So devoted to his team is Doorman that he doesn’t even get too upset when he punches the big ticket himself and arrives in the afterlife, because at least he gets to reunite with his old pals. It’s there that Doorman encounters the cosmic entity Oblivion, who reveals that Doorman’s mutant abilities connect him to the Darkforce Dimension. Oblivion makes Doorman into the new Angel of Death, which requires him to collect the souls of the departed, but also allows him to return his buddies to life.
For the most part, Doorman’s Angel of Death role never comes up again, besides a couple issues of the Great Lakes Avengers ongoing that ran between 2016 and 2017. Instead, when the GLA do show up, they exist just to be dumped on. The one great exception is a surprisingly heartfelt story that Slott and artist Paul Grist did in the 2005 GLX-Mas Special. When DeMarr visits his father for the holidays, he has to listen as his dad harangues him for wasting time as a Z-list hero.
Although hurt that not even his father respects him, DeMarr knows that his powers have value, and we see him not just shepherding others into the great beyond, but even taking time to lend a hand to Santa Claus. The story ends with a gut-punch, as DeMarr reveals to his father that he actually came for him, that his father died hanging Christmas lights earlier that night. And so those powers, which don’t seem to matter, allow Doorman to help his father one last time.
At that moment, DeMarr proves to his father, and to the readers, what he has known all along. That he truly is a hero.
The Least Does the Most
The MCU and Marvel Comics Doorman may have very different origins and stories, but they both capture everything wonderful about Z-list superheroes. Guys like Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man are easy to love, with their titanic battles, genre-defining creators, and influential power sets. Doorman and his fellow Great Lakes Avengers are easy to mock, people whose silly costumes and unusual abilities don’t do much more than get kittens out of trees or stop runaway cars.
But as Doorman’s story reveals, sometimes, that’s enough. Sometimes, it’s more important that someone’s doing what they can to help somebody, even if they get it wrong, even if they look ridiculous in the process. The Marvel Universe is big enough for every type of hero—as long as someone opens the door for them.
