The conclusion. The conclusion? The conclusion!

In other words, Part Three of the upcoming “Camelot Trilogy.”

Back in 1981, David Michelinie, John Romita, Jr., and you teamed up to craft one of the more interesting and exciting Iron Man tales ever: ol’ Shellhead and Doc Doom were sent back to the days of King Arthur via Doom’s time cube in IRON MAN, Vol. 1, #150 (September) – “Doomquest” -- and double-sized #151 (October) – “Knightmare.”

Iron Fans know and love the two-issue adventure well enough without any recap, commentary, and analysis from me. But I will mention that the entire arc was reissued as a Marvel CD-ROM comic (complete with a story quiz!) in 1995, and combined with Part Two of the trilogy in the 1994-issued trade paperback IRON MAN VS. DOCTOR DOOM.

Now let’s get to that Part Two -- featured in IRON MAN #249, November 1989, “The Doctor's Passion,” and #250, December 1989, “Recurring Knightmare” -- both by Michelinie and Layton, which is the focus of this month¹s batch of questions.

Iron Man and Doom, once again, are drawn together, but this time by Merlin the Magician, to face a pair of global threats from the future: Andros Stark, the Iron Man of 2093, and Doom himself – “A man whose body is made of pipes and tubes, where colored liquid swirls through clear plastic, and valves open and close with obscene clicks.”

1. In Part One of the trilogy, Iron Man and Doom engaged in a battle orchestrated by Morgana le Fey that was purely Arthurian in nature, but in Part Two, the conflict between the two came about as a direct link to their lineage -- Andros Stark and a future version of Doom himself.
 

Question: Why wasn’t the story’s main antagonist a future version of Morgana le Fey, which would have been more in tune with the action of Part One and especially since future versions of (young) King Arthur and Merlin appeared?

1. Although I don't remember the exact thinking behind the process, I believe that we did not want the same antagonist in both episodes. To have it be a total rematch with Morgana le Fey and Doom vs. Iron Man and Arthur would scream of "sequal-itis." I'll talk to David in the next day or so and try to get his thoughts on the matter. Perhaps he can clarify the reasons behind our decision better than I can.

2. In Part One, Doom's ongoing quest to free his mother's soul from Hell involved time travel, as he sought ancient knowledge from mystics in the long-gone past. Components needed to extend the range of the time cube were purchased from Stark International, in direct violation of S.I.'s corporate policy against conducting business with dangerous individuals. After Stark traveled to Latveria to retrieve the components, Doom's and Iron Man's fisticuffs brought them onto the platform of the time cube, whereupon Hauptmann, one of Doom's scientists, flipped a switch, sending the two back to the time of King Arthur.

Later, Doom met Morgana le Fey, who agreed to give Doom what he needed to free his mother's soul in exchange for the head of King Arthur. Iron Man defeated le Fey and her plan, preventing Doom from receiving the information he craved.

In Part Two there was no mention of Doom's mother and his continuing plan  to liberate her soul... although in the upcoming Part Three, Iron Man and Doom will spend a little time in Hades. Hmmm...
 

Question: Why didn't Doom ask his future self if his/their mother's soul had ever been freed?!

2. In context to the story, Doom and his future self were somewhat at odds with each other. And, keep in mind, that knowledge is power. And Doom, above all else, values power. I really don't see why the future Doctor Doom would be willing to divulge information that would give his past self an advantage over him.

3. There's a lot of humor in Part Two. In particular, Merlin. He's a seemingly fun-loving fellow, not unlike T. H. White's version of the character in THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING (1939) and THE BOOK OF MERLYN (1977).  David and your version, in a way, reminds me of George Carlin. In fact, the image on the dust jacket of Carlin¹s  NAPALM AND SILLY PUTTY (hardcover, 2001) is a dead ringer for your Merlin on page 15, Panel 7, of IRON MAN No. 250.

Question: How did you and David develop your version of Merlin and what resources and inspirations did you guys draw from?
 

Doc Doom can be a funny guy as well. Two quick examples:
His self-introduction -- "I am DOOM!" -- to Mrs. Fruitbagel, Stark¹s elderly housekeeper, caused the poor gal to lose consciousness. (IM #249, Page 16.)

When the sword Excalibur chose Iron Man, not Doom, as its wielder, the good Doctor informed Shellhead that, "This in NOT the way to get on my good side!" (IM #250, Page 33.)

And one example of ironic humor. Iron Man needed to augment his armor for a jaunt into space and attempted to purchase the necessary parts from a Radio Shack store! (IM #250, Page 17.)
 

