First look at the new Doctor Doom series

[nomadicwriter]

Marvel.com has an interview with Christopher Cantwell and some unlettered preview pages from Doctor Doom #1 here. Thanks to ladyvictorious for the link!

Encouraging to see Cantwell namecheck a bunch of classic Doom stories like Triumph and Torment in there, though there's less hint whether we're going to see much in the way of direct follow-up to the Secret Wars/Infamous Iron Man arc. But the stuff he's saying about his take on Doom certainly sounds promising.

Comments

[used_songs]

This sounds like it's going to be good!

It’s almost like he’s drawing this story in gothic Latverian stained glass. I am happy to go in and revise my scripts to fit Salva’s art even better, and let his work lead the way.

I like the notion of a real interplay between the art and the story.

[nomadicwriter]

It does! Definitely sounds like Cantwell's done plenty of background reading and has a good take on Doom's character. And hopefully him being quite engaged with the art will mean Larroca will bring his A-game, because he did draw some great Doctor Doom stuff back around 2000 before he started doing the heavily traced and photo-referenced style of his Iron Man run. So far the preview pages look quite promising!

Chris Cantwell interview

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for starting a separate discussion on this. IMO Cantwell hit all the right notes for me with his plans for the series;
Emphasis on mystical skills, his interest in giving the reader a "street level" Doom, using stories like Triumph and Torment or Byrne's Doom and the retaking of his throne, his need to have control over a situation, etc. I'm glad that there was no mention of Unthinkable or Matt Fraction's Fantastic Four :-)

For anyone who hasn't read Cantwell's stuff (I hadn't either) his Doom story in War Scrolls #3 mentioned in the article is worth checking into to

Re: Chris Cantwell interview

[nomadicwriter]

I feel like Fraction's F4 was pretty much completely forgettable (I know I read it, but I don't really remember any of the plot beyond the dire ending to FF), but yes, good point on Unthinkable! And I'm also glad he seems to be ignoring Slott's recent stuff just as much as Slott completely ignored about the last four decades of Doom's characterisation.

I do definitely love the emphasis on Doom's magical side, which so often gets neglected, and I kind of like the idea of having Doom running around doing stuff semi-incognito. I feel like Infamous Iron man could have done more with that aspect of Doom being able to be an anonymous face in the crowd for the first time in forever, and now with him being on the run and having the bandages back that makes for an even more interesting angle. It would be great to see him interacting with people who don't immediately know him as Doctor Doom with all that comes with that. I also hope the mystical elements and reference to Triumph and Torment mean we're going to see Doctor Strange involved - I was all hyped for that in Bendis Iron Man and then we didn't get very much actual interaction after all. That reference to an old frenemy in one of the solicits sounds pretty promising.

Re: Chris Cantwell interview

[ladyvictorious]

The part about Doom being away from his usual environment again is something I always look forward to reading. I don't know if you ever read those Doom solo stories where he was trapped back on Counter Earth or the Heroes Reborn planet (whatever they call it these days) but I liked that he was literally stripped down to basically Victor. But this will be even better because he will rely on his mystical skills much more.

Infamous Iron Man did have it's shortcomings, the most annoying being that Bendis threw the Hood in there ad nauseum. But I am intrigued by the mention of this new cabal. My theories on that are that maybe we might see the Leader in this. I liked their confrontations in Fall of the Hulks when Doom was part of the Intelligencia. Maybe they whole group with be gunning for him...MODOK, the Red Ghost and the Wizard. Diablo too. He has a long history with Doom. But if not, I'd like to see some adversaries that you don't normally see tangling with Doom. Just as long as the Hood is not part of it!

I also like the idea of him being more out there mingling with the "common folk". Doom doesn't even have an Iphone or anything. Where will he hide out? Maybe his old original castle in the Adirondacks? I suppose it's too much to ask for an update on Amara and their unborn child. I think Marvel has buried that story line.

Re: Chris Cantwell interview

[nomadicwriter]

Yeah, I had trouble finding a lot of the Heroes Reborn stuff when I was getting into the comics, but I did manage to track down the Doom miniseries, I think maybe on Marvel Unlimited when I still had a subscription. (Whatever happened to Lancer, anyway? Doom has so many abandoned supporting cast members.)

