Don’t let the title fool you: we are firmly past the real Heroes Reborn nonsense, and Doom is finally back to having GOOD stories.
Before Doom goes back to the main timeline, he spends a couple of one-shots in the so-called “Franklin-verse”. Get ready because this is going to take a while… but unlike Heroes Reborn, it’s worth it.
Heroes Reborn: Doomsday (2000)
by Chris Claremont & Mike McKone
While this has a publishing date of November 1999, it ties so much into the following years that I’m placing it in the 2000s.
When the heroes returned home in, ehm, Heroes Return, they left behind the pocket universe without much thought. We discover that its New York is now flooded…
…as narrated by Samantha Dunbar, a woman who witnesses a huge explosion in the sky.
The idea that the heroes have abandoned this version of Earth is a recurring theme in this storyline.
We’ll get to know Samantha soon, but we immediately discover that she’s the kind of person who would dive from a skyscraper to rescue someone falling from the sky, even if it means dealing with a bunch of Atlanteans.
The person she rescues is Doctor Doom himself. And she knows the truth behind Heroes Reborn: that her entire world has been created by Franklin Richards.
We’ll see soon HOW she knows any of that.
But I have to say that the existential dread of discovering you’re not real is quite chilling.
Plus, again, the team of abandoning this Earth.
This scene is just buying time before Doom wakes up, but it’s still quite enjoyable. Especially Samantha realizing she doesn’t even know why she’s doing any of this.
She’s driven entirely by hatred and spite towards the world and superheroes, so no wonder she gravitates towards Doom!
Doom easily dispatches the Atlanteans, but much to my surprise he doesn’t murder them.
Say what you want about Doctor Doom, but the man recognizes talent!
Samantha is far from happy about being saved (who would’ve thought a woman diving from a skyscraper would have a death wish), and it’s probably where the “heroes abandoned us” theme gets the spotlight.
What I like about this is that Doom doesn’t say anything. It COULD mean that Samantha is overthinking this and that he’s really using her.
But on the other hand it takes a lot… A LOT… to get Doctor Doom to shut up.
The dynamic between those two is just fantastic: Doom obviously doesn’t treat her as equal, but he does allow her a surprising level of snark.
Especially to her response when Doom decides to take over this Earth’s version of the Baxter Building.
It’s now that Samantha explains what happened after the Celestials showed up and the heroes left…
…New York was flooded and her family died.
We don’t learn just yet what happened, but Doom’s on it.
This is the point when she learns this world was created by Franklin. It’s a bit confusing: the entire story is narrated by her, so we began with her already knowing.
There’s some stuff to unpack here: Samantha is clearly creating a connection with Doom as a way to get over her trauma. But there’s probably some genuine connection there, if she immediately picks up how Doom feels about Richards.
Also: in any reality, even a post-apocalyptic one, Doom WILL get his hands on some wine.
Meanwhile, Doom has figured out that the Atlanteans and the human scavengers are working together in an effort to conquer the Baxter Building.
Since we barely get anything from Doom’s perspective, it’s entirely possible Samantha has overestimated how much he cares for her.
Case in point, he injects her with something while she’s sleeping…
…transforming her into the nanite-powered Lancer, giving her the power to shoot plasma blasts AND a supervillain costume.
This is far from the first, or the last, time that Doom turns someone into a supervillain.
Lancer is the best one in my opinion for one crucial reason: she doesn’t take any crap from Doom!
And that’s the setup for this storyline: Doom is stranded on a parallel world, so he immediately gets himself a superpowered lancer and proceeds to take over the planet.
Doom’s gotta Doom.
Heroes Reborn: Ashema (2000)
by Chris Claremont & Micheal Ryan
Remember Ashema, the Celestial who took human form to end Heroes Reborn?
She’s STILL running around wearing little more of an overcoat.
At least she wears SOME clothes beneath the coat this time, but… screw it, I forgot to meme this one last time so I’m retroactively making fun of it now.
Ashema’s mortal form is stuck on this Earth, and she doesn’t have access to her Celestial powers… so she’ll have to get help from Doom.
Ashema is attacked by goop monster Divinity (who in addition to having a random name gets no origin whatsoever and is a less interesting version of the Venom symbiote), who then gets into a scrap with Lancer.
However Lancer can’t really get Ashema, because she’s not entirely there… I think.
Back to Lancer standing up to Doom: she’s NOT happy that he’s monitoring her every move with the nanites in her blood. And Doom is… well he’s Doctor Doom.
The book is titled “Ashema”, but she’s really a minor player here. Far more important, Doom strikes an alliance with this Earth’s version of Lady Dorma… who despite the name and the skin color has nothing in common with Namor’s deceased wife.
This version of Dorma is just the warrior queen of Atlantis.
What Doom is doing is gathering allies to take over this Earth… and this is where Claremont starts to lose me on the plot.
The Atlanteans WERE introduced in Heroes Reborn, so they’re not coming out of nowhere.
But “The Technarx” and a bunch of mystics? Where do THEY come from!? Claremont seems to be treating this as a parallel timeline, but the “Franklin-verse” shouldn’t have so many variations that are completely unrelated to the heroes.
