When Cosplay Saved Doctor Doom’s Life

Frank Castle was cruising through New York City looking for criminals to kill, as he does. Hey, look, it’s the Supreme Monarch of Latveria! Time for some punishment! Or is it?

The current storyline in Squirrel Girl has the title character stuck in the past trying to foil the world-conquering machinations of Dr. Doom. (This is the old evil Doom, not the new we’re-not-quite-sure-what-the-deal-is Doom.) But her showdown with Doom almost didn’t happen because the Punisher almost whacked the Fantastic Four’s arch-nemesis.

Last month’s Squirrel Girl #3 has a sequence that shows an old-school Doom from the past coming to the present and running into Jubilee. The young X-Man threatens to call in her teammates and start a big super-battle. Problem is, Squirrel Girl’s roommate needs Doom alive so she can rescue the heroine from the 1960s. So she tells Jubilee that this is just an awesome Doom cosplayer. The vampire energy manipulator totally buys it.

She’s not the only one either.

That smiling Punisher face is pure gold, kids.

Squirrel Girl’s good-natured, big-hearted nerd humor continues to make it one of the most enjoyable comics that Marvel publishes. Take this panel from issue #4, which takes a closer look at past-Doom’s attempts to recreate future technology in the swinging ‘60s.

Victor should really be consulting for Id Software, no?

Contact the author at evan@kotaku.com.