Spider-Man (1981) Episode Nineteen: The Doom Report

The Doom Report

First Aired: January 16th, 1982

Synopsis: The Latverian man Johan, who escaped Latveria in Canon of Doom, manages to make his way to New York, where he meets the Latverian Underground. They recommend that he go to the Daily Bugle to expose the conditions in Latveria, but after he leaves we find out that they're actually spies working for Doctor Doom. While J. Jonah Jameson doesn't listen to Johan's story, Peter Parker nearby does, and he takes Johan to his house to interview him. After the interview, Betty Brant assists in typing up the interview, but is captured by Doom's spies until Peter frees her as Spider-Man. They get out the story to newspapers other than the Bugle, and as a result the UN decide to bring Doom to trial. At the same time, Johan gets on a plane to return home, but Peter suspects something is off, and accompanies him as Spider-Man. He's soon proven to be correct when Doom hijacks their plane.


Doom is able to intimidate the UN into leaving him alone when he shows off a machine he has which can create rain, which could be used either for good or evil. Spider-Man manages to free himself and Johan from the plane before it lands, and the two meet up with the real Latverian Underground. It's decided that the Latverians will blow up Doom's satellite tracking station while Spider-Man sneaks into Castle Doom. Spider-Man does so and gets into a fight with Doom, which ends when he destroys Doom's rain-making machine, causing a gigantic explosion which destroys Castle Doom. In the aftermath, the Latverians investigate the ruins. Spider-Man can't be found, but the Latverians are glad that his sacrifice wasn't in vain...right before Doom climbs out of the rubble, and orders them to start rebuilding his castle. Spider-Man is revealed to have survived by encasing himself in a webbing cocoon, and he returns back to America, lamenting that he wasn't able to make any meaningful difference.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• The Latverian Underground's symbol is some chains. It's given a handwave explanation of, "a chain is only as strong as its weakest link," but I still thought that it was a pretty weird symbol for freedom fighters to have...until it turns out that the Underground are actually working for Doom, which makes perfect sense! But then it turns out that the real Underground also use the symbol, so it's back to being weird again. It's a Latverian thing, I guess.

Review: Johan's adventures in Latveria and his eventual escape have been a bit of a slow-burning subplot in the Doctor Doom episodes, and to be honest, they weren't doing a lot for me (it certainly didn't help that I didn't realise at first that they were all linked together). With that in mind, it's incredible how solid this episode manages to be. A story about a refugee trying to escape his country  so that he can tell the world that it doesn't match the image it presents is arguably more relevant today than it was in 1982, and it manages to give the episode a strong subtext that gives the episode a lot more weight than, say, one where Spider-Man punches the Lizard in the face.

Helping with this notion is how mundane a lot of the episode is. Minus Doom's rain machine and some lasers he shoots at Spider-Man, most of the threats in this episode are realistic - spies capturing reporters to silence them, the media not listening to the truth - and the episode is smart enough not to have Spider-Man quipping too often to ruin the tone. The ending in particular is strong - I wouldn't have been surprised to have Doom disappear after his castle's explosion and to return in another episode, but him climbing out of the rubble, ruining the Latverians' joy when it's at its highest, gives it a downer ending that feels deserved.

While there are definitely some missteps in the episode - for example, Spider-Man jumping on Johan's plane but not warning him that the American Latverian Underground are spies (heck, why was Johan so eager to head back anyway?) - the plot is well-told enough to forgive the little things. Easily one of the best episodes of the series.