New Avengers vol3 #6 (2013)
by Jonathan Hickman & Steve Epting
cover by Jock
Doctor Doom plays a small part in this MASSIVE Avengers storyline, but it’s the prelude to the new Secret Wars where he will be the protagonist.
But before we move to Doom we need to discuss A LOT of backstory from the previous issues.
Starting from a new player: Black Swan.
A black&white woman who is very powerful (she can fight Heralds of Galactus), very mysterious, and very involved in recurring world-ending cataclysms called “Incursions”.
The Illuminati (I’ll talk about them in a bit) have captured her after learning about Incursions, and after a lot of convincing she agrees to help.
She’s also not particularly fond of magicians.
And she’s the last survivor of a whole race of people who worship someone called Rabum Alal.
Which once again will be VERY important to Doom later.
I’m rushing through A LOT, believe me.
I really enjoyed this storyline but if there’s one criticism to make is that it’s clearly intended to be read in its entirety… if you pick a single issue, it doesn’t make much sense.
Black Swan’s powers allow her to predict where the next Incursion is going to take place, and this time it’s Latveria.
Which is very bad because we learned about what Incursions are at the beginning of this series: it’s ENTIRE UNIVERSES CRASHING ONTO EACH OTHER.
The way it works: one planet from one universe comes into contact with another one.
If they crash, BOTH universes are destroyed.
If one planet is destroyed, BOTH universes survive.
So the choice is either:
A) destroy the other planet and save two universes.
B) two universes are destroyed
This creates an interesting moral dilemma whenever the incoming planet is inhabited.
And the LAST Incursion was only stopped by Captain America wielding the Infinity Gauntlet to PUSH AWAY THE OTHER UNIVERSE… at the cost of destroying the Infinity Stones.
With the Infinity Gauntlet gone, the next time an Incursion happens there’s only one way to save the Earth and its universe: destroy the approaching planet first. If the heroes do nothing, TWO universes will be destroyed instead.
Captain America is against this…
…so he’s mindwiped out of the Illuminati.
So what’s going to happen when a new Incursion happens in Latveria?
NOW we move to the issue where Doctor Doom actually shows up.
In order to destroy the approaching universe, the Illuminati have reverse-engineered a weapon originally designed by Rabum Alal.
The Illuminati are a team of the most influential superheroes on the planet, who are supposed to deal with the biggest threats before the rest of the superhero community even learns about them.
Doctor Strange, Reed Richards, Namor, Iron Man and Black Bolt are founding members; at this point they’ve been joined by Black Panther, and Beast has replaced Professor X who is currently presumed dead.
The Incursion happens RIGHT ABOVE CASTLE DOOM. Considering what we’ll eventually learn is behind the Incursions, that’s definitely a deliberate choice.
Unlike other Incursions, however, this one is accompanied by an alien invasion by the so-called “Mapmakers”.
Good news: Doctor Doom is here!
Bad news: Doctor Doom is here!
The Mapmakers are actually an inter-dimensional species that seems to be living off Incursions, and more importantly the world being used for this specific Incursion is completely devoid of life.
That makes destroying it less morally ambiguous, and the Illuminati do just that.
But this is FAR from over. First, because the Incursions are going to continue and it’s unlikely that all incoming worlds are going to be uninhabited…
…and more importantly, DOOM KNOWS.
Yeah that’s definitely not good.
New Avengers vol3 #7 (2013)
by Jonathan Hickman & Mike Deodato
As if things weren’t bad enough already, Atlantis and Wakanda are at war with each other in this period.
But let’s not focus on that: we have a very weird dinner date!
It’s interesting to see Reed reference to Kristoff as his friend. Reed missed most of Kristoff’s character development during the DeFalco run, but he knows he’s slightly more heroic than Doom.
Doom is being surprisingly cordial to Reed, but choosing his words carefully to figure out what exactly happened with the Incursion.
Both Reed and Strange are also being weird, evading Doom’s questions.
But Strange is pushing his luck.
Honestly I’m with Doom on this one. The Illuminati showed up in his country as A WHOLE UNIVERSE WAS ABOUT TO CRASH ON HIS HOUSE and they don’t want to tell him what’s going on!!!
I understand why bringing Doctor Doom up to speed about a multiversal cataclysm is awkward, but Reed should know better than antagonizing him like this.
And we’re going to take a break here, because Doom will not get involved with the Incursions plot for a while. But once we get back to this… oh boy, things are going to REALLY escalate!!!
Doom significance: 10/10
It’s not apparent here, but it’s going to be MASSIVELY important. In fact, it’s fair to say that the ONLY reason the entire Marvel Universe survives the new Secret Wars is Doom’s involvement here.
Silver Age-ness: 2/10
It’s taken as a VERY serious problem for obvious reasons, but the multiversal mechanics of the Incursions are a bit Silver Age.
Does it stand the test of time? N/A
I skipped so much that I can’t honestly give a real score to the whole issue, but the parts that I’ve covered would easily be a 10/10.
In fact my review doesn’t give the saga justice: it has a lot of moving parts, but once it connects to Doom it’s going to be SO important I couldn’t skip it.
In general I really like the mechanics of the Incursions: it gives the heroes an impossible choice, and while they do find a third way a couple of times they know they can’t rely on those forever until they learn what’s behind the Incursions.
This incarnation of the Illuminati is interesting. They ARE dealing with a problem where most other heroes wouldn’t be useful, and acting this way is reducing the potential panic… but at the same time there are negatives associated with constantly operating in the shadows.
The fact that the Incursions don’t have an easy solution is a recurring theme that explores the nature of heroism. If destroying one world saves two entire universes, is it really heroic to take Captain America’s route and allow the death of infinite amounts of people at the cost of billions of lives?
But from Cap’s perspective, are you prepared to do this forever until the Incursions runs out of universes to throw at you?
And the person who will eventually find a solution for this moral dilemma? DOCTOR DOOM.
It was a Doombot all along
Even with the knowledge of future issues, this might still be a Doombot because the only really important thing is that Doom learns about the Incursions.
Crazy tech
I could highlight a VERY impressive feat, but that would require too many spoilers.