Doctor Doom Appreciation 2022 - Scientist, Sorcerer, Romani, King

[Iron Maiden]

So now we have Doom roaming around in Sue's body and he enters his castle. Reed had allowed the people in back at the beginning of this arc and they have trashed the place. Reed also disposed of all weapons and armor. The FF catch up to him there and this time Doom exchanges bodies with Johnny. So now Sue is back to normal and Johnny has been taken over by Victor. This is what annoyed me about Waid's story. He had Doom exchanging body like it was a game of "Tag! You're it" when all prior scenes showed that there was some concentration needed on his part. Also...just where did Johnny mind/soul go in the meantime??? Doom's body was back in that room that Reed confined him to and we would not see it again for the rest of this story.



Chaos ensues and Doom switches bodies again. This time it's Ben but wait. Now they are both of their consciousness are in Ben's body. We've never seen this effect before and Waid seems to be making it up as he goes along.




But it gets worse. Ben can't seem to gain dominance in his own body and now Doom starts to break Johnny's bones...first his collarbone, then his legs. Reed has no choice but to shoot him with a special gun that he had prepared. Ben dies and then Doom's loses control of his body. So what about Doom's? His body is probably a mile or so away. IMO that makes for a continuity problem. But this does get some solutions in JMS's Fantastic Four #536-537. He just ignores Waid's story.

[megatillo]

I remember this story and it was just a complete mess. Add the question about why Doom must be within "arm's length" when that certainly wasn't a limitation when Doom used this technique to transfer to Norman McArthur's body in Byrne's story (or others). And yeah, where are the displaced minds/souls going? What are they doing? Normally it is a 1 to 1 swap. Some other famous mind swaps: https://www.cbr.com/fantastic-four-d...om-mind-swaps/

So now we have Doom roaming around in Sue's body and he enters his castle. Reed had allowed the people in back at the beginning of this arc and they have trashed the place. Reed also disposed of all weapons and armor. The FF catch up to him there and this time Doom exchanges bodies with Johnny. So now Sue is back to normal and Johnny has been taken over by Victor. This is what annoyed me about Waid's story. He had Doom exchanging body like it was a game of "Tag! You're it" when all prior scenes showed that there was some concentration needed on his part. Also...just where did Johnny mind/soul go in the meantime??? Doom's body was back in that room that Reed confined him to and we would not see it again for the rest of this story.



Chaos ensues and Doom switches bodies again. This time it's Ben but wait. Now they are both of their consciousness are in Ben's body. We've never seen this effect before and Waid seems to be making it up as he goes along.




But it gets worse. Ben can't seem to gain dominance in his own body and now Doom starts to break Johnny's bones...first his collarbone, then his legs. Reed has no choice but to shoot him with a special gun that he had prepared. Ben dies and the Doom's loses control of his body. So what about Doom? His body is probably a mile or so away. IMO that makes for a continuity problem. But this does get some solutions in JMS's Fantastic Four #536-537. He just ignores Waid's story.

[Iron Maiden]

I remember this story and it was just a complete mess. Add the question about why Doom must be within "arm's length" when that certainly wasn't a limitation when Doom used this technique to transfer to Norman McArthur's body in Byrne's story (or others). And yeah, where are the displaced minds/souls going? What are they doing? Normally it is a 1 to 1 swap. Some other famous mind swaps: https://www.cbr.com/fantastic-four-d...om-mind-swaps/

I hope you pardon me if I have to correct you. In all the appearances Doom has to be in close proximity of the "target" body. Go back and look at my previous posts covering the history

Norman McArthur may not have been as close as Doom as Reed was in Fantastic Four #10 but he was fairly close to Doom's who was locked into his body armor. Here's a link to the post Byrne's panel doesn't put everyone in the same panel but I would have to think the crowd is near to where Doom is now immobilized while in the meantime the Surfer and Terrax had taken their fight to the sky where they would them come crashing back to the street. That's when Doom was incinerated by the Power Cosmic. The bystanders had to have fled the area at the point.

We have never seen a case where Doom is some distance away from his target. I'm not sure if they have to make eye contact or not.

