UNCANNY X-MEN #146 (1981)
Writer: Chris Claremont
Pencils: Dave Cockrum
cover by Dave Cockrum
Considering last issue ended with Doctor Doom defeating the X-Men this would capitalize on him, but his ally Arcade is given the spotlight this time.
Speaking of Doom, we begin with him noticing that something’s off with the weather.
Doom is surprisingly cordial towards Arcade. More on that later.
Doom still makes an effort to show off who has the upper hand.
Considering Doom showed some attraction towards Storm last issue, let’s not think too much of the implications of building a robot double that obeys his every command.
The real Storm has been transformed into a statue by his Metabolic Transmuter ™, and for some reason he’s made her a new sexy dress.
This is kind of a nightmare fuel: she’s still alive and presumably aware of everything around her!
This is particularly cruel towards Storm since she has claustrophobia, meaning this is probably her ultimate nightmare.
So, uhm, turning her into a statue might’ve been a really, REALLY bad idea.
Storm wasn’t the only one to receive a brand new costume by Doctor Doom.
Although this is understandable, you really don’t want a naked Wolverine running around your castle.
Doom’s traps for the X-Men are pretty creative. Wolverine is an anti-gravity chamber that also scrambles his senses.
Colossus is stranded on a rock in the middle of a whirlpool (which is also filled with laser cannons)
Angel is trapped inside a birdcage which is ALSO filled with lasers.
Okay the Colossus and Angel traps are admittedly kind of lame, but the Nightcrawler one is genius.
He needs to see his destination to make sure he doesn’t teleport inside an object… so Doom just trapped him inside a featureless cube that doesn’t let him know where he is!
So it’s up to the B team assembled by Xavier: Havok, Polaris, Iceman and Banshee… and the latter one has lost his powers.
As a reminder: Xavier sent those four because he didn’t want the Avengers.
Most of the rest of the issue is dedicated to the B team trying to survive Murderworld, Arcade’s murder-theme wonderland.
The whole reason they’re here is to save the hostages… which are neatly packed in a ridiculous fashion.
Look… I don’t mind Arcade. He’s a fine villain.
But he’s inevitably a letdown after Doctor Doom.
Well that was kind of pointless.
During all of this Doctor Doom has been monitoring the storm created by… well by Storm… and apparently it’s already covering a significant portion of the country.
We’re at the very last page, and we have the moment that gives some significance to this story… Arcade lighting a match on Doom’s armor.
This is THE moment that will lead John Byrne to retcon this entire storyline to make this Doom be a Doombot instead of the original one.
Considering how much of a big deal was made about this moment, it’s incredibly understated in the story proper!!!
And so we end with Arcade revealing that Nightcrawler has escaped.
Doom significance: 3/10
The whole match thing (see below) is the only reason this has any significance… but it’s mostly thank to the story that retcons this one. Considering Doom’s reduced part, the score is surprisingly low.
Silver Age-ness: 5/10
There’s something delightfully Silver Age in the Doom traps. Also not the deliberate contrast with the traps laid by Arcade: while Doom wants to test the X-Men, Arcade just goes for the kill.
Does it stand the test of time? 6/10
Better than last issue, but still kind of a letdown. The adventures of the B team in Murderworld have well-crafted action scenes, but everyone is way too naïve (except Havok who somehow manages to find Murderworld’s control room ridiculously easy).
It was a Doombot all along
THE reason why this storyline is significant: John Byrne really didn’t like the way Chris Clarement wrote Doctor Doom, and in a future issue of Fantastic Four will directly state that this is a Doombot. Why is it so significant? Because it’s really the first time the Doombots are used as a retcon to remove a specific issue from Doom’s chronology!
I’m surprised the moment about the match was taken as the critical point; while it is admittedly out of character for Doom, I found his interaction with Arcade at the very beginning of the story to be much much worse.
Destroy the FF! & Take over the world
Still no sign of either objective.
Crazy tech
The Metabolic Transmuter ™ is such a devastating weapon that I’m surprised Doom hasn’t used it again!