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Blog Archive: November 2018

The Monster And The Madman!
One of the great things about reading through all of Doctor Doom's appearances like this, that I get to be surprised by finding surprising developments in the most unlikely places. I would never have expected to see vital parts of his fictional biography taking place in a couple of obscure issues of 'The Incredible Hulk', but that's exactly what's happening with this story.

This is meant to be part two of the tale covered in my previous blog, but the issue starts with a bizarrely misleading splash page, showing The Hulk fighting Iron Man. At first I thought I'd skipped an issue, but then saw the footnote which pretty much predicted my reaction! The next page rather cunningly pulls back to show General Ross giving a talk about previous meetings with the Hulk, and leads into the traditional recap of what happened last time, featuring Dick Ayers doing a copy of his swipe of a John Buscema image from last time. Next the scene shifts to Latveria, where we find Bruce Banner working in Doctor Doom's lab as an apparently loyal team member who leaps to join in with the hailing of Doom when he enters the room (Latverians love hailing as we've seen many times before). However, Doom is not alone - he has Valeria with him! We last saw Valeria back in the (brilliant) Marvel Superheroes #20, leaving Doom's castle determined never to see him again. It seems that Roy Thomas, who also wrote that story, must have regretted this decision, and he had Valeria address it early on. Seeing Doom profess his love for another individual is distinctly odd - one supposes, based on his previous actions, that he must have some secret plan, but for now it looks like he means it.

He introduces Valeria to Banner, who immediately gets agitated and turns into the Hulk, allowing Doom to play the kindly protector, trying to show Valeria how much he cares for his subjects. He uses his tranquilizer ray (which I guess is an upgrade on the Hypno Gas) to calm the Hulk, who transforms back into human form. If Doom was doing this to impress his unwilling girlfriend, however, he rather blows it when he snaps at her entirely reasonable shock at what she's just seen. It turns out that he does have a cunning scheme after all, although this one is designed to make Valeria fall in love with him. SPOILERS: Doom is unlikely to be getting work as a relationship counsellor.

His plan is to tell Valeria that a neighbouring country (presumably the one very briefly mentioned last issue) wants to attack Latveria. When she begs him not to strike the first blow he gladly agrees, knowing that at that moment his lackeys are down in the lab ready to bring the Hulk back by shooting Bruce Banner with a jolt of electricity. Once they've done this the Hulk immediately bursts out of the castle and heads to the border, as programmed to do by Doom, with a gamma bomb strapped to his back!

Doom's plan continues apace, with a lackey running into his room to tell him that the Hulk has escaped, having stolen the Gamma Bomb. He pretends to bravely take responsibility for the error, and declares that, regretfully, he must now detonate the bomb to save innocent lives before the Hulk is able to reach a populated area. Doom is feeling pretty pleased with itself - he's actually detonated a bomb over enemy territory AND he's impressed the girl he likes, and who amongst us can say they have never dreamed of achieving something simmilar? But then another lackey comes in with a genuine message - his plan hasn't worked! The bomb really did blow up over unoccupied territory, and Valeria reveals that this was her doing. She knew what was going on all along, and had undertaken a complicated scheme to revive Banner and get him to reprogramme himself so that, as the Hulk, he could take the bomb to a safe place.

I tell you what, with Cunning Plans like this, it's no wonder Doom thinks they're well matched!

Doom, however, is most miffed by this turn of events and declares that his love for her is finally over. However, before she can be thrown into the dungeons, the Hulk returns and he and Doom launch into battle over the skies of Latveria, watched by terrified locals. Is it me, or have the Latverians got somewhat Groovy since we were last there? They're right to be worried though, as the battle quickly puts Valeria in danger. Doom leaps into action to help her, leaving himself open to attack by the Hulk, who tries to squeeze him to death. Doom gets out of this one by refusing to give up, until the Hulk gets bored and lets him go.

Valeria runs over to Doom, apparently convinced that he's not such a bad sort after all. This reminds the Hulk of Betty Ross, and leads to a rather brilliant image of him with The Glums. Poor Hulk! The issue then comes to an end with a very similar sequence to that seen in the recent Thor 183, with Doom ranting and raving at his enemy to come back and fight him. Is this a new trope in the making? We'll have to wait and see!

