Before we return to the proper return of Doctor Doom in the second half of the 90s, let’s briefly return to the What If section and see how Doom showed up in the Age of Apocalypse crossover in the X-Men titles.
I’m not a huge X-Men fan and I don’t particularly care for their adventures in apocalyptic scenarios, but this was a fairly decent (if a bit bloated) storyline with a few good stories in it.
The premise was that one of their biggest big bads, Apocalypse, changed history and transformed the world into a dystopia where he’s in charge, mutants are the master race, and non-mutants are utterly screwed.
So basically all non-mutants of note are dead and there are no other superheroes… or maybe there are?
X-UNIVERSE #1 (1995)
by Scott Lobdell (story), Terry Kavanagh (script) & Carlos Pacheco (pencils)
Despite having a rather prominent place on the cover, Victor Von Doom is not the main character of the story. Except in his head of course, because he’s still Doom.
No, the main character is actually Gwen Stacy!
She’s doing humanitarian work in Wakanda, which in this alternate timeline has been devasted by Apocalypse. She’s hunted by a bunch of people who are supervillains in the regular universe but who are just hired goons here.
Norman Osborne goes by the lame codename Red (but why!?) and hilariously the Kingpin is called Dirigible here.
Alternate Gwen Stacy kicks all kinds of ass!!!
Iron Man and Hawkeye are also kind of around. As a reminder Apocalypse has altered history so they’ve never been actual superheroes.
Don’t worry though, Tony Stark is still Tony Stark.
As well as Donald Blake of all people, who in this timeline has never been Thor.
The story is nothing to write home about, but to be perfectly honest I got more out of Don Blake from this single panel than from his entire Silver Age history.
To complete our cast of almost-but-not-quite superheroes, Ben Grimm and Susan Storm managed to stay alive.
Reed and Johnny are dead though, so according to Doom this isn’t the worst timeline.
The bad guy of the story is one of Apocalypse’s minions in this timeline: the brother of Colossus, Mikhail Rasputin. Yes, that’s actually his name.
While the rest of the regular universe superheroes are treated with a lot of respect from the story, in this timeline Daredevil is one of the minions controlled by Rasputin. WHY!?!?
The heroes sabotage some of Apocalypse’s installations. Unfortunately for them, there’s a Hulk stomping around! I’m pretty sure him and Daredevil are the only non-mutant superhumans in this timeline.
Hulk will be important later, but let’s move to the only reason I’m covering this: what does Victor Von Doom do in a timeline where Apocalypse rules the world?
He still managed to become the ruler of the last vestiges of human sovereignty, even striking some kind of deal with Apocalypse.
Without going into too much detail, Rasputin makes an offer to the human resistance…
We’ll learn the details in the following issue. But if you’re curious about this Doom’s backstory, it’s kind of weird. In this version he was raised as royalty!!!
Which doesn’t make sense. This timeline was created when Professor X was killed by his time-traveling son (long story)… why would THAT lead to a change in Doom’s history!?
So you mean to tell me that not only Professor X was vital to stop Apocalypse from rising to power… he was also the reason why Doom had a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT childhood!?!?
X-UNIVERSE #2 (1995)
by Scott Lobdell (story), Terry Kavanagh (script), Carlos Pacheco & Terry Dodson (pencils)
You have to admire that Doom, despite being a relatively minor player in the story, keeps finding his way on the cover.
Rasputin’s plan is to turn humans into cyborgs. Because of course giving superpowers to your enslaved minority is the best way to keep the power.
That’s what happened to Daredevil, by the way. I wonder if he’s bald because of the same accident that made him blind or if he just has to be bald when he’s evil? This isn’t the DC Universe!
Now don’t be shocked, but giving cybernetic implants to Tony Stark ends up blowing up Rasputin’s ship. Really, nobody saw this coming!?
I would’ve loved to see the scene where they discuss this plan.
“Okay Tony, we’re going to get captured so that you get cybernetic implants; we’ll connect those to the ship, so you’ll be able to crash it and have a heart attack. Don’t worry though, I’ll just shove a syringe into your chest later. Any questions?”
Doom’s part of the plan is to take control of Rasputin’s ships and turn this into a full-scale revolution.
But this is a dystopian timeline, so it doesn’t work: not only because Hulk is on Rasputin’s side, but because the main assault has been launched.
He still has the chance to play the hero…
…but it’s Don Blake (of all people) to strike the final blow, while delivering a rather awesome speech on how he’s a god in his dreams.
In other good news, Hulk turns back into Bruce Banner and gives the resistance full control of Rasputin’s ships.
Doom wants to use all this newfound firepower to strike Apocalypse and overthrow him, because of course he does, but Stark is focused on saving the civilians.
I guess he knows that since this an X-Men crossover, all non-mutant heroes are lucky to be mentioned.
Gwen, who hasn’t done much in the storyline, gets to punch Doom in the face. So at least according to her this is not the worst timeline.
And so we end the story with the heroes taking the surviving humans into outer space, including a human baby rescued earlier who almost shares a name with Franklin Richards.
These characters don’t appear in the rest of the proper Age of Apocalypse. We won’t learn what actually happened to them until…
HULK: BROKEN WORLDS #2 (2006)
by Marc Sumerak & Jonboy Meyers
…this anthology book dedicated to showing alternate versions of the Hulk. Some are made for this series alone, but some are familiar faces.
