Creation
Having persuaded IPC management to allow him to revive Eagle, boys adventure group editor Barrie Tomlinson settled on photo strips to make the comic stand out.
Writer Alan Grant, a regular contributor to 2000 AD, also saw the potential of the format, which he was familiar with from girls' comics and Italian pornographic magazines, and created "Doomlord" with frequent writing partner John Wagner on a science fiction story in the format. [2]
Despite some similarities, Grant would deny the character was consciously influenced by Judge Death. Tomlinson and Eagle editor Dave Hunt found the costume for the character after scouring London's theatrical and fancy dress shops.,[2] At the time, Grant and Wagner contributed so many scripts to IPC titles that managing director John Sanders requested they use pseudonyms to disguise some of their work, choosing 'Grant Grover' for "Doomlord".[3] Grant later recalled "We had such a laugh when writing it... My abiding memories are seeing the early Doomlord scripts in photo-strip and being blown away... I guess that a rubber joke-shop mask and a set of robes made Doomlord really stand out!".[2]
In 2005, Grant would later muse on the character's morality: -
His philosophy is Platonic, socialistic and fascistic at the same time – the fate of the individual is unimportant, only the fate of the species matters. This makes it right and inevitable that an elite will arise to supposedly safeguard the rights of the majority (and keep them in line). And you can see the logic in his conclusions – mankind is polluting Earth to death, we're slaughtering each other with ever bigger bombs, we're on the threshold of space travel with ships bearing nukes. Shit, if I was a Doomlord I'd be putting the kibosh on the species too.
The strip's masthead would depict Doomlord's latest victim transforming into the alien.
Publishing history
"Doomlord" was popular with readers, and after the initial strip ended in June 1982 two sequels followed. However, the photo strips were not as popular, and turned out to be less cost-effective than initially anticipated. As of 24 September 1983, "Doomlord" returned as a standard ongoing picture strip, with art from Alberto Giolitti (under the pseudonym Heinzl).[2] The change coincided with Wagner and Grant dissolving their writing partnership; Grant would continue writing "Doomlord" solo,[4] though Wagner later reflected "the stories were a hell of a lot of fun to write".[2] The strip was now unrestricted by budget or special effects constraints – the first page shows Vek warping into a bird and observing a road crash from aloft. Grant later used the character's scenes with the Sousters to create a softer side he described as "surreal" and part of "his Coronation Street-type soap opera existence".[citation needed]
Despite the series' popularity with readers, falling sales saw it end in October 1989 as more and more of Eagle switched to reprints. Selected reprints followed until April 1990, but the strip was dropped completely for Eagle's last revamp.[1]
In 1998, the rights to the strips created for Eagle – including "Doomlord" – were purchased from Egmont Publishing by the Dan Dare Corporation.[5][6] In 2006, Hibernia Books leased the rights to the first picture strip and published them in a collected edition, called Doomlord: The Deathlords of Nox.[7][8]
Plot summary
Journalist Howard Harvey and policeman friend Bob Murton witness an apparent meteor falling into local woods; it in fact a spaceship bringing a sinister robed alien to Earth - Doomlord, the self-proclaimed servant of Nox, master of life and bringer of death. The alien killed Bob and knocked Harvey unconscious. Waking alone, Harvey discovered Bob alive, laughing at his friend's 'dream' – however, Bob was wearing the alien's "energiser ring". Harvey pieced together what was happening – Doomlord had the power to murder people, and absorb their memories and personality by touch. He would then disintegrate their body with the ring, and then use another alien ability – to shapeshift his form to resemble his absorbed victim, and thus impersonate them flawlessly. In this way, he could move freely amongst human society, leaving only a trail of missing persons as he abandoned each identity for a new one.
