These are the continuity inserts set during the Silver Age.
Unlike Avengers #1.5 there is little to no effort to properly fit those with the original tone, so they are not part of the proper full retrospective.
I also won’t count the usual Doom categories since for several of these inserts their position in continuity is doubtful at best… especially our first story.
Marvel Comics Super Special #1 (1977)
Writers: Steve Gerber & Alan Weiss
Pencilers: Alan Weiss, John Buscema, Rich Buckler, Sal Buscema
Yes, this existed and is also partly a Doctor Doom story.
Full disclosure: I know absolutely nothing about KISS and I have no idea what’s going on in 99% of those pages, so I will only cover Doom’s involvement.
Starting with the full page of text expanding Doom’s origin.
Points of interest in the complete article:
-Doom was born “in the early 20s”, making him in his late 50s at the time of publishing
-He was 10 years old when his father died
-The experiment that disfigured him happened during WWII, and Doom went to the Himalayas instead of returning to Latveria because of the war
The story proper begins with the future KISS coming across this gentleman:
He gives them a box that contains some artifacts that will magically transform them into KISS.
After KISS display a few nonsensical superpowers, they are magically transported to New York where Doctor Doom makes the grandest entrance of his life.
Why is he here? Because KISS get their powers from the “Box of Khyscz” (undoubtedly pronounced “kitch”), which belonged to Doom’s mother.
Since the KISS refuse to submit to Doom, he shows that he’s an equal opportunity employer.
Don’t worry about them, though. They’re robots.
After a whole lot of nonsense (and I mean A LOT, this thing is 64 pages long), which include KISS being teleported through a bunch of weird dimensions, the old man who gave them powers shows up again.
This is Dizzy the Hun.
No, seriously, that’s his name.
So, uhm, yeah. Somehow this leads to Doctor Doom fighting KISS in space.
I did not expect this silly thing to turn into a psychological analysis.
“This farce has gone far enough” is the first sentence of this comic I can get behind.
Turns out that Dizzy the Hun was actually the one who taught magic to Doom’s mother. (!!!!!!)
And all of this leads to… Doom banishing KISS from Latveria.
That’s it. That’s the end of the story, as far as Doom is concerned.
But hey, we get a truly hilarious advertisement for Air Latveria!!!
They just have the best slogan ever.
Marvel Heroes & Legends (1996)
Writers: Fabian Nicieza & Stan Lee
Pencilers: many, review only shows Steve Ditko pages
This is a retelling of Fantastic Four Annual #3 with a lot of inserts. And I mean A LOT.
It’s basically the same exact story but instead of dedicating a single panel to the many, MANY fights between random heroes and villains we get a few pages. Also Phil Sheldon from the Marvels miniseries shows up.
Highlights include some of the very last Ditko pages for Marvel, retelling the moment when Doom attacked Invisible Girl and Alicia.
Ditko’s art isn’t on the same level of his classic work, but his Doctor Doom here is far better than in Amazing Spider-Man #5.
He sure draws some weird faces, though.
Overall a pretty pointless story, and Doom is extremely stereotypical, but it was worth it to see the late Steve Ditko again.
X-Men and Dr Doom Annual 1998
by Jorge Gonzalez & Aaron Lopresti
You might expect this one to go somewhere interesting.
The premise is that Doctor Doom, thanks to some random mystic who works for him, learns about the future existence of Onslaught.
However this is set very early on in the X-Men continuity, as Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are still part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants under Magneto, who Doom suspects is linked to Onslaught.
Doom is intrigued by Magneto, so he decides to use his time machine to learn everything he can about his future. That’s an interesting tactic that I’m shocked he never uses again to, say, learn about what the Fantastic Four or the Avengers will do in the future.
This leads to Doom interacting with Phoenix in a scene set, when else, before the Phoenix Saga.
Only she can see Doom, whose time machine is currently keeping him invisible to anyone else.
His confrontation with Phoenix causes the time machine to malfunction, and Doom ends up visiting the dystopic future of “Days of future past”.
Doom has actually never met the X-Men from his point of view, but he’s quickly learned to respect them. Stealing parts from a Sentinel base to repair his time machine, he makes plans to make an army of robots for himself.
Jumping around a little more, Doom ends in the Dark Phoenix saga and naturally finds her even more intriguing.
Even more predictably, Doom finds the idea of throwing away her power to be a shame.
After studying both Magneto and Xavier, Doom still hasn’t figured out the origins of Onslaught. So he travels further in time to ask Magneto directly.
That’s where he learns that:
A) Onslaught will eventually be defeated
B) Doom will die to save the world from Onslaught
Doom doesn’t believe Magneto’s words, so this is a complete waste of time.
