Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars #11 (March 1985)

The Secret Wars rage on! Last time, we saw ol' Doctor Doom, the mad tyrant of Latveria, take on the Beyonder out a lust for his phenomenal cosmic powers. The armored madman appeared to be triumphant, gaining the power of a god. So, how would our heroes handle this seemingly unconquerable problem? Let's find out in Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars #11!

The cover, a Mike Zeck piece, is pretty awesome. You have Doom standing over the heroes. We don't see his face, and it makes sense. Doom's face has hardly ever been shown after donning the armor. At this point, we can assume most of the heroes on the cover have never seen it uncovered, hence their shocked reactions.

"...And Dust to Dust!"
Writer: Jim Shooter
Penciler: Mike Zeck
Inker: John Beatty
Colorist: Nelson Yomtov
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Editor: Tom DeFalco
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The story begins with...Doctor Doom removing his mask, revealing a handsome face.

"By me...I'm GORGEOUS!"

Wow. Cosmic powers can give quite the makeover, huh? Doom, being the egocentric maniac he is, claims that he is now the mightiest being in the universe. The heroes are naturally willing to take him on anyway, because you know, Doctor Doom. That's not exactly a name associated with peace and kindness. Spider-Man and Professor X think he means no harm. After all, Spider-Man's Spider-Sense would detect if Doom was to attack, and despite Xavier's inability to read Doom's mind (due to the cosmic enhancements to Doom's mind), he senses zero malice.

The villains also watch this, utterly confused. Why isn't Doom finishing the heroes off? Doctor Octopus and the Wrecking Crew think Doom is selling them out to the heroes. Some want to fight, like Absorbing Man. Enchantress, likely still a bit wine-drunk, is just amused by the whole thing. The normally arrogant and cocky Titania is very reluctant to face the heroes, especially Spider-Man. Yeah, remember issue eight?

Molecule Man, though, is furious. He believes Doom betrayed him and vows to kill him. He uses his molecule-manipulation powers to toss the heroes out of the way...alongside the chunk of the planet they were on. He starts to engage Doom, and Doom counters...with an inspiring speech?

"Owen, dude...you could make some weird stuff!"

The Latverian tyrant shows Owen Reece the fundamental forces of the universe. He points out that the Molecule Man can be the most powerful being in the universe...besides Doom himself, of course. He opens up the man's mind, removing the mental blocks that prevented him from being able to affect the molecules of living beings. You see, since his first appearance in Fantastic Four #20 (November 1963), Molecule Man's powers were ineffectual against living beings. It's revealed here it was due to his own mental issues, his self-loathing and self-doubt. Owen feels like a literal new man as Doom flies away.

He assures the other villains that it's okay. They don't need Doom, he'll take care of them. Doctor Octopus angrily challenges him, but Absorbing Man basically is like, "Shut up, Ock! This dude could kill us all!" Owen makes a ship for the villains, and they fly off. But what of the heroes?

"We well NEVER go parachuting with you again, Reed!"

They're alright. They head back to their old base, where they go lick their wounds and confer on what to do next. They recap the series so far, for those who just came in. Hulk just wants to smash stuff, as he's been losing his intellect.

So, where did the villains end up? Well, this Battleworld is a patchwork world, made from pieces of other planets. One of them was Earth, particularly a suburb of Denver, Colorado.

"The Masters of Evil got drunk again!"

Volcana has a place there, as it's her hometown. The villains come there to confer on what to do next. They generally at this point just want to go home. The Molecule Man agrees with this. So, he makes it happen by making a dome around the suburb, and taking it for a ride.

"Okay, does anyone know any David Bowie?"

The heroes discover it, but there's nothing they can do to stop it. The new Spider-Woman freaks out, because as it turns out, she's from that chunk of Earth as well. Cap suggests they hit the sack. There's nothing they can do about it, anyway.

Sleep evades the steel-skinned X-Man called Colossus. All he can think of is Zsaji. He realizes that he loves her. In the dead of night, he takes a small flying jetski-like craft to go see her. As he leaves, a streak of light races through the sky, and hits a slumbering Hulk. The light seemingly takes control of the Green Goliath, and it makes him walk towards an unknown destination. Spider-Woman notices this and tries to stop him, fearing he'll step on someone.

"Hulk is NOT eating all the food in the fridge again!"

This Spider-Woman has the power to create webs of psionic energy. Hulk proves to be too powerful, and she can't maintain the web. She tries to wake him up, but gets her head introduced to a wall for her efforts. There's a concussion right there. The light leaves Hulk and possesses her instead...for reasons. The possessed Spider-Woman heads down to Doom's old lab. There, the Monica Rambeau Captain Marvel still stands, a frozen holographic image. There also lies Klaw's head. He's made of solid sound, so being just a head won't hurt him. A light erupts, which wakes up the other heroes and frees the two heroines...but Spider-Woman has a strange buzzing in her head. Whatever this light was, it left an invitation on the wall: Doom has summoned them to his new home at dusk tomorrow. So, what is his new home?

"This is just the beginning. Doom is doing some further remodeling."

All the power of reality in his hands, and the best Doom can do is create giant gold crystal. it doesn't even look like a medieval castle or anything. You'd think that Doom, being Doom, would come up with something a bit more...grand, you know? Not to mention it would have made a cool playset. Remember, Secret Wars started as a toy line. At his big gold crystal base, Doom confers with Klaw. It's there it reveals that Doom dares not fall asleep. Again, he may have the power of a god, but Doom is still a man. And men need rest.

