Just as it happened with Infinity Gauntlet, Doctor Doom got to participate in its sequel… but in a very limited fashion.
INFINITY WAR #1 (1992)
by Jim Starlin & Ron Lim
There’s a lot to say regarding the main story… but I get to skip most of it because Doom has a completely separate plot that doesn’t interact with it until the very end!
In the first issue, Doom’s tech learns about the shenanigans caused by the series bad guy Magus.
Later on in the issue, when the heroes gather to figure out how to deal with the crisis, Doom summons an ally, “the only one he can trust”.
Throughout this entire plot, Doom makes multiple reference to seeking five objects of power. We won’t learn what they are until much later. For what it’s worth, when reading the story at the time I didn’t figure out what “the five” were, and it was a well played surprise.
The ally summoned by Doom is Kang the Conqueror, which is a… somewhat baffling decision, considering the last time they interacted was during Secret Wars when Doom murdered (and later resurrected!) Kang.
Get used to their thoughts about betraying each other at the first opportunity, because that’s basically what they do during 90% of this.
INFINITY WAR #2 (1992)
by Jim Starlin & Ron Lim
I’m not joking: these two can’t stand each other. Starlin tends to have the subtlety of a sledgehammer in this period.
They do, however, work surprisingly well together!
Their plot ALMOST interacts with another, because the unlikely alliance of Galactus, Silver Surfer and Doctor Strange is following the same exact trail.
I have to give it to Kang, he has QUITE an impressive technology if he can hide from Silver Surfer.
Supposedly from Galactus as well, but I prefer to think Galactus is fully aware of their presence but doesn’t give a crap about it.
I object to Doctor Doom saying the word “slap”, though.
INFINITY WAR #3 (1992)
by Jim Starlin & Ron Lim
Doctor Doom and especially Kang are of a different opinion, thinking that Galactus would kill them if he found out he’s being followed. This increases the suspense in finding out what “the five” are.
The prize is certainly valuable if it’s powerful enough to knock out Eternity. Which is VERY impressive because Eternity IS THE FREAKING UNIVERSE…
…which explains how the Magus can BLOW UP GALACTUS AND HIS ENTIRE SHIP.
Galactus will later resurrect himself, but DAMN.
Frustratingly enough, this is still not enough to reach “the five”, because Doom and Kang only find some energy nonsense acting as a transmitter to the power of the Magus.
Sensing that Thanos and the Infinity Watch are coming, the duo is once again saved by Kang’s incredibly impressive cloaking technology.
While I’m enjoying this subplot (which neatly allows me to skip most of the main story!), there is one aspect that rubs me the wrong way.
Magus has access to technology so incredibly advanced that he’s constantly monitoring everything the heroes do, plus earlier in the story he was able to spy in DEATH HERSELF (in her own dimension, no less!!!)… but he’s completely oblivious to Doom and Kang messing around?
Come on!!!
It’s kind of refreshing to see one of Starlin’s pet characters behaving like a complete moron, instead of everyone else (more on that later), but that’s dumb. And since Magus will interact with Doom later, here he is, complete with his ridiculous 90s hairdo.
That’s not Thanos he’s talking to, by the way, but a Thanos clone created as an assistant.
And there WAS a chance to give this an explanation! The main reason Magus is scheming to get the Infinity Gauntlet is he’s angry at Adam Warlock for deleting his timeline in his 70s stories.
So perhaps Starling could’ve said that Kang coming from the future is a blind spot for a guy who was “denied all of tomorrows”.
Then again this is technically not the same Magus from the 70s, because he’s not a future alternate personality but a present day incarnation of Warlock’s bad side (cosmic Marvel is WEIRD), so what do I know.
Anyway, the Magus has tricked Earth’s heroes to send an expedition towards the same place where Warlock and the Infinity Watch are now… and since they’re right next to Thanos, this leads to a big dumb fight.
Both Doom and Kang are like “how lucky can we possibly get!?”, because this means they don’t have to fight the Infinity Watch AND they discover how to reach their prize.