And, you know, I find the Hood such a boring nothing character I'd almost completely forgotten he was even in that arc. Hopefully without Bendis around to keep trying to make him happen he'll finally disappear. But yes, the Intelligencia could definitely be an interesting choice to resurrect as a shadowy cabal manipulating events to get their revenge.

I would definitely love to see the Amara storyline get some follow-up! Maybe with Doom on the run and avoiding usual haunts he might seek her out? But the lack of any mention of recent events makes me wonder how much this story is really going to engage with all that. At least they left the Amara storyline off in a place where it's possible to pick back up at pretty much any time instead of the kind of bad cliffhanger that's awkward to bring back in if it's not immediately resolved. (And frankly at the time I was just glad they didn't decide to kill her and/or the baby off for cheap drama. Which is always the worry if they do actually revisit it, of course.)

Re: Chris Cantwell interview

[ladyvictorious]

You know, I lost track of where exactly Amara is living. At first I thought she lived in NYC but then when Doom pulled some strings and got her a position at a university, I thought it was at Oxford or Cambridge? With Bendis, I think sometimes he forgets his own stories. Like in Invincible Iron Man, there was that scene where at the end of the story, Tony had trapped Victor in some kind of force field bubble and said they were going to have a talk. Then nothing. So maybe Amara still was living in NYC.

I hope she didn't die off panel because that would be a terrible fate to give an expectant mother. But I think much like Lancer, she will be abandoned. Although I thought Lancer maybe died in the Exiles revival comic when the Exiles went back to Counter Earth. Rikki Barnes, that Earth's Bucky, made an appearance in the Future Foundation comic. But now after only 2 issues, it has been canceled!

And how about Kristoff?? We've not seen him since he was at the dinner with Namor back in Latveria during Hickman's New Avengers. This was just before Owen took Doom on the journey to find that source of the incursions.

Re: Chris Cantwell interview

[nomadicwriter]

You know, I lost track of where exactly Amara is living.

Ah, as it turns out, none of the above! I just checked my copy of Invincible Iron Man #599 and she's living in Boston in their last scene together. I assume that's the same house where she was living when Doom dropped by in #595 to tell her about Tony being missing and discovered the pregnancy, though the location isn't specified in that one. I guess the logical explanation is she moved there when she discovered she was pregnant to try and hide it from Doom, though it seems equally possible Bendis just forgot where he put her last.

Future Foundation's been cancelled already? Wow, that was fast! Though it always seemed like a hard sell with no major established characters beyond half of Power Pack; must admit I didn't bother to pick it up since the Richards kids weren't involved.

We're definitely overdue some more Kristoff. (And what about Boris, while we're at it? Is he still alive?) Really, the storyline with Amara's pregnancy would be the perfect reason to get Kristoff involved again, if they ever pick it up again. Hopefully some future writer will at some point, even if it's after the kid's a few years old; the fact they launched this new Doctor Doom series relatively soon after Infamous Iron Man makes me hope that they'll keep trying to get a Doom ongoing off the ground, so we might get to see multiple different creative teams have a go at it in future.

Re: Chris Cantwell interview

[ladyvictorious]

So that's where Amara is. Well, let's hope Marvel keeps her on the back burner so to speak and she returns some day. I did like the rocky relationship they had together. She was really ga ga over Victor when she first met him with Tony at breakfast. But then reality set in. I'm sure with all the years spent pretty much in solitude and then traveling all over the multiverse, fighting gods and so forth, it makes him such a larger than life personality that he has problems being relatable to ordinary people.

Ah, Boris. That's another character that's gone missing. That is one thing I always respected about Hickman...that he bothered to bring Boris and Kristoff back from comic book limbo. When Latveria went into disarray under the General Karadick fellow, I assume
Boris found some safe place to wait things out. He must be getting quite elderly. I always place Doom's age (along with Reed and Ben) to be in their early 40s. From the original story of Doom's childhood from the FF annual 32, it appeared to me that Boris was drawn to be perhaps older than Werner von Doom. You have to figure Boris may be in his 80s if he's still around.

