EMPEROR DOOM (1987)
by David Michelinie & Bob Hall
Concept by Mark Gruenwald, David Michelinie and Jim Shooter
You’re not fooling anyone, cover: this might be “starring the Mighty Avengers”, but we all know Doctor Doom is the real star here.
We begin with Daredevil villain Purple Man enslaving some people with his mind-control powers, only to be kidnapped.
I think starting with the prologue is a mistake. It would’ve been better to start with Namor (who at this time was not king of Atlantis) doing his best Bogart impression in New York.
He’s here because he has a date with Doctor Doom, who is attempting to rekindle their bromance.
Doom explains to Namor why nobody seems to react to their presence, or to the fact that he just shot him: he has stolen the power of Purple Man!
Classic Doctor Doom.
Doom offers to share the world: he will keep the surface and Namor can keep the oceans. When Namor asks why Doom needs him, they’re conveniently almost spotted by the Vision:
Namor accepts Doom’s offer, but first I’d like to talk about the people Doom is going to target.
His concerns are robots and people with “exceptionally strong wills” that allow them to resist the power of Purple Man. We will soon meet those three, but it got me thinking: who SHOULD be on that list but isn’t?
The whole “strong will” stuff could theoretically include every single superhero. Weirdly enough Captain America WON’T be included in the list. He’s usually the go-to guy for this kind of stuff.
But it’s very weird not to see Daredevil in the list: Purple Man is one of his enemies specifically because the mind control doesn’t work on him! Doom might be thinking Daredevil is too weak to stand against him, but it’s still a weak exception.
The exclusion of Ghost Rider might be surprising: the first time Doom conquered the planet, he specifically lost it because Ghost Rider didn’t need to breathe! But it’s actually justified, as Johnny Blaze was not Ghost Rider anymore.
The one to give Doom some trouble would be Wonder Man, who at this time was a member of the West Coast Avengers. And who gets to miss some stuff in a sensory deprivation tank for a month, courtesy of Tony Stark.
Meanwhile Namor is after the artificial beings that worry Doom: first is Vision, who is taken care of by mind-controlling his fellow Avenger Starfox.
Not sure why Namor went through the trouble, since he could just mind-control Scarlet Witch too.
I’m more baffled by his decision to make Vision… dance?
Namor orders Vision to delete the video of their encounter… but he’s from the 40s, so he’s not tech savvy enough to consider the Avengers keep copies of everything!
Before we learn what they do with that information, we check on Namor dealing with the second robot, who turns out to be Machine Man. Namor deals with him by mind-controlling a friend into installing the control disk.
Machine Man’s addition is weird. Was it done to give some publicity to the character? Don’t get me wrong, Machine Man REALLY needed some exposure at the time, but it’s weird to have him be a specific target. And unlike Vision he doesn’t show up later!
Still, his inclusion is weird when the third robot is FREAKING ULTRON.
That’s the second time Doom reprograms Ultron, after he did it in Secret Wars. No wonder Doom will be the one to re-build him once we get to Ultron-13.
Bob Hall does an okay job in the artwork, although it’s nothing spectacular. But I do like the splash page showing the base where Doom is holding Purple Man prisoner.
In what is arguably the best scene in the book, Purple Man pushes the wrong button.
BAD. ASS.
At this point the West Coast Avengers reach Doom’s base, right before he’s ready to activate the machine that will allow him to mind-control the entire planet.
Perfect timing, guys.
Okay, this got a chuckle out of me.
Doom really needs to stop employing super-scientists who are more power-crazy than him.
Then Doctor Doom gets himself ELECTED Emperor of Earth!
Doom is fantastic in this story, but there is one out-of-character moment: his betrayal of Namor.
Not that Doom wouldn’t betray Namor… he’s done it before… but he usually twists his own words to “prove” he didn’t actually lie. Except he DID promise Namor control over the seas:
I would’ve preferred something like “help me and Atlantis shall have the monarch it deserves”, having Doom being TECHNICALLY still correct.
Oh well.
At least we get the great reveal that Namor has been carrying around the means of his enslavement this entire time!
Classic Doctor Doom.
Every time Doom has talked about ruling the world so far, it’s always been hinted as a dystopian nightmare. This time, however, there only seem to be positive consequences.
Then, “weeks later”, Wonder Man wakes up. Maybe he’ll have better luck than Namor being the co-star of the story?
Nothing seems to have changed.
Never thought I’d see people Doom being cheered for granting independence to anything.
(not that it matters to him: they’re independent from the US but they’re still serving him!)
Yep, turns out that having Doom as leader is actually kind of awesome!
The Avengers inform Doom that Wonder Man is immune from his control. He’s fascinated by the concept, while I find it interesting that apparently Doom didn’t think about this.
Wonder Man is not a household name but he was a prominent Avenger for years, you would think Doom would be up to speed about him!
