Tomes of Costumed Adventurers: Doom's Day Book Two--Sabotage

Tomes of Costumed Adventurers

Welcome to the land of "reality", where scientific experiments, accidents, genetic heritage, and alien influences affect the lives of ordinary mortals. Join me as I observe the superhumans of planet earth and their struggles against equally powerful foes.

W A R N I N G !

This review does not represent the opinions of the general public. It reflects my personal thoughts and opinions on the book.

That said, on to the review!

Title: Doom's Day Book Two--Sabotage
Author: Pierce Askegren & Danny Fingeroth
Publisher: Boulevard Books
Format: Paperback
Copyright Date: 1997

When Tony Stark unveiled Stark Enterprises' latest revolutionary invention, the Infinity Engine, he reignited a power struggle between two of the world's most powerful terrorist organizations, A.I.M. and Hydra. Moreover, he attracted the attention of Dr. Doom, the monarch of Latveria, who has his own reasons for keeping the Engine out of the hands of either terrorist cabal. But it is Hydra who makes the first move, capturing the Engine while it docked with an orbitting space station and holding the entire world hostage. Now it is up to Iron Man, SE's special operative and member of the Avengers, to recover the stolen Engine and its terrible power before Hydra can use it. What no one--not A.I.M., not Hydra, not Dr. Doom, not Iron Man, and not even S.A.F.E.--counted on was the involvement of Spider-Man, who has a few scores of his own to even with both A.I.M. and Hydra. But now it's a race against time, because each second that passes brings Hydra that much closer to world domination, and it's entirely possible that not even Dr. Doom could survive an attack by a Hydra-controlled Engine!

Dr. Doom plays a much larger role in Sabotage than he did in Rampage. He isn't one of the reasons for the conflict as he was--albeit indirectly--in the first book. This time he plays a much more active role, taking steps to drastically curtail the activities of A.I.M. and Hydra. In fact, one of the best moments in the book is when he basically rubs Hydra's failure to capture the Infinity Engine in Baron Strucker's face. I'm not a big fan of Dr. Doom--he's the villain, after all--but he is so calm and cool that it's really impressive.

There weren't any guest appearances this time around--unless you count the presence of Reed and Susan Richards (a.k.a. Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman) at the Infinity Engine's unveiling--but that's really okay. When you think about it, there's really little that the two members of the Fantastic Four can contribute that Iron Man and Spider-Man between them can't handle. After all, Tony Stark's intellect could very well rival Reed Richards (though they each have their specializations), Iron Man's capabilities parallel to an extent Susan Richards' force field projection abilities, and Spider-Man's flexibility and agility compensate adequately for Reed Richards' special physical attributes.

Doom's Day Book Two--Sabotage continues a trilogy that just gets better as it goes along. Superhero team-ups in the Marvel Universe are fairly common, and you can't really live in the MU as a hero without encountering a peer or two around every corner, so teaming up Spidey and Iron Man--as well as Peter Parker and Tony Stark--isn't as surprising as how well they work together, despite their differences!

Rating: Thumbs up! Dr. Doom says: mix one armored Avenger, a wall-crawler, two terrorist cabals and an incredible power source and call me in the morning!

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