Astonishing Tales #3 & #4
Larry Lieber & Wally Wood
The conclusion of the Rudolfo, Faceless One and Doomsman arc. Rudolfo is taking back control of Latveria. But he’s not the threat, it's the Faceless One. But he’d not the threat, it's Doom's own creation, an invincible android! At each point, we just kind of forget about the previous element. Might be fun to see a coherent rewrite of this story.
Surprise! It's not a helmet. Or it's all helmet?
The Walking Orb takes command of the castle. Oh no! Anti-particles? Doom should not be surprised at the controller here.
No problem, Doom will just destroy it all. Evidently, he is actually projecting his huge image to let his populace know he's destroying their capital.
Because the android is imprinted with his own mental patterns, Doom can control him, but only through great effort.
Oh well. I'll put it in this pocket dimension. But first I’m going to pretend to be asleep.
Who was the Faceless One? Why did it need Rudolfo? Do we ever see it or it's species again? Why did it want Latveria of all places? Does the invincible, immortal Doomsman ever reappear? It has Doom's mind, I’m sure it can escape and/or rule that dimension. One of the worst supervillain tropes is them developing a whole new plan/power/technology and then giving it up because of one problem. Doom has anti-particles, earthquake machines, invincible androids, and a personal exile dimension… but I’ll never use those again. Pick one idea and explore it!
Nevertheless, so glad they saw the possibility of Doom as a protagonist - is this a first for a supervillain? When was the Joker's first solo series?