And it picks up directly from the last page of the previous story.
Surprisingly enough for the 11-years-after sequel, there is a great attention to the details. From the specific name of Apocalypse’s defense system to the fact that Doom had a different plan in mind! You don’t often see this kind of attention to sequels to famous stories, let alone to a story nobody gave a crap about.
That’s on the writing part, at least. Artwork-side, Stark apparently grew a goatee between issues.
The ship is able to defend itself from the worst attack, until there’s a gamma bomb involved. Because this is a Hulk story, of course they’re bringing up gamma bombs!
We’re also told HOW the Hulk was created in this timeline. Which makes sense, since under the rule of Apocalypse I doubt there were many nuclear tests.
So Banner transforms back into the Hulk, SOMEHOW still talking with Stark, and taking on the gamma bomb alone.
Which turns out to be a colossally bad idea, because he absorbs the bomb’s radiation turning into the green Hulk… and dropping back on Earth, which wasn’t screwed up already by Apocalypse I guess.
And that’s how the story ends! So we had a SLIGHT sliver of hope at the end of the original story… but I guess it wasn’t depressing enough for Age of Apocalypse.
But this is STILL not the end of this version of Doom!!!
AGE OF APOCALYPSE #7 (2012)
by David Lapham & Renato Arlem
That’s right: 17 years after the original story, someone decided Age of Apocalypse was seriously missing a real Doctor Doom.
I won’t go into much detail of the main storyline, mostly because I haven’t read the rest of the series. But apparently there’s ANOTHER Apocalypse, who succeeded the original after he died at the end of the 1995 story.
Man this timeline just cannot catch a break!!!
Speaking of not catching a break: as if the Hulk story wasn’t clear on that, the human heroes don’t stand a chance in this timeline.
Except of course Doom is still around: he managed to get hold of the scientific notes of Reed Richards and Henry Pym.
I don’t have to tell you that Pym is dead in this timeline, right?
Ask a stupid question…
Despite the fact that the original Apocalypse is dead, this is still an extremely bleak timeline.
Doom has re-conquered Latveria, sure…
…but it’s basically a giant concentration camp.
Note that Latveria’s position is the one where it’s mostly settled in modern stories. Plus, Doom 2099 readers should recognize this is basically the same fate that happened to Latveria in that timeline.
On the plus side, Doctor Doom’s look is… actually not all that bad, given the post-apocalyptic setting (pun intended).
He also appears to have cured the scars on his face. He still has a terminal case of absolute arrogance, because of course he does.
AGE OF APOCALYPSE #8 (2012)
by David Lapham & Renato Arlem
Take a while guess about the identity of the new Apocalypse.
It might seem strange to see Doom praise Richards like this, but remember that in this timeline they never even met!
I do like the detail that Doom just memorized Reed’s notes and then destroyed them. That’s perfectly in character for him: if he’s not able to use them to save the world, why bother give anyone else the chance?
This is obviously a VERY different kind of story from the 1995 one, and there’s all sort of minor retcons everywhere. But I do like the fact that Doom is still on about his difference of opinion with Stark: no matter the timeline, Doom can hold a grudge forever.
Doom’s ally turns out to be Emma Frost, who was actually the one sending the protagonists to Doom himself. And it’s pretty clear that this Doom has FAR looser morals than the regular one.
But he’s still the old schemer, because it turns out he’s ALSO double crossing Emma Frost!!!
To be honest, I kind of like this version of Doom. He’s still more willing to play dirty than the original, but this is exactly the kind of stuff he’d do.
And speaking of things Doom would do: he’s planning to steal the powers of the new Apocalypse!
This is what I get for jumping into issue 7. Apparently there’s more than one Apocalypse!?
I’m a massive Doom fanboy but come on, how is THIS GUY not the main villain of the entire series!?
The lady with the weird glasses is Deadeye, who is left behind by the resistance to hook up with Doctor Doom…
…and DECAPITATE DOOM IN HIS SLEEP!!!!
There was potential in this story, but this utterly unnecessary move doesn’t make me want to check out what happens next.
What a waste of a perfectly good Doom!!!
Did any of this show up in continuity?
It’s possible something shows up in the X-Men books, but I don’t follow them enough to be sure.
Silver Age-ness: 0/1,000
As far away as possible.
Does it stand the test of time?
1995: 7/10
A bit meandering at points and Carlos Pacheco has still room to grow as a penciler, but the story is not that bad. Plus it’s refreshing to see SOME hope in the extremely bleak timeline.
2006: 0/10
Completely unnecessary despite the attention to detail.
2012: 8/10
These are the only two parts of the series I’ve read, for obvious reasons. It didn’t make me want to read the previous issues… some nonsense with Wolverine absorbing the Phoenix Force or something like that… but I wasn’t kidding in the review: it was honestly starting to get good and very interesting! The whole conspiracy with multiple double crossings was compelling and I was seriously interested in seeing where the story was going… but setting up Doom as a major player only to kill him that cheaply immediately killed any chance for me to continue reading.
I recommend checking out these two issues and nothing else unless you’re an X-Men completionist.