Marvel was giving a bit of a push to the Marvel Adventures brand, giving a series to different characters besides the usual suspects.
And they all got SOME Doctor Doom.
Marvel Adventures Iron Man #7 (2008)
by Fred Van Lente & Graham Nolan
cover by Skottie Young
Seriously, considering this was published before the movie, it’s surprising Iron Man got an all-ages series in the first place.
We begin with Rhodey piloting a plane for the annual Stark International company retreat, which is being held in “some” country in the Balkans.
Not Latveria, but it’s close enough for the plane to be forced to land there.
Doctor Doom introduces himself as “Chancellor for life”, making me wonder if this is supposed to be in the same continuity (it’s not always easy to tell in these stories) of Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four where he was forced to hold elections.
You might remember that Doom HAS played with a similar concepts way back in Fantastic Four #350, but he’s never actually done it in regular continuity.
Doctor Doom has arrested Stark’s people under charge of espionage, while all they were doing was flying NEAR his country.
Doom is definitely paranoid enough to actually believe this, but as we’ll soon see he has another angle. Interestingly, Stark’s people were originally headed for Moravia.
That’s not a country, that’s a historical region of the Czech Republic / Czechia…
…which is also NOT IN THE BALKANS.
Marvel, is it REALLY THAT HARD to open a freaking map!?
Also, like A LOT of adaptations, this one gives Doctor Doom green eyes. At least with a great shot.
Unfortunately, the comic also does the same mistake of the Fantastic Four title, having Doctor Doom after someone else’s technology, WITHOUT him rationalizing this with the idea of being the smartest person ever.
I hate it when comics do this!!!
You want to have Doctor Doom be after a Stark invention that could potentially depower the Fantastic Four? Fine, you have multiple options that don’t break Doom’s characterization:
A) have Doom steal the blueprints and build himself a “better” version
B) ask to buy the technology because “he couldn’t be bothered” to build him himself, then have him attack Stark once he refuses
C) engineer a needlessly complicated plot to have Stark himself use the tech against the FF
Since storming Castle Doom as Iron Man would just endanger the hostages, he decides to go as Plastic Man.
Jokes aside, this is a pretty sweet stealth armor.
Even if it has one MASSIVE drawback.
Since he can’t fly into Latveria without being spotted, Iron Plastic Man decides to parachute there.
Doom is even kind enough to provide a lawyer for his political prisoners.
The words “byre et ohyeblikk” are probably just gibberish, but a quick research tells me it MIGHT be Norwegian, where “et øyeblikk” means “just a moment”.
Honestly this isn’t TOO far from what I assume is the Latverian justice system.
It’s INCREDIBLY rare to have characters actually speak Latverian; whenever they do it, writers tend to just throw a couple of German words.
But here we know that “Sig freed” means “rejoice”, and “i gernit rogelan af” means “in the iron rule of”.
Okay there’s A LOT to unpack there.
Sig = the closest is “Sieg”, which is German for Victory
Freed = that’s either English or German for “peace”
Gernit = the closest is “gern” from German, meaning “gladly” or “willingly”
Rogelan = my research came up short on this
Af = this is “of” or “from” in various Scandinavian languages
So… yeah, that was just utter nonsense.
Since this is a different universe, Doctor Doom has to resort to lying to have people hate Iron Man.
I mean when Doom said THIS in regular continuity in 2008, it was 100% correct.
No clue what he has against Spongebob Squarepants, though.
That suit probably costs tens of millions of dollars.
Poor Kristoff gets no respect…
…even if it defeats both Iron Plastic Man and a Doombot.
Iron Plastic Man frees the hostages, but there’s a little problem to overcome.
Yeah maybe facing Doctor Doom with an armor that doesn’t have a single weapon wasn’t your brightest idea, Tony.
Doctor Doom, absolute badass since 1962.
Interestingly, Iron Man still has a secret identity in this series, even if he had already abandoned it in regular continuity.
You sometimes hear Doctor Doom say that he is the law in Latveria.
I didn’t think he meant it LITERALLY.
Iron Man does have a secret weapon against Doctor Doom, though: threaten to uncensor Latverian media.
You would expect Doctor Doom to respond to the threat by just shutting down the entire Latverian media, or for Iron Plastic Man to IMMEDIATELY break his control.
But no, it actually works.
If you thought that withholding freedom of the press was a dick move… that was just a bluff, as Iron Plastic Man really DID break Doom’s control.
Not really sure why Doom is THAT upset about some Elmer Fudd cartoons, though.
Does any of this show up in regular continuity?
I can’t think of something specific.
Silver Age-ness: 3/10
That entire dog sequence.
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
If you can get past the premise of Doctor Doom wanting to steal Stark’s tech, this is not a bad interpretation. I appreciated the showcase of Tony’s intelligence without makind Doom dumb, even if some decisions are a bit questionable.
The doomy lands of Doom
Latveria either borders a fictional country called Moravia that is actually in the Balkans, or Latveria borders the Czech Republic. And they speak something close to Norwegian for absolutely no reason.
Number of superheroes who have fought Dr. Doom: 6
Rhodey is not War Machine in this version, at least not yet, so this only adds Iron Man after the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man.
Marvel Adventures Hulk #11 (2008)
by Paul Benjamin & Steve Scott
cover by Sean Murphy
Doom has a much smaller presence here.
The premise is that Bruce Banner goes to the Baxter Building to check all the potential cures Reed has been working on…
…just in time for a Doom attack.
They’re not particularly smart robots, mistaking Rick Jones for the Human Torch…
…and more stupidly, Bruce Banner for Reed Richards.
And even dumber than THAT, a monkey for Franklin!!!
I probably don’t need to tell you what most of the story is about.
As if the robots mistaking a monkey for a kid wasn’t bad enough… the dumbest moment in the story: Doom uses Stark technology for his robots.
Yeah, uhm, this is one disappointing outing.
The moral of the story is that Reed cares more about his best friend than about a guy who in this continuity he’s never even met yet.
Does any of this show up in regular continuity?
AS IF!!!
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
I don’t say it too often, but at least for a Marvel comic… this is TOO STUPID FOR THE SILVER AGE.
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
I will start with the positives: the artwork is not bad, and… no that’s pretty much it.
Ther is no reason whatsoever to pick up this one over literally any other Fantastic Four or Hulk story.
Number of superheroes who have fought Dr. Doom: 7
Adding the Hulk.
Marvel Adventures Avengers #28 (2008)
by Jeff Parker & Rodney Buchemi
cover by Leonard Kirk
Let’s close this batch with an even shorter appearance.
While he’s not on the cover, the story is about the Avengers trying to convince Luke Cage to join.
It’s… not a particularly dignified portrayal.
Apparently in this universe Wakanda is not the only place where you can extract Vibranium, it there’s a mining operation in Tunisia.
I told you this wasn’t very dignified.
Hey at least THIS time Doom is using his own technology!
Yeah this comic is pretty bad, but the chance to see Doctor Doom interrupted by Luke Cage’s sassy mother was worth it.
In the end Luke does join the Avengers.
Does any of this show up in regular continuity?
Storm does eventually join the Avengers, first in 2011 and more recently in 2024.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
Sassy Luke Cage Mom.
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
Jeff Parker is clearly going for comedy here. And while he has delivered it in the past, I don’t think he really finds his sweet spot here.
Number of superheroes who have fought Dr. Doom: 12
Adding Ant-Man (this is Pym for clarity), Giant Girl (this universe’s version of Wasp), Captain America, Storm and Wolverine.
