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Prisoners Of War!
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For all that "Secret Wars" is a terrible load of old rubbish (and it really is a terrible load of old rubbish), I can't deny that there's some craft to it. Jim shooter gives the reader plenty of action, with lots of Big Fights and explosions, while also giving plenty of time to character interactions and moving the plot forward in very carefully explained stages. Maybe it would feel more interesting if it was drawn by a different artist - Mike Zeck was great on Captain America's solo adventures, but here the multiple crowd scenes take on a sort of puffiness, with all of the characters looking inflated and slightly cartoony.
This issue starts with everybody enjoying a good old punch-up, while Doctor Doom gets down to business with the issue's main sub-plot. As he flies off to find Galactus he recalls the events of the first issue in extreme detail, arriving just in time to find him displaying his near god-like nature by ... um... being able to stand up without the indignity of using his hands.
Impressive! Doom tries got get Galactus' attention, but is completely ignored, "as though I were a gnat, buzzing at his feet!" Some versions of Doom (e.g. the wheedling East European dictator of Lee and Kirby's later run) would have been absolutely infuriated by this and let off a few gauntlet blasts, but here he accepts this as only natural.
Changing tack, Doom wanders over to a nearby fortress, explaining his actions out loud to himself as he goes, where he discovers the body of Ultron, dormant and ripe for reprogramming. There's then a break for some mroe fighting involving the main bunch of superheroes, and when we next see Doom he is welcoming a group of supervillains to "his" fortress, which he has renamed "Doombase".
Calling it "Doombase" is a VERY Doctor Doom thing to do, but I'm not sure why Absorbing Man is calling him "Doctor Doomwimp". It's not a pun on anything I can think of, nor is it a commonly used phrase. Maybe Jim Shooter was just in a hurry and couldn't think of anything better?
When the supervillains object to Doom taking over he unleashes Ultron on them and they very quickly decide to accept Doom as their new leader. He leads them inside where we get a lovely example of the green and purple pallete that is so often used for supervillains.
There's just time for Doom to do some buttering up of Molecule Man and to show Doctor Octopus a Giant View Screen (he loves a Giant View Screen, does Doctor Doom!) and then that's it for him in this issue. The rest of the comic is taken up with another Big Fight, this time between the heroes and Magneto, during which the Thing suddenly turns back into Ben Grimm right in the middle of a big battle, and then the story ends with the heroes looking at their own Giant View Screen, which shows Galactus about to Do Something Galactus-y. We'll find out what that is soon enough, but before that we get to that next time we're going to find out some more about the Thing's new ability to transform at will, over in his own series!
link to information about this issue
posted 9/12/2020 by Mark Hibbett
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