Issue(s): Cloak and Dagger #10
Cover Date: Jan 87
Title: "Who'll stop the rain?"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Bret Blevins - Penciler
Terry Austin - Inker
Joanne Spaldo - Assistant Editor
Carl Potts - Editor

Review/plot:
Last issue we got the impression that Dr. Doom was involved in the drug trade that Cloak & Dagger have been trying to track to its source. That would have been a mistake, and Bill Mantlo avoids that here and just says that the smugglers must have been traveling down the Autobahn, which passes near Latveria on the way to Istanbul.

But Cloak and Dagger wind up as guests of Doom, and he's currently in the middle of a scheme to disable all the world's nuclear weaponry.

And in fact, all nuclear power, including that used for benign reasons. This is initially presented as a way for him to keep his country safe, but we soon learn that he's creating an exception for himself and that he's really intending to conquer the world.

Which, if not for Cloak and Dagger, would have been the third time he's conquered the world from his desk (#1 and #2). Doesn't he remember that he'll just get bored?

Cloak and Dagger originally didn't even believe that Dr. Doom really existed, and then they say they want to leave stopping Doom to the Fantastic Four or the Avengers, but with some prodding from Bill Clayton, they do stand up to Doom.

What's interesting is that while Doom is pretty clearly acting in a villainous way here, he's unaffected by Dagger's powers, since he believes that what he's doing is good for the world.

Cloak's power, on the other hand, is able to trap him and force him to see visions of his mother. And here we learn another layer to Doom's motivation: he's only trying to conquer the world and amass power so that he can free her.

Doom then senses the presence and pair of eyes that we've been seeing in Cloak's cloak dimension lately, and Doom attacks it, which gets him released.

But Cloak is able to trick Doom into destroying his own nuclear power cancelling device by teleporting Doom while he is blasting.

Cloak, Dagger, and Bill then get the hell out of Latveria.

This is actually a nice Dr. Doom story. Bill Mantlo does a good job capturing the various facets of the character while retaining his villainous side, and there's really nice art by Bret Blevins, who will become the regular artist for the series when it goes into Strange Tales after next issue.

I'm very impressed with Dr. Doom's library robots. Do you think he would lend me one to pull comics for me?

Just a few additional notes: we learn that Bill Clayton's father was a US ambassador, Dagger is "dazzled" and entranced by the bright lights from Doom's anti-nuclear device, and there's a big metaphor in this story about Prometheus bringing fire to mankind and how, by taking away nuclear power, Doom is like that in reverse.

Quality Rating: B+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Note the tag for Zarrko the Tomorrow Man in the credits. That's due to a revelation that Zarrko had replaced Doom's servant Boris at some point, and the MCP have that beginning in Fantastic Four #258.

References:

• "Boris" interrupts Doom's soliloquy at the beginning of this issue to tell him that his project is ready. Doom says that he'd kill anyone else that interrupted him, and Boris reminds him that he's served him faithfully since Doom's father died, as shown in Fantastic Four annual #2 and Fantastic Four #278.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The reason Cloak and Dagger decided to stop Doom was they realized that Doom's device shut down every nuclear power plant, nuclear submarine, etc. on the planet. The power was out for at least an hour- casualties had to be at least in the thousands.
The caption describes the creature inside Cloak as the "hidden predator". That's eventually revealed to be its name- the Predator.

Thanks for giving me a name to go on for Cloak's demon, Michael. Following the Appendix, i'll tag the Predator every time he's actually visible (i.e. not alongside every appearance of Cloak).

Terry Austin's inks really improve Blevin's pencils. This is a good art team and matches well with the Leonardi art beforehand.

Disappointed with the story though. Doom is not a villain that belongs in a Cloak & Dagger comic. And if he does, it should be because he has some plans for THEM, not that they stumble across something he is doing.

The title is another of Mantlo's song references(Creedence Clearwater Revival?)