IRON MAN #250 (1989)
by David Michelinie & Bob Layton
The second Iron Man / Doctor Doom team up picks up the pace after a slightly lackluster first part with an AMAZING cover.
Don’t get fooled by the “Acts of Vengeance” banner: we are not there quite yet.
We begin with the armored duo being transported into…
In case you missed it, that exchange is a callback to Iron Man #150:
Turns out that the person responsible for sending the artifact in the first part was actually Merlin. Who could’ve easily summoned them without wasting an entire issue, but whatever.
That’s a great quote from Merlin, but don’t get used to it: he switches to one corny joke after the other for the rest of the story.
Merlin is a little off the rails because THIS is the King Arthur he’s supposed to follow:
That’s because Merlin was supposed to awaken from his mystical sleep once the reincarnation of King Arthur turned 18… but the once and future king’s parents decided to freeze the embryo for a while, so he’s still just a kid.
The kid has read issue #150, though, so that proves he’s King Arthur.
The reason for summoning Iron Man is that satellite weapons are being appropriated by Foreshadowing Incorporated.
That’s good enough for Iron Man, but Doom’s got to Doom.
And so Doom leaves to do his thing, immediately taking advantage of future technology.
Iron Man does some shopping of his own, in order to reach orbit.
Once in orbit he has to fight the Iron Man of 2093, who has the same ugly armor of the Iron Man of 2020 (the one from the future, not the one published in 2020… it’s complicated).
While Iron Man barely survives the encounter, Doom tries to take more future tech back to the present… without much success.
He’s not too happy about it, but his insulting skills are still second to none!
Turns out that Iron Man 2093 is actually working for Doom 2093, who is decidedly less cool than Doom 2099.
In addition to being more machine than man, this Doom is way more ruthless than our own.
Merlin reveals that Iron Man and Doom can only return to their time together, after they’ve saved the world. And to do that they are going to need, what else, Excalibur.
The humor in this story has been a real miss for me, but I did find this pretty funny.
And so, while Iron Man 1989 fights Iron Man 2093…
…Doom enjoys his favorite activity: talking with himself.
Interestingly enough, Doom seems to utterly despise his future incarnation.
Doom 2093 doesn’t seem to have enough tricks to stop his past self from defeating him, and doesn’t even seem to care about it.
Sooo… is this supposed to be a time loop? Because this doesn’t seem to make much sense.
With the treat dealt with, Merlin sends both Iron Man and Doctor Doom back to their time… but not before Doom drops a bombshell.
That COULD be significant… except Merlin’s spell erased all memories of the entire story!
Or did it?
Doom significance: 0/10
I hate it when the characters are mindwiped at the very last second!!!
Silver Age-ness: 4/10
All thanks to Merlin’s bad jokes.
Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
What a disappointment. This utterly fails to capture the magic of the first Iron Man / Doom team-up, for several reasons. First of all, the two don’t interact that much; they were separated for most of that story as well, but it was preceded by a first part where they had plenty of moments.
Second, the reason for summoning them felt really weak: Iron Man 2093 is no Morgan LeFay. And third, the attempts at humor felt really flat… Merlin seems high as a kite most of the time. If HE is not going to take the threat seriously, why should we?
It was a Doombot all along
This would have all the signs of a Doombot, especially for this era… if it wasn’t for Doom using magic. I would think Merlin, even THIS version of Merlin, would spot a robot.
Crazy tech
Infuratingly enough, Doom doesn’t use a single impressive new tech!!!