Avengers #333
Life of the Party!
Doctor Doom has crashed a party being held at Avengers Headquarters and seized control of its automated systems. As the assembled heroes confront Doom, the President and other dignitaries are ushered out by the Secret Service. When Rage attempts to grab Doom, he is jolted with enough electricity to knock him off his feet. With all the VIPs now gone, Doom also reveals that he has two Doombots on the premises who are fighting Captain America, Sandman and Vision in the sub-basement of the facility.
While the battle rages downstairs, Doom addresses everyone in the building over the PA system. He explains that he recently learned that the Avengers have the ability to travel dimensions and has a demand to make of them.[1] They will assist Doom in opening a portal to rescue his mother or else he will detonate a neutron bomb and kill them all.[2] It is explained to him that they can’t because only Thor has that power and he is not present at the mansion. Doom refuses to believe this and threatens to blow the place up unless they help him. Present at the party are the Fantastic Four whose leader, Mister Fantastic, confirms Doom’s capabilities. The Thing that Rage stood up to Doom, but warns the novice hero that the Doctor is a powerful foe who has fought the Fantastic Four and Daredevil at the same time and walked away from it.[3]
The only question is which of the the three Dooms is the real one and which are robots. Captain America deduces that the Doom he is fighting is a robot when they are both plunged into a tank of water. Seeing that his opponent is not creating bubbles of oxygen under water, Cap decapitates the Doombot with his shield. By this point, the Vision has deduced that the Doom he and Sandman are fighting is a robot as well and disables it as well.
This seems to support the idea that the Doom in the reception hall is the real Doctor Doom. When Captain America, Vision, and Sandman come back upstairs they reveal how they figured out that they were fighting robots. The Vision also shows how the Doombots had the ability to break apart into smaller modular parts that were able to sneak into the mansion through an exhaust port in the underground tunnel to the East River.
However, Rage has a hunch that this is a fake as well and tosses one of his grandmother’s cupcakes into Doom’s face. The other Avengers warn Rage to stop and Doom even threatens to detonate the neutron bomb he has strapped to his body. However, Rage ignores all these warnings and punches Doom’s head off, revealing that this is yet another Doombot.
Rage explains that he suspected that Doom was bluffing this entire time because if his mother was truly trapped in another dimension, he wouldn’t sacrifice himself as it would prevent him from achieving his goals. The real Doctor Doom then appears on the security monitors. As it turns out, he has been sitting in a limo near the mansion orchestrating everything remotely. Doom confirms Rage’s deductions and since the Avengers no longer have the ability to open a portal to other dimensions, he deems them of no further use to him. Doom then relinquishes control of Avengers Headquarters and retreats.
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Black Widow, Captain America, Quasar, Sersi, She-Hulk, Vision), Doctor Doom, Avengers West Coast (Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Scarlet Witch, Tigra, US Agent, Wonder Man), Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing), Black Knight, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Nick Fury, Hercules, Quicksilver, Rage, Sandman, Spider-Man, Sub-Mariner, Wolverine, Edwin Jarvis
Continuity Notes
Doom learned of the Avengers use of dimensional travel to defeat the Tetrarchs of Entropy by watching the news story about it. See Avengers #331.
Doctor Doom’s mother, Cynthia Von Doom, had sold her soul to the demon Mephisto and has been trapped in his domain for years. This has been documented in Fantastic Four #4, 278, Annual #2, Astonishing Tales #8, Marvel Super-Heroes #20, and Books of Doom #1. Victor will eventually free his mother in Doctor Strange/Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment #1.
The Thing is referring to the events of Fantastic Four #39-40. What the Thing neglects to mention is that Doom stripped the FF of their powers at the time. It’s interesting that the Thing mentions this battle specifically as Doom has faced many other heroes and groups on multiple occasions. This is likely because this story happened shortly after the events of Fantastic Four #350-352, wherein Doom claimed that he hadn’t directly battled the FF or anybody since Fantastic Four #39-40. However, this is later revealed to be a falsehood created as propaganda to trick the Latverian people into believing that Doom was unbeatable, as revealed in Fantastic Four #358.
Topical References
Among the attendees that attend the opening of Avengers Headquarters includes a number of real world political figures including then-President George H.W. Bush, former First Lady Barbara Bush. These appearances should be considered topical for the following reasons: George H.W. Bush was only President from 1989 to 1993. He subsequently died in 2018. His wife, Barbara, was First Lady for the same period. She also died in 2018.
On the other hand, Stan Lee is also depicted as an attendee at the party. His appearance here would not be considered topical. Marvel creators exist in the Prime Marvel Universe, appearing in the relative prime of their lives and continue to appear in comics even after their death in real life. For example, while Stan died in 2018, his Earth-616 counterpart still appears in stories, as of this writing the most recent example of this was in X-Force (vol. 6) #9.
