Doctor Doom is presumed dead AGAIN thanks to Onslaught, but while he was busy with the whole Heroes Reborn nonsense there’s some interesting stuff happening in Latveria.
Is any of it good? Well…
Tales of the Marvel Universe #1 (1997)
by lots of people
cover by Carlos Pacheco
This is an epilogue to Onslaught, an anthology of several self-contained stories by no less than 6 writers and 5 artists (!!!).
It’s meant both as a conclusion to some subplots left hanging and as a jumping point of two new series launched after Onslaught: the incredibly awesome Thunderbolts and the surprisingly great Ka-Zar series.
Seriously, everyone talks about Thunderbolts, and for good reasons, but Waid&Kubert’s Ka-Zar is one of the little gems of the late 90s. Highly underrated.
The part with some Doom reference is the segment by Tom DeFalco and Rick Leonardi: it’s the final goodbye to Kristoff until waaaaaaay later.
I really miss DeFalco’s version of Kristoff. His Doctor Doom is way, WAY off… but he did manage to turn Kristoff into a very enjoyable character.
Kristoff basically disappears after Onslaught: he has an appearance on She-Hulk, which was very funny but where Kristoff acts WILDLY out of character. After that he has only a bunch of minor appearances where he’s back to being wholly subservient to Doom.
Lyja also disappears for ages, returning a couple of times whenever they need to story about the Human Torch’s past love interests. I had grown tired of her at this point, but she still had potential.
The comic also covers one potential plot thread left by the disappearance of the Fantastic Four: what happens to all of Reed’s technology?
The government is going to seize their headquarters, but they won’t get their hands on the technology because Nathanial Richards puts it in a safe place…
…the Negative Zone, a.k.a. NOBODY’S IDEA OF A SAFE PLACE.
But the most Doom-relevant part is the section written by Mark Bernardo with Aaron Lopresti pencils, which as far as I know is the only story where Kristoff calls Nathaniel “father”.
I was hoping he’d keep ignoring that bulls##t idea, like everyone else.
After a recap of Kristoff’s origin, with some nice artwork…
…we move to both Kristoff and Nathaniel being kept out of Doom Castle.
Which is only appropriate: Doom basically disowned Kristoff after he rebelled during the Hyperstorm storyline, and Nathaniel had already wasted months squatting in the castle.
To the surprise of no one, a Doombot is currently ruling Castle Doom. Which is why the people of Latveria are not particularly worried about Doom being considered dead.
Kristoff doesn’t take this well, disappearing until the 2010s…
…after he sets up the rest of the intermission.
X-Force #63 (1997)
by John Francis Moore & Anthony Castrillo
cover by Adam Pollina
Believe it or not, but this is by far the most influential intermission. A look at the writer’s name might give you a clue why.
John Francis Moore was the writer of the original 25 issues of Doom 2099, a series that provided A LOT of background for Latveria. Including giving a name to Doom’s clan, the Zefiro.
This is the first mention of that in the main timeline, and it sticks to future stories.
After failing to seize Castle Doom in the previous story, Nathaniel Richards has recruited X-Force to do just the same thing.
This is ALSO Nathaniel’s last appearance until the 2010s, where he’s be radically different from how he’s been written by DeFalco: he won’t be completely unsufferable.
We’re also introduced to a minor player in Latveria’s history: Dimitri Fortunov, a.k.a. the closest thing to a legitimate heir to the throne.
Turns out the previous king (who confusingly enough had the title of Baron) had an illegitimate son, in addition to Rudolfo and Zorba.
And just like them he’ll eventually be murdered by Doom, but he’ll have to wait 2020 for that.
Sadly nothing interesting ever came from him, which is a shame because I see some potential.
Most of the story is told in flashback, because for most of it X-Force member Meltdown has been trapped in the miniature town from the classic Fantastic Four #236.
Thanks to Nathaniel, X-Force manages to infiltrate the castle to find its greatest prize: Doom’s Time Platform™.
But they’re not alone, because S.H.I.E.L.D. also managed to sneak into Castle Doom. Which strains credulity if you’ve only read this story, but considering the teaser from “Tales Of The Marvel Universe”, they managed to get this far only thanks to Kristoff. So at least it makes SOME sense.
These guys have the BRILLIANT idea of starting a laser shootout next to a time machine.
X-Force #64 (1997)
by John Francis Moore & Anthony Castrillo
cover by Adam Pollina
You might have noticed I barely talked about X-Force in the previous issue. That’s because they barely got to do anything.
Thanks to the explosion, X-Force and the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents have been thrown back in time as ghosts. Nice work, guys.
I rather like modern depictions of Latveria’s flag, but… I have to admit, the flag they had before Doom was FREAKING AWESOME.
The story is set in WWII, giving us a very rare chance to explore Latveria’s past.
Turns out they were allies to the Nazis, and even Baron Strucker shows up! As typical of flashbacks, he has FAR more in common with his modern self than the version from his original Nick Fury appearances.
We’re in full Nazi super-science territory here. It’s actually kind of weird they went with Strucker, because this seems more like something Baron Zemo would be up to.
It’d also be appropriate for the times: present day Strucker was considered dead at this point, and Zemo’s more famous son was (spoiler alert) running the show on Thunderbolts.
