The upcoming series, written by Frank Tieri, will see Doom discover the buried head of Ultron and risk it all to repair his time machine so he can set right what he did wrong. But Ultron is dangerous and things are sure to get complicated. ComicBook had a chance to talk to Tieri about Doom 2099: Rage of Doom and according to Tieri, you don’t want to call this a team up, not by a long shot. We also have a first look at the issue, which hits shops April 29th.
ComicBook: The last time we saw Doom 2099, let’s just say things didn’t go especially well for him. Tell me a little more about the Doom we pick back up with in Rage of Doom. What’s going on in his head?
Frank Tieri: Well, as you know, this is a very different Doom than the one we’re used to. This is a Doom that was Sorcerer Supreme, Emperor of the world, and after a fit of anger, destroyed everything he ruled over. So, this is a Doom that deeply regrets what he did, and through usage of his time machine, has very much tried to fix things, only to fail miserably time and time again.
Now, when we pick up on him, he’s licking his wounds after taking a pretty hefty beating from his past Sorcerer Supreme self — and now that his time machine has been damaged he doesn’t even have the means to face him again, So, just when he’s resigned to the fact that this is it, he may just end up being a ruler of nothing… along comes Ultron.
It feels wrong to call this a team up, but Doom needs Ultron to fix what he broke and it feels like just about every warning alarm should be going off on this pairing because Doom and Ultron are, in some ways, very similar and extremely dangerous. Why put these two together?
Oh, it’s certainly no team up. Ultron is but an ends to a means. This is a deal with the devil, scorpion and a frog type situation… and Doom is well aware of it. But what other choice does he have? He’s stuck. He has no other means to fix his time machine other than Ultron so he has to make this unholiest of unholy alliances. And, of course, he takes every precaution, puts every possible failsafe in there but I don’t think it’s a secret none of that ends up working otherwise, you know… we wouldn’t have a comic.
Doom is definitely having a moment, between some epic turns in comics, his popularity in Marvel Rivals, and of course, the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday. What’s it been like putting Doom through his paces with so much attention on the character?
Doom is arguably the greatest comic book villain of all time and probably my favorite so hell, I jumped at the chance to write him. And the fact that I get to explore this other side of Doom, a Doom that’s “won” but at such a terrible cost that even he realizes he went too far has been absolute blast.
Without spoilers, what’s the thing about Rage of Doom that you think will most surprise readers?
The interactions between Doom and Ultron are a lot of fun and I think fans will really dig that aspect of the book. And, of course, there’s the ending. Let’s just say I don’t think fans will expect it and wonder where we’ll go from there. And that’s all I’m saying about that.
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