This is where I wince as The Last Iron Man Comics Fan. The mid-'90s were a dark time for the character. Len Kaminski had a really good run on the book after Operation Galactic Storm but all that momentum got thrown in the toilet after the Crossing event with the Avengers. It's like a hilarious and stupid billboard of what era of Marvel you're in whenever you read something around the time of Onslaught; "oh yeah, Iron Man looks angry and young here because they replaced him with a teenage version of himself to be more hip and cool, and his helmet emotes in various angry grimaces."
I think the 90s were a dark time for a lot of characters. Doom isn't excluded - 2099 went from pretty neat to kind of a mess towards the latter half, and the mainline one spends the lion's share of the decade dead or close enough to dead for tax purposes. Then he gets resurrected and died again like two or three issues later - it's a bit of a thing. What I did notice is that the real 90s vibe didn't really set in until 1993 or 1994... until then it was more like an extended 80s, at least in the comics I read. Lag-time, I guess? Also I am entirely unaware of the teenage weirdo Iron Man era, and I think Heroes Reborn resets him to normal adult age, so I guess I won't need to know either.
The out of universe history you're skipping over here makes it even more amusing just how grim and desperate this whole thing is. This event and Heroes Reborn about lines up with the leadup to Marvel officially declaring bankruptcy, and while I haven't seen any good sources outright saying they're linked... well, come on, killing off the Avengers and Fantastic Four so you can outsource them to Image and focus on the precious money-printing Mutants is not the decision of a healthy business. Even if they telegraph an out with the Franklin Richards stuff and probably always intended to bring them back once they got their reboot sales bump from Image, it rings as an outwardly hollow stunt without even the ambition and pathos of the similar Death of Superman.
Honestly, all of Onslaught and Heroes Reborn fascinate me because they can be read as... almost primary source documents from an apocalypse the superhero comics industry has never really recovered from. It's hard for me to track down hard big picture numbers, but there's a ton of anecdotal examples of how the insane speculator and direct market activity of this era might have been the best the cape comics industry ever had it of copies sold . And this is what they did with it!
This probably also explains why Doom has barely any appearances for several years here - it's the comics crash which really limited what was published, and I'm guessing this was the era of really awful edgy comics, and hokey 60's villains who were dead anyway probably didn't appeal much. Lame, but there you go...
That was a nonsensical experience. I had to look back at the recap once I hit the conclusion because what happened to Doom hadn't actually hit me. Everyone being killed after absorbing bits of Onslaught being part of the plan feels so stupid, especially having Doom dragged into it for being mildly focused on his usual interests. It feels so blatantly like an attempt to remove a bunch of characters for a bit that it's impossible to see any of it as a heroic sacrifice, which makes Iron Man yanking Doom into it feel like-
Iron Man: Welcome to Team Suicide, Doom. We want to kill you off for a bit.
Doom: The fuck? Again?
Iron Man: Also, um... you didn't have enough selflessness, so I'm making you join in. Like making a person believe in Christmas in some play.
Doom: That's not similar at all! I hate you more than I hate Reed Richards right now
Pretty much, yeah. If I wrote this, I'd just make it so that Doom's attempt to take the power for himself backfires and the device explodes into a cloud of Onslaught-cloud which gobbles him up. Still have him 'die' with the rest, but at least now it's a result of him overestimating himself or his tech failing instead of a random hero deciding to toss him in because apparently suicide is mandatory.
Yeah, it's stupid. The Crossing retcons it so that Tony was always under the mind control influence of Kang the Conqueror since the Avengers first fought him, and that only then does he finally get triggered to betray the team. So they end up time travelling and bringing Teenage Tony forwards, kill the original, and roll with the replacement as the new Iron Man. They ended up retconning away the "under Kang's control the whole time" thing years later, and the whole mess is generally swept under the rug.
Yes. It also gave him his weirdest and worst looking armor in his entire publication history.
When they restored the non-Mutant heroes to the main universe after Heroes Reborn, he just sort of... poofed back into Adult Tony with all his memories and every attempt to never speek about Teen Tony again. Similar to how they undid Superior Iron Man and Tony being evil after Secret Wars and Time Runs Out, really.
Honestly wondering if I should do my own retrospective thread on Iron Man. Less Let's Read and more breaking it down by runs, because I think as a solid "B+/A- Lister" in terms of popularity and publisher focus he's a guy who's always sort of tracking with where Marvel as a whole is. Plus I think there's actually some really good comics there that too many people ignore thanks to the movies sort of setting one reductionist characterization in stone for mass audiences.
Between this and 2099 you basically witnessed the worst of it at Marvel, without digging too much into Liefeld and the dark pits of Post-Claremont X-Men. After this it gets a bit brighter but the problem changes from exaggerated cartoon edginess to far more banal problems. The X-Men start chasing what Grant Morrison referred to as "cautious, dodgy retro" and the other superheroes start pursuing something "neoclassical" but with hints at banal realism, like Iron Man becoming Bush's Secretary of Defense after the Iraq War.
Speaking of, are you going to cover the Ultimate Universe appearances of Doctor Doom? And the Very Special Issue of Amazing Spider-Man where he Sheds Righteous Tears at 9/11?
Yeah, it's stupid. The Crossing retcons it so that Tony was always under the mind control influence of Kang the Conqueror since the Avengers first fought him, and that only then does he finally get triggered to betray the team. So they end up time travelling and bringing Teenage Tony forwards, kill the original, and roll with the replacement as the new Iron Man. They ended up retconning away the "under Kang's control the whole time" thing years later, and the whole mess is generally swept under the rug.
I am most weirded out by the little shoulder pylon thingies. Also it's so hopelessly overdesigned... but I probably still prefer it over versions where the mask has a face. Hah!
When they restored the non-Mutant heroes to the main universe after Heroes Reborn, he just sort of... poofed back into Adult Tony with all his memories and every attempt to never speek about Teen Tony again. Similar to how they undid Superior Iron Man and Tony being evil after Secret Wars and Time Runs Out, really.
Honestly wondering if I should do my own retrospective thread on Iron Man. Less Let's Read and more breaking it down by runs, because I think as a solid "B+/A- Lister" in terms of popularity and publisher focus he's a guy who's always sort of tracking with where Marvel as a whole is. Plus I think there's actually some really good comics there that too many people ignore thanks to the movies sort of setting one reductionist characterization in stone for mass audiences.
Between this and 2099 you basically witnessed the worst of it at Marvel, without digging too much into Liefeld and the dark pits of Post-Claremont X-Men. After this it gets a bit brighter but the problem changes from exaggerated cartoon edginess to far more banal problems. The X-Men start chasing what Grant Morrison referred to as "cautious, dodgy retro" and the other superheroes start pursuing something "neoclassical" but with hints at banal realism, like Iron Man becoming Bush's Secretary of Defense after the Iraq War.
Speaking of, are you going to cover the Ultimate Universe appearances of Doctor Doom? And the Very Special Issue of Amazing Spider-Man where he Sheds Righteous Tears at 9/11?
Yep, like 2099 I'm gonna do an Ultimate Doom dive too - both of them - and yeah at some point I'll do the 9/11 issues. I think there's actually a couple, Captain America also has one with Doom making an appearance. I might just cover them as a minor appearance though since Doom, as I recall, basically just has a cameo.
Between this and 2099 you basically witnessed the worst of it at Marvel, without digging too much into Liefeld and the dark pits of Post-Claremont X-Men.
Well, I would have also included the Clone Saga on the 90's worst of Marvel.
I'd want to include a lot of the Ultimates stuff but that actually came out in the 'aughts. It gets really terrible, though.
Oh, The Ultimates is partly what I'm referring to. A more banal kind of edginess where the thing being fetishized instead of stylized ultraviolence is a "realism" that has aged really poorly. I'll stand by Ultimate Spider-Man and to a lesser extent Ultimate X-Men as good back-to-basics retellings that helped get me into comics thanks to copious trades at my local library as a kid, but the Ersatz Avengers are genuinely uncomfortable to read these days with how they basically read as Bush-era propaganda. If there was any parody there, as one would think from Millar's background and alleged politics, it's basically indiscernible to us now between the fetishized Sci-Fi Iraq War aesthetics of Ultimate S.H.I.E.L.D. and ever-so-classy pop culture references such as Hulk wanting to kill Freddie Prinze Jr.
And oh my God, Bush himself showed up as a character. Like, tangent, but what the fuck was up with Marvel loving on-panel appearances by Bush in the early 2000s. And not even as anything resembling the bite or parody you would expect from writer-and-artist types, they just loved having superheroes answer to or save Mr. President.
Post-9/11 America really was this weird, nightmare-fascist dystopia we just sort of stumbled out of with no real reckoning with the culture or anyone involved.
I continue to maintain them having Pres. Obama's first act as president be putting Osborne in charge of SHIELD, and then hastily retconning it to have been the final act of Pres. Bush II is one of the funniest things ever.
Oh, The Ultimates is partly what I'm referring to. A more banal kind of edginess where the thing being fetishized instead of stylized ultraviolence is a "realism" that has aged really poorly. I'll stand by Ultimate Spider-Man and to a lesser extent Ultimate X-Men as good back-to-basics retellings that helped get me into comics thanks to copious trades at my local library as a kid, but the Ersatz Avengers are genuinely uncomfortable to read these days with how they basically read as Bush-era propaganda. If there was any parody there, as one would think from Millar's background and alleged politics, it's basically indiscernible to us now between the fetishized Sci-Fi Iraq War aesthetics of Ultimate S.H.I.E.L.D. and ever-so-classy pop culture references such as Hulk wanting to kill Freddie Prinze Jr.
And oh my God, Bush himself showed up as a character. Like, tangent, but what the fuck was up with Marvel loving on-panel appearances by Bush in the early 2000s. And not even as anything resembling the bite or parody you would expect from writer-and-artist types, they just loved having superheroes answer to or save Mr. President.
Post-9/11 America really was this weird, nightmare-fascist dystopia we just sort of stumbled out of with no real reckoning with the culture or anyone involved.
After Hulk delivers a nuclear punch - literally, he gets so angry that he apparently sets off an atomic strike with his fist - the fight gets to its most confusing part. It turns out that destroying Onslaught's body just made him stronger, turning him into a giant energy cloud of nasty thoughts or whatever.
Oh, also they conveyed this really poorly (what else is new with this comic) but it wasn't that they made him stronger it was that they cracked his outer shell but it took too long and he'd already changed into something that didn't need it anymore. This is actually somewhat consistent, you'll note that Onslaught keeps changing in appearance and producing new powers the longer he's around, he's been evolving the whole time. Unfortunately the art and writing is so inconsistent on everyone else it can be hard to notice.
This issue takes place in the mainline universe post-Onslaught, and deals with a rather vain attempt to introduce a whole bunch of new characters - and reintroducing others who are still alive - to spark a new line-up of heroes while the headliners are off in their Heroes Reborn spinoff dreamscape. These include figures like Doctor Strange, Ka-Zar, the newly formed Thunderbolts, the Hulk without the Bruce Banner part of his personality, and War Machine. More to the point for this readthrough, however, is that the issue also includes Nathaniel Richards and Kristoff Vernard, who keep the torch of Doom lit while the Master is away… This oneshot is super-sized, but I'll be skipping over all the stories that have no relevance to my interests - if you want to know what Ka-Zar or the Thunderbolts were doing, it's there for you to read. As I recall, the Thunderbolts are actually a pretty good read…
Story Overview
We start at Four Freedoms Plaza, the former home and headquarters of the Fantastic Four. Standing amid the cavernous hangar bay owned by the once great super-team are Nathaniel Richards, father of Reed, electronic technician Scott Lang, and Lyja - the shapeshifting Skrull who was formerly the wife of Johnny Storm. They're reminiscing, with Scott commenting that he still can't believe that the whole Fantastic Four team is dead. He explains that he was first hired to help out around here because the team thought Reed was dead, but he wasn't - so is there a chance…? Nathaniel admits that they could still be alive somewhere, but he doesn't think it's very probable. He's afraid he can't spare the time to engage in idle speculation, however - due to certain stipulations in Reed's will, the government believes it's entitled to confiscate all of Reed's equipment. (Damn it, Reed...)
Still, that's not Scott's problem to deal with - as they already discussed off-panel, he's shutting down Fantastic Four Incorporated. Scott's getting his final paycheck, along with a substantial bonus. Scott is thankful and accepts the generosity, admitting that he's really going to miss this place - he'd hate to think of what'll happen when the military gets their hands on all this stuff! Nathaniel assures him that he shouldn't worry about that - he and Kristoff already have an idea on how to prevent that particular scenario from happening…
Speaking of Kristoff, he's saying goodbye to Scott's daughter Cassandra, and he tells her it's been a privilege and an honor to know her. She tells him to just call her Cassie - and he should keep this look he's sporting right now, instead of running around in that clunky Doctor Doom armor of his! He's kind of cute in the flesh!
She moves in to give him a peck on his cheek, only for Scott to interrupt the two with a cough, pointedly asking if he's intruding. Kristoff stammers an excuse, but Scott tells him to cool his jets - everything's cool. He tells Kristoff to take care of himself, admitting that while they didn't always hit it off, he really wishes the boy the very best. Also, he shouldn't be a stranger! He's sure he speaks for his daughter too when he says Kristoff will always be welcome at la maison Lang! Kristoff promises he'll come by to visit sometime and shakes Scott's hand as a goodbye.
After they leave, Nathaniel asks Lyja what her plans are from here on out, explaining that he and Kristoff are planning to return to Latveria for a few months, and she's welcome to join them there. Lyja appreciates the offer, and says that the Fantastic Four and their extended family are the only true friends she's ever had. She'd like to think Johnny and her might have gotten back together, if he's survived - but she won't allow herself to be mired in might-have-beens. The time has finally come for her to put the past behind her, to move on… and to see if she can make a life for herself in this world. With that she transforms herself to look like a blond human woman, and takes the elevator to leave.
Kristoff and Nathaniel are left by themselves, and the former comments that they're all gone now… it's finally over. He never thought this day would come! Nathaniel morosely comments that time always marches on. At any rate, they'd better get to work - or they won't be finished by the time those government operatives arrive to impound everything!
Later, T. Barton Burrthrop arrives at Four Freedoms Plaza, a pencil-pusher with a pencil mustache in an ill-fitting suit who's flanked by several military troops in fancy suits of armor and who are carrying large guns. He declares that he's here representing the government of the United States, and he has an appointment with Nathaniel Richards.
