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Revolution!
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The second issue of Doom's own series begins with a masthead declaring him "Doctor Doom, Master Of Menace!" It's an odd way of celebrating, well, villainy, and is part of the ongoing difficulty these stories have in portraying Doom as the hero of the story whilst he carried on behaving like the Mad Scientist/Evil dictator he has always been. Modern versions of this sort of story, like Brian Bendis's "Infamous Iron Man" series, tend to try to make Doom more sympathetic by giving him regrets, or at least better reasons for his villainy, and although that does happen later in this series, there's still a lot of menacing, mad science, and dictating.
Inside Castle Doom we find Ramona and Rudolfo imprisoned after their attempted revolution in the last issue. Rudolfo speaks ominously about "The Faceless One", leaving Ramona (and us) to wonder what he's on about, as this person has never been mentioned before. "There is much that you do no know, Ramona!" he replies, before leaping up the wall and ripping open the bars.
His escape is short-lived, as he bumps into Doctor Doom who immediately works out what's going on - Rudolfo is, of course, a robot! I must say, I do like the way that Roy Thomas sticks to the idea that Doom is a genius. rarely fooled by events that are commonalities in a superhero universe such as robot doubles or, as with his uncovering of Ramona's true identity last time, human lookalikes.
There's still a big surprise for Doom though, when he's told that this is not just any robot double, but one he built himself as a stand-in for Rudolfo at Doom's own coronation.
This is not only a neat way of explaining where the revolution obtained a robot, but also fills in a missing piece of Doom's origin story. Filling in the gaps between previous stories is something that Roy Thomas would go on to do many times in the future, and here it feels very satisfying to get a glimpse of a previously unseen episode in Doom's past as part of the ongoing story.
Miles away the real Rudolfo is watching the destruction of his robot double. His viewing is interrupted by the arrival of the previously mentioned Faceless One, who not only reminds Rudolfo who's boss ("I call you what I will, because you cannot regain your petty throne without my secret help!") but also tells him what happened to the Doomsman, who escaped last issue. This android with Doom's brain patterns has fought his way across country and into the Soviet Union, bashing up tanks and striding through explosions. "We must have him as our ally!" says The Faceless One, so the pair of them hop into his Spheroid space shop and zoom off to find him.
While that's going on Doom is hanging around with Ramona, allowing her the chance to kill him as a test, which she fails ... or passes, depending on how you look at it. She's unable to kill him anyway, reassuring him that it is safe to allow her to wander the castle. "It is beneath me to imprison a woman" he says, a load of nonsense which, surely, is his way of hiding the fact that he just likes having her around?
He tears himself away from his passive aggressive stalking to return to his favourite place - the TV lounge - where he watches the resistance attacking yet more of his robots.
It's noticeable that the narrative text refers to the resistance in phrases like "skulking rebels" during this story, not "noble revolutionaries" or "resistance fighters" as they might be termed elsewhere. Doom is a terrible person but, it seems, nobody else is much better.
The rebels attack and Doom goes off to fight them, leaving the castle apparently unguarded, so that The Faceless One and the newly recruited Doomsman can easily sneak in, kill the remaining guards, and kidnap Ramona. Doom flies back and easily battles his way through the rebels, merrily gunning them down in a manner which almost, but not quite, seems heroic.
In a way this is all feels very modern, reminiscent of something like "Game Of Thrones" where we find ourselves cheering on morally "complex" characters doing dreadful things to other baddies in order to get their way. The story ends with Doom and The Faceless One finding themselves equals in battle, only to be disturbed by the sudden entrance of the Doomsman, who ends the story stood between the two evil characters, with nobody sure what will happen next.
We'll find out - next time!
link to information about this issue
posted 21/9/2018 by Mark Hibbett
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