Doomwar #1 (2010)
by Jonathan Maberry & Scot Eaton
cover by John Romita Jr.
Doom takes his time to finish the feud with Black Panther: it’s going to take a whole 6-issue miniseries. Perhaps that’s why he wasn’t very involved in either Dark Reign or Siege: this was what he REALLY cared about.
Since it’s been a while, here’s a recap of the situation.
T’Challa has left Wakanda to nurse his wounds and learn enough magic to deal with Doctor Doom, leaving the mantle of Black Panther to his sister Shuri.
Meanwhile, Doom has backed the conservative and ultra-xenophobic Desturi stage a coup to take over Wakanda.
Also Storm, who at this time was married to T’Challa, has been arrested. Well, technically speaking she surrendered herself to the authorities.
She took this better than expected.
Naturally, the Desturi are denying having received foreign help to have the coup.
You would normally expect Doom to take charge now, annexing Wakanda to his kingdom.
But he’s playing for bigger stakes: the whole reason he helped the coup was to gain access to the secret vault of Wakanda, where T’Challa keeps its greatest asset.
Sometimes I wonder why Doom even bothers bringing scientific experts with him. Then I remember this is Doctor Doom we’re talking about: he needs someone to witness his brilliance.
There are several locks that protect the vault, and Doom figures out the first one requires a blood sacrifice.
No biggie.
These guys are not Latverians, so either Doom must be paying EXTREMELY well or these guys are not very smart, considering the job they accepted.
With Storm’s involvement, this is also an X-Men story. And they don’t take the fact that Storm will most likely be put to death very lightly.
(also: a very rare example of a Marvel comic actually using the President’s name, instead of just talking about “The President”)
Hmm, how to take this into consideration for my count of heroes who fought Doom?
The rule is that heroes are added if either they fight Doom or someone sent directly by Doom.
Doom is the reason why Storm is in danger now, so any hero working to save her gets added.
Most of the X-Men are already in the list, but now I can add Emma Frost! Weird to add her, considering she was in the Cabal with Doom very recently.
Although the X-Men don’t know Doom is behind it just yet, all the signs of the Desturi not working alone are there.
And then both T’Challa and Shuri, the latter in full Black Panther costume, show up asking the X–Men to join the fight.
He might want to ask them to stick around after the war, because his relationship with Storm is not going to be fine.
I’m really liking the moral dilemma being presented here. Would T’Challa be a better hero if he abandoned his country to save his life?
This is not the first time that T’Challa has faced stern opposition back home… it’s necessarily a recurrent thing when your hero is a head of state… but the Desturi had too many resources to be like the others.
Which is, of course, where Doom comes into the picture. Although T’Challa didn’t even expose his involvement on his own, Doom even got to make the first move.
As if organizing a Wakandan coup and nearly killing T’Challa wasn’t enough, Doom’s master stroke was flooding the country with nanites that turned EVERY EXPOSED WAKANDAN into part of his own intelligence service! EVEN STORM.
This is AMAZING. Although it does beg the question: why didn’t T’Challa ask Reed Richards or Henry Pym to help dealing with these nanites? Not only they’re friends, but Reed is familiar with Doom’s tech and Pym would be the expert here.
There’s a simple explanation that I’m surprised isn’t used by the comic: this would be happening roughly during the whole Civil War mess, which would’ve made T’Challa VERY hesitant to ask.
However the comic does explain away a possible flaw in Doom’s plan: why didn’t he infect T’Challa himself? And the answer works: because of his quasi-magic enhanced senses, he could’ve discovered it quickly and expose the plan too early.
Cyclops points out just how bleak things are for T’Challa right now, and Emma Frost makes a rather dumb question: what does Doom want from Wakanda?
Really? YOU HAD TO ASK???
Vibranium is already ridiculously useful for a bunch of reasons, but T’Challa reveals it has properties that I don’t think were ever discussed earlier: it can enhance magic.
To put this into perspective: as T’Challa says multiple times in this issue, Wakanda has had access to Vibranium for about 10,000 years… and they couldn’t master its connection to magic.
Doctor Doom did it in a matter of WEEKS. And that’s if we’re being generous with the timeline!
How?
Because he’s Doctor Freaking Doom, that’s how!!!