Roberta, the robot receptionist, tells him that Nathan is expecting him, and the man standing next to her introduces himself as Matt Murdock, lawyer for the estate of Reed and Susan Richards (and secretly Daredevil.) He's also been retained to look after the interests of their son, Franklin. Burrthrop warns Matt that he hopes he's not here to delay the inevitable. He's come to take possession of the entire contents of Fantastic Four Incorporated - including the robot they used as a receptionist!
Matt immediately points out that according to a specific paragraph in the agreement that was signed, Roberta and the contents of the reception area were specifically excluded from being impounded. The Richards family has already made arrangements for Roberta to continue rerouting their calls to appropriate recipients for the foreseeable future. Burrthrop decides it doesn't matter - the Pentagon probably wouldn't have a use for her anyway!
Nathan enters the room at this point and observes that Burrthrop is just as charming as ever. The bureaucrat brusquely replies that he doesn't mean to sound impatient, but he wants to get this show on the road. His men will need to conduct a detailed inventory!
Matt comments to Nathan that the paperwork seems to be in order. Nathan asks if there's really no choice, then - he's required to release the entire contents of the FF Headquarters? Matt agrees that they can, indeed, impound anything on the premises. (What shitty-ass agreements did Reed sign, exactly? Why didn't they come up the last time he was presumed dead?) Nathan decides that it's a done deal, then - Burrthrop can help himself to whatever he wants. Pleased, the government stooge walks deeper into the building, happy that Nathan is such a good loser, and he explains that a team of scientists, engineers and technicians are being flown in from across the country to supervise the dismantling process, and they expect this operation to extend over a period of months…
He pauses as he walks into the next room, and suddenly realizes that the entire center of the building, from floor to ceiling, is entirely empty - there's absolutely nothing there, not even the floors! The building is a hollow shell! What happened? Where is everything?!
He turns to Nathan and snarls that he won't get away with this - the government and the people of these United States are entitled to everything that was stored in this building! Nathan tells him that's tough… but he can't prove that Reed didn't donate it to charity, or hold a garage sale before his unexpected death, now can he?
Burrthrop promises that Nathan is missing with the wrong bureaucrat. If Reed sold anything, the profit or loss must be declared on his final tax statement. And Nathan is crazy to think he can hide several thousand tons of machinery without storage costs and moving receipts for him to track down! Nathan hasn't heard the last of him - he'll be back with a warrant for his arrest! After the government people leave, Matt warns Nathan that Burrthrop wasn't just blowing smoke - if he finds a single document that can prove Nathan deliberately conspired to defraud the government… Reed's dad says that he can't. Besides, he's heading for Latveria next, which doesn't have an extradition treaty with the United States! He tells Matt to come along, so he can get a check for his services…
To himself, Matt muses that he has to give the old man credit - it must have been a massive undertaking to strip the entire building bare. How on Earth did he ever manage it? And where is he stockpiling everything? High above the blind lawyer floats a golf ball-sized object, a red sphere, which emits no discernible energy and possesses no true mass. It's actually a gateway, a tiny wormhole into the area of subspace known as the Negative Zone. There, suspended in a force-field bubble, the entire insides of Four Freedoms Plaza hangs suspended, shunted away from regular space for safekeeping…
We move over to Europe. There, nestled within the Balkan Mountains, the tiny nation of Latveria is one of the world's last-remaining absolute monarchies. Recently, the ruler of Latveria disappeared, along with some of the world's mightiest superheroes. The citizens of the peaceful kingdom remain blissfully unaware of this fact, and go about their lives as usual, untroubled by the politics and strife of the 'modern' world. It's a tranquility that is not destined to last. Latveria is soon to be a nation in turmoil, and the catalysts for that turn of events are arriving at that very moment in a burst of trans-temporal energy. It's Nathaniel and Kristoff, both wearing their armor - and Nathan's spontaneously got a white beard after having far more youthful orange hair like his son for the rest of the issue. Not sure what that's about - maybe he's covering up his age in public? I don't tend to read a lot of Nathaniel unless I have to.
Nathaniel announces that they have arrived - the castle lies before them! Kristoff replies that it feels good to once again feel the soil of Latveria under his feet, and he explicitly calls the old man his father. Nathan tells his son to appreciate the scenery later, since they have work to do.
As they walk up to the castle, Kristoff asks for a moment to reflect on the significance of this moment, and the chain of events which brought him here. To his destiny! Flashing back to previous issues I've covered, he recounts that the path he walks was set long ago when his mother was slain by a rogue robot during the reign of the hated Prince Zorba… leaving him an orphan! Doctor Doom, the rightful ruler, deposed Zorba and took him into his care, raising him as both heir and son, and tutoring him in the ways of conquest and the wielding of power.
As more flashback images fill the page, he continues his recollections, recalling that when Doom was presumed dead after a battle with his enemies, the Fantastic Four, the Master's robots subjected him to an advanced learning device which filled his young mind with all the memories and knowledge of Doom - his very identity! Taking up his Master's mantle, Kristoff then battled the Fantastic Four himself, only to find himself ultimately joining them in their quest to prove that both Doom and their leader Reed Richards were still alive. And though that quest was successful, this time both Doom and the Fantastic Four have almost certainly met their death against the creature called Onslaught!
In the absence of Victor von Doom, Kristoff declares that only he, Doom's rightful heir, possesses the strength and knowledge to rule Latveria! Now, he shall key in the coded sequence that will enable him to bypass Castle Doom's security systems, and enter to claim his birthright! The Throne of Latveria now belongs to Kristoff Vernard! He types in the code and reaches out, but the moment he touches the door he gets blasted away, as the castle's force-field forcibly repulses him as though he were an intruder.
Kristoff protests that the security codes cannot have been changed without his knowledge, but Nathan warns that there may be more afoot here than they know, so perhaps they should be cautious. Irate, Kristoff starts blasting the door with hand-lasers instead, declaring that the heir of Doom will not be denied access!
Several servitor robots approach to respond to the disturbance, identifying the intruders as Nathaniel Richards and Kristoff Vernard - and they are to vacate the castle premises immediately! Failure to comply will result in termination! Kristoff asks why these computerized flunkies would dare threaten him - him! They should taste his power! He starts blowing up robots, declaring that while he doesn't know what glitch in their programming causes them to attack, they will recognize Kristoff as their Lord and Master or they will become slag!
As the battle in the courtyard rages on, the frightened populace of Doomstadt begins to converge on the borders of Castle Doom to watch…
Kristoff sees more servitors approaching, and asks Nathaniel what the meaning of this could be. Nathan muses that perhaps his 'destiny' is not as set in stone as he believes. Suddenly a huge blast of energy comes from above and disrupts the fighting, and the voice of Doom announces that this folly has continued long enough - and this desecration of Doctor Doom's home will cease, now, by his royal command! Doom appears on the wall, and Nathan is aghast - it can't be! Kristoff agrees with that exclamation, deducing that this is clearly just a Doombot, a pathetic attempt to deceive them by whomever has taken over the castle. He is not fooled by such subterfuge, impostor!
As red light gleams in the eyes of the Doombot, it declares that if he's an impostor, his subjects beg to differ! Sure enough, Latverians approach and celebrate that the Master has returned, and has come to greet them personally! He'll save them from these strange intruders! Kristoff, furious, announces that he will not be denied his rightful inheritance this way! If this is truly some betrayal of Doom's… even from beyond the grave… then woe unto him if he ever returns! Kristoff goes back to destroying robots with a furious series of hand-blasts, telling the people that woe be unto all of them as well - and this land! From his mother's death to this humiliation, this very nation has betrayed him! But he shall return… and when he does, they shall grovel at his feet! He then takes off into the sky…
Nathan watches his son leave, and reflects that Kristoff always did have a fiery temper. He admittedly fears what his devious mind plans for this country, and he knows that Doom's technology within that castle still poses a threat to the world itself. As such he's determined to return here - with backup - some other time. For now, he activates his teleporter and disappears from Latveria in a flash of white light.
Later, over at the temporary SHIELD headquarters in the Avengers Mansion, we see current SHIELD Field Director G.W. Bridge receive a message by email (it's still called 'electronic mail' - how retro.) The message indicates that Latveria is in play - there's reports of radical anti-Doom factions planning on seizing Castle Doom's weapons and resources. These factions include superhumans and agents with terrorist agendas. In a hidden bunker, it's revealed that Kristoff has put various people loyal to him into specific positions to use them as pawns. Now the jackals can tear apart Latveria - and each other - so Kristoff can pick up the pieces himself after they're done. Then they shall see who truly deserves to rule!
Rating & Comments
In many ways, 'Tales' is an Onslaught epilogue issue which cleans up some of the loose-hanging threads left by that event, alongside several previews which call attention to new titles meant to replace the ones currently canceled due to being involved in Heroes Reborn. Since the likes of Lyja, Nathaniel, and Kristoff are essentially synonymous with Fantastic Four titles, they don't really have a home at the moment - they're left adrift, and this comic seeks to at least give an excuse why they're just vaguely 'missing' for a while. Scott Lang could probably just hop over to some Ant-Man title or whatever, but since Giant-Man and the Wasp are currently in Heroes Reborn, I don't see that happening either, and he's been FF-adjacent for a while too, so I guess it makes sense he gets included here too.
After quickly writing out Scott and Lyja with a few panels of excuses, the rest of the comic focuses on Nathaniel and Kristoff, who have been spinning their wheels a bit even within the published Fantastic Four issues they appear in. Nathaniel is weirdly youthful in this issue, and has to deal with a very weird and impromptu issue - apparently Reed did a very shit job in signing his various contracts or working out his will, because only a short time after he returned from an extended apparent death, he's apparently made it so the government is legally entitled to everything in his entire building, despite the fact that he has surviving family members and friends who he put in charge of his estate in situations like this. Either he borrowed a shit-ton of money, or he's just really bad at the paperwork?
Nathan, for once, is being a dick to people who deserve it, which makes him a lot more tolerable. Instead of talking around the main characters and coming up with an elaborate yarn to lie to their faces, here he hoodwinks a government stooge into thinking all the contents of the Fantastic Four headquarters were smuggled out somehow. I'm not sure why the government guy wouldn't suspect some weird magitech nonsense given that he's dealing with superheroes, but it works long enough to get him out the door, after which Nathan plans to basically stay out of legal reach of the law, putting the case in limbo - just like all the stuff he safely stored in another dimension. Not bad, Nathaniel! Finally using your inherent assholishness for good!
The final stretch of the comic deals with a storyline I'll be following over the next few posts - I'm not sure if I'll break it up with Heroes Reborn or if I'll just do them in blocks yet. The succession crisis in Latveria kicks off here, when Kristoff heads to Latveria to take up his rightful position as ruler, given that he was (at least the last time we heard) the legal heir of Doom. He's then forcibly rejected by the castle, his security codes no longer valid, and faces off with a Doombot who acts suspicious, and whose words don't quite make sense if it's just a Doombot who imagines himself to be Doom like the last time. I think Kristoff is actually right here - somebody got there ahead of them, took the castle, and is now using the robots as his tools to pretend like everything's just fine.
The last time Kristoff and Doom had a direct encounter was in Fantastic Four v1 #410, during which he argued for the survival of the Fantastic Four, after which Doom slapped him across the face and mused that the boy might have outlived his usefulness. Notably, however, it confirms that Doom still envisioned Kristoff as his heir, the one who would replace him in case he died, by that point. So either Doom did actually disavow Kristoff entirely without telling him that explicitly, or Nathan is right and there's some larger trickery going on here… we'll see. The story gets expanded in a couple of issues of X-Force and Spider-Man, though I'm not sure if it goes any further than that.
Despite all appearances, here, we're unfortunately saying an extended goodbye to Kristoff Vernard - we'll be checking in with him again in more than a decade, as evidently nobody bothered to bring him back after Heroes Reborn for a while. Which, granted, also goes for Doom himself. We'll be seeing Nathan again in the X-Force issues that follow after this one, but he's also going out of the picture soon - he'll have an absence of similar length to Kristoff's, though with the occasional time-travel related cameo in the interim. I guess this really is the end of an era of the Fantastic Four, in a sense, never to be recaptured in quite the same way again…
This issue is fine - Nathaniel isn't too obnoxious (against nice people) and while Reed's idiotic legal issues are kind of hilarious, they're more of a sidenote here. Kristoff getting his ass handed to him and then disappearing is kind of a letdown exit for the character, but at least he's not gone forever... 3 stars for a pretty standard fare issue without much excitement.
Best Panel(s) of the Issues
I know this isn't from a story I actually cover here, but I do love the Ka-Zar and Shanna introduction shot - the bizarre angle combined with riding a pterodactyl in front of the moon - awesome. Reminds me of a lot of old-school sword and sorcery covers!
Most Gloriously Villainous Kristoff Quotes
"They're all… gone. I-It's finally over. I never thought this day would come."
"How good it feels, Father, to once again feel the soil of Latveria beneath my feet! …Allow me but a moment, Good Nathaniel, to reflect on the significance of this moment… and the chain of events which has brought me here. To my destiny!"
"In the absence of Victor von Doom, only I, his rightful heir, possess the strength and knowledge to rule Latveria!"
"I do not know what glitch your programming is causing you to attack me… but you will recognize Kristoff as your Lord and Master… or you will be slag!"
"No… I will not be denied my rightful inheritance this way! If this is truly some betrayal of Doom's… even from beyond the grave… then woe be unto him if he ever returns! And woe be unto all of you - and this land! From my mother's death to this humiliation, this very nation has betrayed me! But I shall return - and when I do, you will grovel at my feet!"
"Let the jackals tear apart Latveria - and each other. I will be there to pick up the pieces. And we shall see who truly deserves to rule."
Nathan: "Tough! You can't prove that my son didn't donate it to charity, or hold a garage sale before his unexpected death."
Doombot: "This folly has continued long enough… and this desecration of Doctor Doom's home will cease… now… by my royal command."
Kristoff's Bad Hair Day
I keep cheating, huh? This isn't technically part of the story I'm covering either, but it's also in the same oneshot - notice anything about these two pages? Well, besides the pretty awful, scribbly art style and how War Machine has weird alien semi-organic armor or whatever here. Notice how the text boxes are weirdly similar? Apparently the editors really screwed up here and accidentally duplicated all the word balloons and the text therein on two sequential pages.
The crazier thing? Since there's such a degree of decompressed storytelling going on here, it's genuinely difficult at first glance to tell which of the pages is correct without seeing where the world balloons are pointing, and you don't really lose anything of the narrative since they're just 'War Machine moving around while thinking' pages anyway. Remarkable.
Doombot Count: 53
A single Doombot plays a role here, warding off Kristoff and Nathaniel from the battlements. It's pretty likely it's being remote controlled, but that doesn't really change anything - it's still a Doombot so it goes on the count!
