Triumph And Torment

DOCTOR STRANGE AND DOCTOR DOOM: TRIUMPH AND TORMENT (1989)
by Roger Stern & Mike Mignola

This is a hell of a milestone for Doctor Doom: we are finally going to Hell to rescue his mother.

We actually begin with a minor Doctor Strange character: the very old, very powerful and very senile Aged Genghis. Technically speaking he’s the one narrating the entire story to his unnamed disciple.

Turns out he has a part in Doom’s origin: before showing up at the monastery where he’ll get his armor, Doom showed up in Genghi’s cave in the Himalayas and demand to be taught magic.

Note that this is one of the extremely few occasions (the other being Fantastic Four #288) that depicts Doom only receiving a minor scar in his lab accident.

Doom bets up Genghis who is then rescued by Doctor Strange, on his way back to America after his own origin story.
Marvel keeps going back and forth whether Strange’s origin takes place around the same time of the other characters, or if it takes place in the 60s and he just doesn’t age thanks to magic.
As of 2022 he’s back to being as old as he looks, but sooner or later it’ll change again.

Very interesting to see that connection between the two doctors. Also kind of weird we never got a What If story where Strange becomes Doom’s teacher!
We briefly touch on Doom’s origin; nothing to add now, but the comic will go into further details later.

One thing to keep in mind is that Genghis is not 100% a reliable narrator.

Genghis revels that he has a duty to fulfill on behalf of the Vishanti (the holy trinity of magic and the three gods responsible for much of Strange’s powers), so he sends a message to all the magic users of the Marvel Universe. Including Doctor Doom.

It’s kind of hilarious that Doctor Strange almost sleeps through the summon.

There’s some time dedicated to Strange reaching Indonesia (this is an 80 page comic so I’ll have to skip some stuff); for whatever reason he prefers going there without magic.
Once he gets there he meets a bunch of minor magic users. Most of them will either never show up again or have a cameo or two.

The lack of notable mystics is very weird. You’d expect at the very least Mordo, Scarlet Witch and Agatha Harkness to show up. Most of these guys are uninteresting, but I’m genuinely surprised the Atlantean sorceress didn’t appear in the Namor series.
One of the most visually striking ones is “Screamer”, who decided to show up wearing thigh high boots, a thong and a leather jacket with nothing underneath it. She was supposed to appear in a miniseries that never happened; Marvel Appendix has some details on that.

But back to Doom, he’s the last one to arrive (fashionably late) and in a good character moment he shows that he CAN be respectful whenever it’s convenient appropriate.

The reason for the summons, and why this is important on only for Doom but for Strange as well, is that there’s going to be a contest that will determine who gets to be the next Sorcerer Supreme.

It’s a common misconception that Doctor Strange has been Sorcerer Supreme since his debut. The title actually belonged to the Ancient One until his death, and it’s not until this story that Strange is officially titled Sorcerer Supreme.
The Ancient One died way back in 1973, but I guess you can’t rush mystic gods.
And to give you an idea of just how big of a deal the Vishanti is… even Doom kneels before them! Surely while thinking of a way to steal their powers, but still.

One last thing to take care of is Doom’s technology, which he won’t be allowed to use in the contest.
Be thankful he wasn’t inspired too much by Screamer, I don’t think we need to see Doctor Doom in a thong.

And the contest starts with Genghis turning into a huge crystal (????), something most of the mystics present have no idea how to deal with.

Basically everyone except Doctor Strange is quite useless in this. Are we sure these guys are the top mystics of the Marvel Universe!?

Well, everyone except Doom of course. He agreed to disable his armor’s weapons, but not the whole thing!

With all the other mystics zombified by the crystal, it’s down to a magic duel between Doom and Strange. And despite all the praise from Strange, Doom is not in his league… yet.

The contest is great, but I really don’t like how Strange manages to win. It’s only thanks to the Eye of Agamotto that he wears… except the Eye is a relic from the Vishanti themselves.
So basically in order to solve their riddle he uses a relic that THEY bestow and whose power is to reveal the truth. Isn’t this cheating?

To add insult to injury, Strange doesn’t even CARE about the title. Look at Doom sulking!

In an interesting twist, however, the winner doesn’t get to have a wish granted… Strange is going to be the one obligated to grant a wish!

Strange is understandably worried that Doom will want world domination, but for once Doom’s goals are entirely selfless: he wants to free his mother from Hell.

And that was just the PROLOGUE! This is going to be a looooooong ride.

Doom is not pulling his punches in charming Doctor Strange.

Strange goes right to business, studying the work of Doom’s mother. Note the remark about Doom not remembering much about her; this is contradicted by future stories, notably Books of Doom.

After learning that Doom has tried for several years to free his mother, Doctor Strange has a very natural question: why didn’t Doom just ask him to help him BEFORE the contest?

Thanks to Boris narrating it to Strange, we learn new things about Doom’s mother; specifically, just exactly what she was asking Mephisto that resulted in her losing her soul.
And he’s apparently promising to turn her son into Doctor Doom!!!

In exchange for her soul, Mephisto granted her the power to attack the Latverian military… but not the control over that power, leading to the death of every single child in the village. (!!!!!)

