Sunday, March 11, 2007

Everything Going According To Plan

So Sallyp noted in the comments of yesterday's post that Dr. Doom must be getting kind of depressed, what with Tony Stark's gradually conquering of the world and all. But I figure Doom's doing fine. In fact, I bet he's got his fingers in this whole thing. Sure, with Iron Man involved, you'd figure it'd be the Mandarin mucking things up, but given Stark's current Machine God status, that tech angle is a little more up Doom's alley. And heck, Doom's stolen the power of cosmic beings (Silver Surfer, Beyonder, Watchers) I'm sure he used that power to perceive the future at least once. Even if he didn't, the man has time travel capabilities, so either way, he's seen this opportunity coming a long way off. And being Dr. Doom, he'll naturally take advantage (And why not? Doom is after all, the most qualified to lead the world. Not his fault the world can't recognize it.)

So I figure Victor's manipulating Tony. He's hacked into Stark's head (or however it works with Tony's current state), and is the reason why Stark has recently turned into Female Ultron Thing. This gets the Mighty Avengers all worried about Ultron, who's reappearance sends Hank Pym into another tailspin of guilt-driven depression (Which just causes him to go back into his lab, no violent outbursts). Meanwhile, Doom's been utilizing Stark's gifts to gather any information he feels might be useful, while using Tony's position to weaken SHIELD (the removal of the officer's mess and the dry dock daycare center are only the beginning), and get several nations annoyed at the U.S.

The growing acrimony between the U.S. and other nations leaves the citizens feeling unsafe, which is when Doom pops up, telling everyone that you can't trust a government with a superhuman army, because the supers are still human, and prone to making errors in judgment. Now if you really want to feel safe, Doom will point out that his country has no crime, and it maintains this with nice, trustworthy robots, and so wouldn't the U.S. be better off with Dr. Doom looking after him? The people of Marvel Universe, being less than terribly bright, enthusiastically agree, only to realize later that might not have been such a good idea.

Sadly, by that point, all the registered heroes are either dead or incarcerated, leaving it up to the New Avengers, who've been spending this entire time in Japan fighting ninjas to free the same citizens who wanted them locked away. Why? Because they're heroes, that's why! Of course, the team is lacking a little something, but that's why you've got Dr. Strange, as he resurrects Captain America (hey, if a novice like Willow can bring back Buffy, Strange ought to be able to pull it off in his sleep), who leads his team to victory, drives Doom back to Latveria, and reestablishes the U.S. as it was, including letting the people decide whether they want to still have the Superhuman Registration Act. The people naturally, realize that maybe it wasn't such a good idea, and repeal the Act, and it's happy sunny days in the Marvel Universe!

Until the Hulk shows up...

Man, that reads like poorly thought out fan fiction, which I suppose it is. I only spent like 15 minutes planning this post, what do you want? Besides, in reality, the story will be written by good writers like... crud, who would Marvel trust with this that could actually do it well (and on time)?

5 comments:

thekelvingreen said...

(hey, if a novice like Willow can bring back Buffy, Strange ought to be able to pull it off in his sleep)
At the end of the Avengers/Defenders crossover, Strange wipes the knowledge of the Defender's existence from the whole world's memory. Now, he spent the entirety of Civil Bore trying to figure out what he could do to fix things.

So, um, why didn't he just wipe the Registration Act, and even the knowledge of Stamford, out of everyone's memory? Covering up a tragedy like Stamford even has that "gritty" and "morally ambiguous" aspect Marvel are so desperate to grab. Okay, it would be ripping off Identity Crisis a little bit, but they already did that with Secret War, so why not again?

Man, that reads like poorly thought out fan fiction
So has the past two or three years of Marvel output.

I only spent like 15 minutes planning this post
About the same amount of time spent planning the last two or three years of Marvel's output, I'd imagine.


Talking of fanfic, I wanted the Annihilation Wave to be the Hulk at the head of a vast space fleet, having conquered the entire corner of the galaxy in which Reed and Tony dumped him. The swirly thing they chucked him through had time dilation effects, like Planet of the Apes, so while he's only been away a few months, he's actually spent years building an empire, and now he's ticked off.

I suppose the Hulk is coming back to kick arse, but I think it would have been neat to tie it in.

SallyP said...

Are you kidding? This is BRILLIANT! It even makes sense in a convoluted sort of way. More sense than Civil War did anyway. You can't tell me that Millar didn't go on the bender of all benders, full of Scotch when writing that whole disaster.

Which explains why he likes Tony I suppose.

Doom also would have loved to have turned Reed Richards into a villain! Revenge is sweet indeed.

CalvinPitt said...

kelvingreen: Dr. Strange doing mindwipes huh? I kind of like that, though making everyone forget Stamford seems pretty heavy duty, even for Strange. But I suppose he wouldn't technically be ripping off Identity Crisis, since - as you noted - Strange has a previously established history of it.

sallyp: Yeah, I have to think Doom at least cracked a smile when Sue decided she'd had enough of Reed's crap. Ditto the Thing heading for France. It would have been a really good time for Doom to finish Reed off, when he doesn't have his family around to back him up anymore.

Oh well, missed opportunities and all that.

Randy said...

just 2-3 years past...I'd think a little bit longer, at least include that Disassembled crap.

I love Dr. Doom. Give him everything!! He can even stay at my house, I have an extra room.

I'm rooting for the Hulk. Still.

CalvinPitt said...

randy: Oh sure, root for the giant green guy with the battleaxe!

And has it really been more than 3 years since Disassembled? Cripes, how time flies when you're wincing in horror.