I think I had skipped it before, since this was from a somewhat gloomy period of the run, even by the title's usual standards. No Uatu either: I get trying to do something new with the title, but it doesn't feel right. From 1996, What If? #89, "The Fantastic Farce" Written by Ben Raab, pencils by Mike Miller, inks by Scott Koblish.

The rocket launch of Reed Richards has gone worse than usual in this reality, as the Four's powers appear to be more pronounced from the start; and they're pulled from the rocket crash by men in radiation suits who aren't speaking English. Reed is separated from his friends, who are believed dead, and put on trial for treason. Worse, he couldn't control his elastic body, and had to use a Stark prototype exoskeleton to hold himself together. Prosecutor Matt Murdock puts the screws to Reed at his trial, and he's found guilty. The stress makes Reed think he's losing his mind, as he starts hearing Susan's voice, but she is really there: invisible and intangible, barely holding herself together. She discorporates after freeing Reed, so he can help her brother Johnny. Reed has a little help, though, from Nick Fury, who explains Johnny was being used as a thermal battery, by Latverians. Reed of course remembers a Latverian that had been experimenting with that: Victor Von Doom.

Fury sets Reed up with a jet ride to Latveria, where he finds his contact man, Dum Dum Dugan, already dead; and gets captured. Doom had been trying to use Johnny, to power his devices to free his mother from Hell; but Johnny was burning out. Reed tries to fight Doom in his cell, but isn't a match for Doom's armor: Doom appears to be wearing a toga made out of Dr. Strange's Cloak of Levitation. Unable to stretch out of his cell, a voice calls to Reed from the next cell: his old friend Ben, now a rocky, misshapen Thing. Reed baits him as a "coward" to get him to smash the wall, but is dismayed to see what had happened to Ben; while Ben is just happy Reed was still alive. Together, they fight their way to Johnny: Reed offers to help Doom if he'll let Johnny and Ben go, but Johnny knows the cosmic rays in him are burning him up, and he blows up with Doom and most of his castle.

Reed and Ben are returned to the states, where they're put on "community service," cleaning up a gamma bomb test site; and Reed hopes to keep researching a cure for Ben. 

The cover makes it look like Reed was going to be the bad guy here; that might be another reason I hadn't read this until now.

Read more!

Hey, masks go in the garbage! The Amazing Litterbug.

I did not greatly enjoy last week, and I don't have high hopes for this week...or the rest of the month. But, nothing to do for it but keep going: I'm not throwing in the mask--er, towel--like this issue! From 1990, Web of Spider-Man #61, "Dragon in the Dark" Written by Gerry Conway, pencils by Alex Saviuk, inks by Keith Williams.

It's an Acts of Vengeance crossover today, but more importantly, Spider-Man's got cosmic power this week! And somewhat typically, he is not overly enthusiastic about this: in fact, he acts like he's been diagnosed with leprosy. If "with great power comes great responsibility," then with too much power comes too much responsibility, and it's done Peter's head in. Sick of having the people he saved be afraid of him, Spidey throws away his mask in a rainstorm...but it's caught before it hits the ground, by the Wizard! He takes it to his AoV cronies: both Dr. Doom and the Kingpin are positive it was a fake, a ploy of some kind. The Wizard plans to use it, to finish Spider-Man once and for all, by setting the android Dragon Man on him! The Wizard really talks up D-M, and he is impressive; but it's not like he invented the thing or was anywhere near the first to control it. He probably feels the need to hype himself up a bit, to compete with the other guys, since yeah, he was not at the same level. Wizard might have been brought on as glorified tech support.

Meanwhile, Peter Parker...takes a shower, at his upscale apartment, and the bathroom seems laid out weird? He couldn't afford it in a million years, but Harry Osborn gave him a break on the rent. Which somehow adds to his responsibilities? Also, despite making a stink about quitting, he still puts his Spidey-suit on, under his street clothes! He has a brief visit with Liz Osborn on his way out, and Liz can tell he's depressed: she had known him for years, and probably seen that dozens of times. Then, on the subway, Dragon Man sniffs out Peter, and blasts him with his flaming breath!

