Sweet Christmas! What the heck set these two off?
Eight issues into its run, Luke Cage, Hero For Hire is already turning to guest appearances to beef up its sales, and by coincidence this tale just happens to revolve around money--or, more to the point, the title character being short-changed by the lord of Latveria himself, Dr. Doom.
What could have led up to such a situation? It seems that some of Doom's robots have turned on their master and fled to the United States with state secrets, disguised as humans. And so Cage is hired by proxy to find and capture these "men," with his client obviously wishing to remain anonymous and withhold any information as to who is paying Cage's bill or the true nature of the "individuals" he's being paid to find (and at $200/day, which was probably a decent fee in 1973 for someone in Cage's line of work.)
But in the process, he discovers exactly what these "thieves" are when they put up more of a fight than Cage was expecting and their facade of human flesh is ripped away--and so he pays a little trip to his client's abode, the Latverian embassy, where Cage has his first meeting with that country's king.
Cage clearly isn't exactly awed or cowed by Doom, whom he almost appears to regard as something of an eccentric (!); but the good doctor is persuasive enough to convince him to carry on with the job, and Cage sees no practical reason to turn him down.
But when the resistance of his powerful foes forces him to use lethal force, he becomes incensed at Doom for essentially using him for his own ends; and when his client adds insult to injury and stiffs him of his fee before leaving for Latveria, all bets are off as far as the lengths Cage will go to in order to set things right.
If you're thinking that two-hundred dollars seems a trivial sum for Doom to renege on--along with writer Steve Englehart's implication that he's something of a cheapskate--join the club. Englehart's explanation (such as it is) is forthcoming, though you may not be any less confused on the matter.
Courtesy of a jet which Cage impatiently convinces the Fantastic Four to loan him (in their first meeting--and yes, another guest appearance, receiving no small amount of pages), Cage arrives in Latveria and, predictably, must fight his way into Doom's castle. Yet eventually, Cage confronts his armored swindler--only to find that as far as Doom is concerned, the matter has been settled and virtually forgotten, in a convincing scene laid out by Englehart.
With the pleasantries having swiftly segued to battle, these two go at it--Cage fighting mostly on principle (though with every intention of having Doom pay up), while Doom simply won't allow himself to be dictated to, much less defeated. Yet there is still much to be said between them.
Though it's a rare day when Doom's armor has been damaged in battle with someone, it has indeed happened on occasion; yet how difficult it still seems to accept that Doom's armor has an Achilles' heel based solely on its integrity--and that, in all the battles he's been through, no one has ever thought of Cage's tactic before now.
Before he can take advantage of it, however, and perhaps induce Doom to honor their agreement while he's at a disadvantage, Cage finds he must intercede when Doom is suddenly surprised and attacked by an alien foe which has long been involved in Doom's affairs and desires to bring about his death. And once the strange intruder has been driven off, Doom finds his mind has changed toward Cage, at least enough to give the man what he's asked for.
That Doom has a problem with his cash flow is news to me, given the expensive equipment and armament he's amassed as well as the lavish furnishings of his castle (to say nothing of his art collection). As for Cage, he likely would have come after Doom even if he'd needed to take a commercial flight (and been forced to shell out considerably more than was owed him). At any rate, when he gets back to the States, perhaps the deal is now sweetened for him by being able to take a measure of satisfaction in counting Victor von Doom as "another satisfied customer."
9 comments:
I loved this story, even though (or especially because) it was batshit crazy.
Two hundred bucks! Even in 1970s dollars, it isn't that much money. It wouldn't be enough to warrant engaging a debt collection agency. Any business would write it off. Not Luke, though. Of course, once word gets around, nobody would ever stiff him again...
But consider Doom's side of this. He closed his embassy to avoid a $200 debt! CLOSING THE EMBASSY WOULD COST MORE THAN THAT. An economy class ticket back to Latveria would cost more than that! For someone so often characterised as being obsessed with his personal honor, it makes no sense.
