SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP #6 (1976)
by Steve Englehart & Herb Trimpe
Cover by Jim Starlin
For once, the caption “the most unexpected guest star of all!” is not kidding. You are NOT going to predict who it is.
Namor is Doom’s prisoner, and the narration informs us that he’s incredibly pissed.
Uncharacteristically, Namor isn’t saying much.
Doom doesn’t really like having to continuously hear Namor shout DOOM!, so he shows up to complain about all the noise.
Doom spying on Namor through the false eyes of a portrait is just laughable. It’s also a bit unusual to see paintings of anyone who isn’t Doom still being around in his castle.
Then Doom just leaves with a stern “keep it down, will ya?”.
Herb Trimpe’s artwork is… well, it’s Herb Trimpe… but I do admit some of the panels do justice to Doom. He’s really good at drawing capes, of all things.
Meanwhile, the Fantastic Four land in Latveria to rescue Namor (no they’re not the surprise guest), where the Torch spots a Shroud-plane.
The FF are ambushed by Doom’s forces. Instead of the usual robots it’s androids… I think.
They’re pretty much cannon fodder anyway. Doom isn’t interested in the FF, however, because he’s showing Latveria’s NUCLEAR TESTS to someone.
But he’s also showing off his Di-Lithium Thermal Mine ™, his Pluto Probe ™ and his Orbital Laser Bomb (patent pending).
Doom isn’t willing to discuss the time machine, but he’s very cordial with his secret guest. These little scenes are definitely the highlight of the issue.
This is basically the first time Doom has acted like a head of state. And we learn the real reason why Doom wanted Atlantis so badly: now Latveria is considered a superpower on the level of Russia, China and the US.
The idea is that Latveria has always been dangerous on a military level, but now it has political leverage.
The Fantastic Four have almost reached the castle by now, so Doom orders Namor to attack them.
And since Namor has sworn to obey him in exchange for saving his life, Namor has to obey even if it means being drawn by Herb Trimpe.
He should try wearing a cape.
Namor’s fight with the FF is unimpressive to say the least.
Note that Namor hasn’t been hypnotized or anything. He just gave his word to Doom.
The FF finally manage to take Namor down and they reach the castle, where Doom is waiting for them with his secret guest.
And the special guest turns out to be Henry Kissinger. Which I bet nobody had guessed, so the cover was right for a change.
The Thing objects to the idea of leaving Doom alone, but Reed replies “we’ve never bucked the government before”.
I would have an answer to Reed Richards saying he doesn’t break the law, but I don’t need to. Here’s the Human Torch expressing my thoughts on the matter, from Fantastic Four #542 by the late Dwayne McDuffie.
But not in 1967, where Kissinger showing up is enough to make the Fantastic Four return to America.
As a cliffhanger, the Shroud has infiltrated Castle Doom.
Doom significance: 3/10
While Doom’s diplomatic immunity has been used to justify why the heroes don’t just arrest him when he does something in America, this is the first story to solidify why they don’t just invade Latveria.
Silver Age-ness: 2/10
While it’s not a particularly good story, it’s not very Silver Age.
Does it stand the test of time? 5/10
A mixed bag. The scenes with Doom and Kissinger are AWESOME: Doom is calm and perfectly in control of things, more similar to the modern Doom than to the raving madman of most of the 70s.
On the other hand, the Namor and FF scenes are baaaaad. Herb Trimpe’s art sure doesn’t help, but the dialogue is very stiff and Namor blindly obeying Doom is wildly out of character.
It was a Doombot all along
Pretty unlikely that this was a robot.
Take over the world & Destroy the FF!
Oddly enough only “destroy the FF” because he sends Namor, technically speaking Doom is only working on solidifying Latveria’s status.
Crazy tech
Everything Doom shows to Kissinger is pretty terrifying.