Doctor Doom #6

Doctor Doom #6 (2020)
by Christopher Cantwell & Salvador Larroca

Kang has been the bane of this series, dragging it down every single time he appears.
While this is thankfully his last appearance in this… he’s all over this story.

This issue is, and I’m not even kidding, a road trip taken by Doctor Doom and Kang to reach Texas.
Which SOUNDS like the premise of a joke, but really that’s the story.

Oh how I wish Kang would just leave this story.

This is SO dumb. Doom does have his reasons for wanting to reach Texas while keeping a low profile… which in his mind means being as visible as humanly possible I guess.

Also, why in the year 2020 are we STILL bringing up the thoroughly discredited idea of Kang and Doom being related???

Seriously, this BARELY made any sense in 1964 when the idea was first teased in Fantastic Four Annual #2. That’s so far back that Kang was still Rama-Tut, and it was ENTIRELY based on the fact that both characters happened to bump into each other while time traveling.

It was already discredited in 1984 during the John Byrne run of Fantastic Four, where we learned that Kang grew up in a parallel timeline and isn’t from Doom’s future… in fact he’s a direct descendant of Nathaniel Richards, a.k.a. Reed’s time-traveling father.
This became EVEN DUMBER because What If #39 revealed that Kang is ALSO called Nathaniel Richards. Remember that part of Kang’s origin story is that he knew one of his ancestors was a time traveler, and he just doesn’t know which one is it?
So his origin is basically “Hmm I’m the descendant of either the guy with my same exact name and another guy, I guess which one is my ancestor?”.
Which is kind of like a guy literally called Thomas Edison who wonders if he’s a descendant of a different Thomas Edison or if he’s a descendant of Nikola Tesla!!!

A reminder that Doom has teleportation technology and knows teleportation magic… and yet these two are traveling BY FOOT.

I’m convinced that the entire reason why they’re traveling on foot is to make this scene, which… fair enough, this was hilarious.

And in fact, if the road trip ended after that scene, I could forgive this comic.
But IT KEEPS GOING.

And going.

And going.

Oh just kiss already!!!

Eventually, they reach their destination in the middle of nowhere…

…where they discuss how to destroy the black hole that has been created on the Moon.
This is one of the VERY rare occasions where antimatter actually resembles the real deal… typically in superhero comics, antimatter tends to be treated as a completely different thing.

And finally, at PAGE ELEVEN: something happens!!!

A reminder that, at this moment, Doctor Doom:
-is the most wanted man on the planet
-has no diplomatic immunity
-has walking around half of the United States without any disguise

So with the exception of Iron Man and the Fantastic Four, who are busy dealing with the black hole, Doom should be hunted by EVERY SUPERHERO IN AMERICA.

Instead they send… Paladin.

Look… I don’t mind Paladin. I often quite like the character.
But WHAT IS HE DOING HERE???

And his only backup is the Orb. THE ORB!!!

These guys are so unimpressive that Doctor Doom defeats them with, and I’m not exaggerating… a stick.
That’s it.
Not even a magic stick. Just something Doom picked up.

Well okay, technically Kang also shoots them with a very cool weapon, but still… I’m not convinced they really needed more than a stick.

We finally learn why Doom is in Texas in the first place… he’s expecting a delivery.

THE ULTIMATE NULLIFIER, which apparently was in the possession of S.P.E.A.R. (the rarely seen Chinese equivalent to S.H.I.E.L.D).
The Ultimate Nullifier jumps A LOT between places over the years, but I couldn’t track how S.P.E.A.R. got its hands on it.

And I normally would just nitpick that inconsistency just for fun… but the fact that Doctor Doom has the Ultimate Nullifier is going to be VITAL to the ending of the series, so it shouldn’t just pop out of nowhere like this!!!

Doom is surprisingly attached to the sons he has in the vision he’s witnessed throughout the series.

I know he’s talking about the place, but the idea of Doctor Doom EVER saying the word “chihuahua” is hilarious.

Kang eventually does his thing…

…and two panels later he’s unceremoniously killed by Doom.

Look, if all you wanted was to make a two-page splash of Doctor Doom riding a horse… you could’ve just included it as a pinup, instead of wasting everyone’s time!!!

And IN THE LAST PAGE, Doom phones Reed to give him the solution to the black hole problem.

Did… did Doctor Doom just save the world with a phone call???
Well there’s still 3 issues to get through, so there’s plenty of time to screw this up.

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Doom significance: 3/10
How I wish this was unimportant… but the ending of the series couldn’t even happen if Doom didn’t get the Ultimate Nullifier.

Silver Age-ness: 8/10
It’s Doctor Doom and Kang taking a road trip for barely explained reasons.

Will it stand the test of time? 2/10
I honesly had a better memory of this series before I started the reviews… and even then I already hated this issue.
I’m saving only Doom obliterating the truck and the admittedly gorgeous two-page spread.
That’s it.
The road trip MAKES NO SENSE, the Ultimate Nullifier pops out of nowhere, using Paladin is a complete waste, and even the banter between Doom and Kang got stale very quickly.
The good news is that Kang won’t be dragging down the series anymore, so this series has the potential to redeem itself now.

Number of superheroes who have fought Dr. Doom: 145
Adding Paladin. I’m not that surprised that he ended up fighting Doctor Doom, honestly, but he deserved better.