Infamous Iron Man #8-10

Infamous Iron Man #8 (2017)
by Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev

Half of the covers of this series are great and half are atrocious.
This is among the great.

We begin with Ironheart, helped by the AI version of Tony Stark, traveling to Latveria.

There’s something delightfully creepy about Doctor Doom being exceedingly polite.

The way Doom’s helmet seems to work once he removes the mask looks off; this can’t be comfortable.
But his answer got a chuckle out of me.

Tony’s AI copy might not be the real thing, but it does recognize that Ironheart is incredibly outmatched here.
Yeah if TONY STARK is being cautious, that’s a bad sign!

Doom is striking a great balance between being annoyingly condescending and helpful.

He even sympathizes with their shared history of being college dropouts.

Doom then explains to her the vision he had the previous issue, through a complicated comparison to Native American visions…

…to which she has the most believable reaction possible.

Couldn’t you have just SAID THIS, Doom???

Long story short: the last time Doom had a vision it was during a fight, so he wants her to blast him.

As far as first interactions with Doctor Doom go, this is one of the weirdest.

The attack triggers another vision…

…where Doom meets Sorcerer Supreme Tony Stark.

In the middle of this, “Reed Richards” rants for two pages.

Until the Thing has had enough of him.

“Reed” evades questions about his real identity, asking for a favor.

Yeah that’s going to convince everyone that you’re Reed. Sure.

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Infamous Iron Man #9 (2017)
by Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev

Hey a second good cover in a row!

“Reed” is not the only one in an unfamiliar role.

Well that clears things out.

Doom passes out after the vision, so Ironheart takes her to S.H.I.E.L.D.
Where everyone is contemplating killing him.

Understandably, Ironheart doesn’t feel like celebrating.

The Thing obviously thinks Doom is going to escape…

…but he’s actually saved by his mom.

And so she sinks the helicarrier!!!

And we end with the cliffhanger of Doom starting to believe this really is his mother.

Meanwhile, the Thing catches up with the Human Torch. As a reminder, as far as they know, the rest of the FF are dead.

I’m typically VERY critical of the way Bendis writes dialogue, because he tends to suck at it.
But credit where it’s due, to me this feels a perfectly natural conversation between friends.
And yes, Johnny really did briefly date Medusa.

They also chat about Doom and “Reed”. I have to say that, while I’m extremely grateful we never had a Bendis run on Fantastic Four, at least he does seem to have a good grasp of these two.

That must have been the worst attempt ever to pretend to be a superhero, right?

It also tracks that, of the two, Johnny is the one having the hardest time accepting loss.

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Infamous Iron Man #10 (2017)
by Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev

This one needed to be a bit darker, but yet another good cover! I almost feel bad about criticizing the previous ones, but then I recall the atrocious cover to issue 7.

We begin with a flashback of Doom being taught witchcraft in his youth by his mother.

I’ve been shocked by how much praise I had to give to Bendis in this book, but now he really goes too far by getting Doom’s origin COMPLETELY WRONG.
Doom was NOT taught ANYTHING by his mother!!! One of the most repeated beats of his origin is him rediscovering his mother’s magic trinkets and realizing she was an actual witch!!!
HOW DO YOU MESS THIS UP???

Back in the present, she’s VERY insistent on being the real deal.

Then she has a bit of heart-to-heart with Victor.

After taking out supervillains, Doom’s plan is to then go after the various super-terrorist organizations.

This tracks: Doom has never shown any appreciation for A.I.M or Hydra.
Especially the latter since it was, you know, founded by literal Nazis.

Doom seemed to believe this was his mother at the end of the previous issue, but her being SO insistent is raising all sorts of red flags.

I don’t know if he’s doing this to expose her real identity, or if he’s already figured out this isn’t his mother and is taking advantage of learning some new magic while he’s at it.

I was hoping that the flashback scene was going to be the key to exposing the impostor… but nope, that was apparently real. But “mother” doesn’t know.

Meanwhile, the Thing visits Latveria and runs into a little girl.
For a moment I confused her with Valeria, but this is a Latverian.

It’s been decades and the Fantastic Four STILL don’t get what the Latverians see in Doom.

In what might be one of the best moments of the series, the Thing finds an unexpected memento in Doom’s abandoned castle.

And we close with Doom being attacked by the impostor, reconnecting the two plots.

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Doom significance: 2/10
Doom figures out the impostor. He also meets Sorcerer Supreme Tony Stark, but to gauge the impact of that plot I’d have to understand what that was all about first.

Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.

Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
Dammit Bendis, you were THIS CLOSE with this series. He really nails the Thing and the Human Torch, and Doom’s philosophical meanderings are fascinating.
But this series is moving soooo s-l-o-w-l-y that the impact of the various plots is severely diminished. The whole vision stuff feels tacked on, plus we completely left behind the plot about hunting supervillains AND Doctor Perera… both will be important at the end, I wouldn’t fault you for forgetting all of that if it takes MONTH before they’re relevant.
These three issues are A FOURTH OF THE ENTIRE SERIES and barely anything happens!
They do have some good ideas, but they’re hurt by how meandering the plot has become and of course by a completely unnecessary continuity error with Doom’s origin.

Number of superheroes who have fought Dr. Doom: 136
I’m not currently including Ironheart; while she does blast Doom, he literally asked for it.

Times Doctor Doom has been arrested: 3
I’m not entirely sure it’s a proper arrest, but he IS in handcuffs while under S.H.I.E.L.D. custody so I’m counting it.