AVENGERS #1.5 (1999)
by Roger Stern and Bruce Timm
Yes, that Bruce Timm from “Batman: The Animated Series”.
Legendary animator drawing the Avengers versus Doctor Doom in a story set in the Silver Age? This is gonna be good!
Sorry for the spoiler, by the way: according to the cover, you’re not supposed to know that is Doctor Doom.
I suppose it COULD be a different bad guy wearing a green cape over a medieval armor who tells his enemies to “prepare to meet your doom”.
Then again, Doctor Doom is in the title of the story!
Grumpy Hulk doesn’t look thrilled to be in the story.
Since this is set immediately after the first issue of the Avengers, we get a reaction from all the other heroes that were around at the time, including the Fantastic Four…
…Spider-Man…
…and, uhm… and that’s it. That’s ALL the superheroes that were active at the time.
Doctor Strange would barely qualify, but his status as a superhero in this early period is questionable.
Doctor Doom isn’t exactly happy to see even more heroes show up.
And we finally meet the Avengers. Bruce Timm is clearly doing his best to imitate the style of early Jack Kirby, but his Wasp would fit perfectly into any show of the DC Animated Universe.
The US government wants the Avengers to go after Doctor Doom after he almost started World War III because he wanted a job the last time we met him.
Interestingly, since this is set before we learned anything about Latveria, Doom is simply called “the infamous international terrorist”.
Not a label typically associated with him, but it’s not exactly inaccurate.
While this story technically is a retcon, writer Roger Stern really did his homework, remembering that Ant-Man has already met Doom during his kind-of team-up with the Fantastic Four.
We learn that Doom’s Flying Fortress ™ was impounded by the military.
That goes exactly as you’d imagine: the ship just leaves on its own.
Since the Avengers don’t have their Quinjets yet, the military gives them a lift on a “jet-copter”.
Minus Thor, of course, since he can fly.
It’s very weird to see Iron Man flying inside a helicopter. He’s even wearing a seatbelt!
When they reach the airship, we get a splash page to show off how massive it is: it’s so impressive that both Iron Man and the Hulk shut up when they see it.
According to the captions, it’s a thousand feet long and 250 feet across.
And pink.
The Hulk then makes an entrance the Hulk way.
The Avengers storm the ship, leaving behind Wasp to keep the pilot safe.
Which doesn’t make a lot of sense until you remember this is supposed to be a story from 1963, when this kind of thing happened all the time.
Speaking of things that used to happen all the time, Wasp is captured.
Note the inconsistency of her size: during this time she was always supposed to be the size of a real wasp whenever shrinking, but that would make her a freakishly big wasp.
The other Avengers stumble upon the many traps hidden inside the ship.
The Hulk inside a room with “frictionless walls” and high-pressure jets, which I believe it’s supposed to be where the Human Torch was trapped last time:
Thor is attacked by the energy spheres that were supposed to send the Fantastic Four into another dimension:
Iron Man manages to sneak up on Doom thanks to the “whisper mode” of his jet boots:
Which turns out to be a robot (not exactly a Doombot, maybe?) that drains energy from his armor:
Meanwhile, Ant-Man, who for some reason feels odd running around in a costume…
… finds the Major that recruited the Avengers for the mission…
…and gets trapped with him.
Which basically means that Ant-Man just locked himself inside while trying to rescue a hostage.
I can’t imagine why Hank Pym developed major insecurities about his capabilities as a hero.
But Major Bowman reveals that this is the first time he’s met any Avenger.
That’s because the man who recruited the Avengers for this mission is Doctor Doom himself.
Note that he’s wearing his metal mask underneath the mask of the Major.
I hope he has air conditioning inside his armor, otherwise he must be sweating like crazy.
Doom has each Avenger in a different death trap, and he pontificates (naturally) about how he’s going to kill them for bragging rights.
By the way, Wasp was also captured and trapped inside a glass sphere since Doom explicitly considers her a lesser threat.
Now that’s a face drawn by Bruce Timm.
But apparently Doom didn’t consider that Ant-Man can also turn into Giant-Man:
He rescues Hulk from his cell, while Thor deals with the energy spheres by spinning his hammer so fast that he breaks reality or something.
