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Doomquest!
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This is sometimes talked of as a "Classic story" for both Iron Man and Doctor Doom but, having read it, I think it's more likely that the next (double-sized) issue is the fondly remembered classic, as this one is more of a regular episode of "Iron Man", albeit one which has some important aspects of Doom's ongoing story in it as well.
Doom doesn't actually get mentioned until about 6 pages in, as the first 5 pages are concerned with Iron Man stopping a bunch of terrorists from hijacking a Stark International freighter ship. It's all inked by Bob Layton, so everybody involved looks very slick and shiny! Once he's foiled the baddies, Iron Man flies back to Long Island where he changes into a business suit for the Annual Meeting of Stark International's Regional Managers. He swoops in and swiftly fires one of his regional managers for selling electronic goods to Latveria.
It's interesting that Latveria is still on the restricted sales list despite the fact that Prince Zorba is still in charge and, apparently, considered benevolent. The mere fact of Doctor Doom's presence in the country is still enough to stop Stark International trading with them.
Doom himself, meanwhile, has been on a trip into the past to learn the secrets of a magician called Cagliostro. This trip is not really important to the overal story in this issue, and is instead presented as a glimpse into Doom's day to day business, away from his more famous occupation as a supervillain. There are three nuggets of Doom-related storyworld in this section - first of all the contact with Hauptmann, the frustrated brother of another lackey previously murdered by Doom, secondly the use of his Time Machine, and final the lightning-bound castle in "the small european nation of Latveria".
This castle is clearly based on the version drawn by Frank Miller a while ago, which has become the default design, even down to the constant bad weather surrounding it. Which castle is this meant to be though? The text clearly says it's in Latveria, so can't be the one we saw recently in New York state, but if Zorba is still in charge then it can't be the one in Doomstadt either. Maybe Doom liked the one in America so much he had another one built at home to exactly the same design?
Doom returns to his lab and congratulates Hauptmann for his work, using the people management skills that have made him so successful i.e. he tells Hauptmann that he won't kill him today. This genial atmosphere doesn't last for long, however, as Hauptmann has to deliver the bad news that their shipment of electronics has been turned back. I must admit to being a bit confused here - were the "terrorists" from earlier on actually employees of Doom, and if not, why didn't he stop them himself? Either way, Doom is livid, and stomps off leaving Hauptmann bristling at his own cowardice in still working for him.
Doom sends a team to America to take back the shipment which he'd ordered and, apparently, paid for. They find Iron Man waiting for them, but with the help of their Doom-built submarine/tractor/aircraft thing they manage to escape, although this does not leave them enough time to actually pack the shipment away, instead zooming off like someone who's left their coffee cup on the roof of the car.
Tony Stark flies off to Latveria to try and sort things out, and is met by armed guards. However, just as he's preparing to fight, he's surprised to discover that they're actually there to welcome him. Zorba is hoping that Iron Man will be coming along too, and that he'll somehow be able to keep Doom busy and stop him staging a counter-revoluton.
Zorba doesn't actually appear in this story but his presence is definitely felt, especially here in the "new" Latveria. It's a nice bit of continuity from Dave Micheline, using the current storyworld situation to generate a fresh plot.
Iron Man does indeed show up, and flies to Doom's castle where... hang on, how does everybody know this is Doom's castle? Isn't that where Zorba lives now? Or does he really have another one stashed away - but if so, why don't the Latverian police pop over there to re-arrest him? It seems that what they meant by "keep him busy" was "do our job for us please"!
Anyway, Iron Man goes to this castle and quickly runs into another great signifier of Doom - robots!
Iron Man makes quick work of the robots and finally reaches Doom himself, who is quite off-hand with the person he believes is just one of Tony Stark's employees. He points out that the consignment was paid for quite properly, and refuses to engage in any further negotiations with "a lackey". Iron Man refuses to leave until he gets the equipment back, and Doom retaliates by... shooting rocks out of his fingers?
This is a brand new ability of Doom's armour, and quite a weird one at that. Iron Man manages to fight his way out of the instant avalanche and flies into the main laboratory area, where Doom gives chase. A big punch-up ensues!
We see Hauptmann watching while all this is going on, and when the fight makes its way to the time machine he sees his chance and quickly switches it on, sending both hero and villain into the time stream.
(I always think it's really weird when American superheroes say "Bloody". It sounds like such an English swear word - it pops up a few times in this comic, so maybe it's something David Micheline knew he could get past the censors?)
The story ends with Hauptmann smashing up the Time Machine's controls, thus marooning his boss in the distant past, and having a right old Super-villain cackle about his victory.
And so ends this instalment of a story which has so far made excellent use of Doom's current storyline, a feat made more impressive by the fact that it's been carried on over several different series and creative teams over the past few months. We'll find out how it all ends... next time!
link to information about this issue
posted 5/3/2020 by Mark Hibbett
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Comments:
Great stuff. We've seen Doom use the expanding molecules before in The Classic Battle of The Baxter Building
posted 20/9/2024 by Sd