old-fashioned torture chamber, and figured Doom would never stoop to this level of corniness. Still, he tells the tyrant to get on with it. Doom tells him that he's misjudging the situation - he does not intend to harm Ben at all. On the contrary! He's heard of Ben's recent injuries at the hands of Wolverine, and wishes to see the damage his adamantium claws have wrought. After Doom removes the helmet despite Ben's protests, the hero shouts in his face and tells Doom to go ahead and gloat already. The damage to Ben's face is a lot worse than it was in previous issues, dominating most of his face with thick pinkish scar tissue. Doom responds that if any man can sympathize with Ben's plight, it would be him - for he too is a prisoner behind an iron mask, unable to bear the sight of his own scarred, misshapen face! He's sought the world for means to heal it - and has been unsuccessful thus far. But he does have the means necessary to heal Ben!
Ben doesn't buy this offer at all - after those many times they fought, and the misery the villain caused, he'd sooner stick his face into an unflushed toilet than entrust himself to the likes of Doom. Doom warns him that his patience is limited, and he alone can repair these mangled features of his. Doom will prevail where the simpleton Reed Richards has failed, and restore his very humanity! He has but to ask - and in so doing bind himself to Doom forever! He doesn't say the latter bit out loud, but it's understood.
Barely a mile away, the air is thick with the stench of death as one of the search teams Gittelsohn sent out comes across a village that's been entirely eradicated, its inhabitants slaughtered like animals and left as little more than desiccated husks - the hunger got to them! The guards decide they should warn headquarters immediately, since they'll need reinforcements against whatever caused this. Right then a desperate guard who's lost his helmet runs up to them and warns them to flee - his entire unit is dead, and the creature is heading this way! Even the Master's robot army is helpless before it! Gittelsohn is informed that another search party was lost to the invading threat, and he blames himself for this travesty - it's his fault, his responsibility. He decides he can no longer delay the inevitable - he has to live with the consequences of his failures and tell Doom what has occurred. To himself, he reflects that no matter how vengeful or painful Doom's punishment might be, it couldn't possibly be worse than the anguish he feels for sending good men to their deaths…
Back in the dead village, the alien entity possessing one of the dead guardsmen has feasted well on the rest of the search parties, but is still not satisfied. It turns the head of the dead man towards the castle rising in the distance, and it hungers!
Back with Ben, Doom tells the hero off for heaping insults on him - he, who offered Ben hospitality and compassion (and electrified shackles, and a torture chamber!) Doom explains that the comfort of his subjects is second only to the love he has for them, just as Gittelsohn bursts into the room and exclaims that his people have a desperate need for his help. Doom grabs the man by the neck and warns the 'ignorant clod' not to address him without leave, then demands to know what is of such importance that he would forfeit his insufferable life? Gittelsohn manages to croak out: 'the alien!'
Said alien approaches the walls of the castle in the body of the dead guardsman, drawn by the savory power it senses within. Moments later an earth-shattering explosion tears a hole into the outer wall and the alien breaks through - straight into a storage room full of Doombots! The small army of duplicates immediately become alert and prepare for battle - but so does the Hunger! Yes, we get it, that's its name. The Doombots quickly share notes, with one asking what manner of intruder they're dealing with while another says it has incalculable power, and a third declares that no power on Earth can resist their combined might! Nevertheless they throw themselves into the fight.
Ben comments that it sounds like a heavy metal band took up residence in the basement, and Doom releases Dr. Gittelsohn, deciding there's more important things to deal with. He tells them both that they're most fortunate that he cannot linger here, before turning away and leaving. As he walks, Doom worries that if the alien is destroyed by his Doombots before he gets there, its great power will be forever lost to him! As such, toying with Grimm can wait. Bizarrely, Doom then admits that he cannot actually cure Ben Grimm of his condition (why not?) but he can hypnotically bend the hero's mind to make him see whatever he wants, like imagining his face is healed. That way, Doom shall achieve his perfect revenge!
Detouring to one of his old laboratories, Doom retrieves a familiar, sophisticated bit of machinery - the means to siphon cosmic energies from the target, previously used to gain the powers of the Silver Surfer and Aron the Watcher. It is regrettable, he laments, that so many of his subjects would perish for this power - but they shall be proclaimed heroes of the realm, for there is no greater honor than to die in his service! When Doom descends the steps, however, he comes across a graveyard of robot parts and exclaims in horror: 'my awesome army of Doombots! Gone! Destroyed!' Heh. This trail of wreckage confirms Doom's suspicions of the alien's power, power which he must possess - it will be his! Thus he shall achieve his greatest triumph!
Turning the corner, Doom comes across the Hunger wrangling the final two Doombots who heroically sacrificed themselves at their Master's behalf. Doom quickly takes aim with his device, figuring it's best to attack before he's noticed. At the last moment the zombie turns towards him, but the beam of energy from Doom's device slams into it and begins draining its power even while it struggles to free itself.
Ben, meanwhile, struggles to do the same, thinking that Doom is out of his mind if he believes a contraption like the one that contains him could last against his strength forever. He'd just been resting to regain his strength so he could apply it in an opportune moment - and that time has come! As he struggles, the manacles hurt him even worse than he remembers, and the neuro-shocks keep coming as he pushes himself to his limits, declaring in a rage that it's clobberin' time!
The restraints violently break apart and release their prisoner, and Ben muses to himself that for a master villain, Doomsie has a bad habit of underestimating his opponents, which probably comes with the territory of being a defiant egotist. He hopes Doom didn't bite off more than he could chew with this alien threat of his, though - Ben kind of wants to play kickball with his face himself, after all.
Unfortunately for Doom, that seems to be exactly what's going to happen, as the alien manages to use a blast of telekinetic energy to destroy the cosmic absorption machine, ruining his plan in one fell stroke. The transfer ended too soon, so Doom was unable to steal the creature's power for himself! Still, he has a backup plan - he quickly changes the adaptors in his armor, since he has another means to render his enemy helpless. The Hunger, meanwhile, realizes that out of all these armored beings around him, only the one still standing burns with life, and goes after him with renewed zeal. Doom warns the creature to stand back, to flee - doesn't he know that Doom humbled the Silver Surfer and even the Beyonder himself? Defeat is unknown to him! He blasts the zombie with all he's got, but Doom isn't making much progress, and the Hunger becomes stronger with every moment, grasping at Doom's armor and extracting his strength, his will… his very life!
Ben comes across the ongoing fight and for a moment considers just letting it play out, to sit back and enjoy the show. Still, he decides he can't - he's here to avenge Sharon after all, and he's not letting some random space-freak take out the tinpot tyrant before he can do it personally. He spots a fuse box nearby and breaks it to retrieve some live wires, which should be enough to get the space-thing's attention. With a 'Ya-hoo!' he jumps into the fight against the alien creature, which releases Doom in surprise.
Not too far away, the rest of the Fantastic Four are finally flying into the country on board a borrowed quinjet, like a repeat of last issue at a larger scale, and Reed warns everyone to be on the lookout - they passed the border, so there's no turning back now. He's a little surprised there hasn't been any response yet, actually - Doom would usually intercept them, after all. Johnny wonders if he's planning a surprise party, and Sue says she hopes not - it's bad enough Ben is dragging them all out here in the first place. Johnny notes that any one of them would have done the same as Ben if they were in his position, and tells everyone to simmer down some - they're closing in on Doom's castle. Just as they approach, however, a gigantic explosion blows up a large chunk of the castle, and the passengers of the plane worry that there will be no survivors - so what has become of Ben, of the Thing…?
To be continued...
Rating & Comments
After a string of very soap opera issues, it's nice to get a fairly focused one which doesn't really get into half a dozen secondary plotlines and just sort of concentrates on a single conflict - even if it's not a terribly exciting one. Most of this issue is spent following a bunch of Doom's minions, who then get summarily killed off by the horror movie threat of this story, when it's not bothering to follow the singular hero of the story who spends most of it unconscious or tied up. Indeed, Ben just sort of hangs out until almost the very end. Basically a solid three quarters of this issue is setting up this new threat which has two whole comics to his name in all of history, but at least it manages to be decently competent at that - the Hunger is generic and sort of nondescript, but at least it manages to seem impressively dangerous! Now if only it was actually scary.
It's interesting to see the minions of Doom from the inside, so to speak - we get to walk a mile in their shoes, see their thoughts and the way they handle their lives. Jerrold is an enthusiastic and ambitious fellow who has a streak of irreverence to him that his buddy Gustave tries to temper, lest it get them the wrong kind of attention. Gustave also seems more aware of the things Doom might do to them - he's certainly got a more nervous disposition. I suppose they are teamed up to balance each other out. It's also shown that they have a couple serve-guards along on their patrols as muscle and scouts, which just makes sense. It's also fun to see that Jerrold taking credit for their capture of the Thing directly led to them getting more work piled on them - Doom expects this performance from his people, and it only makes sense to make efficient use of your resources, right?
The most interesting of the minions is Dr. Gittelsohn, who was introduced in the previous issue but gets more development here. He is put in charge of the Hunger situation which quickly spirals out of his control - and initially he is too fearful of his own fate, and that of his colleagues, to warn Doom of the problem - depending on whether or not you believe Doom's involvement would short-circuited the massacre that follows, he might be responsible for quite a few deaths. His attempts to defuse the issue naturally fail, and when people start dying in droves around him, he decides to bite the bullet and personally go to Doom expecting to die as a consequence. It's a very nice bit of characterization to show that ultimately his allegiance is to the lives of his people overshadows his fear, and he'll suck up to Doom and give up his life if it means his friends survive to live another day. That sort of self-sacrifice is admirable, even if you have to wonder why someone of such moral character would sign up to be a full-time villain minion to begin with. Guess he didn't get a chance to say no...?
The interaction between Ben and Doom is the other major component in this issue - and it's a bit of a puzzling one. The initial confrontation between them is decently amusing, with Ben shocking himself into unconsciousness in a vain attempt to get at Doom while the villain just sits there gloating and eating from his banquet like a boss. That said, the scene doesn't really contribute much to the narrative - Doom just spends it rehashing some of his old speeches, sometimes verbatim, and Ben repeats his own spiel about how he's never going to give up, he'll fight through the pain, and so forth. There's some entertaining lines in there, but nothing groundbreaking. The second confrontation, with Ben tied up in the 'torture chamber', is a bit more interesting - Doom proclaims his sympathy with Ben's facial wounds and offers a cure, and knowing that he cured Sharon's transformation before there's no reason to believe this is a false offer. It comes with strings, obviously, but when I first read this bit I had no reason to doubt that he's dangling a real resolution to his problems. Doom even brings up that he'll show up Reed by doing it - and what more incentive could Doom possibly need? Doom also admits, possibly for the first time, that he's been looking for a way to get rid of the scars but has been unsuccessful - this hasn't really been explored beyond the pages of Secret Wars when it was one of the first things he did, but it may come up again.
Incidentally, this is where we get into some of the weirdness of the issue - the character portrayal of Doctor Doom. Firstly, in the previous issue Doom explicitly left handling the Fantastic Four to his minions, since he was too busy with the impending arrival of an alien. This issue pulls a reverse and suddenly Doom gets personally involved with Ben and makes the alien a problem his minions have to solve, even though the problem is actually simpler than he expected. Pick a side, man! After that, though, comes the really strange part - for some bizarre reason, Doom admits inside his own head that he's not actually capable of curing the Thing's condition, and he'd just fake it with mental manipulation. I don't get this at all - not only does it make no sense for Doom to be incapable of reversing a mutation he's already reversed once before, but he'd never admit that to anyone, even if it were true, not even himself! And besides that, lying about the cure to Ben's face while tricking him is not, generally, how Doom works. As Sharon's situation indicates, he has no need to fake competence. Did they regret establishing that Doom could pull off this sort of feat?
There is some more weird characterization here, but not for Doom - instead, it's for Ben. Recall that he came to Latveria in a blind rage directly after his former girlfriend hurt herself due to Doom's actions. Yes, Sharon survived that experience, but this issue at no point seems to realize that Ben was actively murderous, and it just defaults him back to the usual behavior the moment he gets free. He's angry, sure, but that's normal for a confrontation with the arch-nemesis of the team - but it makes no sense for Ben to go from murderous rage to coming to Doom's defense against some random space alien that he knows next to nothing about. He doesn't know the thing has been killing Latverians left and right, even - all he really knows is that some alien blew up a bunch of Doombots and went after their leader, who he wants to see dead. Why does he step in at all? His thought processes, as displayed, seem to have no element of rage, just the usual 'This villain is baddie but this guy attacking him is probably worse' logic. I expected at least a little hand-crushing to happen here, you know? A little animosity?
Aside from all of that, I should quickly comment on the supporting cast - and that honestly includes our villain of the hour, the Hunger. This issue makes the alien little more than a blob of hungry energy that possesses people and saps them of life, which is at least creative in concept if a bit simplistic - it doesn't seem to be actually aware of people, as such, nor does it speak. It's more eldritch than anything. I appreciate the fact that it seems pretty invulnerable - as an amorphous blob of cosmic power, it probably needs a bit more juice arrayed against it to bother it, so we'll probably see that next issue, since that concludes this mini-arc. Sharon, Lyja and Franklin get a one-page cameo, though their plotlines aren't terribly relevant at the moment - we might never actually get to them in our readthrough, but I'll probably dump the relevant bits in comic trivia when the overall story progresses enough to make them important. Not that any of their stuff is terribly great, honestly…
So where does that leave us? This issue has some decent background fodder about Latverian troops, but none of it adds up to much - most of them die too quickly to become recurring characters. The villain is pretty nondescript too, and while Ben's interactions with Doom have their moments, they generally feels lacking. I think it's mostly because Doom himself seems to treat this whole affair as perfunctory and boring, since he repeats old speeches and just sort of wanders off to deal with other shit constantly. For someone with an army of Doombots, he can't seem to multi-task very well! What we end up with here is a lot of setup without any appreciable payoff, so hopefully we'll get some more of that in the sequel - but I'm not hopeful, since the Hunger didn't exactly stick around for future comics. While this comic didn't blow me away, it had a minimal amount of 4-shaped boob windows, protracted melodrama, and 90's schlock, and none of the crap that made the last issue so terrible. Just for that it gets a boost.
Next time, though… we reach a precipice. An era ends, and we finally move into the 1990's properly - with all that entails. This thread will be shifting gears a bit in the light of that, by necessity. Yup. We're very close to Doom... 2099!
Best Panel(s) of the Issues
It feels like an age ago that we got sight of Doom's place in all its ornate, over-decorated glory. In this case, Doom gets a sizable Doom set up for his lonesome - he must have quite the stomach!
Most Gloriously Villainous Doom Quotes
"Death is a mercy which my torturers are known to deny failures!"
"You are a guest here, and must obey the laws of the land. My land... my laws!"
"Alas, I am not the epitome of evil you so wrongly believe! My good name has been unfairly maligned! My good intentions and words misinterpreted! Compare my beautiful Latveria to the rest of the world! We have no crime, no poverty, no mounting deficit or healthcare crisis! My people are free of discontent and unhappiness... as I have ordered them to be! Latveria is a virtual paradise... and I will gladly extend my benevolence to the rest of humanity!"
"You would be surprised at how many of your weak-willed countrymen would eagerly embrace complete happiness in exchange for - total blind obedience!"
"If any one man could fully sympathize with your plight, it is I! For I too am prisoner behind an iron mask! Unable to bear the sight of my own scarred, misshapen face... I have desperately scoured the world for a means to heal it! In that I have yet to succeed..."
Doom: "Unspeakable ingrate! How dare you heap insults upon me? I... who have offered you hospitality and compassion!"
Ben: "Yeah... an' my own private torture chamber!"
Doom: "The comfort of my guests is second only to the love I have for my subjects!"
"My awesome army of Doombots! Gone! Destroyed!"
"Stand back! Flee before the matchless might of Doom! I have humbled the likes of the Silver Surfer and the Beyonder himself! Defeat is unknown to me, and I will not be -"
Doom's Bad Hair Day
The restraints on Thing's arms change in both size and color over time, which just seems lazy.
Doom-Tech of the Week
The Neuro-shock Manacles are really the only thing that comes to mind. Everything else has been shown before, or is just part of Doom's usual kit.
Doombot Count: 48
While there are a bunch of Doombots in this issue, only two of them actually have a meaningful role to play in slowing down the Hunger - the rest are just sort of ruined off-panel. Technically three of them talk and have something to say beyond hackneyed catchphrases, though, so I'll go with that number. Their intellect has been changing a lot of late, hasn't it? Writers' prerogative I guess.
Cover
Well, this cover kind of spoils what's going to happen in the issue, doesn'it? We see a worried Ben (variously with and without his dorky helmet) strapped to one of Doom's operating tables while half a dozen images of his wounded face surround him alongside the looming form of Doom from directly above. My favorite part, however, is the design of the title at the bottom - it's a vaguely tarnished metal version of Doom's name with his mask design reflected in the O's. It's quite stylish, and we'll see it get used in some other places outside this one comic. Incidentally, this comic boasts about the 'face of Doom', but that'd be quite a shocker - I've only gotten a single post-accident look at him in all the comics I've covered, so something radical would have to change for his face to show up here…
Story Overview
Comes the Hunger!
Shortly after the end of the last comic, after Ben got shot down by Latveria's air defenses, we pick up with two servo-guards of the classic design - silly antennae and all - dragging the unconscious form of the hero from the fetid swamp in which he crashed. Nearby, a pair of more tactically clothed gentlemen - Gustave and Jerrold - look over the robots as they work, and discuss their mission. Jerrold is convinced something's wrong, since while they were first at the crash site, so far they've only been able to find a single occupant, rather than the four that they expected. Gustave puts his mind at ease, noting that the transmission he just received told him the rest of the team is still in New York. For now, their orders are to secure the captive and deliver him to headquarters, where a medical team is on standby to receive him.
Jerrold is quite happy to be part of a mission that captured a member of the Fantastic Four - it'll look good on their permanent records, they'll be hailed as heroes! Who knows, perhaps the Master will even express his gratitude! Gustave wonders if he's mad - their lives will surely be more rewarding, and certainly longer, if they never come to the personal attention of Doctor Doom! As they drag Ben into a transport shuttle, Jerrold says that he heard stories of the Thing once humiliating Doom by crushing his armored hands, and Gustave warns him that such talk is treasonous, and could lead to their deaths. Jerrold tells him he worries too much, and gets curious as to the reason Ben is wearing an iron helmet these days. What is he hiding? He removes the mask, and nearly loses his lunch when he sees what's beneath - he's ravaged beyond repair! It's too horrible to describe!
Within the royal castle, Doctor Doom speaks to Dr. Gittelsohn again, getting an update which resembles the one from previous issues - the space probe beam he launched is luring in some sort of creature from space which is speeding towards Earth. Doom approves, but before anything more can come of it, a servo-guard arrives to tell Doom that the Thing is now safely secured within the castle. Doom admits he's disappointed the rest of the team couldn't make it, but he figures they'll come when they learn Ben has been captured. Then they shall die in their foolish attempt to rescue him! He decides this whole affair needs his personal touch, so he leaves Gittelsohn in charge of the space probe project for now, and the man swears he will not fail. Doom agrees, and threatens him, stating that death is a mercy which his torturers deny to failures! Meanwhile, in space, the mysterious space entity draws nearer…
Over in the United States, we see the damaged headquarters of the Fantastic Four - due to lack of time and money, it hasn't yet been repaired from the events of Infinity War. Right now, though, that's the least of their woes. Much like at the start of the previous issue, the team are gathered around Sharon, but this time she's been shoved into one of those fancy stasis-tubes everyone seems to have these days, and put in suspended animation until Reed can figure out how to reverse her transformation. Johnny comes flying in declaring that there's an emergency, and Sue glumly notes that's the only kind of news they get, these days. Johnny explains that Ben took the Pogo plane to Latveria, and he's not responding on radio - so either he's out of range, or Doom already captured him. Sue complains that Ben is a stubborn fool - he went off on his own without even checking whether Sharon was alive or dead, caught up in his vengeance!
While Reed explains that they shouldn't dwell on past mistakes, and plans to arrange for a ride to follow Ben to Doom's place - maybe by borrowing a quinjet from the Avengers - he suddenly yells out in pain and collapses from another seizure - he's still suffering from those psychic wounds he got from Huntara, and it's become a recurring issue. Sue catches him and tells him off for disregarding his health, even as she admits she's barely any better off - even a single force field is nearly enough to wipe her out at the moment.
Johnny watches in dismay at his two hurting teammates, and worries what'll become of Ben. Even at the height of their combined power, the Fantastic Four were only barely a match for Doom. What are their chances now?
Elsewhere, future teenage Franklin is wandering the halls of HQ and brooding over the way his mother keeps looking at him with distrust and anger; she hates him! Sue will never accept him the way he is now. She desperately wants her baby back, but that's impossible because - his thought is interrupted when he hears a crash nearby. He's shocked to find the cause is a collapsed Lyja who's writhing in pain on the floor. He helps the green alien to a chair, but she immediately demands he keep her weakened condition from the rest of the team - especially Johnny! Franklin agrees, but thinks to himself that her mind abuzz with alien images he can't block out - and they're all centered around the baby that she and Johnny conceived while they were married. But there's something wrong - terribly wrong!
The alien entity that Dr. Gittelsohn was luring in arrives on Earth. Sensing the cornucopia of life on the planet's surface, it begins to hunger. Chaos immediately ensues in the laboratories below as one of Gittelsohn's minions declares that their tracking equipment began to malfunction the moment the alien reached the atmosphere. Gittelsohn says that's impossible since that equipment was designed by the Master himself, but nevertheless the creature vanished from their screens. It unexpectedly dropped like a stone beneath their 'space radar', as if it was deliberately trying to avoid them, so the minion declares they must inform Doom immediately, but Gittelsohn dismisses this option since it would constitute failure on their part, and they all know the punishment for that. Instead he commands search patrols to be sent out to scour the countryside for the creature and capture it - their very lives, and those of their families, depend on it!
In a nearby room, Ben wakes up from unconsciousness to find himself shackled with a pair of shiny metal bracers, but otherwise free - he's actually in Doom's dining room, where a lavish banquet is being served at that very moment - again. Doom magnanimous declares that Ben must feel hungry after his recent adversities, and he's prepared a feast in his honor! Dig in! Ben isn't having any of it, immediately confronting Doom with what he did to Sharon and asking for some last words before he's splattered like a rotten tomato. Doom just looks at him and points out that even an imbecile would question the purpose of the manacles on his wrists - maybe a demonstration is in order? With an agonizing cry Ben is brought to his knees with a neuro-shock, and he's told that the pain increases in intensity with proximity to Doom - the closer he gets, the greater the agony. Removing the manacles won't be any easier - they'll hurt coming off, too.
Ben swears he'll continue to fight no matter how bad the pain gets. He can beat it! While Doom has himself a refreshing goblet of wine, he admits that Ben has certainly shown himself to be tenacious in the past, and he's sure the hero would eventually triumph - if Doom allowed it. Unfortunately that won't be the case, so Ben is a guest here - and as a guest of Latveria, he must follow the law of the land. Doom's land, Doom's laws. Still, the villain assures him, he is not the epitome of evil Ben imagines, and his good name has been unfairly maligned. His good intentions and words were misinterpreted. Compare his beautiful Latveria to the rest of the world, and he'll soon see there is no poverty, crime, mounting deficits or healthcare crises. His people are free of discontent and unhappiness, as he has ordered them to be. Latveria is a paradise, and Doom will gladly extend his benevolence to the rest of humanity!
While Doom is yapping on about his homeland's magnificence, Ben tries to fight through the increasingly painful neuroshocks to reach him, even as the tin-plated tyrant finished up by once more proclaiming that the price for all this is total, blind obedience - I feel like I've read this line a few dozen times before. Recently. Ben is quite done with it too, and decides the only thing he can try is a leap for the throat with everything he's got left. He goes for a final blow, but he's shocked into unconsciousness before he can reach the table, and Doom dismissively looks down at his knocked out body and tells his servant Maurice that it's time to clear the table. This meal was particularly satisfying, he decides, and he's curious what's for dessert…
Two miles away, Jerrold and Gustave make their way through the wilderness, annoyed that they were sent out again after their successful retrieval of the Thing - they should be celebrating, not wandering in the woods! Gustave complains that they should have kept a low profile, but Jerrold had to brag about how they were the most efficient search team of all, and that's what got them a new assignment! Shows what you get! Image is all that counts - nobody judges by results anymore.
Nearby, two servo-guards accompanying the pair run into a sparkling mass on the floor - the alien entity which descended from space just minutes before. And it hungers. In a fiery explosion the robots are consumed, and the two guardsmen quickly close in, thinking it was an aerial attack at first before taking a closer look. They're disturbed to realize the bots were somehow exploded from the inside. They'd better inform headquarters! When they try, though, the radio signal is jammed - and a sparkling being sneaks up on them…
A harried Jerrold tells Gustave that they have to get out of there, that their primary responsibility is to sound the alarm, but he's interrupted by the energetic alien as it crashes into him like a wave, eliciting an agonized scream while the man shoots his gun blindly at nothing. Gustave quickly approaches and is disturbed by the glowing field of energy that engulfed his friend, then realizes that the man looks like he's been fried by intense electricity and all the fluids have been sucked from his body, leaving him little more than a sallow husk, a corpse. He concludes there's nothing more he can do for Jerrold and he has to flee from whatever weapon caused this. It's no weapon, though, it's a hunger. With that, the mass of energy jumps from the dead guardsman towards the living, ignoring his laser-fire entirely. Uh-oh…
Inside the castle, Doom has strapped Ben to the operating table from the cover, and the hero identifies it as an old-fashioned torture chamber, and figured Doom would never stoop to this level of corniness. Still, he tells the tyrant to get on with it. Doom tells him that he's misjudging the situation - he does not intend to harm Ben at all. On the contrary! He's heard of Ben's recent injuries at the hands of Wolverine, and wishes to see the damage his adamantium claws have wrought. After Doom removes the helmet despite Ben's protests, the hero shouts in his face and tells Doom to go ahead and gloat already. The damage to Ben's face is a lot worse than it was in previous issues, dominating most of his face with thick pinkish scar tissue. Doom responds that if any man can sympathize with Ben's plight, it would be him - for he too is a prisoner behind an iron mask, unable to bear the sight of his own scarred, misshapen face! He's sought the world for means to heal it - and has been unsuccessful thus far. But he does have the means necessary to heal Ben!
Ben doesn't buy this offer at all - after those many times they fought, and the misery the villain caused, he'd sooner stick his face into an unflushed toilet than entrust himself to the likes of Doom. Doom warns him that his patience is limited, and he alone can repair these mangled features of his. Doom will prevail where the simpleton Reed Richards has failed, and restore his very humanity! He has but to ask - and in so doing bind himself to Doom forever! He doesn't say the latter bit out loud, but it's understood.
Barely a mile away, the air is thick with the stench of death as one of the search teams Gittelsohn sent out comes across a village that's been entirely eradicated, its inhabitants slaughtered like animals and left as little more than desiccated husks - the hunger got to them! The guards decide they should warn headquarters immediately, since they'll need reinforcements against whatever caused this. Right then a desperate guard who's lost his helmet runs up to them and warns them to flee - his entire unit is dead, and the creature is heading this way! Even the Master's robot army is helpless before it! Gittelsohn is informed that another search party was lost to the invading threat, and he blames himself for this travesty - it's his fault, his responsibility. He decides he can no longer delay the inevitable - he has to live with the consequences of his failures and tell Doom what has occurred. To himself, he reflects that no matter how vengeful or painful Doom's punishment might be, it couldn't possibly be worse than the anguish he feels for sending good men to their deaths…
Back in the dead village, the alien entity possessing one of the dead guardsmen has feasted well on the rest of the search parties, but is still not satisfied. It turns the head of the dead man towards the castle rising in the distance, and it hungers!
Back with Ben, Doom tells the hero off for heaping insults on him - he, who offered Ben hospitality and compassion (and electrified shackles, and a torture chamber!) Doom explains that the comfort of his subjects is second only to the love he has for them, just as Gittelsohn bursts into the room and exclaims that his people have a desperate need for his help. Doom grabs the man by the neck and warns the 'ignorant clod' not to address him without leave, then demands to know what is of such importance that he would forfeit his insufferable life? Gittelsohn manages to croak out: 'the alien!'
Said alien approaches the walls of the castle in the body of the dead guardsman, drawn by the savory power it senses within. Moments later an earth-shattering explosion tears a hole into the outer wall and the alien breaks through - straight into a storage room full of Doombots! The small army of duplicates immediately become alert and prepare for battle - but so does the Hunger! Yes, we get it, that's its name. The Doombots quickly share notes, with one asking what manner of intruder they're dealing with while another says it has incalculable power, and a third declares that no power on Earth can resist their combined might! Nevertheless they throw themselves into the fight.
Ben comments that it sounds like a heavy metal band took up residence in the basement, and Doom releases Dr. Gittelsohn, deciding there's more important things to deal with. He tells them both that they're most fortunate that he cannot linger here, before turning away and leaving. As he walks, Doom worries that if the alien is destroyed by his Doombots before he gets there, its great power will be forever lost to him! As such, toying with Grimm can wait. Bizarrely, Doom then admits that he cannot actually cure Ben Grimm of his condition (why not?) but he can hypnotically bend the hero's mind to make him see whatever he wants, like imagining his face is healed. That way, Doom shall achieve his perfect revenge!