It's been established since way back in Fantastic Four #9 that Reed is terrible at legal and financial matters. He should really let Matt Murdock draw up all his documents.
I assume this didn't take effect last time because Sue was still alive.
Today we're heading for the pages of X-Force, which I am pretty sure has never come up before here. Cable is the headliner here, clearly, and this cover promises the 'secrets of Doom!' while he's holding Doom's iconic mask in his fist, so I'm pretty sure this more than qualifies for getting covered, even though I'm pretty sure only Nathaniel makes any appearance here. Latveria is kind of part of Doom's character, though, isn't it? Close enough.
Story Overview
Wish You Were Here
We open with Tabitha Smith, Meltdown, dreaming that she's running through a dark forest, being chased by an angry mob with torches, only to realize she trapped herself in a place without exits. As her pursuers set her on fire, she asks why this is happening, and she's told that she doesn't belong here - she's a mutant! Her kind has stolen their dreams and hopes - they've taken away Graydon Creeed! (sic) This is referencing a recent event in the X-Factor comics, but I'm not knowledgeable enough about those to know who that person is. Meltdown awakens from that disturbing dream to find herself lying on the street, wondering where on Earth she is - she doesn't remember where she was last. As impossible as it may seem, apparently somebody must have drugged and dumped her here! As she looks around, we see a small town with a water tower which spells out the location - Liddleville.
Meltdown finds a newspaper at her feet, the Liddleville Gazette, and admits that she has never heard of the town before. Well, at least she knows one thing - this is the last place she should be! She decides to contact home base, to let somebody know where she is - and that the rest of the X-Force team might be in danger. She heads for a local drug store in search of a phone, and finds the place entirely empty. Since it's abandoned, she helps herself to the phone, which turns out to be a classic rotary dial one - she hasn't seen one of those cheap old things since - since the last time she saw her dad. She focuses on the now, refusing to spend time mourning for him right now, and soon finds out that the line is dead - and so is the town! Where is everyone?
She goes exploring, and eventually spots a cop nearby - one who's wearing a name plate that literally just says 'Blank'. She's glad to see someone, admitting she was beginning to feel like she was trapped in an episode of the Twilight Zone, but the cop totally ignores her. Annoyed that the police officer is apparently being rude to her, she slaps him to catch his attention, but he crumples to the floor in a heap which reveals him to be some type of mannequin! As she checks him over, however, she's grossed out to realize that the mannequin-robot is coated with something that feels like real human skin!
A voice from behind her comments that they're all like that, and Meltdown's hair-trigger reflexes activate before she can even think, delivering a vicious spin kick to the newcomer's face by sheer instinct. The first rule of combat that Cable hammered into his students - the mutants who comprise the currently outlawed strike force known as X-Force - is to never let anyone take them by surprise. She activates her power to be ready for both defense and offense, explosive spheres of energy sparking in the palms of her hands, ready to detonate on command. She warns the man who spoke to step back, as she's in no mood to play games here!
The man nervously says he didn't mean to startle her, wiping away some blood from his chin, and explains that she's the first living person that he's seen in a week - he was beginning to lose his mind! Meltdown apologizes for overreacting and asks who he is, and the man introduces himself as Dimitri Fortunov - huh - and judging by her accent and the light show, he presumes she must be one of the American mutants they've been talking so much about on CNN. Meltdown introduces herself properly, and confirms that she's a mutant, confrontationally asking if he's got any problem with that. Dimitri promises he doesn't, and asks if he can call her Tabitha - if he's correct, they have a great deal in common! He then asks her what exactly she was doing… in Castle Doom? Meltdown exclaims her surprise at the question, memories start flooding back - she remembers now. She was in Latveria on a mission!
Flashing back to some time earlier in the day, we see part of X-Force, namely Meltdown, Siryn, Shatterstar, Rictor, and their leader Cable. The others - Sunspot, Warpath, and Caliban - are hanging back as backup in case the main team doesn't make it out. Cable warns everyone to keep a low profile - they're on foreign soil here. Meltdown asks if that means the secretary will disavow their presence if they're caught, but gets no answer to the sarcastic question. Siryn asks if Cable thinks the odds of success are against them to make such plans, but he swears he has great faith in the team. Still, one doesn't break into Castle Doom without taking precautions! The medieval exterior shouldn't deceive any of them - this place is guarded by one of the most advanced security systems on the planet. Doctor Doom didn't exactly encourage visitors!
Meltdown points out that since Doom disappeared alongside the Fantastic Four and the Avengers, couldn't they just storm the front gate? Nobody's home, right? To herself, she thinks that since Cable can be a little too grim at times, she likes to get under his skin by playing up her bubble-headed dumb blonde reputation. Cable, annoyed, asks if she even bothered reading the briefing, and explains (again) that the Latverian provisional government already tried to gain entry - half the team died in the attempt, so that's why X-Force can't do this without some help.
Suddenly an old guy materializes out of nowhere - his name is Nathaniel Richards, and he's the father of Reed. Meltdown guesses that being a brilliant scientist must run in the family, because according to Cable he'd explored the farthest reaches of time and space. He greets Cable, saying he looks healthier than the last time they met, citing an earlier crossover in Cable's solo-title. He says he hopes that his children are ready, and explains that following Doom's disappearance, the castle's defense system sealed off every accessway and an ionic field prevents him from just teleporting inside. Once he makes it into the castle, however, he should be able to use the castle's computer systems to render the defenses inoperative…
Syrin asks how Nathan's going to manage that, since Doom's computers are sure to be protected as well, but he points out that during Doom's previous absence he took over the place as well, convincing the world and all the sensors inside that he was really Victor von Doom. One of the mutants thinks it's kind of twisted to masquerade as your son's greatest enemy, but Rictor points out that not everyone's relationship with their parents is very solid… Cable informs everyone that the reason they're here is simple - it's become abundantly clear that someone needs to keep a careful watch on all time-travel devices, after one of their recent run-ins with a villain trying to salvage a time displacement core. He and Nathaniel agree that Doom's time platform is the number one target on that list. If such technology were to fall into the wrong hands, the results would be catastrophic!
Nathan leads the group to a set of tunnels, and explains that Castle Doom was originally known as Castle Sabbat, and the tunnels they're standing next to right now were built in order to, should the battlements ever fall to an enemy, allow the baron and his family to escape into the mountains. Most of the passageways collapsed long before Doom overthrew the Latverian aristocracy and took charge here, but those few which remain are now guarded by a sophisticated laser-grid.
Rictor asks if they'll have to dig their own tunnel in, but Nathan says that they won't need to - the power source for these grids is directly above them. Meltdown forms one of her explosive spheres and sends it up, smashing apart a fuse box and shutting down the lasers in a single blast. Rictor asks if it doesn't tick Cable off that he's having to follow Nathan's lead, but their leader just responds he knows when to give or take orders, which Rictor himself still hasn't learned…
Meltdown says that since Doom has falsely been reported dead before, why are they so sure he is dead now? What if he just wanted the world to think he was dead, so he could hang around the castle watching TV in his underwear or something? Syrin warns that Doom is perhaps the most dangerous man in the world, so this is no laughing matter! And don't look now, but straight ahead - there's company! One of Doom's servitor robots comes rushing around the corner, shouting 'Intruder!' in a class 90's computer font. Nathaniel warns the others about the threat level, stating that Doom's didn't marshall an army to take over Latveria… he simply built one! He then pulls out a staff charged with energy to take the robots on in melee combat…
Robots quickly surround the group, chanting that if they resist, they will die. Rictor concludes that Doom must turn these things out on an assembly line, and Meltdown says that they must have stumbled into the factory showroom! Shatterstar is just relieved that he does not need to restrain himself in the destruction of these mechanical automatons, but Cable warns him to simply hit hard and fast - the object is to get past them, nothing more. Nathaniel yells that they should all aim for the servitor's body - the CPUs and generators are located inside their upper torso! Syrin takes this to heart and starts destroying robots by screeching their harmonic frequencies. It's like knocking down bowling pins!
Shatterstar starts chopping into the enemies as well, declaring that in Mojo's arena, a clean decapitation won him a standing ovation! Cable wonders if he's really getting nostalgic for his gladiator slave days right now - perhaps he's just got a warrior's heart and misses a horde of foes to fight? Rictor grabs some robots to shake them apart with his seismic attacks, while Meltdown uses her powers to cut straight through the robots and places a destructive sphere in their torso as their equivalent of a heart, blowing them up in a huge explosion soon afterwards. Have a heart, tin man - but be careful of the heartache that comes with it! She gets a little overconfident at that point and charged off after more robots, adrenaline pumping… and accidentally triggers a trap door and disappears.
The slides of the chute are very smooth, so much so that they might as well have been greased. She prays she'll end up in the laundry room - because she wants something soft to land on! No such luck - she lands on a lower level with a whump and is immediately faced with a larger, more fearsome robot who announces that it is activating an electro-neural restraint a split second before she gets zapped. She doesn't even have time for a witty retort! After that she woke up in beautiful downtown Liddleville. Why did it take her so long to remember all that, though?
Dimitri Fortunov, who heard the whole story, confirms that he experienced similar memory loss when he first found himself here. Meltdown asks him why he is here in the first place, and he explains that Castle Doom once belonged to his family. For centuries it was the seat of power in Latveria, and Dimitri's grandfather was the Latverian baron deposed by Doom some two decades ago. (Sliding timelines…) Meltdown jokes that she didn't realize she was socializing with royalty here - should she be calling him 'Your Highness'? Dimitri says that she jokes, but Latveria has been in political chaos since Doom's demise - they need a leader who can unite the opposing factions. Meltdown wonders if he plans to crown himself king, but he says that the aristocracy was no better than Doom. Instead, he wants to offer the people a democratic government - but to do so, he needs the means to keep the violent political factions in check. He needs Doom's weapons, and that's why he broke into the castle.
After finding the keys still in the ignition in one of the cars along the road, Meltdown wonders if they should take this thing for a spin and blow this two-bit town. Dimitri informs her that it's no use - an energy field surrounds the city's borders, preventing anyone from leaving. After they drive off, however, Meltdown suddenly hears a voice in her head, and responds to it - it's Cable! Dimitri is confused who she's talking to, before cursing in shock at something he sees out the window. Cable tells Meltdown to look up, and his gigantic form looms over the city from above, much like Doom did in a previous visit to Liddleville…
Simultaneously, some distance from the castle, we catch up with Sunspot, Warpath, and Caliban. Sunspot notes that they're not supposed to draw attention to themselves, but they stand out like a sore thumb. Warpath explains that this is why Cable parked them with the Zefiro gypsy tribe - he knew one of their elders, so they're cool with it. Caliban says that he likes it here - everything is pretty and smells nice! Sunspot recalls that Doom was born a gypsy, and he can't imagine taking over the same country that once persecuted you! Warpath, however, admits that it's actually a recurring dream for anyone who ever grew up on a reservation, like himself… Caliban adds that he wishes he'd grown up in the forest instead of the Morlock tunnels… they didn't have any trees down there!
One of the Zefiro, a girl named Sofia, approaches and concludes that they're Esmeralda's American guests. She was - pardon her English - psyched out when she heard they were here. She asks if they brought any American music with them - see, Doom forbade the import of Western popular culture when he was on the throne, but she's a fan!
Warpath brought the new Lila Cheney album - she's a mutant associated with Dazzler who can also teleport intergalactically and lives in a dyson sphere, who knew - and asks whether Sofia likes her stuff, and she says she adores Lila's music. When she touches his hand to take a disc for use in her discman, however, she suddenly collapses with a flash of purple light around her head…
Back in Castle Doom, Nathaniel explains that Liddleville is another one of Doom's elaborate attempts to make the Fantastic Four pay for his many defeats at their hands. Together with the Puppet Master he created a device that would transfer the psyches of subjects into Lilliputian synth-clone doppelgangers. That happened back in Fantastic Four v1 #236. Cable concludes that Doom must have programmed his servitors to detain intruders here, and Rictor says that it's good it only took one good seismic shakedown to take the big robot down, or they'd all have ended smurf-sized! Shatterstar asks who the other two people strapped into the machine are besides Meltdown, but Syrin observes that one of them won't be of any help in figuring that out - he's dead. Looks like the mechanism may have fried his synapses…
Cable shuts down the neural link to the clones, so Meltdown and Dimitri quickly wake up - the latter is particularly stiff, probably because he was under for longer. Meltdown thanks Cable for the save, and introduces the team to Liddleville's other guest - the heir to the Latverian throne! Dimitri says that he owes everyone here a great debt. Nathan recognizes the name Fortunov and admits that he was unaware the old baron had bred a son to carry on the bloodline. Dimitri says that the baron indeed had no children with the baroness - but his father was not exactly the bargon's legitimate son! I presume they're just talking about surviving sons here, because clearly the old baron had at least two in Rudolfo and Zorba Fortunov, other claimants to the throne who would have been Dimitri's half-uncles.
Cable asks Dimitri how he managed to get past the castle's defenses, and he explains that his companion Sergei created a device which jammed the automated surveillance. Unfortunately they failed to account for heat sensors. Dimitri then spots the desiccated remains of Sergei still strapped into the Liddleville machine, and apologizes to him - it's all his fault! Nathan, barely paying attention, smugly announces that the castle's security is no longer a problem, since he reprogrammed the computer to recognize him as Doom once again. Meltdown mutters that it's too bad for Sergei that they didn't get here any sooner. Elsewhere in the castle, several figures in the dark move through the hallways of the castle. One asks for a status update from a lieutenant, who answers that he's pinpointed the location of their targets - five mutagenic and two norms. They won't get away this time, that's a promise!
Cable and his team leave Liddleville behind and move to the room holding Doom's time platform. One of them - it's hard to tell who, sometimes they're just black blobby outlines instead of actual drawings with any detail - asks whether Cable really wants to dismantle the thing, since without his timesliding technology he has no way to return to the future. Cable points out that if he does his job right, here and now, then the future he comes from won't ever exist. Win or lose, he's fighting his battle in the present. Dimitri is astounded - he'd heard rumors that Doom was in possession of forbidden technology, but he had no idea he'd be capable of time travel. Nathan says that they can only guess at the changes Doom may have wrought throughout the timestream - and that makes it all the more imperative to take the machine apart!
Dimitri leans next to the time platform and wonders at all the good one could accomplish with such a device. Cable notes that you can also do a lot of damage, even with the best intentions. He asks Dimitri to trust him on this one - it's best to put this baby to rest. Before he can actually do that, however, a voice from off-panel says he's not going to do anything except put his hands in the air and step back, slowly! The shadowed figures are revealed as members of SHIELD, led by G.W. Bridge. Once upon a time he and Cable were comrades in arms, but now they find themselves on opposite sides of the fence. Bridge declares that the UN has claimed jurisdiction over the castle and everything in it (Doom is also shit at contracts, apparently) and he warns Cable that if he tries to walk away with any of Doom's ordnance, he's authorized to take him out!