Harvey attempted to stop Doomlord, but was unable to convince anyone else of the alien's existence. Doomlord also seemed invulnerable; however, this did not extend to his human form and Harvey took advantage to shoot him - only for Doomlord to pass his life force to another person, and then grow inside and take over as if he had absorbed them. Doomlord manipulated Harvey into a trap, and explained his "dread mission" as a "Servant of Nox" – he was to be judge, jury, and executioner on humanity's right to exist, using the identities of members of society's elite as stepping stones to gather evidence. If Doomlord judged humanity as unfit or to pose a potential risk to the interstellar community, he would destroy it – the billions of deaths being inconsequential, as "The fate of the individual is unimportant when the survival of the species is at stake." Doomlord delivered a sentence of death upon humanity. He hypnotised Harvey to accompany him to a germ warfare establishment, to watch helplessly as Doomlord constructed a virus to kill humans worldwide. However, Harvey managed to overcome his hypnotism through strength of will, and stabbed Doomlord. The alien infected Harvey with his life-force but the reporter sacrificed himself by releasing the virus within the sealed laboratory. Harvey's last act was to inform the dead Doomlord that humanity had the right to decide its own fate.[9]
'Doomlord' was a generic name for one of many Servitors from the planet of Nox, who had taken upon themselves the task of species-level eugenics for the common welfare of the galaxy. The rulers of Nox - the Dread Council - had noticed the disappearance of Servitor Zyn on Earth, and dispatched the novice Servitor Vek[c] to investigate and possibly carry out Zyn's judgement. Vek's experiences of humanity were different from his predecessor; taking the identity of commercial traveller Eric Plumrose, Vek lodged at Mrs Souster's bed and breakfast in Bradford, keeping her and her two young sons under permanent hypnosis so that he could remain in his own identity, as being in other forms sapped his strength. He determined Zyn's fate and recovered his energiser ring. He concluded that humanity's problems were mostly social rather than inherent; humanity's leaders deserved the focus of blame, with the vast majority guilty of only apathy, ignorance and powerlessness. Vek petitioned the Council for a review of Zyn's judgement; they gave him one year to secretly influence humanity for the better, with execution to be carried out if he did not succeed.
Doomlord tried to clandestinely alter human affairs to make them pass the Servitor's judgement. Vek hypnotised the wealthy to place funds in an environmental pressure group called Alternative Earth and increased political activity amongst the general public. As time grew short, he shocked the world into nuclear disarmament by manipulating the American military into launching a nuclear strike. The Russians were able to destroy it safely and the near-miss shocked the superpowers into total nuclear disarmament. As a result, the Dread Council of Nox lifted humanity's death sentence and asked Vek to return to Nox. However, the explosion of the missile had destroyed his ship and he was forced to remain on Earth until a replacement craft could be sent.[10]
Unfortunately, the improvements to humanity were only temporary. An Arab state launched a nuclear missile, escalating a small-scale conflict and causing the world's powers to re-arm, while Alternative Earth's funds were embezzled by its director; Vek realised that human nature may have been a larger factor than he realised. The Dread Council, having lost faith in humanity's ability to keep its promises, ordered Vek to carry out the death sentence on humanity. Due to the fondness of mankind that he had developed Vek disobeyed, revealing his existence to Humankind and taking an open stance in his attempts to manipulate humanity, pointing out the sentence of death hanging over it if it did not reform.
Doomlord granted audiences with anyone who requested one. He reacted passively to bungled attempts at assassination, coercion, and propaganda by the British Government. As a demonstration of his power he even created a virus to destroy the small town of Prattlewell. Eventually, Vek was tranquillised whilst in human form and was kept imprisoned underground; as he required ultraviolet light for sustenance, he starved and his corpse was triumphantly paraded as a trophy. However, he had transferred his life-force to a sympathetic scientist named Denby and lost patience with humanity, deciding to carry out the death sentence. However, Servitor Zom arrived with the task of destroying both humanity and Vek. While Zom was on the way to create a man-destroying virus, humanity once more decided to abandon nuclear weapons and Vek killed Zom to save humanity. He explained what had happened and set himself up as humanity's protector, knowing that more Noxians would follow to slaughter humanity.[11]