We cutaway to Doom, plotting to steal the cosmic power from Spider-Man: it worked on the Silver Surfer, should work here, right? It doesn't, the power is too much, and the ensuing explosion nearly kills him. Mary Jane visits her cousin Kristy, who was getting treatment for her eating disorder: her parents sound pretty terrible, although I don't know if they, or Kristy, have returned. Meanwhile, cosmic Spidey was unharmed by the flames, and creates a new costume out of thin air. Then, immediately has to make another, after getting flamed again. The fight does a good amount of damage, but Dragon Man is no match for cosmic power. Still, as bystanders show legitimate concern to the fight, Spidey's had it, and tells them once he takes Dragon Man to the Vault, he is done. Except, a crowd of people from the subway sing Spidey's praises for saving him, and he's back in it. And the Wizard worries, what if the others find out, he gave Spidey his groove back?

Two final subplots: Doom realizes--or maybe just assumes--someone sabotaged his attempt to score cosmic power. Loki is watching, but may or may not have done anything? And Liz Osborn is worried about calls she keeps getting, from someone out of jail: probably the Molten Man, but maybe not. (Yep!) I know Spider-Man is a tough gig, but good grief, is Peter mopey in this one, and it kind of feels out of place: great wife, good friends, nice apartment, new powers, boo-freaking-hoo. And I didn't like how the ending made it seem like he needs adulation to keep going: everybody knows action is his reward. Still, now I need to check if I've read Web #65, where most of the villains Spidey beat with cosmic power, team up and come back! They'll give him something to cry about...nah, they'll bicker, get over-confident, fail to work together, and get clowned; if I had to guess. Read more!

It's a goddamn What If? and it's STILL a Doombot?! Mother--

I wasn't being productive, so why not take a moment to read a What If? I hadn't read before? (Five minutes later.) I had read it before, and I hate it. From 1991, What If #31, "What If Spider-Man had kept his cosmic powers?" Written by Glenn Herdling, pencils by Scott McDaniel (with some corrections by John Romita), inks by "Col." Jim Sanders III and Sam de la Rosa.

We all know where this one's going, right? Captain America even says it six pages in: "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." And of course that means even corrupting our boy Peter, even though in this universe the Uni-Power stays with him, due to his heightened sense of responsibility. While he stops Nebula cold, he does mess up trying to help the Hobgoblin, and inadvertently changes his face to look like Peter Parker's! Already under a spell and mentally unstable, Hobby thinks Spidey made him a demon again, so is a bit peeved. Spidey does beat an outclassed Venom, challenging him to protect the city; but Venom notes his symbiote didn't think he was himself.

Much to Mary Jane's dismay, Spidey continues to escalate, stopping the Gulf War and bringing in a thinly-veiled Saddam-alike. He then tries to make Thor help him turn the Sahara desert into a garden, then Thor is dropped from behind by Doctor Doom, who wants the Uni-Power and has the first Captain Universe, Ray Coffin (from early Micronauts, which isn't mentioned here!) as a hostage. Spidey, now identifying solely as Captain Universe, refuses to negotiate, and Ray is killed. This triggers a metaphysical/astral-form fight between Spidey and the Uni-Power: Spidey's responsibility won't let him go with sacrificing any "trees" to save the "forest." The Uni-Power leaves him for Doom, but only for a moment, since it was only a Doombot--ah, that's the last straw! If you can't use the real, proper Doctor Doom in a bloody What If? where can you? Phooey on this one. Read more!

We had previously seen the Doom/Rancor subplot seemingly conclude, but I'm a little dismayed to see it had been in play for over seven issues. Well, maybe there's more in today's book: from 1993, Guardians of the Galaxy #32, "We Who Are About to Die Salute You" Written by Michael Gallagher, pencils by Kevin West, inks by Steve Montano.