Oh, and I also keep forgetting that Victor has a child that he has never met. Apparently, the last time he had one of his little time travel trysts with Morgan le Fey, she got pregnant. She had kept the child hidden in the past and her name is Caroline. I thought the name was kind of *meh* In those times it seems to me most female names were Catherine, Anne, Mary. There are so many queens, and duchesses by that name among the royals. I didn't think the writer had a very good concept of her. She traveled to the present in the short lived Defenders title and I swear the way the artists drew her she looked like Bea Arthur. She had grown up in the past and was now older that her bio dad

Re: Chris Cantwell interview

[nomadicwriter]

That is one thing I always respected about Hickman...that he bothered to bring Boris and Kristoff back from comic book limbo.

Yes, that's another reason I was excited to see Cantwell namechecking various older comics in this interview - he's obviously done his homework in a similar way, so perhaps we'll see some neglected elements brought back. Wasn't the original Valeria actually Boris's granddaughter? (Can't remember if that detail came from Books of Doom or not, but I'm sure I read it somewhere.) So, yes, he'd be generation older than Werner and Cynthia and probably at least about 40 years older than Victor.

I remember reading about the Caroline le Fey thing, but I never got around to collecting the comics because nothing much seemed to come of it. The idea of Morgan having Doom's child was a great concept but it felt like they kind of wasted it. And agreed on the meh name. I quite liked Vincent von Doom from that one original Secret Wars What If comic where they all stayed on Battleworld and had kids; he had a good name and a good look, so I wouldn't mind them recycling that for a 616 version.

Re: Chris Cantwell interview

[(Anonymous)]

I don't recall where I read it either off hand but I do believe Valeria is/was the granddaughter of Boris. I think she must be because Boris is usually shown to be pretty old. Another interesting factoid is IIRC Fortune from the Doom 2099 comics whose surname is Rosikon, is supposed to be the great-great-granddaughter of Boris. I would have to dig out my Doom 2099 comics and see where that is brought up. Or it could have been in one of those one shot titles that explained the 2099 universe.

And I agree with you about Caroline le Fey. Such a bland concept for what should have been an interesting character. A father who doesn't even know she exists and her mother, well I just never saw a story that really demonstrated what their relationship was like. She just pops up fully grown. Even more so because she looks to be a bit past middle aged. You would think with a powerful sorceress as a mother she could manage a spell of youth. And Morgan herself never seems to age

I saw on Marvel Unlimited that she also appeared in Deadpool Mercs for Money. She just has a few forgettable one panel appearances here and there as the head of a company called Umbral Dynamics that hired him.

I have that What if Comic too with Vincent von Doom. It's too bad that apparently Doom did away with his unfaithful wife, Amora. At least that is my memory of things. She cheated on him with Thor. I liked that the writer followed up on that from the original SW where she tried to seduce him. IIRC that was one of the last issues of the original run of What If. I liked that one quite a bit and all of the domestic situations that resulted.

On a footnote, just would like to add that this year started out a bit disappointing, with Slott regressing Doom to making death traps for the FF like this was the 1960s. But with this increased interest by Disney/Marvel it looks like we are getting very close to what I hope is a more faithful adaptation of the character to appear in the movies. It just makes me so justified in having faith in the appeal of the character to finally be recognized. I'm tickled to death that people in the film industry like the Russo Brothers, Kevin Feige, Chris Cantwell and Noah Hawley have read the comics and the GN Triumph and Torment. I hope we will get to see Doom in one of those ending credits scenes in the next couple of years.

Re: Chris Cantwell interview

[ladyvictorious]

Doh! did it again. Thought I was auto-logged in.

Re: Chris Cantwell interview

[nomadicwriter]

It would definitely be great to get a movie Doom from someone who actually knows and loves the comics. It was painfully obvious the previous attempts were trying to work off a the Ultimate universe origins rather than bother trying to catch up on stuff that developed over decades in 616. Which works okay for something like Ultimate Spider-Man which started out a fairly faithful condensing of the original stories, but Ultimate F4 made such a complete hash of anything recognisable and distinctive about Doom, and then the movies doubled down on that by trying to be grounded and strip out all the over-the-top comic book stuff. You're never going to be able to do any kind of version of Doctor Doom if you think stuff like the surname von Doom, fictional countries and magic are far too silly and need to be removed. What have you even got left?