Detouring to one of his old laboratories, Doom retrieves a familiar, sophisticated bit of machinery - the means to siphon cosmic energies from the target, previously used to gain the powers of the Silver Surfer and Aron the Watcher. It is regrettable, he laments, that so many of his subjects would perish for this power - but they shall be proclaimed heroes of the realm, for there is no greater honor than to die in his service! When Doom descends the steps, however, he comes across a graveyard of robot parts and exclaims in horror: 'my awesome army of Doombots! Gone! Destroyed!' Heh. This trail of wreckage confirms Doom's suspicions of the alien's power, power which he must possess - it will be his! Thus he shall achieve his greatest triumph!
Turning the corner, Doom comes across the Hunger wrangling the final two Doombots who heroically sacrificed themselves at their Master's behalf. Doom quickly takes aim with his device, figuring it's best to attack before he's noticed. At the last moment the zombie turns towards him, but the beam of energy from Doom's device slams into it and begins draining its power even while it struggles to free itself.
Ben, meanwhile, struggles to do the same, thinking that Doom is out of his mind if he believes a contraption like the one that contains him could last against his strength forever. He'd just been resting to regain his strength so he could apply it in an opportune moment - and that time has come! As he struggles, the manacles hurt him even worse than he remembers, and the neuro-shocks keep coming as he pushes himself to his limits, declaring in a rage that it's clobberin' time!
The restraints violently break apart and release their prisoner, and Ben muses to himself that for a master villain, Doomsie has a bad habit of underestimating his opponents, which probably comes with the territory of being a defiant egotist. He hopes Doom didn't bite off more than he could chew with this alien threat of his, though - Ben kind of wants to play kickball with his face himself, after all.
Unfortunately for Doom, that seems to be exactly what's going to happen, as the alien manages to use a blast of telekinetic energy to destroy the cosmic absorption machine, ruining his plan in one fell stroke. The transfer ended too soon, so Doom was unable to steal the creature's power for himself! Still, he has a backup plan - he quickly changes the adaptors in his armor, since he has another means to render his enemy helpless. The Hunger, meanwhile, realizes that out of all these armored beings around him, only the one still standing burns with life, and goes after him with renewed zeal. Doom warns the creature to stand back, to flee - doesn't he know that Doom humbled the Silver Surfer and even the Beyonder himself? Defeat is unknown to him! He blasts the zombie with all he's got, but Doom isn't making much progress, and the Hunger becomes stronger with every moment, grasping at Doom's armor and extracting his strength, his will… his very life!
Ben comes across the ongoing fight and for a moment considers just letting it play out, to sit back and enjoy the show. Still, he decides he can't - he's here to avenge Sharon after all, and he's not letting some random space-freak take out the tinpot tyrant before he can do it personally. He spots a fuse box nearby and breaks it to retrieve some live wires, which should be enough to get the space-thing's attention. With a 'Ya-hoo!' he jumps into the fight against the alien creature, which releases Doom in surprise.
Not too far away, the rest of the Fantastic Four are finally flying into the country on board a borrowed quinjet, like a repeat of last issue at a larger scale, and Reed warns everyone to be on the lookout - they passed the border, so there's no turning back now. He's a little surprised there hasn't been any response yet, actually - Doom would usually intercept them, after all. Johnny wonders if he's planning a surprise party, and Sue says she hopes not - it's bad enough Ben is dragging them all out here in the first place. Johnny notes that any one of them would have done the same as Ben if they were in his position, and tells everyone to simmer down some - they're closing in on Doom's castle. Just as they approach, however, a gigantic explosion blows up a large chunk of the castle, and the passengers of the plane worry that there will be no survivors - so what has become of Ben, of the Thing…?
To be continued...
Rating & Comments
After a string of very soap opera issues, it's nice to get a fairly focused one which doesn't really get into half a dozen secondary plotlines and just sort of concentrates on a single conflict - even if it's not a terribly exciting one. Most of this issue is spent following a bunch of Doom's minions, who then get summarily killed off by the horror movie threat of this story, when it's not bothering to follow the singular hero of the story who spends most of it unconscious or tied up. Indeed, Ben just sort of hangs out until almost the very end. Basically a solid three quarters of this issue is setting up this new threat which has two whole comics to his name in all of history, but at least it manages to be decently competent at that - the Hunger is generic and sort of nondescript, but at least it manages to seem impressively dangerous! Now if only it was actually scary.
It's interesting to see the minions of Doom from the inside, so to speak - we get to walk a mile in their shoes, see their thoughts and the way they handle their lives. Jerrold is an enthusiastic and ambitious fellow who has a streak of irreverence to him that his buddy Gustave tries to temper, lest it get them the wrong kind of attention. Gustave also seems more aware of the things Doom might do to them - he's certainly got a more nervous disposition. I suppose they are teamed up to balance each other out. It's also shown that they have a couple serve-guards along on their patrols as muscle and scouts, which just makes sense. It's also fun to see that Jerrold taking credit for their capture of the Thing directly led to them getting more work piled on them - Doom expects this performance from his people, and it only makes sense to make efficient use of your resources, right?
The most interesting of the minions is Dr. Gittelsohn, who was introduced in the previous issue but gets more development here. He is put in charge of the Hunger situation which quickly spirals out of his control - and initially he is too fearful of his own fate, and that of his colleagues, to warn Doom of the problem - depending on whether or not you believe Doom's involvement would short-circuited the massacre that follows, he might be responsible for quite a few deaths. His attempts to defuse the issue naturally fail, and when people start dying in droves around him, he decides to bite the bullet and personally go to Doom expecting to die as a consequence. It's a very nice bit of characterization to show that ultimately his allegiance is to the lives of his people overshadows his fear, and he'll suck up to Doom and give up his life if it means his friends survive to live another day. That sort of self-sacrifice is admirable, even if you have to wonder why someone of such moral character would sign up to be a full-time villain minion to begin with. Guess he didn't get a chance to say no...?
The interaction between Ben and Doom is the other major component in this issue - and it's a bit of a puzzling one. The initial confrontation between them is decently amusing, with Ben shocking himself into unconsciousness in a vain attempt to get at Doom while the villain just sits there gloating and eating from his banquet like a boss. That said, the scene doesn't really contribute much to the narrative - Doom just spends it rehashing some of his old speeches, sometimes verbatim, and Ben repeats his own spiel about how he's never going to give up, he'll fight through the pain, and so forth. There's some entertaining lines in there, but nothing groundbreaking. The second confrontation, with Ben tied up in the 'torture chamber', is a bit more interesting - Doom proclaims his sympathy with Ben's facial wounds and offers a cure, and knowing that he cured Sharon's transformation before there's no reason to believe this is a false offer. It comes with strings, obviously, but when I first read this bit I had no reason to doubt that he's dangling a real resolution to his problems. Doom even brings up that he'll show up Reed by doing it - and what more incentive could Doom possibly need? Doom also admits, possibly for the first time, that he's been looking for a way to get rid of the scars but has been unsuccessful - this hasn't really been explored beyond the pages of Secret Wars when it was one of the first things he did, but it may come up again.
Incidentally, this is where we get into some of the weirdness of the issue - the character portrayal of Doctor Doom. Firstly, in the previous issue Doom explicitly left handling the Fantastic Four to his minions, since he was too busy with the impending arrival of an alien. This issue pulls a reverse and suddenly Doom gets personally involved with Ben and makes the alien a problem his minions have to solve, even though the problem is actually simpler than he expected. Pick a side, man! After that, though, comes the really strange part - for some bizarre reason, Doom admits inside his own head that he's not actually capable of curing the Thing's condition, and he'd just fake it with mental manipulation. I don't get this at all - not only does it make no sense for Doom to be incapable of reversing a mutation he's already reversed once before, but he'd never admit that to anyone, even if it were true, not even himself! And besides that, lying about the cure to Ben's face while tricking him is not, generally, how Doom works. As Sharon's situation indicates, he has no need to fake competence. Did they regret establishing that Doom could pull off this sort of feat?
There is some more weird characterization here, but not for Doom - instead, it's for Ben. Recall that he came to Latveria in a blind rage directly after his former girlfriend hurt herself due to Doom's actions. Yes, Sharon survived that experience, but this issue at no point seems to realize that Ben was actively murderous, and it just defaults him back to the usual behavior the moment he gets free. He's angry, sure, but that's normal for a confrontation with the arch-nemesis of the team - but it makes no sense for Ben to go from murderous rage to coming to Doom's defense against some random space alien that he knows next to nothing about. He doesn't know the thing has been killing Latverians left and right, even - all he really knows is that some alien blew up a bunch of Doombots and went after their leader, who he wants to see dead. Why does he step in at all? His thought processes, as displayed, seem to have no element of rage, just the usual 'This villain is baddie but this guy attacking him is probably worse' logic. I expected at least a little hand-crushing to happen here, you know? A little animosity?
Aside from all of that, I should quickly comment on the supporting cast - and that honestly includes our villain of the hour, the Hunger. This issue makes the alien little more than a blob of hungry energy that possesses people and saps them of life, which is at least creative in concept if a bit simplistic - it doesn't seem to be actually aware of people, as such, nor does it speak. It's more eldritch than anything. I appreciate the fact that it seems pretty invulnerable - as an amorphous blob of cosmic power, it probably needs a bit more juice arrayed against it to bother it, so we'll probably see that next issue, since that concludes this mini-arc. Sharon, Lyja and Franklin get a one-page cameo, though their plotlines aren't terribly relevant at the moment - we might never actually get to them in our readthrough, but I'll probably dump the relevant bits in comic trivia when the overall story progresses enough to make them important. Not that any of their stuff is terribly great, honestly…
So where does that leave us? This issue has some decent background fodder about Latverian troops, but none of it adds up to much - most of them die too quickly to become recurring characters. The villain is pretty nondescript too, and while Ben's interactions with Doom have their moments, they generally feels lacking. I think it's mostly because Doom himself seems to treat this whole affair as perfunctory and boring, since he repeats old speeches and just sort of wanders off to deal with other shit constantly. For someone with an army of Doombots, he can't seem to multi-task very well! What we end up with here is a lot of setup without any appreciable payoff, so hopefully we'll get some more of that in the sequel - but I'm not hopeful, since the Hunger didn't exactly stick around for future comics. While this comic didn't blow me away, it had a minimal amount of 4-shaped boob windows, protracted melodrama, and 90's schlock, and none of the crap that made the last issue so terrible. Just for that it gets a boost.
Next time, though… we reach a precipice. An era ends, and we finally move into the 1990's properly - with all that entails. This thread will be shifting gears a bit in the light of that, by necessity. Yup. We're very close to Doom... 2099!
Best Panel(s) of the Issues
It feels like an age ago that we got sight of Doom's place in all its ornate, over-decorated glory. In this case, Doom gets a sizable Doom set up for his lonesome - he must have quite the stomach!
Most Gloriously Villainous Doom Quotes
"Death is a mercy which my torturers are known to deny failures!"
"You are a guest here, and must obey the laws of the land. My land... my laws!"
"Alas, I am not the epitome of evil you so wrongly believe! My good name has been unfairly maligned! My good intentions and words misinterpreted! Compare my beautiful Latveria to the rest of the world! We have no crime, no poverty, no mounting deficit or healthcare crisis! My people are free of discontent and unhappiness... as I have ordered them to be! Latveria is a virtual paradise... and I will gladly extend my benevolence to the rest of humanity!"
"You would be surprised at how many of your weak-willed countrymen would eagerly embrace complete happiness in exchange for - total blind obedience!"
"If any one man could fully sympathize with your plight, it is I! For I too am prisoner behind an iron mask! Unable to bear the sight of my own scarred, misshapen face... I have desperately scoured the world for a means to heal it! In that I have yet to succeed..."
Doom: "Unspeakable ingrate! How dare you heap insults upon me? I... who have offered you hospitality and compassion!"
Ben: "Yeah... an' my own private torture chamber!"
Doom: "The comfort of my guests is second only to the love I have for my subjects!"
"My awesome army of Doombots! Gone! Destroyed!"
"Stand back! Flee before the matchless might of Doom! I have humbled the likes of the Silver Surfer and the Beyonder himself! Defeat is unknown to me, and I will not be -"
Doom's Bad Hair Day
The restraints on Thing's arms change in both size and color over time, which just seems lazy.
Doom-Tech of the Week
The Neuro-shock Manacles are really the only thing that comes to mind. Everything else has been shown before, or is just part of Doom's usual kit.
Doombot Count: 48
While there are a bunch of Doombots in this issue, only two of them actually have a meaningful role to play in slowing down the Hunger - the rest are just sort of ruined off-panel. Technically three of them talk and have something to say beyond hackneyed catchphrases, though, so I'll go with that number. Their intellect has been changing a lot of late, hasn't it? Writers' prerogative I guess.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
I assumed that what Doom meant was that he couldn't cure Ben's scars, though of course he could cure him of being the Thing. He would just look like Ben Grimm with half his face covered in scaring. I think the writers included it because it was too unbelievable that Doom could repair the Thing's facial scars, but not his own.
- Location
- Netherlands
I'll be honest - I've always assumed that the reason Doom can't or doesn't cover up his scars is more metaphysical than literal. I mean, plastic surgery exists, there's no reason to think that it wouldn't work in principle. But Doom got his wounds through magic - it's as much a wound on his soul as it is his body, so it doesn't really matter whether he fixes himself - inevitably the scar will reappear because the underlying problem is still there. Like fixing a wound by putting some bandages on it, but it's still bleeding underneath and inevitably the bandages end up bloody and ruined.
I'm still a bit weirded out by the idea that fixing someone's wounds would be harder than fundamentally transforming them, though. I guess it's yet more magical logic, like a werewolf keeping some echo of the wounds they got while getting hunted under the pale moon?
156: Fantastic Four v1 #381 - And Then There Were 3!
- Location
- Netherlands
Fantastic Four v1 #381 (October 1993)
Cover
Well, this cover is certainly promising - and if I am permitted mild spoilers, it's quite truthful on this occasion. Having stuck to the usual core lineup of the Fantastic Four for a good while, several characters were reintroduced in recent issues to pad out the roster, which is usually bad news for the mainstay regulars as a changeup is on the horizon. Such is the case here, with the Four losing a member for the better part of two years. Although the comic is certainly not vague about that fact, it's at least circumspect about pointing out which character will take the dive, which I appreciate - saves at least some suspense for the actual issue.
Amusingly, I think all the characters have seen a number of death flags in recent times - Reed and Sue are both seriously injured which is hampering their effectiveness, Ben has a seriously infected facial disfiguration and just got blown up by a body snatching alien, and Johnny is the odd man out which just makes him a bigger target - that, and his jealous ex-girlfriend who's threatened to murder him before is along for the ride, and she caught him 'two-timing' her just two issues ago. Yikes!
Story Overview
And Then There Were 3!
We continue our story a little later than the last one ended, with the Fantastic Four and entourage already on the ground and fighting against a small army of servo-guards and other robots made by Doom - honestly we barely get a good image of their foes here, the heroes are mostly just shooting beams and punching things which are off-panel or obscured by text boxes. Lyja and Franklin are also present, and Reed commands everyone to spread out so they don't get cornered by the enemy. Sue worries that Ben was buried in the huge explosion that leveled part of the castle, but they won't know whether that's true until they deal with the conga line of enemies that's running at them first. Reed tells everyone they'll find Ben - or his body! Morbid much? He instructs his colleagues on how to deactivate the robots by removing a specific component, but Lyja says that she specializes in punchy lasers, not engineering, even as she knocks out a few more enemies.
Sue nearly collapses when she summons a force field, and Franklin comes to her aid, only to get rebuffed by his mother who says she still doesn't buy that he's actually her grown-up son, and suspects him of being some kind of fraud. Johnny, meanwhile, sympathizes with Ben for going solo - he was only 'defending his woman', as he puts it. He'd do the same for Lyja, if only she'd allow it. He then blasts the last robot and turns his flames off to recover, while Reed tells Franklin to use his psychic powers to locate Ben under the rubble. Sure enough, his thoughts are coming from directly beneath them - somewhere in the destroyed castle's remnants. Johnny offers to melt them a way down, but Sue rejects this, since covering their friend in molten slag is too great a risk. (I mean, he's pretty sturdy, he'd probably be fine…) Reed is about to offer his own assistance when the problem solves itself, as Ben digs himself out of the ground, annoyed that if he waited for the others to act, he'd miss the super bowl! (The one from 1994, even.)
Franklin approaches him and is glad to see that Ben is alright, but sensed fear in his uncle's mind. Ben agrees with the assessment - he fears he'll have to listen to one of Reed's cornball speeches after he tells him about the alien menace that's been murdering the locals! Sure enough, Reed immediately goes off on a rant that a destructive alien intelligence could eventually threaten everyone on Earth, just as Ben predicted, but he stops when Reed discovers Doctor Doom lying beneath the rubble, caught in the same blast as Ben and just as shaken. Reed offers the villain a hand, but Doom rejects it outright, haltingly proclaiming he needs no aid from him, or any man, before slinking off towards his castle. Ben notes that they can forget about the 'slime-bucket' for now and just lets him go, deciding they've got real problems on their hands. There's a monstrous alien to deal with, after all!
We next see the alien Hunger from the previous issue without a physical form to possess, back to just a nondescript sparkly cloud of energy that's hovering through a forest. Still now that it's gathered enough life energy from all its victims, it can begin to metamorphose into a new form based upon the contents of his victim's minds - a form which would strike terror into their primitive hearts! It becomes a… scantily clad yellow gargoyle? Maybe the vaguely bat-like appearance is because Latverians are a cowardly and superstitious lot? I wonder if the people also have an irrational fear of very impractical underwear…? In any case, the vaguely Eldritch creature is reduced to a cartoon villain from a children's tv show, so it's no wonder nobody recalls this particular threat with much fondness. Meh.
Back in the castle, Doom downloads information gathered from his clash with the alien from his armor's systems, so that he can perform a complete analysis on it. Dr. Gittelsohn shows up to compliment Doom's information gathering, and notes that the power of this creature is simply unimaginable. Doom irritably comments that this may be true for his minion, but Doom is not so ignorant. He lured this creature to Earth specifically to steal its powers, after all, so he'll get what he paid for. He commands Gittelsohn to retrieve the battery pack filled with the last remnants of the Watcher's power, as already a plan begins to form, another attempt at greatness...
In a nearby village, meanwhile, a Latverian father is worried that his son Sergei is frowning - but the Master's command is for his people to be happy and content, so any sign of discontent is dealt with swiftly and violently! There can be no dispute, for it is the law! As the desperate man takes his son into his arms, he notices that his neighbours are gathering together in the village square - something is obviously amiss! Sure enough, Reed is yelling at the villagers that everyone there is in great danger, and the village must be evacuated - everyone must grab only what they can carry and leave! The civilians question why they should heed this warning, however, when Reed is the enemy of their Master. Besides, Doom will allow no harm to befall them. This must be some kind of test to prove their loyalty! Ben notes that Bill Clinton would get a warmer reception at the Republican National Ball, and Reed regretfully agrees that they're getting nowhere.
Johnny and Franklin have tracked down the alien entity in the forest - but it doesn't match Ben's description anymore. Nevertheless, Franklin insists that the yellow gargoyle is their actual target, as its alien mindset is dominated by hate and revulsion. Rare, the Hunger declares, is the prey that hunts the hunter! Franklin warns Johnny that the creature is about to attack, but the Torch refuses to back down - in response, the alien determines such bravery deserves the honor of a quick death, and blasts the both of them with waves of intense magnetic force which even Franklin's futuristic armor cannot resist. They're forcibly blasted miles away through the air, and are spotted tumbling through the sky by Lyja and Sue who are watching from the village. While Lyja admits that she cares what happens to Johnny because he's the father to her unborn child, Sue says they can't help the two of them, but they can warn Reed about what's going on.
The Hunger soon arrives at the Latverian village in question, and the inhabitants belatedly realize that the Fantastic Four spoke the truth - there really is a creature! They flee in a panic, and Reed tells Ben that it's his job to slow the beast down so they can be evacuated. When Sue proposes attacking all at once as a group, Reed tells her that it's better to gauge the creature's power first and determine its weakness before they launch a full offensive. Ben grabs a chunk of building and goes to clobber the Hunger physically, but it shatters the huge chunk of concrete with a swipe of his winged arm. Reed warns Ben to back off, noting that the alien absorbs energy through physical contact, but Ben assures him the only contact will be his fist and the alien's face! Yeah, that's the problem, please follow along? In response, naturally, the Hunger blasts him with an energetic ray which sends him careening away like the others.
Reed decides to sub in for Ben to buy his friend some time to recover, and tries to entangle the alien with his stretchy limbs. Unbothered, the alien lowers his body temperature so far that Reed begins to freeze, and it tells the hero off for not following his own advice of avoiding physical contact. Just as the Hunger prepares to make Reed his next juicy meal, he's surprised to find he suddenly can't move - some unseen barrier has surrounded him, keeping him locked in place. The Hunger releases Reed in surprise when Sue and Lyja show themselves, with the latter blasting the alien with lasers until it dissipates into pure energy again, discarding its disguise save for the head, which stays intact for some bizarre reason. One cannot harm someone whose physical form is only a convenience, it declares...
Suddenly a sophisticated hover-fighter craft arrives to blast the alien with pink 'negatively charged particle bursts' which drive it off. Ben concludes there's only one creep who'd design a crazy contraption like that, and he's not exactly their biggest fan!
The craft touches down and opens to reveal Dr. Gittelsohn, who brings them greetings from his imperial excellency Victor von Doom. He notes that while Doom is perfectly willing to give them a dispensation to perish alongside his loyal subjects, there is a better way to deal with this situation - thus, he requests their presence at once. Ben tells Reed that he should go - between him, Lyja, Johnny and Franklin, they should be able to keep the creature busy until he returns. Sue suggests it could be a trap, but Reed doesn't think so; if there's one thing Doom cares for besides power it's his people's welfare - he craves their worship. Sue still worries, so Reed tells her to come along and back him up. Reed thinks that while Sue has been ill-tempered recently, it's good to see her acting more like her old self again.
Precious moments later Reed and Sue arrive at Doom's laboratory, which is very much like something Reed would design according to Sue, but with an aura of menace about it. They pass by the matter transference platform Doom used to escape from the Moon just a few issues before, and Doom explains that he has such stations around the globe so he can quickly teleport from place to place and oversee his various interests. While Reed is fascinated by the guided tour he's getting, he asks Doom the reason he was invited, and the monarch explains that they share a common goal for the moment - expelling the alien Hunger from their world. Sue looks on and muses that Reed and Doom are so similar, yet so diametrically opposed - one devotes himself to the betterment of mankind, the other to a madman's dream of world domination. And yet… with the vast resources she sees around her, one might almost believe the world could be ruled by one man - or one woman! She looks at her reflection of herself and sees the image of bondage-clad Malice looking back at her. For all that she's acting less erratically, her dark side is clearly still there, just under the surface…
Elsewhere, the rest of the team are still taking on the Hunger, who has reshaped into gargoyle form again. Johnny and Franklin have recovered from the earlier attack and join in the fight, and while the former would love to try out a nova blast, he doesn't dare set one off near the center of an inhabited township. The last thing he needs is another university incident! The alien knocks him out of the sky with a stray smack of his wing, and he's heading straight for a wall. Lyja, recognizing the danger, uses her shapeshifting to turn into a horrific humanoid owl-thing and catches him before he can impact - having a Skrull for an ex-wife has advantages!
Johnny thanks his 'sweetheart' for her assistance, and she questions if that's a term of endearment or sarcasm. Johnny asks if she ever forgives and forgets, and Lyja declares: 'Never!' Nearby, the frowning Latverian boy and his father look on and wonder where their Master is - won't he protect them?
Mere moments later the hover-fighter lands in the town square once more, revealing Reed, Sue, Dr. Gittelsohn, and Doom. Reed and Sue hurry to get the equipment assembled to carry out their plan, while Sue warns that it's far too risky - and why does Reed have to be the one to carry it out, anyway, when it was Doom's idea? Reed explains their plan - Doom has programmed his transmat teleporter to expel the alien creature back into space, though Reed admits he is not entirely sure why he has to be the one to do the deed - maybe because he has the longest reach out of all of them? Anyway, he'll be safe behind one of Sue's force fields anyway, so it's no problem. Doom thinks to himself that Reed does not yet suspect that while the safety of the people is of grave concern, Doom would sacrifice thousands of their insignificant lives for the power at stake here. While Richards believes the sole purpose of the apparatus he wields is to teleport the alien, it will also leech away all the energy it contains in the instant before that happens. Doom will have power supreme, and as a reward for his part in this affair, he will also send Reed - that thorn in his side for all these years - into oblivion along with the monster!
Sue tells Reed that before he leaves, he should know that she truly loves him, and he says he never had any doubts - and he promises once this is all over, they'll go away together, to have a second honeymoon. Oh brother, these death flags... Now - time to get ready! The rest of the team are getting tired from taking on the alien monster that doesn't seem to be weakening at all. Reed flings himself towards it holding a pair of live wires in his hands which will trigger the teleport while Sue's forcefield flexes around him. Sue is hurt by the process, still recovering from her encounter with Doom a handful of issues ago, and admits she's not sure how long she can endure the alien's onslaught. But she mustn't fail! The Hunger pours energy into the approaching hero and wonders how a single species could possibly produce both prey and predator…?
Sue finally crumples when the cosmic forces get too much for her, and she warns Reed to turn back - turn back!
It's too late, however, and Reed takes the brunt of the Hunger's blast, while the remainder of the cosmic power is discharged through the wires he was holding and reverberates back to the central machine, detonating it and killing poor Dr. Gittelsohn with the backlash. Doom stands over the corpse of his servant and the unconscious body of Sue Richards, his siphoning machine turned to slag, and realizes only the battery pack retaining the last of the Watcher's energy remains. He says that the loss of life is regrettable, but he must now consider his own safety, and he's about to flee… but at that moment the Latverian boy shouts enthusiastically that the Master has come at last to save them! His father apologizes for his boy - he's so young, so full of hope! Doom looks at the two of them, and admits he was once like that too… once! His gaze then slides back to the cosmic backpack in contemplation…
Franklin and Johnny retrieve Reed, and are relieved to find him still alive - just stunned by the blast, not seriously injured beyond the injuries he was already nursing. Ben takes on the Hunger by himself again, telling it this has just gotten personal, but Lyja warns him that the danger is incredible! The alien takes the opportunity to siphon energy away from the Thing, and declares that he can sense Ben's fear - and none of his cornball jokes and false bravado can cover for it. Ben admits that maybe he has been afraid of late - ever since Wolverine shredded his face, he's felt weak, vulnerable. But he's tired of waking up in a cold sweat every night, of shaking in his boots. He doesn't care how tough the Hunger is - Ben's not afraid of him! With that he tosses the alien backwards away from him and into the air…
Directly into the path of an approaching Doom! The villain admits that Ben succeeds far beyond his limited abilities - even Doom can't help but be impressed in the face of such grim tenacity! Doom employs the cosmic backpack to greatly empower his strikes, and he smashes the alien in the face with a punch that could shatter a mountain range, which sends it careening into the ground in a faint.
As the cosmic power fades, Doom lands next to the fallen creature and declares this is a fate which shall be shared by anyone that challenges him. Then, despite the risk, Doom attempts once more to transfer the creature's power directly into his personal armor - a few simple adjustments and some borrowed technology will guarantee the safety of his people and protection of Earth itself! With two wires in his hands, he approaches the beast to make his gossamer dream into harsh reality!
The Hunger wakes up mere moments before Doom can reach him, and promptly blasts the villain aside with an intense ray of magnetic force which vaporizes much of his cloak in the process. The Fantastic Four watch on in horror and proclaim that Doom never had a chance to defend himself, and now he's being roasted alive inside his armor! Even a creep like Doom deserves better, Ben decides, but it's too late to help him now. The Hunger announces that it is ironic that it was Doom who lured him to this world, and who enticed his never-ending hunger, as he now grovels at the monster's feet! Doom rejects this proclamation, saying that he may be defeated, and he may even be destroyed - but never, never shall he grovel! Never!
A seriously injured Doom crawls along the ground with his armor drained of all power and his body ravaged within its shell, possibly beyond repair. And yet… there must be a way. Some way to salvage this! He spots a device on the ground - his transmat teleporter switch which got dislodged in the fighting. The Hunger proclaims Doom a hunter like himself, but also states that there can be only one victor here. Doom agrees with this pronouncement and declares that though the cold specter of oblivion claws at his very soul, and death itself beckons him with open arms, this land is under his personal protection, and Doom shall not fail in his duty! With that he turns the transmat on the alien and zaps him away, teleporting the alien into deep space from whence it came.
Reed approaches the downed monarch, explaining to the others that with perhaps his last breath, his last act of defiance, Doom has managed to turn his personal teleportation device into the exact tool they need to defeat their enemy - and thus made the threat disappear. Ben seems almost appreciative about the way Doom chose to go out, while Sue warns Reed that he doesn't trust this at all - Doom usually prepares for every contingency, so why not this one? Reed cautions that Doom probably didn't prepare for this outcome and walks closer, telling the others to find a doctor in the village to treat their leader. Doom interrupts him, rasping that his injuries are far too extensive - but he must shut out the pain and keep the darkness at bay a while longer! He then, with great reluctance… asks his mortal rival for help.