This issue opens with the fight from the previous one's cover, with Nikki vs. Charlie-27: the Guardians present, namely them and Talon, had agreed to face a champion of the Badoon to settle things gladiator-style. Both gung-ho for vengeance, they were willing to smack each other down for a shot at their hated foe. Charlie accidentally knocks out Talon, and is getting madder and madder as Nikki hits him with a succession of cheap shots, culminating in a burst of flames to his face! I don't know that she was always able to do that, if I remember my OHOTMU: sometimes it claimed Nikki's hair was just done in a style to resemble flames, other times it may have been a temperature-regulating function of humans genetically altered to survive on Mercury. It works today, anyway.

Meanwhile, after a seedy torture scene with people I don't recognize, Doctor Doom explains his master brainwashing plan to Rancor and her mutants, by brainwashing them. And in the 20th century, Major Victory (aka Vance Astro) and Captain America are visiting Doctor Strange: the Major needs the Doctor's assistance to return to his team. The trip would involve going through the Dark Dimension, and as such be mind-numbingly dangerous, so it's a no from Strange until the Major calls him "ancient one." You wouldn't think that would motivate him to help, but Strange sees in the Major's future he was as the Ancient One had been to him.

While they make the trippy trip, Charlie-27 arrives in the Badoon arena, now bald from Nikki's fire attack. He had left Talon and Nikki tied up so they couldn't interfere, but they can't help when they see his opponent: a Badoon with the power of Captain Universe! Nikki realizes that's why they wanted a one-on-one fight, as Charlie starts to get beat down. He's no match for cosmic power, but can take a lot of hits. A shadowy figure zaps Talon and Nikki, as the Major and Strange push past the Mindless Ones, to arrive as Captain Badoon Universe is about to deliver the killing blow...! So, this issue ends with the scene from the cover! Maybe next month they would be caught back up. It feels like things were moving quickly here, which still makes it weird that the Doom/Rancor thing ran so long. Read more!

Today, future superheroes vs. a Nazi earth--no, not ours!

I always remember the cover for this issue from a slightly sexist joke in an old Wizard, so I kind of felt obligated to grab it out of the quarter bin. From 1999, A-Next #11, "Crucible!" Story and words by Tom DeFalco, story and pencils by Ron Frenz, finishes by Al Milgrom.

It's the next generation of Avengers, featuring stalwarts like American Dream, Stinger, and for some reason, Juggernaut's illegitimate kid; versus a Nazi dimension's evil Avengers, the Thunder Guard. Stinger and Thunderstrike are a bit shaken, since evil versions of their dads are there: Pincer and Stormtrooper. While Cassie beats the tar out of her dad's double, Kevin had lost his father, and finds Stormtrooper had gone bad when he lost his son. They have a bit of a cry together, although I don't think it excuses anything he did...

Somehow, even though this is a Nazi earth, their version of Doctor Doom is in charge. Presumably, he didn't advertise his gypsy heritage. He also had Baron Zemo and Reed Richards as his underlings: I'm sure Doom would have no problem with a Richards that knew his place. And American Dream ends up with the shield of the fallen Captain America of Nazi-world, while the MC2 Captain America stayed behind to continue the fight. Thunderstrike also stays behind, to learn about his alt-dad.

Spider-Girl ran for a hundred and one issues, but I don't think any of the other MC2 lasted anywhere near as long: this was the second-to-last issue of this one. There are some panels that I'm pretty sure are homages to classic Avengers, but I can't quite nail them down. Read more!

In the mountain of comics I picked up recently, there were at least two with Doctor Doom. Actually, three: I mistakenly thought Doom was on the cover of the Mighty Avengers #10, but it was the Sentry; but Doom was inside! Well, some other time for that one; we've got one I liked and one I didn't: from 2014, Original Sins #4, "Checkmate" Written by James Robinson, art by Alex Maleev. And from 2020, Doctor Doom #3, "Death in the Afternoon" Written by Christopher Cantwell, pencils by Salvador Larroca.