Re: Chris Cantwell interview

[ladyvictorious]

After the third Fox attempt at the FF and Doom was already getting ominous sounding reports coming from the set, I figured Fox had no clue how to handle the characters. And poor Julian McMahon. I liked him as Cole in "Charmed" and Christian Troy in "Nip Tuck" but he was just given a bad version of Doom to work with. It was more like Donald Trump *ugh* This quote from Joe Russo earlier this year really got me excited and I thought Finally! someone in Hollywood gets it.

Joe Russo's reply when asked who is the next villain he wants to bring to the movies: "Doctor Doom I just love the sort of Shakespearean mythology behind him as a character, and he’s another fascinating character that has had different interpretations in the books so I think you can shade him in really complex ways.”

Now that we have Doctor Strange in the MCU and that worked, Marvel (I hope) should factor in the mystical side of Doom. How great would it be if they got the casting right, the right director and did a film treatment of Triumph and Torment? I think a lot will depend on casting.

Re: Chris Cantwell interview

[nomadicwriter]

The casting's definitely going to be the tricky part, but Marvel's been pretty good with that so far, so I have hope. I don't know if they'd do Triumph and Torment without more time to set Doom up as a villain first (though that quote about shading him in complex ways sounds good), but a Doctor Strange movie would definitely be a great place to bring him in. It would be nice if they brought back the past element of him and T'challa interacting as fellow kings, as well. (And potentially Namor, though I don't know if Marvel has the rights back for him or what.) A proper Fantastic Four movie at last would be brilliant, but honestly I'm almost more excited for the opportunity to see movie Doom with a much wider variety of characters than you can get with it all split off into separate properties.

Re: Chris Cantwell interview

[ladyvictorious]

Yeah, I don't know that the status is with Namor. The last report I recall Universal had almost unlimited rights. Avi Arad didn't make the best of deals but back then Marvel wasn't dealing from strength. Fox finally gave up the ghost on Fantastic Four so we got a breaK there. And they wanted to get out of the movie business for some reason. I found it surprising they gave up on the Star Wars stuff too.

I really would like Doom to make his debut with Dr Strange movie. As Triumph and Torment points out, their origins have so many parallels. Stephen was a pretty arrogant guy and Fate took him down a few pegs, as with Victor. They both sought refuge or a solution in Tibet. Apparently at they made their "pilgrimage" same time since they both encountered the Aged Genghis, who sent them on different paths.

Re: Chris Cantwell interview

[nomadicwriter]

I always thought Doom, Strange and Tony Stark made an interesting little trinity who have all these parallels and contrasts worth playing around with. I was really pleased when Bendis actually brought all three of them together in his Iron Man arc, but then Strange left almost immediately and didn't pop up again until Tony was gone, so we didn't get to see him do much with it.

[ladyvictorious]

Oops......that reply above was mine. Thought I was auto-logged in!

[ladyvictorious]

Saw this while I was on the CBR site. The advance solicitation info on December comics was leaked by Bleeding Cool. Someone posted it on CBR but then I guess the site had to take it down because the link gets a "page not found" message. But he was able to copy down the stuff since he still had the screen active on his PC. Here's what he caught for Doom 2099 #1. I'm looking forward to this since I liked Zdarsky's Doom in Marvel Two in One. IMO he should have done Fantastic Four instead of Slott. The $4.99 price must mean it will be more pages. This is a link to the article showing covers for the 2099 one shots: https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/marvel-goes-back-to-the-future-this-december-with-2099-one-shot-comics

DOOM 2099 #1
CHIP ZDARSKY (W) • Marco Castiello (A) • Cover by Tomm Coker
Variant Cover by RON LIM
Variant Cover by LARRY STROMAN
Variant Cover by MAX FIUMARA
The future is Doom!
In 2099, everything has changed. Technology has changed. Governments have changed. People have changed. But only one thing has remained the same…DOOM.
40 PGS./ONE SHOT/Rated T …$4.99

For the Doctor Doom #3.....this looks pretty epic! I've not read much of the Blue Marvel stuff and only know that he is Reed and Doom level genius. Victor will hate him for just reasons.

