Warning! Spoilers ahead for Guardians of the Galaxy #13.
It's a new Age of Space for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, and their next threat may forcibly take Hulking's title as King of Space away from him. No longer outlaws, the Guardians have been sanctioned by the Galactic Council as official cosmic superheroes, and this new issue sees the expanded team responding to new threats across the galaxy like the Progenitors, who are threatening the Kree/Skrull Throneworld. However, something potentially more sinister is afoot, as the issue also sees the fearsome debut of Doctor Doom, who's very much appearing to be a villain to the Guardians of the Galaxy.
In Guardians of the Galaxy #13 from writer Al Ewing and artist Juan Frigeri, Super Skrull is directing two teams of Guardians to take care of different threats in need of attention. While one team comprised of Drax, Marvel Boy, Quasar, and Phyla-Vell went to a rimworld to look into the disappearance of a planetary survey team, Nova, Star-Lord, Gamora, Moondragon, Rocket, and Groot came to the aid of the Wiccan and Hulking, the new King of Space and ruler of the Kree/Skrull allliance. While they managed to defeat the Progenitors, Moondragon discovered that someone intentionally led the beings to the Throneworld, making it an act of war.
Sure enough, this certain someone arrived in a storm of magic, scoffing as the titles held by Star-Lord and Hulking such as "Master of the Sun" and "King of Space." Blasting them back with all-too-familiar power gauntlets, this new foe declared that he could claim such titles if he wanted, having "mastered all arts, all sciences, and all secrets." He then took Hulking's Star-Sword for himself, before finally being revealed after this pretty epic entrance.
Doctor Doom has officially arrived in Al Ewing's Guardians of the Galaxy, a debut that had been teased for a while in recent previews. However, those teasers seemed to indicate that Doom would be joining the team of cosmic superheroes, rather than fighting them and looking to go to war for Emperor Hulkling's throne as seen in this new issue. Is Doom looking to expand his sole title by also being the new King of Space? Will the Guardians somehow convince him to join their ranks instead?
However this plays out, it's going to be wild. While Christopher Cantwell's recently concluded Doctor Doom series saw Victor von Doom abandoning his attempt for redemption, perhaps he'll be getting another chance away from Earth by joining the Guardians. However, there's still this "act of war" that needs to get sorted out first. At the moment, Doctor Doom's arrival has him positioned very much as a foe to the Guardians of the Galaxy, and his pride and ego seem to be as large as ever. As such, it's going to be really interesting to know what might convince him to join the new team of galactic heroes in future issues from Marvel Comics.