"Checkmate" is a sidebar from the Original Sin event, as a Wall Street douchebro caught in the explosion of one of Uatu's eyes finds himself privy to all of Doctor Doom's secrets. Or at least something--"a memory. A secret. A sin."--bad enough he can blackmail Doom with it. Although the friend he's bragging to (who specifically asks not to be told what it was) tells douchebro he's biting off way more than he can chew, d-bro isn't worried at all. He's left copies with his lawyer, his wife, his mistress, and his bank manager. Yeah, all those people, including the friend, are dead as hell before he gets to Doom. That's amateur hour to him, suckers got to know. I hadn't read a non-Bendis book with Maleev for some time, he nails 'sleazy bastard realizing their mistake' like rolling out of bed.

"Death in the Afternoon" is from the current Doom ongoing--I think it's an ongoing? As much as anything is these days. There were a couple things I liked, but more I didn't: this was a couple issues into a storyline where Doom was attempting to clear his name after a mass murder. He had surrendered, to try and prove his innocence--like Doom cares--but was having mysterious visions of a possible future. Kang confirms that could be the case, but in the previous issue, Doom is shot dead by a sniper. The end! No, this issue opens with another vision of the possible future, as a benevolent-seeming unmasked future Doom makes an eloquent plea for his weather control system to fight climate change. Meanwhile, present Doom finds himself in hell, which seems about as bothersome to him as getting a piece bumped back to the start in a rowdy game of Sorry. Mephisto greets him, and gets manhandled a bit, but has a little challenge for Doom: convince his first love Valeria he deserves to live, and he will.

Now, that is a bit of continuity I liked, although it is probably Doom's most unforgivable crime ever: he sacrificed her for more power, and wore her skin as armor for a few. I hate to see something glossed over, especially as fast as that was; but it was probably too creepy to keep. Unfortunately, a sequence with Doom's regent Victorious takes up several pages, so we don't see much of Valeria: Mephisto, in his more demonic appearance, claims to have seen Doom's visions, and refuses to let him reduce mankind's suffering--"the food of the damned." His armor disappearing, Doom is still willing to take it to Mephisto, but the fight is broken up by Death herself, because she tells Doom he will be her greatest servant.

Returning to the land of the living, Doom knocks out Blue Marvel and H.E.R.B.I.E--yeah, Reed sent a robot, to ask Blue Marvel to field this one, because he just can't with Victor, apparently--with a spell. Kang then appears, like a helpful sidekick, which does not seem like him; Doom asks if he had seen futures where he died. Sure, tons, several where I did it, why? Oh, but this one was probably Taskmaster, hired by A.I.M.! Which may have caused the collapse of civilization. Great, Kang, Doom's ego needed that. Man, I know I'm an old, but I remember when Taskmaster had like three appearances and a Marvel Universe entry; now he's in a movie and every third goddamn comic.

The mystery of whatever's happening is intriguing, but Doom makes a snarky crack, which absolutely seems out of character. And Morgan le Fey appears as well, and I'm not sure what she's up to, but it's weird to see her in normal clothes with an apartment. Where is this going, though? Doom isn't going to be able to fix climate change, nor is he going to pay for any of the terrible crap he's done. The opening says "Over the years, Doom has wielded his power for great good and great evil," but I honestly can not think of a single good thing he's ever done, that wasn't in service of Doom in some way. I wish this issue had been 20 pages of Valeria and Mephisto roasting Doom, figuratively and literally: Mephisto is usually snarkier, I honestly thought he was going to blurt out "choke me, daddy!" when Doom had him by the neck.
Read more!

Don't leave home without it!

Although I love the character, and we saw the Infinity War tie-in some years back, I don't think I bought any of this series fresh off the racks! Maybe we'll see why...from 1992, Marc Spector: Moon Knight #40, "Endgame" Written by Terry Kavanagh, with a plot assist from Ron Garney, pencils by Gary Kwapisz, inks by Tom Palmer.

