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Rogue Storm!
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This issue begins right where the last one finished, with Nightcrawler finding himself two miles in the air, having teleported out of the trap we saw him in last time. He's bamfed himself two miles into the sky in order to be sure he's not teleporting into anything solid, but it does have the very slight disadvantage of meaning he's, well, two miles up in the air. Happily for all concerned he manages to glide down (using handy "updrafts") towards the lake that now seems to be next to Doom's castle, where he has time for a very soggy recap of the previous two issues.
With that all sorted out we go back to the inside of the castle, where Doom is explaining to Arcade that he personally designed the X-Men's traps (so not Arcade himself then) to test, rather than contain, them.
Meanwhile an unnatural storm is raging, apparently caused by the Storm (the character) who has intense claustrophobia after being trapped inside a metal case. This leads to a nice chat between two of Doom's henchmen, Toby and Phil.
We've seen Doom's henchmen turned into human beings on several occasions over the years, and even though these ones may be dressed slightly differently to their Latverian counterparts, it's heartening to see that Doom still hires chatty staff. Sadly Toby and Phil get knocked unconscious by Nightcrawler as he makes his way into the castle.
Meanwhile Colossus, Angel and Wolverine break out of their own traps, with Wolverine first to make it back to Doom's control room where he, alarmingly, stabs Robot Storm in the face then goes for Doom himself. Doom is impressed by what he takes to be Wolverine's ruthlessness, but is then disappointed by his apparent over-confidence in a fight.
At this point Nightcrawler appears and brings Doctor Doom down, so that Wolverine can threaten him with a stab in the eye if he doesn't free Storm. He agrees, but the shock of seeing Storm released in a flash of light (and wearing what is basically two strips of toilet roll) distracts the heroes, so that Doom can zap them with his hand blasters. "Just as he'd planned", explains the text box.
Storm is absolutely furious about being trapped, and goes a bit Dark Phoenix (actually a LOT Dark Phoenix), blasting Colossus when he tries to calm her down and posing such a threat to them all that Doom is forced to take charge of the situation. John Byrne can say what he likes about Claremont's characterisation, but this strikes me as a great use of one of Doom's main characteristics - taking control in emergencies with such authority that even superheroes are forced to fall into line.
In the end it is Storm herself who brings things to a close, regaining control when Colossus points out that yes, this is all a bit of a rip-off of the Dark Phoenix story. She returns to earth where she asks Doom to hand Arcade over to them, and even makes him apologise for being rude.
Doom agrees and then apologises again to Storm for attacking her team. This is just about within the realms of possibility for Doom's usual character - he's always saying he's a man of honour, but he's not usually prone to apologies, so it does seem a little odd. That, however, is as nothing compared to what comes next, when Doom basically asks Storm if they can be friends, and she says yes!
Didn't he just completely trap her in her worst nightmare, causing her to lose control and almost go the way of the recently killed Jean Grey? And doesn't he look super creepy, leering at her through the mask? There are indeed some issues with Doom's characterisation, but maybe the problem isn't with Chris Claremonts understanding of Doom, but with his understanding of human beings altogether. If someone had dressed me up in loo roll, trapped me in tinfoil and kidnapped my friends, I would be blocking them on social media immediately!
And so ends an odd story, which sees Doom's grand return to Marvel continuity gently fading away from a big planned event and into business as usual. It seems a shame, but at least the next time we see him it'll be for an all-time Doom classic, in the realm of King Arthur!
link to information about this issue
posted 28/2/2020 by Mark Hibbett
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