Invincible Iron Man vol3 #6 (2016)
by Brian Michael Bendis & Mike Deodato Jr.
Sorry Rhodey, we’re just here for Doctor Doom and you don’t share any scenes with him.
Tony Stark is having breakfast with Dr. Amara Perera, who he met last time, and they’re discussing her potential cure for Alzheimer’s.
She gets a second opinion from another doctor.
He’s a big fan.
There’s something weird seeing Doom do the most normal things possible… grab a coffee, pull up a chair… intellectually you shouldn’t see a problem with it, but it’s WEIRD seeing a larger-than-life figure act normally, isn’t it?
Stark is understandably on the edge the entire time.
He’s got a point, can you even imagine Doctor Doom pick up the phone?
That’s for peasants!
Doom is here because he thinks Stark might have been affected by Madame Masque’s demonic possession.
But that’s not the real focus of the conversation: it’s about Doom’s real intentions.
Stark is not buying his new persona, AT ALL, but Dr. Perera is intrigued.
This is probably the biggest reason why Stark hates Doom.
Doom should know, since it’s biggest reason why HE hates Richards!
Invincible Iron Man vol3 #9 (2016)
by Brian Michael Bendis & Mike Deodato Jr.
Doom then skips a couple of issues, until he decides to visit Dr. Perera again.
But he’s also around because Tony has disappeared for plot reasons.
Dr. Perera manages to stand up to Doom better than most.
Doom ALMOST returns to the old ways.
This is kind of the in-universe reason why Doctor Strange doesn’t fix everything with magic.
If Stark was truly dead, Doom wouldn’t exactly be distraught.
Using magic to cure Alzheimer’s is a price too high for Dr. Perera, but maybe a deal with Doctor Doom isn’t.
Invincible Iron Man vol3 #12 (2016)
by Brian Michael Bendis & Mike Deodato Jr.
Doom is lucky enough to skip most of Civil War 2.
I think the event gets WAY too much hate; it’s not great, but it’s not as bad as its reputation either.
Doom also skipped almost all of the original Civil War too, but he was dead for parts of it.
One of the things that kicked off Civil War 2 was the death of Rhodey.
Doom has ideas about that.
Invincible Iron Man vol3 #13 (2016)
by Brian Michael Bendis & Mike Deodato Jr.
Having Doctor Doom insisting he’s your friend might be scarier than him being your enemy.
He’s brought Tony to England, where Doom has set up Dr. Perera to be able to continue her work.
She’s understandably upset about the fact that, for plot reasons, Tony had to fake his own death. Again.
I bet the public is tired of hearing the same news over and over again.
This is an aspect of superhero comics that is rarely acknowledged: civilians go through a hell of a rollercoaster with all these fake announcements.
When that doesn’t exactly cheer Tony up, Doom decides to pay a visit.
Except Doom was overconfident in his magic powers being able to keep him protected from Tony forever.
The story ends with Tony asking Doom why he decided to make him the focus of his redemption arc…
…and we won’t find out in THIS series, because Tony dies again in Civil War 2.
Doom significance: 6/10
All things considered, Doom’s relationship with Stark is not as important as his next role might suggest. But Dr. Perera will be important for him in the next series.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.
Does it stand the test of time? N/A
Once again I skipped too much to give a honest score. I really enjoyed the Doom scenes, although this his interactions with Stark are mostly lackluster: Doom does the heavy lifting.
I found his relationship with Dr. Perera to be more interesting and layered.
There’s certainly some poor planning here: Doom is introduced at the beginning of the series, which sets up the mystery of what he’s doing… and it DOESN’T resolve it, because the series ends with issue 14 which doesn’t even feature Doom.
I should also mention that Dr. Perera looks distinctly different from issue to issue; they don’t seem to be able to decide her ethnicity. She’s supposed to be from Sri Lanka.
We will next see Doctor Doom in a new identity, but before that we will need to take a small detour. With squirrels.
If MCU civilians can ignore the bi-monthly destruction of New York City by alien invasion, they can cope with the occasional fake announcement of Tony Stark’s death. On the other hand, the legal situation is a nightmare – possibly the court system has special probate rules when superheroes are involved.
Is it just me, or is the artist drawing Doom to look like Vincent Cassel? Honestly, that’s not bad fan casting.