DAMAGE CONTROL #2 (1989)
by Dwayne McDuffie & Ernie Colon
Damage Control was a four issue miniseries following a business dedicated to repair the damages caused by superheroes. It went for a comedic tone and was written by the always awesome Dwayne McDuffie… and unfortunately with artwork by Ernie Colon.
That caption “When Doom defaults!” tells you everything about the tone McDuffie wants.
We begin with one of Doom’s research facilities in New York testing a new weapon, which malfunctions and ends up transmuting an entire building into glass.
Damage Control is called to fix the situation, but it turns out that Doom is very late with the payments of his account.
Yes, Doctor Doom has an account with Damage Control.
Albert Cleary, the comptroller, is going to talk directly to Doom about his late fees.
Bart Rozum, the intern, volunteers to join to impress the secretary; he’s not scared because he figures Doom is not going to bother getting personally involved in something as petty as money.
There’s a subplot about the Thing getting Damage Control’s help keeping their insurance despite the change in the team’s membership.
Meanwhile, Cleary has reached the Latverian Embassy… where one of Doom’s minions refuses to pay.
Much to the minion’s terror (and the intern’s), DOOM shows up!
The minion is absurdly lucky, though, because Doom ends up just firing him!
That was pretty underwhelming and not really all that funny, but what follows is hilarious to me.
I miss the late McDuffie.
And that’s about it!
This story has a weird placement… it’s set immediately before Fantastic Four Annual #21 (since Crystal is still a member), but at this time Doom was not the ruler of Latveria, so him being at the embassy seems off.
The Thing does speculate this might be a Doombot, for what it’s worth.
Doom significance: 0/10
Harmless.
Silver Age-ness: 4/10
And it’s only the second most hilarious time someone tries to get their money from Doom.
Does it stand the test of time? 5/10
The Doom scenes are hilarious and the Thing ones are funny, but I just cannot get interested in the Damage Control cast. The artwork does it absolutely no favours.
It was a Doombot all along
Considering the continuity placement, and the fact that he doesn’t murder the minion who stole Latverian money, this is almost certainly a Doombot.
Crazy tech
Soooo… does Doom ever end up using that ray that changes buildings into glass?