Caught up in the moment, Reed reaches out for Doom and clasps their hands together. Doom carefully explains that one final task remains, one which cannot, must not, be left unfinished. Reed asks him what it is, and Doom explains that it's a goal which has consumed far too much of his adult life, but when he's so weak - near death - he finds himself forced to rely on Reed's kindness, his assistance, to complete it. He cannot leave this mortal coil without -- bringing their bitter rivalry to its destined conclusion - by destroying Reed utterly! Thus, with a wide-eyed lunge, Doom unleashes the self-destruct mechanism of his armor while their hands are still clasped together, and in a brilliant white explosion both Doom and Reed are vaporized into nothing in front of the rest of the team, leaving behind nothing but smoking ashes!
#382 - Epilogue
With Doom and Reed gone in a flash of light, the subsequent issue partially covers the team's reaction. Ben concludes that Doom must have self-destructed his armor in one last act of petty revenge, taking his rival with him into death, while Johnny agonizes that it was all over far too fast to react - and only ashes remain! Reed is dead! Sue's reaction is starkly different - she tells the others they're crazy, since this is Doctor Doom they're talking about. This supposed death is obviously a trick to deceive them! Before the team can reply to that, however, they're suddenly pelted by produce - a bunch of Latverian villagers have come to unleash their wrath against their beloved Master's assassins, they who murdered their beloved Doom! Latveria was safe while he ruled, protected from hunger, crime, and unemployment! Now it will fall to ruin without his iron will to guide it! Ben muses that if even ruthless egomaniacs can get such loyal fans, there's hope for all of them. Sue tells everyone they're leaving, and when Johnny wonders where she's heading in such a rush, she explains she wants to head to Doom's castle to follow a lead.
As they're heading over there, Sue explains to the group that Doom showed off a fancy teleportation system in his castle which has receiving stations scattered around the world - she suspects that Doom used those to spirit himself and Reed away to someplace else without their knowledge. Johnny is not convinced by this, but they're interrupted by the arrival of Latveria's air force, which consists of a bunch of generic fighter planes despite the clear availability of cool laser-wielding hovercrafts just last issue. While Ben does some creative maneuvering in the quinjet, Johnny flies outside to unleash some of his revenge on the Latverians. They might not have killed Reed, but he figures they're close enough! He doesn't actually kill the pilots, mind you, so at least he's not that far gone. Lyja comments that lashing out from emotion is bad form for a warrior - but attractive in a mate! With that, Lyja tosses in a few laser blasts of her own to back up her ex-husband. Ah, jeez...
Seconds later the quinjet lands next to Castle Doom, and the heroes get out to reach the teleportation machine. They're stopped, however, by an approaching legion of servo-guards which are programmed to destroy all intruders. Lyja asks if they're going through these enemies or retreating, and Sue tells the rest to stay with the ship, while she and Ben head inside. Ben wonders what the point is in beating up robots if Doom is dead anyway - as if he's completely missed the previous conversation - and Sue explains that she holds out hope for the slim chance that Doom escaped his final end like every time before this! Isn't the smallest chance worth the risk? Ben wavers for a moment, then starts smashing robots aside, fighting his way inside. Sue worries that this might be a wild goose chase, but she knows Reed would do the same if the situations were reversed - she has to be sure.
Nearby, an incredulous Johnny asks time-traveling future Franklin why on Earth he didn't warn them that this was going to happen, since he's from the future. Franklin worriedly explains that he didn't know it would - he would have prevented his own father's death if it had been possible! Internally, he muses that this shouldn't have happened at all, as it didn't happen in the history he was taught. So either something's tragically wrong with the timeline he's in, or Nathaniel lied to him before sending Franklin back in time! Either answer is bad...
Inside the castle, Ben and Sue wrestle past dozens more robots until they reach the transportation laboratory. Sue muses that they might've gotten here in the end, but the robots just keep coming and Ben is getting exhausted by the fighting he's been doing for hours - and she's no different! The constant stress of the last few days has been having a toll on all of them, and even generating force fields is almost too much to ask at this point. Sue quickly identifies the computer which must store the data of where things are teleported, and decides that they don't have the time to download the information normally - they'll have to take it. The computer, that is! Sue explains to Ben that Doom designs things like Reed does - modularly, for easy updating - so it's not hard to remove the relevant part. Ben rips a large computer panel off the wall, then punches a way through a wall to escape before more servo-guards flood into the room.
Rating & Comments
Surprisingly, there is little overlap between the previous issue and this one, especially for a two-parter - not only is the Doom vs. Ben story dropped entirely, but the horror angle gets ignored as well, and Dr. Gittelsohn gets summarily killed off without getting any recompense for the deaths of his subordinates - I really expected a Hauptmann scenario there. Additionally, the alien threat changes form to something entirely different (and much lamer) and starts blasting people instead of subsuming them and sucking out their energy. It also develops a strange weakness to the one thing that he's allegedly immune to - physical force. These issues were written by the same person, so I have to assume he just wrote off the cuff, only using the previous issue's general premise to work from rather than planning it out ahead of time. That might explain why this comic goes in such weird directions compared to last issue's setup.
This comic starts with an entirely irrelevant action scene featuring the Fantastic Four beating up random robots that weren't present in the previous issue, and which really should have attacked the Hunger before they ever bothered with the heroes. Come on, all the Doombots were ruined before Doom even got into the fight, so why would the random servo-guards and other bots be spared? In any case, the team 'rescues' Ben afterwards, and they completely skip out on telling him that Sharon is alive - what the hell, heroes? Not that Ben needs the assurance apparently, since he's essentially forgotten about the horrific tragedy he witnessed earlier that day, and is back to making corny sports jokes with his pals. He even lets Doom go because he got knocked around a bit by that alien, which is just bizarre. Either the writer forgot some events from previous issues, or Ben learns vital information off-panel, and never actually reacts to it. Weird. Bad writing in either case, though.
Leaving that aside, the actual story of this issue is actually relatively Doom-centric, even if it focuses more on the heroes. Doom is the one to figure out a solution to the problem he caused in the first place, and he arranges for both the teleportation machine which ultimately proves instrumental in victory, as well as the device which was built to drain away the cosmic energy of the creature for Doom's personal use - that one doesn't go as well. That part, at least, stays consistent between issues - Doom's failed attempt to steal the Hunger's energy gets followed up here with two more which are progressively riskier - it goes from a ranged attack with an energy beam to using a direct physical connection with a device, and then finally a direct physical connection to Doom's personal armor while he's wearing it. Doom is nothing if not persistent, I guess, even though he ultimately gets smacked down at every hurdle by the enemy. Which seems weird since he got one over on both the Silver Surfer and the Beyonder, who should probably both count as way more powerful, but I guess he had to get unlucky sometime...
Amusingly, Reed Richards is kind of the buttmonkey of this issue, because he repeatedly proves himself an idiot, especially for an alleged genius. Firstly he seems entirely clueless about the reason Doom asked him specifically to wield the alleged teleporting device which secretly doubles as the first of the villain's cosmic absorption attempts. He doesn't seem to think this through at all - he just sort of waves off what Doom's plans might be, which is just super-dumb on his part. The trap is so obvious that Sue spots it immediately, but Reed just ignores it for no reason. He then decides to bet his safety on Sue's force fields, when he is fully aware that Sue is currently dealing with spotty control of her power due to her injuries. Absolutely brilliant. After all that is said and done, he's still dumb enough to walk straight into the most obvious trap of all, one which all his team members recognize as obvious bad news, and goes to Doom's side when he begs for help. Come on now, Reed, you're not that gullible.
Doom gets some interesting treatment in this issue. Yes, he spends a lot of time trying to steal the alien's energy to no avail, but it gets properly interesting towards the end when Doom is faced with impending defeat. After proclaiming he's willing to sacrifice thousands of his countrymen in the pursuit of power, Doom is ready to flee and abandon the fight entirely lest he lose… that is, until he's faced with a Latverian child who looks up to him, and sees him as the glorious protector of Latveria he portrays himself as. Doom in that moment seems to remember his role as monarch, as an example to his nation, and gets back into the fight with gusto despite all the risks, ones which he considered too large just moments before. Indeed, he goes above and beyond to take down the enemy, wrecking himself in the encounter to the edge of death, still insistent on coming through for Latveria in what he thinks are his last moments. He gives up on power to get rid of the alien, which could be considered some evidence that his internal pronouncements aren't necessarily truthful about how he really feels when push comes to shove. Or maybe he's just such an egotist that image is more important than his goals. I could see that too.
You could easily read this as him playing up the dramatics, of course, but the flipside is that the encounter with the little boy maybe reminded Doom of his own youth - of his commitment to protecting his homeland from those who would destroy it. That memory seemingly proves stronger than his desire for power, since he gives up his potential cosmic power-source (and maybe his life) to gain victory. While Doom's primary motivator is ever personal power, overriding even his loyalty to his nation, he still does actually care for the place - and in his better moments he wants to see its people treated well, and sometimes extends this to all humanity, even if he envisions it living under his iron fist. Even in his more villainous instances, then, there's an element of virtue there - however well-hidden beneath all the grime. It gets lost sometimes when one writer or another decides to go full-on crazy supervillain for a bit, but it is a recurring theme nevertheless.
Other characters get rather less to do in this comic, for all that they get a bunch of panels to themselves - Sue has a flash of Malice here, but plays support until her sudden show of genre-savvy in the epilogue where she steps up to take the leadership position. Ben, who was such a focus of the last two issues, just punches stuff in this one and is essentially irrelevant - and the entire reason for this fight in the first place, Sharon, becomes a background prop. Lyja, Johnny and Franklin aren't any more relevant here, never meaningfully contributing anything more than another person to blast the enemy or get blasted by them. Exciting.
The fight with the alien itself, by the way, is a rather lame approach to a conflict which was set up as a more interesting and difficult problem in the previous issue. The Hunger is allegedly immune to physical damage, since it's an eldritch puppeteering force of energy which can ignore such blows entirely, but when it turns into a derpy gargoyle and spends his time performing the Kamehameha at people, much of his mystique is lost - as is that alleged 'immunity.' Doom ends up knocking the Hunger out with a cosmically-empowered super-punch. It's pretty explicitly just a souped-up physical attack that can shatter mountain ranges due to its strength, but why would that matter against something that can ignore such attacks? Was Doom exuding radiation with his punch or something? Anyway, the alien transformed back into mist earlier in the issue to avoid damage, but he just crumples to the ground in a daze the second time around - why? Can I ask for some consistency, please?
In total, this comic is fairly amusing and has a nostalgic place for me (and some other people, I've noticed) but it's ultimately still pretty brainless. It relies on Reed being an idiot a lot - which we might attribute to his relatively poor health and psychic wounds - and it also stars a really lackluster villain who gets defeated in a weirdly inconsistent way, and who has lost almost all of his meager menace from the previous issue. The comic also completely ignores the entire Ben and Sharon storyline, despite that being at the heart of the last few issues which set up this one, and the sudden death of Dr. Gittelsohn makes me wonder why the hell he was ever even introduced at all. I guess he was just there to gopher for Doom and then die? Lame. At least Doom gets to be slightly more complicated than usual in this comic, and actually gets into a fight to protect his honor or maybe his nation - either way, he steps up his game and comes out victorious. That elevates the comic a little, and the ending is very on-brand - tricking Reed into mutual death when Doom thinks he's done for is a great petty way for him to go out, even if we all know it's never gonna stick.
This one squeaks through with an okay 3 stars, which is almost entirely down to Doom getting a pretty good part to play here, and that ending.
Best Panel(s) of the Issues
The 'suicide attack' is just pretty awesome, with both the clearly injured Doom whose armor is shattered enough to let his hair peek through, as well as the brilliant white explosion which turns them into little more than silhouettes (and then ash) in moments. It's a good shot!
Most Gloriously Villainous Doom Quotes
"Are you mad, Richards??! Doom... needs no aid... from you... or any man!"
"While the safety of my people is of gravest concern... I would gladly exchange thousands of their insignificant lives for the power at stake!"
Boy: "I knew you wouldn't - you couldn't abandon us!"
Latverian: "Please forgive my son his enthusiasm, Excellency! He is so young, so full of hope!"
Doom: "So was I... once!"
"[The Thing] succeeds far beyond his limited abilities! Even Doom must be impressed in the face of such grim tenacity!"
"[The enemy] has fallen! A fate destined to be shared by all who dare challenge DOOM!"
"My gossamer dream... of power unlimited... will soon become... a most harsh reality!"
"N-never! Doom may be defeated! He may even be destroyed! But never shall he grovel! NEVER!"
"Though the cold specter of oblivion now claws at my very soul, and death herself beckons with open arms... this land has ever been under my personal protection! And Doom shall not FAIL in his duty!!"
"I... I must shut out the pain... and keep the darkness at bay... awhile longer... Richards, I need your help! A final task remains, Richards. One which I... I cannot... must not leave unfinished! A goal... which has consumed far too much of my adult life! And now... when I am so weak... so near death... I find myself forced to rely upon your kindness, your assistance! I cannot leave this mortal coil without bringing our bitter rivalry to its destined conclusion... by DESTROYING you!!"
Doom's Bad Hair Day
I'll nominate the alien design for being so dorky and uninspired, here. I have to wonder if using bat-features on a creature allegedly born of terror in people's primitive hearts is a reference to the distinguished competitor's Batman - but making him bright yellow is just ugly.
Comic Trivia
This issue really is the 'death' of both Reed and Doom for an extended period, as we won't be seeing them again for the better part of two years in real life publication - at least not this version of them, at any rate. That does give the issue slightly more relevance than it would otherwise have, though I have to admit it seems a bit sudden. I presume a major reason for Doom's absence was the publication of Doom 2099, but I'm not sure why Reed was included as well. Maybe they have some big plans for the Fantastic Four book which needed him to be absent? I understand they've been trying to do a girl power thing where Sue takes charge, so maybe it's related to her entire Malice deal. We might find out, though i'm not sure whether I'll cover those issues in detail as I can't imagine Doom is in many of them (while dead.)
With that, we're done with the ongoing Doom plot for now... next time, we might visit the Guardians of the Galaxy in the future for their run-in with Doom - or we'll dive into the 90's proper and get started on Doom 2099. Either way, it's the 1990's, so that means it's the future!
Doom-Tech of the Week
The Hover-Fighter is the standout here, another one of Doom's many one-shot aircraft that just sort of vanish between issues to be replaced by another. It's weird, really, because the Fantastic Four stick to the same ride for decades at a time. The Transmat Activator is also technically new, though the actual teleporter was already shown a few issues earlier when Doom used it to escape from the Moon. All the machines to sap cosmic power are probably just variations on the same one that he used before in slightly different form, so I won't consider them separately.
Cover
Well, this cover is certainly promising - and if I am permitted mild spoilers, it's quite truthful on this occasion. Having stuck to the usual core lineup of the Fantastic Four for a good while, several characters were reintroduced in recent issues to pad out the roster, which is usually bad news for the mainstay regulars as a changeup is on the horizon. Such is the case here, with the Four losing a member for the better part of two years. Although the comic is certainly not vague about that fact, it's at least circumspect about pointing out which character will take the dive, which I appreciate - saves at least some suspense for the actual issue.
Amusingly, I think all the characters have seen a number of death flags in recent times - Reed and Sue are both seriously injured which is hampering their effectiveness, Ben has a seriously infected facial disfiguration and just got blown up by a body snatching alien, and Johnny is the odd man out which just makes him a bigger target - that, and his jealous ex-girlfriend who's threatened to murder him before is along for the ride, and she caught him 'two-timing' her just two issues ago. Yikes!
Story Overview
And Then There Were 3!
We continue our story a little later than the last one ended, with the Fantastic Four and entourage already on the ground and fighting against a small army of servo-guards and other robots made by Doom - honestly we barely get a good image of their foes here, the heroes are mostly just shooting beams and punching things which are off-panel or obscured by text boxes. Lyja and Franklin are also present, and Reed commands everyone to spread out so they don't get cornered by the enemy. Sue worries that Ben was buried in the huge explosion that leveled part of the castle, but they won't know whether that's true until they deal with the conga line of enemies that's running at them first. Reed tells everyone they'll find Ben - or his body! Morbid much? He instructs his colleagues on how to deactivate the robots by removing a specific component, but Lyja says that she specializes in punchy lasers, not engineering, even as she knocks out a few more enemies.
Sue nearly collapses when she summons a force field, and Franklin comes to her aid, only to get rebuffed by his mother who says she still doesn't buy that he's actually her grown-up son, and suspects him of being some kind of fraud. Johnny, meanwhile, sympathizes with Ben for going solo - he was only 'defending his woman', as he puts it. He'd do the same for Lyja, if only she'd allow it. He then blasts the last robot and turns his flames off to recover, while Reed tells Franklin to use his psychic powers to locate Ben under the rubble. Sure enough, his thoughts are coming from directly beneath them - somewhere in the destroyed castle's remnants. Johnny offers to melt them a way down, but Sue rejects this, since covering their friend in molten slag is too great a risk. (I mean, he's pretty sturdy, he'd probably be fine…) Reed is about to offer his own assistance when the problem solves itself, as Ben digs himself out of the ground, annoyed that if he waited for the others to act, he'd miss the super bowl! (The one from 1994, even.)
Franklin approaches him and is glad to see that Ben is alright, but sensed fear in his uncle's mind. Ben agrees with the assessment - he fears he'll have to listen to one of Reed's cornball speeches after he tells him about the alien menace that's been murdering the locals! Sure enough, Reed immediately goes off on a rant that a destructive alien intelligence could eventually threaten everyone on Earth, just as Ben predicted, but he stops when Reed discovers Doctor Doom lying beneath the rubble, caught in the same blast as Ben and just as shaken. Reed offers the villain a hand, but Doom rejects it outright, haltingly proclaiming he needs no aid from him, or any man, before slinking off towards his castle. Ben notes that they can forget about the 'slime-bucket' for now and just lets him go, deciding they've got real problems on their hands. There's a monstrous alien to deal with, after all!
We next see the alien Hunger from the previous issue without a physical form to possess, back to just a nondescript sparkly cloud of energy that's hovering through a forest. Still now that it's gathered enough life energy from all its victims, it can begin to metamorphose into a new form based upon the contents of his victim's minds - a form which would strike terror into their primitive hearts! It becomes a… scantily clad yellow gargoyle? Maybe the vaguely bat-like appearance is because Latverians are a cowardly and superstitious lot? I wonder if the people also have an irrational fear of very impractical underwear…? In any case, the vaguely Eldritch creature is reduced to a cartoon villain from a children's tv show, so it's no wonder nobody recalls this particular threat with much fondness. Meh.
Back in the castle, Doom downloads information gathered from his clash with the alien from his armor's systems, so that he can perform a complete analysis on it. Dr. Gittelsohn shows up to compliment Doom's information gathering, and notes that the power of this creature is simply unimaginable. Doom irritably comments that this may be true for his minion, but Doom is not so ignorant. He lured this creature to Earth specifically to steal its powers, after all, so he'll get what he paid for. He commands Gittelsohn to retrieve the battery pack filled with the last remnants of the Watcher's power, as already a plan begins to form, another attempt at greatness...
In a nearby village, meanwhile, a Latverian father is worried that his son Sergei is frowning - but the Master's command is for his people to be happy and content, so any sign of discontent is dealt with swiftly and violently! There can be no dispute, for it is the law! As the desperate man takes his son into his arms, he notices that his neighbours are gathering together in the village square - something is obviously amiss! Sure enough, Reed is yelling at the villagers that everyone there is in great danger, and the village must be evacuated - everyone must grab only what they can carry and leave! The civilians question why they should heed this warning, however, when Reed is the enemy of their Master. Besides, Doom will allow no harm to befall them. This must be some kind of test to prove their loyalty! Ben notes that Bill Clinton would get a warmer reception at the Republican National Ball, and Reed regretfully agrees that they're getting nowhere.
Johnny and Franklin have tracked down the alien entity in the forest - but it doesn't match Ben's description anymore. Nevertheless, Franklin insists that the yellow gargoyle is their actual target, as its alien mindset is dominated by hate and revulsion. Rare, the Hunger declares, is the prey that hunts the hunter! Franklin warns Johnny that the creature is about to attack, but the Torch refuses to back down - in response, the alien determines such bravery deserves the honor of a quick death, and blasts the both of them with waves of intense magnetic force which even Franklin's futuristic armor cannot resist. They're forcibly blasted miles away through the air, and are spotted tumbling through the sky by Lyja and Sue who are watching from the village. While Lyja admits that she cares what happens to Johnny because he's the father to her unborn child, Sue says they can't help the two of them, but they can warn Reed about what's going on.
The Hunger soon arrives at the Latverian village in question, and the inhabitants belatedly realize that the Fantastic Four spoke the truth - there really is a creature! They flee in a panic, and Reed tells Ben that it's his job to slow the beast down so they can be evacuated. When Sue proposes attacking all at once as a group, Reed tells her that it's better to gauge the creature's power first and determine its weakness before they launch a full offensive. Ben grabs a chunk of building and goes to clobber the Hunger physically, but it shatters the huge chunk of concrete with a swipe of his winged arm. Reed warns Ben to back off, noting that the alien absorbs energy through physical contact, but Ben assures him the only contact will be his fist and the alien's face! Yeah, that's the problem, please follow along? In response, naturally, the Hunger blasts him with an energetic ray which sends him careening away like the others.
Reed decides to sub in for Ben to buy his friend some time to recover, and tries to entangle the alien with his stretchy limbs. Unbothered, the alien lowers his body temperature so far that Reed begins to freeze, and it tells the hero off for not following his own advice of avoiding physical contact. Just as the Hunger prepares to make Reed his next juicy meal, he's surprised to find he suddenly can't move - some unseen barrier has surrounded him, keeping him locked in place. The Hunger releases Reed in surprise when Sue and Lyja show themselves, with the latter blasting the alien with lasers until it dissipates into pure energy again, discarding its disguise save for the head, which stays intact for some bizarre reason. One cannot harm someone whose physical form is only a convenience, it declares...
Suddenly a sophisticated hover-fighter craft arrives to blast the alien with pink 'negatively charged particle bursts' which drive it off. Ben concludes there's only one creep who'd design a crazy contraption like that, and he's not exactly their biggest fan!
The craft touches down and opens to reveal Dr. Gittelsohn, who brings them greetings from his imperial excellency Victor von Doom. He notes that while Doom is perfectly willing to give them a dispensation to perish alongside his loyal subjects, there is a better way to deal with this situation - thus, he requests their presence at once. Ben tells Reed that he should go - between him, Lyja, Johnny and Franklin, they should be able to keep the creature busy until he returns. Sue suggests it could be a trap, but Reed doesn't think so; if there's one thing Doom cares for besides power it's his people's welfare - he craves their worship. Sue still worries, so Reed tells her to come along and back him up. Reed thinks that while Sue has been ill-tempered recently, it's good to see her acting more like her old self again.
Precious moments later Reed and Sue arrive at Doom's laboratory, which is very much like something Reed would design according to Sue, but with an aura of menace about it. They pass by the matter transference platform Doom used to escape from the Moon just a few issues before, and Doom explains that he has such stations around the globe so he can quickly teleport from place to place and oversee his various interests. While Reed is fascinated by the guided tour he's getting, he asks Doom the reason he was invited, and the monarch explains that they share a common goal for the moment - expelling the alien Hunger from their world. Sue looks on and muses that Reed and Doom are so similar, yet so diametrically opposed - one devotes himself to the betterment of mankind, the other to a madman's dream of world domination. And yet… with the vast resources she sees around her, one might almost believe the world could be ruled by one man - or one woman! She looks at her reflection of herself and sees the image of bondage-clad Malice looking back at her. For all that she's acting less erratically, her dark side is clearly still there, just under the surface…
Elsewhere, the rest of the team are still taking on the Hunger, who has reshaped into gargoyle form again. Johnny and Franklin have recovered from the earlier attack and join in the fight, and while the former would love to try out a nova blast, he doesn't dare set one off near the center of an inhabited township. The last thing he needs is another university incident! The alien knocks him out of the sky with a stray smack of his wing, and he's heading straight for a wall. Lyja, recognizing the danger, uses her shapeshifting to turn into a horrific humanoid owl-thing and catches him before he can impact - having a Skrull for an ex-wife has advantages!
Johnny thanks his 'sweetheart' for her assistance, and she questions if that's a term of endearment or sarcasm. Johnny asks if she ever forgives and forgets, and Lyja declares: 'Never!' Nearby, the frowning Latverian boy and his father look on and wonder where their Master is - won't he protect them?
Mere moments later the hover-fighter lands in the town square once more, revealing Reed, Sue, Dr. Gittelsohn, and Doom. Reed and Sue hurry to get the equipment assembled to carry out their plan, while Sue warns that it's far too risky - and why does Reed have to be the one to carry it out, anyway, when it was Doom's idea? Reed explains their plan - Doom has programmed his transmat teleporter to expel the alien creature back into space, though Reed admits he is not entirely sure why he has to be the one to do the deed - maybe because he has the longest reach out of all of them? Anyway, he'll be safe behind one of Sue's force fields anyway, so it's no problem. Doom thinks to himself that Reed does not yet suspect that while the safety of the people is of grave concern, Doom would sacrifice thousands of their insignificant lives for the power at stake here. While Richards believes the sole purpose of the apparatus he wields is to teleport the alien, it will also leech away all the energy it contains in the instant before that happens. Doom will have power supreme, and as a reward for his part in this affair, he will also send Reed - that thorn in his side for all these years - into oblivion along with the monster!
Sue tells Reed that before he leaves, he should know that she truly loves him, and he says he never had any doubts - and he promises once this is all over, they'll go away together, to have a second honeymoon. Oh brother, these death flags... Now - time to get ready! The rest of the team are getting tired from taking on the alien monster that doesn't seem to be weakening at all. Reed flings himself towards it holding a pair of live wires in his hands which will trigger the teleport while Sue's forcefield flexes around him. Sue is hurt by the process, still recovering from her encounter with Doom a handful of issues ago, and admits she's not sure how long she can endure the alien's onslaught. But she mustn't fail! The Hunger pours energy into the approaching hero and wonders how a single species could possibly produce both prey and predator…?
Sue finally crumples when the cosmic forces get too much for her, and she warns Reed to turn back - turn back!
It's too late, however, and Reed takes the brunt of the Hunger's blast, while the remainder of the cosmic power is discharged through the wires he was holding and reverberates back to the central machine, detonating it and killing poor Dr. Gittelsohn with the backlash. Doom stands over the corpse of his servant and the unconscious body of Sue Richards, his siphoning machine turned to slag, and realizes only the battery pack retaining the last of the Watcher's energy remains. He says that the loss of life is regrettable, but he must now consider his own safety, and he's about to flee… but at that moment the Latverian boy shouts enthusiastically that the Master has come at last to save them! His father apologizes for his boy - he's so young, so full of hope! Doom looks at the two of them, and admits he was once like that too… once! His gaze then slides back to the cosmic backpack in contemplation…
Franklin and Johnny retrieve Reed, and are relieved to find him still alive - just stunned by the blast, not seriously injured beyond the injuries he was already nursing. Ben takes on the Hunger by himself again, telling it this has just gotten personal, but Lyja warns him that the danger is incredible! The alien takes the opportunity to siphon energy away from the Thing, and declares that he can sense Ben's fear - and none of his cornball jokes and false bravado can cover for it. Ben admits that maybe he has been afraid of late - ever since Wolverine shredded his face, he's felt weak, vulnerable. But he's tired of waking up in a cold sweat every night, of shaking in his boots. He doesn't care how tough the Hunger is - Ben's not afraid of him! With that he tosses the alien backwards away from him and into the air…
Directly into the path of an approaching Doom! The villain admits that Ben succeeds far beyond his limited abilities - even Doom can't help but be impressed in the face of such grim tenacity! Doom employs the cosmic backpack to greatly empower his strikes, and he smashes the alien in the face with a punch that could shatter a mountain range, which sends it careening into the ground in a faint.
As the cosmic power fades, Doom lands next to the fallen creature and declares this is a fate which shall be shared by anyone that challenges him. Then, despite the risk, Doom attempts once more to transfer the creature's power directly into his personal armor - a few simple adjustments and some borrowed technology will guarantee the safety of his people and protection of Earth itself! With two wires in his hands, he approaches the beast to make his gossamer dream into harsh reality!
The Hunger wakes up mere moments before Doom can reach him, and promptly blasts the villain aside with an intense ray of magnetic force which vaporizes much of his cloak in the process. The Fantastic Four watch on in horror and proclaim that Doom never had a chance to defend himself, and now he's being roasted alive inside his armor! Even a creep like Doom deserves better, Ben decides, but it's too late to help him now. The Hunger announces that it is ironic that it was Doom who lured him to this world, and who enticed his never-ending hunger, as he now grovels at the monster's feet! Doom rejects this proclamation, saying that he may be defeated, and he may even be destroyed - but never, never shall he grovel! Never!
A seriously injured Doom crawls along the ground with his armor drained of all power and his body ravaged within its shell, possibly beyond repair. And yet… there must be a way. Some way to salvage this! He spots a device on the ground - his transmat teleporter switch which got dislodged in the fighting. The Hunger proclaims Doom a hunter like himself, but also states that there can be only one victor here. Doom agrees with this pronouncement and declares that though the cold specter of oblivion claws at his very soul, and death itself beckons him with open arms, this land is under his personal protection, and Doom shall not fail in his duty! With that he turns the transmat on the alien and zaps him away, teleporting the alien into deep space from whence it came.
