From: pmm34393@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Paul M. Minutillo)
Subject: Re: Doom 2099 #3
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 19:49:56 GMT


>While I'm willing to give the title allowances for the character having
>evolved "off-camera" before Doom 2099 began, I've actually found that I
>haven't had to.  I find the essence of the character to be basically the same
>as the Doom I know.  Doom has shown himself (especially under John Byrne) as
>being quite capable at playing the anti-hero instead of the villain, and
>that's the tack that this book is taking, I think.
>
>>Problems with the characterization:
>>-The real Doom hates the scars on his face and would be willing to do anything
>> to get rid of them. This Doom WANTED the scars left on his face.
>
>I differ; I haven't seen much evidence that Doom has actively wanted to remove
>the scars from his face.  (Indeed, according to Byrne's stories, the initial
>scar was relatively minor, while the massive later scarring was voluntary!)

Wellllll:
 Thor #182 : Donald Blake gets himself kidnapped by Doom by pretending to
be able to fix any scars with a new type of plastic surgery. Doom flies
into a terrible rage upon Blake telling him that his face is so horribly
disfigured that nothing could ever fix it.
 Doom vs Superman crossover: Doom regrets that he lost his happiness in
life when his face was destroyed; he also mentions that the mask he is
forced to wear is unbearable and stifling...
 Secret Wars: Doom appears almost willing to have the Enchantress repair
his face, but he knows the cost of the sorcery is too much, so he does
not take her up on her offer.

From Byrne's story, I did not conclude that the later scarring was voluntary--
Doom was too eager to assume his new role in life and did not recognize
the fact that the hot mask would do a lot more damage then the explosion
did. It is hard to tell if he realizes he ruined his own face--I think
he either sees a distorted image in his mind where the secondary scarring
is no worse than the initial scarring (anything less than perfection
is equally bad) or he blames Reed Richards for starting the sequence of
events that eventually leads to him ruining his own facee so he is
not responsible at all. 
 

>>-20th century Doom needed no one.

This should re-worded--Doom FELT he needed no one. 

>Not true.  Doom used an old friend and servant of his to escape from Zorba
>after FF #200, and used the FF directly to retake Latveria from Zorba in FF
>#247 (?).  He also later approached the FF to re-take Latveria from Kristoff.

The FF #200 aftermath was out of Doom's control, so he had to be revived
from outside forces. However, the help Doom got from the FF was debatable.
For one thing, he and the FF are battling a bunch of robots when he
suddenly pulls out a device and deactivates them all. He refuses to say
why he did not use this earlier. I took this to show that the reason Doom
got the FF there was to convince them that his people really loved him 
and to rub their noses in the fact that the leader they helped dethrone
him was ruining the country.

>Maybe.  I hope he doesn't go back to being an outright villain, though.  He's
>more interesting as a protagonist when he plays the anti-hero.

I never considered him to be an outright villain--there have been a couple
of stories where it has been proven that he is not evil and does not see
his actions as being wrong in any way. Supposedly, everything he does
he feels he has to do for the good of mankind. I have always find this
to be an interesting aspect of his character and his madness. The 
biggest difference I have seen so far is Doom not referring to his 
underling as fools and dolts, but perhaps he realizes this would 
slightly alienate him from his gypsy allies! :)

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"Is it madness, my dear Enchantress, which drives a man of my genius to strive
 for an impossible prize..or is it the striving for that which is ever just
 out of reach which prevents madness from overtaking me?"  
					Dr. Doom, Secret Wars

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