Avengers #332-333

AVENGERS #332 (1991)
by Larry Hama & Paul Ryan

The Avengers are opening their new headquarters… and somebody forgot to invite Doctor Doom.

Seriously, EVERYBODY is in this.

Throughout the issue, we see little snippets of Doom lurking around. It’s a neat idea: we know from the cover that Doom is here, but the heroes don’t find out until the end. It’s a good way to keep up the tension.

Also, because he’s going to be super-important later, this two-parter is easily the best use of Rage.
The idea that he’s out of place in the Avengers was a core part of his character from the start, but this is one of the few times it actually works.

Another bit that is soon to be important is Iron Man bypassing the security measures.

While I do think that Iron Man’s identity being public means we lose a few story opportunities, honestly I’m okay with him no longer having a secret identity because by this point basically everyone with two brain cells had figured out he was Tony Stark.

But eventually the heroes do run into Doctor Doom. I had to check the credits to make sure this wasn’t John Buscema, because Tom Palmer’s inks really do wonders for Paul Ryan’s art!

And yes, in case you didn’t know, in this period Sandman had reformed and joined the Avengers. Unfortunately nothing is done with the opportunity to make him interact with another Fantastic Four enemy.

Sandman and Doom have not interacted yet, and it really shows because Sandman makes the colossal mistake of pushing the mom button.

Vision, on the other hand, HAS met Doom before. And even if he’s gone through A LOT lately, he’s still an absolute badass.

Meanwhile the Avengers support team wonders how Doom got into the building. I guess they didn’t get the memo that Doom has shrinking technology.

That’s the least of their problems, because what is worse than Doctor Doom? More Doctor Dooms!

Iron Man was also Doctor Doom, which he reveals by taking over the entire base.

All kidding aside, this is one of the most badass Doctor Doom entrances!!!

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AVENGERS #333 (1991)
by Larry Hama & Herb Trimpe
cover by Tom Morgan

Could Tom Palmer have saved even the Herb Trimpe artwork? We’ll never know because for inexplicable reasons his inks are replaced by Tom “Punisher 2099” Morgan.

Rage wastes no time to be added to the list of heroes who fought Doom. Although “fought” is a bit of an overstatement here.

Speaking of the list, this issue is problematic for my counting. Doctor Doom is holding all the superheroes present hostage… should I count ALL the heroes present? We’ll see.

Doom is such a gentlemen that allows all the civilians to leave in peace. In fact he’s not even concerned by most of the heroes present.

Since there are other Dooms fighting Captain America, Vision and Sandman, Doom explains that two of the Dooms present are actually Doombots.

At this point even Reed can’t keep up with the Doombots.

So, why is Doom doing all of this? Well, in a recent issue Thor admitted in an interview that he had the ability to cross dimensions, and Doom wants that to save his mother.

This is dumb. First of all Doom should already know Thor can travel through dimensions, but most importantly are you telling me that DOCTOR DOOM can’t!?!?

What is not dumb, however, is the reason why all these heroes are not lifting a finger against Doom: the real one is wearing a nuke ready to go off at the first sign of trouble!

The Thing and Rage know what’s important in this situation. Nice callback to the earlier Jarvis scene, though.

Doom-Richards is currently a 2-0.

It’s actually Captain America to figure out first that he’s up against a Doombot.

Vision also makes a similar deduction.

Cap’s reasons would make perfect sense in the normal world, but considering the crazy stuff Doom comes up with, he still took quite a risk!
Also I guess he didn’t care for the punch.

Vision, on the other hand, figure out that the other Doombot assembled itself after coming through the tiny connection to the sewers. That’s pretty clever, but I still wonder why Doom went through all that trouble when we know he has shrinking technology.

Another plot point that doesn’t make a lot of sense is that Doom is asking the Avengers to tell him the secret of how Thor travels through dimensions… when Thor isn’t even there.
On the other hand, the fact that Doom didn’t even think about ASKING for their help and immediately went with a nuclear ransom is 100% Doctor Doom.

Also there’s another glaring flaw in Doom’s plan: if he does go through with his threat, he’s going to blow HIMSELF up.

And that’s all Rage needs. That and a cupcake.

Yep. Out of all the seasoned super-heroes and super-geniuses in the room, Rage was the only one to figure out that Doom would not sacrifice the chance to save his mother.
And I remind you that Rage, while nobody present knows it, is currently 13 years old.

Well okay, Captain America also took into consideration that Doom is not suicidal. But Rage is the only one to realize Doom’s best trick in the story: as usual he wasn’t TECHNICALLY lying.

Though maybe Doom WAS suicidal, because the real one is sitting in a nearby car and he does have the bomb with him.

I guess this means both Captain America and Rage were still wrong, even though they saved the day.

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Doom significance: 0/10
Ultimately without repercussions. Which is kind of funny since he’s threatening several heads of state when he takes over the HQ.

Silver Age-ness: 3/10
Man I would’ve loved to see a Silver Age-style cover for this. “Doctor Doom is about to blow up the city and all we have is this cupcake, how can we defeat him? The Dessert Of Doom!”

 Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
This is a tough call. The difference in quality is enormous: not only the first part has blatantly superior artwork, it’s also a more focused story. The final moment with Doom revealing himself is still chilling. The second one is more meandering, but the trick behind Doom’s sort-of-lie still holds up rather well… and yet the final message is a bit mangled. Overall a good premise with a couple of awesome moments amid a long stretch of mediocrity. And, like I said, not only the best Rage issue in the Avengers but one of the very few times I actually cared for Rage.

It was a Doombot all along
I guess the one in the limousine could be a Doombot, but that would be a stretch.

Times Doom has tried to save his mother from Hell: 7 

Number of superheroes who have fought Dr. Doom: 72
I’ve decided to add only Sandman and Rage to the count. Aside from Captain America and Vision (who are already in the list), nobody else lifts a finger during the entire story.

Crazy tech
The Doombots have done more impressive stuff, and even the neutron bomb is pedestrian for Doom. But the way he effortlessly takes over the Avengers HQ, even with heightened security, is a testament to his skills.