187: Spider-Man: Doom Control #0-4
- Location
- Netherlands
Spider-Man: Doom Control #0-4 (1998)
IntroductionThis entry was one of the Marvel Cybercomics, an early initiative of digital comics published on the Marvel website in the late 90s, a sort of precursor to Infinite Comics and Infinity Comics. And yes, those are two different things, Marvel is bad at naming things. The first generation of cybercomics weren't a popular medium, and after 2000 the initiative and the cybercomics themselves were entirely removed from the website. Those series weren't re-released after their removal and many of them were completely lost to time, while some others were preserved in one way or another. This particular 'issue' was part of the Spider-Man CyberComic series that ran from 1996-1998, usually divided into storylines of 4 issues each, though this final one has five. Note that this means this is as good as it got. Pretty dire…
It's hard to tell whether or not these comics are actually canon - they're definitely not taking place at time of release, obviously, given that Doom is still lost in the interdimensional void or whatever. The wiki is sparse on the details but sorts this under the canonical '616' timeline, and there's not inherently anything here that interferes with anything else, so I'll go with that. Let's assume this adventure takes place sometime during the relatively sparse periods when Doom is, you know, around? Or it's all a Doombot plot, pick your poison...
Cover
While this is a comic book, parts of it are crudely 'animated' in the sense that images shift around when you go to the next panel, various text balloons show up, there's some minor art changes, you get the idea. The 'Doom Control' cover page here shows half of Spidey's face and half of Doom's… and for some reason everyone is smiling suddenly, despite the fact that just moments earlier the four characters all looked pretty dour, sad, or worried, and Jameson was shouting at Peter. That's… unsettling, especially Jonah looking happy!
Story Overview
Issue #0
We open with Doom narrating about Latveria, the land he calls home. No crime, no poverty, a virtual utopia. Because he decrees it to be so! Yet his country suffers the insults of the world beyond its borders - and for that, the world must suffer ten-fold. The world must face its doom! As the image of a castle fades to the Earth exploding, we finally see a pair of bloodshot brown eyes open in the darkness, slowly illuminated to reveal the mask that surrounds them. 'Von Doom,' Doom proclaims. A more perfect family name would be impossible to imagine! Doom is the tragedy of his mother and father's murders. Doom is the scorn he has endured from jealous inferiors his whole life! And Doom is what will now remake the nations of the Earth. Because he decrees it to be so!
As he stands on a very Gotham-y eagle gargoyle halfway up the Chrysler Building, Doom holds a strange device similar to a flip-phone skyward. The hard-working subjects of Latveria made a valiant effort to have their nation - Doom's nation - chosen as the host country for the next Olympic Games… The other nations ridiculed Latveria as small and backwards, and accused the Latverians of being puppets of Doom, and thus rejected their proposal out of hand! But now it is Doctor Doom who holds the world in his hand… When he activates his device, he will seize control of every simple mind in New York City - including those in session at the United Nations! Every diplomat, every leader, will become his to command. Then the world shall learn the price of its disrespect! As Doom taps away on his phone, a sudden web-line shoots down from the sky and snags it out of his fingers.
'Who DARES?!?' Doom proclaims. Spidey, lounging higher up on the side of the Chrysler Building, opines that he thought the hottest air in the Big Apple came out of the subway in summertime, but rivet-head Doom puts the A-Trains to shame! Doom incredulously recognizes the hero, and shouts that he's an insect, and those are to be crushed. Speaking of crushed, Spidey pretends to be careless and uses his spider-strength to destroy the phone-device in his hand. The moment he does, though, he's suddenly surrounded by electrical sparks and discharges - he did think that looked a little too easy… but a guy can hope!
As Spidey jumps down and away from the electricity, Doom tells him that his only hope is to fall to a clean death - that end would be quicker, and less humiliating! Did he really think that Doom would be so easily defeated? And by the likes of him? Those that might prove a genuine obstacle, like the Fantastic Four or the Avengers, he diverted to other parts of the world while he carried out his plans here in New York. Spider-Man's 'heroic effort' destroyed nothing more than a convenient activation switch. Doom looks up, and points out to Spider-Man that the real mechanism for seizing mental control… is that! Suddenly an enormous machine, like an oil rig with spider-legs, decloaks on top of the Chrysler Building, clinging onto its peak as lighting arcs around it like it's a Reaper from Mass Effect.