At Zsaji's village, Colossus comes by and gives her some flowers. He confesses his love for her, and despite the two having that big ol' language barrier (Remember, Zsaji knows neither English nor Russian and Colossus doesn't speak any...Zsaji), she does smile. Aww.

Eighteen hours later, the other X-Men finally notice that Colossus is missing. You'd think they'd keep a regular head-count. Strange unknown planet and all that. Wolverine believes that Colossus is obsessed with her because she used her healing powers on him...how do you know that, Wolverine?

The heroes gather up to meet with Doom. Thor, Wasp, and Spider-Man all admit to having bad dreams the night before. Interesting...

They arrive at Doom's gold crystal tower. The Latverian tyrant brags to them that he's all-powerful now, blah blah blah. But he's undergone some changes. You see, Doom has become a new man, in a way. He wants to make some things right. He can't undo all the villainous stuff he's done in the past because it could badly screw up the space-time continuum. But there are some recent things he can fix. One of those things is resurrecting Kang.

"Wait what's going on AGH!"

Remember when he was killed in issue 4? Well, he's back now, and on his way home. And then there's Galactus? After he was left drifting in space, his herald Nova would find him in Fantastic Four #244 (July 1982). Continuing to feel generous, Doom wants to grant boons to all the heroes there. He will grant their fondest desires. The heroes debate over this, but Captain America notices that Spider-Woman is staring intently at Klaw. Like she knows him or something.

Ultimately, the heroes decide "Yeahhh, thanks but no thanks, Doom." And Doom is all like, "Fine, get out. You come back, I'll destroy you." Looks like Doom hasn't completely changed, after all. The heroes do so, but then Cap notices Spider-Woman is missing. Despite Doom's warnings, Cap goes back in to find her. He carefully sneaks in and overhears Klaw singing. He makes his way into one of the Latverian tyrant's chambers.

"Oh, hello Cap. Doom was just relaxing."

Cap explains that he's just here to get Spider-Woman. She's gone missing, after all. Doom understands and sends Klaw to find her. Cap then notices the paintings in the room are all of a woman. He then realizes the paintings are of his mother Cynthia Von Doom. Klaw searches for Spider-Woman and gets caught in one of her psionic webs. She then seemingly collapses, and Klaw walking forward...with a strange buzzing in his head. Interesting...

Meanwhile, it turns out that Captain America and Doctor Doom had been...talking. That's literally it. They just sat down and talked to each other. Squirrel Girl would be proud, Steve. Cap learns that the spirit of Doom's mother Cynthia is trapped in the realm of Mephisto, which was established in Astonishing Tales #8 (October 1971). Doom explains that after he rescues his mother's ghost from the future eraser of Peter Parker an Mary-Jane Watson's marriage, he has no real desire to rule the universe. In fact, he needs to keep his power contained, as the slightest flick of a finger could cause a cosmic disaster.

Cap understands this, so he's just going to grab Spider-Woman and leave. Klaw returns and wonders what's going on, whatever had its hold on him releasing the Master of Sound. Doom fears it's the inevitable.

Meanwhile, Colossus and Zsaji are making out in a field. The steel-skinned Russian gets a
mental summons from Professor Xavier. It's time to meet up with the other heroes, Petey. They got stuff to discuss. Later at the Doombase, Cap leads a roundtable of all the heroes.

"Alright, everyone! What're we going to eat?"

If you ask me, they should have been doing roundtable meetings like this in the first place. What's the issue? Doom. Doom's essentially become a god thanks to his taking the power of the Beyonder. However, it causes some concern. This is Doom they're talking about. The man claims he's transcended humanity, but yet he still wants to rescue his mother from Mephisto. If he really has no human desires any longer, why would he still care about rescuing his mother? Also, one of the first things he did with his new power was fix his face.

The heroes all come to the agreement that yeah, leaving Doctor Doom alone with all this power is not the best of ideas...except for Colossus. He's unsure about this. After all, Doom hasn't done anything to the heroes since getting this power...and he may have genuinely changed. Shouldn't the heroes keep this in mind?

And then...this happens.

"We're a'splodin'!"

This comic was...alright. We finally do learn something more about the new Spider-Woman, but it's not much. The heroes' untrustworthiness of the newly-all powerful Doctor Doom does make sense, but I do feel that the Fantastic Four members in this story should have had a bigger role in making that decision to go after him. After all, he's their arch-nemesis. They're more familiar with him than any of the other heroes there.

The revelation of a suburb of Denver being part of Battleworld does raise a lot of questions. Yes, there is precedent for Battleworld to have other residents besides the heroes and villains in the form of Zsaji's village, but it does make me wonder. What were the people in Denver doing during this whole time? Did any of them try exploring around? Did they meet other residents of Battleworld? There's a lot of untapped story potential there. Yeah, Secret Wars had to focus on the heroes and villains, but I would have liked to have seen maybe a backup tale or maybe a one-shot comic or two that focused on these other residents. A solo story focusing on Zsaji would have been pretty good, for example. You know, explore the possibilities.

I did like the small character moments in this comic. The villains wanting to go home, Colossus and Zsaji, and Cap and Doom's interaction. Those were nice. And it was also neat seeing Spider-Woman in action. I do wish that we got more exploration of her connection to Denver, though. I never understood why she gets so little focus here. Why introduce her if you're not really going to do much with her? It's kind of a shame.

I did enjoy the scene with the villains convalescing. It was kind of hilarious to see all these people who are often seen as monsters just sitting around grousing. The bolt of energy possessing Hulk, Spider-Woman, and Klaw was also interesting. It's likely that the reader may have an idea who it is, though. All in all, this is an issue best read as part of the whole miniseries instead of a standalone.

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