Still, they run into an alternate version of Tomazooma, one of the most ridiculous and worst-aged things that showed up in the Lee&Kirby Fantastic Four run. That’s at least on brand!
I would read the hell of a regular team-up book between these two. Perfect chemistry.
Doom is focusing on recovering Ashema, in the repository where she’s trapped inside a statue.
We’ll revisit this place in a rather important story in the next Fantastic Four run.
Divinity takes the opportunity to ambush Doom, who proves himself a more difficult target.
During the fight Doom learns who’s behind Ashema being trapped (and presumably the flood?), and it’s a deep cut.
It’s the Dreaming Celestial, who is… something that would take FAR too long to explain here. Just think “evil god” for now.
Heroes Reborn: Masters of Evil (2000)
by Joe Casey & Charlie Adlard
At least Doom is Doom. Was anyone, and I mean ANYONE, asking to see more of the crappy Heroes Reborn versions of classic supervillains?
Even Doom couldn’t care less.
Seriously, Doom just has no time for this crap.
Heroes Reborn: Doom (2000)
by Chris Claremont & Mike McKone
Basically “Doomsday” and “Doom” are the only chapters that have any real significance to the story. Why exactly did we have the rest? I also skipped a couple that even MORE pointless!
Seriously, why did we waste time with the Masters of Evil instead of properly introducing the “Arabian Knights”!? Or see Doom strike an alliance with a Black Panther-less Wakanda!?!?
Especially since this is the formal introduction of the two remaining “Generals of Doom”, who join a now subservient Divinity and Lady Dorma.
They are the murderous sorceress Shakti…
…and Technarx, who is 1,000% just a ripoff of the Phalanx. No, seriously, a techno-organic monster that assimilates everything he touches, how else would you call it?
I swear I didn’t skip any relevant story, but it seriously feels like we missed a chapter here.
Ashema has also been freed (at least THAT was briefly shown), but she’s not counted as one of the Generals of Doom.
Guess why.
Lancer still has the best scenes with Doom, probably because anyone else is not a real character but more of a placeholder.
She even gets the support of a Wakandan boy who wanted to murder Doom for failing to protect Wakanda!
No wonder the Generals want to get rid of her!
To distract Lancer, Shakti unleashes against her a spell that… uhm… honestly, I have no idea WTF is happening here.
Whatever THAT was, Lancer breaks out of the spell thanks to Doom’s nanites.
So… the spell made Lancer hot? I have no clue WTF Claremont is doing here, except finding an excuse to give the artist some fanservice to draw.
Also Doom made Lancer immune from the powers of all his Generals, because of course he did: how useful of a bodyguard would she be otherwise?
Without Lancer keeping guard, Lady Dorma proceeds to seducing Doom.
Except surprise: that was NOT Lady Dorma, but a creation of the Dreaming Celestial himself!
This ends up being helpful to Doom, because the Dreaming Celestial’s energies are exactly what he needs to power up his portal to the regular Marvel Universe… especially when Ashema shows up in her real form.
And that’s how the one-shots conclude, because next time Doom shows up against the Fantastic Four.
Doom significance: 8/10
While the specifics are not particularly important, the fact that Doom now has four Generals and a sizeable empire in the Franklin-verse will play a role for a while.
Silver Age-ness: 2/10
There’s something Silver Age about all these absurd things showing up without any previous warning, even when it’s not consistent AT ALL with the previous worldbuilding.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
I am not Claremont’s biggest fan: if anything, I consider him overrated. And I’m HIGHLY critical of his Fantastic Four run (although fortunately for me, his Doctor Doom storyline is by far the best).
But having said that… man do I miss Lancer!!!
Sadly she won’t stick around for long, but she has a fantastic chemistry with Doom and she’s a fascinating character in her own right. Doom is also great here: constantly scheming and often one step ahead of everybody else, but he gets caught off-guard enough times to make things interesting.
Even the Masters of Evil story, while utterly and completely unnecessary to the plot, is a fine supervillain tragedy in its own right. It has no place being here, but it’s a good story nonetheless.
There are problems, however, which are a sign of the worst parts of the Claremont run on Fantastic Four. The Generals come out of absolutely nowhere and there’s no effort AT ALL to try to make them work with the established world that came before them.
Lady Dorma is generic, but at least she’s A character. Shakti, Divinity and Technarx are just… there. The latter two don’t even get any sort of origin!!!
It was a Doombot all along
With the exception of the one from the Masters of Evil story, this HAS to be Doom between the magic and the conversations with Celestials.
Times Doom has saved the world: 11 
Supervillains created by Dr. Doom: 21
Considering Lancer works as second-in-command to Doctor Freaking Doom, I’d say she counts.
Crazy tech
The nanites that Doom uses on Lancer are quite something! They give her the power to generate plasma AND improve her physical abilities AND they make her immune to magic AND techno-viruses AND can be used to monitor her AND others.
Particularly impressive because Doom seems to come up with these things on the spot!!!