Malfunctioning Doombot. That's my headcanon for this story.
The best part of the story is Doom's explanation as to how he is aware of Cage's existence. It hearkens to a sweet, uncluttered time in Marvel when someone acquiring superpowers was indeed noteworthy.
$200 is approximately $1,100 in today's figures. I'd be plenty angry if one of my clients stiffed me for that amount.
However, if he had to pay his own freight to get to Latveria, even Cage might have reconsidered. But he had the crafty move of conning a free ride out of the F.F.
But I have no rationalization for why Doom would stiff Cage for the fee. If anything, Doom should have paid him a generous bonus. Having a happy mercenary-for-hire in New York would have much more potential in future strategies than a new enemy.
Doom doesn't have cash flow problems Comicsfan - his funds are hard to obtain because he just doesn't like handing over cash to others.
Remember, he is monarch of Latveria - aristocrats, especially royalty, are well known for not paying for stuff. Why do you think the British queen doesn't ever carry any money? Its just how they do things, like its still the middle ages.
-sean
That's not a bad point to make about Doom paying off Cage to keep him as a contact, Murray--in fact he could have just formalized the arrangement and put Cage on a retainer, something Kyle Richmond would later set up himself in order to guarantee Cage's services whenever the Defenders needed him.
sean, I'm afraid I can't quite get on board with your explanation, since Buckingham Palace (or any other royal establishment) must be in the habit of tendering payment for any number of services or fees for either the Queen or members of her family. Doom, for instance, would have only had to either refer Cage to his Embassy staff, or delivered the instructions himself (though I can't imagine his staff being any less trained to routinely handle such matters than the Queen's).
I personally think that it was out of character for Doctor Doom not to pay the money he owed. Despite his plans of world domination, etc, he's always been a man of honour.
Mike, I think it's often a slippery slope for such men, particularly when we try to sequester their actions and actual character from their insistence of having a sense of "honor." Doom's character, to me, contradicts whatever claims he might make in that regard; the respect of his subjects, for instance, doesn't have its root in the love he insists they have for him, but in the fear of his reprisals should they not outwardly display that love and happiness toward his rule when they are out and about in public. Dracula, who maintains that he is above all a man of honor, would commit the most heinous act(s) without the slightest pang of integrity or sense of righteousness toward his victims--we're cattle to him, to be fed on or to be made use of at his behest. Usually we only see honor in these two men (or others of their ilk) when their back is against the wall--yet true honor isn't a switch to be flipped on in the rare instance when one finds their conscience, but a code by which to strive to live by--and I've seldom if ever seen Doom demonstrate truly "honorable" intentions toward others without an ulterior motive guiding his ever word and gesture.
Well said, CF!
My first ever exposure to Dr. Doom featured 1) him sweet-talking the Silver Surfer and then backstabbing the alien for his cosmic power and then 2) kidnapping a French scientist out of his home to design a missile system in Latveria. He kept the scientist in line by threatening the man's nine-year old daughter.
He's only expanded on that beginning in further encounters. Which is fine, since he's a fantastic supervillain. Just don't make him out to be anything but a bad guy, though.
The perfect rebuttal to Dr. Doom's "honour" is to quote Inigo Montoya: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
Some thoughts on Doom as a man of honour Comicsfan.
First, Doom's values may well not be the same as yours - historically, ideas of honour haven't necessarily been egalitarian. He might consider that only his equals, or those who have proven worth of his respect, deserve to be treated honourably.
Which is something we see in his attitude to Luke by the end of this very story.
Secondly, Doom is a complex character, a genius and at the same time a petty tyrant. He isn't always consistent... especially under different writers!
-sean
sean, that's really what I'm getting at: Is Doom "a man of honor" simply because, every great once in awhile, he commits an honorable act? I would emphatically answer "no," pretty much for the reasons I've already given. IMO it's really too broad a brush to paint him with.
What an interesting discussion this has developed into. I wonder if the topic has been given treatment in a forum or blog somewhere?
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