DOCTOR DOOM #3
CHRISTOPHER CANTWELL (W) • SALVADOR LARROCA (A) • Cover by ACO
2020 VARIANT COVER BY PATCH ZIRCHER
DOCTOR DOOM is dead. For now. In this issue he literally finds himself in Hell, battling against his old foe Mephisto for the control of his own soul. It’s an epic underworld fight, the victor of which may have to be decided by an unexpected third party. Meanwhile, the Blue Marvel continues his hunt for the Doctor, and begins to wonder if Victor’s more victim than villain…
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

Now this is confusing because Doom will appear in Spider-Man also. I like seeing Silver Sable there. Years ago, she used to have an annual dinner date with Doom when she represented Symkaria. We only saw the one time it wasn't him but apparently it had been going on for a while. Interesting to see Nick Spencer doing the Doom story here too. He never got to see his Victor Von Doom mini with Becky Cloonan get published, which was really very weird.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #35 & #36
NICK SPENCER (W) • OSCAR BAZALDUA (A) • COVERS BY TONY DANIEL
ISSUE #35 – 2020 VARIANT COVER BY DAVE JOHNSON
ISSUE #35 – 8-PART CONNECTING VARIANT COVER F BY ARTHUR ADAMS
ISSUE #36 – 2020 VARIANT COVER BY DAN PANOSIAN
ISSUE #36 – VENOM ISLAND VAIRANT COVER BY DECLAN SHALVEY
ISSUE #35 –
• Spider-Man. Doctor Doom. ‘Nuff said?
• NO WAY! The Chameleon has insane plans that have put all of NYC (and the very future of the universe!) in danger, and only Spider-Man can save the day.
• All he has to do is convince Doctor Doom to help him. Uh-oh.
ISSUE #36 –
• New York City is covered in Doombots and things are looking bleak for Spider-Man.
• What does all of this have to do with Silver Sable?
• And can she help Spider-Man save the city and the future?
32 PGS. (EACH)/Rated T …$3.99 (EACH)

[nomadicwriter]

Zdarsky on Fantastic Four would have been great, or else I was hoping for Al Ewing; I always loved his work when he was writing for 2000AD and he did a pretty good Doom in Loki: Agent of Asgard. The fact Slott just completely ditched the last ten years of plot developments for Doom and his relationship with the F4 is infuriating. I was really interested in what Bendis was doing with Doom and Ben and Zdarsky seemed to be building on that, whereas Slott just reset everything to a boring retread of stuff that was getting old decades ago.

I'm trying to remember if I've read anything with Blue Marvel. He sounds vaguely familiar, but if I have I clearly didn't retain much. But I'm always up for Doom interacting with other characters who maybe know him by reputation but haven't really personally encountered him the way the long-term major heroes have.

And it sounds like that Spider-Man story doesn't really mesh with the timeline or anything that's been going on with Doom elsewhere, but that's comics for you. I guess we'll get an idea of how Spencer might have written him, anyway.

[ladyvictorious]

I agree about Al Ewing. I recall that issue in Loki Agent of Asgard and you get the sense that Loki was being upstaged in his own comic. I liked the little sub plot with the local tradesmen arguing over local affairs. It was interesting to see mention of a mosque being built in Doomstadt factor in as a part of the argument with the two workers.

I just remembered that Nick Spencer did write a bit of Doom in his Superior Foes of Spider-Man, a very entertaining series with Fred Myers AKA Boomerang. It's cast included his team mates from Sinister Six. Since Spider-Man villains tend to be street level, you get more of a working class group of guys who really haven't been very successful in life.

