Doctor Doom Returns in Doomsday!

by BEAU YARBROUGH

News Editor

Comic Book Resources

http://www.comicbookresources.com/

Marvel Comics is often lauded for its superheroes - characters like Spider-Man, the X-Men and Fantastic Four are American cultural icons. But the House of Ideas has also created more than their fair share of classic villains in their time, and one of the biggest is coming back after a long absence.

Doctor Doom returns to the pages of Marvel Comics this November in the "Doomsday" set of specials, featuring the work of Chris Claremont, Mike McKone, Mark McKenna, Joe Casey, Charlie Adlard, Joe Kelly, Matt Haley, Steve Lieber, Michael Ryan, Ethan Van Sciver, Fabian Nicieza, Mark Bagley and Al Vey.

But while there will be familiar faces, don't expect this is the familiar Marvel Universe; it's another, somewhat less familiar Marvel Universe, the universe featured in the "Heroes Reborn" year-long event in 1996 and 1997. During that time, Wildstorm Studios took over "Fantastic Four," "The Avengers," "Captain America" and "Iron Man," retooling them somewhat and telling new stories in a simplified, modernized continuity. While long-term fans howled, taken as a whole, the event was a commercial success, leading to Marvel Comics trying the same technique with Chaos Comics and their supernatural characters and then, most successfully, with Event Comics and the "Marvel Knights" line of comics.

But the door appeared to have closed on the Heroes Reborn universe in the miniseries that ended the event, with all of the players from the "real" Marvel Universe shuttled back home. All except one: Fantastic Four nemesis Doctor Doom was missing after his battle with the Avenger the Mighty Thor.

Now, the Heroes Reborn universe, bereft of the heroes it borrowed from the main Marvel Universe, has to look to the supervillain in its darkest hour.

"So, they finally announced 'Doomsday,' huh?" Kelly told the Comic Wire on Wedneday. "Believe it or not, we've been working on this since FEBRUARY! Can you believe that Marvel kept a secret for 6 whole months?"

"Doomsday" resembles similar events from DC Comics, which has used previously comics-bereft "fifth weeks" of months throughout the year to run special events, like the "Amalgam Universe" that merged DC and Marvel characters together, the "Tangent" universe that attached new characters to established DC character names and, most recently, a series of books that spotlighted the Justice Society of America, building

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