Reed approaches the downed monarch, explaining to the others that with perhaps his last breath, his last act of defiance, Doom has managed to turn his personal teleportation device into the exact tool they need to defeat their enemy - and thus made the threat disappear. Ben seems almost appreciative about the way Doom chose to go out, while Sue warns Reed that he doesn't trust this at all - Doom usually prepares for every contingency, so why not this one? Reed cautions that Doom probably didn't prepare for this outcome and walks closer, telling the others to find a doctor in the village to treat their leader. Doom interrupts him, rasping that his injuries are far too extensive - but he must shut out the pain and keep the darkness at bay a while longer! He then, with great reluctance… asks his mortal rival for help.
Caught up in the moment, Reed reaches out for Doom and clasps their hands together. Doom carefully explains that one final task remains, one which cannot, must not, be left unfinished. Reed asks him what it is, and Doom explains that it's a goal which has consumed far too much of his adult life, but when he's so weak - near death - he finds himself forced to rely on Reed's kindness, his assistance, to complete it. He cannot leave this mortal coil without -- bringing their bitter rivalry to its destined conclusion - by destroying Reed utterly! Thus, with a wide-eyed lunge, Doom unleashes the self-destruct mechanism of his armor while their hands are still clasped together, and in a brilliant white explosion both Doom and Reed are vaporized into nothing in front of the rest of the team, leaving behind nothing but smoking ashes!
#382 - Epilogue
With Doom and Reed gone in a flash of light, the subsequent issue partially covers the team's reaction. Ben concludes that Doom must have self-destructed his armor in one last act of petty revenge, taking his rival with him into death, while Johnny agonizes that it was all over far too fast to react - and only ashes remain! Reed is dead! Sue's reaction is starkly different - she tells the others they're crazy, since this is Doctor Doom they're talking about. This supposed death is obviously a trick to deceive them! Before the team can reply to that, however, they're suddenly pelted by produce - a bunch of Latverian villagers have come to unleash their wrath against their beloved Master's assassins, they who murdered their beloved Doom! Latveria was safe while he ruled, protected from hunger, crime, and unemployment! Now it will fall to ruin without his iron will to guide it! Ben muses that if even ruthless egomaniacs can get such loyal fans, there's hope for all of them. Sue tells everyone they're leaving, and when Johnny wonders where she's heading in such a rush, she explains she wants to head to Doom's castle to follow a lead.
As they're heading over there, Sue explains to the group that Doom showed off a fancy teleportation system in his castle which has receiving stations scattered around the world - she suspects that Doom used those to spirit himself and Reed away to someplace else without their knowledge. Johnny is not convinced by this, but they're interrupted by the arrival of Latveria's air force, which consists of a bunch of generic fighter planes despite the clear availability of cool laser-wielding hovercrafts just last issue. While Ben does some creative maneuvering in the quinjet, Johnny flies outside to unleash some of his revenge on the Latverians. They might not have killed Reed, but he figures they're close enough! He doesn't actually kill the pilots, mind you, so at least he's not that far gone. Lyja comments that lashing out from emotion is bad form for a warrior - but attractive in a mate! With that, Lyja tosses in a few laser blasts of her own to back up her ex-husband. Ah, jeez...
Seconds later the quinjet lands next to Castle Doom, and the heroes get out to reach the teleportation machine. They're stopped, however, by an approaching legion of servo-guards which are programmed to destroy all intruders. Lyja asks if they're going through these enemies or retreating, and Sue tells the rest to stay with the ship, while she and Ben head inside. Ben wonders what the point is in beating up robots if Doom is dead anyway - as if he's completely missed the previous conversation - and Sue explains that she holds out hope for the slim chance that Doom escaped his final end like every time before this! Isn't the smallest chance worth the risk? Ben wavers for a moment, then starts smashing robots aside, fighting his way inside. Sue worries that this might be a wild goose chase, but she knows Reed would do the same if the situations were reversed - she has to be sure.
Nearby, an incredulous Johnny asks time-traveling future Franklin why on Earth he didn't warn them that this was going to happen, since he's from the future. Franklin worriedly explains that he didn't know it would - he would have prevented his own father's death if it had been possible! Internally, he muses that this shouldn't have happened at all, as it didn't happen in the history he was taught. So either something's tragically wrong with the timeline he's in, or Nathaniel lied to him before sending Franklin back in time! Either answer is bad...
Inside the castle, Ben and Sue wrestle past dozens more robots until they reach the transportation laboratory. Sue muses that they might've gotten here in the end, but the robots just keep coming and Ben is getting exhausted by the fighting he's been doing for hours - and she's no different! The constant stress of the last few days has been having a toll on all of them, and even generating force fields is almost too much to ask at this point. Sue quickly identifies the computer which must store the data of where things are teleported, and decides that they don't have the time to download the information normally - they'll have to take it. The computer, that is! Sue explains to Ben that Doom designs things like Reed does - modularly, for easy updating - so it's not hard to remove the relevant part. Ben rips a large computer panel off the wall, then punches a way through a wall to escape before more servo-guards flood into the room.
Rating & Comments
Surprisingly, there is little overlap between the previous issue and this one, especially for a two-parter - not only is the Doom vs. Ben story dropped entirely, but the horror angle gets ignored as well, and Dr. Gittelsohn gets summarily killed off without getting any recompense for the deaths of his subordinates - I really expected a Hauptmann scenario there. Additionally, the alien threat changes form to something entirely different (and much lamer) and starts blasting people instead of subsuming them and sucking out their energy. It also develops a strange weakness to the one thing that he's allegedly immune to - physical force. These issues were written by the same person, so I have to assume he just wrote off the cuff, only using the previous issue's general premise to work from rather than planning it out ahead of time. That might explain why this comic goes in such weird directions compared to last issue's setup.
This comic starts with an entirely irrelevant action scene featuring the Fantastic Four beating up random robots that weren't present in the previous issue, and which really should have attacked the Hunger before they ever bothered with the heroes. Come on, all the Doombots were ruined before Doom even got into the fight, so why would the random servo-guards and other bots be spared? In any case, the team 'rescues' Ben afterwards, and they completely skip out on telling him that Sharon is alive - what the hell, heroes? Not that Ben needs the assurance apparently, since he's essentially forgotten about the horrific tragedy he witnessed earlier that day, and is back to making corny sports jokes with his pals. He even lets Doom go because he got knocked around a bit by that alien, which is just bizarre. Either the writer forgot some events from previous issues, or Ben learns vital information off-panel, and never actually reacts to it. Weird. Bad writing in either case, though.
Leaving that aside, the actual story of this issue is actually relatively Doom-centric, even if it focuses more on the heroes. Doom is the one to figure out a solution to the problem he caused in the first place, and he arranges for both the teleportation machine which ultimately proves instrumental in victory, as well as the device which was built to drain away the cosmic energy of the creature for Doom's personal use - that one doesn't go as well. That part, at least, stays consistent between issues - Doom's failed attempt to steal the Hunger's energy gets followed up here with two more which are progressively riskier - it goes from a ranged attack with an energy beam to using a direct physical connection with a device, and then finally a direct physical connection to Doom's personal armor while he's wearing it. Doom is nothing if not persistent, I guess, even though he ultimately gets smacked down at every hurdle by the enemy. Which seems weird since he got one over on both the Silver Surfer and the Beyonder, who should probably both count as way more powerful, but I guess he had to get unlucky sometime...
Amusingly, Reed Richards is kind of the buttmonkey of this issue, because he repeatedly proves himself an idiot, especially for an alleged genius. Firstly he seems entirely clueless about the reason Doom asked him specifically to wield the alleged teleporting device which secretly doubles as the first of the villain's cosmic absorption attempts. He doesn't seem to think this through at all - he just sort of waves off what Doom's plans might be, which is just super-dumb on his part. The trap is so obvious that Sue spots it immediately, but Reed just ignores it for no reason. He then decides to bet his safety on Sue's force fields, when he is fully aware that Sue is currently dealing with spotty control of her power due to her injuries. Absolutely brilliant. After all that is said and done, he's still dumb enough to walk straight into the most obvious trap of all, one which all his team members recognize as obvious bad news, and goes to Doom's side when he begs for help. Come on now, Reed, you're not that gullible.
Doom gets some interesting treatment in this issue. Yes, he spends a lot of time trying to steal the alien's energy to no avail, but it gets properly interesting towards the end when Doom is faced with impending defeat. After proclaiming he's willing to sacrifice thousands of his countrymen in the pursuit of power, Doom is ready to flee and abandon the fight entirely lest he lose… that is, until he's faced with a Latverian child who looks up to him, and sees him as the glorious protector of Latveria he portrays himself as. Doom in that moment seems to remember his role as monarch, as an example to his nation, and gets back into the fight with gusto despite all the risks, ones which he considered too large just moments before. Indeed, he goes above and beyond to take down the enemy, wrecking himself in the encounter to the edge of death, still insistent on coming through for Latveria in what he thinks are his last moments. He gives up on power to get rid of the alien, which could be considered some evidence that his internal pronouncements aren't necessarily truthful about how he really feels when push comes to shove. Or maybe he's just such an egotist that image is more important than his goals. I could see that too.
You could easily read this as him playing up the dramatics, of course, but the flipside is that the encounter with the little boy maybe reminded Doom of his own youth - of his commitment to protecting his homeland from those who would destroy it. That memory seemingly proves stronger than his desire for power, since he gives up his potential cosmic power-source (and maybe his life) to gain victory. While Doom's primary motivator is ever personal power, overriding even his loyalty to his nation, he still does actually care for the place - and in his better moments he wants to see its people treated well, and sometimes extends this to all humanity, even if he envisions it living under his iron fist. Even in his more villainous instances, then, there's an element of virtue there - however well-hidden beneath all the grime. It gets lost sometimes when one writer or another decides to go full-on crazy supervillain for a bit, but it is a recurring theme nevertheless.
Other characters get rather less to do in this comic, for all that they get a bunch of panels to themselves - Sue has a flash of Malice here, but plays support until her sudden show of genre-savvy in the epilogue where she steps up to take the leadership position. Ben, who was such a focus of the last two issues, just punches stuff in this one and is essentially irrelevant - and the entire reason for this fight in the first place, Sharon, becomes a background prop. Lyja, Johnny and Franklin aren't any more relevant here, never meaningfully contributing anything more than another person to blast the enemy or get blasted by them. Exciting.
The fight with the alien itself, by the way, is a rather lame approach to a conflict which was set up as a more interesting and difficult problem in the previous issue. The Hunger is allegedly immune to physical damage, since it's an eldritch puppeteering force of energy which can ignore such blows entirely, but when it turns into a derpy gargoyle and spends his time performing the Kamehameha at people, much of his mystique is lost - as is that alleged 'immunity.' Doom ends up knocking the Hunger out with a cosmically-empowered super-punch. It's pretty explicitly just a souped-up physical attack that can shatter mountain ranges due to its strength, but why would that matter against something that can ignore such attacks? Was Doom exuding radiation with his punch or something? Anyway, the alien transformed back into mist earlier in the issue to avoid damage, but he just crumples to the ground in a daze the second time around - why? Can I ask for some consistency, please?
In total, this comic is fairly amusing and has a nostalgic place for me (and some other people, I've noticed) but it's ultimately still pretty brainless. It relies on Reed being an idiot a lot - which we might attribute to his relatively poor health and psychic wounds - and it also stars a really lackluster villain who gets defeated in a weirdly inconsistent way, and who has lost almost all of his meager menace from the previous issue. The comic also completely ignores the entire Ben and Sharon storyline, despite that being at the heart of the last few issues which set up this one, and the sudden death of Dr. Gittelsohn makes me wonder why the hell he was ever even introduced at all. I guess he was just there to gopher for Doom and then die? Lame. At least Doom gets to be slightly more complicated than usual in this comic, and actually gets into a fight to protect his honor or maybe his nation - either way, he steps up his game and comes out victorious. That elevates the comic a little, and the ending is very on-brand - tricking Reed into mutual death when Doom thinks he's done for is a great petty way for him to go out, even if we all know it's never gonna stick.
This one squeaks through with an okay 3 stars, which is almost entirely down to Doom getting a pretty good part to play here, and that ending.
Best Panel(s) of the Issues
The 'suicide attack' is just pretty awesome, with both the clearly injured Doom whose armor is shattered enough to let his hair peek through, as well as the brilliant white explosion which turns them into little more than silhouettes (and then ash) in moments. It's a good shot!
Most Gloriously Villainous Doom Quotes
"Are you mad, Richards??! Doom... needs no aid... from you... or any man!"
"While the safety of my people is of gravest concern... I would gladly exchange thousands of their insignificant lives for the power at stake!"
Boy: "I knew you wouldn't - you couldn't abandon us!"
Latverian: "Please forgive my son his enthusiasm, Excellency! He is so young, so full of hope!"
Doom: "So was I... once!"
"[The Thing] succeeds far beyond his limited abilities! Even Doom must be impressed in the face of such grim tenacity!"
"[The enemy] has fallen! A fate destined to be shared by all who dare challenge DOOM!"
"My gossamer dream... of power unlimited... will soon become... a most harsh reality!"
"N-never! Doom may be defeated! He may even be destroyed! But never shall he grovel! NEVER!"
"Though the cold specter of oblivion now claws at my very soul, and death herself beckons with open arms... this land has ever been under my personal protection! And Doom shall not FAIL in his duty!!"
"I... I must shut out the pain... and keep the darkness at bay... awhile longer... Richards, I need your help! A final task remains, Richards. One which I... I cannot... must not leave unfinished! A goal... which has consumed far too much of my adult life! And now... when I am so weak... so near death... I find myself forced to rely upon your kindness, your assistance! I cannot leave this mortal coil without bringing our bitter rivalry to its destined conclusion... by DESTROYING you!!"
Doom's Bad Hair Day
I'll nominate the alien design for being so dorky and uninspired, here. I have to wonder if using bat-features on a creature allegedly born of terror in people's primitive hearts is a reference to the distinguished competitor's Batman - but making him bright yellow is just ugly.
Comic Trivia
This issue really is the 'death' of both Reed and Doom for an extended period, as we won't be seeing them again for the better part of two years in real life publication - at least not this version of them, at any rate. That does give the issue slightly more relevance than it would otherwise have, though I have to admit it seems a bit sudden. I presume a major reason for Doom's absence was the publication of Doom 2099, but I'm not sure why Reed was included as well. Maybe they have some big plans for the Fantastic Four book which needed him to be absent? I understand they've been trying to do a girl power thing where Sue takes charge, so maybe it's related to her entire Malice deal. We might find out, though i'm not sure whether I'll cover those issues in detail as I can't imagine Doom is in many of them (while dead.)
With that, we're done with the ongoing Doom plot for now... next time, we might visit the Guardians of the Galaxy in the future for their run-in with Doom - or we'll dive into the 90's proper and get started on Doom 2099. Either way, it's the 1990's, so that means it's the future!
Doom-Tech of the Week
The Hover-Fighter is the standout here, another one of Doom's many one-shot aircraft that just sort of vanish between issues to be replaced by another. It's weird, really, because the Fantastic Four stick to the same ride for decades at a time. The Transmat Activator is also technically new, though the actual teleporter was already shown a few issues earlier when Doom used it to escape from the Moon. All the machines to sap cosmic power are probably just variations on the same one that he used before in slightly different form, so I won't consider them separately.
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
The only thing I can think of to justify Doom's repeated failures to absorb the Hunger's power is that his traps for the Beyonder and the Silver Surfer were both prepared ahead of time for them specifically, whereas in this case he just lured a random alien with cosmic powers to the planet and assumed his set-up could handle it, then had to quickly improvise when the original plan didn't work.
Basically, if the Hunger had landed somewhere other than Latveria and rampaged around for a couple days without bothering him at home, I think Doom would have been able to adapt his tech.
Basically, if the Hunger had landed somewhere other than Latveria and rampaged around for a couple days without bothering him at home, I think Doom would have been able to adapt his tech.
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- Location
- Netherlands
Could argue this, but he didn't have much warning for the Beyonder either, and he got a solution pretty quickly. (Actually you can add Galactus too, Doom did steal his power too during Secret Wars!) In this issue Doom has enough information from the end of the previous issue to whip up a new device, which is pretty much exactly what he did to build the anti-Beyonder gear.
Ah well, you can't win 'em all, I guess. ^-^
- Pronouns
- He/Him
That might almost be the problem. Doom was so flushed with confidence over taking the powers of Galactus and the Beyonder, that he underestimated how much preparation he would need to drain the Hunger, and did not adequately prepare
2099 - Doom 2099 #1 - Muses of Fire
- Location
- Netherlands
Doom 2099 #1 (January 1993)
Introduction
With the latest death of Doctor Doom in our rear window, we arrive now at an artifact of a different age to fill in the lengthy period during which the mainstream Doom is absent. While it would take the better part of two years for our monarch to make his grand reappearance in mainline comics, he wasn't actually spending that time twiddling his thumbs - and indeed, perhaps the reason he was killed off in the first place was to make room for the lengthy solo title he would get under another Marvel imprint...
Marvel 2099 started in late 1992, and was originally just one possible future of the Marvel Universe - it was later revealed to be the Earth of the prime Marvel continuity, though in the distant future. Announced as a single series entitled 'The Marvel World of Tomorrow', developed by Stan Lee and John Byrne, it later changed into a full line-up of books under the banner 'Marvel 2093', which would take place one hundred years after publication exactly. This was obviously changed to 2099 before it was finally released, a sort of generic 'future time.' The future world proved quite popular, and the 2099 universe lasted from its debut in late 1992 to 1998, when declining sales led to the series being compressed into a single anthology series as originally proposed. Unfortunately, that comic only lasted for eight issues before being cancelled. There have been a number of later revisits to this imprint, so 1998 won't be the last time it'll show up in our readthrough…
To set the stage, the world of 2099 is a cyberpunk dystopia akin to the world of Blade Runner or Cyberpunk 2077, and the latter even shares its title scheme. North America is a corporate police state ruled by a few huge megacorporations, and much the same is true in Marvel 2099 (har har.) Most notable is the company Alchemax, which owns the private police force Public Eye, which primarily punishes criminals' bank accounts. There were, prior to the launch of the comic series, no active superheroes in this world - the previous heroes from Marvel are mythologized through religion, like with the Church of Thor. The present-day Marvel continuity is referred to as an 'Age of Heroes' which abruptly ended in catastrophe a century before, an event which also set back society considerably. This catastrophe is eventually averted in the present when Miguel O'Hara - Spider-Man 2099 - temporarily swapped places with his past incarnation shortly before the cataclysm happened, turning the 2099 world into an alternate future after all. Marvel multiverse shenanigans are weird!
The first few titles to be released were Spider-Man 2099, as mentioned, alongside Punisher 2099, Ravage 2099 (featuring a brand new anti-hero), and the series we're here for - Doom 2099! As usual, however, Doctor Doom likes to wander, and when later 2099 series would include additions like Hulk 2099, Fantastic Four 2099 and X-Men 2099, he's bound to show up there too, so we'll probably see bits and pieces of all of those along the way. Doom's solo-series is the most voluminous in terms of issues after Spidey's own - they have 44 and 46 issues respectively without considering any crossovers or later revisits. Both characters have time travel stories back to the present, so it's probably a pretty close tie.
While I could treat this entire saga as an extended variant of Doom - and in some respects that might be correct - there are a number of interviews with the creators of the comic which explicitly state or imply that this Doom was, or was meant to be, the sole recurring character from the mainline 616 universe within the 2099 imprint - as one of the few characters with established time travel technology, he was considered a natural fit. Regardless of his exact nature, this Doom had a big enough run that he should probably get significant attention, much like the Ultimate Doom will probably get when we arrive at that particular imprint. I can always reconsider later, if necessary (or maybe the forums will invent custom threadmark categories and that'll solve the whole issue.) For now, I'll keep the normal numbering for main timeline Doom & Doom-adjacent 616 appearances, since we're going to look in on a few of his supporting cast during his absence. Thus, Doom 2099 gets his own numbering. Off we go!
Cover
To go with the brand new era this comic takes place in, Doom has updated his look, and instead of wearing his classic gray armor with green cloak, we're instead getting a shiny white metal getup with a blue cloak. He retains many of the classic features of the old armor, but the most notable differences are the addition of spikes on both his chest-piece and arms, a clear distinction between gauntlets and boots rather than being part of a single whole, and obviously the radical shift in color scheme. White and blue is a new direction to go for Doom, though the ominous red eyes keep him from looking too heroic with this rebranding. I'm not sure I like how his chest seems heavily armored while he still wears a tiny tabard below his belt. Still, I dig the personal logo (which is, naturally, the first letter of Doom's name.) Reminds me of old Power Rangers toys. Naturally, much like during his original debut issue, one of future Doom's first appearances involves him framed by dramatic lightning - it's his aesthetic! Also the Rocky pose is just there for style points, I imagine.
Doom's new armor looks like a fusion of the one from the recent Watcher storyline in the main comics (which came out at a similar time) crossed with the doppel-Doom from the Infinity War. I can't prove it, but I suspect that there was either some cross-contamination going on, with artists imitating each other's art to make them mesh, or those other armors were testing the waters for this redesign. The 'Doom' name in the logo is also very similar to the one that's been showing up on one or two recent Fantastic Four covers - and it looks pretty neat, if a bit too bright and shiny to work for the classic Doom. The angry eyes in the O's are just fun!
Story Overview
Muses of Fire
We start in the village of Antikva, Latveria... 2099! Once this marketplace was different, the narration declares, a gathering of community and prosperity in a fairy tale kingdom - but no longer! Now citizens over-extend their credit for spoiled synthetic food, designer drugs, and pirated russian virtual reality programs (because that's a thing in this spooky future.) The black market is now the only market. The streets are packed with people, and we see a poofy-haired kid wearing dorky cybernetic glasses trying to sell some data to a bald, heavyset man called Gaskaro. Gaskaro doesn't want to pay full price, though, even though the kid, Wire, argues he's the only one who could 'freestyle into Tiger Wylde's security net' to get the necessary access codes. Surfing the internet superhighway, huh? That's so totally tubular.
Gaskaro gets angry and calls Wire an 'input-addled gypsy' before grabbing him by his vest, but he's interrupted in his assault when another poofy-haired youngster shows up - this one is a black girl wielding a shiv. 'Xandra' shoves the serrated weapon under Gaskaro's chin and tells him that nobody hurts Wire on her watch, and Gaskaro nervously replies that 'everything is on line', which I guess is future slang for okay.
Before they can get a proper exchange going, however, a robotic voice pipes up from above them. You can tell it's a cyber-voice because it's got a difficult to read cyber-font! Police militarization is a thing here, it seems, because the flying tank declares that Sergei Gaskaro is under arrest for illegal transfer and sale of government information. The whole group promptly shits themselves in fear of the 'Guardsmen.' The machine tells them not to move - resistance will be met with full preemptive force! Uh, I don't think that's what preemptive means? The tank promptly blasts Gaskaro to the ground before he even has a chance to move, which seems to suggest it did in fact mean preemptive… Is this a precrime thing?
Wire and Xandra quickly hop on the latter's hover-scooter, leaving the stolen data behind since they're under too much time pressure to bother retrieving it - they have to get out of there and escape the guards! They flee from the city and head for more rural areas while Wire wonders if the guards are aware he got in through their defense codes. Xandra notes that if they did, he'd already be roadkill - they would never believe some random street-gypsy would be as capable as a professional corporate raider! They're just loose ends to the big shots, she says, afterthoughts. Xandra decided to try and shake the robotic pursuer in the nearby castle ruins before they become not just loose ends, but dead ends. She also worries about not charging her scooter that morning, which means their ride is electric! How surprisingly environmentally conscious for a dystopian hellscape.
As the cops close in, however, there's a sudden bright light show right in the middle of their path. Said lightshow, naturally, is the arrival of our glorious titular character! With a terrible noise and a blast of light an armored figure in a tattered cloak materializes from elsewhere like the freaking Terminator - it's Doctor Doom! He's seen better days, sure, but he's still in his classic gray-and-green getup here, clutching his sides and only managing to say a few words. Those declare that despite terrible pain, Doom has finally, finally, managed to return! While the monarch stands up within the burning ring of fire unleashed by his arrival, Wire urges Xandra to drive away - they have no time to sightsee! Xandra, however, admits that she didn't stop voluntarily - the battery on their ride stalled. They're stuck.
Doctor Doom takes in his surroundings and is aghast to realize that his once-mighty castle lies in ruins, utterly destroyed and reduced to rubble. What has happened here? How long has he been away? He doesn't get much time to think because the guardsman tankbot flies up to him and declares that Doom is an unauthorized presence interfering with official business, and it demands his immediate identification. Doom is surprised the thing dares to threaten him - doesn't it know who he is? He raises one arm, and with a violent blast of energy he decimates the robot utterly, declaring 'I am Doom!' to all who can hear in big red letters. BOOM! This page doubles as the title page, and a gigantic mirror image of Doom also dominates the skyline, as if the comic has to make up for lost time and work in a bonus cover.
Wire worries that Doom might think they're with the Guardsmen, and Xandra says hurriedly that their battery isn't recharging fast enough. Doom strides over towards them past the flaming wreckage of the tankbot and declares that they should calm themselves - he doesn't battle children. He asks what happened to his castle, and Wire answers that it's always been rubble as far as he can recall. Besides, he should really be worrying about what Tiger Wylde will do, now that Doom blew up one of his tanks. Or 'exxed' it, in future slang. Tiger Wylde turns out to be the ruler of Latveria in the year 2099. Doom declares that he arrived much later than he anticipated, and he might have been forgotten even in his own land - but that just means it's time to make them remember!
We switch over to the city of Gojradia, the capital of Latveria, which was once the promise of modernity in a backwards nation, Doomstadt - but now it's nothing more than the industrialized gameboard for the intrigues of its current sovereign, and a maze of glass and steel. We zoom in on a huge highrise at the center of the city, the home of Tiger Wylde which is emblazoned with a symbol that combines the first letters of his first and last name. Tiger Wylde himself is a weird yellow cyborg in a fancy purple nightgown with a pockmarked human face as his only identifiably organic feature. He's angrily video-calling Tyler Stone when we meet him, the vice-president of Alchemax, confronting the man with the remains of their latest assassin. Stone declares that officially Alchemax denies any involvement, and Wylde's departure from the company is of little concern to the firm. Wylde is not convinced, suspecting Alchemax is very interested in Latveria despite their claims, and if they want war he'll gladly oblige!
After the call ends, Wylde complains that his feud with Alchemax might interfere with his 'Tritonium' venture, and asks one of his servants - Fortune - to read him the future in her cards. A nearby guy in a douchey haircut, a man named 'Zone', complains that Wylde shouldn't put his faith in such superstition. Fortune declares that he's always such a science-nerd - can't he accept that gypsies like her know that beneath the rational lies the intuitive? She draws the Tarot card 'Judgement' - a change in position, a shift in power - they're nearing a crisis point. That's not what that Tarot reading actually means, but we'll go with it.
Mere moments after she made this prediction, a nearby wall explodes to reveal an incensed Victor von Doom blasting away one of Tiger Wylde's guards. He declares that he's done with these dog soldiers - he is Doom, and he demands to see their master!
Zone mildly observes that this must be 'another Doom robot', which is apparently an ongoing issue, and offers to take him out for Wylde. Wylde is a bit bored with his administrative duties and decides to take matters into his own hands - this might be an entertaining diversion, since the previous Doombots they found were hardly in working order. Fortune continues drawing cards, getting the Hanged Man, which she interprets to mean danger.
Doom declares he is no robot, and Wylde points out that Victor von Doom ruled in the twentieth century and vanished before Wylde was even born, so if he's the real deal he has a very long absence to explain. When Doom tries to remember what happened in the interim, however, he only recalls intense, unyielding pain.
Outwardly Doom announces that he doesn't have to explain where he's been. While he'll let Wylde leave without reproach, Latveria is his alone! Wylde points out that the Latveria Doom remembers no longer exists - the government he left behind collapsed, and the country was on the verge of being annexed by corporate powers when Tiger Wylde moved in and fortified it as an independent base of operations for himself. Doom is nothing more than a historical footnote!
Doom grabs Wylde by the neck and declares that maybe a history lesson is in order, but the golden man simply removes the armored limb from his person with his superior cyborg strength, and admits that he tires of this nostalgia - while Doom's reflexes might be better than expected, he's still just a ghost from the past, and nothing more. Wylde then punches him across the room, retrieving his 'trinity gun' from Zone and wondering if Doom really thought his antiquated armor could succeed where the best corporate soldiers had failed. Doom himself is recovering, noting that his system didn't absorb the shock, and his power reserves are down - he didn't expect to face a cyborg. Uh, did you miss the robot person thing? He's not subtle! Wylde walks over and aims his gun down at Doom, declaring that the monarch is just the latest person to underestimate him - he's built an empire on people like him!
