One World Under Doom has been a wild ride. Doom has taken over the world, and is actually proving to be a pretty good leader for the majority. Doom has forced the governments of the world to actually take care of their peoples, all while constantly stopping the heroes from deposing him. Doom has even been able to embarrass the heroes every time they’ve come for him, showing that despite his altruistic actions, Doom is a villain to his core. Of course, Doom isn’t perfect, and Dormammu’s attack in One World Under Doom #4 showed that. Doom got trounced, but was able to use Dormammu’s hubris against him, leading into One World Under Doom #5, with Doom leading the heroes in battle against the lord of the Dark Dimension.
One World Under Doom has been full of surprises, but there are few bigger than the ones in One World Under Doom #5. Seeing the heroes put aside their grudges against Doom to follow his lead is a major change for Doom. The Avengers, Fantastic Four, and X-Men all working side by side with Doom is a major change to his relationship with these three teams. Looking back over the history of Marvel’s heroes, it’s plain to see that these teams have huge problems with Doom, and their working with Doom says it all about how dangerous their situation is with Dormammu.
Doom Has Made Enemies Out of Everyone He’s Faced
Doctor Doom has always had interesting relationships with the heroes and villains around him. Everyone knows his relationship with the Fantastic Four by now, but it’s interesting to see the way it’s evolved over the years. Doom first met Reed Richards and Ben Grimm while he was in college, and blamed Richards for the failure of the machine that was meant to save his mother’s soul. Doom learned to hate Richards more than anyone else, and the rivalry between Doom and the Fantastic Four heated up over the years. While the Fantastic Four definitely don’t hate Doom as much as he does them, they still are quite wary of him. However, even that has changed in recent years, all stemming from Secret Wars (2015.) Doom saved the universe in this story, and at the end finally admitted that Richards would have done a better job of saving the universe than Doom had done. Since then, the Fantastic Four have lightened up with Doom. He helped in the birth of Valeria Richards, and has become something of a member of the Fantastic Four’s family. The team has still had problems with Doom — Human Torch did end up sleeping with Victorious, who Doom had wanted to marry — but things have been remarkably cool between them since then.
Doom’s relationship with the Avengers has never been as personal as the one he had with the Fantastic Four. Doom respects Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man, and the Avengers have had to deal with Doom multiple times in battle. Doom did show that he was more than just a villain during his time as the Infamous Iron Man, but the Avengers don’t have the same reasons to somewhat trust Doom that the Fantastic Four gained. To the Avengers, Doom is always a bad guy with a plan. Even with his altruistic actions since the beginning of One World Under Doom, the Avengers still look at Doom with wariness. Finally, there’s his relationship with the X-Men. Doom doesn’t really have the same kind of personal relationship with the X-Men that he does with the other teams. Doom is enamored with Storm, but that just proves he’s a person with a pulse. He also dislikes the hubris of the X-Men calling themselves “Homo Superior”, since they have never actually proven themselves to be better than humans. The X-Men have the same basic distrust of Doom that other Marvel heroes have, but that’s it.
The Heroes Know That Doom Is the Only Chance of Defeating Dormammu
Dormammu’s attack on the Earth was pretty smart. He targeted the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and X-Men, throwing them into the Dark Dimension so Doom would have no help against him. Dormammu was able to surgically take Doom apart, separating him from the power of the Eye of Agamotto, and nearly defeating him. However, Doom was quickly able to make a plan against the demon lord, one that involved Doom bringing the heroes back to the Earth. That’s how we got this massive team-up between enemies.
The heroes only work with Doom because of his status as the Sorcerer Supreme. The Sorcerer Supreme is the one person on Earth whose job is to stop Dormammu, so the heroes know that Doom can stop the villain. As much as Doom’s relationship with the heroes has changed over the years, they still don’t trust him. However, they also knew they had no other choice but to help him. Doom is able to defeat Dormammu with the help of the heroes, showing that sometimes, your enemy can be your best friend against a greater enemy.
One World Under Doom #5 is on sale now.
