MARVEL SUPER HEROES SECRET WARS #10 (1985)
by Jim Shooter & Mike Zeck
This is it, folks. The most Doctor Doom story of Doctor Doom.
The cover is AWESOME, and it’s not even the best version! Apparently Doom’s mask ended up being partially white by accident, and there wasn’t enough time to fix it.
Thankfully, Mike Zeck would later provide the undamaged version!
Last issue Galactus was preparing to eat his own ship, and we get an interesting reaction shot by the heroes.
Galactus doesn’t get to eat, however.
Doctor Doom just absorbed the power of Galactus! There are SO many reasons why this is awesome:
A) It catches the heroes COMPLETELY off-guard
B) It’s not even Doom’s endgame
C) It wouldn’t have been possible without a couple of insane Dazzler issues that nobody read
A great detail that Doom having trouble adjusting his senses to his new status as a cosmic being. That’s not something that we see often in these kind of stories, and it foreshadows Doom’s troubles in the following issues.
Another subtle detail is how the other villains are depicted when Doom talks about reading into their souls. Absorbing Man and the Wrecking Crew are just shown as generically angry, but Doctor Octopus looks positively deranged (he IS mentally ill after all), Molecule Man seems depressed, and Enchantress enjoys some cheesecake.
Doom attacks Captain Marvel off-panel, and the heroes move to his base to rescue her.
Magneto provides transportation, and when he tries to argue that Captain America is being racist against mutants Cap FINALLY points out that Magneto has tried to kill heroes many times in the past, so he’s not exactly a saint.
And then Wolverine goes into a frankly very forced rant against Captain America.
This is not out of character for the 80s X-Men, but that doesn’t excuse them from being jerks.
Like, if you have to go against one of the non-mutant heroes, you choose Captain America? The one hero who in the rest of the series has gone out of his way to treat mutants equally, ESPECIALLY Professor X?
Xavier bailed the rest of the heroes to side with Magneto, and STILL Cap trusted him with dealing with Galactus!
If you want to go against one of the heroes pick on the Human Torch, who has been a jackass at every occasion so far.
Back to Doctor Doom: technically speaking he has already won the “Secret War”… with the power of Galactus he could kill all the heroes in an instant, then claim the Beyonder’s prize.
Settling for a minor victory, however, would completely go against everything Doom believes.
So Doom decides he’s going to fight the Beyonder by himself, like Galactus intended to do.
Of note is the fact that he manages to study the Beyonder’s energies in the first issue, so what comes next is not out of nowhere.
The reason why Doom changes his armor is a deliberate nod to the action figure line that spawned the entire idea to write Secret Wars.
I would’ve preferred if Doom put on the Galactus helmet, but that’s cute.
The heroes find Captain Marvel, who has been frozen as a hologram by Doom. (!!!)
This version of Klaw is always a blast.
And speaking of blasts, the Doctor Doom vs Beyonder fight is EPIC.
I love the abstract way the Beyonder is depicted here.
The fight is causing massive damage to the planet, to the point that I’m honestly surprised ANYONE is still alive!!!
This gives us the chance to revisit the Zsaji subplot and redeeming Colossus’s character a little.
While also making the Human Torch look even more of a jackass. WTF, dude!?
How’s Doom doing?
Doom is at his most melodramatic here. Despite his constant complaining about pain and hopelessness, he’s STILL able to send a telepathic signal to the heroes where he lies of of his teeth to declare that he’s inches from victory!
Doom offers to share some of the power with anyone willing to share some willpower to give him the last push, and only one person (reluctantly) falls for it.
The heroes tackle Magneto before he can take Doom’s hand, and Hawkeye is first in line to shout to the X-Men “HE’S A VILLAIN FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!”.
And Captain America is STILL defending Magneto, despite Wolverine’s earlier rant.
How’s Doom doing?
The Beyonder has clearly won the battle, but he’s too curious to just disintegrate Doom.
He begins examining him by reading his mind.
Note the addition of Doom’s mother being murdered for failing to cure a horse with her magic… that’s a new detail, one I don’t remember being addressed in other stories.
We also have an interesting read of Doom’s psyche. I found especially interesting the idea that his fixation about enslaving others comes as revenge for what he’s been through… great stuff.
And then the Beyonder vivisects Doctor Doom!!!
This is easily one of the best Doom moments in his entire publication history.
He’s lost his power, he’s lost a leg, he’s being DISSECTED ALIVE, he’s naked in front of an omnipotent being who could disintegrate him in an instant…
But Doom has not lost the fight!!!
Back on the base, Wolverine and Captain America make peace while saving the villains from dying from the collapse of the base.
“Some of my best friends are people” might be offensive to the Vision, though.
The heroes manage to survive, and Hawkeye manages to sneak in a joke against Captain America that honestly had me laughing.
I don’t care if they’re superheroes, at this point I swear half of these people need a change of underwear.
In a surprising twist, however, Doom doesn’t want to fight them.
The Secret War is over!
Well, more like this issue is over.
Doom significance: 10/10
Arguably the greatest victory Doom has ever achieved.
To put it into perspective: the Red Skull stole the power of the Cosmic Cube ONCE and he’s spent fifty years trying to replicate that feat.
Doctor doom has stolen the power of Galactus AS STEP ONE.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Even the absurd way Doom absorbed the power of Galactus is barely mentioned.
Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
I need to make a distinction here. All the Doctor Doom scenes are PERFECT, and the collateral damage really makes you feel the scale of the action.
What hurts the story is the very forced way the relationship with the mutants is handled, and in a much lesser way the treatment of the Human Torch.
The Doom stuff is SO good and it’s so much under focus that the rest doesn’t hurt it that much, but it still prevents it from reaching an otherwise deserved 10/10.
Number of superheroes who have fought Dr. Doom: 49
I doubt Doom would really consider it a fight, but I’m still adding Captain Marvel.
Times Doctor Doom has gained ultimate power: 5
Adding the power of Galactus (for the second time if we include the retcon), and what is undoubtedly the most famous case: the power of the Beyonder.
If we don’t count the retcons, however, this would only be the second time.
Crazy tech
Can we talk about the device that is able to absorb the power of the Beyonder!?