Spidey commends the Doc for his impressive cloaking effect - very dramatic, bravo, clap-clap-clap! Now, why doesn't he start exercising that mind control by getting a grip on his own deranged grey matter? There is no way he's letting Doom start the engine on that hardware. Aside from turning people into psychic slaves, it looks like it'd screw up TV reception from here to Hoboken! Doom scoffs, stating that the hero's persistence in his courageous delusion is to be admired, but not tolerated! Doom raises his gauntlets and blasts the gargoyles Spidey is sitting on, but he dodges the attack and figures it's almost like Doom doesn't like him or something! To himself, Spidey muses that making noise like it's fun-and-games keeps most crackpots like Doom uncomfortable, which gives him an advantage - but that last blast was too close for comfort!
Spider-Man moves to web himself back to a safer position, yelling that Doom shouldn't take it personally if he moves upwind - from where he's smelling, that armor of his could use a hosing-down. Doom snarls that nobody turns their back on Doom, then opens a control panel in his gauntlet to target a sonic pulse at certain physical properties - in this case, the bonding molecules which hold together that odious webbing! Spidey's webline suddenly snaps, and he distantly yells that at times like these, he wishes he'd been bitten by a radioactive flying spider!
Spider-Man manages to catch himself on one of the spider-legs of Doom's machine. Spidey complains that the crazies bent on conquest always seem to stage their takeovers on skyscrapers - he wouldn't mind falling off a jungle gym in a playground for a change… He moves over to a panel in the mechanical limb and figures if Doom is going to call him a bug anyway, he might as well see how much of a pest he can be. Opening it up, he sees a bunch of electronics inside - those look breakable!
Up above, Doom shouts out that he should stop - in his foolhardy ignorance, he'll destroy them all!
Issue #1
Back in the empty void with the Earth, Doom declares that there are none who can stand against the cunning of Victor von Doom! Not the so-called Fantastic Four, those cosmic-ray-born freaks who were easily diverted by a technological disaster he unleashed in Central Europe. Nor the Avengers, for another deceit sent them scrambling to combat an ecological catastrophe he engineered in South America. New York City was left without defense against Doom's mastery - and now he shall have his revenge on the diplomats of the United Nations by placing their simple minds under his complete control! This was to be their penalty for insulting Latveria - his country, his people! They were ridiculed for their efforts to act as host for the Olympic Games, and condemned as unworthy because of their relationship to Doom. An insult to Latveria is an insult to Doom, and the cost of such impudence is the fury of Doom! Spider-man's pathetic interference only delays the inevitable…
It appears the entire recap was actually Doom dramatically narrating to Spider-Man, who tells him to be careful with his blood pressure - he might pop a rivet! Seeing how stressed he is, though, Spidey figures his interference ranks better than pathetic - how about bumping him up to at least mediocre? Doom tells Spider-Man to take his hands off the circuitry he's found - in his fumbling he could release unspeakable forces! Doom then blasts down with a beam which, um, looks like someone drew it in Paint, impacting his own machine-leg to no apparent effect after Spider-Man dodges again. Spidey tells him he should really overcome these self-destructive tendencies… although if he blasts some more of his own toy apart, he can go home early! Maybe Doom's right, though, maybe this circuitry is too dangerous to handle, whatever it is… so catch!
Spider-Man tosses the circuit-board away, and Doom cries out: 'No! Not the Neural Subjugator!' He uses the distraction to tackle Doom, then leap-frogs over him so he can careen over the edge, putting some distance between him and the villain again. He muses to himself that Doom was getting too close with those energy blasts. He catches up with the circuit-board and grabs it, musing that tough as it is, he could probably still break it apart. But until he knows more, he'd better not risk it, just in case Doom wasn't lying about those 'unspeakable forces.' In the meantime, he's just landed on the Most Wanted list of the Big Apple's visiting armored tyrant… why can't he ever score most popular with bikini-clad babes instead? Up above, Doom declares that Spider-Man's actions demonstrate a lack of respect, repeating that the cost of such impudence… is the fury of Doom!
