Hear the Voice of DOOM!

Okay, the Mole sucks as a blogger, he admits it. There is much to be desired in the swift completion of his appointed round. Nonetheless, I do endeavor to press on, in hopes that I can reward the occasional traveller with an oasis of info and levity. And in that vein, let's discuss Doom 2099.

One of the first attempts to bring some new life into the Marvel Universe, back in the early '90's, was to take all the heroes a century or so into the future and reinvent them all -- thus were the 2099 books, including Ravage 2099, Spiderman 2099, X-Men 2099 -- you get the picture. But one of the most original of these was Doom 2099, which took Marvel's best ever bad guy, Victor von Doom, King of Latveria, bopped him thru a timewarp into the future, and gave him a whole new world to roam. The interesting twist in this series, and all the 2099 books, was that the future was largely run by corporations, and there was some pre-Matrix (I think) internet-reality interface stuff -- and furthermore, some question as to whether the Doom in this story was in fact the Doom of the Marvel Universe, or some alternate realm, or something else.

In any event, some terrific stories, interesting arcs and subplots, and some very nice characterizations of Doom hisownself add up to a very entertaining comic book. It was cancelled around its 45th issue but I have managed to procure the first 21 issues over the past few months from 50 cent bins around the region. I highly recommend this sci-fi adventure series to anybody who likes words in their comics and intelligence in their plots -- some great artwork from the always-excellent Pat Broderick as well. The Mole sez check it out.

Coming Soon: Movie Night with Truman Capote.