At least right this moment, Marc seems less crazy than usual; with the multi-national corporation Spectorcorp, a "Shadow-Cabinet" of advisors and operatives that I'm hoping is named that because he stole the idea from the Shadow, and a new suit of armor. The villains are pretty low-grade: the Latverian Sensor Squad, but of course they're just lackeys of Dr. Doom! Who seems pretty invested in getting a mysterious amulet back. Moon Knight consults with Mr. Fantastic on this one, flashing his Avengers ID card to convince Reed his mission is on the up-and-up. It totally isn't, and I almost wonder if Reed wouldn't have suspected that; but I suppose that would give him deniability. Or maybe he just thinks Moon Knight's cool; after all, he kinda is. (Man, I had forgotten the surprisingly nice gimmick cover for MS:MK #50 where Moon Knight burns his card!)

After a fight in the Latverian embassy, Doom realizes MK may not be well: in fact, he looks like his skin is falling off, and I'm not sure why at this point. (If you want spoilers, you can check the cover of MS:MK #44. The Infinity War crossover went longer than I'd thought, four issues!) With Doom having shot up a good portion of his own house, Moon Knight decides they're even for him coming at Spectorcorp, and gives Doom the amulet: it had been his mother's, and may have held a picture of Doom's father.

This isn't my favorite look for Moon Knight, even if more armor would make sense. Somehow, it makes him feel more Batman-y than he did before, and he could be mighty Batman-y. Also, it is somewhat telling that even with millions invested in tech and equipment, and using gear stolen from Doom, Moon Knight's weapon of choice is still his trusty truncheon, which is rarely drawn as having any sort of handle, or weighted end, and instead looks like a lead pipe. Something to be said for the basics. And I do love how the only thing he ever really did as an Avenger, was abuse the hell out of the privilege with the ID. And he was able to get ID multiple times!
Read more!

Now it's a party.

Actually, I have no idea what that's about; but we're taking a look at this book before jerks try to mark it up for the next Guardians of the Galaxy movie. From 1993, Guardians of the Galaxy #37, "Time Bears all It Sons Away" Written by Michael Gallagher, pencils by Kevin West, inks by Steve Montano.

It may have taken a thousand years, but the dread Dormammu has finally triumphed over his long-time foe, the Ancient One. The current Ancient One, that is: Dr. Stephen Strange! And the Guardians may have given Dormammu the power to kill him, but no time for that now. Kruggar, the current Master of the Mystic Arts, tries to motivate his erstwhile apprentice, Talon, to free him; but the Inhuman Guardian relies too much on brute force. Major Victory works out a plan to distract Dormammu, until Kruggar and Talon can banish him back to the Dark Dimension. Surrounded by Mindless Ones and worn out from the fight, Dormammu seems worried...

Having proven himself worthy, Talon is given Dr. Strange's original square amulet. Then, the main team of Guardians was headed to earth with Hollywood, the hero known long ago as Wonder Man! Elsewhere, Wolverine descendant-slash-cosplayer Rancor makes an attempt on Dr. Doom's life, and was about to cut out his heart with a remnant of Wolvie's claw. There's also a partially seen character that seems to be protecting or exploiting the Inhumans; and has Loki's color scheme. Is it? Well, I only have a few issues from the back half of this series, so it may be a while before we see. I know that Eternal Sprite had similar coloring...That seems like a long shot, admittedly.
Read more!

My internet's totally down as I write this one; so I'll have to come back to get this link for the cover: from 2016, Spidey #4, "Doomsday Off!" Written by Robbie Thompson, art by Andre Lima Arajuo, color art by Rachelle Rosenberg.

Marvel's done a few of these continuity-light, all-ages Spider-Man titles over the years, usually set in his early days as a hero; and this may be the latest. I did think it was a little awkward for him to refer to himself as "Spidey" to work the title logo into the opening, but that may be the only part that didn't work for me. Frustrated by bad press and school bullies, Peter opts to take a day off and hit the museum--I believe it's the Guggenheim. So of course Dr. Doom is stealing a painting there; or at least a Doombot in civilan clothes.