INFINITY WAR #4 (1992)
by Jim Starlin & Ron Lim
So if Doom needed Kang for his cloaking technology, why did Kang need Doom at all?
Apparently Doom is better at gathering data.
It’s now that I have to criticize Starlin for something that was already kind of there during Infinity Gauntlet but which is going to be a problem for every single time he writes cosmic stories.
Aside from his pet characters, every time he gathers Earth’s heroes they’re just there to:
1) showcase his pet characters are much better
2) act like morons, showcasing his pet characters are much smarter
3) be completely baffled about everything that’s going on, unlike his pet characters
We get some nice Ron Lim action scenes out of this, but it gets very old very quickly.
And I like most of his pet characters! But Gamora casually knocking out both Rogue and She-Hulk? COME ON!!!
Ugh.
Back to the reason I’m reviewing this, Doom and Kang FINALLY reach the Magus headquarters.
Surprisingly enough, Doom decides to ditch the cape and cowl. I can probably count on one hand the amount of times this happened.
Like I said, the Magus is apparently a complete imbecile because he didn’t think it would be a good idea to put some safeguards on the technology that controls his source of power.
Considering what “the five” are, it’s very interesting that continuous direct use would cause brain damage…
…because they are revealed to be five Cosmic Cubes. Considering ONE of those things makes you nearly omnipotent (we’ve seen Doom get one once), that is very bad news indeed!
That’s a cool revelation that I didn’t see coming; it had been quite some time since Cosmic Cubes were used in the cosmic Marvel books.
There’s also some confusing logistics involved. First Kang told is the Magus didn’t have much security, now he says that there’s a failsafe that will blow up the Cubes AND he then says he’s placing his own explosives too!?
Leaving aside the redundancy… how the heck do you blow up a Cosmic Cube!?!?
And speaking of weird story turns: during all of this, the Magus sent evil doppelgangers to fight the heroes (more on that later).
They were the reason why the heroes got involved in the first place, and the contingent that stayed on Earth has been fighting them for the better part of the issue.
But they don’t get to defeat the doppelgangers: Galactus does it for them, basically as an afterthought!!!
All of this ENORMOUSLY convoluted plan was just so that Adam Warlock would get desperate enough to reassemble the Infinity Gauntlet…
…which doesn’t even work, because cosmic super-deity Living Tribunal made it so earlier
With all of Earth’s heroes present, naturally the task of saving the universe falls on Galactus.
Wait, what?
Just as Galactus leaves, the Magus shows up to kidnap Adam Warlock and therefore the Infinity Gauntlet.
There are like fifty super-heroes present, but Thanos is the only one to make an effort to stop this.
See what I meant about Starlin’s use of these characters!?
He does it again a few pages later, when Thanos casually tricks Invisible Woman to reveal the position of the Ultimate Nullifier, a.k.a. a weapon powerful to make Galactus wet himself.
He then gives the weapon to cosmic hero Quasar to use against Magus.
Let’s recap the whole Magus plan, shall we?
Step 1) gather five Cosmic Cubes (I don’t recall if we ever learn how he does it)
Step 2) create a clone of Thanos
Step 3) create endless evil doppelgangers of the heroes
Step 4) have the doppelgangers create enough chaos to gather the heroes
Step 5) have the doppelgangers replace Reed Richards and Iron Man (this basically goes nowhere)
Step 6) knock out Eternity
Step 7) once Adam Warlock has assembled the nonfunctional Infinity Gauntlet
Step 7, addendum 1: SOMEHOW be sure that Galactus will petition the Living Tribunal to restore the Infinity Gauntlet
Step 7, addendum 2: SOMEHOW be sure the Living Tribunal will agree and not disintegrate the entire universe with a snap of his fingers (he’s done stuff like that)
Step 8) create a duplication of the entire universe to later merge with the original (this is basically a throwaway Thanos sentence and addressed only in a Doctor Strange tie-in)
Step 9) make everyone in the real universe catatonic (again, addressed only in Doctor Strange, and why in the world would he need to do that in the first place!?)