Question: In general, what are the challenges and the joys of writing and drawing Doctor Doom?
Question: Where do you and David Michelinie derive your senses of humor from?
Question: Will there be much humor in Part Three?

3. Mike, old friend, I think you know me too well! Although I've never said ANYTHING publicly, I actually had George Carlin in mind when drawing the future version of Merlin. That almost scares me, dude. I've always been influenced by Nicol Williamson's portrayal of Merlin in John Boorman's 'Excalibur', who played that role with some tongue-in-cheek.

I've been a huge Doctor Doom fan, from the time I first began reading Marvel Comics and the Fantastic Four, in particular. However, it always annoyed me that he was never used as a major Iron Man villain, given the similarities between him Tony Stark. That's why I felt extremely honored to have the opportunity to bring those two characters together during my career at Marvel. Doom is a fascinating villain. He's the worst kind of antagonist that a hero can go up against--a bad guy with a strong moral core. He believes that what he's doing is right. Therefore, he's very hard to persuade or intimidate. Unfortunately, for our heroes, Doom writes his moral code as he thinks it should be, regardless of the laws of governments and men. As far as drawing him, this is a character who has undergone few changes over the years. It's hard to beat that steely mask and that olive-drab green cloak. If you don't believe me, just ask George Lucas! Let's face it guys, he ripped Doom off to create Darth Vader!

As far as our humor goes--chalk it up to decades of cynicism and an overdose of Monty Python.

There are some lighter moments in our third installment of the Camelot trilogy. Unfortunately, some of my favorite scenes that David and I came up with, wound-up on the "cutting room floor" due to space restrictions. In order to do a good Iron Man story, some lighter moments have to be part of the overall structure. My favorite thing about the pairing of Doom and Shellhead is the banter that goes on between them. I 'm sure you'll get more than a fair share of chuckles from some of the lines from the 'Legacy of Doom' mini-series.

4. Arno Stark, the Iron Man of 2020, is one of my favorite characters. In fact, the first page of original comic book art I ever purchased featured the IM of 2020 by Barry Windsor-Smith from the MACHINE MAN limited series (1984).

You and Mr. Michelinie created Andros Stark, the grandson of Arno.
 

Question: Was there any particular reason why you guys chose to explore the Arno Stark/Iron Man connection, rather to dream up a closer descendant of Tony Stark, such as a son? Or, was Andros kind of a nod to Barry Windsor-Smith?

4. First off, as long as I was doing the book, Tony Stark would have no heir. I always find "the son of" stories to be a frightful cliché. Even in Iron Man: The End, Tony Stark has no son. Given his tortured existence over the years, I think the idea of Tony Stark raising a kid would be a painful one, at best. As you know, at one point I had intended to make him the guardian of his brother's child. That was a storyline where I had intended to explore just how terrible a father Tony Stark would be. Not that he's a bad guy or anything, but rather he's a man who has devoted himself to a career and not to maintaining the All-American status quo. As far as the Iron Man 2020 goes, that storyline was already available to us. All we did was elaborate on it a bit to make it fit to make it fit into our plans.

5. You penciled and inked IRON MAN issues 249 and 250 (although there were several pages you didn't ink).
 

Question: Did you and David try to get John Romita, Jr. as the penciler, or did you guys just decide to have you handle the artwork yourself? It's interesting that each part of "The Camelot Trilogy" will have a different penciler.

5.  Actually, I believe we did make an attempt to get Johnny to come on board for issues #249-250. Unfortunately, JRJR was in high demand at the time (and still is!) and not available to jump on-board. Since I was the regular penciller of the series at that particular junction, we just went forward with me drawing the whole shebang. While we're discussing that issue, I have to mention that I was extremely disappointed with the artistic outcome on issue #250. In fact, it was one of my major reasons for leaving Marvel the first time around.

Because it was a double-size issue, editor Howard Mackie decided to farm out pages of my layouts to fledgling artists in Marvel's Bullpen to ink. When I pencil, I draw for myself and therefore the layouts are very loose. Although, they tried to do an admirable job, the pages that weren't inked by me stand out like the proverbial sore thumb. What was truly frustrating was I could've easily made that deadline. Mackie was simply concerned about avoiding deadline trouble and made that decision without the courtesy of consulting me first. My fondest hope is that, someday, I can go back and redo those pages to give the job a little more symmetry. It would be nice if all three chapters had been drawn by the same guy, but I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to pencil one of them, as well as working with legendary illustrators like John Romita Jr. and Ron Lim.

Thanks Mike,