Spider-Girl Versus Doctor Doom

 

Thank goodness for the Internet Archive! The Wayback Machine is an invaluable source of information on the lost and long gone days of the wild west internet. Today, as a sort of early present, I thought it would be nice to post the promotional comic commonly referred to as ‘Internet Super Heroes Meet Internet Super Villains’ in its entirety.

But what is it, exactly? Well, for starters, it has two names. ‘Internet Super Heroes Meet Internet Super Villains’ is the title that appears on the cover, but the comic’s indicia gives it the title ‘Wired Kids’, along with listing it as ‘No.1, November 2005’. I would argue this latter title should be its official title on places such as the Marvel Wiki, but that’s not important right now.

 

The comic was a custom comic printed under exclusive licence and donated by Marvel to Wired Kids Inc., a charity in the United States which was partly dedicated to promoting internet safety for children and teenagers. It appears Microsoft contributed to the comic’s production, as they are also attributed on the cover and in the indicia, along with their own internet safety program at staysafe.org. And yes, this comic was originally distributed for free. Here’s a few examples of the groups aiming to educate the public about internet safety, courtesy of the internet archive:

 

The comic is written by C.B. Cebulski with pencils by Scott Hepburn, with Cebulski and Nicole Wiley acting as editors. The latter name, Nicole Wiley may be familiar to Spider-Girl readers where she also served as an editor for a time. I have to point out that Mayday does appear visually familiar and similar to her MC2 or Earth-982 counterpart but as will become clear, this is not the MC2 Universe.

‘MayDayOne@internetsuperheroes.org’ is May’s email address, while Queens, New York is her physical address, though the Parker Family Home depicted does not resemble the design we are used to, and in my opinion resembles more the one from the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films. May is definitely out of character with her actions in this story, though perhaps it’s forgivable given the purpose of the comic. The less said about this facial hair free Peter Parker the better!

 

The Human Torch is a younger, more immature version, while the Thing…isn’t half covered in metal. So this appears to be an incarnation of the Fantastic *FOUR* closer to the early days of the Main Marvel Universe or Earth-616, albeit with a mature adult Peter Parker who’s a father to a teenage daughter and has an obsession with internet security! Evidently, Mayday is known to Johnny and Ben in her civilian identity. That’s nice.

 

The mysterious secret shadow-dwelling big-bad ‘Mood Dood’ is revealed to be none other than Doctor Doom! Not only does Doctor Doom know Spider-Girl’s secret identity as Mayday, having used her personal email to infect and spread his trojan horse virus, but the story rather uncomfortably suggests Victor Von Doom formed an entire online identity and parasocial relationship to do so. I’ll let that sink in.

Another contact of May’s is targeted, Bruce Banner aka the Incredible Hulk. Bruce’s Xbox gaming session is interrupted by one of Doom’s emails leading to him hulking out. The Human Torch, Thing and Hulk all track down Spider-Girl, three adults knowingly plan to beat up a teenage girl. And keep in mind, they all know her secret identity and therefore know Peter is Spider-Man.

Thankfully Peter shows up in costume and clears things up, shortly before a page stuffed with dialogue balloons that delivers the message the whole story has been laying on thick. Oh, and Victor? Maybe next time don’t use your work email to troll people online? ‘Mooddude@Latveria.com’, I mean come on, really!

As much as I am dunking on this harmless and well-intentioned promotional comic, I will say ‘We’ve beaten him so many times, maybe he feels cyber-crime is the only way he can take us down.’ Is possibly the most savage take down of Doctor Doom I’ve come across. Then again, Doom delivers a rather shocking self-own after he is arrested at the Latverian Embassy by the police (can they actually do that?): ‘I wonder if they have internet access in prison…hmmm…so many kids, so little time.’ I know he’s a villain, but I’m surprised Marvel approved portraying their most high-profile villains in this way.

 

Well this was fun. Happy Holidays! I’m off to update my internet security!

 

Until I decipher what THINKB4UCLICK means, I remain

 

frogoat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

History of the Latverian Flag

 

Thanks to my delightful younglings and extended family, I have recently been indoctrinated into the cult known as Fortnite. For those who don’t know on the 16^th of August 2024, the popular video game Fortnite’s Battle Royale released its latest narrative update, Chapter 5: Season 4 called ‘Absolute Doom’, which focuses on Marvel’s premier villain and the Fantastic Four’s most fearsome foe, the self-appointed Monarch of Latveria himself, Victor Von Doom aka Doctor Doom.