And he recharges Iron Man’s armor in a very cool panel.
Finally, he also frees the Wasp from her prison.
Thor is definitely on a roll, but Doom has a defense against him.
Despite that, Doom doesn’t like his odds and rather uncharacteristically decides to bail.
Which doesn’t sit well with the Hulk:
Especially when Doom makes the major mistake of making him angry:
Angry enough to RIP HIS FREAKIN’ HEAD OFF!!!
Or at least the head of a Doombot:
The ship is about to self-destruct, but the Avengers find an escape pod, which has room for one.
They argue about who should save himself.
I’m not sure if this is being played for comedy. This is placed very early in everyone’s career so I can understand not being sure if Thor, the Hulk and Iron Man can survive the explosion, and they do point out that Ant-Man and Wasp could shrink down so that the escape pod could keep three people… but they don’t consider the fact that Ant-Man has his shrinking gas! ALL of them could fit inside that pod!!!
Instead, the Hulk saves the Major by shoving him inside the pod and ejecting it:
And proceeds to open a big hole in the hull so that everyone can jump out right before the entire ship explodes.
Everyone lands safely, making the entire argument about the pod kind of meaningless.
As a nice epilogue, it turns out that Wasp… who seemingly didn’t do anything during the entire issue… is actually the one who saved the day:
Just in case you were wondering how Ant-Man managed to find everyone in a ship that’s a thousand feet long:
And finally, we discover that the real Doctor Doom never actually appeared in the story, having directed everything from a secret location.
Amusingly enough, we also have a fake letters page, with future Avengers writer Kurt Busiek sending a letter when he was just 2 years old (and speaking like a toddler from Silver Age DC Comics):
AND a completely separate letter with a ridiculously long list of enemies that the Avengers should face next. I’m not showing the entire letter since it’s a full page long and includes EVERY villain that has appeared in Marvel comics before Avengers #1!
The fake letters page is having a blast: here’s a letter from future writer of (pretty much anything) Mark Waid:
The creative team was certainly having a lot of fun with this issue.
Historical significance
If this was a real 1963 comic: 6/10
As a 1999 comic: 1/10
This would’ve been the first time Ant-Man becomes Giant-Man in the Avengers book and the first time they fight Doctor Doom. Sadly, aside from explaining what happened to Doom’s Flying Fortress ™, this story won’t be referenced again.
Doom significance
If this was a real 1963 comic: 7/10
As a 1999 comic: 2/10
The fake cover date is supposed to be October 1963, the same of the first time Doom fights Spider-Man. Meaning it could’ve been the first time Doom appears outside of a Fantastic Four comic, establishing him both as an enemy of the entire Marvel Universe and a major threat.
It’s still technically the first time Doom fights the Avengers, but as a retcon it doesn’t have the same impact.
Does it stand the test of time?
If this was a real 1963 comic: 8/10
As a 1999 comic: 8/10
Considering the emphasis on continuity and the final revelation about Wasp, it would’ve been one of the most modern 1963 comics in terms of structure; it’s holding up very well 20 years later.
Silver Age-ness: 3/10
Aside from the bickering between the Avengers and the early dismissal of Wasp, there isn’t much that would be out of place today.
It was a Doombot all along
Twice: when Iron Man sneaks up on him, and when the Hulk seemingly kills the “real” Doom.
Take over the world
Avoided: Doom just wants the Avengers dead.
Destroy the FF!
Obviously doesn’t apply, since the Fantastic Four only have a cameo. What’s interesting is that Doom has never expressed interest in gaining fame from their defeat, while it’s a factor in why he goes after the Avengers.
Crazy tech
Obviously the Flying Fortress ™ makes a return and it’s treated as a big deal instead of a throwaway evil lair, but the Hyper Realistic Mask is the obvious winner.
Superhero count: 9
In addition to the Fantastic Four and Ant-Man, this issue adds Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Wasp to the heroes who have fought Doom. It’s a retcon, yes, but since they will fight him I’m counting them.
Bonus round: fake advertisement!
