current / archive / issues / faq / RSS feed / twitter /
What If Iron Man Had Been Trapped In King Arthur's Time?
| < previous | next > |
There's only two pages of Doctor Doom in this story, recapping and slightly changing the one we looked at a little while ago in Iron Man #151. That issue saw Doctor Doom and Iron Man eventually having to work together to escape from King Arthur's time, and this one rather cleverly alters one small aspect to change the entire outcome.
In both versions of the story, Doctor Doom tells Iron Man that they will have to work together to escape. Iron Man asks how he knows he can trust him, and, in the original, Doom replies "Because, Avenger... you have my word."
However, in this version of the story he replies instead "Because, Iron Man... you have no choice."
In both cases Tony Stark is forced to accept the offer, and in the mainstream version Doom keeps his word here. However, in the version he has not done so, and is therefore (according to Doom Logic) free to double-cross his colleague and leave him behind. As he disappears he says (a bit meanly I think) "One last bit of advice. Never bargain with an enemy until you first wrest from him his word of honor!"
There's no need for that is there? The story then carries on with Iron Man eventually getting voted in as King of England, which I'm pretty sure isn't how it works, but maybe it did then, legendarily, in the Marvel Universe?
The story ends with The Watcher telling us that "under his leadership, Britain will unite half a world under King Anthony's scepter" which sounds like pretty good going for medieval times, and is a much happier ending than you usually get with "What If?" stories, which always seem to involve a lot of regret and/or mass killings. The artwork throughout also looks pretty nifty, with Bob Layton returning to lay on his usual shiny inks, demonstrating just how much work he does in these situations by making Don Perlin's pencisl disappear almost as much as John Romita's did in the original.
What's most interesting to me here though is the insight into Doom's personality. It's clear that he's entirely happy to betray someone if it's for his own gain, no matter how hard they have worked together, but it's also clear that he would not do so if he had given his word. Both versions of Doom seem correct here, despite them carrying out very different actions.
Next time we're looking at another very tiny appearance, in a comic that I should be a lot more excited about than I actually am!
link to information about this issue
posted 28/7/2020 by Mark Hibbett
| < previous | next > |
Comments: