InsaneJournal

#2 continues where #1 leaves off with Doom preparing his return to Latervia and toople the regime run by Tiger Wylde. Doom creates a humanoid robot with the simple mission to make sure their arrival there goes unnoticed.

However en route to Latervia they run into some trouble. I post it because this is such a Doom moment:




After he returns, Doom revisits the ruins of his former castle trying to remember the period of memory that is lost to him.




Doom is then interupted and learns about a important delievery to Wylde of Tritonium, an isotope that could fuel Wylde's Latervia for years to come. However, the item is guarded by a merc:






The next issue, with the Tritonium in his possession Doom begins to plan the downfall of Wylde.



Doom's first move? Turning the populace of Latervia against Wylde.



Doom continues to gather his forces and end Wylde's partnerships with the corporations. He pays a visit to the head of Pixel, DeVargas, the only mega corp whose allied with Wylde. A germ-a-phobic is appalled by Doom meeting him in person. However, he agrees to end his ties with Wylde.

Wylde on the otherhand is trying to figure out who took the Tritonium. He still considers Doom a pawn of corporations, and is getting more annoyed by him. It is then Wylde discovers that Fortune is on Doom's side and things are looking bleak for her. Doom during this asks the young gyspy mystic/healer Vox to look into his mind and try to repair the missing pieces. However, they're interuppted by Xandra.




The situation continues to detorate for Doom as Wylde's forces just rip into his still yet unprepared ones forcing them to surrender. So it's just Doom, Vox, and Xandra against Wylde's forces. Doom orders the pair out of the mountain but remains and orders a challenge to Wylde meet him if he dares alone. Wylde take's the bait to challenge Doom alone.





Doom and Wylde continue to fight while Vox and Xandra run into Poet (whose a real awesome character), a merc for hire who decides to side with Doom's group cause it looks like he'll have a ton of fun. The three take out Wylde's forces (using the boomarang techinque) and his right hand man, Zero.

However, Wylde gets the better of Doom due to his brute strength and has him at his mercy leading to:




The remaining forces of Doom look on wondering if the man survived. Of course this is Doom, he finds a way. How? His armor has the ablity to phase thus he turned that device on when mountain goes boom thus surviving. With Wylde and his second-in command dead, Doom has Latervia back in his control. With his castle again being rebuilt, Doom overlooks his empire and what his next move should be.



God I love this series still after all these years. I hope by Doom that Marvel yields, and releases a collected trade of these first four issues. They where so good. I can understand why they haven't yet. After this there's A LONG arc #5-8, and #10.

The arc deals with DeVargas ploting Doom's downfall by hiring the top cyber-hacker called Fever to hack into Doom's armor and kill him. Thus Doom and his own cyber-hacker Wire have a long adventure into cyberspace. They encounter a net gods (namely Paloma), Duke Stratsophere, and a digital copy of a warped Fantastic Four (Reed Richards, Hulk, Human Torch, and Medusa). I think I will be posting that encounter next.

#9 is a fill-in that has no bearings with the arc it's around, however it's just Doom and Wire still in cyberspace encountering another net god. This one is a sentinent viral program based on Professor Moriarty. So yeah Doom fights Moriarty in a battle of the greatest literary villains.

If proteus_lives does the Warren Ellis era of this, #24-39, I'll focus on the Francis Moore part with various parts from #1-25 (Ellis did the script for #24-25, but it was from Moore's plot).