So to cut it short, Boomerang leads the Six on a heist at the lair of the Owl, who is a big crime boss. Fred misleads them on the purpose of the mission and he tells them they're going to steal the head of crime boss Silverman, which the Owl keeps in a box. But what Fred is really after is a painting of Doctor Doom that the Owl has, one that Doom commissioned for himself. He figures he can score big on this. The whole backstory of the painting is hilarious and you may have come across it, if you haven't read it already. Doom posed for the picture in the nude after having a little too much wine. And now he wants it back. He only makes a few on panel appearances in the series but I would recommend tracking this down if you don't have it already. All this takes place over a 12 issue arc of misadventures and double crossing with the talking head of Silvermane being a part of all of it.

I always wondered what the tone of Spencer's Victor Von Doom series would have been. Would it veer off into something wacky about Doom like "Superior Foes" does or would it have been more serious? It's hard to tell. Doom has always been pretty unique in comics in that you can have some really great dramatic stuff and then you get the silly things. In last month's 4 Yancy Street (writer Gerry Duggan) with the Thing ( I don't want to spoil it), has a surprising Doom appearance. IMO this was more in the spirit of what Doom's relationship was with Ben in Infamous and Marvel 2 in 1. I had no idea Doom was going to be in this but bought it because the preview said it featured the return of the Terrible Trio. They have to be Doom's most loyal henchmen if he still employs them after all this time!

[nomadicwriter]

Ooh, I didn't know about that either! I haven't been following 4 Yancy Street. They seem to have suddenly started bringing out a whole bunch of F4 spinoffs all at once, and I haven't had the budget to keep up, especially when Slott's main F4 book has been so uninspiring I've been letting the issues pile up without getting round to reading them. The trouble is with him having hit the reset button on Doom it's hard to predict if any Doom cameos in other books are going to be interesting and worth getting or just more of the same.

I do wonder what that Victor Von Doom college series would have been like. I seem to remember the cover for issue #2 made me a bit wary because it had Doom in jeans and sneakers and everyone was wondering if that was just for the sake of the cover art or we were actually going to see him dressed like that. So a more wacky teenager type take does seem possible, which would have been a bit of a waste from my perspective. I've always wanted something delving more into those college years from Doom's point of view, because it just fascinates me that he had this whole period where he was living a relatively mundane life as a student in the US, and must have known a bunch more classmates and teachers and random associates beyond Reed and Ben who would still remember him from that time.

[ladyvictorious]

The 4 Yancy Street I think is just a one shot. At least it hasn't shown up for follow up issue in October or November like the other advance stuff.

I really would like to see more of Victor's time in the U.S. Even that little glimpse in Infamous Iron Man was good to see. I think he would have had some kind of social life. You know the one thing I didn't like about Books of Doom was that part where he almost strangled that one date he had. I know that was shaded so that might have been some demonic influence but still.


I am terrible at writing so I never attempt it but one idea I did kick around was how did Victor acquire all these aristocratic mannerisms? I thought of how there must be some other lesser members of the nobility in Latveria. We saw glimpses of them here and there. I think maybe when he was still in his late teens, he caught the eye of a Latverian "cougar" countess or some such , an over 35 or so widow who had a somewhat run down manor on the outskirts of town. The plot would be that to make a little money, he had accepted her offer to do a some odd jobs around her small estate. She hired him specifically for the purpose to see if he could be a "project". She would introduce him to culture, music, art and so forth while at the same time trying to seduce him. :-) Oh well, I'm not very good at fiction. But I would like more stuff come out about Victor's past in Latveria along with the time spent in the U.S. in his youth

I know what you mean about the expense. Marvel is slipping in a $4.99 tier of stuff lately. I've been buying Hickman's new X titles mini series which have been coming out weekly and they are $4.99. I've only thumbed through them so far and Reed and Sue did make a cameo in one of them where Franklin is brought up. That might lead to some conflict later since it appeared like they wanted to have him join in with their school or something. This week's Power of X has passing mention of Latveria in one of Hickman's graphical design things. He really had put a lot of work into that. It's a chart that shows that Latveria and Wakanda didn't want to be part of some treaty with the nation of Krakoa which I guess is the new Genosha. Quite honestly, I gave up following the X-Men years ago and even with Hickman writing I'm having a hard time getting into it. But with Reed and Sue briefly guesting I just wonder if Doom will make a brief appearance. But, at $4.99 I don't know. I may just wait out more stuff to come on Marvel Unlimited.