Cable tries to convince Bridge that he knows this is the right thing to do - would he really trust any government with a time machine? It's at this point that Dimitri yells for everyone to stop - nobody's touching that platform! Not Bridge, not Cable, not the UN! This rightly belongs to the people of Latveria! He then pulls out a grenade, much to Meltdown's shock. One of the SHIELD actions immediately takes a shot the moment he pulls this maneuver, blasting Dimitri in the chest and against the control panel of the time platform, destroying most of it. The grenade goes flying and Cable rushes after it, managing to grab it and reinsert the pin to stop it from exploding - but while he's doing that, something else happens behind him.
The time platform starts glowing, its circle of light expanding in every direction and engulfing everyone in a wave of expanding luminosity. The temporal field is expanding - something is wrong!
At the same moment, back at the Zefiro camp, Warpath explains to Esmeralda that they don't know what happened to her - he handed Sofia a CD, and she fainted on the spot! It was almost like an epileptic fit. Esemeralda explains that she knows what occurred - see, Sofia has the Rosikon family's gift of prescience. Esmeralda has a little of it herself, more instinct than sight, but Sofia's visions are clear and lucid. When she touched Warpath, she saw his future - and the intensity of that vision was too much for her to bear. Warpath worries what in his future might be that horrific, but Sunspot waves the idea off - Warpath can't be taking this seriously, right? Sofia should be taken to a doctor! At that moment, another Zefiro named Oskar runs up and warns Esmeralda that there's something she should see, quick! The castle, Castle Doom - it has vanished!
To be continued…
Rating & Comments
This issue has absolutely no Doom in it, and even Nathan's involvement is minimal - but since it's about trying to reclaim Latveria and Doom's name is on everyone's lips for most of the issue, I kind of have to cover it, right? Honestly, this issue really makes it seem like the only reason that Latveria has any security at all is that Doom keeps an eye on it at all times. (And that Kristoff is kind of a screw-up if several separate groups can make it through his defenses simultaneously.) Somehow Dimitri, X-Force, and SHIELD all get through the active defenses of the place without too much fuss, and spend a large chunk of the comic in there without facing any more trouble than an easily disabled bunch of lasers and a handful of generic servitor robots. There's not even any Doombots in sight, despite the previous issue explicitly setting one up.
That's actually something to mention - the Kristoff story implied that somebody had taken over the castle and was puppeting the Doombot, right? This issue, however, establishes that there was actually nobody in there at all - the place was running on auto-pilot with Doom away. I'd assume that Nathaniel just got there first and set it up to trick Kristoff, but this issue chronologically takes place later, since Nathan follows up on his promise in Tales of the Marvel Universe to return with allies later and take the castle himself. So what was that Doombot thing about, exactly? Just a vague implication of depth when in reality the writers hadn't considered what might really be happening at all, and other titles just ignored that little teaser entirely? Yeah, it figures. At least they could have had that one Doombot show up and pose an actual threat here, because the servitors really weren't much more than cannon fodder, to the point that most of them (including the biggest one that took out Meltdown) are defeated off-panel.
The entire Liddleville chapter is just a weird inclusion, by the way, without any greater purpose than being a callback. It doesn't really add anything to find Dimitri in Liddleville which discovering him in a prison cell wouldn't have done. The segment is just several pages of Meltdown wandering the streets and then getting freed from her capture without actually doing anything, so why is this stuff here? I guess it's a more interesting idea than just a generic dungeon, but I don't really see the point unless it has some actual plot-relevant reason to exist in this issue. It'd be like randomly locking someone up in the Negative Zone and then releasing them the next page. Okay? Meltdown plays the rather ditzy narrator for most of this issue, since a large chunk is told as an extended flashback, but her actual contributions aren't terrible interesting - she might claim that she plays up her dumb blonde act, but she's still mostly like that even in her thoughts.
It's kind of interesting that Cable and Nathaniel agree on dismantling Doom's time machine in order to prevent the UN from getting access to it. I presume this implies that Doom single-handedly prevented this from happening by forcibly shunting all foreign inspectors from the nation, but with him gone somebody's moving in to grab his stuff. I'm not sure why this didn't happen the last time he was missing, though - he's been gone for years and years, but suddenly everyone's rushing over within weeks of his latest disappearance? What's different? I guess the lack of a clear successor might play into it, but surely Zorba trying to take over would make removing the time machine an even bigger problem, not lesser? Anyway, I severely doubt Nathaniel cares at all about Doom's time machine, since he's literally a time traveler himself with his own tech to make that happen. He wanted access to all Doom's stuff again for his own reasons, and after getting that he really didn't care what happened to the physical props lying around. Since the character's going bye-bye for a while, though, I doubt we'll ever get a follow-up on that, which is a shame.
Dimitri Fortunov is the latest in a string of random family members of the guy that Doom stole his throne from. The old king is named Baron Sabbat instead, and we'll see this phrasing again - it's left a bit ambiguous if Latveria is supposed to be a kingdom, a barony, and whether Doom changed that somehow. As far as I can tell, 'Baron Sabbat' is some sort of aristocratic title and refers to the same guy as 'King Vladimir' in the past. This comic also retcons the existence of Rudolfo and Zorba, at least as written. It might be that someone made a continuity mistake, but I prefer to interpret it as an oversight where it didn't specify living heirs. Doom does have a habit of murdering every potential invader, after all. It seems that Dimitri got ganked at the end of this issue, so we might have already seen the last of our latest Fortunov bastard - and this time he was actually a bastard! Seems he still inherited a bit of that impulsive mania that his half-uncles also had, however…
It's interesting to see G.W. Bridge again so soon - I guess he was a bigger deal than I thought, as I'm far too used to just seeing Nick Fury everywhere in this particular role. Wiki tells me he had like a hundred appearances, but I presume he wasn't actually in charge for many of those. Also 'G.W.' stands for George Washington, which is just so painfully on the nose that it's kind of funny. Since Nathaniel doesn't shut down the defenses until after they're inside, presumably SHIELD had a third entirely separate means of avoiding the security systems, and also dodged the Doombot - this place is really quite easy to get into, huh? I presume X-Force is at odds with SHIELD because mutants in general are having a bad time since they're kind of blamed for all the rest of the heroes disappearing, but having Cable and Bridge engage in a bit of lighthearted ribbing and dialogue due to their mutual history as allies is nice. They're doing the whole worthy adversaries thing, right? It's not bad.
As an aside, while there's not a ton regarding them in this issue, since they were kind of side-lined for the castle plot, I think my favorite of the X-Force (just based on this issue) is Caliban - he's just a goofball with zero education but a lot of heart, and he reminds me of Gau from Final Fantasy VI. The trio that are left out honestly seem more fun than some of the inclusions? Rictor's an asshole and Cable is mostly just dour. Anyway, they hang out with the Zefiro tribe, specifically with the Rosikon family. Those names, incidentally, might be familiar - they are Doom's gypsy tribe according to the 2099 continuity, and we also met Kazimierz and Fortune Rosikon there. Since both of those characters had divination-related abilities, this is certainly no coincidence. With this the mainstream universe and 2099 are tied together definitively - Esmeralda is Fortune's ancestor, and Doom's people finally have a canonical name in 616.
On the whole, this issue feels a bit lackluster - the Liddleville stuff seemed like it added nothing but pages, Doom's castle is implausibly easy to get into when some of the characters explain in this issue that it's actually really difficult, and after the opening conflict against some random guardian robots, everyone just has a free run of the place and the setting barely even matters anymore. After that, the rest of the issue is basically just setting up the ending, which is an obvious lead-in to a time-travel related adventure in the sequel, just based on what happened there. This issue is not really that bad, but I'm hardly impressed either… It gets a lame 2 stars, because it's just kind of boring.
Best Panel(s) of the Issues
Not really the prettiest panels, but I have to point out how hilariously bored Doom must have gotten with this project, given how lazy his naming scheme got by this point. Officer Blank in from 'Ralph's Pretty Good Groceries', really?
Doom's Bad Hair Day
Giving barely identifiable blobs dialogue just seems silly. I guess it's supposed to be Nathaniel based on the stick he's holding? Didn't even see that before.
Is it just me or does Cable look younger and thinner in some of these shots than usual (and more than in other shots). On the cover, I thought he was Quicksilver at first. On the other hand, giant looming cable over Liddleville still looks like Cable.
Is it just me or does Cable look younger and thinner in some of these shots than usual (and more than in other shots). On the cover, I thought he was Quicksilver at first. On the other hand, giant looming cable over Liddleville still looks like Cable.
The same goes for Nathaniel in some of these issues as well - he randomly gets more youthful looks (and even color in his hair) depending on which part of the story you're reading, and I think it relates to different artists/inkers? In Tales of the Marvel Universe, every few pages were handled by someone else, even when they're covering the same character, and apparently there wasn't much communication since their features would warp a fair bit between those segments. (Also, some of those art styles were pretty awful.)
On an unrelated note, re: next few updates. Currently I think I'll treat this little succession intermission like the Interim Dooms - cover the Latveria stuff first, then a stray Doombot issue, then move on to write about Heroes Reborn with actual Doom again. It's only like three more issues, so it's not as extended an absence as last time, just a few months. That said, post-Reborn there's a stretch where Doom is basically nixed again - 1998 gets like two issues, 1999 maybe a few more? And some of those are flashback issues even. I don't think he makes his proper return until the 2000s, but at least it's one of his most infamous appearances. I'll have to look over alternate Dooms to see if there's anything to cover there too...
At least I'm slowly, slowly nibbling away at the backlog!
Honestly wondering if I should do my own retrospective thread on Iron Man. Less Let's Read and more breaking it down by runs, because I think as a solid "B+/A- Lister" in terms of popularity and publisher focus he's a guy who's always sort of tracking with where Marvel as a whole is. Plus I think there's actually some really good comics there that too many people ignore thanks to the movies sort of setting one reductionist characterization in stone for mass audiences.
As an Iron man fan I'd be there , he's the male hero that got me into marvel, also I'll probably get into some of the iron man's issues in my Kang-Spective
This cover is more generic than the last one - a handful of X-Force members sneaking around a stone hallway. I am amused at the very 90's big knee pads and boots combined with random sets of pouches, but since it's not completely overdone here, I'll just roll with it. More ridiculous is the children's cartoon show to the font which announces that those meddling mutants are snooping around to cause all kinds of mayhem! Come on now, let's not make this completely infantile… Castle Doom gets mentioned on the cover, at least, so we're still in the correct story here.
Story Overview
The Haunting of Castle Doom
We start where we left off - with Sunspot, Warpath, and Caliban approaching the place where Castle Doom used to be. The comic explains that Latveria has been closed to the rest of the world for years by order of Doctor Doom, and so under normal circumstances a bunch of foreigners among the native Latverians would be a novelty, especially when they're obvious mutants. Right now, however, they don't even notice - their attention is riveted on a far more disturbing anomaly in their daily routine. For centuries, the castle on the hill has loomed over the skyline, most recently occupied by Doom - but after his recent disappearance the structure has stood all but empty. Now, there's no evidence it ever even existed!
Warpath wonders how something that big could simply vanish, and Caliban just scratched his head, very much confused. If the castle disappeared, and Caliban's friends were inside that castle, does that mean they disappeared too? Sunspot says that it seems that way - they were sent in alongside Nathaniel Richards to disable any time-travel technology Doom still had in his possession, while they were left behind with the Zefiro gypsies as backup in case things went wrong. Warpath muses that this certainly counts as wrong - does it ever! He wonders if Doom perhaps rigged his castle to self-destruct, while Caliban morosely declares that he can't track his friends if they really disappeared…
Esmeralda of the Zefiro approaches them and says that unnatural occurrences like these have always plagued the castle - long before Doom deposed the last baron, there were already stories. They say the castle is haunted by the souls of every innocent that the Sabbat Barons put to death. Indeed, when she was a little girl and worked in the castle, some of the staff swore they saw ghosts! Sunspot doesn't believe in such superstitions, but Esmeralda reasonably points out that some wouldn't believe in men that could burn like a black ember either, and yet here Sunspot stands. There are forces at work in the universe that are beyond comprehension! Warpath is not interested in what happened to the castle, he's just worried about the rest of his team, his friends - he has no idea where to start looking for them!
Elsewhen, somewhere far beyond Warpath's wildest imaginings, his teammates Siryn and Meltdown find themselves lost and disoriented in the cold stone corridors of the missing castle, strangely luminous or translucent compared to the environment. Siryn says that the good news is they're still alive - she really did think that they were goners when that time platform exploded into light. Meltdown wonders where they ended up - and where are the others? She'd feel better if she was sure everybody survived the blast!
Syrin wonders if that includes Dimitri, and Meltdown defensibly points out she couldn't have predicted he'd suddenly pull a grenade on Cable - talk about a brainless move! He seemed a lot more together when they were both still trapped in Liddleville, Doom's miniature town. She's distracted then when she spots Rictor at a nearby window, pulling a dramatic pose surrounded by lightning, like Doom might.
Siryn asks if he's alright, and he admits he's not sure. Meltdown thinks he's still in shock from the explosion, since it did knock them all halfway across the castle, but Rictor isn't buying that. That was no ordinary explosion - it was the time platform that exploded, and that exposed them all to waves of temporal energy. As incredible as it sounds, he's pretty sure they've traveled backwards in time! None of the cars he can see outside the castle are contemporary - he'd say they're thirties models, no later than the forties. Meltdown reason that maybe Doom had a thing for old cars, lots of guys do! Rictor then points out that the flag flying over the castle bears two swords behind a wolf's head, the crest of the Sabbats, the aristocratic family that was overthrown by Doom when he took over the country. It was in the briefing! Meltdown gives him a gold star for that bit of trivia… and she supposes that time-traveling half a century would explain the headache.
As lightning arcs across the sky, the group hears a scream from inside. Inside, we see an old lady, Greta, run away while yelling at a girl to do the same - she's Esmeralda in her youth, naturally. She asks Greta what's happening, and the distraught woman explains that there are ghosts in the castle - it's cursed! They must leave now, or their souls are surely forfeit! The members of X-Force can't understand Latverian so they don't know what was said, but Rictor can guess what upset them. It's revealed to be Shatterstar, swinging a sword around and frightening the cleaning ladies. He promises he did nothing to scare the woman, but Meltdown concludes she must have thought he was a ghost - and maybe they're not far off. Siryn demonstrates by passing her hand straight though a candelabra - they're nto entire physical, any of them!