After stopping the "hipster" Doombot, Spidey catches news footage of other heroes fighting Doombots, and a suspicious power outage in New Jersey. At the power plant, Spidey finds Dr. Doom, who condescends to him before siccing his robots on him, and Spidey is blasted through an apartment building, in a pretty sweet two-page cross-section spread.

Landing in a park, Spidey meets a young fan, Owen; who helps out with a kind word, a jelly sandwich, and a replacement mask. Spidey realizes Doom is using the power plant to broadcast power to his Doombots, and smashes Doom's set-up. (On the news, we immediately see a reporter give credit to Captain America as the Doombots go down.) As the last one goes down--Doom having never actually been there--Spidey realizes they were all a blind, and Doom really had intended to steal the painting. Which he did, as we see Doom talking to his Doombots in Latveria, making him even lonelier than Spidey.

Not a bad comic! This wasn't a straight update of a classic Spider-Man story, but close; it wasn't as deliberately retro as the consistently great Untold Tales of Spider-Man; or as specifically all-ages as the underrated gem Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man. I don't think it ran as long as either of those, possibly because there's another "back-to-basics" "meat-and-potatoes" Spidey book coming; Chip Zdarsky and Adam Kubert's Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man. That one's supposed to be set in current continuity yet closer to the movies, or some such.

Read more!

Storm swears to kill Doom later, good luck with that.

Continuing our longstanding tradition of missing one issue of a limited series, today we're checking out 2010's Doomwar, written by Jonathan Maberry, pencils by Scot Eaton, inks by Campanella, Mendoza, Meikis, and Lanning. I'm missing issue #2, have to keep an eye out for that.

Even though I read Priest's Black Panther, I fell off the book afterwards, so wasn't real up on the continuity here: in fact, T'Challa wasn't even the Black Panther here, his sister Shuri was. (I honestly don't know if she had been introduced prior to rather suddenly getting the title...) And the series starts in a dark place, with the revolutionary Desturi having overthrown T'Challa in a coup. Storm was a prisoner, facing trial for a variety of trumped-up charges, including witchcraft; T'Challa and Shuri had gone to Storm's former teammates, the X-Men, for help. Somewhat unsurprisingly, Cyclops declines to help. (For political reasons, not because he remembers Storm beating his ass.)

Luckily, Wolverine, Colossus, and Nightcrawler elect to help out; and somewhat surprisingly the first issue ends with Kurt teleporting T'Challa and Shuri in to murder the Desturi's leader. (I seem to recall some review site of the time wondering if that was in character for Kurt; but it may well have been to prevent further bloodshed in prolonged battle. Y'know, that isn't even my biggest problem with that, but we'll come back to that another time.) Still, the Desturi weren't the real threat, their secret backer was: Doctor Doom, who orchestrated this entire thing to get access to T'Challa's vault of vibranium. Which Doom does.

The cover for the third issue is Doom at a chessboard, and that's much of the rest of the series: Reed Richards and T'Challa trying to figure out Doom's endgame, which is largely stall the heroes until he's used the vibranium to take over the world. There is an interesting scene where T'Challa can't figure out how Doom got through his vault's final lock, which he describes as "a kind of psycho-spiritual polygraph." Doom is able to justify his end goals, if not his means, to the panther god Bast: Doom believes without his iron rule of law, mankind will always, in every timeline, destroy itself.

It's spoiled in several of the covers, and I believe the solicits for this series, but midway through T'Challa realizes Doom knows exactly how he and Richards think, and has already planned for exactly what they would do. Unless they do something crazy, like hire Deadpool to kill Doom and teleport him straight at him. (Reed seems to disapprove, in general principle.) Of course Pool doesn't make a ton of progress there, but he seems to have fun. The series ends with T'Challa neutralizing most of the world's vibranium, which wouldn't do wonders for Wakanda's economy or defense, and T'Challa's marriage to Storm may have been on the way out here as well.