When he fires the gun, however, Wylde's gun violently detonates in his hand, taking his entire robotic limb with it. Now pissed, Wylde drags Doom upwards by his neck and demands to know who sent him - Alchemax? Novograd? Pixel? Doom, with some difficulty, replies that he answers to no one - he is… 'Doom, as you've said,' Wylde fills in impatiently. Doom declares he'll kill Wylde, who isn't impressed and sends Doom's own energies back against him in a feedback loop, which overloads his circuitry and fuses his armor's systems into slag.
He drops Doom to the floor, and when Zone mentions getting him to the 'genedocs' for testing, Wylde decides he wants to see who's hiding beneath all this style without substance - this pointless charade. He removed the mask to reveal a young, unscarred face!
Wylde declares that Doom is far too young to be the twentieth century warrior who overthrew Latveria's royal house, and far too pristine - history says that the original's face was hideously scarred. Wylde decides he'll complete the masquerade, and burns Doom's face himself with his remaining hand. He then tells Zone to find out who hired him, and to clean up this mess - he's bleeding on the rug! Fortune says she'll personally see the prisoner to the 'neurotechs', but behind her back she holds a third card. She muses that the neurotechs would just turn Doom inside-out until he finally died - but the cards tell her he's worth more alive!
Four days later, at a tent near the Ciri river, we return to find Doom waking up without his armor, his face heavily bandaged by whoever's been taking care of him. He's disoriented for a moment, surprised to find himself alive - his body aches, and his face burns, and for a moment he lingers on that last fact. Then he turns to find a man looking over him, and demands to know where he is - he expected to be dead, not imprisoned! It takes him a moment to realize the man is mute (and has the most hilariously tiny hand, apparently.) He's no guard, though, as Doom is allowed to get up and take a stroll outside under his own power.
As he leaves the tent, Doom realizes he recognizes the place it's been set up in - as a child his family's gypsy caravan camped here as they travelled south - a tradition that persists until the 2090's. Nearby, a man named Andre warns Fortune that she's taking an enormous risk keeping her 'guest' here, and she acknowledges this - but if they take an even greater chance and allow Tiger Wylde to continue his current course, he'll take Latveria straight to ruin with him. Fortune notices Doom is awake and greets him, glad to see he's up after such severe injuries. Doom recognizes her as the woman drawing cards for Tiger Wylde, and she explains that her work for Wylde protects her people, and the mute man who healed him is Vox, their adept, who can wield healing magic. He owes them his life!
Doom notes that he's been close to death many times in the past, and Fortune replies that his past is questionable - he might be some deluded corporate runaway. Still, the cards and Vox claim that he'll catalyze a shift in power in Latveria, and topple Tiger Wylde's regime before he destroys the nation. Doom says she should accept that he is Doom - and while he may have lost many years, and perhaps all the resources at his command, he asks for her assistance in reclaiming Latveria.
Fortune declares that as leader of the Zefiro clan, she offers her tribe's support, and Doom is taken aback - he is from the Zefiro clan! Huh, did that really get revealed here in 2099? Fortune explains that she grew up reading stories about Latveria's Zefiro-born monarch, and reveals a broach with an emblazoned D - a keepsake Doom once gave to Boris, the one man he called friend. It seems gypsy blood bonds the two of them…
Fortune asks Doom about his past, and he explains that he remembers nothing about his disappearance beyond intense pain - but he cannot complain about his memory loss right now, not when there's so much to learn about this future world. She introduces Wire, the cyber-savant, who can access any world database. He's been going over Doom's old armor, and reveals that he's been looking into the specs required for some new armor, since the current model is thoroughly obsolete. Fortune explains that Wire can process an enormous amount of digital input compared to most people, and says notes that's a worthy talent - if he can recognize truly valuable information, of course. Wire declares that he has everything they need ready in a gift-wrapped package - but there's a catch. They'll have to leave the country.
Not much later, Xandra, Wire, and Fortune accompany Doom across the Malhela Mountains to the south, which keep Latveria from the world, and the world from Latveria. Xandra is incredulous that they're supposed to trust someone who believes he ruled Latveria a century ago, and Doom tells her that she can go - she should stand with him, or not at all!
Xandra says she's with him - but only so he doesn't get Wire killed! Fortune notes that Xandra is their best fighter, even though she's young, so Doom should go easy on her. Doom replies that circumstances have made them allies, not friends, and he's hardly going to go out of his way to spare an adolescent's feelings. He then asks for the broach, and reveals that he gave it to Fortune's great-great-grandfather Boris to get out of the country in case Doom ever fell from power. One must plan for every eventuality! A beam blasts out from it and opens a secret hideout in a nearby rockface, containing one of Doom's old planes…
After four hours of cloaked flight in the 'Diamondhawk', Doom and co have made it all the way to South America, to an island off the Peruvian coast owned by the mega-conglomerate Pixel, which stands for 'Paloma Information EXchange, Limited.' Somehow. The island looks a lot more hospitable and green in the comics than images I can find on google, that's for sure! Wire explains that Pixel has gone through great efforts to depict this place as an executive retreat, rather than the research facility it really is. Fortune is worried about openly landing on the beach, and Doom explains that his Diamondhawk's cloaking device protects them from conventional multi-spectrum detection (it's invisible!) but they could face problems when they're inside and no longer hidden by its systems.
Doom commands Wire to hack a nearby gate, and an irate Xandra wonders if he can't show a little courtesy - who died and made him CEO? Wire tells her to chill and enjoy the glide - this aces conning people out of foodpacks in the Antikva markets any day! Ugh, this slang… Anyway, Wire quickly hotwires the gate and opens it up, and laconically tells Doom: 'after you!' Xandra tells Wire to stay close to her and not to shoot himself in the foot, but Doom tells them to be quiet - they have two levels to cross before they get to their destination, and Wire couldn't tell how much security there might be. Fortune notes there's no guards, no laser tripwires - this is too easy. Doom observes that they shut down what they could already, but there was no time to search for backup defenses. It's like someone else got there before them!
Sure enough, a mysterious fellow looks in on them through security cameras, having shot the actual guard who lies dead behind him and curiously seems to share his face… The man decides that these newcomers may be of use to him…
As they approach the Cyber-Neurologic Laboratory, Xandra punches out one of the remaining guards and asks Doom if she should kill him, but Doom tells her to hold her fire unless necessary, and ushers them all inside. They warn the scientists not to move, and Doom tells them he's looking for a Doctor Celia Quiñones, and to please offer no resistance. One of the scientists - Gordo - makes a token effort, but Dr. Quiñones tells him off - they're not soldiers! She decides if she's being shanghai'd, she'd like to know who by - Alchemax? Stark/Fujikawa? Doom declares that he's not here for any corporate abduction - a brilliant neurosurgeon like her deserves more than indentured servitude to the Pixel corporation. He offers her freedom in exchange for her services.
Later, Doom is nude and strapped to an operating table, and he's giving medical advice to his attending physician - because of course he is. Quiñones tells him off, noting that she knows her own procedure, and they both have a stake in the success of this operation. She goes to inject him with a sedative, and asks him whether she should reconstruct his face while he's under, but Doom dismisses this - his scars are a reminder of his pain. After he's sedated, Xandra asks if Fortune believes him to be the genuine article, and she replies that after this operation, whether or not he was Doom before, he certainly will be then! Wire muses that she wishes Dr. Quiñones could operate on him - most of the cybertech in this lab isn't even on the market yet!
We get a quick explanation of what is going on - Dr. Quiñones is injecting Doom with nanobots - nanoids - which will pass through his bloodstream and attach to key points of his nervous system, enhancing neural and motor responses and creating a cyber-neural interface with unlimited potential. That is, of course, if he can handle the restructuring of his brain without going mad!
In his fever dreams, we see Doom struggle with his own identity. His own subconscious declares he is not Doom, which he immediately rejects. Doom's destiny was to rule, the dreams argue, but he's not ruling anything now! Doom responds that it's his destiny still. The dreams then argue Doom needed no-one, but he hobbles himself with women and children, and Doom responds that they are Zefiro like his parents, they are his extended family. The dreams reply that he has none of that - no parents, no family, not even his memories. Doom responds that he remembers many things - he recalls his father's death, the explosion that harmed his face, the monastery, conquering Latveria, the Fantastic Four again and again! The dreams argue it's all fake, all fiction - Doctor Doom is dead! Dead….
Doom, it seems, made it through the operation, as we next find him back on his feet, already encased within a brand new armor which he constructed using Pixel's manufacturing capabilities. Quiñones notes that the company won't be happy he exhausted their Adamantium-Lanxide stockpiles, and Doom notes the alloy makes his armor lighter and stronger than before, and feel like much more a part of his body. Quiñones explains that the last part is due to the cybermesh beneath the armor, which gives him a tactile interface with the nanotech in his head. She has a battery of tests she'd like to run, but Doom declares that he has no time for tests, for he has been reborn - and every moment counts! Doctor Doom is dead… long live Doom! He dramatically raises his fist into the air, and reveals the cover armor for the first time in full, in all its spiked goodness!
We exit on a quote from Shakespeare, which also gave this chapter its title. 'Oh, for a muse of fire that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention! A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, and monarchs to behold the swelling scene!' It's the opening lines from Henry V. For a more modern interpretation of that quote, I give you the sparknotes: 'If only we had divine inspiration, our play might rise to the highest level of imagination. If we had a stage as big as a kingdom, real kings and queens to act the part of kings and queens, and royalty to also witness the glorious spectacle, then it would be as it really was.' Pretentious as ever, huh Doom?
Rating & Comments
Doom 2099 starts off with a banger of an issue - not only does it convincingly transplant our favorite villain into an entirely different context in which he could be considered something adjacent to a hero, but it also manages to give Doom something he hasn't really ever had in the mainline comics - a supporting cast! No longer restricted to Boris and a roll call of replaceable minions as his sole allies, Doom now has an entourage of people who (with various levels of enthusiasm) go along with his plans due to his force of personality, force of arms, or glorious destiny. The latter is even canon, complete with vague prophecy of unseating the current despot (but without promise that a worse one won't take his place!) Gotta love it!
Xandra is the most boring of this new array of cast members, being little more than the muscle who protects the more vulnerable Wire, a scriptkiddy that speaks almost universally in radical slang and jacks into the information superhighway to steal information using his wide array of illegal cybernetic upgrades. It's very cyberpunk, and very 90's. These two make a decent team, though, so we'll see what the comic does with them in future issues - their coincidental connection with Doom's gypsy clan is probably there to keep them from wandering too far from the plot, after all. Doom's relationship with them, at least for the moment, is cold - he treats them like children but orders them around like minions, and while Wire is willing to go along with it, Xandra is none too pleased to suddenly be subservient to this random wacko that wandered into town. Kinda makes sense, really.
Fortune is the other new cast member that gets a fair bit of paneltime in this comic, and she's the most obviously antagonistic of Doom's new allies - she works with him because she thinks she can get something out of it that's good for her people, not because she's particularly fond of his loud, braggadocious ways or his imperial aspirations. For all that she's undercover within Wylde's administration, Fortune wears her emotions on her face, and never hesitates from mentioning her skepticism of Doom even as she goes along with his plans. We'll see if that particular attitude lingers, or if the two form a more stable working relationship down the line - with Doom, I'm not sure that's in the cards. Pun intended. The familial connection with Boris is interesting - as I recall, Valeria was also alleged to be related to him, so there's a nonzero chance that Fortune is related to Doom's past flame in some way. In any case, ol' Boris got around.
The new 2099 setting is, naturally, the big star of this particular imprint - none of the canonical characters from 616 Marvel return (save for, perhaps, Doom) which means a whole new lineup of heroes and villains have to step up to the plate. While the heroes are absent from this issue, we do see some of these new villains - the various megacorporations and their surprisingly hands-on CEOs. Tiger Wylde is the main star here, as the head of a relatively minor company founded by him after he abandoned Alchemax - it would be utterly irrelevant if it wasn't in charge of Doom's turf. He's a nice introductory threat for Doom to take on, I'd say. We get some glimpses of other building blocks of the setting, most notably Tyler Stone of Alchemax, who is a big factor in the Spider-Man 2099 books. The rest of the books are primarily set in the United States, and while this particular comic does go globetrotting a bit, its focus is firmly in eastern Europe for the moment, so I don't expect most of Doom's new heroic contemporaries to show up any time soon. I guess we do see the Pixel corporation a bit, so we might see more of them going forward...
The best part of this comic, I think, is its quick pacing - it doesn't linger too long on introducing every part of the setting, instead quickly establishing the general layout of the area, the biggest political factions in Latveria, the continued presence of Doom's gypsy tribe, and the various technological changes that have happened over the past century. Doom's technology holds up surprisingly well, since he takes down a flying tank right away, and whole squadrons of Wylde's goons as he fights his way to the big man's office. Still, Wylde convincingly slaps him down with his cybernetic enhancements that are decades more advanced than even Doom's most sophisticated gear.
Not that it keeps Doom for long - he's gotten himself an upgraded body and armor before the issue is over, using local resources as if they weren't complete novelties to him. Shows you how inventive and adaptive Doom really is, I suppose, and he even has enough time to throw in a bit of flair! The comic felt longer than it was, and that's a good thing in this case - stuff happened, it didn't linger. Unfortunately, some of the later arcs in this comic don't have that reputation, so we'll see the contrast soon enough. For now, getting your main character in place and your plot set up in a single issue is good stuff, and it's great to see Doom's revolutionary aspect revisited - it's been a while since he toppled a government!
Doom's identity is left a mystery for now, and between his missing memory and the strange, unreasonably young face he's sporting, it's pretty obvious this is supposed to be an open question - who is this guy, really? Is he really Victor von Doom? I tend to favor a position Doom himself will eventually advocate - Doom isn't a specific mind in a specific body, because he's swapped minds with others before, he can build robots that perfectly mimic him, and he's had clones before regardless. How could you ever be sure? No, he is convinced he is Victor von Doom, and as far as we're concerned for this readthrough, that's quite enough.
Whether or not he's metaphysically the same continued consciousness as the mainline Doom - well, the comic will eventually loop back around to explaining that whole situation, but that's not for a good while yet. Until then, we'll have to make do with cryptic hints. One interesting fact: Doom rejects having his facial scars healed because they 'remind him of his pain' - how are we to interpret this? Is he remembering his pain before he arrived in this time period, or maybe the scars of Doom before he time- traveled, which were healed in one way or another on the way over? I suppose we'll find out...
The brief moment of self-doubt while Doom undergoes his cybernetic upgrades, by the way, is interesting - it seems Doom's subconscious recognizes that having a supporting cast is unusual for him, and this Doom identifies the Zefiro as family. Bit of a meta moment, maybe - but wasn't Boris already his closest confidant before, and a member of the Zefiro clan? Not that much has changed! The Zefiro themselves, by the way, have never appeared in any of the comics I've read so far - this is, evidently, where they got their name and identity. Thus far they were just vaguely the gypsy clan that Doom descended from. It's intriguing that such a thing would be coined by a separate imprint from the mainline comics, though I suppose it would later be transferred over.
Quality-wise this one is up there already, but between opening up a whole new venue for Doom and giving Doom a whole array of new people to play off of that aren't just the Fantastic Four over and over again, I gotta give this comic high marks. It's not perfect - the language can get ridiculous, the art is dodgy in places and the colors tend to be on the dull side - but that is made up for by the various positives I mentioned above. Gotta hand this one full marks, and hold out hope that the rest of the comic can live up to the promise. (Since I'm vaguely aware that some big names get involved eventually, I'm eager to find out.) 5 stars!
Do They Speak English in 2099?
"Let's fade, wire, fast!"
"Chill, Xandra, enjoy the glide - this aces shortconning foodpacks in the Antikva marketplace any day."
Quotations from Chairman Doom
"I am Doom!"
"Can it be that I have been forgotten in my own land? It is time to make Latveria remember."
"Accept that I am Doom. I have lost many years, and perhaps all the resources once at my command - help me reclaim Latveria."
"Stand with me, or not at all."
"The scars are a reminder... of my... pain."
"I have been reborn, and every moment counts. Doctor Doom is dead... LONG LIVE DOOM!"
Art Spotlight
Since this is probably the last shot of classic armor Doom in a good while - at least in 2099 - I figure it's only just that we're getting a nice splash page of him kicking ass to play us out! Complete with dramatic billowing cloak held in one fist. He actually does that with his new cloak too, I guess it's a thing now?
Doom-Tech of the Future
Doom doesn't take long to make himself Neuro-Linked Adamantium-Lanxide Armor. And, though he technically built it a century ago for someone who's long dead, the Diamondhawk is an invisible hypersonic plane which survived a century of neglect without issue, and can still stand up to future surveillance systems Doom has never run into before. Nice!
Introduction
With the latest death of Doctor Doom in our rear window, we arrive now at an artifact of a different age to fill in the lengthy period during which the mainstream Doom is absent. While it would take the better part of two years for our monarch to make his grand reappearance in mainline comics, he wasn't actually spending that time twiddling his thumbs - and indeed, perhaps the reason he was killed off in the first place was to make room for the lengthy solo title he would get under another Marvel imprint...
Marvel 2099 started in late 1992, and was originally just one possible future of the Marvel Universe - it was later revealed to be the Earth of the prime Marvel continuity, though in the distant future. Announced as a single series entitled 'The Marvel World of Tomorrow', developed by Stan Lee and John Byrne, it later changed into a full line-up of books under the banner 'Marvel 2093', which would take place one hundred years after publication exactly. This was obviously changed to 2099 before it was finally released, a sort of generic 'future time.' The future world proved quite popular, and the 2099 universe lasted from its debut in late 1992 to 1998, when declining sales led to the series being compressed into a single anthology series as originally proposed. Unfortunately, that comic only lasted for eight issues before being cancelled. There have been a number of later revisits to this imprint, so 1998 won't be the last time it'll show up in our readthrough…
To set the stage, the world of 2099 is a cyberpunk dystopia akin to the world of Blade Runner or Cyberpunk 2077, and the latter even shares its title scheme. North America is a corporate police state ruled by a few huge megacorporations, and much the same is true in Marvel 2099 (har har.) Most notable is the company Alchemax, which owns the private police force Public Eye, which primarily punishes criminals' bank accounts. There were, prior to the launch of the comic series, no active superheroes in this world - the previous heroes from Marvel are mythologized through religion, like with the Church of Thor. The present-day Marvel continuity is referred to as an 'Age of Heroes' which abruptly ended in catastrophe a century before, an event which also set back society considerably. This catastrophe is eventually averted in the present when Miguel O'Hara - Spider-Man 2099 - temporarily swapped places with his past incarnation shortly before the cataclysm happened, turning the 2099 world into an alternate future after all. Marvel multiverse shenanigans are weird!
The first few titles to be released were Spider-Man 2099, as mentioned, alongside Punisher 2099, Ravage 2099 (featuring a brand new anti-hero), and the series we're here for - Doom 2099! As usual, however, Doctor Doom likes to wander, and when later 2099 series would include additions like Hulk 2099, Fantastic Four 2099 and X-Men 2099, he's bound to show up there too, so we'll probably see bits and pieces of all of those along the way. Doom's solo-series is the most voluminous in terms of issues after Spidey's own - they have 44 and 46 issues respectively without considering any crossovers or later revisits. Both characters have time travel stories back to the present, so it's probably a pretty close tie.
While I could treat this entire saga as an extended variant of Doom - and in some respects that might be correct - there are a number of interviews with the creators of the comic which explicitly state or imply that this Doom was, or was meant to be, the sole recurring character from the mainline 616 universe within the 2099 imprint - as one of the few characters with established time travel technology, he was considered a natural fit. Regardless of his exact nature, this Doom had a big enough run that he should probably get significant attention, much like the Ultimate Doom will probably get when we arrive at that particular imprint. I can always reconsider later, if necessary (or maybe the forums will invent custom threadmark categories and that'll solve the whole issue.) For now, I'll keep the normal numbering for main timeline Doom & Doom-adjacent 616 appearances, since we're going to look in on a few of his supporting cast during his absence. Thus, Doom 2099 gets his own numbering. Off we go!
Cover
To go with the brand new era this comic takes place in, Doom has updated his look, and instead of wearing his classic gray armor with green cloak, we're instead getting a shiny white metal getup with a blue cloak. He retains many of the classic features of the old armor, but the most notable differences are the addition of spikes on both his chest-piece and arms, a clear distinction between gauntlets and boots rather than being part of a single whole, and obviously the radical shift in color scheme. White and blue is a new direction to go for Doom, though the ominous red eyes keep him from looking too heroic with this rebranding. I'm not sure I like how his chest seems heavily armored while he still wears a tiny tabard below his belt. Still, I dig the personal logo (which is, naturally, the first letter of Doom's name.) Reminds me of old Power Rangers toys. Naturally, much like during his original debut issue, one of future Doom's first appearances involves him framed by dramatic lightning - it's his aesthetic! Also the Rocky pose is just there for style points, I imagine.
Doom's new armor looks like a fusion of the one from the recent Watcher storyline in the main comics (which came out at a similar time) crossed with the doppel-Doom from the Infinity War. I can't prove it, but I suspect that there was either some cross-contamination going on, with artists imitating each other's art to make them mesh, or those other armors were testing the waters for this redesign. The 'Doom' name in the logo is also very similar to the one that's been showing up on one or two recent Fantastic Four covers - and it looks pretty neat, if a bit too bright and shiny to work for the classic Doom. The angry eyes in the O's are just fun!
Story Overview
Muses of Fire
We start in the village of Antikva, Latveria... 2099! Once this marketplace was different, the narration declares, a gathering of community and prosperity in a fairy tale kingdom - but no longer! Now citizens over-extend their credit for spoiled synthetic food, designer drugs, and pirated russian virtual reality programs (because that's a thing in this spooky future.) The black market is now the only market. The streets are packed with people, and we see a poofy-haired kid wearing dorky cybernetic glasses trying to sell some data to a bald, heavyset man called Gaskaro. Gaskaro doesn't want to pay full price, though, even though the kid, Wire, argues he's the only one who could 'freestyle into Tiger Wylde's security net' to get the necessary access codes. Surfing the internet superhighway, huh? That's so totally tubular.
Gaskaro gets angry and calls Wire an 'input-addled gypsy' before grabbing him by his vest, but he's interrupted in his assault when another poofy-haired youngster shows up - this one is a black girl wielding a shiv. 'Xandra' shoves the serrated weapon under Gaskaro's chin and tells him that nobody hurts Wire on her watch, and Gaskaro nervously replies that 'everything is on line', which I guess is future slang for okay.
Before they can get a proper exchange going, however, a robotic voice pipes up from above them. You can tell it's a cyber-voice because it's got a difficult to read cyber-font! Police militarization is a thing here, it seems, because the flying tank declares that Sergei Gaskaro is under arrest for illegal transfer and sale of government information. The whole group promptly shits themselves in fear of the 'Guardsmen.' The machine tells them not to move - resistance will be met with full preemptive force! Uh, I don't think that's what preemptive means? The tank promptly blasts Gaskaro to the ground before he even has a chance to move, which seems to suggest it did in fact mean preemptive… Is this a precrime thing?
Wire and Xandra quickly hop on the latter's hover-scooter, leaving the stolen data behind since they're under too much time pressure to bother retrieving it - they have to get out of there and escape the guards! They flee from the city and head for more rural areas while Wire wonders if the guards are aware he got in through their defense codes. Xandra notes that if they did, he'd already be roadkill - they would never believe some random street-gypsy would be as capable as a professional corporate raider! They're just loose ends to the big shots, she says, afterthoughts. Xandra decided to try and shake the robotic pursuer in the nearby castle ruins before they become not just loose ends, but dead ends. She also worries about not charging her scooter that morning, which means their ride is electric! How surprisingly environmentally conscious for a dystopian hellscape.
As the cops close in, however, there's a sudden bright light show right in the middle of their path. Said lightshow, naturally, is the arrival of our glorious titular character! With a terrible noise and a blast of light an armored figure in a tattered cloak materializes from elsewhere like the freaking Terminator - it's Doctor Doom! He's seen better days, sure, but he's still in his classic gray-and-green getup here, clutching his sides and only managing to say a few words. Those declare that despite terrible pain, Doom has finally, finally, managed to return! While the monarch stands up within the burning ring of fire unleashed by his arrival, Wire urges Xandra to drive away - they have no time to sightsee! Xandra, however, admits that she didn't stop voluntarily - the battery on their ride stalled. They're stuck.
Doctor Doom takes in his surroundings and is aghast to realize that his once-mighty castle lies in ruins, utterly destroyed and reduced to rubble. What has happened here? How long has he been away? He doesn't get much time to think because the guardsman tankbot flies up to him and declares that Doom is an unauthorized presence interfering with official business, and it demands his immediate identification. Doom is surprised the thing dares to threaten him - doesn't it know who he is? He raises one arm, and with a violent blast of energy he decimates the robot utterly, declaring 'I am Doom!' to all who can hear in big red letters. BOOM! This page doubles as the title page, and a gigantic mirror image of Doom also dominates the skyline, as if the comic has to make up for lost time and work in a bonus cover.
Wire worries that Doom might think they're with the Guardsmen, and Xandra says hurriedly that their battery isn't recharging fast enough. Doom strides over towards them past the flaming wreckage of the tankbot and declares that they should calm themselves - he doesn't battle children. He asks what happened to his castle, and Wire answers that it's always been rubble as far as he can recall. Besides, he should really be worrying about what Tiger Wylde will do, now that Doom blew up one of his tanks. Or 'exxed' it, in future slang. Tiger Wylde turns out to be the ruler of Latveria in the year 2099. Doom declares that he arrived much later than he anticipated, and he might have been forgotten even in his own land - but that just means it's time to make them remember!
We switch over to the city of Gojradia, the capital of Latveria, which was once the promise of modernity in a backwards nation, Doomstadt - but now it's nothing more than the industrialized gameboard for the intrigues of its current sovereign, and a maze of glass and steel. We zoom in on a huge highrise at the center of the city, the home of Tiger Wylde which is emblazoned with a symbol that combines the first letters of his first and last name. Tiger Wylde himself is a weird yellow cyborg in a fancy purple nightgown with a pockmarked human face as his only identifiably organic feature. He's angrily video-calling Tyler Stone when we meet him, the vice-president of Alchemax, confronting the man with the remains of their latest assassin. Stone declares that officially Alchemax denies any involvement, and Wylde's departure from the company is of little concern to the firm. Wylde is not convinced, suspecting Alchemax is very interested in Latveria despite their claims, and if they want war he'll gladly oblige!
After the call ends, Wylde complains that his feud with Alchemax might interfere with his 'Tritonium' venture, and asks one of his servants - Fortune - to read him the future in her cards. A nearby guy in a douchey haircut, a man named 'Zone', complains that Wylde shouldn't put his faith in such superstition. Fortune declares that he's always such a science-nerd - can't he accept that gypsies like her know that beneath the rational lies the intuitive? She draws the Tarot card 'Judgement' - a change in position, a shift in power - they're nearing a crisis point. That's not what that Tarot reading actually means, but we'll go with it.
Mere moments after she made this prediction, a nearby wall explodes to reveal an incensed Victor von Doom blasting away one of Tiger Wylde's guards. He declares that he's done with these dog soldiers - he is Doom, and he demands to see their master!
Zone mildly observes that this must be 'another Doom robot', which is apparently an ongoing issue, and offers to take him out for Wylde. Wylde is a bit bored with his administrative duties and decides to take matters into his own hands - this might be an entertaining diversion, since the previous Doombots they found were hardly in working order. Fortune continues drawing cards, getting the Hanged Man, which she interprets to mean danger.
Doom declares he is no robot, and Wylde points out that Victor von Doom ruled in the twentieth century and vanished before Wylde was even born, so if he's the real deal he has a very long absence to explain. When Doom tries to remember what happened in the interim, however, he only recalls intense, unyielding pain.
Outwardly Doom announces that he doesn't have to explain where he's been. While he'll let Wylde leave without reproach, Latveria is his alone! Wylde points out that the Latveria Doom remembers no longer exists - the government he left behind collapsed, and the country was on the verge of being annexed by corporate powers when Tiger Wylde moved in and fortified it as an independent base of operations for himself. Doom is nothing more than a historical footnote!
Doom grabs Wylde by the neck and declares that maybe a history lesson is in order, but the golden man simply removes the armored limb from his person with his superior cyborg strength, and admits that he tires of this nostalgia - while Doom's reflexes might be better than expected, he's still just a ghost from the past, and nothing more. Wylde then punches him across the room, retrieving his 'trinity gun' from Zone and wondering if Doom really thought his antiquated armor could succeed where the best corporate soldiers had failed. Doom himself is recovering, noting that his system didn't absorb the shock, and his power reserves are down - he didn't expect to face a cyborg. Uh, did you miss the robot person thing? He's not subtle! Wylde walks over and aims his gun down at Doom, declaring that the monarch is just the latest person to underestimate him - he's built an empire on people like him!
When he fires the gun, however, Wylde's gun violently detonates in his hand, taking his entire robotic limb with it. Now pissed, Wylde drags Doom upwards by his neck and demands to know who sent him - Alchemax? Novograd? Pixel? Doom, with some difficulty, replies that he answers to no one - he is… 'Doom, as you've said,' Wylde fills in impatiently. Doom declares he'll kill Wylde, who isn't impressed and sends Doom's own energies back against him in a feedback loop, which overloads his circuitry and fuses his armor's systems into slag.
He drops Doom to the floor, and when Zone mentions getting him to the 'genedocs' for testing, Wylde decides he wants to see who's hiding beneath all this style without substance - this pointless charade. He removed the mask to reveal a young, unscarred face!