Step 10) once the Living Tribunal has restored the Infinity Gauntlet, Magus will be omnipotent
Step 11) now the Magus can merge the universes and rule everything. Please note that if he has a functioning Infinity Gauntlet, this step is utterly unnecessary, just like steps 8 and 9.
How about, instead, he went like this?
Step 1) gather five Cosmic Cubes
Step 2) rule the freaking universe because the Infinity Gauntlet, the ONLY thing around more powerful than that, is currently no working
That was all he needed to do!!! Even if you seriously think Galactus and Eternity would give a crap about Magus having that sort of power… he can already blow up the former and incapacitate the latter!!!
INFINITY WAR #5 (1992)
by Jim Starlin & Ron Lim
Seriously, Magus, you have tech that can create an entire new universe but you can’t install a decent alarm in your base!?
Nice theory, Kang, but the truth is Magus is just dumb.
Magus is ready to disintegrate Quasar to prevent him from using the Ultimate Nullifier against his base, but that’s when Doom and Kang make their move.
Warlock’s decision to fight alongside Magus is… baffling. Yeah he knows he can’t trust Doctor Doom, but he should be way more trustworthy than Magus!
This is very, VERY bad news for Magus.
I’m okay with Magus easily defeating Kang: the latter is not much of a physical fighter, and as a Warlock clone Magus should be a physical powerhouse.
Much to my surprise, Doom manages to knock out Adam Warlock. It’s rare for one of Starlin’s pet characters to be overpowered so easily, but to be fair Doctor Doom is one of the characters he does at least try to write with a bit of respect.
The Doom-Kang alliance ends with Doctor Doom murdering Kang.
AGAIN.
Magus doesn’t get to use the Cosmic Cubes, which have been snatched by the villains of the next Infinity crossover (which I won’t cover since Doom isn’t in it).
Doctor Doom is on a roll: he managed to casually knock out Adam Warlock TWICE. That’s already impressive on its own (Warlock once fought Thor to a standstill), but in a Jim Starlin story that’s basically unheard of.
This WOULD be an absolute triumph for Doom… but ironically, for once his downfall is due to him being overly cautious.
If only Doom had taken the Infinity Gauntlet immediately, he would be the one wearing it by the time the Living Tribunal reactivates it.
INFINITY WAR #6 (1992)
by Jim Starlin & Ron Lim
Bizarrely, Doctor Doom doesn’t show up in the last issue: he’s just completely forgotten, even when Magus completes his collection.
Magus is eventually defeated by Adam Warlock wrestling control of the Infinity Gauntlet.
I’m with Professor X on this one.
Turns out Magus didn’t even get the complete Infinity Gauntlet, because the Reality Gem was just a fake.
So yeah, this cements that Magus was a moron.
Yeah sure, Eternity, the Infinity Gauntlet won’t ever be assembled again. Until next time, of course.
(I don’t think we ever got an explanation for why the Living Tribunal reversed his decision)
And that’s about it for Doctor Doom and Infinity War… except that time Silver Sable fought his doppelganger.
Doom significance: 0/∞
Easily skippable.
Silver Age-ness: 7/∞
On the Marvel scale, that is one impressive level of idiocy on the Magus side.
Does it stand the test of time? meh/∞
Since I’m not giving it a full review, I don’t think it’s fair to have a real score.
If we’re talking exclusively about the Doom & Kang plot, it’s not half bad! They went a bit overboard with the constant bickering, but other than that it’s a solid outing for both.
For the rest of the saga… it’s not a bad story concept, but it’s FAR more convoluted than it has any rights to be. And as you’re probably sick of hearing by now, it’s the beginning of Starlin using everyone but his pet characters as basically cannon fodder.
It was a Doombot all along
Highly unlikely given the scenario, although not completely impossible.
Number of superheroes who have fought Dr. Doom: 80
Adding Adam Warlock to the mix. The two only met during Infinity War, but they were allies back then.
Crazy tech
Doom’s sensors and his energy blasts have a very impressive outing, but the real winner is Kang’s cloaking technology. Even if you don’t believe they fooled Galactus, they sure made him invisible to Silver Surfer’s cosmic senses.