Dr. Doom Switcheroo and Ymir

Daily Ramble 32: Dr. Doom Switcheroo and Ymir

Sometimes rambling to games can be a bit uneventful like today’s trip to Albion. Smite was a bit more interesting in that I picked a new god to master in Ymir and in my comic book reading I read a pretty good Fantastic Four from 1963 featuring Dr. Doom, Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby.

Albion

While I played some Albion today I didn’t do anything remarkable. The expedition was quick and had a normal tank and healer and we finished without any negative incidents. I also farmed and cooked without incident so I don’t have much to say about it.

SMITE: Ymir

This morning was interesting in that I could not get a timely Assault battle in SMITE. I was hoping to get the random god selection to help me pick the next god I’ll master heading towards the 18 I need for ranked play, but while I waited for 10 minutes, there were no complete games set up. Sure, there were a number of false starts where we’d get 8 or 9 people to show their readiness but never a full game of 10.

So I decided to pick a god I’ve played a bit but haven’t advanced to level 1 mastery – Ymir. Ymir is a guardian and seems to be in quite a few games that I’ve played. He has good defensive abilities and a bunch of crowd control abilities. For those of you familiar with Leagur, hes kinda a combination of Anivia for her ice wall and slows and Nunu for his ultimate and tankiness.

Since I need to master a couple of guardian to feel confident in playing ranked, I figure he’d be a good choice. I quickly learned that I am bad at wall placement. I’m pretty sure I caused at least as many deaths of my own team with bad wall placement as I stopped the enemy from escaping. It’s definitely a skill I’ll have to work on. I also need to work an learning the range of his abilities – it seemed I kept firing them off just out of range and missing everyone but the minions. I’ll get it worked out I’m sure.

Fantastic Four #10 – The Return of Doctor Doom!

I’m not sure if this is the first time it happened in comics (at least in the Silver Age Marvel I’ve been reading, it hasn’t happened yet), but the creators show up in this issue. Yup, Lee and Kirby are actually part of the story and drive part of the plot too.

Ok, so this issue promises the return of Doctor Doom. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, Stan seems to really like this bad guy as he’s been the nemesis in 3 of the first 10 Issues. But, last time we saw him, he was flying off into space on a meteor after being defeated. Apparently he was rescued by a race calling themselves the Oviod who taught him a few tricks before he came back to Earth and now he’s able to swap bodies with Mr. Fantastic.

In Reed’s body, Doom and the rest of the Fantastic Four capture Reed (in Doom’s body) and imprison him in a plexi-glass glass cell to be dealt with later while the team heads back to the Baxter Building. Little does the team know that Doom (in Reed’s body) has sealed the prison and Reed will run out of oxygen soon.

Meanwhile, back at the lab, the team finds a bunch of miniature animals and deduces that Reed has stolen them from the zoo to test out his new reducing ray. Never to be caught unawares, Doom (in Reed’s body) explains he’s testing his ray so that he can increase th powers of the Fantastic Four, even to the extent that Ben would be able to transform between human form and the Thing at will. They’re all excited and each wants to be the first to undergo Doom’s procedure which actually will shrink the heroes into nothingness.

With 3 of the four clamoring to step into Doom’s trap, Reed (in Doom’s body) manages to get free and heads to Alicia’s (Ben’s girlfriend) home to try to enlist her aid. Sue’s there as well and gets the jump on Reed/Doom and knocks him out, but not before Alicia senses a goodness aura around him. How can Dr. Doom be emitting a sense of nobility?

The rest of the team (minus Doom/Reed) shows up and they take the captured Dr. Doom to Reed to decide what to do. Doom/Reed quickly restrains Reed/Doom and as he prepares to zap Sue and Johnny with his reducing ray, Reed/Doom demonstrates that he has the team’s safety in mind, more so than the guy who looks like Reed. When Doom/Reed tries to save himself instead of the team, they know something’s wrong and the mental control that Doom was using to keep him in Reed’s body falters and they swap back into their normal bodies. As Doom fights to escape, he inadvertently turns the Reducing Ray on himself and is shrunk to nothingness…this time, he’s gone for good…right?

Like Stan and Kirby, I’ve enjoyed the stories with Dr. Doom and this issue is no exception. I rate it a solid B.