I think we can all agree that Dr. Doom is a superior character to DC’s Eclipso. That did not, however, make him a more successful character. Eclipso debuted in House of Secrets #61 —
— and ended his run three years later.
In 1970, Marvel launched von Doom into a series with the first issue of its new anthology book, Astonishing Tales.
He lost his slot a mere year later, in #8, after which Ka-Zar took over the entire book. In his last issue, he’s barely a footnote on the cover.
Written initially by Roy Thomas, it’s no surprise the series fills in a continuity gap, showing how a Romani nobody became the monarch of Latveria. First, Doom captured Rudolfo, the crown prince. Having removed the king from the throne Doom could have claimed Latveria by force. Instead he had a robot of Rudolfo hand over the crown, legitmizing Doom as the new monarch. Now, however, Rudolfo is leading a revolutionary movement against Doom, with the help of an alien called the Faceless One.
It’s not a standout arc, partly because it’s drawn by Wally Wood and he just doesn’t work for me on superheroes. I’m willing to believe the fault is mine — I know Wood’s a legend — but that doesn’t change my reaction. However there’s one point I want to highlight.
Robot corps. They’re still not Doombots. Looking back, it seems such an obvious name I’m surprised it didn’t happen already (later, of course, it would refer to robot duplicates of Doom himself. That’s even further out).
Larry Lieber took over with #3 and wrote Doom’s adventures through #6 (Gerry Conway wrote the last two stories). I’ve never much liked Lieber’s writing and this doesn’t change my mind. First we have a story with the Red Skull and the Exiles taking over Latveria. Then we have a two parter started by Lieber in which Doom decides to steal Wakanda’s vibranium. It reminds of Don McGregor’s complaint that for an isolated, hidden land, Wakanda gets invaded an astonishing amount, hence his decision to make Killmonger in Jungle Action a Wakandan expat returning home.
That aside, what leaped out at me in the two-parter was this bit by Gerry Conway and Gene Colan in part two.
Realistically speaking, it’s entirely plausible a European man of Doom’s age (like Reed he was in college before WW II) would be a racist looking down on T’Challa and the Wakandans as primitives. Nevertheless, while I am fine with Doom as a backstabbing, treacherous, murderous megalomaniac, I’d rather he not be a racist.
I don’t think losing his slot in the book was any great loss to comics.
Art top to bottom by Lee Elias, Jack Sparling, Marie Severin x2, Wally Wood, Gene Colan
