Marvel Age Doom: Deadly Is The Doctor Called Doom

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Deadly Is The Doctor Called Doom - The Album

This time we're looking at - or rather listening to - an audio story which appeared on the 'Spider Super Stories Album'. It's one of eight adaptations of stories which originally appeared in the 'Spidey Super Stories' comic book, which was in turn based on the version of Spider-man seen in 'The Electric Company' show, which was a further adaptation of the original comic character. If that isn't transmedia then I don't know what is!

This particular story is based on Spider Super Stories #19, and sticks extremely close to that storyline, with almost every single world being read out and only a couple of additional descriptions inserted to alert the reader to scene changes, all read out very clearly by none other than Morgan Freeman! It reminded me of the Power Records adaptation of Fantastic Four #126 in how closely it stuck to the comic, and I wonder if the idea was for the audience to read along as the record plays, similar to the Power Records one, in order to help them learn to read? If so, it doesn't seem to have come with a comic included.

It also reminded me of The Fantastic Four Radio Show, if only for the way that certain lines get said as quickly as possible by the actors, as they don't really make any sense at all without the visuals. The section where Doctor Doom imagines a future where he has a Spider Army is particularly confusing!

Here's a YouTube clip of the whole story so you can judge for yourself:

Doctor Doom is played here by Luis Avalos, one of the regulars on 'The Electric Company' who performs the role as a rather camp mixture of Vincent Price and Peter Lorre. In the context it works surprisingly well, coming off like a rather creepy uncle - I guess the usual vocalisation of Doom, as a forbidding, deep voiced menace, wouldn't really work when his main plot is to kidnap a bunch of school children in order to lure Spider-man to his castle to steal his spider powers. It's also quite close to Stan Lee's early 70s version of the character as a wheedling, self-pitying, deluded dictator, so it's a pity Avalos didn't get the chance to use his particular performance on one of those stories too - I think it would have worked, but maybe it wouldn't have been as much fun for the Electric Company's target audience!

It's a very interesting way to play the character which, I'll warn you now, has the unfortunate side effect of getting into your head, so that Doom will continue to speak a little bit more camply forever after, notably in his 'Spidey Super Stories' appearances, but in the mainstream universe too!

link to information about this issue

posted 18/9/2019 by Mark Hibbett

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DOOMBOT FILTER: an animal that says 'woof' (3)
	(e.g. for an animal that says 'cluck' type 'hen')