Read more!

I read all of these annuals back in 1989, but I've lost some over the years; which is why I'm more than happy to take a quarter bin copy of X-Factor Annual #4! Actually, after typing that and looking up that cover, I'm willing to bet I skipped the New Mutants chapter, I've never really warmed up to them. I also had thought this was earlier in the Atlantis Attacks crossover, but it's chapter ten!

"I Must Go Down to the Sea Again" Story and pencils by John Byrne, embellishments by Walt Simonson. In this chapter, the Deviant Ghaur summons Marvel Girl to become a bride of Set; and she flies off in a trance. The Beast grabs on to her, but is dragged along as well! There are tie-ins to Hank's time with the Defenders, with the return of the Atlantean warrior Andromeda; as well as a callback to a Jean Grey Bizarre Adventures story with Attuma: that story had been retconned so it was the Phoenix Entity instead of Jean, but Attuma is not having that.

In the end, with Jean nearly drowned, the Beast has no choice but to let Ghaur have her, in the hopes of saving her life and getting the chance to rescue her later. Which could've bit Hank in the ass if Set had manifested on earth, but he lucks out.

On top of all that, I had forgotten this back-up story, "That I Be Bound in a Nutshell" Story by Ralph Macchio, art by John Byrne. Magneto vs. Dr. Doom! In fact, at first glance, I had thought this was post-Acts of Vengeance, but it was set earlier, after the 1987 X-Men vs. the Avengers mini-series. Doom challenges Magneto with a mutant child telepath and Magneto's old helmet, which contained mind-control technology. Magneto had destroyed that helmet before, to remove the temptation; but Doom says the tech never worked as well as advertised: it would control a few minds, not thousands. With the telepath to keep Magneto honest, Doom and Mags will fight it out with the mind-control tech, which they do with recaps of the other's origins. As might be suspected, Doom is harsher in his editorializing; pointing out the convenience of Magneto's power failures in saving his family, yet they worked to kill humans just fine.

Magneto breaks Doom's control, saying the tragedies that made both men, made them stronger. Doom points out the telepath has now been privy to both, who knows what she might have learned...and Magneto murders a little girl, without a second thought. Y'know, I'm also not sure he had any proof the girl was a telepath, other than Doom's word. Kind of undermines any redemption arcs he's had since, huh?



Read more!

Ah, that's some good Doom face.

I'm not sure who Doctor Doom is talking to there, though. Besides the reader. And he gets a bit of the shaft, since on an earlier page, replacement-Doom Kristoff gets a full page spread!

From 1989, Thor #410, "Two Dooms to Destroy Me!" Written (and plotted) by Tom DeFalco, pencils (and plotted) by Ron Frenz, finishes by Joe Sinnott. Some years back, we checked out the final confrontation between Dr. Doom and his intended back-up copy Kristoff...except that was a dream sequence. I had to look it up, since I thought their conflict ran for years, and it did! Starting in 1987's Fantastic Four Annual #20 and continuing until Walt Simonson's elegant answer in 1991's Fantastic Four #350. Doom claims "No greater gift could I have bequeathed another...than to make him a true extension of myself!" Which is actually, really terrifying. But at this point, Kristoff held Latveria, and Doom was struggling to win it back; and in the previous issue, Doom stole Thor's hammer to use as part of his "time displacer!" (Doom breathlessly describes it as "through a process known only to Doom," which I imagine is like saying "patent pending" in conversation.)

While Doom freezes time in Latveria; Thor's current alter-ego Eric Masterson, Hercules, and She-Hulk follow to reclaim Mjolnir. She-Hulk's there as back-up and to fly the Quinjet, but Eric is powerless and Herc hasn't been at the top of his game lately, either: he had been having a somewhat uncharacteristic bout of nerves of late. The heroes battle Doom's robots, while Doom freezes time in Latveria and makes his way to his castle, where he'll be able to pop Kristoff at his leisure. Except Kristoff had thought of time displacement as well, and installed the appropriate counter-measures in his armor. (What counter-measures those would be, I couldn't say; but my intellect is sadly not the equal of Doom's!)