 

In terms of plot, Doctor Doom has seized control of the current formation of the Battle Royale Island, known as Helios, remaking much of it to resemble his beloved home country of Latveria as his ‘Kingdom of Doom’. This includes new landmarks such as Doomstadt, Doom’s Courtyard and Castle Doom, all adorned in Latverian Flags. Which finally brings me to my extremely belaboured point, the topic for today: the History of the Latverian Flag.

 

The Kingdom of Latveria first appeared in Fantastic Four Annual #2, which also presents the first time we see what could be considered a national flag, emblem or regal symbols. We’ll see a few reoccurring motifs in later stories, such as Doom’s stylised capitalised ‘D’ and the emblem with an eagle.

 

Following this is in Fantastic Four #85-#87 we glimpse various more banners and designs with the most notable this time an eagle on a sceptre, and the return of the ‘D’ logo, the latter of which may simply be Victor’s personal mark.

 

Oddly, Incredible Hulk #143 is the first time we get a clear look at what is unmistakeably a flag for Latveria outside their embassy in New York when Doom brings the Hulk there, and it’s also very different from what has come before. Depicted as a red flag with a completely different black eagle-like design in the centre, with a nighttime exception inverting this colour scheme (presumably a simple case of artistic licence) and on the issue’s final page we see the bird as simply a lighter red, notably alongside other flags.

 

In the 1987 Marvel Graphic Novel Emperor Doom, we again see various stylised capital ‘D’ insignia adorning various items after Doctor Doom uses the Daredevil villain Purple Man’s mind control powers to become ruler of the entire planet Earth.

 

In the graphic novel Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment the eagle and sceptre design returns, helping create something of a throughline across the decades.

 

I’ve discussed the significance of both the Onslaught and Heroes Reborn events to the MC2 in the past, and here we have another situation where it might apply as Doctor Doom was among those who apparently perished saving the world from the psychic entity known as Onslaught. It's revealed that Franklin Richards used his amazing abilities to create a pocket dimension to save his parents and all the other heroes. The reborn heroes would awaken in this pocket dimension to live out new lives, unaware of their pasts. In this new world, Doctor Doom again rules Latveria and we see an assortment of flags on display in Fantastic Four (vol. 2) #4, including the ‘D’ and eagle designs.

 

We get the first iteration of what has become the most iconic Latverian flag on the covers for Doom: The Emperor Returns #1 and #2. It may be argued this is not a national flag at all, but a flag symbolising the sovereign himself, Doctor Doom. This one is a bit questionable as it first appears on the Counter-Earth created by Franklin Richards at a point after the MC2 branches off or diverges from the Main Marvel Universe. Doctor Doom finds himself back on this Counter-Earth and sets about conquering it, dubbing it ‘Planet Doom’.

 

We’ll see versions of the above design continue to crop up back on the regular old Marvel Earth in Secret War #5, Penance: Relentless #4, Books of Doom #6 and Captain America (vol. 5) #23 right up until the date of this writing. A version of this flag is what appears in the video game Fortnite and sparked the idea for this post, which speaks to its popularity.

 

However, it’s worth mentioning we do get at least one more markedly different Latverian flag in the Marvel Atlas #1 from 2007. This depicts an armoured gauntlet grasping lighting bolts. This design does not appear to have caught on however as I haven’t seen it reused anywhere.

 

There may be many more examples of possible Latverian flag designs I am unaware of, but hopefully this has proven informative. With all this context in mind, I wonder what the MC2’s Latverian flag looks like? The war between Namor, the Sub-Mariner and Doctor Doom left Atlantis destroyed and Latveria’s former capital city Doomstadt in ruins, and in it’s wake Doom was presumed dead for 12 years. We do not know much about its political situation, but the nation’s flag may well have changed to reflect it’s new status. Just something to think about.

 

A huge shout out to the classic Doctor Doom fan site, Doom2099.com for the much-needed obscure fictional vexillological information. I miss discovering such places online and I would encourage you all to seek them out and support them whenever possible while they remain! Major props to arias-98105 as always for the constant support.

 

Until I rescue my beloved mother’s soul from the grasp of the dreaded demon Mephisto, I remain

 

frogoat