We spoke with Cantwell—the creator of television show Halt and Catch Fire—about digging into Doom, getting him on the streets, and working with Larroca!

Doctor Doom's one of the most beloved Super Villains around. How has it been peaking behind that mask?

Getting a real in-depth human look at Doom has been fascinating. The first thing I did was to go back and read all of the best Doom stories I could find, stretching all the way back to the Kirby days. I was kind of blown away by the entire "Zorba" arc, too…to see Doom overthrown by a "rightful" heir, then to see that heir completely screw up the country, and turn into a worse despot than Doom. It was amazing to read a story where the Fantastic Four help reinstall Doom as the Latverian ruler. It was this strange argument for totalitarianism that was much more complex than you’d think at first glance. Not that I support totalitarianism, it just gave tremendous insight into the guy behind the mask. It’s this storyline that shows Doom receiving flowers from a young Latverian girl, one of the earliest glimpses of his love for his people. I did a similar thing in [WAR OF THE REALMS] WAR SCROLLS #3 as an homage to that moment, but mine emphasized some other harsher aspects of the dictator.

It’s funny, you have this metal-clad dude who calls himself Doctor Doom—which on the surface can seem very broad—but then you have over 50 years of storytelling that proves otherwise. Whether he’s rescuing his mother’s soul from Hell or banishing his first love to the same place, the guy has a LOT going on inside.