Meanwhile, in the castle's wine cellar, two men who once fought side-by-side now reach for each other's throats. They're Cable and SHIELD's leader, G.W. Bridge. Bridge declares that this is all Cable's fault, but the mutant says that if he'd just been allowed to dismantle the platform as he intended, they wouldn't even be in this situation. Nathan interferes, telling both that there's a much larger problem to address than their mutual enmity. According to his instruments, the time platform's malfunction sent the entire castle back to the year 1941! Confused, Cable points out that the castle already existed in 1941, so how does that work? Nathan reasons that they and their future castle do not exist in temporal synchronicity with this era, so they are like ghost images of the future superimposed on the past. Unfortunately, due to Dimitri Fortunov's actions, the time platform's controls were damaged, and this prevents anyone from returning to the present.
Dimitri, annoyed, responds that the last thing he remembers, it was one of the SHIELD agents shooting him which caused all this mess - and he should be dead! While Bridge says that they won't do anything until both of his agents are accounted for, Cable asks Nathaniel if he can get them home. Nathan admits that there's an issue which repairing the broken controls won't fix - there's some sort of energy anomaly interfering with the field generators. Dimitri, meanwhile, realizes with a jolt that if they really are in 1941 that means his grandfather, the Baron, is still alive!
Speaking of King/Baron Vladimir Vassily Gonereo Tristian Mangegi Fortunov de Sabbat - say that three times fast - we see him entering his study elsewhere in the castle, very much tired from a long day. He's hoping to find a moment of solitude and quiet away from the mounting pressures of his position, only to find all his familiar furnishings gone and replaced by walls of strange, futuristic technology that he has never seen before. He wipes his eyes, concluding that he must be going mad, and when he looks again his familiar library full of books has returned. Perhaps he is simply overtired? A voice from off-panel asks 'Herr Baron' if anything is wrong, and the Baron asks, exhausted, what Strucker wants from him now.
Wolfgang von Strucker was the scientific advisor to Adolf Hitler, at least in Marvel's version of the second World War, and he declares that the Baron has been such a gracious host to his… project. He thought the man might be interested in viewing the progress that has been made, and promises that his hospitality shall not be forgotten by the Führer. The Baron simply says that he does what he must to keep Nazi troops and tanks out of his country. Strucker declares that Latveria and Germany are allies, so they have nothing to fear from their Aryan cousins! The Baron scoffs and wonders if that's what the Germans told the Poles and Czechs too…
Strucker admits that their entry into those countries was somewhat brutal… but soon Strucker's work will make such violent incursions obsolete! Latveria is an ideal testing ground for his new Sturmfänger machine, his storm-catcher! With it, he'll be able to capture and harness the power of the limitless cosmos, and in doing so, make the Fatherland the unquestioned ruler of the Earth! The Baron says that he might be called a simple man for this, but he doesn't believe it's wise to tamper with such elemental forces. Strucker snarls that it's science which will determine the rulers of tomorrow's world. They approach the machine together, and Strucker asks one of his underlings, Lieutenant Schlange, how progress is going. Schlange says there was an unexpected energy flux which disrupted the last test, so they're currently recalibrating the instruments and repositioning the receptor rods on the castle's turrets for another try…
Concealed on a balcony, SHIELD agents Colin Muldowney and Theresa Petty view these proceedings with alarm. Muldowney comments that Petty was right - they've landed in the past, sometimes during WW2 from the looks of things. That's insane! He's already spotted Wolfgang von Strucker, and never expected to see that man up close! They've got to inform Bridge of this! Petty warns him that they've been discovered, as a pair of Nazi soldiers shout for them to come out with their hands up. Before that happens, however, a fiery-haired apparition rises out of the ground - it's Syrin, who unleashes her resonating scream and immobilizes the soldiers. She jokes that she finally knows how Kitty Pride feels when she phases through things, it's weird! Muldowney is confused how she even did that, while Meltdown says that the least they could do is thank Syrin - or don't they teach etiquette at SHIELD Academy?
Shatterstar looks down in the hall with the Sturmfänger and says this is getting more and more complicated - he didn't expect German soldiers in Latveria, and it doesn't take a history degree to be certain they're up to no good. From the documentaries he's seen, these Nazis are responsible for some of this century's most horrendous events! (...No shit.) He wonders if they should engage the Nazis in combat, but Syrin warns that it's no time to play John Wayne here - their first priority is getting back to the present!
Down below, Cable and Nathan are looking over the time platform, and determine that Dimitri thankfully only damaged the safeguard relays, and not the field generators themselves. Nathan's monitor is registering high levels of ionic interference, however, and that kind of static would interfere with their chronal realignment - with going home. The rest of the team rushes in, then, and Syrin announces that the place is crawling with Nazis under Strucker's command. Her German is limited, but apparently he's testing some kind of atmospheric energy generator.
Bridge is astounded that Baron Strucker is here - he founded Hydra and A.I.M. after the second World War, and SHIELD was created to counter those organizations' subversive activities. The trouble he could prevent if he stopped Strucker in the forties! Cable, amused, warns Bridge that he's beginning to sound like him. Nathan concludes that Strucker's machine must be what's causing the interference, so it must be shut down. If they don't return to the present soon, there's a chance this ghost-like intangibility they're experiencing will become permanent, and the chronal displacement of the castle could start spreading to the surrounding countryside. The clock is ticking here - they have to get to work! Meltdown looks around, and asks where exactly Dimitri disappeared off to…
Meltdown runs out and soon discovers Dimitri in an art-room with a gleaming floor - it looks like it's filled with water, actually, due to some subpar drawing, and the completely indistinct grey shadow puppets for characters don't help. Meltdown asks what he's doing, and Dimitri explains that he's trying to find his grandfather. Meltdown wonders why - is he trying to pull a Michael J. Fox? He can't change history! Dimitri points out that Nathaniel and Cable are time-travelers - what gives them more right than him? Meltdown argues that she knows he feels guilty for the things Baron Sabbat did to Latveria when he was in charge, but does he really think some unshaven kid claiming to be his grandson is going to make him change his ways? Dimitri argues it could make things better - for his people and his country! Or worse, Meltdown argues - what if he changes so much he never takes a mistress? Then his father will never be born, which means Dimitri will never even be a gleam in anyone's eye. Of course, then he could never go back in time… time travel makes her head hurt.
Their debate is interrupted when someone off-panel says that they just heard voices. Baron Strucker and Lieutenant Schlange walk by, with Strucker telling his underling that he's just imagining things. Schlange points out that he's received many reports of strange and unexplainable occurrences throughout the day - rooms that appear filled with bizarre machinery one moment, then nothing the next. Ghosts that roam the corridors garbed in outlandish colors. Two of their men were found unconscious outside the Sturmfänger wing with their ears bleeding! Strucker wonders if he believes the castle his haunted, like some of the servants claim - he'd expect that from the Baron, not from him! Schlange admits he's concerned about the Baron, since he's become increasingly hostile to their presence. Strucker says that the Baron believes this is still the nineteenth century, and may have outlived his usefulness. Schlange promises to take care of him permanently, which shocks a spying Dimitri enough that he shouts out 'No!'
Apparently he wasn't noticed, however, since we catch up with everyone later. He tells the group that he can't be expected to stand back and do nothing while Nazis attempt to kill his grandfather! He doesn't care what kind of leader he was, or is! Syrin points out that clearly they didn't succeed, or they wouldn't be talking to Dimitri right now. Dimitri says he doesn't believe in predestination - if they can travel in time, then history can be changed. The only question is, will it be changed by them, or by the Germans? Meltdown argues that maybe the attempt on the Baron's life didn't succeed because they were here to intervene. Shatterstar points out that his very existence is a paradox to begin with, as the reincarnation of a warrior from the future. Meltdown admits she still has issues with that particular backstory. Regardless, they'll have to stop Strucker's machine to return to the present. The team splits up, with Meltdown taking Dimitri and Shatterstar along to protect the Baron, while Syrin and Rictor head off to dismantle the Nazi storm-catcher.
Schlange and a pair of Nazi troops make their way through a richly decorated hallway towards the rooms of the Baron, telling some of his guards that they're here to see him. When the guards declare the Baron does not wish to be disturbed, the Nazis open fire and kill the two right there. From behind one of the paintings a pair of swords emerge, while Shatterstar declares that there is no honor in ambush - a true warrior faces their adversary on the field of battle! He cuts through the wrist of Schlange, forcing him to drop his gun even though it doesn't actually sever the limb. He snarls at Shatterstar that he doesn't care what kind of devil he might be, he'll pay for this! He then orders his minions to kill him…
Meltdown jumps in with balls of destructive energy and declares that she won't let them eight-six the old Baron, as his grandson is gonna be way too cute to let him end his family tree! Does that make her superficial? As she forces the Nazis to flee from her explosions, Schlange demands to know what kind of monster she is, though since they're speaking different languages, neither can really figure out what the other is shouting.
Baron Sabbat flings open the door after hearing gunshots, and demands to know what's happening, only to be shocked when he's faced with g-g-ghosts! Dimitri tells him that they're not ghosts, but allies. He explains that Strucker ordered the Nazi troops to kill him. The Baron grabs a sword so he can deal with the situation, snarling that he should have never let those wolves into his house! He asks how Dimitri knows this, however - who even is he? He looks strangely familiar… Dimitri is about to explain when Meltdown elbows him in the ribs and says that it looked like he was about to spill the beans, but he really shouldn't. He should tell the Baron good night, and they should head out - they don't want to haunt this castle forever!
Back in the Sturmfänger chamber, Strucker and his scientists are cringing away from a terrible sound, like a banshee's wail - and shortly after there's an earthquake, which makes Strucker conclude they're under attack. Syrin and Rictor then smash their way in and declare they're shutting down his infernal project - the writing's on the wall, it's time to go back to Berlin! Rictor snarls that they should tell Uncle Adolf that the Irish-Mexican coalition served them their walking papers, and that little runt will lose the war! He does wonder if all their witty references are wasted on these grunts. Still, even if they can't understand a word, he thinks their actions should speak volumes! They'll get the picture once the machine comes crashing down on their heads.
Using his mutant power, Rictor then creates waves of seismic energy which pound the storm-catcher until Strucker raises a gun at his head and says that yeah he does speak English pretty well, thank you. He decides that, ghostly as he is, Rictor looks tangible enough to take a bullet. Perhaps he'll learn the secrets of his unusual abilities from his corpse! When he pulls the trigger there's only a click, and Rictor says he'll need for than that Walther to take him out - if he can break his precious machine, imagine what he can do to him! Syrin then uses her super-voice to smash a chandelier up above, declaring that they don't have time to play chicken with Strucker - they need to make certain the hellish machine doesn't give Germany absolute supremacy over the world! The chandelier falls and hits Strucker, smashing him to the ground in a heap…
Rictor says Syrin made her point, and pulls a Hulk-style super-clap which finishes off the machine, forcing it to buckle, creak, and whine at increasing volumes. Syrin then grabs Rictor by the wrist and drags him away at full speed, telling him it's time to get the hell out of Dodge. All that energy which Strucker's machine siphoned from the cosmos, it's about to be released all at once! Moments later a huge chunk of the castle goes up in a fiery explosion. Badawoom!
In the basement, Nathan says that the interference just abruptly dropped to zero - they can begin resynchronization. Bridge points out that in a few more decades, Strucker will develop the Super Adaptoid, the Cosmic Cube, and MODOK, unless something happens now. Cable says that wet works is not Bridge's style. The SHIELD leader wonders if Cable wouldn't erase his worst enemies if given the chance, and he evasively answers that he hasn't had the opportunity. Anyway, the platform controls are back online, so it's time to exist stage right. Anyway, he tells Bridge he can at least say he served in the Second World War now! Everyone begins fading back into the future, much to their relief - they were beginning to start feeling uncomfortably insubstantial. Baron Sabbat sees this happening, and senses that the group is keeping things from him - what's happening to them? Why can he see right through them? Dimitri calls out in a panic, trying to warn his grandfather about something - but he vanishes before he can complete his sentence.
Back in the present, the three members of X-Force who were left behind are spending their time waiting around, and Sunspot is incredibly bored. Warpath tells him to try another field scan, and he answers that he already did that three times - nothing, nothing, and… more nothing. They already alerted the X-Men back at the mansion, so all they can do is… wait. Caliban muses that it's a nice day outside to be waiting for friends - and they are coming back, right? Warpath admits that he doesn't know, he just doesn't. Sometimes it seems they can survive anything, and then he remembers losing his brother, Thunderbird. He still misses him, every single - the thought is cut short when, from one moment to the next, Castle Doom reappears where it has always been.
Inside, Nathan confirms that they're back to their own time - his internal sensors say it'd been three hours, two minutes, and fifty-three seconds since they left. Cable decides to finish what he came to do, to dismantle the time platform before it can do any more damage. He then forcibly rips into it with his bare hands, ruining the circuitry.
Cable tells Bridge that they can claim the rest of Doom's toys- he's done. Bridge complains that destroying that platform was for the UN Security Council to decide - he really has no respect for authority! Even if he weren't a wanted man, he should still take him in on general principle - surrender now, and Bridge promises he'll stand up for him at trial!
Cable says that's never going to happen - even if Bridge could take him in, he'd get out. It's not like they haven't been through this before. Bridge reluctantly agrees, and tells Cable to get out already. His underlings are aghast that Bridge is just letting X-Force leave - they're wanted criminals, terrorists! Bridge tells him that they've got a big job ahead of them securing the rest of Doom's equipment - if he doesn't like it, he should file a report… Cable thanks Nahtaniel for everything he'd done to help, and admits he feels better knowing that the time platform is out of commission. Nathan says it's his pleasure, but to himself he muses that unfortunately this will be the last time they meet as allies. Sooner or later they all make a deal with the devil… and he's about to sign the contract! (Do we ever find out what that might be? Doubtful, but it sounds cool.)
Rating & Comments
The plot of this issue is almost entirely unrelated to the previous issue, beyond that the same characters show up in it - but then that was always going to be the case considering weird time travel nonsense got involved. It's a new type of time travel with some odd quasi-rules, but at least they stay more or less consistent for the duration of the issue (even if the artists forgot partway through to actually draw the characters differently than normal.) I didn't mind this too much, especially since we got a glimpse into the actual history of Latveria before Doom came on the scene. We only really know the Baron here from his position in Doom's backstory, and he was a much bigger dick there… so I guess he got mean as he aged.
