Spoilers ahead for Guardians of the Galaxy #17!
The evil Dormammu is attacking seemingly random targets across the galaxy, and only Doctor Doom can crack the code and guess the evil sorcerer’s endgame. In a preview for Guardians of the Galaxy #17, on sale August 18 in print and digital, the Guardians are at a loss to decipher the pattern of Dormammu’s attacks, and it is Doctor Doom, one of the Guardian’s newest recruits, who may have the solution.
The Guardians of the Galaxy have been through a lot in the past few months. The Galactic Council, in response to a dire galactic situation, deputized the Guardians, making them an official peace-keeping agency. The team has also expanded their roster, adding Doctor Doom, Wiccan, and Hulking, among others, to their numbers. This expansion of the ranks came at just the right time, as Dormammu, the evil lord of the Dark Dimension, takes possession of Ego the Living Planet and launches an assault on the galaxy. In Guardians of the Galaxy #17, written by Al Ewing, with art by Juan Frigeri, colors by Federico Blee, and letters by Cory Petit, readers can see the opening salvo of Dormammu’s reign of terror and that Doctor Doom may hold the key to the galaxy’s salvation.
As the preview opens, the Guardians are reviewing Dormammu’s past targets: Hala, a Kree world, Skrullos, the former homeworld of the Skrulls, Spartax, Aerie, the birthplace of the Shi’ar. While the Guardians debate, it is Doctor Doom who sees the pattern: each world is the birthplace of a major star-faring civilization. Doom goes on to speculate there might be a fifth attack on the horizon, and when it is complete, it will form a pentagram, giving Dormammu access to their dimension—which could spell the end of existence itself.
The preview ends with Doctor Doom cautioning that this is only one possibility and that there are ones far worse. Readers must wait until August 18 to see if Doom has truly cracked Dormammu’s code, or if the evil sorcerer has something else up his sleeves. The obvious question is what is the fifth planet? The other four planets were all cradles of galactic civilizations, so it stands to reason the last one will meet these criteria as well. There are a number of other space-faring races in the Marvel Universe, such as the Badoon, the Kymellians, and the Chitauri—could it be one of them? Or maybe another species altogether? But the important question is whether or not Doom is working with the best interests of the Guardians in mind.
Dormammu is laying waste to the galaxy, and it is Doctor Doom who sees the evil sorcerer’s pattern—potentially saving all of existence, though his interests are still questionable.