I probably don’t need to explain why Doctor Doom having full access to MAGICALLY ENHANCED 10,000 TONS OF VIBRANIUM is terrifying.
At this point in history, the X-Men were headquartered in the mutant nation of Utopia.
Not to be confused with the other mutant nation that was their base for a while, Genosha.
Not to be confused with the other mutant nation that will be their base for a while, Krakoa.
Not to be confused with the other mutant nation that will be their base for a while, Arakko.
Will the X-Men EVER learn this doesn’t work?
Oh who am I kidding, they’re the X-Men, they’ll never learn.
T’Challa is sympathetic to Cyclops’s moral dilemma…
However, in one of the few moments in his career when Cyclops is able to be both a political leader AND a hero… the X-Men are still going to help!
Psylocke is among the X-Men sent to Wakanda, so she gets added to the count.
I absolutely adore that Wolverine is both technically and literally correct here!!!
However Cyclops and Emma Frost stay behind, so… would it be fair to still include Emma in the list, considering she doesn’t actually do anything?
No, I don’t think it would be, so I’m taking her out of the count.
Sorry Emma, better luck next time.
Depending on whether you’re a hero or a villain that week.
Meanwhile in Wakanda, Storm manages to escape from her prison. It’s always nice when comics recall that she’s an expert at picking locks.
Although what she finds waiting for her on the other side of the door is unexpected.
I have to wonder: was Doom planning to have Storm open the lock from the start, or is this a last-minute change?
She’s still de-powered, and without mutant powers she has no chance to defeat Doctor Doom.
Well she could if this was written by Chris Claremont, but it’s not.
So she helps once Doom threatens to murder all hostages one by one, after giving a demonstration.
Spoiler alert: as of 2024, no she hasn’t.
T’Challa is explaining to the X-Men the main problem with invading Wakanda: it’s nearly impossible to begin with, but he ALSO doesn’t want a bloodshed.
Shuri is being a bit more realistic. It’s an invasion, SOMEONE is going to die.
Doom is of the same idea: when Storm takes too much time on the lock, he orders the Desturi to KILL BLACK PANTHER’S MOTHER.
She survives, only because T’Challa’s uncle S’Yan takes the bullet. He’s been a supporting character since the Hudlin run.
Doctor Doom is absolutely brutal in this storyline. I think it’s because this is war he considers all these people to be fair game.
Speaking of war: it begins officially once T’Challa and his forces land on the Wakandan border.
Shuri does offer immunity to all Wakandans who surrender, and even want to keep the Desturi to have a role in the political process.
When the Desturi leader doesn’t agree, however…
…he has Nightcrawler teleport Shuri to the throne room to SNAP HIS NECK with the whole thing being seen by the army through holograms!!!
Badass move by Shuri.
More than a little out of character for the normally more pacifistic Nightcrawler.
And perhaps a monumentally dumb move from T’Challa, because that bloodshed he wanted to avoid? Yeah kind of hard to do now.
Doom significance: 3/10
This miniseries will turn out to be more influential for Black Panther than for Doom.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Most definitely not.
Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
It’s a real shame this miniseries isn’t more well-known. It’s probably the most complicated Doom plan we’ve ever seen, and trust me he’s not even done throwing new surprises into this.
But at the same time it’s not TOO complicated: every move makes sense in context. The only potential exception would be relying on Storm’s lockpicking skills, but even there it could be argued that it has an additional psychological advantage, even if it’s not much.
T’Challa is also very well written, torn by the moral dilemma of choosing between his wife and his country, with a nice contrast being given by Shuri who is even more ruthless than him.
Really the only moment that I didn’t like was having Nighcrawler helping with the assination of the Desturi leader. It will be addressed briefly next time, but not nearly enough.
It was a Doombot all along
Considering the use of magic and more importantly the amount of resources Doom puts into this? If he doesn’t bother to show up in person, I dread thinking of what he considers important!
Number of superheroes who have fought Dr. Doom: 103
Adding Shuri and Psylocke.
Crazy tech
Doom’s nanites are not simply able to turn people into unwilling intelligence agents for him (is that why Latveria’s intelligence is so absurdly precise?), but they can stay undetected for weeks or months in the most technologically advanced country on the planet!