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My Ally, My Enemy!
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Last time I was bemoaning the fact that this series was claiming "a dynamic new direction" while doing nothing of the sort, but maybe I was being unfair. Until now "Super-Villain Team-Up" has actually been just "Namor And Doctor Doom" every issue. The main "Marvel Team-Up" series almost always had Spider-man as lead, it's true, but they did swap around the guests a bit.
However, I now realise that this issue, and the previous one, actually did have a change, with The Red Skull sharing the top billing instead of Namor. It does make more sense of the title, although Namor is still there, as is The Shroud, and Doom and The Red Skull don't so much team-up as fight each other throughout.
The story begins where the last one left off, with The Red Skull having shot Prince Rudolfo, who was disguised as Doctor Doom. The Shroud tries to fight the Skull but is quickly overwhelmed by a Goon with a spanner.
The Shroud is rubbish.
The Red Skull then drags him over to a video screen, where we see that his Doomjet had not, as depicted last time, disappeared, but instead has been hit by The Rainbow Missile and is now crashing.
We also FINALLY get a reveal about the mysterious "buyer" Doom was talking about so long ago - it was The Red Skull, conning Doom into building him a Hypno-Ray!
We then cut to The Doomjet as it crashes, with Doom and Captain America discovering that The Red Skull has used some of Doom's own technology against them, and shrunk them "to the size of field mice."
There's a reference to Astonishing Tales #5 when Doom similarly shrank The Red Skull and The Exiles down to the same size... except that he totally didn't - it was Hypno Gas that made them think they'd been shrunken! I'm all for an obscure callback, but come on Bill Mantlo, if you're going to do that at least get it right!
The pair fight their way through a range of over-sized obstacles, including a grass snake and the castle's moat, with Doom remarking how well they work as a team, and Captain America being sensible enough to see exactly how that would work out.
Again, I very much like Bill Mantlo's take on Doom here - arrogant, self-assured, but also enjoying himself and keen to behave honourably - or at least to his own ideas of honour.
This characterisation continues when Doom discovers that his old friend Boris has been captured, all of which surprises Captain America.
Clearly Cap has not been reading this blog!
The shrunken pair discover that Namor has arrived, and is arguing with The Red Skull and The Shroud in Castle Latveria's throne room. This enrages Doom who leaps into action and shoots the Skull... up the bum?
The Skull grabs Doom, who orders Namor to save him - in theory Namor has sworn an oath to do whatever Doom says, so should do it anyway, but Doom sugars the pill by promising to cure the people of Atlantis. Namor does as he's asked, Doom and Captain America return to normal size, and then it's time for a Big Fight between the heroes and The Skull's forces. In this context Doom is very much a hero, trying to save the world, although The Shroud doubts this, believing Doom will use the weapon for himself. In a weird turnaround, Doom shouts for Captain America's aid, and he leaps forward to help.
The Shroud, understandably, is shocked by this!
Despite Doom and Captain America's efforts, The Red Skull manages to retreat inside a force field of Doom's own making - other people using Doom's inventions against him is a characteristic of these stories almost as much as him watching people via a remote viewer!
Faced with the prospect of a world mind-controlled by The Red Skull, a wounded Prince Rudolfo decides he prefers rule under Doom, and activates a device which he hopes will defeat The Skull.
Sadly for all concerned this turns out not to be a bomb or something equally useful, but a teleportation device which sends The Red Skull to the moon, where he can activate his world-dominating hypno ray by hand!
This is spectacular bad luck for Doom and co, but a great way to end an issue in which Doom has, fairly successfully, been cast as the hero against an even greater villian. Will he win in the end? We'll have to wait a while to find out, because next time we're off to another version of Doom in another media altogether - the newspaper funnies!
link to information about this issue
posted 6/9/2019 by Mark Hibbett
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