Wylde declares that Doom is far too young to be the twentieth century warrior who overthrew Latveria's royal house, and far too pristine - history says that the original's face was hideously scarred. Wylde decides he'll complete the masquerade, and burns Doom's face himself with his remaining hand. He then tells Zone to find out who hired him, and to clean up this mess - he's bleeding on the rug! Fortune says she'll personally see the prisoner to the 'neurotechs', but behind her back she holds a third card. She muses that the neurotechs would just turn Doom inside-out until he finally died - but the cards tell her he's worth more alive!
Four days later, at a tent near the Ciri river, we return to find Doom waking up without his armor, his face heavily bandaged by whoever's been taking care of him. He's disoriented for a moment, surprised to find himself alive - his body aches, and his face burns, and for a moment he lingers on that last fact. Then he turns to find a man looking over him, and demands to know where he is - he expected to be dead, not imprisoned! It takes him a moment to realize the man is mute (and has the most hilariously tiny hand, apparently.) He's no guard, though, as Doom is allowed to get up and take a stroll outside under his own power.
As he leaves the tent, Doom realizes he recognizes the place it's been set up in - as a child his family's gypsy caravan camped here as they travelled south - a tradition that persists until the 2090's. Nearby, a man named Andre warns Fortune that she's taking an enormous risk keeping her 'guest' here, and she acknowledges this - but if they take an even greater chance and allow Tiger Wylde to continue his current course, he'll take Latveria straight to ruin with him. Fortune notices Doom is awake and greets him, glad to see he's up after such severe injuries. Doom recognizes her as the woman drawing cards for Tiger Wylde, and she explains that her work for Wylde protects her people, and the mute man who healed him is Vox, their adept, who can wield healing magic. He owes them his life!
Doom notes that he's been close to death many times in the past, and Fortune replies that his past is questionable - he might be some deluded corporate runaway. Still, the cards and Vox claim that he'll catalyze a shift in power in Latveria, and topple Tiger Wylde's regime before he destroys the nation. Doom says she should accept that he is Doom - and while he may have lost many years, and perhaps all the resources at his command, he asks for her assistance in reclaiming Latveria.
Fortune declares that as leader of the Zefiro clan, she offers her tribe's support, and Doom is taken aback - he is from the Zefiro clan! Huh, did that really get revealed here in 2099? Fortune explains that she grew up reading stories about Latveria's Zefiro-born monarch, and reveals a broach with an emblazoned D - a keepsake Doom once gave to Boris, the one man he called friend. It seems gypsy blood bonds the two of them…
Fortune asks Doom about his past, and he explains that he remembers nothing about his disappearance beyond intense pain - but he cannot complain about his memory loss right now, not when there's so much to learn about this future world. She introduces Wire, the cyber-savant, who can access any world database. He's been going over Doom's old armor, and reveals that he's been looking into the specs required for some new armor, since the current model is thoroughly obsolete. Fortune explains that Wire can process an enormous amount of digital input compared to most people, and says notes that's a worthy talent - if he can recognize truly valuable information, of course. Wire declares that he has everything they need ready in a gift-wrapped package - but there's a catch. They'll have to leave the country.
Not much later, Xandra, Wire, and Fortune accompany Doom across the Malhela Mountains to the south, which keep Latveria from the world, and the world from Latveria. Xandra is incredulous that they're supposed to trust someone who believes he ruled Latveria a century ago, and Doom tells her that she can go - she should stand with him, or not at all!
Xandra says she's with him - but only so he doesn't get Wire killed! Fortune notes that Xandra is their best fighter, even though she's young, so Doom should go easy on her. Doom replies that circumstances have made them allies, not friends, and he's hardly going to go out of his way to spare an adolescent's feelings. He then asks for the broach, and reveals that he gave it to Fortune's great-great-grandfather Boris to get out of the country in case Doom ever fell from power. One must plan for every eventuality! A beam blasts out from it and opens a secret hideout in a nearby rockface, containing one of Doom's old planes…
After four hours of cloaked flight in the 'Diamondhawk', Doom and co have made it all the way to South America, to an island off the Peruvian coast owned by the mega-conglomerate Pixel, which stands for 'Paloma Information EXchange, Limited.' Somehow. The island looks a lot more hospitable and green in the comics than images I can find on google, that's for sure! Wire explains that Pixel has gone through great efforts to depict this place as an executive retreat, rather than the research facility it really is. Fortune is worried about openly landing on the beach, and Doom explains that his Diamondhawk's cloaking device protects them from conventional multi-spectrum detection (it's invisible!) but they could face problems when they're inside and no longer hidden by its systems.
Doom commands Wire to hack a nearby gate, and an irate Xandra wonders if he can't show a little courtesy - who died and made him CEO? Wire tells her to chill and enjoy the glide - this aces conning people out of foodpacks in the Antikva markets any day! Ugh, this slang… Anyway, Wire quickly hotwires the gate and opens it up, and laconically tells Doom: 'after you!' Xandra tells Wire to stay close to her and not to shoot himself in the foot, but Doom tells them to be quiet - they have two levels to cross before they get to their destination, and Wire couldn't tell how much security there might be. Fortune notes there's no guards, no laser tripwires - this is too easy. Doom observes that they shut down what they could already, but there was no time to search for backup defenses. It's like someone else got there before them!
Sure enough, a mysterious fellow looks in on them through security cameras, having shot the actual guard who lies dead behind him and curiously seems to share his face… The man decides that these newcomers may be of use to him…
As they approach the Cyber-Neurologic Laboratory, Xandra punches out one of the remaining guards and asks Doom if she should kill him, but Doom tells her to hold her fire unless necessary, and ushers them all inside. They warn the scientists not to move, and Doom tells them he's looking for a Doctor Celia Quiñones, and to please offer no resistance. One of the scientists - Gordo - makes a token effort, but Dr. Quiñones tells him off - they're not soldiers! She decides if she's being shanghai'd, she'd like to know who by - Alchemax? Stark/Fujikawa? Doom declares that he's not here for any corporate abduction - a brilliant neurosurgeon like her deserves more than indentured servitude to the Pixel corporation. He offers her freedom in exchange for her services.
Later, Doom is nude and strapped to an operating table, and he's giving medical advice to his attending physician - because of course he is. Quiñones tells him off, noting that she knows her own procedure, and they both have a stake in the success of this operation. She goes to inject him with a sedative, and asks him whether she should reconstruct his face while he's under, but Doom dismisses this - his scars are a reminder of his pain. After he's sedated, Xandra asks if Fortune believes him to be the genuine article, and she replies that after this operation, whether or not he was Doom before, he certainly will be then! Wire muses that she wishes Dr. Quiñones could operate on him - most of the cybertech in this lab isn't even on the market yet!
We get a quick explanation of what is going on - Dr. Quiñones is injecting Doom with nanobots - nanoids - which will pass through his bloodstream and attach to key points of his nervous system, enhancing neural and motor responses and creating a cyber-neural interface with unlimited potential. That is, of course, if he can handle the restructuring of his brain without going mad!
In his fever dreams, we see Doom struggle with his own identity. His own subconscious declares he is not Doom, which he immediately rejects. Doom's destiny was to rule, the dreams argue, but he's not ruling anything now! Doom responds that it's his destiny still. The dreams then argue Doom needed no-one, but he hobbles himself with women and children, and Doom responds that they are Zefiro like his parents, they are his extended family. The dreams reply that he has none of that - no parents, no family, not even his memories. Doom responds that he remembers many things - he recalls his father's death, the explosion that harmed his face, the monastery, conquering Latveria, the Fantastic Four again and again! The dreams argue it's all fake, all fiction - Doctor Doom is dead! Dead….
Doom, it seems, made it through the operation, as we next find him back on his feet, already encased within a brand new armor which he constructed using Pixel's manufacturing capabilities. Quiñones notes that the company won't be happy he exhausted their Adamantium-Lanxide stockpiles, and Doom notes the alloy makes his armor lighter and stronger than before, and feel like much more a part of his body. Quiñones explains that the last part is due to the cybermesh beneath the armor, which gives him a tactile interface with the nanotech in his head. She has a battery of tests she'd like to run, but Doom declares that he has no time for tests, for he has been reborn - and every moment counts! Doctor Doom is dead… long live Doom! He dramatically raises his fist into the air, and reveals the cover armor for the first time in full, in all its spiked goodness!
We exit on a quote from Shakespeare, which also gave this chapter its title. 'Oh, for a muse of fire that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention! A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, and monarchs to behold the swelling scene!' It's the opening lines from Henry V. For a more modern interpretation of that quote, I give you the sparknotes: 'If only we had divine inspiration, our play might rise to the highest level of imagination. If we had a stage as big as a kingdom, real kings and queens to act the part of kings and queens, and royalty to also witness the glorious spectacle, then it would be as it really was.' Pretentious as ever, huh Doom?
Rating & Comments
Doom 2099 starts off with a banger of an issue - not only does it convincingly transplant our favorite villain into an entirely different context in which he could be considered something adjacent to a hero, but it also manages to give Doom something he hasn't really ever had in the mainline comics - a supporting cast! No longer restricted to Boris and a roll call of replaceable minions as his sole allies, Doom now has an entourage of people who (with various levels of enthusiasm) go along with his plans due to his force of personality, force of arms, or glorious destiny. The latter is even canon, complete with vague prophecy of unseating the current despot (but without promise that a worse one won't take his place!) Gotta love it!
Xandra is the most boring of this new array of cast members, being little more than the muscle who protects the more vulnerable Wire, a scriptkiddy that speaks almost universally in radical slang and jacks into the information superhighway to steal information using his wide array of illegal cybernetic upgrades. It's very cyberpunk, and very 90's. These two make a decent team, though, so we'll see what the comic does with them in future issues - their coincidental connection with Doom's gypsy clan is probably there to keep them from wandering too far from the plot, after all. Doom's relationship with them, at least for the moment, is cold - he treats them like children but orders them around like minions, and while Wire is willing to go along with it, Xandra is none too pleased to suddenly be subservient to this random wacko that wandered into town. Kinda makes sense, really.
Fortune is the other new cast member that gets a fair bit of paneltime in this comic, and she's the most obviously antagonistic of Doom's new allies - she works with him because she thinks she can get something out of it that's good for her people, not because she's particularly fond of his loud, braggadocious ways or his imperial aspirations. For all that she's undercover within Wylde's administration, Fortune wears her emotions on her face, and never hesitates from mentioning her skepticism of Doom even as she goes along with his plans. We'll see if that particular attitude lingers, or if the two form a more stable working relationship down the line - with Doom, I'm not sure that's in the cards. Pun intended. The familial connection with Boris is interesting - as I recall, Valeria was also alleged to be related to him, so there's a nonzero chance that Fortune is related to Doom's past flame in some way. In any case, ol' Boris got around.
The new 2099 setting is, naturally, the big star of this particular imprint - none of the canonical characters from 616 Marvel return (save for, perhaps, Doom) which means a whole new lineup of heroes and villains have to step up to the plate. While the heroes are absent from this issue, we do see some of these new villains - the various megacorporations and their surprisingly hands-on CEOs. Tiger Wylde is the main star here, as the head of a relatively minor company founded by him after he abandoned Alchemax - it would be utterly irrelevant if it wasn't in charge of Doom's turf. He's a nice introductory threat for Doom to take on, I'd say. We get some glimpses of other building blocks of the setting, most notably Tyler Stone of Alchemax, who is a big factor in the Spider-Man 2099 books. The rest of the books are primarily set in the United States, and while this particular comic does go globetrotting a bit, its focus is firmly in eastern Europe for the moment, so I don't expect most of Doom's new heroic contemporaries to show up any time soon. I guess we do see the Pixel corporation a bit, so we might see more of them going forward...
The best part of this comic, I think, is its quick pacing - it doesn't linger too long on introducing every part of the setting, instead quickly establishing the general layout of the area, the biggest political factions in Latveria, the continued presence of Doom's gypsy tribe, and the various technological changes that have happened over the past century. Doom's technology holds up surprisingly well, since he takes down a flying tank right away, and whole squadrons of Wylde's goons as he fights his way to the big man's office. Still, Wylde convincingly slaps him down with his cybernetic enhancements that are decades more advanced than even Doom's most sophisticated gear.
Not that it keeps Doom for long - he's gotten himself an upgraded body and armor before the issue is over, using local resources as if they weren't complete novelties to him. Shows you how inventive and adaptive Doom really is, I suppose, and he even has enough time to throw in a bit of flair! The comic felt longer than it was, and that's a good thing in this case - stuff happened, it didn't linger. Unfortunately, some of the later arcs in this comic don't have that reputation, so we'll see the contrast soon enough. For now, getting your main character in place and your plot set up in a single issue is good stuff, and it's great to see Doom's revolutionary aspect revisited - it's been a while since he toppled a government!
Doom's identity is left a mystery for now, and between his missing memory and the strange, unreasonably young face he's sporting, it's pretty obvious this is supposed to be an open question - who is this guy, really? Is he really Victor von Doom? I tend to favor a position Doom himself will eventually advocate - Doom isn't a specific mind in a specific body, because he's swapped minds with others before, he can build robots that perfectly mimic him, and he's had clones before regardless. How could you ever be sure? No, he is convinced he is Victor von Doom, and as far as we're concerned for this readthrough, that's quite enough.
Whether or not he's metaphysically the same continued consciousness as the mainline Doom - well, the comic will eventually loop back around to explaining that whole situation, but that's not for a good while yet. Until then, we'll have to make do with cryptic hints. One interesting fact: Doom rejects having his facial scars healed because they 'remind him of his pain' - how are we to interpret this? Is he remembering his pain before he arrived in this time period, or maybe the scars of Doom before he time- traveled, which were healed in one way or another on the way over? I suppose we'll find out...
The brief moment of self-doubt while Doom undergoes his cybernetic upgrades, by the way, is interesting - it seems Doom's subconscious recognizes that having a supporting cast is unusual for him, and this Doom identifies the Zefiro as family. Bit of a meta moment, maybe - but wasn't Boris already his closest confidant before, and a member of the Zefiro clan? Not that much has changed! The Zefiro themselves, by the way, have never appeared in any of the comics I've read so far - this is, evidently, where they got their name and identity. Thus far they were just vaguely the gypsy clan that Doom descended from. It's intriguing that such a thing would be coined by a separate imprint from the mainline comics, though I suppose it would later be transferred over.
Quality-wise this one is up there already, but between opening up a whole new venue for Doom and giving Doom a whole array of new people to play off of that aren't just the Fantastic Four over and over again, I gotta give this comic high marks. It's not perfect - the language can get ridiculous, the art is dodgy in places and the colors tend to be on the dull side - but that is made up for by the various positives I mentioned above. Gotta hand this one full marks, and hold out hope that the rest of the comic can live up to the promise. (Since I'm vaguely aware that some big names get involved eventually, I'm eager to find out.) 5 stars!
Do They Speak English in 2099?
"Let's fade, wire, fast!"
"Chill, Xandra, enjoy the glide - this aces shortconning foodpacks in the Antikva marketplace any day."
Quotations from Chairman Doom
"I am Doom!"
"Can it be that I have been forgotten in my own land? It is time to make Latveria remember."
"Accept that I am Doom. I have lost many years, and perhaps all the resources once at my command - help me reclaim Latveria."
"Stand with me, or not at all."
"The scars are a reminder... of my... pain."
"I have been reborn, and every moment counts. Doctor Doom is dead... LONG LIVE DOOM!"
Art Spotlight
Since this is probably the last shot of classic armor Doom in a good while - at least in 2099 - I figure it's only just that we're getting a nice splash page of him kicking ass to play us out! Complete with dramatic billowing cloak held in one fist. He actually does that with his new cloak too, I guess it's a thing now?
Doom-Tech of the Future
Doom doesn't take long to make himself Neuro-Linked Adamantium-Lanxide Armor. And, though he technically built it a century ago for someone who's long dead, the Diamondhawk is an invisible hypersonic plane which survived a century of neglect without issue, and can still stand up to future surveillance systems Doom has never run into before. Nice!
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SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Wait, there was a Fantastic Four 2099? Somehow I missed that one, and I read at least a little of all the others when they were coming out. (Including Doom 2099 #1). Wikipedia tells me it was only 8 issues and the covers looked oddly similar to normal Fantastic Four issues, though.
Putting that aside, Doom 2099 and Spider-man 2099 are the two series I remember being best out of the set and this review seems to back that up. Doom's ability to just adapt to future tech almost instantly is much like his ability to just grab pieces of Galactus' stuff and make an anti-Beyonder weapon.
Putting that aside, Doom 2099 and Spider-man 2099 are the two series I remember being best out of the set and this review seems to back that up. Doom's ability to just adapt to future tech almost instantly is much like his ability to just grab pieces of Galactus' stuff and make an anti-Beyonder weapon.
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- Location
- Netherlands
As I recall, the general gist was that the Watcher of 2099 cloned some new version of the OG team to protect the future because he remembered how good they were at it in the past. It's pretty lame, really.
Spider-Man 2099 is the most significant and has the biggest impact, but I think Doom 2099 is a close second. Which makes sense, given these are the biggest titles in terms of how many issues they got. IMHO Ravage brings up the rear of the original line-up, I never cared for him.
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Ravage was the worst of the 2099 stuff I read. I don't think I made it more than two issues before quitting.
Addendum:
Given this is extra-dystopian future Latveria, I assumed it was the police robot equivalent of yelling "Stop resisting," at a motionless person before beating them.
- Location
- France
Punisher 2099 is also memorable due to some meme materials, like declaring he doesn't need a jetpack when he has hate as he's falling from the sky. Or this exchange:
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
If it was meant to be a comedy, that'd be pretty good writing.
Variant 09: Skeleton-Wolverine Doom from Guardians of the Galaxy (1992-1993)
- Location
- Netherlands
Variant #09 - Guardians of the Galaxy v1 (1992-1993)
Introduction
Today we're travelling to the distant future, and into SPACE, in order to find our next variant of Doctor Doom - because this time we're visiting the Guardians of the Galaxy! Despite that name, doubtlessly familiar due to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we won't be seeing any Groot, Rocket, or Star-Lord gallivanting around this particular entry - no, we're talking about the original Guardians of the Galaxy here from way back in 1969, rather than the new batch from 2008 who shot into stardom. That said, there are still some familiar names around, since many characters from the classic Guardians made their way into the movies as members of the Ravagers - most notably Yondu. Not that we'll be seeing a ton of their group, really - the reasons will become clear pretty quickly.
This version of Doctor Doom shows up in a surprising number of issues, actually - twelve or thirteen depending on how you count - but since most of those appearances are glorified cameos or small scenes entirely separate from a main plot which does not involve him, I think I can knock them all out in a single update rather than spend multiple entries on them. One big reason for that unusual situation is that these comics split their narrative between two or more plotlines constantly - an A-Plot following the core Guardians in some far flung adventure, and then a few disconnected B-Plots following some side characters that fill up the margins. Guess where Doom mostly hangs out? Suffice to say the B-Plots don't generally get the biggest page count, so Doom doesn't get much time to perform. I'm also not going to cover the actions of a team that doesn't even share a time period with Doom until near the end, so if you really must know what random nonsense the Guardians got up to in these issues, pick up the comics yourself!
Covers
Doctor Doom shows up on a sum total of one cover in this entire run, and that would be the final one - and since it includes a pretty big spoiler for a really ridiculously weird aspect of this storyline, I figure I'll keep that one in reserve. It's a doozy. All the other comics are generic pics of the Guardians or their supporting cast, sometimes without even having a background to the picture - it's just them on a blank color with maybe some text. Not very inspired, I gotta say. Most of the covers also don't reflect the contents we'll be discussing here, since they generally depict the A-story. There's time travel, weird personality changing heroes/villains, actively recruiting people from the past, and I'm pretty sure Dormammu shows up to squish a spaceship in half - just Guardians things. We'll skip all of that.
Story Overview
#21
Our story opens not with Doom but with… a poor fellow getting their ass handed to them. 'Where is he?' a vampire-looking feral lady with distinctive twin-peaked hair demands from her quarry, while a winged 'Batwing' (no relation) blasts him asunder for failing to answer. The person they're after? The legendary Wolverine! Yes, the original one. We're soon introduced to the surviving members of the Nine - they are six mutants who once ruled a planet together before the Guardians of the Galaxy deposed them in a previous storyline. There used to be nine, as the name suggests, but the other three died - whoops! The remaining members are led by Rancor, who is Wolverine's great great great granddaughter, and she carries one of her ancestor's severed claws with her. Her subordinates include the flying Batwing, the vanta-black shadow manipulator Shaddo, the oversized size-changer Blockade, telepath Mindscan, and teleporter Side-Step.
If the descendant of Wolverine bit didn't tip you off, we're currently in the year 3000 (not much has changed, but they live underwater?) The team has arrived in the city of Madripoor, a fictionalized Singapore analogue with an intense rich-poor divide built onto an imposing cliff that overlooks the ocean. (Okay, so maybe not everyone lives underwater.)
The villain group quickly gets into a tussle with the local military, with Rancor tearing them apart as she demands to know where Wolverine is. She seems to have gotten the help from an alien psychic to determine whether he still lived, and the alien said to look for answers in this location. Vague psychics, huh? What a shocker. When the telepath on the team determines none of the guards know what the hell she's even talking about, as they are solely motivated by protecting their leaders at the local palace, Rancor determines they should look for answers there. Side-Step opens a portal inside, but questions why a tiny country like Madripoor would need such a large army. Batwing notes that from the fortifications, it seems they must have a very strong enemy just to their east…
East of the city, hidden under a dome, hides a mysterious figure who watches these villains on a video screen and concludes that they may tip the delicate balance which he has established. Although for now they only attack his ancient enemies in Madripoor, if they were to turn their attention towards him… no, that is unthinkable! He would not let them, or anyone else, disturb the tranquility which he has so long preserved beneath his dome! He concludes there must surely still be some superheroes around willing to lay down their very lives to take down people like these, and is surprised to find that a team of heroes still holes up in New York City all these years later - how quaint! How pathetically predictable! The mysterious cloaked figure decides an anonymous signal would suffice…
Sure enough, the Guardians of the Galaxy soon come in conflict with the Nine as result of this anonymous call: their team is composed of the recently recruited cat-man Talon, who can fire his claws like bullets, as well as fire-haired Nikki Gold, muscles-on-muscles brute Charlie-27, shield-slinging Cap-ripoff Major Victory, and Yondu, who has an absolutely enormous fin in the comics - makes his movie counterpart look wimpy in comparison. They also get backup from Starhawk later on, who clearly has an enormous backstory I am absolutely not getting into. This fight drags on for three issues and is basically irrelevant plot-wise, so it's a bit of a chore to get through.
#22
While the aforementioned combat is ongoing, we see a quick cutaway to the regent of Madripoor receiving a call from their 'enemy to the east' who is there to swear that 'none of this was my doing, on this you have my word!' The regent decides to believe this, since 'our enemy's word has always been his bond' and leaves Madripoor behind. Hm, I wonder who this mystery figure might be?
#23
After some more fisticuffs happen, the entirety of the villainous Nine suddenly fade away into nothingness, much to the heroes' consternation. The villainous group leaves behind only the broken claw of Wolverine that Rancor was carrying around. The Guardians are puzzled who might've been responsible for this escape, and briefly suspect Starhawk because he's doing a 90's dark reimagining thing at the moment, but unbeknownst to them all, it's revealed that the mysterious voice beneath the dome was actually responsible, having teleported them all to safety within his secluded haven. He's brought them to his home, which looks suspiciously like an Eastern-European village overlooked by a castle. There they can stay until its owner ever has a need for them in a future story arc...
The comic quickly assures us, by the way, that the man in charge of the dome had another reason for this actions - his deep space radar has picked up a threat heading towards Earth, a suspiciously Galactus-like one, and he contends Earth will soon need all its protectors if she is to survive, so the Guardians need to be at their best! Yeeeeah. In a final shot, we finally see a piece of our mysterious figure revealed - and it's a metal mask, the iconic mask of Doctor Doom!
Okay, so maybe this whole secret identity thing wasn't really much of a secret, especially given what you're reading, but the comic saw the need to be pointlessly dramatic and mysterious about it, so I figured I'd play along!
#30
Skipping ahead about half a dozen issues, we pick the story back up in Eastern Europe, which is apparently where Doom's secret dome is located now - which doesn't really make any sense, since Madripoor is in south-eastern Asia and the dome was supposed to be eastwards from there. I suppose if you go all the way around the Earth it counts, but at that point it's honestly closer if you go westward. Maybe the dome teleports? In any case, Rancor and her team are still being held captive there, and the Wolverine descendant has started to destroy stuff to get out. She demands to see whoever's responsible for this humiliation, while Side-Step admits that she's been unable to teleport through the dome for weeks now - none of their powers are of any use om getting out, actually. Evidently they've just been hanging out in their rooms for weeks?
Mindscan reports the approach of a male presence, and Rancor declares she'll greatly enjoy disemboweling them! Doctor Doom enters and announces that such won't be necessary nor possible - and he bids her welcome. The entire group is thrown by the arrival of someone they'd believed to be long dead - it's impossible! Doctor Doom lives!
#31
Still raging at her confinement within Doom's dome, Rancor declares that the Guardians of the Galaxy must be responsible for the indignity of being captured here, and feels like unleashing her anger on this absurd imitation of a long-dead despot is a great idea. While several of her teammates try to hold her back, they can't - and Doom tells them they really shouldn't. Furious, she throws herself at him with all her wrath, only to be mercilessly blasted back with contemptuous ease by a single shot from his gauntlet. Doom then incredulously wonders if she really thought he'd survived a thousand years to be done in by the likes of her…?
Tapping a button on his belt, Doom manifests an airtight bubble around Rancor's head and she starts suffocating, but at Batwing's urging he eventually releases her alive, noting that if he wanted her dead, she'd already be. Batwing thanks him for his mercy and notes that Rancor will thank him too as soon as she's recovered. A loopy Rancor decides she'll thank him by tearing open his metal suit and feeding on Doom's living flesh… soon! Lovely. Doom then concludes the conversation by announcing that their team has the honor of helping him restore… reality TV to the population? Uh…? Okay, so it says Realitee-Vee, but that still sounds completely stupid.
#32
Realitee-Vee, Doom explains, is the most sophisticated and effective method of mass manipulation ever conceived. Indeed, he himself invented the technology to transmit a highly addictive odorless gas along with audio and video signals (somehow) and test marketed it as a form of entertainment, employing some aliens as lackeys to see it done. It was an unqualified success, at least until the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Commandeers arrived and wrecked his broadcasting facility in the Bronx in an earlier issue. Retcons!
Rancor and her team aren't impressed, noting they're conquerors, not repairmen - she doesn't see what this matters to them. Doom comments that her 'failing to see' is an interesting choice of words… for as the blind Blockade can attest, RTV works on him, too… He's brainwashed them all into his thrall as they sat there, and now they have but one choice… to do as he says!
Doom eventually turns off the entrancing video and asks the group whether it's been a minute, a month, or a millennium since he turned on the Realitee-Vee - do they know? Several of the villains beg him to turn the device back on at once! Just a little more! Rancor is the only one who simply seems pained by it, complaining of an intense headache. Doom indicates that such is the insidious power of his technology which he seeks to use for their mutual benefit! Doom then shows them a powerpoint presentation of his various global stations, noting that without the generating facility they are useless, but if it were to turn back on, his plan would get back on schedule. Rancor still isn't convinced she has any reason to go along with this, and to sweeten the pot Doom offers her the claw of Wolverine she lost a few issues earlier.
He throws it at her feet and notes it shall be a token of their understanding, and Rancor agrees. As he turns his back, she maliciously decides she now has exactly what she needs to carve Doom's heart from his chest when the time is right…
#33
While the Retox Contingent forces lead by a punk called Flashframe escort the last remaining members of the rebel group Commandeers to the old Saltex compound, they are astounded to find it mostly intact despite being nuked only a few issues earlier by the Guardians - Doomtech is very durable! It seems the Retoxers are actually there to turn the Realitee-Vee back on - they're addicts who need their fix, and they won't take no for an answer. Before they can get very far with that, however, they run into Rancor and the rest of the Nine, who for some reason decide to intervene despite being there for the exact same reason. Okay? It seems they're mostly just out for blood here, and after being cooped up for months, they'll take it where they can get it. It's just what the Doctor (Doom) ordered!
#34
At the Saltex compound, Blockade warns Rancor that Doom has arrived on the premises while she's fondling the broken claw of Wolverine, and she tells him to get back to work. Doom strides in and compliments her on her quick work on the repairs - they're ahead of schedule. Rancor just snarls that the sooner they're done with this job, the sooner they can end their association. Doom takes her hostility in stride and decides her lieutenants deserve congratulations for their efforts. Rancor doesn't agree - they obey orders. Her orders. We get a quick snapshot of the team kidnapping some humans into underground chambers at the compound, and there's some misplaced textboxes - Side-Step calls herself Batwing at one point for some reason. Among the gathered are the Retoxers and the Commandeers.
Doom walks with Rancor and inquires whether the team all put on their nasal implants which prevent them from being affected by the addictive RTV gas, and she acknowledges that they have. He then asks if the control room is up and running, and Rancor notes that it is due to Mindscan's efforts. They enter said control room and Mindscan notes that the external viewing screens are functional which means he can address everyone working inside Saltex. Doom agrees that he shall - as soon as he installs the Karoshi program! Doom helpfully notes that Karoshi is the japanese word for someone who works themselves to death, which is exactly what he intends for the 'chattel' he's just appropriated. Realitee-Vee is back on the air!