Across the city, in Queens, a doctor at the hospital asks May Parker if she's alright - those tests they ran on her can take a lot out of a person! May thanks him for being so concerned, but she'll be fine! Her nephew Peter is meeting her to take her along to her next appointment. He'll be along any moment now! Any… moment now. As she looks over the abandoned road, with no Peter anywhere in sight, she wonders where he might be…
Back in Manhattan, while sitting on a clock tower, Spider-Man looks over the device he stole and muses that the silicon crystals in it are shaped like brain cells - the more he knows about Doom, the less he wants to know! Suddenly his spider-sense goes crazy - oh, great, he was supposed to meet Aunt May at her doctor twenty minutes ago! Wait - that's not it. The feeling's too strong - it's warning him of something else! Suddenly the entire top of the building, clock and all, is ripped into the air by a violent whirlwind. As Spidey holds on to the remaining structure with his fingertips, Doom's voice echoes on the wind. Heed the voice of Doom - the very elements bend to his will! How can he hope to resist such authority? Doom demands the return of his property, and in exchange he promises a death that is merely miserable instead of truly horrifying! 'Decisions, decisions…' Spider-Man says. He just hopes Aunt May's doctor has a family plan!
Issue #2
Caught in the ferocious wind vortex designed by the malevolent Doctor Doom, Spider-Man is struck by an inescapable conclusion - this sucks! Doom is so desperate for that bit of mind control hardware that he'll stretch him to any length to get it back! As Spidey still dangles at the edge of the building, the clouds above clear up to reveal that the whirlwind is generated from an aircraft of Doom's design, one with a vast bridge lined with windows. Inside, Doom announces that Spider-Man has achieved nothing but his own doom - the situation is hopeless for him, so he must now return that which is Doom's!
Spider-Man thinks to himself that he'd be out of his mind to give Doom back the very thing he needs to put a brain-lock on the Big Apple, but until he's got both feet on the ground, the gadget is in the way, so he'd better put it somewhere safe! He puts some web-fluid on the thing, then glues it to the back of his own costume, figuring that now Doom will have to go through him to get to his toy! After letting go, Spidey is sucked upwards towards the plane's engines, and he nervously thinks that with his luck, going right through him is exactly what the doctor ordered! Doom announces that his patience is at an end - and so is Spider-Man's life! The turbine blades of his engines are set to rotate at a rate which shall shred his bloated heroism, but filter out smaller and more useful items, such as his stolen circuitry!
Relying on his spider-sense to get him out of trouble, Spidey trusts it to warn him against positioning himself the wrong way… and hopefully he'll end up in the right angle to make this move work. A strong kick against the hub manages to knock it just out of alignment, and Spidey slips by the blades just as the entire assembly tears itself apart through the vibrations. Nothing succeeds like excess - the only thing more explosive than those fireworks will be Doom's reaction!
Doom hits a button and declares that Spider-Man has made this all too simple. No cooperation? No mercy! Suddenly flying into the open air, dozens of small shapes become visible… they're small drones of some kind. Wait, are those - those are flying Doombot heads. They shout: 'Exterminate!' One of the drones paints Spider-Man as a target, matching his silhouette. Tactical objective? To disrupt biological functions, eradicate organic material, and then retrieve the missing electronic component… The drones then start firing eye beams at a swinging Spider-Man, scaring people off as the blasts impact nearby.
Some of the people on the streets below don't know which way to go since the beams keep impacting in different places, others worry that the conflict will kill them all… and an old lady wonders angrily if that's really the best they can do? They should come down here and she'll wipe that ugly off their faces!
Spider-Man wonders about the drones looking like Doom - talk about having a love affair with yourself! Still, while he's cracking jokes, Doom is putting innocent people at risk. He quickly uses webs to tie a bunch of the drones together, then smacks them into a wall. 'Exterminate, huh - sounds like we agree on something!' Still, that little trick won't work on all the drones, so until he comes up with something better, he needs to clear away from where anyone is going to get hurt by those things. As a new horde of doom-heads shows up, Spidey makes his escape.