And thus ends a surprisingly Doom-heavy episode of a series in which another character is meant to be the lead. This is a pretty good run of Doom stories, and it's about to get even better when we return, in our next blog, to an absolute classic!

posted 30/11/2018 by MJ Hibbett
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Sanctuary!
This issue kicks off with Bruce Banner on the run from the police in a story entitled "Sanctuary" which, rather brilliantly, comes with a little editorial note which says the title is taken "With apologies to William Faulkner". I haven't read the Faulkner novel, but I'm pretty sure it's not much like this!

Banner is chased across town and is about to be captured when a mysterious limousine appears and offers him a ride. We don't have to wait long to find out who the car's owner is, as Bruce looks to one side and sees... Doctor Doom! As yet, there's nothing to tie this into Doom's adventures over in his own stories. It seems like there's one Doom who exists in Latveria (and elsewhere) over in "Astonishing Tales" and another who spends his time in the Latverian Embassy, bothering superheroes in New York. This Doom is very much on-book with his New York adventures, riding around in the same car that he used to kidnap Daredevil a little while ago, but when he gets back to the Embassy we see his two personas - the arrogant dictator and the man of the people - start to come together. The army surround the building, but are, as usual, unable to gain entrance due to "diplomatic immunity". Doom and Banner watch from an upstairs window, with one of Doom's guards behind them sporting a rather special helmet. These guards have evolved quite a bit since they were first introduced by Jack Kirby, changing from Robots, to Armoured Guards with small nodules on their heads, to what appears to be a member of the Mickey Mouse Fanclub (Latverian Division). Meanwhile, General Ross is wondering what Doom's playing at. "What's Doom doing here in the states anyway?" he asks himself. "We'd heard he was busy planning to conquer a nation bordering on his own!" At first I thought this might be a reference to Doom's recent trip to Wakanda, but that's in Africa, not bordering Latveria. As we'll see later, he's talking about plans Doom has closer to home, none of which have been mentioned before, which is especially odd because Roy Thomas , the writer of this story, had recently written some of Doom's solo stories. Thomas is usually very keen on continuity and tying things together, so it seems a bit strange that he ignores so much of it here.

Doom decides it's time for action, and unleashes his secret weapon - the Hulk! The Hulk leaps instantly, and silently, into action, apparently under Doom's control. He smashes up a bunch of tanks and then leaps away, at which point the army point their remaining guns at him, shoot, and much to their surprise, kill him! This is all a bit of a shock to everyone, and each of the regular characters - Bruce's girlfriend Betty, her father General Ross, Major Talbot and the psychiatrist Doc Damson - take a moment to reflect on what it means to them personally. Doom, meanwhile, does something that we haven't seen him do for a while, and has a good old laugh. He's very pleased with himself because the Hulk that the army destroyed was yet another of his robots - he's VERY good at those isn't he? The real Bruce Banner/Hulk is safe and sound, although very annoyed. Banner is about to vent this fury and transform into his alter ego, but before he can change Doom blasts him with sleeping gas. Roy Thomas may not be directly linking this into Doom's regular continuity, but I do like the way he's using established parts of it throughout this story. Doom's car, his enjoyment of a chortle, and now his use of gauntlet-launched sleeping gas have all been seen in previous outings, rather than (as with Larry Leiber's stories) just being chucked into the mix to keep things moving.

Similarly, Dick Ayers seems to have had a look back at some of Doom's earliest adventures, notably the spaceship that he used way back in Fantastic Four #6 (an issue which also saw a good old Doom guffaw) AND in the Hanna Barbera Cartoon series! This part of the story is all quite similar to Thor #182, when Doom kidnapped Thor's alter ego Don Blake, right down to the description of Latveria as "a storybook nation". I wonder if there was a directive from somewhere to always call it that? When Doom gets out of his plane there are immediately two call-backs to his own adventures, one subtle, and one markedly less so. These Latverians really do love hailing people don't they? It looks like Doom has decided to take their latent Nazism and keep some of it for himself, as they seem to like it so much. He's also carried through one of his ideas from Astonishing Tales #5 where he made himself a note to "arrange for spontaneous outpourings of joy among the peasantry to greet my homecoming"! I must say, I'm starting to think I was wrong about Roy Thomas for not directly linking this story into previous ones, he's just doing it very subtly.