Still staying at Mrs Souster's boarding house, Vek had almost become one of the family, enjoying friendly banter with Mrs Souster and being a father-type figure to her sons Pete and Mike; however they were still hypnotised into seeing him as Eric Plumrose. The Dread Council became concerned at the lack of contact from Zom and contacted Vek to ask his whereabouts. Vek admitted he had killed Zom to protect the human race and that the judgement was wrong; the Dread Council sent a trio of assassins called the Deathlords to kill him. Their combined energiser rings proved too strong for him; his ring was destroyed but the injured Vek managed to escape in the form of a dog. However, with the help of Mrs. West and her son Nick, he was healed with a sunlamp. The Deathlords had set up a shield around Bradfield to stop Vek escaping and decided to use his love of humanity to lure him out, sending hypnotic waves all over the town to force people to walk into the shield, killing them. Vek found the energiser ring powering the shield, fending off one of the Deathlords and killing him before deactivating the shield and going on the run. Eventually, they grew tired of the chase and decided to lure him out by killing 104 humans on a motorway and sent a message to Vek that the next day they would kill 10,000 if he did not surrender. He chose to face them at Stonehenge, killing them both. Vek kept the Deathlord's ring, aware that other assassins would be sent. Vek appeared on global television and explained the Noxian ethical code and the Deathlords, pointing out that now he was all that stood between humanity and execution, and how he had rebelled against Nox to protect them.[12]
Shortly afterwards, Vek was taken to Nox by a fail-safe device in the Deathlords' ship when he tried to use it to rescue the Space Shuttle. He convinced the Council that the death judgement was wrong and to lift the sentence of death from Earth; however his crimes against Nox meant he was returned to Earth in exile.[13] As protector of Earth, Vek repelled the Gemini Plague, genetically engineered parasitic insects used by the robotic Populators of Pollux to wipe out a planet's higher lifeforms in advance for use as a breeding ground[14] [15] He also hosted "The Doomlord Show", where he would kidnap various public figures, connect them to an electrified lie detector to reveal criminal or unethical behaviour, punish criminals with political connections who could avoid conventional justice, and even respond to phoned-in personal grievances, as he could teleport directly there and employ intimidation.[16][17] He also dealt with the inadvertent revival of Zyn through stored tissue samples from Howard Harvey; Zyn resumed his attempts to execute humanity until Vek absorbed his life-force.[18]
Vek decided to become a father to further his understanding of humans, particularly the emotion of love so used his bioengineering knowledge to artificially produce and rapidly grow a human-Noxian hybrid called Enok. Inevitably, Enok's human emotions and flaws led him to delinquency. The Dread Council learnt of Enok's existence and sent the Firelords to destroy the impurity, while Enok murdered Vek and wreaked havoc on Earth. Human Douglas Reeve injected himself with a stored sample of Vek's blood, thus becoming Vek. Unable to murder his own son, abandoned Enok on an asteroid.[19][20][21] Vek received a Noxian lodestone to recover from a serious illness after a passionate plea by Douglas Reeve; the Sousters became aware at this point that they had Doomlord living under their roof, although the hypnotic block remained, so they still "saw" Eric Plumrose.[22] He was later manipulated into freeing the Noxian mystic Orak, by Lord Kev and Lady Shal[23]
The galactic carnival of Tibor captured Mrs. Souster's sons to lure Vek as an exhibit. Upon their return, Vek, Pete and Mike boys found themselves in a parallel timeline, accidentally landing on an alternative Earth where his renegade son Enok had escaped his asteroid prison and enslaved the whole planet.[24][25][26] Vek also fought S.M.O.G., a terrorist organisation[d][27]
He had to undergo a psychological ordeal in the mystical Realms of Death to ensure his dedication to the Cold Blue Flame of Noxian justice. He was purged of his human emotions, became a Servitor once more, and returned with a burning hatred of humanity, charged with its execution, despite the fact that the Dread Council had lifted the death sentence.[28] Fearing the result of the ordeal, Vek had previously brought Enok back to Earth and had placed him in his final growth cycle, correctly gambling that this would mature Enok and foster a love of Earth. Enok now protected Humanity, whilst Vek wished to destroy it. Vek had been given a new energiser ring which allowed him to both animate objects (such as getting a chimney to fight for him) and travel through time]], resulting in him destroying the advanced prehistoric civilisation of Atlantis. When Vek returned he easily killed Enok, but the Souster boys ate his blood as Vek tormented the Earth; the older brother Pete managed to return as Enok and faced Vek in combat. Their energisers interacted to render Vek permanently intangible, whereupon he retreated into hiding inside a mountain. [29]
Enok found himself continuing in Vek's role as Earth's now unwanted and resented protector, fighting a pollution monster, alien mind parasites, and a created by the siphoning off of part of his life-force. During the same period, the younger Souster boy Mike also became Enok, but with unexplained vampiric qualities.
The first Enok was killed fighting the rival superhero that had been possessed by the mind parasites, leaving the second Enok undecided as to whether to protect humanity or feast upon it.[30][31]
