Panel One.
Castle Latveria. Doctor Doom is working on a particularly fiendish device in his laboratory. Behind him, his time machine springs into life. A square of light lifts from the base revealing the beginnings of a figure dressed in Doom's own armour and robes.
Doom: Richards, Stark, the Odinson... Once this weapon is operational, all will bow before the might of...
Doom: Eh?
Panel Two.
Close on Doom's face, his eyes filled with anger.
Doom: Who dares trespass in the inner sanctum of Castle Latveria - dressed in gaudy imitation of Doom's own regal vestments?
Panel Three.
Another Doom steps from the time machine. Our Doom readies himself for attack.
Doom 2: No mockery this, Victor, I am entirely that which I appear to be. Your future, here with dire warning--
Panel Four.
Our Doom fires on time machine Doom with the full force of his gauntlet blaster. Time machine Doom tries to fire back, but our Doom's assault is sudden and vicious...
Doom: No. Doom does not listen to the whims of fancy or blurry, ill-divined "futures". Doom is the master of his own fate--
Doom 2: You're wrong, Victor... that is exactly what I came here to tell you...
Doom 2: You... are... wrong...
Panel Five.
The fight is over in seconds. Time machine Doom lies in a smouldering heap on the floor. Our Doom stands over him, victorious.
Doom 2: ...about this... and so much else... besides...
Doom: No...
Panel Six.
Doom throws the other Doom's body down a huge, stone-walled pit... where hundreds of other alternate future Dooms lie rotting.
Doom: Despite all your warnings...
Doom: Doom is never wrong.
Oh, great reveal in the final panel. Doom is the sort of sick bastard who would ignore himself constantly. What a shame.Very well written, Rol.
ReplyDeleteCan one of those future alternates have a mask with a metal beard built into it?
Hey Rol, great work again. You really captured Doom's voice, as well as his arrogance.
ReplyDeleteOne little thing though - if Doom has killed future counterparts of himself, does that mean some of the bodies disappear as they never existed? If such, wouldn't that have some kind of impact on the space-time continuum? For example, if Doom used a gauntlet to kill one of his future doppelgangers, which hypothetically meant he did not need to recharge it as soon, which in turn meant it had a little bit more power in it to take out that pesky Richards once and for all....ok, tangent much? My point being, Time Travel is tricky to write about.
Great work.
Alternate futures, Ben. It's been pretty well established that Doom's time machine doesn't actually travel in time but moves through and constantly creates alternate realities (unless, as Peter David speculated recently in X-Factor, the traveller is fitted with a Doomlock which locks them to one particular timestream).
ReplyDeleteOf course, none of that changes the message they have for Doom. The repeated message...
Ahhhhhhhh, I was wondering about that. Please disregard my poorly researched first comment.
ReplyDeleteWow, very strong reveal, Rol. Great study of Doom's personality, I really dig it.
ReplyDeleteYou're an alternate universe John Byrne, Rol. Like a pleasant version who still writes Doom in that amazing over-the-top DOOOOOOOOM way.
ReplyDeleteNo higher compliment, thanks. Byrne in his heyday was pretty much unbeatable when it came to writing Doom. I can never understand more contemporary writers (i.e. Bendis) who want to play down the pomp and ego and have Doom talking like just another villain.
ReplyDelete