Especially since Doom immediately finds out that Magneto was telling the truth, although at the time of this book’s publishing the fate of post-Onslaught Doom hadn’t been revealed yet.
Now that he knows about Onslaught’s true origin, Doom takes the time machine to the astral plane (!!!!) to witness the telepathic battle between Xavier and Magneto…
…and tries to absorb Onslaught’s power for himself!!!
Since this would’ve made Onslaught WAY more interesting, the plan fails.
So Doom is returned to his time, where he promptly kills his mystic assistant.
Pretty pointless overall. I really like the idea that the reason why Doom knows so much about other heroes is thanks to the time machine, but this really goes nowhere.
And for a comic called “X-Men and Doctor Doom”, there’s a significant lack of interaction between the doctor and the mutants.
Hulk and Thing: Hard Knocks #1 (2004)
by Bruce Jones & Jae Lee
This is a miniseries to allow Jae Lee to draw the Thing fighting the Hulk, but it does include a flashback to Fantastic Four #5.
An extremely rare view of Doom’s original armor, drawn in a modern style. I don’t really like Jae Lee’s art all that much, but this isn’t bad.
I especially like the rendition of Doom’s weird screen.
Doom’s final threat to the Thing is quite in character.
Overall a pretty forgettable miniseries, but I liked this little flashback.
Spider-Man – Human Torch #1 (2005)
by Dan Slott & Ty Templeton
This is a rather funny Silver Age-styled romp between Spider-Man and the Human Torch.
The part of interest for this retrospective is the moment when the Torch, in an attempt to show off that he’s a better hero than Spider-Man, decides to take on Doom alone.
He’s completely screwed, except Spider-Man shows up to help.
To help Doctor Doom, that is, accepting his proposal from Amazing Spider-Man #5.
Doom is naturally suspicious…
…until Spider-Man offers to kill the Human Torch.
And of course it’s all a trick so that Spider-Man can just steal the block of ice where Doom has trapped the Human Torch and just get the hell out of the Latverian Embassy.
Like I said: just a fun Silver Age-style romp.
Spider-Man – Fantastic Four #1 (2010)
by Christos Gage & Mario Alberti
Another team-up story set in the Silver Age, with the Fantastic Four having to provide security for Doom while he holds a conference.
Well, three members of the team and a guy who looks nothing like Reed Richards.
Doctor Doom is at his his trolliest in this story. This is such a Doom thing to say…
…that it’s only topped a couple of panels later.
Doom is enjoying every second of this.
The reason to set this at Empire State University is because Spider-Man was attending this school at the time. So when Namor randomly shows up to attack Doom…
…Spider-Man is around to help the FF protect Doom.
Except Doom chooses this moment to switch bodies with the Human Torch, by using the power he gained in Fantastic Four #10.
Johnny Storm in Doctor Doom’s body is HILARIOUS.
Having the Torch’s powers turned Doom into a powerhouse, something that worries Reed.
Spider-Man’s annoyance about everyone taking mind switching as a normal thing is just good writing.
The Human Torch has never been considered a weakling, but watching Doom using his powers to completely waste the rest of the team is something else.
Spider-Man figures that there’s no way to beat him, so he goes back to come up with a plan with the Torch.
Doctor Doom might be… well, DOCTOR DOOM, but these two have a secret weapon: they are the best at insulting people!
Yep! The way to defeat Doom is having the Torch make him look like a fool!
OF COURSE Doom falls for this.
I know this is stupid, but it’s so perfectly in character for everyone involved that I can’t help but love this one.
Wolverine – The Best There Is #11 (2011)
by Charlie Huston & Juan Jose Ryp
I have absolutely no idea about what this story is about or why Doctor Doom is in a flashback.
It’s the origin story of a villain called Contagion, and I think he was recruited by Doom in some kind of school for future evil scientists.
The art is atrocious, but I REALLY liked the painting of Doom hanging in this room.
Contagion has the power to spread disease. I think he’s a mutant, but he also has something to do with the occult.
He’s also completely insane, and he ends up killing the rest of Doom’s school.
He then escapes… I suppose he can mystically infect buildings or something… and despite causing a real massacre IN LATVERIA, he never meets Doctor Doom again.
This is all told from Contagion’s perspective. Since he’s insane I can take this with a grain of salt, but the idea that Doom never looked for a guy who did THAT is truly unbelievable.
Don’t look up the rest of the story. It’s really, really not worth it.
Man, late period Ditko is hard to look at. I think I’ll just keep remembering his days on Doctor Strange.