With Doctor Doom “dead” at the end of Fantastic Four #381, let’s take a quick look at his brief appearances in the 90s that don’t warrant a complete review.
Fantastic Four Annual #23 (1990)
“Cast in Fire, Carved in Stone”
by James Brock & Mark McKenna
While the main story has absolutely nothing to do with Doctor Doom, he shows up in the first backup story. Which is dedicated to Volcana, of all people.
While she shares the same origin of Titania, all the way back to Secret Wars #3, she was so linked to Molecule Man that once he fell into obscurity she basically disappeared from continuity.
Also, despite Secret Wars and ESPECIALLY Secret Wars II making fun of her for being overweight… yeah she’s 210 lbs (95 kg), but she’s also 6’5” (195.58 cm).
This little panel, plus I think maybe one sentence during Secret Wars II, is probably the only reference to her actual profession.
Why is Doom interested in Volcana now? Because when Molecule Man merged with the Beyonder in Fantastic Four #319, Doom suspected he might have gifted a fraction of her power to his lover.
Volcana recently battled Wizard (of all people) in an issue of Marvel Comics Presents (of all places), which raised Doom’s interest.
So the story will follow Volcana. It’s kinda cute… she’s polite to a fault and awkward, but I can see her being able to carry her own series.
Once she has defeated Wizard, Doom stalks her…
…which comes from the fact that Volcana subconsciously cured all the patients of the nearby hospital!!!
Including fellow supervillain Moonstone, who had been seriously injured in a fight with the second Captain Marvel.
In the fight with Moonstone, Volcana discovers that she’s now able to turn into stone.
I won’t cover the fight, but it’s a very enjoyable one. Mostly because Moonstone is simply a fantastic villain.
This was probably meant as a sort of pilot for a potential Volcana series, or at the very least miniseries. It think it could’ve worked!
Doom’s deduction is that Molecule Man really did give Volcana a fraction of his power, which she’s able to use without even knowing it.
Doom vows to one day use this knowledge to gain the power for himself.
It’s been 32 years and he has yet to share another comic with Volcana.
Next!
Impossible Man Summer Vacation (1990)
by Craig Anderson & Aaron Lopresti
cover by Al Milgrom
Yep.
Do I even have to explain the “plot”? It’s the Impossible Man annoying the Marvel Universe.
Your mileage will vary on whether it’s fun or annoying… for me it’s mostly missing the mark, but there is some fun to be had from the absurdity of some concepts.
One of which is Impossible Man launching a full-scale attack on Doctor Doom!
I just love that Doom has a button to instantly dry his armor.
In addition to being able to turn into anything, Impossible Man can also create countless mini-clones of himself. Hilarity ensues.
Understandably, Doom has absolutely no patience for Impossible Man.
Only Doctor Doom would be able to turn IMPOSSIBLE MAN into a model citizen!!!
He takes care of Impossible Man basically the same way that the Fantastic Four always do: by making sure he’s considered boring.
Cute and ultimately harmless fluff.
I absolutely MUST mention that this issue also contains a Jim Valentino story where the Punisher meets the Impossible Man.
Please tell me these two will meet again someday. Also, canonically Impossible Man has kissed both the Punisher and Silver Surfer.
Next!
Excalibur: XX Crossing (1992)
“Cast in Fire, Carved in Stone”
by Scott Lobdell & lots of people
I’m not kidding, THESE are the credits:
This is actually a fun romp, with the various shenanigans caused by Sidestep… who is basically Arcade with time travel powers.
He came all the way to Latveria to offer his services as a mercenary to an extremely unimpressed Doctor Doom.
At the end of an admittedly fun if a bit chaotic storyline (which includes Excalibur fighting the original X-Men from the 60s), Sidestep admits he was defeated by the mutants and is then nonchalantly dismissed by Doom.
Cute. Unnecessary, but cute.
Next!
Iron Man #284 (1992)
by Len Kaminski & Kevin Hopgood
Doom shows up for literally one panel in one of my favorite Iron Man runs of all time, to mourn the death of Tony Stark.
Since he calls him a “worthy opponent” I assume Doom at this point has deduced Tony is Iron Man, since it was still a secret at the time.
I wonder if he stopped declaring days of mourning after the nth resurrection.
Next!
Shadow Riders #2 (1993)
by Brian Williamson, John Freeman & Ross Dearsley
If you thought Solarman was an obscure Doctor Doom appearances, that has nothing on the Shadow Riders. Or as they are known outside of the UK: “who?”.
Possibly in the UK as well.
This is indeed one of the Marvel UK series. You know, the same publishing line that gave us Death’s Head II, Motormouth, Killjoy, Dark Angel and other series that I assume nobody read.
No, seriously, outside of those (some of which are quite good) I cannot remember a single other UK series, and there were a ton of them.
I know I’ve read Knights of Pendragon, but I have no memory of what that was about!
Outside of the series I’ve mentioned, I found the rest of the Marvel UK titles virtually unreadable.
Heck I’ve tried reading through THIS story multiple times and I still have no idea what it’s about.
But Doctor Doom does show up!
Honestly it’s amazing Doom doesn’t show up in ANY other Marvel UK series. Not only because he IS based in Europe so it would make sense for him to interact with the UK heroes… but the big bad behind most of those series is Mys-Tech, an evil corporation specializing in merging science and magic. That’s supposed to be Doom’s specialty!!!
And he does indeed defend himself against the threat unleashed by Mys-Tech…
…for literally two panels before completely disappearing from Marvel UK.
If you are tempted to pick up this comic and find out what it’s all about… just don’t.
Please, PLEASE read literally anything else from Marvel UK.
Doom significance: 0/10
The Volcana story is the only one that could potentially have impacts. I’m sure Doom will go to the next phase of his plan aaaany day now.
Silver Age-ness: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
There’s probably something in the Impossible Man story, but everything is so random it’s honestly hard to tell.
Does it stand the test of time?
Obviously I can’t give a real score. I can however give recommendations!
-Fantastic Four Annual #23: the Fantastic Four story is a boring X-Men crossover, but the Volcana story is cute and there’s a backup story with Cosmic Cubes explaining the cosmic hierarchy of Marvel. If that sounds interesting, check it out.
-Impossible Man Summer Vacation: the Punisher story is worth the price. Most of the others are kinda meh.
-Excalibur XX Crossing: if you’re a fan of Excalibur you’ll probably enjoy it. Otherwise, you can skip it.
-Iron Man #284: read the entire Kaminski run!!!
-Shadow Riders #2: no, seriously, pick ANY other Marvel UK series at random and you’ll probably find something better
It was a Doombot all along
I can see Doom delegating all of this stuff to Doombots.
Number of superheroes who have fought Dr. Doom: 82
No change in the count: Volcana WOULD qualify, since she’s acting as a superhero in this period… if only she actually faced Doom, but he just studies her and doesn’t take any hostile action.