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The Prisoner, The Power, And Dr. Doom!
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This story is an early example of the problems that come up when a wandering character like Doom gets tied down to his own series. Previously he's been free to pop up wherever a creative team want to use him, but now he has his own series there are continuity questions to consider. When last we saw him he was in a Mexican stand-off with The Faceless One and The Doomsman in Latveria, but this issue calls for him to be elsewhere. The story deals with this problem by... completely ignoring it.
The story begins with Thor giving himself a brief recap of his previous adventure, where Loki impersonated him to stir up a load of trouble. His thoughts are interrupted however by a right old racket on the streets below, which turns out to be an argument over a demonstration outside the Latverian Embassy.
I do like the way Stan Lee is trying to engage with modern politics here, using the Latverian Embassy as a metaphor for all the other embassies young people were protesting outside, and about, at this time, while being sure to have all viewpoints expressed, with John Buscema illustrating a (still dynamically drawn) old lady worried about this all causing a war. It's also another example of Lee falling in love with his own idea of Doom being unique among supervillains in that his power is partly derived from diplomatic immunity. To be fair, it's a great idea, but it's noticeable that he returns to it every time he writes Doom now.
Thor changes into his human identity of Don Blake to investigate, but quickly gets caught up in things as the demonstration turns into a riot, forcing him to transform into Thor again to scare people away and escort an injured girl - the same girl who instigated the demonstration - to safety. When the girl awakes she finds Don Blake watching over her again, who asks her what she was protesting for.
This seems a bit odd to me - surely you don't need a personal connection to protest against an authoritarian regime - but it turns out she has a link anyway, and proceeds to explain how her father was kidnapped by Doom years ago, and how she was kept as a hostage to ensure that he complied with Doom's wishes. During this flashback we once again see Doom as the sauvely relaxed liar who believes all of his own propaganda - very much in line with Lee's own recent characterisation, but different from the version seen in the contemporary story in Astonishing Tales.
The girl, Cosette, escaped recently with the aid of the underground, who are shown here in an unambiguously heroic light, again differing from the story running simultaneously in Astonishing Tales.
Don Blake decides to help, and turns back into Thor only to be interrupted by a message from Odin, who calls him back to Asgard fro a brief interlude involving the ongoing sub-plot of The World Beyond. That doesn't concern us here, suffice to say it's all very mysterious and then Thor heads back to Midgard to undertake a cunning scheme of his own.
He's planted a Fake News story in the Daily Bugle, claiming he can cure any facial injury, no matter how severe. Thor thinks, correctly, that this will bring Don Blake to the notice of Doctor Doom, but doesn't seem particularly bothered about all the other victims of facial injury who, surely, will see this and be filled with false hope.
Over at the embassy Doom reads the piece and we get a re-run of two recurring Doom tropes - ripping up a newspaper in rage, and standing disconsolately in front of a mirror.
As mentioned, this is all a bit difficult for the Marvel Universe's ongoing continuity - we know that Doom is currently fighting against a revolution in Latveria, so what's he doing in America lounging around in the embassy? When most of the titles were written by Stan Lee this was not an issue (except when he forgotten what he'd written previously, of course) and the Marvel Universe was able to maintain coherence, but as it expands, and other writers want to use the same characters, this is becoming a problem which, in the coming decade, would require solutions.
Stan Lee regularly places Doctor Doom in the Latverian Embassy, which not only reinforces his position as a head of state with vaguely defined diplomatic immunity, but also allows him to interact with the rest of the superhero/villain community. Here he's able to pop out in his limousine, find Don Blake wandering the streets, and kidnap him using a Molecule Displacer. He's then driven out into the woods, where he uncovers a secret helicopter/missile ship, which he uses to fly a sleeping Don Blake to a noticeably peaceful and intact version of Latveria.
Doom takes Blake into a private room and prepares him to see "a sight that no other human eyes save mine have ever yet beheld", which isn't quite true, but anyway. He takes his mask off and Don Blake reacts with spectacular unprofessionalism.
I think Doom has every right to report him to the American Medical Association. It's not exactly tactful, is it? Blake is, quite reasonably, chucked in a dungeon with his walking stick placed just out of reach. He needs this stick to transform into Thor and... quickly manages to get hold of it and transform, in a brief sequence that is not quite as exciting as it was maybe meant to be. Thor bursts out of the dungeon and into the cliffhanger for the next issue - Doom launches a missile to bring down a "foreign object" spied overhead, leaving Thor with a "deadly dilemma".
We'll find out what happens soon (SPOILERS: Thor makes it out OK), but before then we're back to Latveria to see what's going on with The Doomsman!
link to information about this issue
posted 28/9/2018 by Mark Hibbett
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