The 12 Days of Santa Doom

[Iron Maiden]

On the Ninth Day of Christmas Santa Doom gave to me...
Nine Namors Swimming
Eight Flying Horses
Seven Doombots Dancing
Six Vultures Perching
FIVE IMPERIAL RINGS
Four French Chefs
Three Bengal Tigers
Two Doomy Bears
And a Throne Made from Asgard's World Tree

One of the most enduring relationships that Victor von Doom has had dates all the way back to Fantastic Four #6 when Doom seeks out an ally to help defeat the Fantastic Four. He seeks out none other than Namor the Sub-Mariner, the First Mutant and one of the trio of Marvel/Timely's first superheroes along with Captain America and the Human Torch. The team up doesn't last long as Namor finds out that Doom planned to get rid of him along with the FF. Thus begins the on again, off again history of alliances. And since it's Christmas Time, here is one of my favorite pages with Doom and Namor meeting in a snowy Latveria. It's a shame this really wasn't followed up and to see where this alliance would lead.

[CaptCleghorn]

Where do I send the bill for a new keyboard after I lost coffee out of my nose laughing at "Seven Doombots Dancing"?

Very nice job, IM.

[Iron Maiden]

Thanks Captain! I'm glad you are enjoying it!

[Reviresco]

On the Ninth Day of Christmas Santa Doom gave to me...
Nine Namors Swimming
Eight Flying Horses
Seven Doombots Dancing
Six Vultures Perching
FIVE IMPERIAL RINGS
Four French Chefs
Three Bengal Tigers
Two Doomy Bears
And a Throne Made from Asgard's World Tree

One of the most enduring relationships that Victor von Doom has had dates all the way back to Fantastic Four #6 when Doom seeks out an ally to help defeat the Fantastic Four. He seeks out none other than Namor the Sub-Mariner, the First Mutant and one of the trio of Marvel/Timely's first superheroes along with Captain America and the Human Torch. The team up doesn't last long as Namor finds out that Doom planned to get rid of him along with the FF. Thus begins the on again, off again history of alliances. And since it's Christmas Time, here is one of my favorite pages with Doom and Namor meeting in a snowy Latveria. It's a shame this really wasn't followed up and to see where this alliance would lead.

Of course, my favorite day! Marvels first Super Villain Team Up!

I agree, that last page was such a wasted opportunity.

[Reviresco]

You are welcome, Abe! On to the next.....

On the Eighth Day of Christmas Santa Doom gave to me...Eight Flying Horses
Seven Doombots Dancing
Six Vultures Perching
FIVE IMPERIAL RINGS
Four French Chefs
Three Bengal Tigers
Two Doomy Bears
And a Throne Made from Asgard's World Tree

One of the most talked about parts of Mark Waid's Fantastic Four run is the Unthinkable arc where the story opens with Doom sacrificing his first love Valeria in exchange for enhanced powers in the Dark Arts. The character made her debut in Marvel Superheroes #20 and next appeared in The Incredible Hulk #143-144. Then she seemed to vanish, never to be seen again, that is until Unthinkable. But just prior to that story, the name did come up in a story in Marvel Double Shots #2 in a story called "Masks" written by Christopher Priest.



One of the members of the orchestra playing for the Latverian audience is planted there by NATO intelligence. She is a reporter from Germany who was recruited and then surgically altered to resemble Valeria. This is all known to Doom and he lets her know that he is aware of the deception. But then things get a little strange when he whisks her away in a flying chariot and both of their masks come off, literally and figuratively. IIRC it is one of Paolo Rivera's first works at Marvel and it is a beautifully painted work. He describes working on the art on his blog

So then along comes the Unthinkable story and Valeria is no more.....or is she??

Great choice! And a great story! Not in the same tone, but Doom and flying horses always reminds me of this t-shirt.

[Iron Maiden]

I have that one! It's had many a washing since I got it. The website that created it evolved into something else but it used to be called WeLoveFine. Now it is For Fans by Fans and they don't have any Marvel products anymore. I also have the Villains United Tee, which is really Jim Cheung's Villains cover from Mark Millars 1985 series from a while back. And another called Absolute Doom. I don't know if you can find them anymore. For a while it was hard to find any Doom, or Fantastic Four stuff because of that crazy ban on any kind of promotion due to the feud between Marvel comics's Ike Perlmutter and Fox. I'm glad that is over but I haven't bought any new ones yet.

It's a good thing I saved some images of the shirts I have from the websites that used to have them in stock. I wore the Absolute Doom one when I met Hickman at C2E2 and he really liked that one since it is the cover of FF #13 , but they removed Franklin somehow. Or maybe some artist just copied the image He asked me where I got it from and that came from WeLoveFine also. Boy, I was just looking at the publication date of FF #13 and it is from December 28 2011. Can it really be almost 10 years since Hickman created that title???

