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Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up #1
(Marvel Comics, 1974)
WRITERS: Roy Thomas, Larry Leiber
ARTISTS: John Buscema , Joe Sinnott, Frank Giacoia, and Larry Leiber
Greetings from the Wasteland!
The tag line on this book says it all. “3 Titanic Tales of the World’s Greatest Super-Foes”. The cover is a dramatic shot of Dr. Doom and Prince Namor locked in combat. A bolt of energy sizzles past the Sub-Mariner’s ear. Turn the page if you dare true believers, and enter the world of Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up #1. (How many hyphens can we fit in a title?) This was the first in a 17-issue run that paired Dr. Doom with various villains in the Marvel U. The last two issues featured the Red Skull as the main antagonist? Protagonist? Can it be possible to like the bad guy?
I answer you with a resounding YES!
This book, later followed by MODOK’s 11 and Doctor Doom and the Masters of Evil, was one of the few in the Marvel U to feature the villains’ stories. The first two issues were “giant-sized”. It is basically a chance to reprint old stories with only a thin narrative to connect them, that being the impetus for the meeting of the two villains.
Dr. Doom, following the events of FF #144 has crashed to Earth and landed unconscious in the ocean. Namor picks him up and proposes a partnership. The rest of the comic is devoted to two stories within the context of the larger plot. Doom, suspicious, recalls their previous encounters, which leads into the first story
“In the Darkness Dwells Doom”
This is a reprint from Sub-Mariner #20, 1969. Namor has had his gills surgically closed, and is on the run from the police, far away from water, so that he is somewhat weakened. At the last moment he escapes into the Latverian Embassy where Doom proposes an alliance. With the brains of Doom and the might of the Atlantean army, there is no surface foe that they could not defeat. Namor smells a trap and refuses. Doom then threatens him, and turns off all water to the embassy to further weaken Namor. The wily prince sets the building ablaze and the city firemen shoot water through the window, hosing Namor and giving him the strength to escape.
Interlude
Now Dr. Doom, still at Namor’s mercy, reminisces.
“This Man…This Demon”
Originally published in Marvel Super Heroes featuring Dr. Doom #20 from 1969, Dr. Doom faces off against Diablo, who wants to partner with him. In the process of researching his past defeats by the FF, Doom tries to formulate a plan of attack that will eventually defeat them by watching life-size images of their battles. (Pretty high-tech for 1969.) When the images come alive and attack him Diablo appears to offer Doom a deal, all the while holding a childhood friend, Valeria, captive.
Flashback to Doom’s childhood. A dying father, warning the world against he who bears the name Von Doom. Doom’s bitterness and growth into the diabolical genius we know and love. And there is a moment of weakness, of rarely seen emotionalism, from Doom. “…dreams, like mirrors, exist merely to be smashed.”
Diablo’s plan is to use Doom’s time machine to appear at a civil war battle, win it, and declare terms to the newly unified country. While he is expositing, Doom changes the controls of his time machine so that when it is activated Diablo is forced far into the future, to an Earth decimated by war, where he is the lone inhabitant and ruler.
The cruelty Doom shows in dealing with Diablo scares the now released Valeria away, and Doom is left alone in his throne room.
Back on Namor’s ship, Doom decides that either he or Namor would be a betrayer and declines the offer. A battle ensues and Doom escapes to the surface. Namor vows that one day they will be partners. This will be the premise for most of the Super-Villain Team-Up books.
I love the concept of this book. The inset stories work well in the overall narrative, showing that each man has a history that defines him and shapes his actions. I love the supreme arrogance of them both, one a prince who is ruler of three quarters of the world, the other with so great an intellect that one could not fathom what he is thinking at any given moment. (Sorry Mr. Richards, but only one can be at the top, and his name is DOOM.)
John Buscema is at his finest here; the forms are strong, layouts great, and action non-stop, even for a flashback book. The art from Sinnott, Giacoia, and Leiber are the icing on the cake. If you’re digging through the longbox and come across Giant-Sized Super-Villain Team-Up #1, it is worth the couple of bucks it’ll run you to get it.
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Follow Brad Gischia on Twitter: @comicwasteland
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