Hours later, night is falling. Doombot-heads are flying around in hunter-killer mode, clearing grids in their search for their target, with dozens of them inspecting the Statue of Liberty to make sure Spidey's not there. In an alleyway, sitting on the wall, Spider-Man removes his mask and muses that with so many of these things crawling all over the city, all looking for him, he's going to have to do something to survive. To keep Doom away from his mind-control crystal, there can no longer be a Spider-Man!
Issue #3
We open up with Peter and Aunt May visiting the doctor, only to discover that he refuses to see her because they arrived late to their appointment - they'll have to reschedule, he'll have time sometime next month. May is worried, and Peter argues that her condition can't wait that long - and besides, he can't blame her for being late, Peter was the one who was delayed! To himself, he recalls that he was late because he ended up playing tag with Doctor Doom… We see mechanical doom-head patrols still flying through the skies, too many to hide from, too powerful to fight. Spider-Man had to vanish, as there was no way to avoid them while in costume. The only safe place for him right now is as Peter Parker!
Peter tells the Doctor that he'll just have to make time to see his Aunt, now! For the last time, the doctor says, there's no possible way… Peter and the man's eyes suddenly flash bright green. There's no possible way… he's letting that poor woman wait another second! Suddenly all broad smiles, the doctor tells May to come right along, and she thanks him for changing his mind. He argues she should be thanking her nephew, as he can be quite persuasive! As they leave, Peter is confused and whispers to himself that somebody should tell him what the hell just happened there…
At the Daily Bugle, Peter is delivering a new batch of photographs he took - webbing up a crook, fighting Venom, fighting Electro. J. Jonah Jameson wonders if he really calls these photographs - he calls them garbage! These won't help him sell any newspapers! The Bugle needs new and exciting things! There's a rumor spreading that Spider-Man has gone up against Doctor Doom - he should snap some of that action! Balling his fist, Peter still tries to play nice, trying to convince Jameson to buy these shots so he can use the money to pay Aunt May's medical bills. Jameson doesn't care, but Peter asks him again - please buy these photos. With a bizarre grin and glowing green eyes he stares at Jameson, whose denial suddenly turns into throwing him a bone for all his hard work. Smiling, Jameson immediately shoves some cash into Peter's hands, declaring he'll buy these pictures, and his vacation photos too! No need to wait for accounting, he'll do this out of his own pocket!
Walking away with the money, Peter muses that he shouldn't complain… but this doesn't make any sense. Nothing ever goes his way! It's like he's suddenly got a guardian angel, or… Reaching into his pocket, he slips the circuitry he took out of it and stares down at the thing. Perhaps it's the devil's temptation instead? Doctor Doom's mind control circuit - he's been keeping it safe by keeping it close, but maybe just being near it is enough to give him a taste of its power? As his eyes glow green, he wonders what happens if he suddenly thinks about… having a little more sex appeal? A woman nearby suddenly approaches, her eyes green, and she tells him that if things ever go wrong between him and his wife… Here's her number! What if he thinks about Spider-Man finally getting some respect around town? As he imagines parades of people with posters and wide smiles, he cuts himself off.
