This is a three-part storyline across the Thor, Iron Man and Captain America series, caused by what was happening in the Thor book.
Thor v2 #58 (2003)
by Dan Jurgens & Alan Davis
I’m not the biggest fan of Jurgens’ work at Marvel, but give me Alan Davis artwork any day.
Jurgens’ work at DC is terrific, but I found his Thor and Captain America runs to be extremely boring and formulaic.
Thor has additional problems: first of all I never liked how Jurgens gave him a new mortal civilian identity at the start of the series (only to basically do nothing with him), and the latter part of the run is taken over by what is essentially a What If that lasts for what feels like forever.
The basic idea is that Odin is dead (again), Thor has succeeded him on the throne, and he has decided to bring Asgard to Earth.
We begin in the fictional country of Slokovia (not to be confused with the MCU country of Sokovia; both names are undoubtedly inspired by the real life country of Slovakia), which is under military occupation and ruled by a dictator.
A major part of this part of the series is that, now that Asgard is on Earth, people have started worshipping Thor again. Including in Slokovia.
Which doesn’t sit right with the tyrannical government of Slokovia.
Thor is told about this, and he decides to intervene personally.
Balder, of all gods, is the one to try convincing Thor that this is a bad idea.
That would be an interesting plot point, but Thor wants none of this.
The fact that Enchantress is now part of Thor’s inner circle should tell you a lot about his current mental state.
Unsurprisingly, the Slokovian army is no match for the Asgardian warriors.
And that’s how Doctor Doom is involved in this, because Slokovia has a border with Latveria and the Pentagon is worried Doom might nuke Asgard just to be sure he isn’t next.
Crucially, Iron Man (whose identity was made public the year before) doesn’t exactly disagree with Thor’s position.
What I do like about this situation is that both Thor and Iron Man raise valid points.
Once Iron Man leaves Asgard, he is contacted by Doctor Doom to discuss the situation.
You have to love Doom pointing out that, if people really wanted to be ruled by a guy wearing a cape, they could’ve chosen him.
Doom is also aware that Iron Man has been experimenting with a new power source that Thor gifted him.
And we end the story with Thor ready to personally annihilate the Slokovian army, only to be facing Iron Man.
Iron Man v3 #64 (2003)
by Mike Grell & Alan Davis
The Mike Grell run on Iron Man is not very good (I hated the entire Temugin storyline!), but it is significant for being when Tony Stark publicly revealed his secret identity.
Iron Man’s point is interesting, especially if we assume Slokovia is a stand-in for the various conflicts in the Balkans. Thor is basically starting a religious war, which really doesn’t help in a place like this.
It’s still a bit naïve to chalk it up to “centuries of hatred” without even a mention that said hatred didn’t come out of nowhere but is linked to ethnic and religious differences… which Thor is only exacerbating!
You would think this would result in a fight between Thor and Iron Man, but not yet.
Iron Man is then summoned to Latveria, where Doom snarks at his now public identity.
Interestingly, the cult of Thor has spread to Latveria. I have to wonder… what IS the status of religious liberty in Latveria? I can see Doom granting full liberty on the subject as long as you agree that Doom himself is superior to God.
Iron Man naturally has a very US-centric view of international interventions.
Please note that this book has a release date of January 2003 and a cover date of March 2003… the latter being the same month of the real-life invasion of Iraq.
There is also the problem of whether anyone can stop Thor at this point. Not only he’s freaking Thor, but after succeeding to his father he is nearly as all-powerful as Odin.
Or, as Doctor Doom would consider him, a lightweight.
Weird how Doom is still musing about the time he stole Silver Surfer’s powers, because at this point it’s not even his most outstanding feat. That’s nothing compared to stealing the powers of both Galactus and the Beyonder in Secret Wars!
Then again, I guess you never forget your first godhood.
Does Iron Man seriously think he’s fooling anyone?
Case in point:
And as the cover promised us, Iron Man made himself a Thor-Buster Armor™.
There is one aspect where he’s being proven right: Thor’s actions have only escalated the Slokovian conflict.
Avengers v3 #63 (2003)
by Geoff Johns & Alan Davis
I always forget Geoff Johns also worked for Marvel. He wrote just about thirty stories, against the forty bajillion DC ones.
After Captain America recalls his first meeting with the Avengers (???), we jump straight into the action with a fight between Thor and the Thor-Buster Armor™.
Thor is completely beyond reason at this point.
Yeah remember how I praised the fact that both factions had a reasonable point of view?
Instead let’s just have Thor go bats##t crazy.
Iron Man is still not out for the count. Cap is not kind to him…
…but he also has some words with Thor.
Still, Captain America would be the one capable of making both his Avengers colleagues listen to reason… if Doctor Doom didn’t feel like spicing things up.
Thanks to Doom’s interference, the war really kicks off.
Both Cap and Iron Man immediately figure out something is up, but that doesn’t stop things from getting progressively worse.
With Iron Man trying to prevent the Russians to make things even worse, Cap does the same with the US military.
Badass Captain America moment #789.
And if THAT wasn’t enough, Cap confronts Thor both physically and by getting to the core of the issue: there are some problems you just can’t solve by hitting them with a hammer.
A point that is kind of lost on Thor because, you know, hitting things with a hammer is his thing.
Thor is SO powerful thanks to Odin’s energy that he even dents Captain America shield.
Up to this point the only people who were able to do something like that through sheer physical strength were Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet and Klaw with a fraction of the Beyonder’s power.
And that’s how Captain America convinces Thor that A) he’s not doing the right thing B) he isn’t worthy of being an Avenger anymore.
But still, there ARE things that can be fixed with a hammer.
Iron Man gets some revenge on Doom by unleashing a nasty virus into his systems…
…but it’s Doctor Doom who gets the last laugh, because he takes the opportunity to quietly annex Slokovia into Latveria.
Doom got his territorial conquest and Slokovians got peace and an end to religious conflict.
Happy ending, right? If you’re not Thor.
Doom significance: 0/10
The continuity placement of this saga is a bit questionable. Thor will soon take over the entire world, with the series making a time-skip into the future until the original timeline is restored… which MIGHT include removing this entire storyline from continuity.
If if that is not not the case, Doom never mentions again expanding Latveria’s territory by annexing Slokovia.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
Despite three different writers it’s surprisingly coherent. I’m not a huge fan of any of the regular runs from these series, but this was pretty great.
The only real complain I have is that Thor devolves into a maniac far too quickly in the last chapter.
Plus there is the inevitable side effect of any story that tries to have superheroes solve real-life problems… they HAVE to fail in some way to keep the parallel with the real world, but that kind of gives the message that superheroes are useless.
Doctor Doom himself was great, playing superheroes and gods like they were amateurs and paying no real price for his actions. The Slokovians traded one tyrant for another, but it’s hard to argue against Doom being an upgrade from the other dictator.
Needless to say, the artwork is GORGEOUS. You can almost feel the blow of Thor’s hammer in that fantastic full-page shot of him attacking Captain America! That alone raises the score by an entire point. Alan Davis is THAT good.
It was a Doombot all along
Doom stays behind the war front the entire time and doesn’t interact with the gods, so it’s entirely possible this is a Doombot.
Crazy tech
Hacking into Iron Man’s armor is old news for Doom. Weirdly enough he doesn’t even try to get his hands on the Thor-Buster Armor™, though he WILL make one of his own later.