Astonishing Tales #5

ASTONISHING TALES #5 (1971)
by Larry Lieber & George Tuska

All you really need to know about this comic is that Doom is punching Nazis. This automatically makes it awesome.

We last left Latveria being conquered by the Red Skull, who has quickly nazified it.

And just in case you don’t know Red Skull: that’s not an exaggeration, he’s literally a Nazi.

Dr. Doom returns to his land by flying somewhat awkwardly, but his mind is on the greater priority: making sure he’s sufficiently praised.

Red Skull may not be a menace at Doom’s level, but he’s not someone to be taken lightly: he manages to knock Doom unconscious.

He also puts him in a cross between a James Bond scene and medieval torture.

This trap was meant to cook the victim to death (I would’ve thought that Doom’s armor came with air conditioning, but whatever), but that’s just what Doom wanted because he has a Thermo-Energizer ™ with him.

Once Doom escapes, the Red Skull is ready to use his own weapons against him, but Doom has a different plan: DIG HIS WAY THROUGH SOLID GROUND and switch off the power supply!

I would question why Doom doesn’t have a remote control for this kind of things, but he’s probably just showing off. Not that I mind: this is awesome stuff!

The Red Skull unleashes flamethrowers, but Doom is so awesome that he manages to make George Tuska’s art look cool!

Eat your heart out, Iceman!

So far Red Skull is managing the fight relatively well, but he just has to ruin it by using his exceedingly lame Exiles.

The guy just walked through solid rock, a wall of fire and a barrage of automatic weapons, but sure, a wrestler and a guy with a whip might stop him.

Red Skull looks genuinely terrified of Doom, as he should be.

No, Dr. Doom doesn’t kill Red Skull: he just shrinks him and his crew to shoot them back home with a tiny rocket. (!!!)

Except he didn’t really shrink them: he just hypnotized them into thinking they were shrunk.

This time Dr. Doom wins, with no ifs and no buts.
Fighting a Nazi has its advantages!

 

Doom significance: 2/10
We will eventually get a rematch with Red Skull, but Doom doesn’t punch Nazis often enough.

 Silver Age-ness: 2/10
The sudden hypnotic gas coming up for no reason is pretty random, but even on the Marvel scale this is very low Silver Age-ness.

Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
Even with the lame Exiles, this is 10 pages of Doctor Doom being an absolute boss and punching Nazis. The day this stops being cool is the day I’ll leave comics forever.

It was a Doombot all along
Would YOU leave the joy of kicking Nazis to a robot? Doom wouldn’t!

Take over the world & Destroy the FF!
Again: punching Nazis. Dude’s got his priorities straight.

Crazy tech
Where to begin? Doom shows off lots of weapons and gadgets; most of them have been seen before, with one name or the other. But the hypno-gas is both the most useful and the one that Doom will use again with a much, MUCH bigger impact.