Doomwar #6 (2010)
by Jonathan Maberry & Scot Eaton
cover by John Romita Jr.
The miniseries comes to its conclusion. Smile for the camera, Doom!
Now that Doom has stolen the Vibranium reserves and all efforts to recover it have failed, T’Challa goes for a last desperate attempt: a direct attack against Latveria.
Shuri is against it; surprising given her earlier attitude, but she HAS been on the frontlines.
But since this will be completely off the books, T’Challa hopes this won’t be considered an attack from Wakanda itself (since he’s not the king anymore).
Last time, Shuri’s team wiped out billions of dollars from Doom’s personal fortune.
And his attitude is “meh, who cares”.
Because, thanks to his magically enhanced Vibranium, Doctor Doom now has complete control over EVERY SINGLE MOLECULE OF VIBRANIUM IN THE WORLD.
And that’s terrible.
Just how bad is it? Doom compares it to the power of Silver Surfer or the Cosmic Cube!!!
We know Doom tends to exaggerate those things; I’m willing to accept this is comparable to the Surfer’s power, but the Cube is overselling it.
Also, as far as I know this is the ONLY acknowledgement that the World’s Greatest Comics Magazine miniseries was in fact part of the main continuity.
As if Wakanda needed MORE trouble with international relationships, because they will be blamed for this attack.
I would buy this was a problem if A) the Fantastic Four and War Machine weren’t there to vouch for T’Challa B) Doctor Doom could last more than five minutes before boasting this is his doing.
Since Doom is attacking the whole planet, all superheroes are NOT going to join the fight against Doom.
Bummer.
T’Challa’s influence rubbed off on Shuri, because now she’s playing it smart.
Instead of invading Latveria, she bribed negotiated with the government of Symkaria, which you might recall is Silver Sable’s country that neighbors Latveria.
But she also sent some Dora Milaje to help Deadpool fight Doctor Doom.
Not that it’s doing anything beyond irritating him.
Shuri challenges Doom to a fight, to which he obviously agrees. What’s the point of gaining absolute power if you can’t show off?
T’Challa appeals to Doom’s nobility. This shows that despite the war, he either has enough respect left for Doom or that he’s diplomatic enough to work around Doom’s ego.
Doom calls out his hypocrisy, though.
This gets to the core difference between Doom and T’Challa. While they are frighteningly similar in many regards, there are still thresholds that T’Challa won’t cross.
As if reason could work against the most stubborn man in the multiverse.
At least Deadpool’s having fun.
We have now reached the second best part of the miniseries: Doom’s lecture against Wakanda itself. You’d expect he’d be disappointed that Wakanda hasn’t tried to conquer the world, but it’s a deeper point.
It’s the fact that Wakanda has let Vibranium define what their country is.
I find this to be a fascinating aspect of Wakanda: is it so dependent on Vibranium that it wouldn’t exist without it?
You can read this as a parallel to countries who derive most of their economy from a single export, by the way.
Even better: T’Challa agrees with Doom. Wakanda IS too dependent on Vibranium.
But he’s not surrendering to Doom. He’s using his magically enhanced armor to make ALL THE VIBRANIUM IN THE WORLD inert!!!
That move is probably my favorite part of the miniseries, for two reasons.
First, T’Challa did the one thing Doom would never even consider: willingly relinquish power not out of boredom, like on Emperor Doom, but to save the soul of a nation.
And second, it’s the strongest possible rebuttal of Doom’s accusations against Wakanda.
Shuri, showing her growth throughout the war, decides to bury the hatchet.
And that’s the abrupt end! We just cut to Wakanda being rebuilt by superheroes.
Destroying all the Vibranium was a bold move that lasted for a while.
While another (more unstable) form of Vibranium was explored on the pages of Spider-Man in the same year, it wouldn’t be until the entire universe was destroyed and re-created during the 2015 Secret Wars that the old kind of Vibranium resurfaced in 2017.
While I understand it couldn’t stay inert forever… that’s too interesting a toy to abandon it… I wish more was done to explore the ramifications in Wakanda.
The only time I remember it being addressed was in 2012 during the Hickman run on Fantastic Four, where T’Challa explained why the loss of Vibranium didn’t tank the Wakandan economy.
Doom significance: 7/10
The finale removed Vibranium from the Marvel Universe for 7 years. In comic book time, that’s an eternity.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
Shadow Physics continues to be absurdly undefined.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
While I do like the finale a lot, it’s also shockingly abrupt. Perhaps the storyline would’ve worked better on a Black Panther book instead of being its own miniseries.
I mean I know it’s not the focus of the whole series, but you can’t drop a bomb like this at the end without examinining it even a little bit!
At least we get some good introspection from both T’Challa and Shuri, who have come full circle from their initial positions.
The story also suffers from the same problem of issues #4 and #5 in being too decompressed.
Plus we have to take Doom’s word on just how much destruction he’s causing: considering we barely see anything, it’s not a good look for other superheroes to decide skipping the war.
It was a Doombot all along
Not technically impossible, but would Doom deny himself the opportunity to wield that much power?
Take over the world : 27
Counting the entire miniseries as a single attempt.
Times Doctor Doom has gained ultimate power: 10
I’m still not convinced it’s AS powerful as Doom says, but I’d say the occasion qualifies.
Crazy tech
Sure there’s magic involved, but Doom’s armor definitely plays a part in allowing him to control all the world’s Vibranium.