After over two years and 70 issues of Avengers storytelling by writer Jonathan Hickman, the person known as Rabum Alal -- the Great Destroyer -- has finally been revealed as Doctor Doom. The reveal came in today's New Avengers #31 (by Hickman and artist Kev Walker) when Doctor Strange was captured by the Black Swans and brought to their leader.

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But it's not the Doctor Doom you think it is. Let us *attempt* to explain, as a lot has happened to get us to this point. You might have heard that the Marvel Universe is ending in May , and the reason behind that is that something -- or someone -- has set off a series of "incursions" where parallel universes are crashing into each other, destroying both. The only way to save our universe is to destroy the opposing universe's Earth, which as you can imagine has given the New Avengers aka the Illuminati quite a bit of grief. Destroying billions of lives to save your own just isn't a heroic thing to do, after all.The Illuminati learned quite a bit about the incursions from a character known as Black Swan. She was the first to mention Rabum Alal, her master that she and her kind revere on a religious level, and we've been wondering who it is ever since. She said that his birth set off the early heat death of an entire universe, and that started the chain reaction that's causing all of the incursions.As for how it can be Doctor Doom, that remains a mystery despite the reveal. Doom had his first taste of an incursion when his country of Latveria was attacked by "Mapmakers" -- beings who take advantage of incursions by traveling to a parallel world and sapping it of its resources. After defeating the Mapmakers, Doom found one of their beacons and gave it to the Tinkerer to analyze.Meanwhile, Illuminati member Namor recruited a team of supervillains -- called the Cabal -- to destroy any alternate worlds that threatened to collide with ours. When his team of bad guys became too much for him to handle, he reached out to Doctor Doom for help in New Avengers #24. Doom turned him down as a point of pride -- "Doom is no man's second choice." -- and we saw that this new information given to him by Namor along with Tinkerer's beacon research was enough to set a new plan in motion.In the pages of New Avengers #29, Doom put that plan into motion when he went on a journey into the multiverse with the all-powerful Molecule Man.We hadn't seen Doom again until today's New Avengers #31 where he appeared as the leader of the Black Swans and looked distinctly different than the last time we saw him two issues ago. How could Doctor Doom be the great instigator to the conflict that started back in New Avengers #1 despite the fact that he only learned about it recently? That's the big question.But in the meantime, know that Doctor Doom has something to do with the upcoming death of the Marvel Universe and we are itching to figure out just what he's up to.We talked to Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort about Rabum Alal -- who prounces it "rah-boom ah-lawl" -- to get all of the details about this much-awaited reveal and what it means for Marvel's fast-approaching Secret Wars event in May.

Rabum Alal in New Avengers #31

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Rabum Alal is Doctor Doom, yes. That is true. That is a true fact.I don't know that there were any particular clues that you could point to. There are probably some moments foreshadowing it, especially the previous issues that Doom was in -- not just New Avengers #24, but New Avengers #6 and a couple other times over the course of this.But the Doom in New Avengers #24 -- the guy who sat across the table from Namor, who at that time has his hands full with the Cabal -- he was not yet Rabum Alal. He did not become Rabum Alal until going through this journey with the Molecule Man, stepping backwards through the mists of time, stepping down, down, down through the various planes of reality, and then doing whatever it is that he did to become Rabum Alal in the here and now. We see Doom take that journey over the last couple of issues, and that journey ends up here.So, in essence, at certain points in the course of this story, there are effectively two Doctor Dooms. There is the Doctor Doom who's sitting at the table across from Namor, and the Doctor Doom who's Rabum Alal out in the multiverse, casting wide his net of Black Swans and presumably testing worlds on the great Wheel of Fate. It's just that one hasn't grown up to be the other one yet.Yes, yes. It's got some time travel in it, so it makes it more complicated.That's definitely still a "wait and see" question, but the answers are coming pretty fast right now. Certainly, a lot of people seem to think that he is the one responsible, the one behind everything.Right, that is right. But that is effectively a younger Doctor Doom than Rabum Alal.If you think of this -- the parallel is something like Rama-Tut becoming Kang. Rama-Tut is Rama-Tut, and then eventually he goes and lives out his life in the Timestream and becomes Kang. Then eventually Kang lives out his time in the Timestream and becomes Immortus.They're all effectively the same guy; it's just, in this case, Rabum Alal is still Doctor Doom. He's still wearing some version of the same clothes and using the same name. But if you think of them as Rama-Tut and Kang, it's that kind of thing.He's talking about the Black Swans, but he also means that literally. You'll see more of that in the next couple issues that remain, before we head into Secret Wars proper.Well, it means, if nothing else, that all of those people, who for weeks and months have been worries and outraged and fearful that the Fantastic Four and their family of characters aren't going to have a big role to play in Secret Wars, feel a little silly right now. [Laughs] Because that is clearly not the case.It means Rabum Alal, as you'd expect, is going to be a big part of Secret Wars, and that means Doom will as well -- and all that that implies!Oh, still too soon. I've got more comics to come, but right now we're almost at the end of Avengers' run.Many of the cards are getting turned over, and most of them will be turned over going into Secret Wars, and the last few will be turned over in Secret Wars #1 and into Secret Wars #2.So revelations and payoffs on things that were set up over the course of 70 different issues are going to come fast and furious now. So you will see and learn and know more, certainly by the time we're on the eve of Secret Wars proper.The end of Avengers' run I think -- and I hope; I strongly suspect -- people will not guess what happens in Avengers #44, and people will not guess what happens in New Avengers #33. If they do, great, because they're smart and they're our readers, and so forth.But I think that both of them will prove in their own ways shocking and fascinating. And then almost immediately thereafter we're into Secret Wars proper, which will kick off with a one-two punch of issues #1 and #2 in May.It's honestly a little bit of both.You could look at the final issues and -- in reality, Avengers and New Avengers have effectively been operating as a single book since the beginning. You see that much more clearly and have since we got into Time Runs Out.But all of the stuff that's been going on in Avengers since Jon started has all been pieces of one big story, the pattern of which has almost completely emerged.So the final issues of Avengers and New Avengers do bring that story to some kind of a conclusion as far as those characters and the things that were set up in those titles. It absolutely leads you directly into Secret Wars, but both of those titles do individually function as capstones on the runs of those titles that Jon has written -- if that makes sense.There is definitely a cliffhanger-y element, because once those books are done, Secret Wars is there -- it comes right out of this.But you'll read Avengers #44 and be able to look back at Avengers #1 and go, "Oh, I see what the story was there." And the same sort of thing with New Avengers #1 and New Avengers #33.There will be some sense of closure even though the big problem is about to come crashing down on top of everybody. [Laughs]

Joshua is IGN’s Comics Editor. If Game of Thrones, Green Lantern, or Super Smash Bros. are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter and IGN