Random Happenstance

It may have been 2099, but Doom beat Luthor to the Oval Office.


And, for your post-election comedown, from Doom 2099 A.D. #30, "American Way" Written by Warren Ellis, art by Pat Broderick and John Nyberg. This was the future Doom--maybe--earlier, John Francis Moore had hinted that he could just think he was Doom, but with Doom's history of erasing memories and switching bodies, there was no way for even 'Doom' to be sure. I missed Moore's last full issue, so I'm not sure if there was a definitive answer there, or if he simply accepted himself: Doom is Doom, and left it at that.

This issue, with a consortium of Wakandan mercenaries, organized hackers, and the Punisher 2099, Doom was taking over the Presidency of the United States from the corporate interests that had stolen it for decades. Interesting, if a little flawed because the "One Nation Under Doom" storyline had different effects in the other books of the shared 2099 universe.

I miss Spider-Man 2099, Ghost Rider 2099, some of the last Punisher 2099 issues, and the Ellis-written Doom 2099. Man, the issues after Warren? Not great. He tries to leave it in a good place to start new stories, but he might have taken Doom too far afield. Of course, I think there were like three writers and even more artists on the last few issues of the book. But towards the end, all the 2099 books lost writers, pencilers, readers, or all of the above. Then again, a lot of the smaller comics universes caved in about the same time: Milestone, the Ultraverse, 2099...

This had occured to me, in something Ellis said about intending Nextwave to be an ongoing that would continue after he left it. Good luck. Doom 2099 and Excalibur both hobbled worse than a three-legged cat after he left them, back in the day. Oh, Excalibur circled the drain for about two years, but those issues are terrible and exist only to take back everything Ellis did with the characters, so they could be rotated back into the proper X-Men books in their usual roles. And while I can think of a couple writers at Marvel that could do a funny comic, it would go to someone else and suck and die. Ah, you didn't need a crystal ball, or me for that matter, to tell you that's exactly what would have happened.

Tired right now, sorry. More later.