The time travel logic in this issue basically holds that since the future castle which was transported back in time isn't fully materialized (since there's already an iteration of it here) which means everything is either entirely absent, only occasional glimpsed from the corner of your eye, or essentially a ghost which can only minorly interact with the physical matter of the past. Beyond a few panels, though, there's no real visible difference between the X-Force members and others, though the intangibility comes up several times when people use it to make surprise attacks through the floor or walls. It's kind of unclear exactly how people are attacking while insubstantial - knife attacks work but don't seem to really hurt people, though Schlange is shown bleeding at one point so there must be some effect. Syrin uses her sonic attacks just fine, so I guess indirect physical attacks are unaffected…
More important, perhaps, is the overall implication that the type of time travel that's employed in this issue is - unlike most Marvel time travel - much more along the lines of Harry Potter's time-turners than anything else. Esmeralda's report of spooky occurrences regarding the castle was referencing X-Force's actions in the past as if they'd already happened before they went back, and since the team prevented the murder of the Baron by Strucker's men, and he wasn't killed in recorded history, they closed the stable time loop there too. A sort of predestination paradox is at play here, I think. It also means that technically X-Force is both the cause of all of Doom's sorrows - by allowing the Baron to live - and also the origin of Doctor Doom as a supervillain, since the Baron was ultimately the catalyst for that entire transformation. All in a day's work?
It's kind of weird how the previous comic brought in the SHIELD people at the last moment, but they only have minimal involvement in this issue - they're present, sure, but they don't really meaningfully contribute much, and Bridge just stays behind to impotently stare at the time machine for basically the entire comic. Nathaniel is even worse, written out so he can 'fix the time machine' while other people do the real work. I'm not entirely sure why he's even here if he's not really going to do anything, and since he's basically going poof after this issue, that seems like a shitty way to go out. For all that the ending has this ominous feeling to it about Nathan's future, I don't think it's ever brought up again, so that's utterly wasted too.
Seeing a young Baron Strucker pal around with the Baron is amusing, and it's curious that reading between the lines, the only reason Latveria probably avoided getting blitzkrieged, at least up until 1941, is that they sheltered some Nazi weirdos and let them do crazy experiments. Are we sure the Baron isn't Doom's ancestor? Because that seems like the kind of nonsense he'd probably allow too. Didn't he have several ex-Nazi scientists in a previous story, like the Hauptmanns? Guess that tradition started early! I'm honestly surprised we're this far into the readthrough and we know only a minimum about the history of Latveria, nor have we ever seen much of Doom's rise to power. I know we'll eventually get a miniseries on that subject, but I'm impatient!
Most of the comic is more interested in minor combat encounters, but I am not entirely certain how a couple of ghosts destroying Strucker's machine and the Baron shanking one or two Nazis would really solve the bigger issue here. I can't imagine the Nazis would be pleased with what happened, and it seems to me like Strucker would seek revenge for the ruination of his plans, even if the Baron wasn't directly involved. Target of opportunity? I guess the implication is that he disappeared before the Baron could catch him, given that he'd eventually graduate into being a supervillain who, like, transplanted Hitler's brain and made Hydra or whatever. As you do. Schlange, I assume, is super-dead, even if we don't really see that.
Dimitri returns in this comic from his introduction last time, and gets a mini-arc. Not only does Dimitri have a great point when he calls out both Cable and Nathaniel on their bullshit when they dissuade him from contacting his grandpa - they're both time-travelers who mess with the timeline all the time, so what the hell? Ultimately they still kind of change history anyway, since X-Force then sets out to basically fulfill their part of the stable time loop by saving the Baron's life. So why do they stop Dimitri from talking to him? Either these events are what was always supposed to happen, and speaking to his grandfather would lead to the situation in the present day, or he's changing history, which implies that the present-day timeline just happened to exactly coincide with the one they end up creating by chance. I'm a little curious what Dimitri wanted to warn his grandpa about, exactly. He wants to change history, sure, but what does he want changed? My mind jumps to how the Baron died - at Doom's hands. Was he trying to prevent that…? Well, suck it, junior!
In case you're the sort of nerd who's curious about minor side-characters who have only a vague association with Doom (and I am), Dimitri does not make an appearance after this for upwards of twenty years. We get a bit of a wrap-up of his story next issue in an offhand comment, sure, but he doesn't make an actual reappearance. He's just one more failed claimant of the throne who fades into the background. He'll return when writers need some more miscellaneous Latverian characters to fill out a Latveria-centric storyline and they start digging into the deep canon. It's probably why Kristoff and Valeria make reappearances too, they're all just lore references specifically for nerds like me!
On the whole, I don't think this issue adds much to anything, beyond some interesting 1940's Latveria lore and a couple pretty forgettable fight scenes with a relatively unique gimmick in the intangible time travel. Half the cast spend their time sitting around (though at least the party stuck back in the present is amusing) and the rest are pretty much just running around the place, barely even hiding themselves and still somehow evading the Nazis without even really trying. Dimitri crouches behind a pillar and yells from like ten feet away, and yet somehow Strucker doesn't even notice him? It's silly. Ultimately the entire story ends by resetting everything to normal and leaving the castle under Nathaniel's control, but that will be forgotten and/or retconned by the next issue, so don't get too attached. Another underwhelming issue, but I'll give it an anemic three stars just because it at least has some interesting concepts baked in.
Next time I'll head into Spider-Man territory for a bit. First I'm tackling a double-sized Latverian Succession story, which rounds out that plot for now, and then I dig into a singleton Doombot story where Spidey teams up with Hippie Jesus, which should bring us up to date on the 'real Marvel universe' stories for a while…
Best Panel(s) of the Issues
I don't mind the big action pictures - Meltdown with her fireballs, for example, or this shot of Rictor going full Hulk-slap.
Doom's Bad Hair Day
Not only does the ground look like it's water, but the actual artwork here is vague grey blobs instead of anything defined. Bleh.
Okay, I know they were inconsistent about how the time-ghosts interacted with the past but I actually quite like this bit:
it's Syrin, who unleashes her resonating scream and immobilizes the soldiers. She jokes that she finally knows how Kitty Pride feels when she phases through things, it's weird! Muldowney is confused how she even did that,
Because the people in the past can hear them and they can hear the people in the past, so obviously sound has to get through the effect (and probably light, too, since they can see each other) The problem is everything else. Rictor's powers are vibration so that's kind of like sound, I guess. But sword attacks definitely shouldn't work.
175: Spider-Man Unlimited v1 #16 - The Wages of Conquest
This Latveria succession storyline is really taking us places, huh? From Kristoff via X-Force to Spider-Man and Silver Sable! The cover depicts the Dreadknight (who briefly showed up as part of my minor appearances) who is fighting with Silver Sable (who has an implausibly tiny waist line here, and showed up during the Infinity War tie-ins.) Also, he's riding around on his Hellhorse. And Spider-Man is there. The setting, naturally, is the picturesque nation of Latveria - more specifically Castle Doom, judging by the architecture. The biggest clue on where we are? 'One Knight in Latveria!' Really, writers, really?
Story Overview
The Wages of Conquest
The comic opens with a woman locked up in a dungeon - as if this comic is directly answering my challenge from a couple issues ago. She nodded off moments earlier, and her first thought upon waking again was about what a horrible dream she just had… before seeing the cold stone walls and the dusty light creeping through barred windows, and realizing that the nightmare was no dream at all… She is a long, long way from home. She is Betty Brant, secretary of J. Jonah Jameson at the Daily Bugle.
A mysterious figure opens the prison's door - it's definitely the Dreadknight - and says the guards reported that she hasn't touched the last three of her meals. He insists that she must be healthy and strong, for the ordeal that awaits. Betty picks up her plate of food and tosses it towards the door, snarling that they can save their prison swill, and their false sympathy! Her warden chastises her for having such a harsh temper - it's unbecoming of such a lovely girl. She yells that he can't get away with this - the US State Department isn't going to let him publicly execute an American citizen! Her captor replies that US leaders are weak and indecisive. By the time they make a move against him, it will be far too late… No, the only threat to his operation here is her - and the knowledge she has gleaned from her investigative reporting. A threat he must neutralize. But don't worry - the end will be swift and with minimal suffering. After all, a knight must be chivalrous, even a Dreadknight!
Across the Atlantic Ocean, the lights of New York City's skyline glisten like jewels in the night - but on the city's West Side Docks, business of a decidedly dark nature is being conducted. As people are loading goods onto a cargo ship, cursing at each other to keep things steady lest the merchandise be damaged, Spider-Man crawls across a nearby rooftop. He thinks to himself that Ben Urich came through with his latest tip - he got information about shady dealings at these docks recently, and he couldn't pass up the opportunity to snap a few newsworthy photos, and to investigate as Spider-Man! There's nothing inherently wrong with some guys loading crates onto a ship in the middle of the night, but if he remembers his high school geography classes right, they're flying the flag of Latveria, and they've been on the embargo list for as long as he can remember…
After webbing a camera to the side of a building he swings down to the ship, since he doesn't need his spider-sense to tell him that these swabbies are up to something less than kosher, so it looks like it's time to play border patrol. He lands in the middle of the group, asking if they need a hand with these craters - or is that against the rules of the Smuggler's Union? The men are astounded, and one complains that nobody told them they'd have to deal with this guy! Life's full of surprises, Spider-Man points out, but the smugglers decide to get proactive and pull out their guns, peppering him with bullets and cursing all the while. Spidey easily dodges their shots, and complains that it's bad enough they're trying to kill him - do they really have to offend his delicate sensibilities with their potty mouths too?
Spider-Man quickly webs up the guns to disable them, then knocks one of the sailors in the face with his fist. He's soon faced with a particularly brave and/or stupid thug who comes at him with a steel rod and proclaims that he never believed the stories of how fast he's supposed to be. He's not afraid! Spidey agrees that individuality is important, and clearly he's someone who likes to think for himself! Unfortunately, he picked the wrong day to be a skeptic. Spidey outspeeds the man's swing and knocks him unconscious with a nasty crunch. After that he goes to check out exactly what goodies they were smuggling, and it turns out it's a shipment of high-end guns - enough armament to make Saddam Hussein drool. Who inside the country would be underhanded enough to be sending this much weaponry to an enemy power like Latveria? And what could they have to gain from it?
Realizing he's not going to get any answers from the unconscious smugglers, he swings back to his camera and decides that maybe the cops will have better luck. As for him - he's just gotta retrieve the photos from his automatic camera, which should hopefully have snapped enough action shots to peddle to old Jonah. With that money, he just might be able to make his next tuition payment - it's amazing how expensive college has gotten in just the few years since he took a leave of absence! Payment is due this week, which means he'll need to develop the photos tonight. Guess he's off to the Daily Bugle! With any luck Ben Urich is there working late, and he might have a lead on this smuggling thing as well.
Spidey muses that Latveria has been in the news a lot lately - the country's been a political powderkeg ever since Doom died in the onslaught, and Betty Brant has been really into proving herself as a reporter recently - and he actually got Jameson to send her to Latveria on a special assignment. He hopes she hasn't run into any trouble over there. These days, he thinks an American reporter would be safer in Beirut! As he approaches the Daily Bugle, Spider-Man sees that there's lights on in the City Room at this time of night - that's strange. Wonder why so many people are burning the midnight oil on a day like this?
After entering the building and switching into his civvies, Peter Parker makes his way in. He spots Joe 'Robbie' Robertson and Glory Grant inside - who else is up here, and why are they watching television together? Ben Urich is also there, and his nephew Phil! Looks like the networks have some late-breaking news on the Latverian situation. The TV reporter explains that fighting continued today in the outer provinces of Latveria, between the interim government's military and a group of self-proclaimed freedom fighters. The leader of these revolutionary forces has yet to identify himself, but he issued a statement declaring, in no uncertain terms, that Americans are prohibited from entering the country. Peter enters and Ben quickly tells him to shush - some disturbing news came over the associated press teletype an hour ago, and he just needs to make sure it's true…
The TV presenter continues, stating that to enforce their policy, the rebels have released to the press the following videotape showing footage of an American journalist on assignment as she's taken hostage by revolutionary soldiers. The reporter in question has since been identified as Betty Brant of the New York Daily Bugle. Peter is horrified and tells Robbie that they need to get her out of there - what can they do? Robbie morosely tells him that they can't do much - Jonah sent her over on a fact-finding mission, and his guess is that she found out something the revolutionaries can't afford to let the US know. The press release says that they plan to make an example of her - in a public execution! Under Latverian law, there's not a blasted thing they can do about it!
Peter asks what Jameson thinks about this, and Robbie admits he has no idea - he's not even sure where Jonah is. He figures Peter could try the Byline, the little pub downstairs. He's been spending more time there ever since the down-sizing… But he warns Peter that if he's already seen this news report, he might not be in the best of moods… After making his way over to the pub, Peter finds Jonah as he is yelling a drink order at the barman, and he then demands that the TV should be turned up, as he can barely hear the blasted thing over the lousy jukebox! The TV is still on the same program, continuing from before. It explains that the tense political situation escalated today with the capture of Betty Brant. Brant, whose late husband Ned Leeds was recently exonerated of charges that he was the costumed criminal Hobgoblin, was apparently looking to pull off a journalistic coup of her own… The barman says it's a scary situation, huh? It seems like the whole world has gotten a bit darker since all those heroes died… Jonah comments that heroism can make people do some stupid things, then takes a swig of his drink.
Peter enters the bar and calls out to Jonah, who wonders what he's doing here - how did he even know where to find him? Peter says he has his sources, and Jonah immediately catches on and says he'll have a talk with Robbie. Peter says that's hardly the point - why is he here, alone, instead of at home with his wife? Jonah admits he might not be fit company for her tonight. Not that it's any of Peter's business!
Peter figures he's heard about Betty, and argues they should be able to do something. Jonah replies that in his day, secretaries didn't become reporters. They were content to do their jobs without complaint and leave dangerous work to the men! Men who like risks, men like… Peter continues the phrase with 'Ned Leeds?' Is that what this is about? He's still feeling guilty over Leeds' death? He feels responsible for Betty being a widow?
Jonah pokes a finger into Peter's chest and tells him to save the psychological junk for someone who buys it. This isn't about Ned! This is about him sending that girl into a war zone when she wasn't ready for it! Peter argues that she wanted to prove herself, and he can't take the blame for that. Peter argues that they might still be able to help - he's been on dangerous assignments before. Ben Urich and he could go over there… Jonah interrupts him, and says that if he didn't know better, he'd think Peter was the drunk one here. Taking another swig, he declares that he's not throwing away any more of the Bugle's budget so Peter can go over there, violating international law, and screw things up even worse! If he wants to throw his life away too, then find someone else to bankroll the trip. He's heard that Doctor Kevorkian specializes in that sort of thing!