[Iron Maiden]

For our final occurence of the Ovoid Mind Transfer we have Al Ewing's Guardians of the Galaxy #14 from last year. I know we probably discussed it here before but it's worth revisiting. The Guardians have been split into two different teams due to so the threats facing the galaxy from several fronts. In the previous issue, Doom made one of his standard last page appearances and proceeded to take down one of those teams with ease.

Doom volunteers his services even though no one has really asked him. He claims Hulkling's Sword of Space but is thwarted because it only answers to Hulkling. So time to use that mind transfer again...



Doom realizes that there are some pitfalls in using this tactic since you are left with the abilities and limitations of the host body. Now that Hulkling is in Doom's body Doom engages his armor's protocols that allow him to take remote control of Hulkling so that he becomes an unwilling ally.

[Iron Maiden]

Wiccan and Moondragon come up with an idea to get Doom to switch bodies with Hulking by playing on his vanity. Wiccan taunts him by saying Doom wanted to stay in Hulkling's body because he knew he wasn't strong enough to wield the Soul Sword properly. So Doom decides to reverse the mind transfer.



Unfortunately Doom neglected to account for Moondragon's psionic powers and she redirects the transfer to Rocket Racoon instead of Hulking. This is a good example of why Doom may not be all the anxious to employ this skill

[DoomScribe]

Out this week, this variant cover to Captain America: Symbol of Truth #1

Captain America Symbol of Truth 1 variant.jpg

Doctor Doom does not appear in this comic, but next month Cap travels to Latveria to free Deadpool from prison, and we also know that Doom probably appears in issue #3 based on the cover.

Captain America Symbol of Truth 003 cover.jpg

[Iron Maiden]

Darn! I bought the first issue Symbol of Truth and forgot about the variant. Doom doesn't appear in it yet and there is no mention of him either.

[Lucky99]

It was going so well

[Lucky99]

Then it got messy

[Iron Maiden]

Unfortunately, I think many readers and even some of Marvel's writers didn't "get" the story between Victor and Wanda. I've always maintained that Heinberg is gving the reader the answer as to whether or not Doom was genuine about his feelings for Wanda. Admittedly, given the chance to obtain the power that they were trying to remove was too tempting. I still think Eli sabotaged the spell when he took a shot at Doom. But after Doom leaves the scene, two things stand out to me. First of all,none of the heroes there tried to stop him from leaving and continue the battle. Second, I always point to this exchange between Magneto, Quicksilver, Captain America and Wolverine.

First of all, Magneto is trying to deflect the blame from himself since he was partially responsible for Wanda's breakdown in House of M. But most important I think Heinberg is using Wolverine to inform the reader to take another look at the root of the story....the unlikely love affair between Victor and Wanda. Allen Heinberg did a few interviews at the time the series came out and unfortunately the Marvel site hasn't archived them. But I did find a site that saved his interviews with Marvel's Ben Morse

Here's the one focusing on Doom's involvement in the story up to issue #7

For the past year, AVENGERS: THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE has chronicled the Scarlet Witch’s return in an epic adventure that has drawn in all of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes as well as the X-Men, X-Factor, Magneto, Doctor Doom and more. With the pivotal issue #7 on sale Wednesday, September 21, we’ve enlisted writer Allan Heinberg to revisit the critical events and major players, as well as discuss what will happen next.

For anybody who has followed the Marvel Universe at any length, it should come as no surprise that with a player as powerful as The Scarlet Witch on the board and an epic as sprawling as AVENGERS: THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE, Doom would be found at some point.

Victor Von Doom, monarch of Latveria and source of every hero from the Fantastic Four to the Avengers, made a dramatic and surprising entrance into the Crusade at the conclusion of issue #2, in which the “Scarlet Witch” the Young Avengers and Magneto located turned out to be one of his signature Doombots. Trailing their quarry to Latveria, our protagonists found an amnesiac Wanda Maximoff seemingly lacking in power, but engaged to be married to none other than Doctor Doom himself!

The arrival of the Avengers and intervention of Iron Lad spirited Wanda and company out of Doom’s clutches—or should that be protection?—but the not-always-so-good Doctor still has a role to play in this CRUSADE. We spoke with writer Allan Heinberg about.

Marvel.com: Why did you want Doom in this series playing such a prominent role?

