Donald Blake is a Terrible Doctor

[espanolbot]

From a story from the 60s, where Donald Blake goes to Latveria to rescue the father of a woman he knows back in the States, who claims that her father (a rocket scientist) is being kept hostage by Dr Doom.

As a cover, Blake says that he's going to try and use his surgery skills to cure Doom's disfigurement. Doom decides to take the doctor up on his offer, despite figuring that exposing himself like this is both an act of weakness.

Blake's reaction is... not the best one.



Oh, and the kicker? The rocket scientist was actually being paid by Doom and was serving him willingly, but he dies during Thor's "rescue" attempt, so Blake lies to her about what her dad was really doing.

I know that it probably wasn't thought of back when it was written, comics being what they were back then, but couldn't Blake arguably have just made Doom a whole lot worse? Considering Doom is such a egomaniacial and vain man that he's only agreeing to follow up Blake's offer due to the surgeon's international fame, so being so bluntly shut down wouldn't have the best effect, right?

Comments

[theflames]

HAHAAHAHAHAAHAH. That's good fun!

No class! No class!

[icon_uk]

Nice professional bedside manner there Don old mate, reminds me of this scene

Also, wasn't Blake a General Practitioner rather than a plastic surgeon?

[glprime]

Pah! Don't be ridiculous! All doctors are the exact kind of doctor needed at that moment.

(And now there's a Super Doc article, what fun!)

[icon_uk]

The Super Doc entry has no mention of Hank McCoy, who is a biochemist bio-geneticist and also, somehow, being the guy who designed and installed the entire tech, hardware AND software, including the Danger Room, at the Jean Grey Institute.

[kamino_neko]

That sounds more like it'd fit under Omnidisciplinary Scientist, Super Doc specifically dealing with medical doctors.

[salinea]

wow, that is terrible.

[silverzeo]

HA! And if the THor movie taught us anything, Blake is a lousy lover too. I am so glad that major character in Marvel's Thor history is on the cutting room floor, I mean: what makes him so great? That's the question newer readers are NEVER going to ask because Marvel NEVER uses or references him!

[magusfool]

You have apparently not read J. Michael Straczynski's run on Thor, in which he brought back the Donald Blake character. It kind of brought Thor back to being relevant in comics after YEARS of wallowing in unimportance after the Walt Simonson run. Heck, I'm not even sure there would have been a Thor movie if not for the resurgence in popularity following J.M.S.' run.

[whoha]

I'm gonna guess, but is the art by John Buscema?

[q99]

"Nothing!

...

Hah, just kidding, I tell that to every patient! Seriously though, plastic surgery has come a long way, we'll get you fixed up in a jif."

[cleome45]

I want to read the "What If?" story where Blake actually fixed Von Doom up. So would Victor be more or less evil if he was good-looking? Would he give up the mask, or keep wearing it to intimidate people and keep that threatening air of mystery?

Cast your votes now!

[icon_uk]

There has been at least one What If..?'s that did investigate what would have happened had Doom never been scarred (Where he listens to Reed's warning), but I don't recall if any of them had him being fixed later.

[crinos]

Oh come on Don, how bad could it be?

[sinisterlink]

It makes me think of Phantom of the Opera, where quite a few times in the play/movies/whatever everyone is passing out and throwing up at the sight of his face, and then he gets unmasked at the end and I'm just like, "Oh, come on guys, he doesn't look THAT bad".

[espanolbot]

Could be Richard Harrow (Boardwalk Empire) or Lesley May (Rivers of London) bad. Though since the former s done partially with CGI and the other is from a book series, people might not be aware of 'em.

[glprime]

Here's the problem: Doom has two good eyes and a mouth with enough tissue and sensation to eloquently form words. At most, he has serious facial scarring and possibly lost most of his nose. But even when this was drawn, there were procedures that could have been tried. That's not even getting into comic book science, ala the likes of Richards and Doom himself.

And it just gets worse in more recent times. It would make more sense if Doom caught some kind of demonic wasting disease from crossing over into Hell briefly, and thus looks like Wade Wilson under the mask.

...And now I have a new head canon.

[espanolbot]

According to the Brubaker miniseries Books of Doom, it had the theory that Doom's trip to hell when he was in college resulted in the demon that imprisoned his mother scarred his face as a punishment for his trespassing. This mystical scar resulted in people revolted by his face even if the physical scar was relatively minor, and plagued him with terrible nightmares.

The only person who could stand to look at him was his One True Love Valeria, and he build his suit of magic!tech armour to keep the dreams away in the end. When he eventually took over hs country, he ended up making a bet with the demon that he'd try to free his mother once a year, and everytime he fails his countrymen would grow to hate him a little more.

The series did point out that Doom wasn't exactly a reliable narrator at the best of times though, and the nature of the one giving the story raises a lot of questions as to how true the whole thing is exactly.

[sinisterlink]

This kind of reminds me of a few years ago when I got bit by a spider and got a really bad infection and when I went to the doctor, the majority of doctors/nurses were all like, "Oh my gosh, that looks REALLY BAD AND NASTY" and I'm just like, "Yeah, THAT'S WHY I AM AT THE DOCTOR'S". Some people need to work on their bedside manner. lol.

[nomadicwriter]

...This was exactly the scan that I knew it was going to be. Nice professional bedside manner there, Don.

This was very much a period in canon where Doom was being portrayed as severely traumatised by his disfigurement and prone to depressive episodes, too. So I'm sure that calm professional medical assessment really helped.

[jkcarrier]

There's a school of thought that Doom's scarring is really just a minor nick, but his ego and vanity are such that he considers it a massive disfigurement. In that context, Blake's "There's nothing medical science can do" could be interpreted as "...because there's nothing wrong with your face, you nut." Which just makes his hysterical overreaction even funnier.

[auggie18]

See, I read a theory that Doom's scarring was just a little cut that his ego made into a massive disfigurement, so he put on the mask. Straight off of the forge. While it was still a bajillion degrees.

[glprime]

Heard that too. But as raised above, the proposed injuries never seem to jive with his face being "completely scarred forEVER!"

'Course, it's also hard to believe Ben Grimm can never have his old body back.

Curse you, Narrative Causality and the Status Quo!

[blackruzsa]

Reminds me of that doctor from Action League Now!
"There's nothing I can do" was his catchphrase, which was often directly followed by "well there IS something."

[beyondthefringe]

"I never suspected there could be such power--yet rare sensitivity in those metal-covered fingers!"

And therein lies the seeds of the story where Don fixes Victor's face, and Victor teaches him just how sensitive those fingers can really be...

I'll be in my bunk.