One hour later, Peter dons his suit again and swings home. He reflects that buried under the same charming exterior as ever, he could tell that Jameson was really worried about Betty. He guesses that the big shot publisher isn't used to being just as helpless as the rest of them. He did hit the proverbial nail on the head, however - Spidey has no clue how he's going to get to Latveria. In the old days he could have used his reserve Avengers status to borrow a Quinjet, back when there still were Avengers! Well, there's nothing more to accomplish tonight but get more depressed, so he might as well get a few hours of sleep after seeing how Mary Jane is doing…
Walking in, Peter spots her on the couch, and concludes she must have fallen asleep while studying. Seeing her lying there, so peaceful and serene and beautiful, is the reminder he sometimes needs to know how happy and lucky he is to be married to her. He walks over and kisses her on the forehead, which wakes her up, and the two share a moment. She asks how his night was, and Peter says that as of a second ago - fine. Before that, however… Mary Jane tells him that she saw the news about Betty - it's so horrible! She wonders if anything can be done, and Peter admits that unless he can figure out a way to sneak into Latveria, there's not. No commercial flight will take him there!
Yawning as she sits up, Mary Jane wonders if the weird message in Times Square has anything to do with all this, and Peter is confused - what message? MJ concludes he must not have seen all of the news, and says she taped it for him - it's right at the end of the broadcast. They quickly roll back the VCR and put the news back on. The lady on screen explains that pedestrians are still guessing at the meaning of a mysterious message flashing this evening on the big Jumbotron screen in Times Square - it appears to be a summons of some kind for the costumed adventurer Spider-Man, but its author and intent are unknown. It says: 'Spider-Man: The Torch at 12 noon --Sable'. Peter wonders what she wants this time…
The next day, at 12.02 PM, Spidey has stowed away on a boat to sail towards Liberty Island, shooting a web up towards the Statue of Liberty when he's close enough and making his way upwards towards her torch. He's not sure how Sable found out about his old meeting place with the Human Torch, but he does know he's uncomfortable with the idea. In fact, he's not sure who's more stone cold - the statue, or the lady who called this little meeting! He levers himself over the edge with a howdy, and Silver Sable is waiting for him, telling him that he's late - he should know by now that she doesn't like to be kept waiting!
Silver Sable comments on Spider-Man being back into his original costume, and says she approves - but she wonders if perhaps he's not the same Spider-Man she last encountered? He apologizes, but says the Spider-Men have got to keep some secrets! Peter muses that he wasn't even aware Ben Reilly had met Sable while he was off being Spider-Man, but he guesses there's a lot his clone never got to tell him! He asks if they're just going to stand around being coy, or if they're here for a reason. Sable then says that they're not standing around - they're waiting. They'll board her airship, where she'll brief him and her Wild Pack on the details of the latest mission for which she's been contracted - to bring down the revolution in Latveria! If he's interested, of course. Spider-Man just tells her to lead on…
After an enormous hulk of a flying machine picks them up, we meet with the group inside, and Sable activates a projector to highlight her briefing with images - it's all very high school. She says she doesn't want to repeat herself, so everyone should pay attention, including Spider-Man! As they already know, their destination is the Balkan nation of Latveria, which borders her own homeland of Symkaria. Until recently it was an absolute monarchy ruled by the would-be-world-conqueror Victor von Doom. A few months ago he apparently perished, along with a number of heroes, in the final battle with the being called Onslaught. Doom's supposed heir, Kristoff Vernard, then attempted to claim the vacant throne, only to find himself effectively disowned and repulsed from the castle. Soon after, Dimitri Fortunov - last living heir to the royal family that Doom deposed - laid claim to the throne. Attempting to take control of Doom's technology, he ran afoul of SHIELD and the mutant group X-Force.
But it's the latest revolutionary elements with which they're concerned. Her surveillance has uncovered the identity of the leader of the rebellion - the man they see on the screen right now. His name is Bram Velsing, formerly one of Doom's chief scientists, with ambitions of his own that went far beyond being one of lackeys. Doom found out about Velsing's dissension and punished him, surgically grafting a mask to his face, hiding his face for all time, much like Doom's own hideously scarred face has been hidden. Embittered, Velsing used his scientific genius to create the identity of Dreadknight, but his plans for vengeance against Doom were cut short by Iron Man. (This happened in Iron Man v1 #102, and Doom was not involved.)
Sable explains that the Dreadknight hasn't been a major player since then - but now her sources tell her that this small paramilitary group he has formed has the illegal backing of unknown parties in the United States. Spidey concludes that this is why they grabbed Betty - she must've found out the identity of these backers! Sable states that their objective is to take out Dreadknight and hopefully bring in his shadowed supporters. She asks if Spider-Man will participate. Spider-Man considers that he's not a mercenary, and he's not really keen on getting involved in an international incident, but this is his only shot at rescuing Betty, so what choice does he have? He agrees to help, but asks to make one phone call…
The radar-cloaked Symkarian airship lands near a gypsy encampment outside the capital of Doomstadt.
Several of the people there are thankful that she's arrived. Spidey asks who they are in a whisper, and he's told that they're the Zefiro, the tribe Doom belonged to - and they also happen to be their employers! One of the Zefiro elders says that they're not a wealthy people, but the tribes have pooled their resources to meet her price, so she can stop the madman Dreadknight from conquering Latveria with his accursed foreign technology! Peter points out that, speaking of technology, aren't there several of Doctor Doom's robots staring them down from the camp? The Zefiro promises that the Master simply left them here to protect them - they're programmed to guard, not attack.
That is, of course, when one of the robots - classic-style servo-guards - recognizes Spider-Man's energy signature and classifies him as an enemy of the Master, and therefore a target for termination! Spidey notices the attack coming with his spider-sense and dodges the blast at the last moment, telling the Zefiro that they might want to check the warranty on those things! Sable concludes that they must still be programmed to view anyone who's ever opposed Doom as a threat. She asks if he needs help, but Spidey quickly blinds a robot with some webbings, then uses a little trick he pulled on some Sentinels recently - and uses it for a little meeting of minds! Smashing the two robots' heads together, they then explode into a fireball. He then tells the Zefiro that they'll have to work out the bugs in their watch dogs if they expect any help from this little webslinger!
Later that night, everyone's gathered together around a campfire next to the gypsy encampment, and Sable goes over her plan. She explains that Dreadknight's soldiers' edge is their arsenal of high tech weaponry, presumably supplied by their mysterious backer. The plan is to turn that asset into a liability. Reconnaissance shows that their weaponry is all electronic - powered by one central generator located behind the castle. She's brought an EMP generator developed by Symkaria's scientists which, when attached to the generator, will shut down all electronic devices in a three-mile radius around the castle, including all the weapons and even Dreadknight's own armor. Spidey opines that he just thought that device was the world's biggest carn horn! Sable impatiently tells him that he's not nearly as amusing as he thinks he is… and to please let her finish.
The strategy is simple - the Wild Pack will stage an assault on the castle with conventional weaponry to distract the bulk of the troops. She and Spider-Man, meanwhile, will plant the EMP device and take down Dreadknight. They'll only have three minutes before the pulse wears off, however, and all those weapons are powered back up, so they'll have to hit hard and fast. She asks if there's any questions - then orders everyone to move out!
One hour later, some of Dreadknight's soldiers - dressed in hilarious old-timey knight outfits - are alarmed when their radar's not picking up anything, but they can definitely see an unauthorized ship entering Latverian airspace! Symkarian, by the markings. Shoot it down! They activate some plasma cannons and shoot it out of the sky, but moments earlier the hatch at the bottom opened, disgorging a host of paratroopers. As the Wild Pack descends, Battle Star mentions that it's a good thing Sable has deep pockets - that's the third ship they totalled this month! Chen comments that he should worry less about Sable's cash and more about his own skin! Roll out the welcome mat, kids, the Wild Pack is here! Yeehaw! (That was Powell's contribution.)
At the back of the castle, meanwhile, Sable and Spider-man sneak up on the generator. It's perfect - only a handful of guards are stationed there, and it should be simple enough to take them out and plant the EMP device. Spider-man concludes that nobody has ever accused her of lacking self-confidence. Sable agrees - nobody with brains! She says she has this covered, so he should go find the Dreadknight while she provides backup as soon as she's done here. Spider-Man hates to bring this up now, but… see, a friend of his is a prisoner inside the castle, and his first priority is getting her out of there. Silver Sable angrily states that they're not on a rescue mission, but he responds that she means she's not. He'll see her inside - he doesn't suppose he can convince her to wait for him before tackling the Dreadknight herself? Sable tells him to do what he must - she'll do the same.
Deep within the besieged castle, Betty slams into the door and demands to know what's going on - what's all the shooting about? Somebody answer! One of the guards comes in and asks what all the commotion is about - she should quiet down, or they'll quiet her down! The castle is under siege, and they don't need problems from their prisoners too! Betty wonders if that means most of the guards are out defending the castle like good little soldiers, and when the guard confirms that, she knees him in the crotch - welcome to soprano land!
She then leaves him in her cell and runs out into the castle, reflecting that it may be the bravest and stupidest thing she's ever done! Still, at least it looks like she's got a clear path out of the castle, but no idea where she's going - or what kind of insanity she's running into with a siege going on!
Back at the generator, Sable takes out a bunch of the guards, commenting that they are well-trained… but not good enough to keep her from accomplishing her objective. All she needs to do is attach the device to the wall of the generator with the magnetic couplings, push a few buttons, and in moments the EMP will activate, dampening all electric power in the area. While she's doing that, however, a man sneaks up from behind and pistolwhips her over the head, declaring that he's found a sweet and shiny prize - Silver Sable, world's sexiest and most frigid mercenary! Pleasure to make your acquaintance!
Sable, dazed, assures him that the pleasure is all his. He says that's a cute response - she should've just said no to this assignment, as there's more going on here than she can imagine. His employers have invested too much time and money into this operation to let her screw it up! Sable declares that his employers are traitors to their country, and he is apparently nothing but their lapdog! She suddenly does an acrobatic spin kick and bowls him off his feet, declaring that like a dog he must be brought to heel! The man fights back, saying that he is no desk jockey, despite the suit he's wearing - he's ex-CIA, ex-Special Forces! He can take her out in his sleep!
Inside the castle, Betty feels like she's been running for hours - where's the way out? Maybe through the next door? She opens it, concluding that this is definitely not the way out - it's some kind of large arena as big as Madison Square Garden! There's straw puppets set up, too - for some sort of jousting practice, maybe? This is, of course, when Dreadknight shows back up on the back of his flying horse, stating that Betty is tenacious and resourceful - he applauds her, but it doesn't change her fate at all. Her knowledge of his deal with Roxxon is dangerous, and she cannot be permitted to live. He had hoped to wait for a public execution, but circumstances have forced his hand. He does regret the necessity of… He pauses, suddenly, as the energy around his lance fizzles away!
Spider-Man jumps down from above, declaring that Dreadknight has it all wrong - you see, a knight is supposed to rescue damsels in distress, not put them in distress! What are they teaching Latverian kids in school these days? He tells Betty to get out - he'll take care of Sir Rants-a-Lot! As Spidey lands, Dreadknight recalls that Spidey was responsible for stopping his latest weapon shipment, and he'll pay for that! The hero responds that he should send him a bill, he's a little strapped for cash right now. Dreadknight tosses him off into one of his straw targets, and declares that he's not sure how Spider-Man managed to dampen his armor's power-systems, but he'll learn to his sorrow that he doesn't need them! He commands his horse to take him down, so they can show this gaudily dressed intruder how they treat uninvited guests in this castle!
Spider-Man replies that Dreadknight has got some nerve to call someone else gaudy when he's strutting around like an extra in Monty Python and the Holy Grail! Spidey focuses, pulls himself together, and then evades Dreadknight's charge at the last possible moment, doing an acrobatic spin over his head and landing behind him, leaving the villain to cleave one of his own targets into splinters.
Dreadknight curses the hero's agility, and declares he'll simply squash him instead. Spider-Man mocks him for a hackneyed phrase - squashing the spider, heard it a thousand times before! Dreadknight says that the hero cannot hide his fear with quips, and Spidey admits he's not entirely wrong - the knight's a tougher customer than he thought, even without his high tech weapons, and it can't be long now before that EMP wears off and he's in really deep flying horse manure!
Outside in the courtyard, the pandemonium rages on with the Wild Pack taking on many of the villain's guards who are now pretty harmless without their electronic weapons. Their own guns, classic bullet-shooty ones, still work fine. The EMP has turned the tide! Most of the guards surrender when they realize their weapons are useless, but they'd best round them up quickly - they're almost out of time! That's when reinforcements show up with functional weapons - the three minutes are up! The Wild Pack quickly grabs some of the discarded high tech weapons - it's time to fight fire with fire!
Sable and the ex-CIA agent are still fighting, and he manages to get Sable into a chokehold, telling her that she's now like he likes all his women - on their knees! (Uh…) Sable snarls that she was wrong about him - he's not a lapdog, he's simply a pig! She gets a few good punches in and frees herself from the hold, but she knocks the guy back in the same direction as his lost gun, and he quickly grabs it to see if she can slink her way out of a bullet's way too. She snaps that she won't have to, and tosses several throwing knives at him, one of which pierces his hand and forces him to drop the gun again. After that she kicks him in the face and tells him good night - they're not making Special Forces guys as tough as they used to! Now he's unconscious, and silent - just like she likes her men! (Um...)
Back inside, Spider-Man and Dreadknight continue their fight, with Spidey laying a punch against the armored villain, who says he must be truly mad to engage him in hand-to-hand combat! Spidey admits that the man is right - he's just bruising his knuckles hammering on the metal faceplate! Dreadknight smashes him away, launching him into a wall where spider-sense allows his foe to land easily - but it was close, the pain is numbing his reflexes. Soon the villain notices that his lance is energizing again - the familiar crackle of electricity shall now be unleashed! Oh, great. Spidey manages to dodge a close quarters lightning blast which blows a hole straight to the outside - looks like the room they're in is right above the main generator, which gives him an idea or two…
Spider-Man starts blasting Dreadknight with weblines, and the villain wonders if he really believes they can do him any harm. Spidey laconically says that he doesn't - but he thought it was about time for him to come down off his high-hellhorse and join the rest of his people on the ground! Yanking on the weblines, he pulls the villain off his ride and then sends him careening out of the hole in the wall, smashing to the ground right in front of the generator.
Spidey follows him down, and realizes the man is already getting up - how tough is he? He wonders what he could do with a massive electrical generator that could slow down this round table reject… He lands next to Dreadknight, who says that his armor took the brunt of that fall, and he's lost his patience for toying around with him. No more quips, no more games - his life shall end here, as his lance's electrically charged coils will fry him to ashes!