Allan Heinberg: To my mind, Doctor Doom was the only sorcerer powerful enough—and invested enough—to have been able to successfully engineer the Scarlet Witch's prolonged disappearance. And I also loved the idea that Doom's obsession with finding his own mother paralleled Wiccan's quest to find the Scarlet Witch.

Marvel.com: Do Doom and Wanda share any sort of history from past stories you’re tapping into here or are you creating this whole?

Allan Heinberg: If Wanda and Doom share a romantic history in the Marvel Universe, I'm unaware of it. I just loved the idea of Doom's initially having sought out Wanda to exploit her reality-altering power only to then fall in love with her. And I thought perhaps Wanda might remind Doom of his sorceress mother.

Marvel.com: What can you say about Doom’s motivations for his actions here? Are the Young Avengers right to view him as an out and out bad guy or is there some altruism at work?

Allan Heinberg: Doom's motivations are going to become very clear in CRUSADE #7. But I have to say that, where Wanda is concerned, I think Doom believes his motives are altruistic. He is still a psychopathic narcissist, but he's also a man in love. Or at least he's behaving like a man in love.

Marvel.com: How has it been to write one of Marvel’s most rich and celebrated characters?

Allan Heinberg: I was very intimidated by the idea of writing Doom. But at this moment in his life—and in the context of his relationship with Wanda—Doom can't afford to behave like a willful despot. At this moment, he's as vulnerable and as emotionally articulate as I've ever seen him. Though, of course, that could just be yet another pose he affects to get what he really wants.

Marvel.com: Is Doom’s part in this story done or will we see him again? Have we seen the full extent of his machinations yet?

Allan Heinberg: No, Doom is a huge part of the next issue and the one after that, and beyond...

[DoomScribe]

If you haven't read the latest issue of Fantastic Four, #43 (legacy issue #688) - The Reckoning War, "Knight After Knight", you really should. Doom only appears in five pages, but they are the most action packed pages and he battles the Cormorant, who has been gathering pieces of armor from other superpowered beings. Doom has the last piece, other than the helmet which is worn by the Cormorant's controller, a "Prosilican", a soldier of the First War. (A war the Watchers won and I assume the Prosilicans lost).

No other spoilers for now, but they actually have Doom make a good showing here, his cunning, strength, intelligence and confidence on full display. A bit of snark, and a surprise ending cap it off. Will share just this terrific two page spread.

Fantastic Four 2022 043 pg 8n9.jpg

"Of course he knows. He's DOOM!"

[Iron Maiden]

Yes, I think it was one of Slott's better takes on the character. Looking forward to seeing what role he plays in the concluding issue.

After this, the dance card for Doom looks a bit sparse for the summer. We have an appearnce coming up in the Captain America comic, then Monster Hunters (which I would guess is an AU Doom) and the bonus sized Hellfire Gala, where he's got this spectacular party look. The other AU version would be in PAD's World War M and then that's all I can think of, well except for Aaron's Avengers I guess.

[FRC Coazze]

Don't know if someone already mentioned this... but Doom's gonna make an appearance in the mini-series Fortnite X Marvel: Zero War, notably in issue #4 coming out in August. And there's also gonna be a nice variant cover (the kind I'm a big fan of ) with the Latverian flag waving in the background:

[Iron Maiden]

Thanks! I did see the Fortnight one the other day but hadn't gotten around to posting since I'm not really much of a game player. I wasn't sure if this meant you had to have the game to understand it.

Here's the scoop on it from the Marvel August Solicitations:

FORTNITE X MARVEL: ZERO WAR #4 (OF 5)


CHRISTOS GAGE & DONALD MUSTARD (W) • SERGIO DÁVILA (A)
Cover by LEINIL FRANCIS YU • Variant Cover by JEN BARTEL
Variant Cover by STEPHANIE HANS • Variant Cover by KAEL NGU
Variant Cover by PHIL NOTO • Variant Cover by RON LIM
The most dangerous person in the Marvel Universe has thrown in with some of the most dangerous people in the Fortnite universe. But what does Doom really want? And how far will he go to get it?
Each first print issue contains a redeemable code to unlock a bonus digital cosmetic in Fortnite! See issue for details.

[Doom'nGloom]

Found this on youtube. Thought it was funny so I share though maybe not 100% accurate. Cynthia died by a soldiers blade in Books of Doom if I remember it right. Was it specified how she died in the original story in FF annual #2?