Mighty Avengers #11 (2008)
written by Brian Michael Bendis
pencils by Mark Bagley (main story) and Marko Djurdjevic (past scenes)
cover by Mark Bagley
The first two parts of this storyline have been surprisingly fine. But it’s a Bendis story so he has to screw it up in the finale.
We begin with Doctor Doom traveling back to the year 1211 to talk with Morgan Le Fay, and this time it’s not a booty call.
I love how Morgan responds. Basically “What do you mean an army, don’t you already have your own country with its own army?”.
Doom is most likely referring to the army of undead that she summoned for him all the way back in Iron Man #150.
So what DOES she get out of this? A present from the future as she asked last time, or we’re just talking about some sweet Doom loving here?
Whatever the price, Doom returns to the present (and to Bagley artwork) with an army of demons that look suspiciously like the Mindless Ones that serve Dormammu, just with more eyes.
Whatever these things are, they’re quite effective. This formation of the Avengers includes some heavy hitters: Iron Man and Sentry haven’t returned from the past yet, but the demons easily overwhelm not only Ms. Marvel and Wonder Man but more impressively Ares himself.
Doom has captured the Avengers, and he’s keeping them in some kind of stasis field.
The way Bendis writes Wasp rubs me the wrong way. Yes she’s always been the kind of character that jokes during tense situations, but in these stories she comes across as an airhead idiot.
And now we move to THE most infuriating part of the issue.
The way Bendis tends to write dialogue usually latches onto a gimmick, using it so much that he runs it into the ground until it’s absolutely unbearable.
In this period, the gimmick is alternating speech balloons to thought balloons. Which would be fine if:
A) the balloons from multiple characters didn’t constantly alternate, making it hard to follow
B) they were saying ANYTHING.
What’s the point of making Ms. Marvel have both a speech and a thought balloon THAT SAY THE SAME THING!?
Black Widow summarizing my thoughts on 90% of Bendis characters.
There is ONE bit of dialogue that I liked: the heroes arguing on whether this is a Doombot or not. That was kind of funny and in-character.
Whereas the previous two issues most definitely featured the real Doom, I’m inclined to believe this is a Doombot based on the way he acts.
I mean would Victor Von Doom REALLY call Ms. Marvel a cow!?
MAYBE by using a fancier word, but straight up “cow”!?
Even weirder, while this is the perfect setup for “the trademark Doctor Doom monologue”…
…Bendis has the insane decision to have Doctor Doom THINK HIS MONOLOGUE INSTEAD OF SAYING IT!!!
(also, apparently the satellite malfunction that caused the Avengers to attack Latveria was apparently accidentally caused by an earlier Ultron storyline)
See what I mean about Bendis’ gimmick being unbearable? He has Doom interrupting his own mind monologue!!!
Who writes Doctor Doom THINKING his monologue instead of SAYING it!?!?
Lost in the middle of that wall of text is that Doom is worried he doesn’t have enough resources to fight both Iron Man’s latest technologies and the Sentry, so he’s going to use Ares as a bargaining chip to… I don’t know, ask Zeus to help him?
Doctor Doom summarizing my thoughts on 90% of Bendis characters.
Also: “The hell is going on?” should be the tagline of the entire Bendis run.
And here you have it: one of the worst panels in a Bendis story, WHICH IS SAYING SOMETHING.
Doctor Doom calling Ms. Marvel “a fat piece of furniture” and a whore. (!!!!)
The only saving grace of that atrocity of a panel is that it’s been turned into a minor meme.
Bendis in this period seemed to think Ms. Marvel worrying about being fat would be sooooo funny.
And then SPIDER WOMAN breaks the heroes out of the magic stasis field!!!
This causes the Avengers, particularly Ares, to tackle Doom.
Meanwhile Sentry rescues Iron Man from the massive explosion that ended the previous issue, helped by Ms. Marvel.
Which is good for the Avengers, because Doom is still holding his own.
I reluctantly admit that Wasp being annoyed at Spider Woman teaching her how to be an Avenger is kind of funny.
When Sentry shows up, however, Doom is no match for him.
Despite immediately taking down Sentry with one minor spell in the previous issue!!!
As crappy as this story is… and it IS crap… I have to admit that the callback to Doom’s earlier “I don’t recognize your authority” isn’t bad. It’s not EARNED, granted, but still.
This is a MAJOR victory for the heroes, because Doctor Doom is arrested!!!
The last time it happened, kind of, was Fantastic Four #200.
Black Widow is the ONLY one who questions how the heck did Spider-Woman managed to pull off that trick.
While they’re in a hot tub, because fanservice.
This doesn’t raise any red flags with anyone else? Seriously? I know Spider Woman’s origins are a complete mess, but COME ON!!!
The actual reason is that we will soon learn this is not actually Spider Woman. This is the Skrull queen Veranke in disguise.
And the explanation we will get for just how she was able to break free of a magic prison capable of holding Ares is… uhm…
And so we close with a final trip to Morgan Le Fay’s time, where she wonders what happened to Victor.
Doom significance: 6/10
The period between Doom’s arrest and his return to power is BARELY covered, but this is an important step to his involvement with Dark Reign.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Does it stand the test of time? -5/10
It was a Doombot all along
Times Doom has been arrested: 2
If I’m not mistaken it won’t happen again until his 2020 miniseries.
Times Latveria has been conquered: 14
I am NOT increasing the count, because we don’t see who takes over after Doom and he’s reinstated VERY quickly.
Crazy tech
This time his technology takes the backseat thanks to magic and terrible writing.