Spider-Man jumps up and avoids the charged tentacles that lash out, and they embed themselves into the generator. He tells the villain that if he can wait a while, he can rustle up a crowbar somewhere to pry those out again… Furious, Dreadknight declares that not all his coils were caught - and only one needs to connect to do the job! He uses half a dozen more tentacles with this attack and sends them at Spidey, who's waiting for it - the timing has to be precise. He dodges again, this time connecting the coils to another chunk of the machine. Spider-Man, pleased, tells Dreadknight that he just completed a circuit.
We see a split second shot of the man's wide eye as he parses that sentence and begins to shout, before electric power from the generator pours into the villain's armor and electrocutes him, sending hundred of thousands of volts coruscating madly through him, overloading circuits, burning out connections, fusing wires into slag. Spider-Man shields his eyes and dives for cover. Ultimately, the electricity jolts Bram Velsing - the knight who would be king - into sudden and brutal oblivion… Betty makes it to the battle and asks if he's dead, but Spidey assures her he's alive in there, which is more than the knight intended for her. They hug, and Betty thanks him for being her knight in shining armor today. They decide to walk off together, to see how Sable's people are doing…
Later, in an airplane borrowed from the Latverian interim government since their own was trashed, everyone makes their way back home. The Doom loyalists were grateful to them for stopping the Dreadknight's rebellion, so it's the least they could do. The knight's men folded pretty quickly when they realized their leader was history, which is what you'll get when you rule by fear. Spider-Man admits that he'll be happy never to see the place again - imagine a country where Doctor Doom is actually the best choice to rule! Ah well, at least he made some money out of it. Sable inform him that, actually, he hasn't - he was contracted for a specific mission, and he chose to pursue his own agenda instead. It was pure coincidence that he even encountered the Dreadknight. He should be thankful he's even getting a free ride home! Spidey just puts it down to his luck…
He asks how Betty is holding up, and she says that the ironic part of it all is that she's not even sure she has enough concrete evidence to pin all this on Roxxon's top brass, and she's not looking forward to facing Jonah! Back at the Daily Bugle, Jonah snaps at her that he can't believe how careless she was! The next time she's in over her head, there may not be any Wild Pack to come to her rescue! Now, she should get back to work! As she leaves, Jonah calls after her, and tells it's good to have her back, and she smiles and agrees that it's nice to be back.
Later that evening, Peter and Mary Jane are watching the news. It's reporting that the man responsible for the illegal funding of the Latverian coup was Linden Laswell, a rogue CIA operative and former executive of the Roxxon Oil Corporation. Highly placed government sources have denied knowledge of Laswell's activities. Peter complains about all the mentions of 'rogue' and 'former' - Roxxon squirms away scot-free again! A country was torn apart, and Betty almost killed, and for what? The bad guys get away. MJ kisses him on the cheek and tells him that not all bad guys got away, so sometimes you have to take the little victories where you can get them. Now, come here - let's celebrate.
In an epilogue, we see the tail end of the news broadcast as it's shown in a shady board room full of faceless Roxxon executives. The TV presenter says that a Roxxon spokesman disavowed any connection with Laswell's activities, claiming the company had severed ties with him several years ago. One of the men states that Laswell made the perfect patsy. Ever since Ollie North, Americans are predisposed to believe the idea of a rogue super-patriot from the intelligence community, and it's a pity that costumed types interfered before he sealed the deal.
They conclude that the Latverian project is canceled, and others note it's only on indefinite hold - opportunity will knock again, as it always does. They shouldn't dwell on one small setback - there are plenty of other projects for them to focus on. Roxxon didn't become what it is today by sulking and wasting time. After all, if they don't chart America's future, who will…?
Rating & Comments
As a closing chapter to the larger Latverian Succession storyline, this one serves pretty well - it puts the kibosh on Roxxon's plans for the nation, at least - but I'm curious how the nation will fare for the extended period Doom will be entirely absent. We can assume that Nathaniel is still shadow-puppeting from the background here and there, I guess, to keep things rolling along - or this entire thing will be forgotten by the time old Victor makes his way back from his involuntary exile to the scowly 90's Image dimension. It's also interesting to see the writers remember an old villain from way back when like the Dreadknight, though it's kind of hilarious how this character whose origin and actions all related to Doctor Doom somehow always gets beaten down by someone else first.
The reason that Spider-Man even gets involved in this whole mess is because Betty Brant, a long-standing supporting cast member as the secretary of Peter Parker's boss at the Daily Planet, gets kidnapped for her investigative journalism. I guess around this time in the comic she was branching out from being the person who did J. Jonah Jameson's papers and actually wanted to have a career, which is commendable even if she doesn't seem to be particularly good at it. She's very much the damsel in distress for most of this issue, only belatedly breaking out on her own, after which she spends the rest of the issue running around as a damsel in distress again, which is kind of disappointing. I'd much rather see Betty Brant pull a Ripley than immediately doubling back on what might be character development…
Spider-Man gets an extended introduction with a superfluous and fairly pointless fight scene at the docks - he doesn't really learn anything there which he doesn't get told later anyway, namely that some American organization is smuggling high tech weaponry to Latveria on the downlow to equip the Dreadknight's rebellion and allow them to puppet the state. This might seem relevant, but the same exact information is later doled out by Silver Sable anyway in her briefing, and since Spidey doesn't get any evidence of who the culprits are, he can't even add anything to the proceedings…
A surprising chunk of this issue is concerned with following Peter around as he chats with Ben Urich and other people at the Daily Bugle, then decides to go find Jonah drinking his sorrows away at a nearby bar, all the while listening to an ongoing news broadcast which always seem to wait for him to continue its coverage. Convenient, that. While the news drops exposition about the state of the world, Peter drags up some contemporary events in the comics, like the death of Ned Leeds, formerly Betty Brant's husband, for which Jonah feels guilty (which is weird if you only know the MCU, I imagine.) Jonah is clearly affected by everything that's going on and not doing too great in this period of comics, but at least we get to see him let his hair down a tiny bit by the ending, so that's nice.
We also get a reminder that Peter, at this time in comics, was happily married to Mary Jane Watson - even seeing this bubbles up old resentment about One More Day again. It's a cute moment, though it mostly just serves to extend the comic's length a bit and continue the endless news exposition some more. For once Peter missed a plot-relevant broadcast, so MJ helpfully taped it for him so he can have a second chance at it. This was pre-24 hour news channels, huh? Bizarrely, the news treats a very obvious and barely coded message as a huge mystery. It's literally 'Sable' calling out 'Spider-Man' for a meeting at a specific place and time. And the meeting place is 'the torch' and they meet at the most famous torch in the entire city. This isn't secretive, this is juvenile!
Silver Sable has shown up in our readthrough before, back during Infinity War, when she was shown to have something of a friendly relationship with Doom, even if that particular visit she ran into an alien doppelganger of Doom instead. Here she once again arrives while Doom is away, recruiting Spidey for a mission to free Latveria from the Dreadknight's control. Peter decides to go along with it because, while not a mercenary, Sable has an airship and can thus get him close enough to free Betty - the rest is secondary. He has no inclination to really help, but I guess Sable knew enough about him to at least make the attempt, which implies they have a relatively friendly relationship, even if it's just business.
Sable recounts the events of the previous Latverian Succession stories, so we at least know they haven't been retconned, but it then focuses on the latest element which took over after those previous attempts to take over failed. After recounting the Dreadknight origin - which is still very Doom-centric - we then learn that the people who actually hired the Symkarian mercenaries were actually the Zefiro themselves, the gypsy tribe that birthed Doom in the first place, who pooled their money to free their nation from all these invaders. I presume they are the Doom-loyalists mentioned in a SHIELD file briefly shown in a previous issue. This is reinforced by the presence of several servo-guards who are programmed to protect their camp, even if they're a bit overzealous in going after Spidey, because he's formerly an enemy. (I guess Sable hasn't really been the real Doom's enemy yet, so she's fine.)
The strategy employed by Sable and the Wild Pack is smart - EMP all the technology, then use that opening when the enemy's weapons don't work to knock as many of them as possible out of the fight, and dethrone the Dreadknight. It doesn't work out that way, but that's at least partially because Spidey decides to bail almost instantly and heads off on his own to find Betty, forcing Sable to do without the super-powered person they brought along to take on the big bad. Kind of a dick move, Peter! Could have discussed this ahead of time while flying across the entire Atlantic Ocean! It is kind of hilarious that blowing up their own high tech airship is explicitly a regular part of Sable's strategy, only made possible because she's apparently unfathomably rich and can just buy new ones. She and Doom can share notes on that, I guess…
We continue from there into an extended action set piece - Sable takes on a Roxxon operative, though he's not named that here, who's ex-CIA and ex-Special Forces, and despite being a sexist asshole he seems competent enough in a fight to confirm that fact. Even though Sable is a very competent fighter, she gets blindsided and taken to ground, and much of her fight is at something of a disadvantage. It's not until she tricks him into going for his gun, thus giving her the room and opportunity to nail him with throwing knives, before he finally goes down for good. I guess Sable isn't strictly speaking superhuman, so it makes sense she'd be fighting a more 'normal' foe, though it does feel vaguely underwhelming for this thus-far unnamed weirdo to do so well against her…
The fight in the castle is similarly even - the Dreadknight proves quite powerful even without his electrically charged weapons and power armor tricks, facing off with Spider-Man fairly, which is honestly extremely impressive. Spidey is faster, sure, but he can't seem to get through that thick armor at all. It's not until the power comes back on and Dreadknight blows a hole in the wall that the finale of the comic becomes clear. It relies on the somewhat asinine coincidence, however, that the training hall that they're fighting in just happens to directly overlook the generator at the back of the castle, instead of literally anywhere else. Thus the final battle is moved to a more dangerous territory, in between a bunch of humming generators, where Spider-Man quickly comes up with his last strategy on the fly.
Tricking the Dreadknight into forming a circuit with his metal weapons, thereby allowing his own generator's output to discharge into his armor and knocking him out, is honestly a pretty nice way to finish off a foe who's shown to be basically invulnerable up to that point. It doesn't kill the man, since it mostly just fuses his armor to slag, but we get a decent 'smart' solution to the problem. Betty runs in like the princess just saved from the castle, explicitly calling out how Spider-Man is her real knight in shining armor today, and that's where the main story ends.
The rest is an extended epilogue - and it's honestly not bad. Doom's loyalists take charge of the country again, lending out a plane to get everyone back to America after their airship got trashed. Spider-Man isn't too fond of the country, lamenting the existence of a place where Doctor Doom is honestly the best choice to rule. Sable then heaps on his bad luck by reminding him that since he went against contract and only fought Dreadknight by coincidence, he doesn't get paid. Ol' Parker luck, huh? I mean, you did this to yourself, buddy.
Back home, it's nice to see that instead of this whole thing getting tied up neatly, Roxxon wiggles its way out of getting held responsible by burning one of their own, dismissing him as a rogue CIA operative and former executive who left the company years ago. It's a bit tough to tell due to the art, but I presume this Linden Laswell is the same ex-CIA guy that Sable beat up. Peter's impotent rage at some corporate bad guys getting away makes sense, but taking out Dreadknight is still an accomplishment. The epilogue's epilogue, taking place in a stereotypical darkened corporate conspiracy boardroom, confirms that Roxxon's plans for Latveria are canned for the moment, leaving the place relatively stable. I assume the new Latverian government will appropriate all the high tech weapons left behind for their own use, thus holding off any more claimants…
This is a pretty solid 3-star issue, I'd say. The actual relevance to Doom is fairly minimal - it's about the fate of his country, sure, and Doom's tribe hired the heroes, sure, and the villain has a personal connection with him, sure, and it takes place in his house, sure… Actually, that probably establishes why this is relevant to this readthrough right there, huh…? Never mind then.
Next up: Spider-Man, Jesus, and a severed head vs. the Hulk and Doomful nanomachines, son.
I like Dread Knight and this is a good use of him. His fight with Spider-Man is a nice classic comic book one in style and the heroes aren't dumb but he isn't incompetent either. Doctor Doom is definitely the kind of guy who would create his own super-powered enemies who weren't all heroic.
There's nothing inherently wrong with some guys loading croats onto a ship in the middle of the night, but if he remembers his high school geography classes right, they're flying the flag of Latveria, and they've been on the embargo list for as long as he can remember…
This scene makes sense on a lot of levels but doesn't on others. Like... Hearing the USA has embargoed Latveria? Perfect sense. Probably punishment for some shenanigans Doom pulled in New York. Smugglers openly flying their colors instead of registering in some other country with loose laws and then shipping goods from the USA to Latveria illegally, or even just flying false colors, kind of dumb. Also, I normally think of Latveria as a net exporter of advanced weaponry but with Doom gone and different factions trying to seize power, it makes sense that not all of them would have enough local connections to get homegrown supplies.
Oh, something else Silver Sable could bond with Doctor Doom over, besides being rich enough to afford a ton of weapons: Ruling a small East European country. They're actually both heads of state.
Oh, side note, the reason Silver Sable has a good working relationship with Doom? Their two countries are neighbors and she's smart enough to do her best to placate the meglomaniacal supergenius next door who could probably use his time machine to bury bombs all over her country 5000 years ago and then set them off tomorrow.
Oh, side note, the reason Silver Sable has a good working relationship with Doom? Their two countries are neighbors and she's smart enough to do her best to placate the meglomaniacal supergenius next door who could probably use his time machine to bury bombs all over her country 5000 years ago and then set them off tomorrow.
We already know they have a yearly dinner together and Sable never saw anything objectionable at previous visits, so there is that. Honestly, I think it's mostly just that Doom has a weird respectful thing going on for other monarchs or equivalents? Sable, but also Namor and Black Panther (after their first meeting, anyway.) To some extent even Storm, who was pretty much treated as a goddess-equivalent at home.
Most of the people Dr. Doom likes tend to be monarchs (Silver Sable, Sub-Mariner, Kang, Morgan le Fey, Black Panther). I suppose he feels (or likes to see) that they have a lot in common
Oh, side note, the reason Silver Sable has a good working relationship with Doom? Their two countries are neighbors and she's smart enough to do her best to placate the meglomaniacal supergenius next door who could probably use his time machine to bury bombs all over her country 5000 years ago and then set them off tomorrow.
Nah, in the recent (2019-2020) Doctor Doom maxi-series he just rolled in and conquered them in a day when he learned its current leaders were responsible for a coup against him.
In the current status quo of the comics, Symkaria is under occupation as Latveria's new southern region. Kristoff is the governor. Silver Sable and her dad have now "moved further into exile."
