Micronauts #41 (1982)

After losing their powerless microship, the HMS Endeavor, when it sinks in the sewers of New York City, the Micronauts decide that their best chance of returning home to the Microverse is to explore the lead given to them by Ben Grimm about how Doctor Doom had been experimenting with ways of making men small in his castle upstate. Using their Astrostation to travel to the castle, they soon find Liddleville and realize that, since it was created small instead of being reduced in size, they won't find any way of returning to the Microverse there. Despite this, an encounter with the inhabitants of Liddleville who recount how their town was recently taken over by the tyrant Doctor Doom causes the Micronauts to decide to help by finding and freeing the kidnapped Mayor Masters. As they near the miniature Castle Doom, they see the bodies of a number of townspeople crucified outside its walls and realize that the people of Liddleville are robots, but are then attacked by some flying doom-robot missiles. Although they destroy those robots, the Micronauts are quickly downed when Doom himself releases gas from beneath the courtyard that knocks them all out. When the Micronauts later revive, they find themselves sharing a dungeon with Mayor Masters who is chained to a chair. He introduces himself as the Puppet Master and reveals that he created Liddleville to be a haven for his step-daughter Alicia, a place where she could live a normal life with her friends, the Fantastic Four. As part of his plan, Masters had transferred the minds of Alicia and the FF into tiny, powerless synthe-clones and altered their memories so that none of them would know that they had ever been anything other than the normal human beings they believed themselves to be. However, the will of Doctor Doom, whose help the Puppet Master had obtained by using his mind-controlling radioactive clay, was too strong and he had been able to alter the scenario in a way that enabled the Fantastic Four to regain their memories and escape from Liddleville, leaving Doom's consciousness trapped in the synthetic body of Vincent Vaughn. Masters had then taken control of the robot populace to drive Vaughn out of town. Although Masters had thought that would end Doom's threat, Doom managed to created a new suit of Doctor Doom armor for himself and robots to serve him as he set out to conquer Liddleville. When Doom's robots come for them, the Micronauts fight back, destroying the robots and freeing the Puppet Master before heading off to confront Doom. Their battle starts a fire in the castle and Doom is distracted when the portrait of him with Vincent's unscarred face begins to burn. When Doom suddenly exclaims that he has lost all feeling in his limbs and cannot move, the Puppet Master arrives and reveals that he had used a small amount of his radioactive clay that he had hidden in Liddleville to create a puppet of Doom so he could control and immobilize him. When the Puppet Master tells the Micronauts that the battle is no longer theirs to fight and assures them that proper punishment awaits Doom, the heroes leave to continue their quest to return home. As the heat of the flames melts Vaughn's face, disfiguring his once-handsome features, the Puppet Master mocks Doom who vows to destroy him. Back aboard their Astrostation, the Micronauts fly away from Liddleville without looking back. Meanwhile, in the Microverse, on the molecular planet Homeworld's First Zone, the Duchess Belladonna, whose mind is now in the body of the rebel leader Lady Slug, tries to use her new body to manipulate Force Commander Argon into making her his queen. However, her plan fails when he laughingly rejects her and reveals that he, like Baron Karza before him, has used the Body Banks to transform himself from a man into something greater. Elsewhere, in the royal dungeons mockingly called the Pleasure Pits, the imprisoned Prince Pharoid is taunted by the Dog Soldier guards who remind him that he has lost his Star Scepter weapon, his country has been enslaved by Argon, and he couldn't even protect his woman, the Lady Slug, who is imprisoned in the adjoining cell. However, despite the fact that her mind now inhabits the withered body of the elderly Duchess Belladonna, Slug remains defiant and reminds Prince Pharoid that they must set an example as leaders of the rebellion.