Cover Date: June 1995; On Sale Date: April 1995
Writer: Len Kaminski; Artist: Graham Higgins; Letterer: Richard Starkings and Comicraft; Colorist: Christie Scheele; Editor: Joey Cavalieri; Editor in Chief: Bobbie Chase; Cover Artist: Reggie Jones
Doom’s SHIELD soldiers arrive at the Bar Code, searching for the Ghost Rider. Anesthesia sends a message to Zero, who is searching Cyberspace for information on how Doom hacked the White House to assume power. Zero gets Jones’ message and logs out, but instead of leaving, decides to fight SHIELD. Meanwhile, Doom is busy dismantling the CSS police force, where he offers a job to Coda that is turned down. Doom also meets with Willis Adams, who he requests to now write pro-Ghost Rider propaganda to counteract D/Monix’s media virus.
Zero attacks the SHIELD agents inside the bar and the fight eventually spills outside, where he sees that he is surrounded and outgunned by the soldiers. When they tell him that President Doom has requested a meeting with him, a starstruck Zero agrees and goes without a fight. Zero is brought to Doom, who offers him a job as the Federal Marshal of Transverse City, answerable only to Doom himself, effectively making him the law. Zero declines but is frozen when Doom executes a sequence of keywords provided to him by the Ghostworks. Realizing that the Ghost Rider would need to be destroyed if he could not be controlled, Doom rewrites Zero’s decision matrix and makes him agree to the job as marshal. An eager Zero takes the gun offered to him and changes his outfit to a matching SHIELD uniform.
THE ROADMAP
The "One Nation Under Doom" storyline was a loose crossover event between all of the 2099 titles of the time, focused on Doom's takeover of the United States as its new president.
Doom acquired the keywords to edit the Ghost Rider's program from the Ghostworks in Ghost Rider 2099 (1994) # 12.
CHAIN REACTION
“One Nation Under Doom” continues to take a wrecking ball to the series’ status quo, this time ending in a rather dramatic shift in narrative direction.
I can see where Len Kaminski was coming from this shift in the title’s direction. Shaking things up and turning the character on his head by making him the law in Transverse City was certainly a bold move, and using the Doom Presidency event as the catalyst made things seem more organic than it probably would have been otherwise. I just don’t find the whole “federal marshall” angle to be all that interesting, especially considering how well the book was working before this change. That said, it does provide some fascinating narrative fodder, flagging up the thin line between anarchy and fascism.
I guess I’m just disappointed because I was really enjoying the whole “Zero versus the system” story engine that had been driving the series up to this point. Turning him into a clone of Judge Dredd isn’t where I wanted to see the character or the series go; but that’s where it went, so getting over that disappointment is a necessary move if I want to enjoy what comes next. This issue itself continues to capitalize on Zero’s fascinating characterization, making his reaction to Doom’s takeover the hook, much as last issue was focused on Transverse City’s reaction. Of course Zero would be impressed by Doom’s takeover!
The artwork continues to suffer under Graham Higgins’ pencils as well, providing more flat-as-flapjacks characters that look more like stickers than three-dimensional images. It’s like there’s a lack of depth to the panels and not even the enhanced computer coloring techniques being used on the title are enough to give definition. Like Gary Erskine over on Blaze, Higgins seems to do well with the fiddly technology bits but struggles with the human elements. You wouldn’t think that would be much of a problem in a book about a giant robot, but it’s like all humanity has been sucked out of the pages. There’s also that last page dramatic reveal of Zero’s new look, and it comes off as silly instead of serious. No, Zero, it’s not “jagged” at all.
I can’t say I’m thrilled with the direction the book is heading in, but at least this issue provides some narrative justification that I can accept.
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