Crucially for this story, Doom’s mother is shown to be a decent human being. Consider that prior to this story she never really had any character to speak of (to be fair, she barely got any dialogue).

Another interesting tidbit is that Boris repeatedly tried to prevent Doom from learning magic, by trying and repeatedly failing to destroy the trunk filled with mystic stuff that his mother left behind.

The relationship between Valeria and Boris is not always spelled out, but at least up to this point she was his granddaughter.

The flashback concludes with Boris recalling his reunion with the adult Doom (already wearing his cape, and not the look he had in his first story).

Books of Doom #5 has a scene clearly inspired by this moment. You can attribute the difference to Boris having a faulty memory, or the fact that Books of Doom is also told by an unreliable narrator.
Doom does have the armor he’s supposed to have in that story, though.

But enough about flashbacks and moving on with the main story.
Yet another reason why this is a significant story for Doom is that he greatly increases his knowledge of magic. It is notable that Doom barely ever used any magic at all during both the 60s as well as the 70s, then slowly begins to use it in the 80s, and by the 90s (after this story was published) he’s already a magic powerhouse.
As Strange himself notes, Doom is a scarily fast learner!

Also I guess Doom doesn’t sleep anymore because he spends the day studying magic AND the night improving his technology.
Note that Doom has no problem acknowledging Strange is the superior sorcerer. That definitely wouldn’t happen if this was about science, but Strange is not his personal nemesis.

But eventually it’s fine to attack Mephisto directly. Yes, Doom and Strange are going to LITERALLY storm Hell itself!

Mephisto finds this truly hilarious.

Once we get to hell, it’s time for Mignola’s artwork to really shine. I’m not usually a big fan of his work outside of Hellboy, but he’s really on fire on this one.

There’s an extended scene about Strange being tormented with a vision of a word where he wasn’t redeemed by the Ancient One and remained a jerk. It’s good stuff, but the story is long enough to review as it is, and it ultimately doesn’t lead to much.

Mephisto has another tactic to deal with Doctor Doom: bribe him by offering world domination.
To which Doom responds in the most Doom way possible.

But that’s a teaser for the big prize: Mephisto offers the soul of Doom’s mother in exchange for Strange’s.

Doom naturally accepts, and delivers Doctor Strange to Mephisto.

And so Mephisto releases the soul of Doom’s mother!!!

Remember when I said that Doom’s mother being a good person would come up again? Well, turns out she doesn’t really like the idea of sacrificing another life to save herself.

“Had I a thousand souls I would gladly sacrifice them all for you” is Doctor Doom at his best.

This is really a soul-crushing moment for Doom. The mother he idolized so much he literally stormed into Hell to save her… just disowned him.

This is Doom at his lowest point in life (at least after the incident).

OR IS IT???

DOCTOR DOOM JUST SCAMMED THE FREAKING DEVIL.

And Mephisto is reeeeeeeeally angry about it!!!

And even after THAT pants-darkening display of power, Doom is still SHOOTING AT THE FREAKING DEVIL.

With anti-matter bullets, no less!!!

Which has exactly two effects, 1) jack and 2) s#it.

Fortunately, Strange has an idea crazy enough to work: allow Mephisto to destroy the statue that holds the soul of Doom’s mother.

How is that useful? Because by renouncing Doom’s betrayal, his mother earned her place in heaven. And even Mephisto can’t hold her in Hell now.

Mephisto doesn’t like that one bit, but he’s without options at this point so he just sends the two mortals back to Earth.

And so we end with Doctor Doom having finally rescued his mother’s soul, at the cost of her love for him. A cost that even Doom could not foresee.

OR IS IT???

This is MASTERFULLY written. Did Doom actually beat the devil at his own game? All signals point to yes, but leaving the mystery is a stroke of genius.

And we conclude by coming full circle, with the Aged Genghis finally accepting to eat.

Also a nice final quotation.

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Doom significance: 10/10
It rarely gets more significant than this. Doom finally achieves one of his classic three goals! And unlike taking over the world, which he does multiple times, he only needs to rescue his mother once. And the finale has been kept consistent: she’s still in heaven. There was a storyline where it appeared that she was resurrected, but it was just a trick.
As if that wasn’t enough, it’s also a definitive move to enhance Doom’s relationship to magic. And looking past Doom, while it’s not acknowledged very often this is the moment Doctor Strange truly becomes Sorcerer Supreme.

Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Even by trying to stretch the definition, no Silver Age to speak of here.

 Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
One of the best Doctor Doom stories ever told, period. Definitively in the Top Ten of every Doom fan, possibly as high as being in the top three.
This one has everything! Characterization, dialogue, drama, action, a tight script and gorgeous artwork. It’s even a good Doctor Strange story, even when he does take a backseat to Doom.
A wonderful masterpiece through and through; I don’t think you need to change a single thing to do this today.

It was a Doombot all along
One of the few times where there’s absolutely no chance in hell (literally!!!) this is not the real Doctor Doom.

Times Doom has tried to save his mother from Hell: 8
And this time IT WORKS, meaning this is the last entry in the count.

Crazy tech
Obviously the technology takes a backseat in a story like this, but that anti-matter gun sure is something. It actually makes a return in Fantastic Four #350 (which takes place before this story, but was published later).