What if he thinks about becoming every bit as corrupt as Doctor Doom? This thing is too dangerous, no matter who has it! No more hiding. It's time to have it out with Doom over this - once and for all! Later, high up on a building, Spidey webs one of the hunter-killer drones over to him, then disables its firepower. It should still have enough juice left to send word back to Doom, though. At the sound of the tone, please leave a message for the armor-wearing psycho-dictator! He tells Doom that the neighbors have been complaining about him - he can't skimp on underarm deodorant! Also, he should call Spidey if he's in the mood for more abuse! Let's talk soon…
Issue #4
While lounging in a web-hammock, Spider-Man uses a cobbled-together communication gadget to speak with Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four, who tells him that the course of action he's suggesting is too dangerous - he can't condone it! With all due respect, Spider-Man notes, he didn't steal parts from his Playstation to build this gadget just so Reed could tell him what he shouldn't do. What he needs to know - big brain, theoretically speaking - whether his plan will work. Reed agrees that it should… but it would also kill him. Big brain theoretically. He should leave Doctor Doom to him and the rest of the Fantastic Four - as soon as they've resolved this disaster in Europe, they'll rush back to New York! Spidey pretends to lose connection, then decides he must be going. If Doom is not stopped soon, there might not be a city to rush back to…
Soon after, Spider-Man is crawling across the ceiling of a sewer tunnel, wondering why guys like Doom never want to meet for a showdown somewhere warm and sunny, maybe with big-screen cable and free munchies? Instead, it's one more nasty worm-hole in the Big Apple… Climbing out of the wall into a forgotten subway station, Doom is already waiting for him. He declares that it was wise of Spidey to request an audience with Doom - he would not have survived another encounter with Doom's forces! Behind him stands a large machine, and Doom explains that it was a trivial matter to reconstruct his mind control apparatus here - this subway station is an appropriate end of the line for his pathetic efforts to contest Doom's will!
Spider-Man declares that the doc talks big - but he's got jack while he's got the mind control 'circuit' - or whatever it is! He held off busting it in half because he bought into Doom's line of bull about this thing being dangerous - that it would 'destroy us all'. But that's just given Doom way too many chances to get his metal claws back on it, so playtime's over. He wanted a face-off so Doom could watch him smash the object of his obsession!
Doom says that would be a grave mistake, because he fails to consider the implications of his bravado. Destroy that device, and he shall incur Doom's further wrath! More so, mind control energies will be released across the city, and mental domination will become as natural as breathing! The strong will become overlords warring with each other. The weak will become their slaves. As he says this, we see images of people being mentally dominated to carry boxes, hold up newspapers, and get on their knees to worship the 'masters'. Some are even used as impromptu seats, or led along by a leash like a dog! Doom wonders if this sounds like something he'd prefer, and Spidey hesitates, saying that he doesn't believe Doom… or does he? He's just trying to be confusing! Let him think about this…
Suddenly several doom-drones enter to 'disrupt biological functions!' which is less catch than exterminate, and Doom yells that one should never hesitate - it's the surest form of weakness! Doom starts firing his gauntlet-blasts at Spidey, once more showcasing some Paint-level beam art, and manages to hit Spider-Man several times, after which he goes down in a shower of dislodged rocks and debris from the subway tunnel. Spidey is still kicking and struggles his way back to his feet, even as the drones close in to try and grab the electronic component they're after. Doom just walks up to the exhausted hero and declares that like Spider-Man, his patience too is at its limit! He then violently bitch-slaps Spidey across the face and claims what is his - his mind control circuit!
This is the way it had to end, Doom declares. This is the way… it had to end! As his eyes light up green, it's revealed that at least part of what just happened wasn't real - Spider-Man is no longer wounded, his costume intact, and strapped to the side of his face is the mind-control circuit. He tells the frozen, green-eyed Doom to say it one more time - just to make sure he got it right! 'This is the way it had to end!' Doom agrees.
Sounds like they think alike, Spider-Man observes, or at least the gadget has Doom thinking like him! Here's how the rest of it goes… as far as Doom's concerned, he played out his scheme. He got his Brain Lock on the United Nations, he got revenge for their supposed slight against Latveria. Now, he should run back to his castle and gloat, or whatever it is metal-head whackos do to celebrate!
As the mind-controlled Doom wanders off, spouting the words 'Revenge… gloat… whacko…'to himself, Spidey figures it won't take him long to figure out he's had his cerebrum swizzled, but by then Manhattan should be back to crawling with costumes more experienced in dealing with Doom-types! Spidey's long-term prospects aren't good, though… too much raw mind control radiation! Just as Mister Fantastic warned, and what he was afraid of… As blood dribbles from his mouth and nose, everything turns black, and his consciousness fades…
Hour later, at the headquarters of the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man wakes up laying on a cot with only his mask on. Reed's head stretches into frame, and the freaky neck alongside the half-naked Spider-Man just makes these pics look really awkward out of context! Reed explains that the team found Spider-Man just in time, as any more exposure to the radiation would have killed him. Spidey mutters that now he'll just die of shame instead, lying her with just a towelette between the world and his birthday suit! Reed explains that Johnny and Ben are destroying the last of Doom's machinery, and the whole team applauds Spider-Man's courage in risking so much to stop Doom.
