Knightmare!

Iron Man had ventured to Latveria to recover stolen components from Doctor Doom. In the ensuing battle, Doom’s assistant Gert Hauptman sent the two combatants back in time and smashed the Time Platform to trap them in the distant past.[1]

After being violently thrown across the time stream, the pair soon find themselves in Camelot during the time of King Arthur. As Doom explains their circumstances to Iron Man they are confronted by the legendary Knights of the Round Table who identify them as intruders. When they try to arrest Doom, he fights back. However, Iron Man convinces him to stop and suggests a truce until they can find a way back to their own time. Doom reluctantly agrees and they surrender to the knights.

They are brought to the castle and before King Arthur himself. There, they learn that they are suspected of being agents of Arthur’s renegade sister, Morgana le Fay. Iron Man uses the equipment in his armor to levitate Arthur’s throne as a show of power and assures the king that they are not enemies, but visitors from a far away plan. The fact that the two strangers haven’t used their great power to decimate the kingdom is enough to convince Arthur that they are on the level. However, Doom uses the opportunity to show off his own royal lineage to secure a welcome. Arthur invites the strangers to stay as long as they like provided they do not leave the castle walls.

Sequestered to rooms for the night, Tony Stark tries to comprehend his predicament and wonders how he will get along in this pre-technological age if he should be trapped forever. However, when a woman is sent up to his room to entertain him for the night, Stark figures it can’t all be bad. Another woman is sent to Doom’s room for the same purpose but Doom isn’t interested in anything but learning the location of Morgan le Fay’s castle. Learning that her home is in the realm known as Gorre, Doctor Doom blasts his way out of his castle and escapes via his jetpack.

King Arthur is furious when he finds out and Iron Man asks why Morgan is such a threat. Arthur explains that Morgana is a powerful sorceress who seeks the destruction to his kingdom. In their last battle, the sorcerer Merlin used his magical powers to trap her within her castle. However, since Merlin had followed his fate and is laying in slumber in his grave for centuries until he is summoned again.[2] Having fought Doom in the past, Iron Man convinces the king to let him venture out to Gorre and stop Doom alone.

By this time, Doctor Doom has arrived outside of Morgan’s castle. Seeing through the mystical defenses, the Latverian monarch flies into the castle and addresses the sorceress inside. She knows all about Doom, having observed him through her magic mirror and asks why he has sought her out. Doom explains that his mother was a witch who was executed and her soul damned to Hell. Since then, the Doctor has had a chance to free her soul once a year through a mystical ceremony but has failed each time. Since his last attempt, Doom has been using his Time Platform to visit histories greatest mystics to learn everything he can about magic in the hopes of finally succeeding.[3]

Morgan is flattered and agrees to teach Doom everything she knows if he agrees to help her destroy King Arthur and his kingdom. Since Doom will need an army, Morgana casts a spell on a chip of the sword Excalibur in her possession to raise an army of the dead consisting of every foe her brother has slain. Doom leads this army of the dead onward to Camelot, Iron Man and King Arthur are leading any army of their own. When the two meet a bloody battle erupts between the two armies. However, as the army of the undead cannot be destroy, Iron Man realizes that the only way to win is to break Morgan’s spell.

Flying to her castle, Iron Man’s on-board weapons prove to be superior to le Fay’s spells. When Iron Man confronts Morgan she vows to get revenge when she returns and uses the shard of Excalibur to teleport away to points unknown.[4] The moment she disappears, her army of the dead falls apart. Furious over this defeat, Doctor Doom flies back to Morgan’s castle to confront Iron Man. However, when he learns that she has disappeared Doom realizes that there is no other course of action but return to their proper time. As it turns out, Doom has always known how to build a crude time machine to return them to the present using the components both his and Iron Man’s armor. Even though he doesn’t fully trust Doom, Iron Man agrees to work with him. The pair work through the night and when they activate the device it works.

The pair appear in neutral territory back in the present day. With their armors stripped of their weapons the pair agree to leave in peace, with each man vowing to resume their rivalry when next they meet.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Doctor Doom, Morgan le Fay, King Arthur, Gert Hauptman, (in flashback) Cynthia Von Doom, Merlin, Lady of the Lake

Continuity Notes

1. Hauptman did this last issue to get revenge against Doom for killing his brother back in Fantastic Four #87. This story misattributes Gustav’s death as happening in issue #85 of that series.

2. Merlin’s imprisonment of Morgan le Fay was chronicled in greater detail in Spider-Woman #41, Defenders #152, Namor the Sub-Mariner #62 and Black Knight (vol. 2) #1.

3. Doom is learning sorcery from the masters in order to finally save his mother’s soul from Hell. First revealed in Fantastic Four Annual #2, Doom’s mother was accused of being a witch and murdered. Doom has been trying to reach her soul since his college days, as seen in Fantastic Four #5. Every year, Doom has been engaging in a mystic ceremony to try and free his mother since Marvel Super-Heroes #20. He will eventually succeed in Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment #1.

4. It’s later revealed that Morgan escaped to Hell where she was given refuge by Mephisto. See Iron Man: Legacy of Doom #1-4.

Topical References

• In this story, Iron Man uses a tube of freon to freeze Morgan’s eagle. This should be considered topical as freon has been banned from use due the damage it causes to the ozone layer and have been phased out from use in 2020. An environmentally conscious man like Tony Stark wouldn’t use freon.

• This story states that the present day is in the year 1981. This should be considered a topical reference.