[ImperiusWrecked]

Ahhh! I jut found this thread, lol, I need to check the boards more often! Love every post here and can't believe I almost missed this. Thanks for doing this Iron Maiden!

[Iron Maiden]

You're welcome, ImperiousWrecked! I hope you liked the Day for Namor. I used panels where Doom and Namor where both under the sea. And then I remembered I could have used that John Byrne/Jae Lee story too.

And to resume

On the The Tenth Day of Christmas Santa Doom gave to me...
Ten Black Swans Serving
Nine Namors Swimming
Eight Flying Horses
Seven Doombots Dancing
Six Vultures Perching
FIVE IMPERIAL RINGS
Four French Chefs
Three Bengal Tigers
Two Doomy Bears
And a Throne Made from Asgard's World Tree

As to who the Black Swans are serving, it as The Great Destroyer, Rabam Alal

The first we knew of the Black Swans was back in Hickman's New Avengers #1 vol. 3 from 2013. I like to qualify that because New Avengers is a title that has been relaunched many times. The first one we met was Yabbatt Ummon Turru of Earth 1365. This was when the Illuminati of Earth Prime first learned to the incursions that were sweeping across the Multiverse. The Black Swans were created to serve the mysterious Rabam Alal but at some point Yabbatt had gone off on her own. The subject of the Incursions and the roles of the Black Swans, The Ivory Priests and the Black Priests gets a bit complicated and I would have to revisit that whole arc again. The threads that were started to review each new issue of the New Avengers typically lasting at least 10 pages and more with hundreds of posts deliberating the morality of killing another planet to save your own.

The Swans were not all glamorous like the panel I used. They represented many different races in the multiverse as this cover demonstrates. The Swans that served Rabam Alal were elderly and had blinded themselves so that they could be in the Great Destroyers presence.

When Doctor Strange joins the Black Priests and goes to seek out Rabam Alal in the Great Library, he is taken captive and the Black Priests are destroyed. Then it is revealed that Doom is Rabam Alal.

[Iron Maiden]

Christmas Eve is here and soon Santa will be loading his slay. Will he need Santa Doom's help this year?

On the The Eleventh Day of Christmas Santa Doom gave to me...
Eleven Heroes Bowing
Ten Black Swans Serving
Nine Namors Swimming
Eight Flying Horses
Seven Doombots Dancing
Six Vultures Perching
FIVE IMPERIAL RINGS
Four French Chefs
Three Bengal Tigers
Two Doomy Bears
And a Throne Made from Asgard's World Tree

A while back I found a copy of the cover for Super-Villain Team-Up #14 without the Title Banner, etc. I believe this might be the first time John Byrne would draw the Doctor Doom. The cover is inked by Terry Austin and the story is by Bill Mantlo who was a pretty prolific writer for Marvel in this era. I hope he is well this Christmas as he continues to receive medical care as a result of a hit and run accident that occurred decades ago.

The story begins with Magneto, having recently been restored to adulthood after being reverted back to an infant in Defenders #16, comes to Latveria to propose an alliance but Doom is way ahead of him...

Doom tells of his creation of Neuro canisters that release a gas into the atmosphere, making all who are exposed to it unconsciously serve Doom. But Doom is bored and what use is a triumph if no one knows about it. Doom provides an antidote to Magneto and wants him to make a contest of it and challenge Doom's control. Magento heads over to Avengers Mansion for help. A fight ensues as soon as he bursts his way through the entrance. He does get the Avengers to listen to his tale but they don't realize that they are under Doom's control until a holographic image of Doom appears in the room. He decides to allow Magneto one ally among the Avengers and he choose to take the Beast. So Magneto uses his power to control "the iron-laden flow of blood to the brain" (footnoted as seen in Avengers #11) to nullify the effect of the gas in the atmosphere. Having no luck finding any other heroes, the Beast suggests they go to Los Angeles and meet up with a new group called the Champions, which includes his former teammates Ice-Man and the Angel. On the last page of the issue, it is announced that this is the last issue of Super-Villain Team-Up. There would however be one more issue that is a reprint then two years later in 1977 there was a Red Skull & Hate Monger team up. Sub-Mariner had made his last appearance in issue #13 when Doom fulfilled his promise to restore the comatose citizens of Atlantis. Having no further interest in any alliances, Namor sends Doom on his way.

Doom and Namor will continue their on again/off again alliances in years to come.

[Iron Maiden]

As for the outcome of the SVTU / Champions crossover, battles ensue and Doom grows impatient with the former world leaders



In a final melee with the heroes, Ghost Rider uses his Hellfire on Doom and it heats up his armor and mask. So he has to remove the mask and then becomes exposed to his own gas.




Now fast forward to 1987 which brings us the graphic novel Emperor Doom written by David Michelinie with concept by Jim Shooter, Mark Gruenwald and there is a one noticeable ressemblance between this story and the SVTU/Champions story. Only this time Doom controls the power of the Purple Man and diffuses it over the planet. And Doom is immune to the effect of the Purple Man.