While the Retoxers glorify in getting a dose of their preferred poison as they get exposed to the RTV with the rest of the captives, the Commandeers try to hold their breath, but it's no use - within moments they too succumb to the mind control. Doom instructs everyone to keep working indefinitely on the repairs of the facility, and a continuous Karoshi loop will keep them going until they drop. When Mindscan points out Doom has just imported thousands of laborers, so what'll happen when they die? Doom just tells her they'll have to import thousands more. Rancor appreciates his style, and thinks she could almost grow to like Doom if she didn't already plan on killing him.
Later, when night falls, we see Rancor put her plan into action, sneaking through the halls of the facility with the claw of Wolverine clenched in her fist, bloodlust and hatred permeating her very being. She kisses the blade, then approaches a seated Doom from behind - he's looking at footage of the full Moon for one reason or another and seems not to notice her.
That is, until he suddenly speaks up and asks Rancor if she has a good reason to disturb her. Surprised, Rancor struggles over her words, wondering how on Earth he knew she was there, before slipping the claw back into her boot and pretending she's there for a benign reason, deciding she'll bide her time.
She then inquires why Doom is looking at the Moon, and he is kind enough to actually explain - he's looking for the Inhumans as a new source of slave labor, since their superhuman powers would be beneficial to his cause. Attilan has been abandoned for centuries, he explains, but he still registers thousands of lifeforms on the Moon anyway - but they're hidden in some fashion. Rancor admits surprise that Doom could be stumped, and a mysterious unseen figure on the Moon watches on with a goblet in his hand - how meta! He declares that with his powers confounding a simpleton like Victor von Doom is child's play - and it's revealed that he's already enslaved the Inhumans himself! This mysterious figure - well, it's Loki. Again!
#36
A few issues later, Doom and Rancor are once more on a walkabout (or the same one) and things are still ahead of schedule - remarkably so! Doom is in such high spirits that when Rancor calls him Doctor Doom, he asks her to call him Victor, and says that he's glad their relationship has improved of late.
He drops her off at her quarters and Batwing repeats her 'Thank you, Victor' and mimes vomiting. He confronts her with her recent habit of sucking up to Doom, and the rest of the group agree that it seems she's lost her edge. An enraged Rancor attacks Batwing for this slight and pulls out the Wolverine claw to threaten him, then seems to actually go through with it - only to reveal that she didn't slice his throat, but his head - she takes a chunk of his scalp off as punishment. Ouch.
#37
After a brief glimpse of Loki looking in on Doom once more failing to find his lunar compound, we once more pick up at the Saltex compound. Someone knocks on Doom's door and he irritably notes he left specific orders that he was not to be disturbed, but he seems pleased to see that Rancor has once more paid him a visit. She announces that she has news Victor would like to hear - Mindscan has finally managed to break through to the secret location of the Inhumans! Doom is ecstatic at the revelation and paces out of the room to visit Mindscan, who has no idea what he's talking about when he asks after the location. Doom's eyes widen as he realizes he's been tricked, which is when Rancor enters and tosses the broken claw directly into Doom's chest, and the adamantium slides straight through his armor as if it's not even there, and Doom crumples to the ground.
Rancor luxuriates in her revenge for a moment, then tells Mindscan to interrupt the Karoshi program on the slaves - she has something she wants to show all these people. She announces that the facility is now under her control, and there's a special program coming up - Rancor feasting on the heart of Doctor Doom! As she says this, she drives the adamantium spike deeper into Doom's chest as he groans in pain.
#38
After an extended sojourn into another time-period, the Guardians of the Galaxy return to their present (which is actually the future) and discover that the old Avengers base that the Commandeers had… commandeered… was ransacked in their absence by the Retoxers and the surviving members kidnapped. The team quickly finds some of the last log entries and discover a futuristic videotape of the team's last moments, which chronicle Flashframe and his pals breaking down the door and killing whoever was filming. The Guardians, and Talon specifically (who is actually from the future Earth rather than from space) swear vengeance and the team moves out to take down the Retoxers. Since Realitee-Vee was mentioned in the video, they decide there's only one place they could be - the old compound!
At the Bronx, where the Saltex compound is located, Batwing and Blockade are on sewer patrol for some reason or another, trudging through shit looking for baddies to fight. It seems they were sent there as punishment by Rancor, though Blockade isn't sure why he's getting shit on when it was Batwing who pissed her off and got scalped for his trouble.
Batwing gets annoyed and flies off by himself and promptly gets ambushed by Talon and dumped into the foul water. When the villain realizes who he's up against, though, he loses all fear and starts making fun of the cat-boy who can shoot his fingernails at people - 'the mighty manicurist.' Talon doesn't take it kindly, calls him 'wingnut' as if that's remotely clever, then blows it up with some mysterious device which sends his screams cascading through the tunnels.
Blockade comes rushing in to track down his colleague, but gets ambushed himself by Charlie-27 - he quickly starts growing using his powers to get the upper hand. Starhawk (who has somehow undergone a sexchange since we last saw them) proposes to deal with the villain, but Major Victory moves in before she can, blasting the huge guy with a mental assault of pink energy. 'The power within is mine to discover!' he snarls with whited out eyes, which his team members don't understand at all - they just kind of move on. The blast actually bowled Blockade straight through a wall which borders the Saltex compound, so they have an easy entrypoint too! How fortuitous! They've actually broken through straight into the prison area, and they arrive just in time to see Rancor threaten a downed Doctor Doom while telling everyone that's watching that she's going to eat his entrails - wasn't it his heart last time?
Switching over to Rancor, Mindscan warns her that she still senses Doom's brain activity - he's not done yet. Rancor just tells to back off - he's hers to kill! Doom declares that he begs to differ, before raising a gauntlet and unleashing… SNIKT! Out come two adamantium claws, the third one cut off at the base and missing!
He slashes at Rancor and tosses her off him, calling her a 'filthy witch' which is probably not something he'd do, given his dear old mum. Rancor declares that she stabbed him in the heart, and Doom agrees - she did, with her ancestor Wolverine's claw. He grabs it and pulls it out of himself, then declares she can have it back - he has the other five! He throws the blade straight into Rancor's shoulder, then raises his other hand and reveals three more of Wolverine's claws sliding out of his gauntlet…
For years, Doom notes, she's been trying to find out what happened to dear old Logan, to discover his secret fate. He then takes his adamantium claws and stabs himself in the sides of his chest - Rancor calls him mad for impaling himself. Doom reveals, though, that she's wrong again - and it's time to cut away all deception. He drags his claws down, ripping apart his armor in the process, before stabbing himself in the face and ripping his mask away as well. He asks if she's beginning to understand now, and Mindscan runs in terror even as Rancor stares in shock. She rips out the missing claw while Doom divests himself of the rest of his armor, gadgets, and even cloak. Doom then wonders if she's ready - ready to meet her maker? A horrified Rancor demands to know what he's done…
'Wolverine is long dead,' Doom declares as we get a full-body shot of Logan's adamantium skeleton, fully mechanized through Doom's robotics, and within which is contained his brain, the last remnant of the living Victor von Doom immortalized in an indestructible form. Utilizing his neural-micronic controls, Doom declares, he shall now take great pleasure in carving her into ribbons!
#39
Here's that cover I mentioned. It's pretty good! I like the discarded mask, though I think I would have preferred if he'd kept it on. More recognizable that way...
Rancor snarls that she's finally discovered the truth - Doctor Doom killed Wolverine! I didn't get that from the last issue, but sure. Rancor and Doom quickly exchange some gripes that double as recaps, before they get into a proper fight - Doom declares he'd like to see what her skeleton looks like stripped of her flesh, while Rancor just sort of growls like an animal. Figures. Rancor manages to throw Doom across the room, but he's back on his feet within moments, demanding she surrender - she claims the word isn't in her vocabulary. Huh, she has one of those? Rancor dodges a few more blows and snarls at Doom that possessing a weapon means nothing if you don't know how to use it, as she'll demonstrate - she cuts into him with the missing blade, but it just bounces off - he's made of adamantium after all, he's nearly impervious! Doom then viciously slashes back in revenge, cutting her across the midriff.
Outside, in the Saltex compound, it seems the entire encounter is still being televised. Side-Step tells the group that Doom gutted their leader, so they should step in - Mindscan doesn't agree, noting that she can sense Rancor doesn't want any help, and in any case another problem is developing that needs their attention: the Guardians of the Galaxy have arrived!
The Guardians send Starhawk to fly on ahead to perform some recon while they follow on foot while Side-Step teleports the Nine into position nearby. It seems there's been another bit of space-time fuckery, since the two groups were in the same place last issue. Ah well. In any case, to even up the odds Mindscan uses her powers to subconsciously revive the fallen Batwing and Blockade. Within moments the former finds himself awake while being carried around on Talon's shoulder, and he takes the opportunity to blast Nikki Gold aside. Blockade pulls himself upright as well and spots the downed Nikki at his feet, and decides in his infinite wisdom to try and step on her - briefly forgetting that her hair is on fire all the time. Genius. As he dances back from her with a burned foot, the rest of the Nine show up and the whole thing becomes a brawl.
We switch over to Starhawk on her recon tour, and she explains to nobody that she wasn't here for the previous storylines, but she read the reports about what went on and concludes the big-ass monitor can mean only one thing - Realitee-Vee is back on the air! But, she declares, by her children's grave it won't be for long! She's called down from the sky before she can move on, though, and discovers that the source is Tarin - one of the surviving Commandeers - who is looking over the other, an unconscious Old Redd who is on the verge of death. Starhawk is about to help when she smells a repugnant odor and then spots that in a nearby pit, hundred of dead bodies are piled up - the remains of the people worked to death by the Karoshi program.
I guess it must've been going on for way longer than the comic suggests? I certainly didn't perceive multiple days or weeks had passed? Later comments would suggest this all takes months, but that seems even harder to parse. Starhawk declares that RTV is a horror that must be destroyed, but Tarin points out that the current broadcast isn't actually Realitee-Vee - it's a live feed of Doctor Doom fighting Rancor!
Skeletal Doom slashes Rancor in the back as she tries to create some distance, and he stands over her as he declares a killing blow would be easy as she is now - but he prefers to see her writhe in pain! Rancor tells him he wasted his only chance, then throws herself at him again, declaring that he might claim invulnerability, but she found an opening! With that she uses the loose claw of Wolverine as a knife and stabs it into Doom's cybernetic eye, and he screams in fury.
That nearly penetrated his brain! Rancor rips a piece of equipment out of the floor and uses that to bludgeon Doom some more, declaring she'll drive the point home! She pins him to the floor and tries to drive the blade deeper, but Doom finally gets some leverage and throws her off again, shouting that her death is at hand!
As the fight continues, Rancor realizes that with one eye defective, Doom's depth perception is faulty and he's starting to miss more - plus he accidentally cuts some heavy-duty wiring that conducts more than 50.000 volts of electricity - handy, that! While Doom announces she cannot elude him forever, Rancor notes that he's got a blind side now - and she intends to stay on it! As smoke billows into the room from the destroyed equipment, Rancor uses it to hide her location for a moment and then ambushes Doom from the side, jamming the exposed wiring into his metal skeleton and electrocuting him - the power surge send Doom screaming to the ground, and turns off all power in the Saltex compound - I guess that blew the breakers.
The Guardians are plunged into darkness, but the fiery hair of Nikki provides ample illumination, though it seems the Nine have vanished. Soon Starhawk arrives with Tarin and Old Redd in tow. They've survived! Not much later we get a moment between Nikki and Charlie-27 - it seems in a recent story Nikki blew her top (literally) and burned off his hair in the process, but he forgives her and suggests it's already starting to grow back. The reason they're together is that Nikki is providing a light while Charlie works on the circuit breaker so they can turn the lights back on. Well, that was quick! With a dramatic bible quote, the city's artificial grid pops back up again. The rest of the team, meanwhile, have started evacuating the compound - nuking it didn't wipe it out the first time, so they're going to use Starhawk's powers to do it properly this time. Major Victory wonders where one of their newer members - Yellowjacket - went to.
The Nine are bickering amongst themselves, annoyed that Mindscan decides they should scamper when the lights went out - to run from the Guardians. Talon uses his magic powers to detect that Yellowjacket is still with the villains, minituarized, and they watch and plan as the team fights. Batwing warns that he'll go to Rancor and explain how Mindscan disgraced their group with her 'leadership' while Mindscan points out that Starhawk was on her way back, and they don't have the firepower to take her on. Shaddo interrupts to say that the monitors are coming back on - and they reveal Rancor and the smoking skeleton of Doctor Doom! The show is over - it's time to get back to work! By the sacred claw of her ancestor, she declares, this travesty has ended and victory -
Like a proper horror villain, Doom returns from the dead one more time and impales Rancor from behind, skewering her on her ancestor's blades until she drops her own in defeat. Doctor Doom is far from dead!
Shaddo tells the others that no matter what their leader ordered, they're teleporting up there now! At that moment Talon tells Yellowjacket to get the hell out of dodge, right before several Guardians teleport to her previous location. Shaddo offers to hold them off, but Talon uses his magic to encase them in an energy field. Mindscan appeals to Major Victory, saying this code of honor should not allow him to stand by and watch Rancor get slaughtered, and he agrees, instructing Yellowjacket to deal with Doom. She acknowledges the order and flies off.
Doom is still tossing a wounded Rancor around the room, all while he declares that he's waited for this moment for months - it is time to end her worthless existence just as he did her ancestor Logan's! Oh, so he did kill Wolverine. Cool. Right as he's getting ready to deliver his killing blow, however, the Saltex compound suddenly rumbles with distant explosions - it's getting demolished! Doom immediately blames Rancor, but before he can behead her, Yellowjacket arrives and uses her laser-stingers to blindside him (heh) and even trip him to the ground. When one of her blasts comes perilously close to his one remaining eye, Doom decides he cannot risk being incapacitated and leaves, heading for his emergency escape. Yellowjacket is about to chase him when she realizes Rancor is bleeding out, and that's a more immediate concern than a fleeing villain. As the door slides closed behind him, it's the last we see of Doom...
In the compound, the Guardians release the captive mutants - with their leader incapacitated and most of the Saltex compound getting rendered to rubble by an angry Starhawk in some great panels of building destruction, they're not going anywhere if they know what's good for them! Meanwhile, Yellowjacket brings Rancor on board their starship Icarus via a Star Trek style transporter, but is amazed to find that she's healing incredibly quickly like her ancestor Wolverine - she has a healing factor! That's unfortunately when Rancor wakes up, realizes she's being overlooked by an enemy, and immediately tries to murder her with the blade of Wolverine that she picked back up at some point. Yellowjacket turns tiny to avoid the blows, but still gets hit anyway by the murderous villain.
Down on the ground, the Guardians are shocked when the mutants suddenly get teleported out through unknown means, and when the reconnect with the ship they find out how - Rancor knocked out Yellowjacket, then stole one of the shuttles on board their ship, which are equipped with a transporter. They got away clean! Yellowjacket's first solo assignment - and she blew it! While the group discusses how to comfort their new ally, Starhawk arrives to warn them all that they had better evacuate in the next ten seconds. She's going to implode the molecular fusion reactors and reduce the entire area to dust! In a cataclysmic explosion, the Saltex compound is no more…
In a short epilogue, we pick back up weeks later with the inauguration of a new president of the Northeast Corridor, with the Guardians and Commandeers in attendance - this is another storyline that never really came up, but I guess they're doing a full wrap-up of all ongoing plots. Who is this new president? Why, it's Tarin herself, with Old Redd as her vice-president! That's not convenient at all. Major Victory of the Guardians then announces that since he found the shield of Captain America, he was told that it should be used as a rallying symbol to reunite the peoples of Earth and start a new era of prosperity, and in honor of that promise to the original Cap, he hands it off to Tarin as a symbol of her new office…
Epilogue
In a bit of a weird spin, this storyline has a long tail in the form of Hollywood, also known as Wonder Man in contemporary comics, who you may remember as instrumental during the events of Emperor Doom. He goes undercover in the future to hide that he's still alive; since he's an energy being, he can just kinda exist for a thousand years without much trouble, though I think he skipped most of the intervening years in some way - I haven't looked that up. In any case, he's aware of Doom from their past encounters, and when he discovers the villain's involvement in the events described above (which he only gets told about in Guardians of the Galaxy v1 Annual #2) he promptly swears vengeance and goes on a one-man killing spree across the galaxy to hunt down the supervillain.
Which would have been awesome, really - if he'd ever actually gotten to finish that. There's a bunch of issues where he hassles random people in the galaxy for information about Doom and his whereabouts, but he's then distracted by a major disaster, gets involved in a crossover, and promptly forgets that this whole Doctor Doom thing was his personal obsession - and then the comic run ends abruptly. As far as I can tell, the storyline is entirely dropped there and since the original team didn't really get any more comics for a while, this version of Doom went on to survive and thrive like nothing ever happened...
Rating & Comments
This arc is most notable in how goddamn drawn out it is. Look, I'm fine with having Doom show up as the background villain who plots and plans and whatnot. I'm fine with him puppeteering some other villains, too. But did you really have to make his storyline like twelve issues long when most of the actually relevant stuff happens in the span of the last issue and a half? And that's only counting the issues where Doom is actively involved - since he's stated to be behind some of the earlier plots too, if indirectly, that technically means Doom has been the Big Bad for the majority of the series' existence and the Guardians never even face him at all - only Rancor and Wasp get any hits in, and then he runs away. Since there is no later resolution to his arc, what exactly was the point behind all of that? Why set up a Big Bad and then essentially forget about him after a one-off issue that's just designed to beef up his threat factor?
If we ignore, for the moment, that the final issue feels more like the setup for a big showdown than the actual showdown it's supposed to be, it's actually pretty good - the conflict is a lot more punchy and direct than all the elaborate talking and threatening of the past issues, even if most of the supporting cast just kinda stand by the sidelines watching the whole thing go down on TV. Literally.
The upside of a whole bunch of issues of extended backstory is that the surviving members of the Nine build up something of a character, especially Rancor - and it's at least her that gets to do the takedown of the guy who kidnapped her. I'm a little less enthusiastic about making newcomer Wasp the token Guardian to chase Doom away - not only is she not terribly powerful compared to most of the characters there, which makes her a weird character for Doom to flee from, but it is also strange for her to be the one to follow up on previous events that she was never even involved with. Huh?
Rancor gets the most development out of anyone in these issues, continually planning to undermine Doom, who apparently does get swayed a bit by her pretending to warm up to him in later issues. At his urging she starts calling him Victor and he's totally cool with it - he even tolerates her interrupting him while he's doing something important, and goes along with her without question. Impressive! We could assume Doom was playing it up, I suppose, but he seems to take his sweet time to react to her surprise attack, so I presume he really was caught unaware, which is what leads him to dropping all disguises and taking her on in a fair fight. A fight which Rancor loses when Doom gets serious, but only after she gets in a very nearly lethal hit - this could have gone either way, and I imagine that shocked Doom real good. (Much like the electricity did.) She's actually pretty fun, though she's a completely over the top take on the feral mutant concept - she scalps her own underling, for crying out loud! Her schtick does get a bit old after the third or fourth time she promises vengeance, but I guess it's her thing.
It's no surprise that I think the coolest part of these comics is the explanation of Doom's survival into the distant future of 2099 - Oh, I'm sorry, I meant 2999. Much like in the future adventures of Iron Man and Doom chronicled in Iron Man v1 #250, Doom augmented his body to keep his brain alive, but he's clearly a lot better at it in this future. Instead of being geriatric and barely functional, this Doom managed to keep his noggin working just fine by transplanting his brain into the dead skeleton of Wolverine (whom he murdered) and then animating it with technology. He's a cybernetic organism, like the Terminator, and shares more than a few obvious design elements with the skinless version of Arnie's iconic role - though those similarities are probably down to both resembling human skeletons. Given that Doctor Doom's classic look was designed in part to mirror traditional imagery of the Grim Reaper - with a mask standing in for a bare skull - this seems appropriate.
I'll be honest, I kinda wished he'd kept his tattered cloak to make that parallel more obvious, but it's still a pretty badass version of Doom, for all that his appearance in this way is restricted to this one storyline.
Besides his physical changes, Doom had undergone some alterations to his personality - though it may simply be a factor of age, experience, or no longer giving a crap. Doom is a lot more practical and murderous here than we tend to see in the normal comic timeline - which is impressive considering his track record. Yes, he's definitely negligent with the lives of his underlings no matter which continuity you visit, but he rarely commits mass atrocities in the mainline universe. In this storyline, however, he essentially sets up future mind control Auschwitz and then it's explicitly shown that thousands of people die and are replaced by new workers that are kidnapped from the streets while the dead old ones are dumped into public mass graves. That's a lot more hardcore than most depictions of Doom tend to be, even when they're depicting him as the murderous tyrant he can clearly be when he's in a bad mood - even at his worst, there tends to be a reason for his cruelty. Here, it's simply brushed aside.
Towards the end of this storyline, this Doom also proves to be fairly cowardly, fleeing from potential harm when he realizes that maybe his hermetically sealed adamantium skeleton isn't quite as invulnerable as he had hoped. I suppose that has to be the mindset of someone who managed to survive for a thousand years, though, so can we really blame him there? Even canon Doom has been known to get the hell out of Dodge when things got hairy! Still, given that he's never caught, Cyber-Skeleton Doom is presumably still around somewhere - maybe he's back in his domed up Latveria, getting into squabbles with occasional neighbor Madripoor?
While I didn't have any major complaints about this variant of Doom (beyond the storyline dragging on across too many issues) there are some weird things about it that are worth noting. Early on there's an inconsistency in Latveria's location, where Doom's hidden domed city (or base) randomly changes locations across the world without explanation. It's also odd that Doom's original motive for luring the Guardians to Madripoor was to beat the Nine up for him so they wouldn't head over to Doom's location, but he then kidnaps those very same villains and brings them there himself. Why? Did he really just decide on that at the last possible moment because he detected that Galactus was hanging out nearby? That's so... random.
Also, if Doom has such an easy time keeping villains under his sway with his magical brainwash-television, why was he ever worried about them to begin with? Plus, why would he not think to install on/off switches on the anti-brainwashing tech he gives his underlings later, when he puts them to work? That seems a bad idea when it's the very same method you used to convince them to work for you in the first place. Doom maybe should have thought that through! One other odd thing I noticed - besides calling women 'wenches', Doom also uses the word 'witch' as an insult here - which seems a bit weird coming from the child of a witch...
Anyway, this entire story (and the Doom within) was pretty middle of the pack, in my opinion - some good fighting towards the end, but it just kind of spun its wheels for way too long to keep much interest going. Still, it didn't really commit any huge sins either so I don't feel it warrants a particularly bad score either. Doom was generally consistent with his canon self, if we presume his more pragmatic, nasty side had a thousand years to fester, so I'm fine with that...
Most Far-Flung Feral Future-Doom Quotes
"Surely there must still be heroes left in this world. Poor, misguided fools who would lay down their very lives for -- Amazing! They still congregate in New York! How quaint! How pathetically predictable!"
"Though you are a most ill-mannered and ungrateful guest... I still bid you welcome!"
"Provincial wench! Do you think I have survived over a thousand years to be done in by the likes of you?"
"You will work until you drop! That is all!"
"A killing blow would be so easy now… but I prefer to see you writhe in pain."
"Insolent cow! Doctor Doom is far from dead!"
Introduction
Today we're travelling to the distant future, and into SPACE, in order to find our next variant of Doctor Doom - because this time we're visiting the Guardians of the Galaxy! Despite that name, doubtlessly familiar due to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we won't be seeing any Groot, Rocket, or Star-Lord gallivanting around this particular entry - no, we're talking about the original Guardians of the Galaxy here from way back in 1969, rather than the new batch from 2008 who shot into stardom. That said, there are still some familiar names around, since many characters from the classic Guardians made their way into the movies as members of the Ravagers - most notably Yondu. Not that we'll be seeing a ton of their group, really - the reasons will become clear pretty quickly.
This version of Doctor Doom shows up in a surprising number of issues, actually - twelve or thirteen depending on how you count - but since most of those appearances are glorified cameos or small scenes entirely separate from a main plot which does not involve him, I think I can knock them all out in a single update rather than spend multiple entries on them. One big reason for that unusual situation is that these comics split their narrative between two or more plotlines constantly - an A-Plot following the core Guardians in some far flung adventure, and then a few disconnected B-Plots following some side characters that fill up the margins. Guess where Doom mostly hangs out? Suffice to say the B-Plots don't generally get the biggest page count, so Doom doesn't get much time to perform. I'm also not going to cover the actions of a team that doesn't even share a time period with Doom until near the end, so if you really must know what random nonsense the Guardians got up to in these issues, pick up the comics yourself!
Covers
Doctor Doom shows up on a sum total of one cover in this entire run, and that would be the final one - and since it includes a pretty big spoiler for a really ridiculously weird aspect of this storyline, I figure I'll keep that one in reserve. It's a doozy. All the other comics are generic pics of the Guardians or their supporting cast, sometimes without even having a background to the picture - it's just them on a blank color with maybe some text. Not very inspired, I gotta say. Most of the covers also don't reflect the contents we'll be discussing here, since they generally depict the A-story. There's time travel, weird personality changing heroes/villains, actively recruiting people from the past, and I'm pretty sure Dormammu shows up to squish a spaceship in half - just Guardians things. We'll skip all of that.
Story Overview
#21
Our story opens not with Doom but with… a poor fellow getting their ass handed to them. 'Where is he?' a vampire-looking feral lady with distinctive twin-peaked hair demands from her quarry, while a winged 'Batwing' (no relation) blasts him asunder for failing to answer. The person they're after? The legendary Wolverine! Yes, the original one. We're soon introduced to the surviving members of the Nine - they are six mutants who once ruled a planet together before the Guardians of the Galaxy deposed them in a previous storyline. There used to be nine, as the name suggests, but the other three died - whoops! The remaining members are led by Rancor, who is Wolverine's great great great granddaughter, and she carries one of her ancestor's severed claws with her. Her subordinates include the flying Batwing, the vanta-black shadow manipulator Shaddo, the oversized size-changer Blockade, telepath Mindscan, and teleporter Side-Step.
If the descendant of Wolverine bit didn't tip you off, we're currently in the year 3000 (not much has changed, but they live underwater?) The team has arrived in the city of Madripoor, a fictionalized Singapore analogue with an intense rich-poor divide built onto an imposing cliff that overlooks the ocean. (Okay, so maybe not everyone lives underwater.)
The villain group quickly gets into a tussle with the local military, with Rancor tearing them apart as she demands to know where Wolverine is. She seems to have gotten the help from an alien psychic to determine whether he still lived, and the alien said to look for answers in this location. Vague psychics, huh? What a shocker. When the telepath on the team determines none of the guards know what the hell she's even talking about, as they are solely motivated by protecting their leaders at the local palace, Rancor determines they should look for answers there. Side-Step opens a portal inside, but questions why a tiny country like Madripoor would need such a large army. Batwing notes that from the fortifications, it seems they must have a very strong enemy just to their east…
East of the city, hidden under a dome, hides a mysterious figure who watches these villains on a video screen and concludes that they may tip the delicate balance which he has established. Although for now they only attack his ancient enemies in Madripoor, if they were to turn their attention towards him… no, that is unthinkable! He would not let them, or anyone else, disturb the tranquility which he has so long preserved beneath his dome! He concludes there must surely still be some superheroes around willing to lay down their very lives to take down people like these, and is surprised to find that a team of heroes still holes up in New York City all these years later - how quaint! How pathetically predictable! The mysterious cloaked figure decides an anonymous signal would suffice…
Sure enough, the Guardians of the Galaxy soon come in conflict with the Nine as result of this anonymous call: their team is composed of the recently recruited cat-man Talon, who can fire his claws like bullets, as well as fire-haired Nikki Gold, muscles-on-muscles brute Charlie-27, shield-slinging Cap-ripoff Major Victory, and Yondu, who has an absolutely enormous fin in the comics - makes his movie counterpart look wimpy in comparison. They also get backup from Starhawk later on, who clearly has an enormous backstory I am absolutely not getting into. This fight drags on for three issues and is basically irrelevant plot-wise, so it's a bit of a chore to get through.
#22
While the aforementioned combat is ongoing, we see a quick cutaway to the regent of Madripoor receiving a call from their 'enemy to the east' who is there to swear that 'none of this was my doing, on this you have my word!' The regent decides to believe this, since 'our enemy's word has always been his bond' and leaves Madripoor behind. Hm, I wonder who this mystery figure might be?
#23
After some more fisticuffs happen, the entirety of the villainous Nine suddenly fade away into nothingness, much to the heroes' consternation. The villainous group leaves behind only the broken claw of Wolverine that Rancor was carrying around. The Guardians are puzzled who might've been responsible for this escape, and briefly suspect Starhawk because he's doing a 90's dark reimagining thing at the moment, but unbeknownst to them all, it's revealed that the mysterious voice beneath the dome was actually responsible, having teleported them all to safety within his secluded haven. He's brought them to his home, which looks suspiciously like an Eastern-European village overlooked by a castle. There they can stay until its owner ever has a need for them in a future story arc...
