Secret Wars #11

MARVEL SUPER HEROES SECRET WARS #11 (1985)
by Jim Shooter & Mike Zeck

Despite Doom declaring that “the secret wars are over” last issue, there’s still a couple of stories.

Possibly the very best look at Doom’s face we will ever get.

Interesting to see that Doom is taking the time to explain the situation to the heroes, while completely ignoring the villains he’s supposed to be leading.
Not that he has cared for them throughout the series.

The villains believe Doom has double-crossed them, and this makes Molecule Man in particular very very angry.

Angry enough to do THIS:

Which might not look particularly impressive until you notice how tiny the villain base is when compared to the amount of rocks he moved, and remember that base is dozens of times larger than the Pentagon!

When Molecule Man confronts Doom he brings up his Silver Age weakness: he could manipulate all kinds of molecules, except organic molecules.

Which of course makes no sense whatsoever, even in a superhero universe, and so Doom decides to remove the mental block that has been limiting Molecule Man’s powers for all this time.

This might be the only selfless thing Doom does in the entire series! He doesn’t want to use Molecule Man for his plans, which is why he gave powers to Titania and Volcana. Sure there might be an aspect of Doom wanting to show off how absurdly powerful he’s become, but mostly he’s just trying to help Molecule Man.

Not sure how the heck the heroes survived the attack, though. I’m not giving Doom credit for saving them, otherwise even this super-chill Doctor Doom would’ve boasted about it.

With the villain base currently occupied by the heroes, the villains have to regroup at Volcana’s apartment. That’s in the part of Denver that has been transported by the Beyonder to Battleworld.

I just enjoy the sheer absurdity of the situation.

Molecule Man’s solution is to just pick up this part of the city and get the hell off the planet!!!

During the night, in a subplot that will become important later, something takes possession of the Hulk first and of Spider-Woman later.

The scene is one of the few moments in the series where Spider-Woman demonstrates her power to create webs with her mind. I’ve always like that because it’s easily the thing that sets her apart from the rest of the spider-themed heroes, but I’m not pretending it makes any sense.

In the morning, they find that Doom left a very subtle message for the heroes.

I don’t know, I think the “Tower of Doom” is a little underwhelming if it’s supposed to be a monument to Doom’s ego.
Then again, if its size really matched the ego it would be bigger than the planet.

In addition to the always fun interaction with this version of Klaw, we also have the first clues that Doom might be having more trouble dealing with the powers of the Beyonder than he’s willing to acknowledge.

Believe it or not, Colossus simping for Zsaji is going to be fundamental to the resolution of the series.

In case you’ve been wondering whether this is genuine love at first sight, here’s world renown love expert Wolverine to explain.

And so all the heroes (except Colossus) meet Doom, who explains that he’s so above mortal concerns that he doesn’t have any interest whatsoever in going after the heroes.

He says he can’t erase every bad thing he’s ever done without destroying the space-time continuum, but he does decide to resurrect Kang who he killed in #4, then sending him back to his time.

Surprising to see they cared to explain how Kang survived. Since he’s a time-traveler who at this point had already been shown to have doppelgangers from parallel timelines, it wasn’t necessary.

Also, he’s actually finishing the sentence he started right before he was killing:

Doom is feeling really generous: he offers to grant any wish required from the heroes, asking nothing in return.

This is an interesting idea that sadly doesn’t go anywhere, since it’s only explored for a grand total of 1 single panel. What COULD the heroes ask Doom?
The first option is asking to go back home, but Mr. Fantastic can do that apparently. The only other alternative proposed is recovering the X-Men’s pet dragon Lockheed, who completely disappeared from the series at the very beginning of issue 1 and who will return at the very end of issue 12.
That’s cute, but considering Doom is nearly omnipotent… couldn’t the heroes think of anything else? Really!?

I completely get it if they don’t fully trust Doom, so I understand not asking for world peace… but still: maybe the cure for cancer? Asking for Zsaji’s power to resurrect people? Erasing the very concept of astrology from the human mind? “Nah, we’re good” is rather small-minded.
Gotta love Cap’s “thanks anyway”. Dude’s a class act.

He heroes leave, but Spider-Woman is missing so Captain America decides to go back inside.
The world’s greatest heroes, ladies and gentlemen, unable to keep track of their own.

I wonder what Cap is suspecting. That Spider-Woman has a thing for Klaw?

I find it absolutely HILARIOS that Klaw is singing THAT to a shirtless Doctor Doom!!!

Another indication that Doom isn’t handling the situation well: he’s supposed to be omniscient… heck he was NEARLY omniscient when he absorbed the power of Galactus, let alone the Beyonder… but he sends Klaw to find Spider-Woman, when he finding out by himself would be ridiculously trivial for him.

But that’s kind of the point: EVERYTHING is beneath Doom now. Which is something he’s been saying his whole career, but now it’s actually true.

Doom keeps insisting that he’s above human concerns, but all clues point otherwise.

We don’t learn yet why Spider-Woman was acting strange, but whatever possessed her has passed to Klaw.

Cap has a bad feeling about this, asking the heroes to re-group.
Including Colossus, who gets x-blocked by Professor X.

Cap’s point is basically that Doctor Doom absolutely cannot be trusted. And, for that matter, anyone with that kind of power shouldn’t be trusted.

One of the clues that Doom is in fact still very much human is that the first thing he did with the Beyonder’s powers was fixing his own face. If he really transcended humanity, why would he care?

All the heroes vote to fight Doom. Most of the heroes just give the motivation “Of course we can’t trust him, he’s Doctor Freaking Doom”, but Hulk and Professor X give an interesting reason.
FINALLY a positive use of Professor X in this series!

Colossus is the only one having any doubts, and I’m immensely glad that he actually has a good point and he’s not just thinking about Zsaji.
It’s also quite in-character for Colossus, who is one of the least likely heroes to resort to unnecessary violence.

Cap insists the the vote must be unanimous because… I have no idea why.
But he does acknowledge that Doom could just annihilate them with a bolt from the blue.

Which, the second Colossus agrees to fight, is EXACTLY what happens in the last page!

Only one issue to go.

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Doom significance: 10/10
Just as important as the previous issue.

Silver Age-ness: 4/10
I hate the fact that I can’t hear Klaw singing to shirtless Doom.

Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
Once again, the Zsaji subplot is a major thing preventing a 10/10, but we also have the fact that most heroes are being uncharacteristically passive. Then again, I could understand some exhaustion from their part… and it’s not like they can actually DO anything to Doom anyway.
Still, the Zsaji stuff doesn’t get a lot of space, and what we get about Doom is really really good.

Destroy the FF! : 45
Doom just TECHNICALLY killed 3/4ths of the Fantastic Four, so I say it counts.

Number of superheroes who have fought Dr. Doom: 53
Adding everyone killed by Doom in the last panel. Most of them had already fought Doom before, but I still get to add Spider-Woman, Rogue, She-Hulk and Iron Man (since this is not Tony Stark but Rhodey).
Professor X and Cyclops were already included in the continuity insert WGCM #11; this would’ve been their first encounter with Doom in real time.

Crazy tech
Doom doesn’t need technology right now. Come back later.