MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS #100 (1992)
by Howard Mackie & Sam Kieth
“Marvel Comics Presents” was basically Wolverine’s solo series, and to celebrate its 100th not only he gets to fight Doctor Doom, he’s crushed by Ghost Rider.
The artwork by Sam Kieth is the main attraction; I don’t usually like his more exaggerated style, but it does kind of work for a story that is all about dream logic.
It’s going to be a nightmare (pun intended) for the review because he has a very free-form way to use panels.
We begin with the discovery that Doctor Doom sleeps in his armor. Why am I not surprised?
The premise is very interesting: Doctor Doom is a control freak to the point that losing control of his thoughts while he sleeps is unsettling for him.
The villain of the story is going to be Doctor Strange’s enemy Nightmare, who is literally the personification of nightmares. Nobody draws him like Sam Keith!
So not only Doctor Doom picked up a fight with the Devil… he’s ALSO antagonized Nightmare!!!
Nightmare torments Doom to extract sustenance from his… well, his nightmares…
…but then Doom wakes up.
Doom then wanders to one of his labs, and in a truly bizarre moment walks past a Sexy French Maid (WTF!?), chastising her for dressing provocatively (double WTF!?).
Perhaps Sam Keith decided to draw her but Mackie decided it was too kinky for Doom? Or the maid thought she might seduce Doom that way?
That was possibly the weirdest moment of the story. Which is saying something when the artwork doe something like THIS:
Keith’s artwork works wonderfully with the dream sequences, but when he goes all cartoony with the scenes that are supposed to take place in reality it’s hard to take it seriously.
Which is a pity because it’s a great moment: Doctor Doom is such a control freak that he has an entire department dedicated ONLY to stopping him from having nightmares!!!
Not insane enough for you? He has BACKUPS to stop himself from having nightmares!!!
Doom decides to take extreme measures to take on Nightmare, and so he invades the dreams of the current Ghost Rider host, Danny Ketch.
Unfortunately for Doom the link between Danny and Ghost Rider is too strong, so he can’t really deal with one without the other… and he can’t communicate through dreams without catching Nightmare’s interest.
Normally nothing would be able to harm Nightmare during… well, a nightmare… but Doom’s magic takes care of that, at least for a while.
Now you might be wondering: wasn’t this supposed to be a Wolverine story?
Doctor Doom reaches his dreams as well.
Did you know Wolverine dreams of France?
I just love how Wolverine accepts “we’re fighting Nightmare with Doctor Doom” without a care in the world. That’s probably not even the weirdest thing that’s happened to him THIS WEEK.
So basically the setup was to allow Sam Keith to draw Wolverine fighting… whatever the f##k this is supposed to be.
Well, at least Nightmare is being honest about why he’s doing this: entertainment!
Wolverine is the best at what he does, and what he does is apparently not realizing that Doctor Doom was the bad guy all along.
Doom’s plan was… get ready for this… to have Wolverine’s adamantium react negatively to Ghost Rider’s hellfire. INSIDE A DREAM.
Also Doom has tech that can… I guess hypnotize GHOST RIDER!?!?
Doctor Doom’s ultimate goal is DESTROY HUMANITY’S NIGHTMARES to get himself some decent sleep!!! Even if that miiiiiight just make everyone insane.
It doesn’t work, though, because Wolverine and Ghost Rider break free of Doom’s control.
Yeah, like Doctor Doom is worried about having two superheroes as enemies. He LITERALLY has dozens of those!!!
Doom awakens as well, finding that the monk in charge of protecting him from Nightmare has been killed by the experience.
And that’s the end! I don’t think Nightmare actually follows up on his treat.
Doom significance: zzzzz/10
While there’s SOME thematic relevance with Books of Doom referencing Doom’s mystic armor shielding him from nightmares… this is never followed through, either with Nightmare or Ghost Rider.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
Nothing whatsoever in the execution, but the concept alone!!!
Does it stand the test of time? 5/10
The concept is just fantastic. But as a story… what story? Once the prelude is done and Doom has gathered both Ghost Ride and Wolverine… it just fizzles out with a couple of weird fight scenes.
It’s not even all that clear if Doom really DID want to destroy all nightmares or if he was just wanting to blackmail Nightmare. And while using Ghost Rider as a pawn makes SOME sense, considering his mystic background, involving Wolverine feels way too random.
And as I said, the artwork is perfect for the dream sequences but feels out of place elsewhere.
It was a Doombot all along
While I wouldn’t past Doom to build robots that can dream, it’s very unlikely.
Number of superheroes who have fought Dr. Doom: 78
Adding the second Ghost Rider
Crazy tech
Doctor Doom has technology that protects him from Nightmare… for a little while at least… AND can hypnotize Ghost Rider.