Guardians Of The Galaxy vol7 #16 (2021)
by Al Ewig & Juan Frigeri
cover by Brett Booth
Time to finish Doom’s latest space adventure, and see if all the buildup was worth it.
Doom doesn’t show up in person in THIS issue in particular, and it seems that the series isn’t in a big hurry for its own finale.
I mean the previous issue ended with Dormammu entering Earth’s dimension by fusing with Ego The Living Planet… and we start by focusing on guest characters discussing events of the X-Men books.
Also, how kind of Wiccan to use his magic to make his face disappear to match his husband’s shapeshifting.
Personally I would’ve started the book with Dormammu The Living Planet looking ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING instead of waiting for page 6.
Just in case I have to spell out why this is so dangerous: Dormammu is now able to send huge armies of Mindless Ones with Ego’s power.
And while the Mindless Ones sometimes are used as cannon fodder by writers who just consider them regular monsters… they’re kind of a big deal.
So those are the stakes. Will Doom finally bother to show up?
Guardians Of The Galaxy vol7 #17 (2021)
by Al Ewig & Juan Frigeri
cover by Brett Booth
DOOM SHALL AVENGE HIS LACK OF INVOLVEMENT!!!
Dormammu’s strategy is hiding something. He’s basically invincible in his current state, but instead of just conquering the Galaxy he’s just targeting planets that had already fallen to previous storylines.
Doom is the one to figure out this is because Dormammu is drawing a pentagram over the galaxy!!!
It’s easy to think of Dormammu as just a magic monster on Doctor Strange’s level… which would already be impressive, but he’s far more than that.
Dormammu is basically an invincible god in his own dimension, and the only reason why he hasn’t conquered the Marvel Universe is that his power is much more limited in other dimensions.
So Doom hypothesizes that this pentagram might end up merging both dimensions, which would immediately grant victory to Dormammu.
Of note, this isn’t even the first time Dormammu has tried something like this.
I really like how much chemistry there is between Doom and Rocket.
The latter has a completely different sense of humor from Doom and he’s not a monster, but they can be alarmingly similar in how they approach their problems.
The last planet needed for Dormammu’s pentagram is the homeworld of the Chitauri.
You might think they are a transplant from the MCU, and you’d be half-right.
The Chitauri were actually created in the original Ultimate Universe as stand-ins from the Skrulls, complete with shapeshifting powers.
When the Avengers movie wasn’t allowed to use the Kree as originally intended, the switched to the Chitauri and omitted their shapeshifting.
In turn, the Chitauri were later integrated into the mainstream comics by taking the movie version.
See, told you they work great together!
I remind you that the canonical reason for why telepathy doesn’t work on Doctor Doom is that he doesn’t want it to.
I mean, would YOU trust a raccoon who loves nothing more than blow stuff up?
NOPE! Honestly, as much as I like Rocket Raccoon, I’m kind of agreeing with Nova here… I wouldn’t trust ANYONE to work alone with Doom when the stakes are so high.
Doom has no time for your inter-personal subplots, guys.
Next, Doom takes the Guardians to a ship he acquired in a different book that I will review separately.
Dormammu has ALREADY taken over the Chitauri planet; it’s particularly vulnerable since it has a sort of hive mind.
The biggest surprise here is that Doctor Doom doesn’t speak Groot! I was expecting him to be fluent for no reason.
I was mistaken earlier. This is not a spaceship.
It’s a device taken from the Rigellians intended to build materials from asteroids…
…which Doom has reprogrammed to make an instant robot army!!!
Great job giving Doctor Doom the means to make a planet-conquering army, Guardians, no notes.
Nova also isn’t a fan of Doom taking most of his team on a side mission.
This event is called “the Last Annihilation”, and there are a few callbacks to the original Annihilation event.
One of the most memorable things that followed that, in my opinion, was Nova being absolutely FURIOUS that Earth’s heroes completely ignored the event because they were busy doing Civil War.
And he’s wondering if that’s the case again.
Well, considering that Dormammu not only has Ego’s power now, but he’s also completed a ritual that gave him a physical body that is reportedly enough to fight Galactus himself… yeah I can see why Earth’s heroes are not in a hurry to join the fight!
Guardians Of The Galaxy vol7 #18 (2021)
by Al Ewig & Juan Frigeri
cover by Brett Booth
The saga, and the series, comes to an end.
Doom is fine with it.
Doom is doing some weird magic here…
…which includes some tarot cards! If this was published in the 90s, you know they’d be trading cards sold with the comic.
Doom has the best card for himself, because of course he does.
By using this ritual, and the Doombots that are linked directly to his mind, Doom casts a spell to confine Dormammu’s power.
I am shocked, shocked I tell you, that Doom has given any thought of stealing the powers of an all-powerful god.
If you missed the scale of Dormammu The Living Planet… HIS HEAD is the size of a planet!
Until…
The reason for all the ties to the X-Men is that, in parallel to this storyline, they had come into possession of the super-metal Mysterium™ which has anti-magic properties.
All in a Doom’s work!
Because this is the last issue, we can’t have the Guardians defeat Dormammu by a gun designed by Doctor Doom that uses a bullet provided by the X-Men.
So instead the Guardians have to combine their powers for this to work.
Well, Rocket DID say he was going to shoot Dormammu in the head.
Dormammu is exiled back to the Dark Dimension, Ego is now a debris field, and everything went according to Doom’s plans.
You might think he’s referring to Rocket Raccoon’s contribution, but… no, Doom also put a Skrull on the throne of the Chitauri.
And while Doctor Doom didn’t steal ALL of Dormammu’s power… he kept something as a souvenir.
In the epilogue, the Guardians celebrate their victory.
Doom significance: 2/10
Doom will get a far more direct rematch with Dormammu during “One World Under Doom”; I like to believe that what he learned in this fight will help him there and that the power he stole here is also used there, but neither is explicitly stated.
Despite the comic establishing Talionis becoming the Queen of the Chitauri to be a sign of things to come… she’ll be killed in 2025.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.
Will it stand the test of time? 8/10
Kind of the same problems of the previous issues. It’s quite apparent that this was originally supposed to be a longer storyline, because at several points it feels REALLY rushed.
And once again, it’s not helped by the fact that this is all happening in parallel to multiple X-Men storylines that get the spotlight in all the other books.
Which I get, it’s the X-Men and the Krakoa era was successful, so it was a given that a space event wouldn’t receive the same attention… that’s how these things go.
But while the original Annihilation, and to a slightly lessere extent its immediate sequels, managed to capitalize on separating their characters from Earth’s more famous superheroes and using that limitation to elevate the narrative… here, I feel like it’s holding everyone back.
There’s definitely a much better version of this saga that we will never get to see because of all the various pieces not falling into place.
Still, I wouldn’t say this is a bad story! The artwork and characterization are solid, every character gets a chance or two to shine… it’s a solid space adventure.
I mean it features a sentient planet possessed by an alien wizard god being defeated by an anti-magic bullet powered by tarot and the power of friendship, and in the end isn’t that what cosmic comics are all about?
I do have one final complain that isn’t about THIS series, however: Doom didn’t really need to go through the trouble of establishing a new Latverian monarch. The stakes were definitely high enough for him to get involved, sure, but how much time did he truly dedicate to this fight? A few days at most?
Next, I will be taking a look at Doom’s involvement in various 2021 X-Men books.
And given the era we’re in… I fully expect to get extremely angry at the X-Men, AGAIN.