On the wall, the television turns on to reveal J. Jonah Jameson as a guest on a talk show. Jonah declares that it's common knowledge that Spider-Man is in league with criminals like Doctor Doom. Why else were those flying metal heads all over town looking for that web-headed menace? The city must wake up to the threat this wall-crawling menace represents! Slumping where he sit, Spider-Man mutters to Reed that it sure is great to be him…
Rating & Comments
Look, it's pretty obvious right away that digital comics weren't there yet. This comic was published only a few years out from a sort of revolution in comic book technology, as such, but that hadn't quite arrived yet, and it shows. Part of this is resolution - it's pretty obvious art resolution wasn't nearly as high as you can manage on paper, and thus pixelation and limited color palettes could get in the way a bit. Part of it is also questionable design decisions. The lasers in these issues were likely intended to be animated originally (when these comics were still available that way, instead of mostly as screenshots) and the resulting moving GIF is incredibly low-detail, to the point that it seems someone just squiggles rough lines to represent the lasers. It's rough. The fourth issue (#3) also has some weird faces going on, quite distinct from the other comics here in how cartoonish the expressions get.
Besides the art quality, I also noticed there's a fair amount of hard to parse location-work going on here - the story partly takes place on the side of the Chrysler building, but it's occasionally very hard to make out where everything is in relation to each other, and if you're not familiar with the eagle-gargoyles of the building, you could easily mistake the action as taking place on a building some distance away. You can see the spire looming in the background several times, but it never looks like it's above them, just kind of off in the distance. When Spider-Man gets tossed off and lands on one of the robot-spider legs, I got really confused my first way through because it seemed like he'd just teleported several blocks and upwards for some reason… There's a couple other moments where I sort of got lost spatially.
Plot-wise, this story introduces a lot of ideas, but doesn't go anywhere with them. The first weird idea is that Doom - for some inscrutable reason - apparently keeps a vital element of his machine inside the end of one of the legs which attaches the huge device to the building supporting it. That's really odd. He then spends an inordinate amount of time and effort trying to track down Spider-Man instead of, you know, grabbing a backup of his device. What, the remote control that you kept on your person was easily replaced, but the vital circuit board that makes it all work is just left somewhere without any protection at all? It's also bizarre that Doom decides to move his entire huge machine underground somehow, without any real explanation of how or why he did that, all in the couple hours that this story takes place over. So the Fantastic Four and the Avengers didn't have a single reserve member left in the city, did they…?
What is also extremely rushed is the final couple issues. The issue in which Peter discovers the mind control circuit does its magic all on its own is kind of creepy, but it also seems very much like it tried to be the early Black Suit Spider-Man issues where he gets a personality change and starts treating people weirdly. The concept of Peter struggling to keep himself from making his life easier would have been cool - but it gets discarded without ever really diving deeper than the surface. He makes up for his absence to Aunt May by coercing a doctor to see her, and then robs his boss, but it never shows him regretting those acts or giving back the money. He just concludes it's time to deal with the device once and for all… Which makes sense, I guess, but what exactly changed here? You can just not, you know, carry it around with you everywhere? At least until Reed and pals come home.
Speaking of Reed - it's nice that they at least address his absence here. Spider-Man taking on Doctor Doom by himself has not historically been a great success, so calling in backup is not a bad idea. That said, the solution Spider-Man comes up with to take Doom down is a bit confusing because it relies on the mind control tech doing something it has not been shown to do previously. The few times it's demonstrated, people start acting differently when their eyes glow, but that's all. It's basically the Imperius curse. Against Doom, however, Spidey uses it to give him vivid hallucinations of a series of events that never happened, convincing Doom that he was victorious despite the fact that he's just standing there murmuring comfortable lies to himself. That's still within the remit of mind-control, I guess, but it feels like the sudden switcheroo isn't really justified very well. Similarly, the physical symptoms are also a belated addition without real explanation, and don't seem to have much point since they're resolved a panel or two later.
And as for Doom… For all that he's foiled by his own mind control, again, Doom does actually show a fair bit of forethought and new tech in this cybercomic. He arranges for separate disasters on two other continents to distract the major super-teams, for one, and he built himself pocket-sized Doombots in the form of lots of robot heads which act as hunter-killer drones, firing lasers from their eyes at all and sundry. He's also built yet another fancy mind control machine, complete with cloaking technology, and a plane that can create whirlwinds strong enough to rip up buildings on command. Putting all that to work against one hero and still losing, though, is a bit pathetic. Between that ineffectiveness and getting mind-whammied by his own tech despite the fact that he's previously shown to be capable of rejecting the freaking Purple Man at point blank range? Yeah, I'm voting for this as a Doombot outing. Or non-canon, it's hard to tell.
That said, there is one element of Doom's portrayal here which is hysterical. After a killer opening monologue in which Doom defines himself by the tragedies and scorn of his past, foreshadowing one of my favorite monologues of his years down the line, and repeatedly pointing out that he's treated his nation of Latveria well and takes insults upon it seriously... he reveals his motives. This attack on New York City, to mind control everyone to dance to his tunes, is because Latveria got skipped over to host the Olympics. Never mind that I'm not sure everyone would even fit inside his kingdom, but that's such a hilariously petty reason to try and conquer a city that I kinda have to admire it. It's stupid, but it's the kind of stupid that you kind of have to admire. Doom set up an ecological catastrophe and blew up shit in Europe just so he could get everyone out while he had his little sportsball tantrum. You're ridiculous, Doom.
Anyway, it's no big surprise to me that these comics ended up failing, if they're all in this general format - short, rushed, without taking any real time to get into any of the subjects raised before quickly moving on. The art is mediocre, the effects are at best laughable and at worst actively ugly, and the canonical status of any of this is questionable. It seems it also came with its own executable of some kind, which seems like a bad decision in the late 90s, when downloading such things was not only more arduous due to shit internet speeds, but also a lot more risky… I'll give this just two stars, since it doesn't get into anything too objectionable, it's just very bleh. Except for Doom's motives, those are funny.
Best Panel(s) of the Issues
Is it the best panel? No. Is it the funniest out-of-context panel in here? Yes. Reed, why are you covering up Spider-Man's crotch area like that? Did nobody teach you phallic symbolism?
Most Gloriously Villainous Doom Quotes
"Latveria. The land I call home. No crime. No poverty. A virtual utopia. Because I decree it to be so. Yet my country suffers the insults of the world beyond its borders and for that, the world must suffer ten-fold. The world must face its Doom. Doom is the tragedy of my mother and father's murder! Doom is the scorn I have endured from jealous inferiors my whole life! And Doom is what will now remake the nations of the Earth. Because I decree it to be so!"
"Your persistence in your courageous delusion is to be admired, Spider-Man! But not tolerated..."
"There are none who can stand against the cunning of Victor von Doom!"
"Your actions demonstrate a lack of respect, Spider-Man. You insult me, and the cost of such impudence... is the fury of Doom!"
"Return my property and I promise a death that is simply miserable instead of truly horrifying!"
"Never hesitate. It is the surest form of weakness!"
"This is the way it had to end, Spider-Man."
Doom's Bad Hair Day
The artwork for the lasers in this is pretty shameful. Look at the right-most panel, that's some kindergarten level of 'drawing.' Also I'm not entire sure Spidey's proportions work on the left-most picture either. Where exactly is he in relation to everything in that picture? It's confusing.
Doom-Tech of the Week
A lot, actually - Doom built himself a Neural Subjugator, a gigantic machine which is apparently entirely dependent on a tiny circuit board. He also brought himself a Vortex Plane, and a whole lot of Doomdrones, little flying replicas of his own head packed with lasers.
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