SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP #11 (1977)
by Bill Mantlo & Bob Hall
Cover by Dave Cockrum
Continuing Doctor Doom’s team-up with Captain America.
I would never have guessed that I would see Dave Cockrum (who does the cover) in the Doom retrospective before the Legion retrospective!
The Shroud is still under the impression that he killed Doom, so he thinks that he’s not in the same league of Red Skull. So he’s right about ONE thing.
Case in point:
The Shroud is blind, but I’m pretty sure this is the first time it’s actually been acknowledged in any of his appearances!
Red Skull has taken over Doom’s castle, which includes access to his Hypno-Ray built in space (!!!)
Doctor Doom and Captain America have been shrunk “to the size of field mice” (presumably with another invention stolen from Doom).
So… yeah. Doctor Doom and Captain America team up to fight a regular snake.
Doom is still on the rebound after his breakup with Namor, so he tries the same tactic with Cap.
“I assure you, captain, you would scarce notice any difference between the Dark Lord… and Doom!”
Poor Namor. He can’t go anywhere withing being proposed an alliance.
“But you’re a Nazi, so f##k you”.
Red Skull’s idea of “show your good will” is to beat up the Shroud, because… again: Nazi.
Meanwhile Doom and Cap reach the castle’s dungeon.
A rare Silver Age appearance of Doom’s friend Boris. This is where Cap realizes that Doom is more complex than Red Skull.
Even miniaturized, Doom is still a threat for Red Skull.
Luckily the situation lasts a whole 4 panels before Doom finally decides to do something about his dangling subplots.
With Doom restored to his full size, we finally get our supervillain fight.
Red Skull actually has a better showing than I expected, since Doom wants to dirty his hands for once.
I love that NOBODY wants the Shroud around!
Not even Captain America!
However the Red Skull cheats (because, again, Nazi) by using Doom’s force field.
However everyone has forgotten than Rudolfo is still around, and he manages to get his hands on the Red Skull’s teleporter.
Specifically, Red Skull has just been teleported to his lunar base. (!!!)
And that’s our cliffhanger! The next story will have Doctor Doom fight Red Skull in a Nazi base on the Moon.
I love comics.
Doom significance: 0/10
The next part will have some significance, but this one is skippable.
Silver Age-ness: 8/10
Mind control satellites! Shrinking rays! Pocket-sized teleportation devices! A Nazi lunar base!
Does it stand the test of time? 5/10
Nothing spectacular and there barely any characterization. It’s more of a summary of a good story, but it lacks any nuance. The action is particularly uninteresting.
It was a Doombot all along
No indication one way or the other.
Take over the world & Destroy the FF!
Not at all! In fact…
Times Doom has saved the world: 2
Doom saves Earth from being enslaved by his own mind control device, but it still counts.
Crazy tech
That teleportation device is quite something, but while I suspect Red Skull stole it from Doom (since he typically never uses something like that), it’s not explicitly told. So the Hypno-Ray ™ wins by default.