Especially since Nick Fury was ALSO considered dead at the time!
That’s the basic plot of the story: sabotage Strucker’s machine enough to get back to the future, but at the same time avoid changing history.
It’s not a bad time travel story. But it is kind of weird that Nathaniel and Cable are so worried about changing history, considering THEY’RE BOTH TIME TRAVELERS. At least the hypocrisy is called out!
Perhaps the reason why nobody did anything with Dimitri is that he’s a freaking moron: once he learns that the Nazis plan to kill his grandfather he decides to save his life… despite the fact that hasn’t been born yet so he KNOWS their plan will fail!!!
Seriously, out of all the characters I’ve reviewed, Dimitri is the worst at understanding time travel!
Well… maybe he’s the second worst.
Not gonna lie, the jab at Shatterstar’s insanely convoluted story got a chuckle out of me.
Despite popping in and out of tangibility, X-Force doesn’t have to work very hard to destroy Strucker’s machines.
And so we end with the team returning to the present, with Cable destroying the time machine before S.H.I.E.L.D. can get its hands on it…
…and Nathaniel making an ominous reference to a subplot that doesn’t exist.
See you in the 2010s, Nathaniel. You weren’t so bad in this story, but you REALLY overstayed your welcome in the 90s!!!
Spider-Man Unlimited #16 (1997)
by Mark Bernardo & Joe Bennett
cover by Tony Daniel
Okay so we’ve dealt with Kristoff and Nathaniel. Any other minor characters connected to Latveria that intend to show up?
Ah, Dreadknight. The discount Black Knight created by Doctor Doom in Iron Man #102… and who, despite being set up as a potential nemesis for Doom, seems to fight anyone EXCEPT Doom.
It doesn’t help that in this story he decided to upgrade his armor with an absolutely ridiculous design.
See? Told you the Latverian flag had a downgrade!
Yes, Spider-Man, why would criminals be willing to sell weapons to enemy countries? What could they possibly get out of this besides… checking my notes… MONEY!?
But how will Spider-Man get involved into a Latveria storyline? Thanks to his colleague (and original love interest) Betty Brant, who gets Lois Laned by Dreadknight.
In case you didn’t know, Betty graduated from her original job as Jameson’s secretary to a star reporter.
Yeah I’m with JJJ on this one. Not about his sexist remarks, but about Peter’s suggestion to send him there… why would he!?!?
Spidey is recruited by Silver Sable, who has some interest in avoiding Latveria being conquered by another supervillain.
Poor Dreadknight gets no respect from Silver Sable either.
Not only the Zefiro clan just received its name… THEY are the ones that hired Silver Sable!!!
Now that’s a welcome surprise, I did not expect this in the slightest.
Dreadknight is currently in control of Castle Doom, and his selection of guards leaves MUCH to be desired.
Dreadknight is obviously no Doctor Doom, but has managed to fight Iron Man in the past. Is he going to cause too much trouble to Spider-Man?
Yeah that’s about right.
And so we end with Doom loyalists taking charge, until the next time when the country is conquered again.
Did you seriously expect a Spider-Man story to end with him getting any money out of it?
Thunderbolts #4 (1997)
by Mark Waid & Mark Bagley
How could I not talk about the breakout stars of 1997 ?
They also visit Castle Doom… but not the same Castle Doom of the other stories.
This is Doom’s castle in upstate New York, the one from aaaaall the way back of his first story.
The Thunderbolts are here because it’s connected to the origin of their new member Jolt (the only Thunderbolt who isn’t secretly a supervillain), who was experimented on here.
Doom isn’t behind this, though: it’s actually Nazi super-scientist Arnim Zola, who has taken over Doom’s castle to run his own experiments.
I don’t think Doom ever learned Zola squatted at his secondary castle. After the whole business with Nathaniel, Doom should really change his locks.
That was the last intermission. There’s one cameo that didn’t fit neatly into any part of the retrospective so far, so I’m just going to cover it here.
Star Masters #1 (1995)
by Mark Gruenwald & Scot Eaton
This should be up my alley: I’m a huge Gruenwald fan and Quasar is one of my favorite Marvel heroes… but sadly, this miniseries is utterly unreadable.
So what does Doom have to do with this? Well, when an alien race projects a gigantic WE COME IN PEACE sign in the skies…
…Doom looks at it.
That’s it. That’s everything he does in this story.
Doom significance: 6/10
Does it stand the test of time?
As typical of cameos I’m not giving real scores since it’s not a full review… but I can give my recommendations.
Tales Of The Marvel Universe: recommended if you can get your hands on it. Despite the cover the Thunderbolts have next to nothing to do, but there are several smaller moments. The taxi driver from Fantastic Four #1 has a story here, how can you not love that!?
X-Force: a must read if you’re a Doom 2099 superfan like me. I’m not a huge X-Men fan and I don’t care about this version of X-Force in the slightest, but it was a fun romp.
Spider-Man: a must read for Dreadknight superfans. All two of them. For anyone else, it’s a harmless typical Spider-Man story without much fanfare.
Thunderbolts: extremely recommended, as is the entire first run.
Star Masters: I am exactly the target audience for this and I can’t muster an ounce of interest.