When Doom was two-timed by Bruce Banner and Valeria

[ar_feiniel]

In The Incredible Hulk #143-144, Dr. Doom kidnaps and brainwashes Bruce Banner in hopes of Bruce making him a gamma bomb. But, like a lot of Incredible Hulk stories, #144 shifts the focus onto a different protagonist: Doom's love interest Valeria, who is also an unwilling guest.

  
A little back story: I believe this is Valeria's second appearance. Her first was in Marvel Super-Heroes #20, where she was kidnapped by Diablo to use against Doom. Doom saved her and afterwards wanted to renew their relationship, but Valeria wanted Doom as he once was, not as the cruel man she saw he had become. She offered him an ultimatum: his ambitions or her. Ofc he chose the former.

Fast-forwarding to this issue, Doom has kidnapped Bruce and brainwashed Banner into being an obedient subject building a gamma bomb. Meanwhile, Doom has kidnapped Valeria in hopes of convincing her that he isn't a super-villain and of rekindling their love.

An important note: Doom's scheme is convoluted, but in an effort to focus on Valeria and Doom's interactions, I've done a lot of editing on the plot. I've (tried to!) explain things in between the panels, though, so if you read carefully you'll be fine. 

Here's Valeria's first appearance in the issue. Doom takes her to Bruce's lab to show her how well he treats his subjects. She isn't persuaded:



Doom shows her around and introduces her to Bruce Banner. Of course, Bruce Hulks Out while the two are there. Doom gets things under control by blasting Hulk with "tranquilizer rays" in his suit, restoring Hulk to Bruce.



Doom's trying to multi-task in this issue: on one hand, he plans to use Bruce's bomb and the Hulk's power to conquer his neighbors (or, at least, throw his weight around in a warmongering fashion). But he also wants to do it in a way that wins over Valeria.

As best as I can summarize, his plan is this: already having told his people that Latveria is being threatened by enemies (probably BS), Doom intends to then: brainwash Bruce to want to go after Doom's bordering enemies, strap the gamma bomb onto Bruce's back, force him to Hulk Out and "accidently" escape with the bomb. Doom will then detonate the bomb by remote, supposedly to prevent it from going off over a populous area, but really taking out his "enemies." (Did I mention this was convoluted?)

To his credit, Doom is aware that Valeria isn't going to be easily fooled, but being, well, Doom, he thinks he can keep all these balls in the air:



Shortly thereafter, Doom is alerted to the Hulk's "escape" with the bomb:







Valeria describes how, after she had halted the process, Bruce came around enough to overcome his brainwashing and reset the device to program himself to take the gamma bomb to an unpopulated area.

(I really like Valeria in this story: not only does she see past Doom's bullshit, she calls him out on it AND isn't afraid to thwart his schemes).



Despite Hulk's reference to Valeria, he's really focused on kicking Doom's butt for the way Doom treated him. Fighting ensues. At one point, Valeria is threatened by falling debris:



In Doom's effort to protect Valeria, Hulk gets the jump on him and gets the upper hand.





 
The credits for this issue read as follows: 
Writers: Roy Thomas and G. Friedrich
Artists: Dick Ayers and John Severin
 

Comments

[halloweenjack]

ZOMG, Doom's guard's uniform. "You have displeased Doom for the last time, fool! I would slay you for a lesser offense... but you have earned a far worse fate! Now, let's see... popcorn bowl, where's that tube of glue that Paste Pot Pete sent me for Christmas--ah, here we go."

"No, my liege, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"

[razsolo]

WE ARE NOT GUARDS, WE ARE DEVO

[kuratowa]

"I have spent my last SLEEPLESS NIGHT filled longing for you! From now on, I will seek only to please myself!"

TMI, Victor. TMI.

[dustbunny105]

Man, did I ever parse the title wrong the first read through.

[thezmage]

Yeah, me too. I had to retread it three+ times before I stopped reading "two timed" as "double teamed."

[donnblake]

Personally, I got that it was "two timed," but kept reading Bruce Banner as Bruce Wayne.

[xarmyz]

It seems Doom in his early supervillain days was just as much of a hot-head as the Human Torch. You hardly ever see him raged like he was at the end, when the Hulk refuses to keep fighting nowadays.

[ar_feiniel]

I'd say it was also pretty standard behavior during the Silver Age. You couldn't be a card carrying member of a the Super Villain Club unless you had megalomaniacal rants on a regular basis. ;)

That being said, I kind of felt there was also more going on here than just Doom having a temper. I think he's having a real meltdown, where he's desperately grasping for for something to make him feel superior or in control in a situation that has just spun completely out of control. I actually feel quite bad for him in this issue. Once again, Doom could have had it all, if he would just pull his head out of his ass and see it.

[nomadicwriter]

Yeah, I know on a Doylist level it's mostly just a shift in the writing from Silver Age to more modern sensibilities, but it is actually quite interesting to follow Doom's emotional arc from the early issues to the present; in the Silver Age he was treated as much more of a tragic, angsty figure, prone to brooding and depression and often on the verge of emotional breakdown, whereas in recent years he's become much cooler and calmer and more in control. You can certainly read it as an arc of Doom gradually getting himself back together emotionally following the volatile early years after his accident.

[nomadicwriter]

See, this issue is part of why I have such problems with Valeria's fate in Waid's run. Here, even though she's betrayed him and he's furious and ready to put her on trial, his first instinct is to protect her when she's in danger. Then in "Unthinkable", when she's done nothing to him, he randomly decides to track her down and slaughter her for a power boost he doesn't need? That really doesn't track.

(And anyway, I think Doom's a much more interesting character when he does have a small handful of people he genuinely does care about and who would care about him, but he just can't help constantly sabotaging his relationships because he has to keep grasping for power. Doom caring about nothing and no one as long as he can have that power is just boring.)

[kd_the_movie]

Take away the context establishing panels with Bruce and this becomes a HILARIOUS story of the Hulk randomly showing up at Dooms house just to wreck shit