THE MIGHTY THOR #409 (1989)
by Tom DeFalco & Ron Frenz
It’s impressive how many times Doom shows up as a giant in a cover and doesn’t grow giant-size in the story itself.
A quick recap of Thor’s situation in this period: he’s been merged with civilian Eric Masterson (the two exchange bodies when Thor wants to, or loses his hammer), and Hercules is currently living in the same apartment.
Hercules is, as always, the best part of this or any story.
Doom himself shows up after a few subplots, in a great Ron Frenz splash page.
Thor is his current target (shocking, I know) and once he has located the God of Thunder, Doom sends his Time-Bot ™ against him.
I’m skipping over a lot of subplots… Eric’s life is REALLY complicated, and being around Hercules (in his not-really-secret identity of “Harry Cleese”) is not helping.
But once he’s tracked by the Time-Bot ™ he changes into Thor and joins Hercules in battle.
The robot has a weird design, but it’s a real powerhouse.
The fight takes up several pages, but eventually Doom arrives on the scene… only to be ignored by Thor.
Except the Time-Bot ™ ends up stealing Thor’s hammer!!!
Which is kind of a problem for Thor in this period.
Doom takes the hammer to Latveria, and that’s the end of the first part.
THE MIGHTY THOR #409 (1989)
by Tom DeFalco & Ron Frenz
We interrupt this Thor story to bring anybody else into the book.
That’s because Captain America doesn’t trust Hercules will be able to lead Eric to Latveria without causing a major diplomatic incident.
I can’t imagine why.
Yeah, uhm, this has not aged well.
We then cut to Latveria, following who really looks like the henchman who used to work for Zorba in Fantastic Four #247.
He’s working for Kristoff now. And I have to say this is probably the first time Kristoff looks alright in his full armor.
Doom has returned to Latveria by using, of all things, the gloriously weird Gyroscopic Aircraft © from aaaaaall the way back in Fantastic Four #39.
Doom’s plan is AMAZING: he stole Thor’s hammer in order to stop time… because he doesn’t want to hurt the people of Latveria as he takes it back!!!
I’ll put this in the “how does he ever lose if he can pull stunts like this” category.
Meanwhile, just outside the time field, the heroes have reached Latveria.
In her own series She-Hulk has a bit of a crush on Hercules, but she might change her mind considering he can be… well… Hercules.
Doctor Doom calmly walks back into his own castle, where he discovers that Kristoff has made himself immune to the time stopping technology.
The whole Kristoff plot has really overstayed its welcome at this point, and this SHOULD be when Doom takes back Latveria.
Unfortunately Doom can’t bring himself to finish Kristoff based on the kind of twisted logic you would expect from Doctor Doom.
Too bad, because that’s when Eric retrieves the hammer and switches places with a questionable sound effect.
And Doom just leaves, after dealing a devastating blow to Kristoff’s resolve.
Not really sure why he doesn’t just finish conquering the place… surely he’s not afraid of the guards!!!
And so we end with “a friend” visiting Doom to invite him to a major crossover: Acts of Vengeance.
And that’s it for the main retrospective of Doctor Doom in the 80s!
“Acts of Vengeance” bleeds into the 90s, and it’s complicated enough to warrant its own section.
Before we jump to that, we’ll take a look at the Doom cameos, continuity inserts and apocrypha that take place in the 80s.
Unfortunately “Triumph and Torment” won’t be part of that: despite being published in the 80s, its continuity places it in the 90s so I’ll cover it in that era.
Doom significance: 4/10
This SHOULD be significant, but unfortunately it’s basically ignored by the remaining stories that focus on the Doom vs Kristoff dynamic.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
Deliberately invoked by the tone and looks.
Does it stand the test of time? 5/10
I’m not a big fan of this era of Thor… I actually much prefer the period where Eric Masterson really transforms into Thor instead of switching places. This interpretation of Thor is soooooo dull!!!
Both DeFalco and Frenz are clearly going for maximum nostalgia here, doing everything they can to make this look like a 60s comic. Unfortunately it doesn’t really land for most of the characters… although Doom is not bad in this, in general it’s a pretty lackluster story.
It was a Doombot all along
As I keep mentioning Doctor Doom will heavily be implied to be a Doombot in this period. How humiliating for Kristoff would it be if that was actually true?
Number of superheroes who have fought Dr. Doom: 63
Doom didn’t actually fight Hercules back in Champions #16, but this one counts.
Crazy tech
The Time-Bot ™ obviously takes the cake. Why hasn’t Doom used that thing against the Fantastic Four or other heroes!?