But it sure makes me nostalgic for the days of Hickman working the Fantastic Four side of the MU. That was his means to and end to put Doom front and center of Secret Wars IMO. I'm jealous that the X-Men are getting his attention now and as I said they're a part of the MU I lost interest in long ago. :-)

[nomadicwriter]

Yeah, that one bit in Books of Doom was so weird, and basically came out of nowhere and went nowhere. If it was supposed to be some sort of trauma thing from killing the soldier or demonic influence coming through, that aspect wasn't very well set up. It felt almost like somebody just panicked that he was looking too sympathetic in that issue and insisted on having a scene of him doing something unmistakably evil as a college kid. If they were trying to set up some kind of reason for his classmates to fear and distrust him, I feel like it would have been more organic to have him maybe provoke a fight with rude comments and then respond to some relatively low-key pushing and shoving with near-lethal violence or something. (As it was, it didn't even make sense for the Doombot telling the framing story to include it, since it doesn't serve any narrative purpose except for making Doom look bad, and the whole conceit is that he's telling his own version that's probably slanted to make him sound better.)

I feel like young Doom would at least have been trying to do more magical research while he was at college, so even if he didn't socialise with classmates I can see him falling in with a group of local magic users or the like. I can imagine that being an area where he'd be more interested in collaborating with his peers than with science, because there are a lot of different traditions to learn from and a lot of secret knowledge that's not so easy to gain access to.

And yes, the aristocratic manners are an interesting puzzle! Maybe he hung around the Latverian embassy in New York when he was at college and insinuated his way into all the diplomatic events. I can totally see him just showing up and acting like he's got every right to be there, to the point that even whatever corrupt, lazy diplomat is supposed to be in charge just assumes he's some kind of assistant or whatever and lets him take over all the boring meetings, without realising that Doom's basically gathering all the intel he can on what's happening back in Latveria and planning his eventual takeover.

[ladyvictorious]

I hadn't thought of the embassy angle. That makes a lot of sense. The officials there may not have been aware of his notoriety back home.

Another thing about his college days, while Reed, Ben and most of the students would go home in the summer months, take vacations and stuff, Victor had no other place to go but the dorm. So maybe he could have stayed at the embassy at times. I think since the government had recruited him as a resource, it may be possible that they provided some cover for him. For that I think you need to go back the Lee/Kirby story. It wasn't an official in uniform that came looking for him, it was someone from the university in civilian attire. But this could have been a cover so that they could get him out of the country without much fanfare. Victor was wanted by the Latverian authorities so he had to get out with a fake passport. They could have arranged that too. That would fool the staff at the embassy.

The cover for Doctor Doom #3 has now been released and you can see it here: I'm surprised they're going with Mephisto showing up so soon.

https://www.comicsbeat.com/marvel-comics-december-2019-solicitations/

Edited to add that I just saw in that link that Doom is also appearing with Doctor Strange (?) in Savage Avengers #8. This series I've not been reading and for some reason Conan the Barbarian is part of this team.

[nomadicwriter]

Yeah, the technicalities of it all are interesting to think about. The military story makes a lot of sense, I think, because it seems weird for a US university to go out of their way to recruit some kid from Latveria otherwise, no matter how much of a genius. How would they even have heard of him? Whereas the military are more likely to be keeping tabs on unrest in Latveria and interested in the stories about Doom's tech.

And gah, they seem to be piling on Doom cameos everywhere at the moment. I used to try and keep up with all this stuff when he was usually only popping up in one storyline at the time, but it's too much when already got his own ongoing plus he's all over the place and it's frequently unclear if it'll turn out to be a Doombot or an AU or future version or what.

It'll be interesting to see if the Mephisto stuff in Doctor Doom #3 makes any reference to their recent encounter in Infamous Iron Man. I hope at least it means, given the interview quotes about Triumph and Torment, we're going to be seeing Doctor Strange show up at some point.