The comic quickly assures us, by the way, that the man in charge of the dome had another reason for this actions - his deep space radar has picked up a threat heading towards Earth, a suspiciously Galactus-like one, and he contends Earth will soon need all its protectors if she is to survive, so the Guardians need to be at their best! Yeeeeah. In a final shot, we finally see a piece of our mysterious figure revealed - and it's a metal mask, the iconic mask of Doctor Doom!
Okay, so maybe this whole secret identity thing wasn't really much of a secret, especially given what you're reading, but the comic saw the need to be pointlessly dramatic and mysterious about it, so I figured I'd play along!
#30
Skipping ahead about half a dozen issues, we pick the story back up in Eastern Europe, which is apparently where Doom's secret dome is located now - which doesn't really make any sense, since Madripoor is in south-eastern Asia and the dome was supposed to be eastwards from there. I suppose if you go all the way around the Earth it counts, but at that point it's honestly closer if you go westward. Maybe the dome teleports? In any case, Rancor and her team are still being held captive there, and the Wolverine descendant has started to destroy stuff to get out. She demands to see whoever's responsible for this humiliation, while Side-Step admits that she's been unable to teleport through the dome for weeks now - none of their powers are of any use om getting out, actually. Evidently they've just been hanging out in their rooms for weeks?
Mindscan reports the approach of a male presence, and Rancor declares she'll greatly enjoy disemboweling them! Doctor Doom enters and announces that such won't be necessary nor possible - and he bids her welcome. The entire group is thrown by the arrival of someone they'd believed to be long dead - it's impossible! Doctor Doom lives!
#31
Still raging at her confinement within Doom's dome, Rancor declares that the Guardians of the Galaxy must be responsible for the indignity of being captured here, and feels like unleashing her anger on this absurd imitation of a long-dead despot is a great idea. While several of her teammates try to hold her back, they can't - and Doom tells them they really shouldn't. Furious, she throws herself at him with all her wrath, only to be mercilessly blasted back with contemptuous ease by a single shot from his gauntlet. Doom then incredulously wonders if she really thought he'd survived a thousand years to be done in by the likes of her…?
Tapping a button on his belt, Doom manifests an airtight bubble around Rancor's head and she starts suffocating, but at Batwing's urging he eventually releases her alive, noting that if he wanted her dead, she'd already be. Batwing thanks him for his mercy and notes that Rancor will thank him too as soon as she's recovered. A loopy Rancor decides she'll thank him by tearing open his metal suit and feeding on Doom's living flesh… soon! Lovely. Doom then concludes the conversation by announcing that their team has the honor of helping him restore… reality TV to the population? Uh…? Okay, so it says Realitee-Vee, but that still sounds completely stupid.
#32
Realitee-Vee, Doom explains, is the most sophisticated and effective method of mass manipulation ever conceived. Indeed, he himself invented the technology to transmit a highly addictive odorless gas along with audio and video signals (somehow) and test marketed it as a form of entertainment, employing some aliens as lackeys to see it done. It was an unqualified success, at least until the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Commandeers arrived and wrecked his broadcasting facility in the Bronx in an earlier issue. Retcons!
Rancor and her team aren't impressed, noting they're conquerors, not repairmen - she doesn't see what this matters to them. Doom comments that her 'failing to see' is an interesting choice of words… for as the blind Blockade can attest, RTV works on him, too… He's brainwashed them all into his thrall as they sat there, and now they have but one choice… to do as he says!
Doom eventually turns off the entrancing video and asks the group whether it's been a minute, a month, or a millennium since he turned on the Realitee-Vee - do they know? Several of the villains beg him to turn the device back on at once! Just a little more! Rancor is the only one who simply seems pained by it, complaining of an intense headache. Doom indicates that such is the insidious power of his technology which he seeks to use for their mutual benefit! Doom then shows them a powerpoint presentation of his various global stations, noting that without the generating facility they are useless, but if it were to turn back on, his plan would get back on schedule. Rancor still isn't convinced she has any reason to go along with this, and to sweeten the pot Doom offers her the claw of Wolverine she lost a few issues earlier.
He throws it at her feet and notes it shall be a token of their understanding, and Rancor agrees. As he turns his back, she maliciously decides she now has exactly what she needs to carve Doom's heart from his chest when the time is right…
#33
While the Retox Contingent forces lead by a punk called Flashframe escort the last remaining members of the rebel group Commandeers to the old Saltex compound, they are astounded to find it mostly intact despite being nuked only a few issues earlier by the Guardians - Doomtech is very durable! It seems the Retoxers are actually there to turn the Realitee-Vee back on - they're addicts who need their fix, and they won't take no for an answer. Before they can get very far with that, however, they run into Rancor and the rest of the Nine, who for some reason decide to intervene despite being there for the exact same reason. Okay? It seems they're mostly just out for blood here, and after being cooped up for months, they'll take it where they can get it. It's just what the Doctor (Doom) ordered!
#34
At the Saltex compound, Blockade warns Rancor that Doom has arrived on the premises while she's fondling the broken claw of Wolverine, and she tells him to get back to work. Doom strides in and compliments her on her quick work on the repairs - they're ahead of schedule. Rancor just snarls that the sooner they're done with this job, the sooner they can end their association. Doom takes her hostility in stride and decides her lieutenants deserve congratulations for their efforts. Rancor doesn't agree - they obey orders. Her orders. We get a quick snapshot of the team kidnapping some humans into underground chambers at the compound, and there's some misplaced textboxes - Side-Step calls herself Batwing at one point for some reason. Among the gathered are the Retoxers and the Commandeers.
Doom walks with Rancor and inquires whether the team all put on their nasal implants which prevent them from being affected by the addictive RTV gas, and she acknowledges that they have. He then asks if the control room is up and running, and Rancor notes that it is due to Mindscan's efforts. They enter said control room and Mindscan notes that the external viewing screens are functional which means he can address everyone working inside Saltex. Doom agrees that he shall - as soon as he installs the Karoshi program! Doom helpfully notes that Karoshi is the japanese word for someone who works themselves to death, which is exactly what he intends for the 'chattel' he's just appropriated. Realitee-Vee is back on the air!
While the Retoxers glorify in getting a dose of their preferred poison as they get exposed to the RTV with the rest of the captives, the Commandeers try to hold their breath, but it's no use - within moments they too succumb to the mind control. Doom instructs everyone to keep working indefinitely on the repairs of the facility, and a continuous Karoshi loop will keep them going until they drop. When Mindscan points out Doom has just imported thousands of laborers, so what'll happen when they die? Doom just tells her they'll have to import thousands more. Rancor appreciates his style, and thinks she could almost grow to like Doom if she didn't already plan on killing him.
Later, when night falls, we see Rancor put her plan into action, sneaking through the halls of the facility with the claw of Wolverine clenched in her fist, bloodlust and hatred permeating her very being. She kisses the blade, then approaches a seated Doom from behind - he's looking at footage of the full Moon for one reason or another and seems not to notice her.
That is, until he suddenly speaks up and asks Rancor if she has a good reason to disturb her. Surprised, Rancor struggles over her words, wondering how on Earth he knew she was there, before slipping the claw back into her boot and pretending she's there for a benign reason, deciding she'll bide her time.
She then inquires why Doom is looking at the Moon, and he is kind enough to actually explain - he's looking for the Inhumans as a new source of slave labor, since their superhuman powers would be beneficial to his cause. Attilan has been abandoned for centuries, he explains, but he still registers thousands of lifeforms on the Moon anyway - but they're hidden in some fashion. Rancor admits surprise that Doom could be stumped, and a mysterious unseen figure on the Moon watches on with a goblet in his hand - how meta! He declares that with his powers confounding a simpleton like Victor von Doom is child's play - and it's revealed that he's already enslaved the Inhumans himself! This mysterious figure - well, it's Loki. Again!
#36
A few issues later, Doom and Rancor are once more on a walkabout (or the same one) and things are still ahead of schedule - remarkably so! Doom is in such high spirits that when Rancor calls him Doctor Doom, he asks her to call him Victor, and says that he's glad their relationship has improved of late.
He drops her off at her quarters and Batwing repeats her 'Thank you, Victor' and mimes vomiting. He confronts her with her recent habit of sucking up to Doom, and the rest of the group agree that it seems she's lost her edge. An enraged Rancor attacks Batwing for this slight and pulls out the Wolverine claw to threaten him, then seems to actually go through with it - only to reveal that she didn't slice his throat, but his head - she takes a chunk of his scalp off as punishment. Ouch.
#37
After a brief glimpse of Loki looking in on Doom once more failing to find his lunar compound, we once more pick up at the Saltex compound. Someone knocks on Doom's door and he irritably notes he left specific orders that he was not to be disturbed, but he seems pleased to see that Rancor has once more paid him a visit. She announces that she has news Victor would like to hear - Mindscan has finally managed to break through to the secret location of the Inhumans! Doom is ecstatic at the revelation and paces out of the room to visit Mindscan, who has no idea what he's talking about when he asks after the location. Doom's eyes widen as he realizes he's been tricked, which is when Rancor enters and tosses the broken claw directly into Doom's chest, and the adamantium slides straight through his armor as if it's not even there, and Doom crumples to the ground.
Rancor luxuriates in her revenge for a moment, then tells Mindscan to interrupt the Karoshi program on the slaves - she has something she wants to show all these people. She announces that the facility is now under her control, and there's a special program coming up - Rancor feasting on the heart of Doctor Doom! As she says this, she drives the adamantium spike deeper into Doom's chest as he groans in pain.
#38
After an extended sojourn into another time-period, the Guardians of the Galaxy return to their present (which is actually the future) and discover that the old Avengers base that the Commandeers had… commandeered… was ransacked in their absence by the Retoxers and the surviving members kidnapped. The team quickly finds some of the last log entries and discover a futuristic videotape of the team's last moments, which chronicle Flashframe and his pals breaking down the door and killing whoever was filming. The Guardians, and Talon specifically (who is actually from the future Earth rather than from space) swear vengeance and the team moves out to take down the Retoxers. Since Realitee-Vee was mentioned in the video, they decide there's only one place they could be - the old compound!
At the Bronx, where the Saltex compound is located, Batwing and Blockade are on sewer patrol for some reason or another, trudging through shit looking for baddies to fight. It seems they were sent there as punishment by Rancor, though Blockade isn't sure why he's getting shit on when it was Batwing who pissed her off and got scalped for his trouble.
Batwing gets annoyed and flies off by himself and promptly gets ambushed by Talon and dumped into the foul water. When the villain realizes who he's up against, though, he loses all fear and starts making fun of the cat-boy who can shoot his fingernails at people - 'the mighty manicurist.' Talon doesn't take it kindly, calls him 'wingnut' as if that's remotely clever, then blows it up with some mysterious device which sends his screams cascading through the tunnels.
Blockade comes rushing in to track down his colleague, but gets ambushed himself by Charlie-27 - he quickly starts growing using his powers to get the upper hand. Starhawk (who has somehow undergone a sexchange since we last saw them) proposes to deal with the villain, but Major Victory moves in before she can, blasting the huge guy with a mental assault of pink energy. 'The power within is mine to discover!' he snarls with whited out eyes, which his team members don't understand at all - they just kind of move on. The blast actually bowled Blockade straight through a wall which borders the Saltex compound, so they have an easy entrypoint too! How fortuitous! They've actually broken through straight into the prison area, and they arrive just in time to see Rancor threaten a downed Doctor Doom while telling everyone that's watching that she's going to eat his entrails - wasn't it his heart last time?
Switching over to Rancor, Mindscan warns her that she still senses Doom's brain activity - he's not done yet. Rancor just tells to back off - he's hers to kill! Doom declares that he begs to differ, before raising a gauntlet and unleashing… SNIKT! Out come two adamantium claws, the third one cut off at the base and missing!
He slashes at Rancor and tosses her off him, calling her a 'filthy witch' which is probably not something he'd do, given his dear old mum. Rancor declares that she stabbed him in the heart, and Doom agrees - she did, with her ancestor Wolverine's claw. He grabs it and pulls it out of himself, then declares she can have it back - he has the other five! He throws the blade straight into Rancor's shoulder, then raises his other hand and reveals three more of Wolverine's claws sliding out of his gauntlet…
For years, Doom notes, she's been trying to find out what happened to dear old Logan, to discover his secret fate. He then takes his adamantium claws and stabs himself in the sides of his chest - Rancor calls him mad for impaling himself. Doom reveals, though, that she's wrong again - and it's time to cut away all deception. He drags his claws down, ripping apart his armor in the process, before stabbing himself in the face and ripping his mask away as well. He asks if she's beginning to understand now, and Mindscan runs in terror even as Rancor stares in shock. She rips out the missing claw while Doom divests himself of the rest of his armor, gadgets, and even cloak. Doom then wonders if she's ready - ready to meet her maker? A horrified Rancor demands to know what he's done…
'Wolverine is long dead,' Doom declares as we get a full-body shot of Logan's adamantium skeleton, fully mechanized through Doom's robotics, and within which is contained his brain, the last remnant of the living Victor von Doom immortalized in an indestructible form. Utilizing his neural-micronic controls, Doom declares, he shall now take great pleasure in carving her into ribbons!
#39
Here's that cover I mentioned. It's pretty good! I like the discarded mask, though I think I would have preferred if he'd kept it on. More recognizable that way...
Rancor snarls that she's finally discovered the truth - Doctor Doom killed Wolverine! I didn't get that from the last issue, but sure. Rancor and Doom quickly exchange some gripes that double as recaps, before they get into a proper fight - Doom declares he'd like to see what her skeleton looks like stripped of her flesh, while Rancor just sort of growls like an animal. Figures. Rancor manages to throw Doom across the room, but he's back on his feet within moments, demanding she surrender - she claims the word isn't in her vocabulary. Huh, she has one of those? Rancor dodges a few more blows and snarls at Doom that possessing a weapon means nothing if you don't know how to use it, as she'll demonstrate - she cuts into him with the missing blade, but it just bounces off - he's made of adamantium after all, he's nearly impervious! Doom then viciously slashes back in revenge, cutting her across the midriff.
Outside, in the Saltex compound, it seems the entire encounter is still being televised. Side-Step tells the group that Doom gutted their leader, so they should step in - Mindscan doesn't agree, noting that she can sense Rancor doesn't want any help, and in any case another problem is developing that needs their attention: the Guardians of the Galaxy have arrived!
The Guardians send Starhawk to fly on ahead to perform some recon while they follow on foot while Side-Step teleports the Nine into position nearby. It seems there's been another bit of space-time fuckery, since the two groups were in the same place last issue. Ah well. In any case, to even up the odds Mindscan uses her powers to subconsciously revive the fallen Batwing and Blockade. Within moments the former finds himself awake while being carried around on Talon's shoulder, and he takes the opportunity to blast Nikki Gold aside. Blockade pulls himself upright as well and spots the downed Nikki at his feet, and decides in his infinite wisdom to try and step on her - briefly forgetting that her hair is on fire all the time. Genius. As he dances back from her with a burned foot, the rest of the Nine show up and the whole thing becomes a brawl.
We switch over to Starhawk on her recon tour, and she explains to nobody that she wasn't here for the previous storylines, but she read the reports about what went on and concludes the big-ass monitor can mean only one thing - Realitee-Vee is back on the air! But, she declares, by her children's grave it won't be for long! She's called down from the sky before she can move on, though, and discovers that the source is Tarin - one of the surviving Commandeers - who is looking over the other, an unconscious Old Redd who is on the verge of death. Starhawk is about to help when she smells a repugnant odor and then spots that in a nearby pit, hundred of dead bodies are piled up - the remains of the people worked to death by the Karoshi program.
I guess it must've been going on for way longer than the comic suggests? I certainly didn't perceive multiple days or weeks had passed? Later comments would suggest this all takes months, but that seems even harder to parse. Starhawk declares that RTV is a horror that must be destroyed, but Tarin points out that the current broadcast isn't actually Realitee-Vee - it's a live feed of Doctor Doom fighting Rancor!
Skeletal Doom slashes Rancor in the back as she tries to create some distance, and he stands over her as he declares a killing blow would be easy as she is now - but he prefers to see her writhe in pain! Rancor tells him he wasted his only chance, then throws herself at him again, declaring that he might claim invulnerability, but she found an opening! With that she uses the loose claw of Wolverine as a knife and stabs it into Doom's cybernetic eye, and he screams in fury.
That nearly penetrated his brain! Rancor rips a piece of equipment out of the floor and uses that to bludgeon Doom some more, declaring she'll drive the point home! She pins him to the floor and tries to drive the blade deeper, but Doom finally gets some leverage and throws her off again, shouting that her death is at hand!
As the fight continues, Rancor realizes that with one eye defective, Doom's depth perception is faulty and he's starting to miss more - plus he accidentally cuts some heavy-duty wiring that conducts more than 50.000 volts of electricity - handy, that! While Doom announces she cannot elude him forever, Rancor notes that he's got a blind side now - and she intends to stay on it! As smoke billows into the room from the destroyed equipment, Rancor uses it to hide her location for a moment and then ambushes Doom from the side, jamming the exposed wiring into his metal skeleton and electrocuting him - the power surge send Doom screaming to the ground, and turns off all power in the Saltex compound - I guess that blew the breakers.
The Guardians are plunged into darkness, but the fiery hair of Nikki provides ample illumination, though it seems the Nine have vanished. Soon Starhawk arrives with Tarin and Old Redd in tow. They've survived! Not much later we get a moment between Nikki and Charlie-27 - it seems in a recent story Nikki blew her top (literally) and burned off his hair in the process, but he forgives her and suggests it's already starting to grow back. The reason they're together is that Nikki is providing a light while Charlie works on the circuit breaker so they can turn the lights back on. Well, that was quick! With a dramatic bible quote, the city's artificial grid pops back up again. The rest of the team, meanwhile, have started evacuating the compound - nuking it didn't wipe it out the first time, so they're going to use Starhawk's powers to do it properly this time. Major Victory wonders where one of their newer members - Yellowjacket - went to.
The Nine are bickering amongst themselves, annoyed that Mindscan decides they should scamper when the lights went out - to run from the Guardians. Talon uses his magic powers to detect that Yellowjacket is still with the villains, minituarized, and they watch and plan as the team fights. Batwing warns that he'll go to Rancor and explain how Mindscan disgraced their group with her 'leadership' while Mindscan points out that Starhawk was on her way back, and they don't have the firepower to take her on. Shaddo interrupts to say that the monitors are coming back on - and they reveal Rancor and the smoking skeleton of Doctor Doom! The show is over - it's time to get back to work! By the sacred claw of her ancestor, she declares, this travesty has ended and victory -
Like a proper horror villain, Doom returns from the dead one more time and impales Rancor from behind, skewering her on her ancestor's blades until she drops her own in defeat. Doctor Doom is far from dead!
Shaddo tells the others that no matter what their leader ordered, they're teleporting up there now! At that moment Talon tells Yellowjacket to get the hell out of dodge, right before several Guardians teleport to her previous location. Shaddo offers to hold them off, but Talon uses his magic to encase them in an energy field. Mindscan appeals to Major Victory, saying this code of honor should not allow him to stand by and watch Rancor get slaughtered, and he agrees, instructing Yellowjacket to deal with Doom. She acknowledges the order and flies off.
Doom is still tossing a wounded Rancor around the room, all while he declares that he's waited for this moment for months - it is time to end her worthless existence just as he did her ancestor Logan's! Oh, so he did kill Wolverine. Cool. Right as he's getting ready to deliver his killing blow, however, the Saltex compound suddenly rumbles with distant explosions - it's getting demolished! Doom immediately blames Rancor, but before he can behead her, Yellowjacket arrives and uses her laser-stingers to blindside him (heh) and even trip him to the ground. When one of her blasts comes perilously close to his one remaining eye, Doom decides he cannot risk being incapacitated and leaves, heading for his emergency escape. Yellowjacket is about to chase him when she realizes Rancor is bleeding out, and that's a more immediate concern than a fleeing villain. As the door slides closed behind him, it's the last we see of Doom...
In the compound, the Guardians release the captive mutants - with their leader incapacitated and most of the Saltex compound getting rendered to rubble by an angry Starhawk in some great panels of building destruction, they're not going anywhere if they know what's good for them! Meanwhile, Yellowjacket brings Rancor on board their starship Icarus via a Star Trek style transporter, but is amazed to find that she's healing incredibly quickly like her ancestor Wolverine - she has a healing factor! That's unfortunately when Rancor wakes up, realizes she's being overlooked by an enemy, and immediately tries to murder her with the blade of Wolverine that she picked back up at some point. Yellowjacket turns tiny to avoid the blows, but still gets hit anyway by the murderous villain.
Down on the ground, the Guardians are shocked when the mutants suddenly get teleported out through unknown means, and when the reconnect with the ship they find out how - Rancor knocked out Yellowjacket, then stole one of the shuttles on board their ship, which are equipped with a transporter. They got away clean! Yellowjacket's first solo assignment - and she blew it! While the group discusses how to comfort their new ally, Starhawk arrives to warn them all that they had better evacuate in the next ten seconds. She's going to implode the molecular fusion reactors and reduce the entire area to dust! In a cataclysmic explosion, the Saltex compound is no more…
In a short epilogue, we pick back up weeks later with the inauguration of a new president of the Northeast Corridor, with the Guardians and Commandeers in attendance - this is another storyline that never really came up, but I guess they're doing a full wrap-up of all ongoing plots. Who is this new president? Why, it's Tarin herself, with Old Redd as her vice-president! That's not convenient at all. Major Victory of the Guardians then announces that since he found the shield of Captain America, he was told that it should be used as a rallying symbol to reunite the peoples of Earth and start a new era of prosperity, and in honor of that promise to the original Cap, he hands it off to Tarin as a symbol of her new office…
Epilogue
In a bit of a weird spin, this storyline has a long tail in the form of Hollywood, also known as Wonder Man in contemporary comics, who you may remember as instrumental during the events of Emperor Doom. He goes undercover in the future to hide that he's still alive; since he's an energy being, he can just kinda exist for a thousand years without much trouble, though I think he skipped most of the intervening years in some way - I haven't looked that up. In any case, he's aware of Doom from their past encounters, and when he discovers the villain's involvement in the events described above (which he only gets told about in Guardians of the Galaxy v1 Annual #2) he promptly swears vengeance and goes on a one-man killing spree across the galaxy to hunt down the supervillain.
Which would have been awesome, really - if he'd ever actually gotten to finish that. There's a bunch of issues where he hassles random people in the galaxy for information about Doom and his whereabouts, but he's then distracted by a major disaster, gets involved in a crossover, and promptly forgets that this whole Doctor Doom thing was his personal obsession - and then the comic run ends abruptly. As far as I can tell, the storyline is entirely dropped there and since the original team didn't really get any more comics for a while, this version of Doom went on to survive and thrive like nothing ever happened...
Rating & Comments
This arc is most notable in how goddamn drawn out it is. Look, I'm fine with having Doom show up as the background villain who plots and plans and whatnot. I'm fine with him puppeteering some other villains, too. But did you really have to make his storyline like twelve issues long when most of the actually relevant stuff happens in the span of the last issue and a half? And that's only counting the issues where Doom is actively involved - since he's stated to be behind some of the earlier plots too, if indirectly, that technically means Doom has been the Big Bad for the majority of the series' existence and the Guardians never even face him at all - only Rancor and Wasp get any hits in, and then he runs away. Since there is no later resolution to his arc, what exactly was the point behind all of that? Why set up a Big Bad and then essentially forget about him after a one-off issue that's just designed to beef up his threat factor?
If we ignore, for the moment, that the final issue feels more like the setup for a big showdown than the actual showdown it's supposed to be, it's actually pretty good - the conflict is a lot more punchy and direct than all the elaborate talking and threatening of the past issues, even if most of the supporting cast just kinda stand by the sidelines watching the whole thing go down on TV. Literally.
The upside of a whole bunch of issues of extended backstory is that the surviving members of the Nine build up something of a character, especially Rancor - and it's at least her that gets to do the takedown of the guy who kidnapped her. I'm a little less enthusiastic about making newcomer Wasp the token Guardian to chase Doom away - not only is she not terribly powerful compared to most of the characters there, which makes her a weird character for Doom to flee from, but it is also strange for her to be the one to follow up on previous events that she was never even involved with. Huh?
Rancor gets the most development out of anyone in these issues, continually planning to undermine Doom, who apparently does get swayed a bit by her pretending to warm up to him in later issues. At his urging she starts calling him Victor and he's totally cool with it - he even tolerates her interrupting him while he's doing something important, and goes along with her without question. Impressive! We could assume Doom was playing it up, I suppose, but he seems to take his sweet time to react to her surprise attack, so I presume he really was caught unaware, which is what leads him to dropping all disguises and taking her on in a fair fight. A fight which Rancor loses when Doom gets serious, but only after she gets in a very nearly lethal hit - this could have gone either way, and I imagine that shocked Doom real good. (Much like the electricity did.) She's actually pretty fun, though she's a completely over the top take on the feral mutant concept - she scalps her own underling, for crying out loud! Her schtick does get a bit old after the third or fourth time she promises vengeance, but I guess it's her thing.
It's no surprise that I think the coolest part of these comics is the explanation of Doom's survival into the distant future of 2099 - Oh, I'm sorry, I meant 2999. Much like in the future adventures of Iron Man and Doom chronicled in Iron Man v1 #250, Doom augmented his body to keep his brain alive, but he's clearly a lot better at it in this future. Instead of being geriatric and barely functional, this Doom managed to keep his noggin working just fine by transplanting his brain into the dead skeleton of Wolverine (whom he murdered) and then animating it with technology. He's a cybernetic organism, like the Terminator, and shares more than a few obvious design elements with the skinless version of Arnie's iconic role - though those similarities are probably down to both resembling human skeletons. Given that Doctor Doom's classic look was designed in part to mirror traditional imagery of the Grim Reaper - with a mask standing in for a bare skull - this seems appropriate.
I'll be honest, I kinda wished he'd kept his tattered cloak to make that parallel more obvious, but it's still a pretty badass version of Doom, for all that his appearance in this way is restricted to this one storyline.
Besides his physical changes, Doom had undergone some alterations to his personality - though it may simply be a factor of age, experience, or no longer giving a crap. Doom is a lot more practical and murderous here than we tend to see in the normal comic timeline - which is impressive considering his track record. Yes, he's definitely negligent with the lives of his underlings no matter which continuity you visit, but he rarely commits mass atrocities in the mainline universe. In this storyline, however, he essentially sets up future mind control Auschwitz and then it's explicitly shown that thousands of people die and are replaced by new workers that are kidnapped from the streets while the dead old ones are dumped into public mass graves. That's a lot more hardcore than most depictions of Doom tend to be, even when they're depicting him as the murderous tyrant he can clearly be when he's in a bad mood - even at his worst, there tends to be a reason for his cruelty. Here, it's simply brushed aside.
Towards the end of this storyline, this Doom also proves to be fairly cowardly, fleeing from potential harm when he realizes that maybe his hermetically sealed adamantium skeleton isn't quite as invulnerable as he had hoped. I suppose that has to be the mindset of someone who managed to survive for a thousand years, though, so can we really blame him there? Even canon Doom has been known to get the hell out of Dodge when things got hairy! Still, given that he's never caught, Cyber-Skeleton Doom is presumably still around somewhere - maybe he's back in his domed up Latveria, getting into squabbles with occasional neighbor Madripoor?
While I didn't have any major complaints about this variant of Doom (beyond the storyline dragging on across too many issues) there are some weird things about it that are worth noting. Early on there's an inconsistency in Latveria's location, where Doom's hidden domed city (or base) randomly changes locations across the world without explanation. It's also odd that Doom's original motive for luring the Guardians to Madripoor was to beat the Nine up for him so they wouldn't head over to Doom's location, but he then kidnaps those very same villains and brings them there himself. Why? Did he really just decide on that at the last possible moment because he detected that Galactus was hanging out nearby? That's so... random.
Also, if Doom has such an easy time keeping villains under his sway with his magical brainwash-television, why was he ever worried about them to begin with? Plus, why would he not think to install on/off switches on the anti-brainwashing tech he gives his underlings later, when he puts them to work? That seems a bad idea when it's the very same method you used to convince them to work for you in the first place. Doom maybe should have thought that through! One other odd thing I noticed - besides calling women 'wenches', Doom also uses the word 'witch' as an insult here - which seems a bit weird coming from the child of a witch...
Anyway, this entire story (and the Doom within) was pretty middle of the pack, in my opinion - some good fighting towards the end, but it just kind of spun its wheels for way too long to keep much interest going. Still, it didn't really commit any huge sins either so I don't feel it warrants a particularly bad score either. Doom was generally consistent with his canon self, if we presume his more pragmatic, nasty side had a thousand years to fester, so I'm fine with that...
Most Far-Flung Feral Future-Doom Quotes
"Surely there must still be heroes left in this world. Poor, misguided fools who would lay down their very lives for -- Amazing! They still congregate in New York! How quaint! How pathetically predictable!"
"Though you are a most ill-mannered and ungrateful guest... I still bid you welcome!"
"Provincial wench! Do you think I have survived over a thousand years to be done in by the likes of you?"
"You will work until you drop! That is all!"
"A killing blow would be so easy now… but I prefer to see you writhe in pain."
"Insolent cow! Doctor Doom is far from dead!"