After a pitched battle, Doom manages to get Kristoff on the ropes, but while Doom couldn't shake Kristoff's conviction that he was the true Doom, Kristoff manages to place a tiny doubt in Doom's mind: if Kristoff is a copy of Doom, surely he is Doom's greatest achievement. If Doom was Doom, surely he couldn't just destroy his greatest achievement, right? Doom is given pause, possibly just so he can parse that out; but Eric manages to get to the hammer and bring back Thor, ending the time displacement. With troops loyal to Kristoff-Doom arriving, Dr. Doom is forced to flee...leaving a battered Kristoff to question why. The story ends with Doom, back in New York City, receiving an unexpected visit from a shadowed figure who offers "an act of vengeance!" which has its own logo, so you know it's a big deal.

Bonus: also this issue, a Volstagg story! In which a drunken Volstagg, making his way home from the tavern, is accosted by brigands. Or they may be animal rights activists, since they push him off his horse, because Volstagg on a horse is just mean. Still, Volstagg crushes--literally, in a couple unfortunate incidences--the bandits; either with drunken-fist style fighting or staggering luck. (I really want to find the Peter David Hulk issues with the Warriors Three, because there are some great lines with Volstagg: "There's not enough food for you here!" "Or anywhere," shouts another...)

Read more!

"Doom's Patrol, Redux."

A short one today, a callback to an old strip that I never thought I'd get to do.


Read more!

"The End" Week: Two sort-of kinda but not really ends from Mighty Marvel!

Last year, I could've done a full "The End" week on the last issues created before the DC 52 relaunch; and this year I could've done much the same for Marvel pre-Marvel Now! We are going to glance at a couple "last issues" that are only last issues in name--of course they're being relaunched--but are an ending: both end long runs from popular writers: Ed Brubaker, ending his 100+ issues of Captain America with ...Captain America #19 (Thanks, Marvel numbering!) and Jonathan Hickman wrapping his Fantastic Four tenure with Fantastic Four #611.

We'll start with the better of the two, the Cap issue. I read Brubaker's Cap run for a long time, but I think I fell off around Reborn; but this is a good capper and a good single issue. At a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. hospital, Steve Rogers visits the injured William Burnside, a.k.a. the Captain America from the 1950's. Steve tells his life story to William, since he knows William knew the myth of Captain America, but perhaps not the sad facts. Steve had just wanted to do the right thing, which snowballed into him becoming a national symbol, and he couldn't let the people down. Steve knows the mission will never end; and if he isn't Cap, someone else would have to be. It's a melancholy end, but a great finish to a great run.

On the other hand, I had only been reading Hickman's Fantastic Four sporadically, and hadn't read FF...and this issue seems more like FF, since it's mostly about Valeria Richards. And Dr. Doom. Previously, the multiversal Council of Reed Richards had lobotomized most of their universes Dr. Dooms; but our world's Doom got his hand on another universe's Infinity Gauntlet. Taking that blank canvas of a universe as his own, Doom creates his own, in his own image. Unfortunately, Doom's kind of a bastard. (And sadly, even Doom knows it.) The future Valeria, Reed, and Nathaniel Richards rescue Doom, who may or may not have learned anything.

This is continued in the last issue of FF; but it didn't really do much for me. I get tired of Franklin being used as deus ex machina, and Valeria appears to be following in her brother's footsteps; only perhaps a bit more manipulative. And then I don't see the point of a redemption storyarc for Doctor friggin' Doom: not only will some later writer inevitably turn him back into a card-carrying villain, but it's a redemption storyarc for someone who killed an old girlfriend and wore her skin as armor. Yeah, I don't really see coming back from that.

Still, this doesn't mean I didn't like all of Hickman's run; just not as good of a closer as Brubaker's.

Read more!