This gets to the best part of the story: what does Doctor Doom actually DO once he takes over the world? The answer is that he gets bored, because what he actually wanted was the thrill of conquest.
This makes perfect sense. We have seen Doom get involved in governing Latveria, sure, but for how long? He could get interested by small stuff, but it was between big plans. Now the small stuff is all there is.
The weakest part of the story is definitely the fact that we aren’t shown any bad consequences of Doom’s conquest. So the rush to depose him feels… off.
Take for example this scene. This is Wonder Man in disguise (after escaping from the Avengers) talking to a blind woman, who inspires him to take Doom down.
I get what they’re going for: everyone else doesn’t even remember a world without Emperor Doom, so they don’t know they’re missing freedom.
My problem with this is that we are SEEING the positives, while the negatives are entirely hypothetical.
I’m not saying having the entire planet being mind-controlled by a benevolent dictator is a good thing… far from it… but it’s a little too simplistic to say “but that’s bad so we need to stop it”.
You need to SHOW us some negative consequences! Say, since nobody is allowed to criticize the Emperor, they could show people who had expressed negative opinions about Doom being imprisoned or mind-wiped. SOMETHING!
Even the way Wonder Man frees Captain America from Doom’s control feels off. Does he show him some bad stuff Doom is doing? Does he show him something good that isn’t possible under new regime anymore? Nope! Just a video of Doom choking him!
The message SHOULD be “We need to stop Doom because freedom”, NOT “We need to stop Doom because he was mean to us”! Come on!
Also the reasoning behind who Cap chooses to free from Doom’s control feels incredibly forced.
Oh come on! You had a perfect setup for “He’s a good choice BECAUSE he overcame his addiction” RIGHT THERE!!!
The way the other Avengers are de-programmed is even lamer. They just get shown a bunch of Doctor Doom videos?
Hawkeye, husband of the year.
See what I mean about the heroes feeling off? The heroes come off as more than a little selfish when their motivation is “We need to stop the bad guy to allow people to start wars”.
Doom could not be happier about this, despite what he says.
Well… relatively speaking.
At least we get some classic Avengers action.
Note that Doom already has at his disposal a solution to get rid of the Avengers… but hesitates.
Look, Doctor Doom is my favorite comic book character, so I would lie if I said this is the first time I sympathize with him.
But no joke, this is the first time I’m sad to see him lose.
The Avengers and Namor (freed from control by being exposed to the ocean) smash the device holding Purple Man, and Doctor Doom is no longer in control of Earth.
Nice job breaking it, heroes.
You guys suck.
And that’s how we end!
Man, what a depressing finale.
Doom significance: 5/10
Suprisingly enough, I don’t remember this story being referenced even once! It might be because the continuity placement is all over the place… by the time Doom was resurrected in FF#288, Namor was already a member of the Avengers. There are also other minor inconsistencies… Scarlet Witch should be visibly pregnant at this point, Hulk isn’t on Earth, etc…
Still, it’s significant enough to officially codify the fact that Doom doesn’t really want to rule the world, he just wants to conquer it. Not that he’ll stop anytime soon!
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
Doctor Doom takes over the world for an entire month, fixes all problems, and then there are no consequences when he’s gone! On the Marvel scale, that’s at the very top.
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
The Doom stuff is sooo good. We really needed more of him, but the story kind of loses track of him to focus on Namor and Wonder Man. And as I’ve repeated so many times, the moral of the story is all over the place. Intellectually speaking I know the heroes are right, but it’s really, REALLY hard to root for them here.
It’s also kind of depressing that all the things Doom fixed immediately, with the exception of apartheid, are still a major issue decades after the story.
It was a Doombot all along
While I do prefer to think this is the real Doom, we don’t really have any clues. It would make the scene where he faces Purple Man lame, though.
Take over the world : 20
Doom’s 20th attempt actually succeeds! Speaking of which…
Times Doctor Doom has taken over the world: 3
Arguably the most famous one.
Number of superheroes who have fought Dr. Doom: 57
This is where my self-imposed rule of only counting heroes who actually FIGHT Doom makes things complicated. In theory, Doctor Doom takes over the mind of nearly every superhero on the planet, but since this is technically an Avengers story almost no other hero appears.
The vast majority of them are already part of the count, but I’m still adding Tigra and Mockingbird from the West Coast Avengers since they attack Doom before mind control. It’s perhaps a bit of a stretch but I’m also adding Starfox and Machine Man: the first one is mind-controlled by Namor and the second one is sabotaged also by Namor… but since he’s a pawn of Doom in the story, it still counts for me.
Crazy tech
Obviously the giant prism that amplifies Purple Man’s power to cover the entire planet. But let’s not forget the disk that instantly reprograms Ultron! Eat that, Iron Man!