There's another callback in the artwork too, as Ayers basically swipes a panel from John Buscema. The issue ends with Doom revealing his plan in one of those monologues he's so fond of - he's going to use his 'subliminal inducer' to brainwash Banner so that both he and his alter ego will be fanatically loyal to Latveria, and Doom can use the former as a scientific advisor and the latter as a weapon. It's a good plan, although it's a little disappointing to find Thomas, after so much good work, giving in and inventing a brand new device to generate a cliffhanger.

Still, other than that it's been a great story digging into all sorts of continuity, and we'll see how it all works out next time!

posted 23/11/2018 by MJ Hibbett
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...And If I Be Called Traitor!
This story carries on from the last, but now with added Gene Colan, who brings a touch of swirling, gothic class to a story which, as far as I can see, has absolutely nothing to do with its title!

Doom is underneath Wakanda, where he's come to steal some Vibranium but has been cornered at gunpoint by The Black Panther. Doom uses a trick that he's been fooled by himself many times, appealing to the Panther's pride and challenging him to lay down his weapon and face him man to man. The Black Panther, rather foolishly, does exactly that, and Doom demonstrates how daft this was by zapping him. This is all very much in character for Doom, claiming to believe in Honour whilst doing the opposite, and refusing to taint himself with tawdry combat whilst doing exactly that.

Whilst The Black Panther is taken away to be imprisoned Doom muses about his plan, giving a handy catch-up for anybody who didn't read the previous issue but also introducing the idea that he might want to enslave the people of Wakanda at some point. This is new information, added by Gerry Conway who takes over from Larry Leiber with this issue. It's also a new idea for Doom, and another example of his journey away from the righteous, justice-led revolutionary of his earliest days and towards the fascist dictator he's now become.

Doom's despotic plans are illustrated with a monologue about how brilliant he is, which Gene Colan illustrates gorgeously - 'Astonishing Tales' has felt like a bit of a second-rate title up until this point, but with Conway and Colan on it it's become something slightly special. (SPOILERS: it will become even more so in the next issue!) "And so I must hurry" he says to himself, coming down from his dreams of world domination to basically think "Well, best be getting on with it." He returns to his ship where two worried lackeys have managed to break the engine. They refer to him as "Herr Doctor" - another example of his transformation into a movie-style Nazi. Doom decides the only way to get something done is to do it himself, so sets off to make repairs, stopping off on the way to taunt the imprisoned Black Panther. While doing so he refers to him as an "equal" and "a prince of the blood" which, of course, Doom himself is not. Once more, his roots as a persecuted gypsy seem to have been forgotten, or perhaps this is Doom ignoring his own beginnings and placing himself amongst the royalty that he once sought to overthrow?

Once he's gone the Black Panther breaks out of his chains (remarkably easily) and sets off to halt Doom's plans. We see scenes in Wakanda (which is still being portrayed as "primitive" in this series rather than the Afro-Futurist techno city of the Kirby version) which is being torn apart by Doom's machine. His men try to stop him, but Doom is having none of it. Is it me, or does the fact that the lackey's name is "Ramon" make it seem as if Doom is arguing with his hairdresser? The Black Panther sees all this going on and decides to act, and it's around here that one begins to realise that Gerry Conway is solving the perennial problems of having Doom as the lead character by simply portraying him as the villain in someone else's story - if this issue had been officially released as a Black Panther story with Doom as the guest villain I don't think it would have been done any differently. Doom has always had a big chunk of the focus whenever he's guested in anybody else's title, and doing it this way means that Conway can get in all the villainy that the fans actually liked about Doom without having to make out that he's a hero.