[Reviresco]

Christmas Eve is here and soon Santa will be loading his slay. Will he need Santa Doom's help this year?

On the The Eleventh Day of Christmas Santa Doom gave to me...
Eleven Heroes Bowing
Ten Black Swans Serving
Nine Namors Swimming
Eight Flying Horses
Seven Doombots Dancing
Six Vultures Perching
FIVE IMPERIAL RINGS
Four French Chefs
Three Bengal Tigers
Two Doomy Bears
And a Throne Made from Asgard's World Tree

A while back I found a copy of the cover for Super-Villain Team-Up #14 without the Title Banner, etc. I believe this might be the first time John Byrne would draw the Doctor Doom. The cover is inked by Terry Austin and the story is by Bill Mantlo who was a pretty prolific writer for Marvel in this era. I hope he is well this Christmas as he continues to receive medical care as a result of a hit and run accident that occurred decades ago.

Was this a variant cover? I didn't recall a Bryne cover on SVTU.

Also, a GREAT choice for a DOOM Christmas thread.

[Iron Maiden]

No, here is the original cover. Another link to SVTU #14 and Emperor Doom is that Bob Hall did the art on both of them.

[Iron Maiden]

Christmas is here so here is the final verse of the Twelve Days of Santa Doom

On the The Twelfth Day of Christmas Santa Doom gave to me...
Twelve Diamante Pens for Writing
Eleven Heroes Bowing
Ten Black Swans Serving
Nine Namors Swimming
Eight Flying Horses
Seven Doombots Dancing
Six Vultures Perching
FIVE IMPERIAL RINGS
Four French Chefs
Three Bengal Tigers
Two Doomy Bears
And a Throne Made from Asgard's World Tree

Doom always has this penchant for mixing the modern with the traditional. His armor looks medieval compared to Iron's sleek state of the art version. And Doom did adopt that look for a period of time as Infamous Iron Man but as we've seen he's returned to his more classic look. He does not blog or use any kind of digital device to create a journal. He prefers pen and paper. So naturally when Doom writes he would use the most expensive pen to be found and that is the Aurora Diamante Fountain Pen at a cool $1.47 million dollars. Manufactured by an Italian company the barrel is pure platinum with an 18 carat gold nib, and is encrusted with 1,919 De Beers diamonds that weigh more than 30 carats. We know that he has at least one of them but who knows, he may have some of the less pricey ones clipped in an inner pocket to his his cape. And the price is pretty prohibitive since the company only mades one per year. You'd think Doom would find a place to keep it safe. But he recently retrieved it from the rubble of his pen in the rubble of his ransacked castle when RiRi aka Ironheart went to look for him. I wonder if Damage Control is on retainer with him. They sure would get steady work from that contract.

I like the panels that come from the late Dwayne McDuffie's Damage Control mini series. McDuffie once wrote here in the comments section of one of Brian Cronin's columns (which spotlighted the Luke Cage story were Doom stiffed him for his $200 fee) that he hated that story. So he wrote this reply to it in his Damage Control series. It was an a dishonest staff member at the Latverian embassy that pocketed the money himself and was about to do the same to the Damage Control company when he was caught red handed by Doom. Of course, the Luke Cage story lives on and is the better known story.

But getting back to the journals, one wonders if Doom is more careful in keeping them hidden and hopefully they won't be just laying around in the ruins the next time Castle Doom falls.

[Reviresco]

Good Lord. What the heck is "Bart" thinking? Asking DOOM for a ID???

And wow. I'd never heard of that pen before, but yes, that's exactly what I could see Doom using for his journals.

Thank you so much for doing this, Iron Maiden! It definitely helped with the Christmas spirit, this month. Merry Christmas, Santa Doom!

No, here is the original cover



Another link to SVTU #14 and Emperor Doom is that Bob Hall did the art on both of them.

Obviously, I need to re-read this series. I had completely blanked out that cover.

[Iron Maiden]

Good Lord. What the heck is "Bart" thinking? Asking DOOM for a ID???

And wow. I'd never heard of that pen before, but yes, that's exactly what I could see Doom using for his journals.

Thank you so much for doing this, Iron Maiden! It definitely helped with the Christmas spirit, this month. Merry Christmas, Santa Doom!


Obviously, I need to re-read this series. I had completely blanked out that cover.

Until I saw Bendis bring it up in Infamous Iron Man, I had never heard of it either. Talk about some bling. I know what you mean on forgetting things....happens to me a lot too!

I'm glad you enjoyed it. It was fun to put together and looking things up for background material....refreshed my memory on some things too!
I haven't put him on display in a while, due to being out of room in my curio cabinet. But I did put out my Bowen statue for Christmas a few years back. Plus a couple of friends.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! May you all get your heart's desire