Thus The Black Pather is able to leap into action, beat up some guards, and point a gun at the Vibranium core, threatening to blow it up if Doom doesn't leave, just as he would have done if he was the official lead character. Doom decides to believe the Panther, turning around his ship and heading home. The Panther wonders whether he really would have blown up the core, while Doom reassures himself that he could easily have disarmed him, but that the Panther's demonstration of bravery proves that he would have made a rubbish slave. That wasn't the reason Doom had gone to Wakanda - if he could have disarmed the Black Panther then he could have taken the Vibranium he'd come for - but perhaps this is Conway giving Doom a justification for his retreat.

And there the story ends. It's been a bit confused but the team of Conway and Colan has made a great start on the character, which unfortunately will only last for one more issue. Before that though, next time sees another guest appearance, when Doctor Doom finally meets the Hulk!

posted 9/11/2018 by MJ Hibbett
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The Tentacles Of The Tyrant!
After the last issue's attempt to portray Doom as the hero by pitting him against Actual Nazis, this one tries a different tack, keeping Doctor Doom as the clear bad guy and sending in a superhero investigate what he's up to. Normally such a story would concentrate on the superhero, but here Larry Lieber concentrates on Doom. It's a good idea, enabling him to use the aspects of the character that fans enjoy, such as his arrogance and gadgetry, without having to water them down or try and find someone even more despicable to make him look good.

Doom's villiany is in place right from the start where we find him torturing somebody for information, although it's made clear that this is only done for practical reasons, rather than sadism, as when the prisoner tells them what they want to know - that the mineral Vibranium can be found in Wakanda - Doom has him released, despite the ideas of his goonish henchman. This is all part of Doom's self-image as a good person - yes, he'll certainly torture and kill people, but never just for fun. Heaven forbid!

With the information extracted he dashes back to his lab where he puts together a scanning device in the shape of Hawk, and he sends it off to Wakanda to see what he can see. As ever this involves his most favourite form of communication - Skype! A nearby poacher spots the 'hawk' and decides to shoot it down, despite the fact that he knows that its a protected species. Doom reacts by simply killing him. To be honest, I'm with Doom on this one, and if that makes me a "lily-livered conservationist" then so be it!

The robot bird flies to Africa and quickly spots the Vibranium, so Doom blows it up. "What Doom does not need, he destroys!" he says which, as a lily-livered conservationist, seems a bit of a waste of resources to me. This does give George Tuska an opportunity to flex his design skills , in a beauitfully constructed page which sadly also shows that American attitudes to modern Africans are even less enlightened than their attitudes to Eastern Europeans. Talkin of which, Doom terrifies the local Latverians (who seem to be heading for a jazz club) by starting up his tunnelling machine and generating a most unusual sound effect. A little while later he arrives in Africa where another beautifully constructed splash page shows the people of Wakanda having their daily life interrupted by a mysterious earthquake, caused by the arrival of Doom's tunnelling craft beneath a volcano. The illustration shows images of Africans living in huts, throwing spears, and hanging around with ostriches, which is reductive at best, but also plain wrong for Wakanda, which is surely meant to be a technological paradise? I always remember getting annoyed when I was first reading comics about how Britain was depicted, all Big Ben, moustachioed bobbies and tudor cottages, so goodness knows what an actual Wakandan would think!

The terrified Wakandans call their leader, the Black Panther, who flies back from Avengers Mansion to be with them. Hmmm... is it me or does that also look a bit racist?

The Panther goes off to investigate and discovers Doom trying to repair his ship's regulator. Normally this would be the start of the adventure, with the superhero arriving to discover a villain up to no good, but here it's the end of this instalment, with the Panther presenting himself to Doom in the final panel, ready for a promised battle next time. Apart from the depiction of the Wakandan people, this has been a much more successful way of using Doom as the lead character, telling a conventional superhero story from the villain's viewpoint without trying to turn him into something he's not, thus giving the reader more of the character they have paid to see without having to reduce any of the reasons they like him. The only question that remains to be answered though is: why on earth is the story called "The Tentacles Of The Tyrant"?

posted 2/11/2018 by MJ Hibbett
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