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doomfans2012-05-18 12:05 am
nomadicwriter) wrote in doomfans2012-05-18 12:05 am
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Winter Soldier #5 review
The final part of this five issue arc, and it goes out with the same high standards it came in.
In the Latverian missile silo where we left them, Von Bardas and her team rewire the missiles to alter their targets, while the Red Ghost ogles all the pretty Doom-tech.
In flight over the Atlantic Ocean, Nick Fury boggles over the fact that Doom made his Doombots such exact replicas he even programmed them with the nuclear launch codes. He also calls Doom "the second-smartest man in the world", which - leaving aside the obvious pro-Richards bias ;) - is an interesting assessment to hear from somebody as up-to-date on his supergeniuses as Fury.
Doom mocks Fury for his constant series of promotions and demotions and elects to start calling him, "Mister Fury." He rewires Reed's teleport rigs for them so it can make a long range jump. (Black Widow calls him "Victor" in this sequence, which is interestingly informal of her. Oh, that Doom and his way with the ladies.)
We also finally get some timeline info for Doom's presence in this book, since it's revealed it's during Kristoff's rule of Latveria. (Kristoff doesn't get to know about the secret missile silo, because Doom has the missiles pointed at him.)
They teleport into the silo, and Doom gets to beat up some super-apes, declaring "Finally... a challenge worthy of Von Doom!" But he rapidly gets bored with that, demanding that Von Bardas face him. She says gladly, calling him a pompous ass, but seems to have badly overestimated her chances. Doom makes very quick work of her, brutally ripping out her cybernetic eye, which sends her electrical powers haywire and electrocutes the apes.
Natasha seems somewhat taken aback by Doom's ruthlessness, but he just asks her if she wants to cry over an insane woman or go and help Bucky. Elsewhere, Bucky has killed the sleeper agent Dmitri and the Red Ghost has done a runner, so it's all over bar Bucky telling Doom to "shut his metal face". (Which he takes surprisingly well. A moment of tact and diplomacy there?)
In the aftermath, Fury cuts a deal with Doom: they won't expose his nuclear bunker provided Doom dismantles it and keeps quiet about Bucky being alive. As Bucky notes, Doom is many things, most of them bad, but he is a man of his word.
Fury's people also get to keep Lucia Von Bardas as their prisoner, since Doom doesn't really want her hanging around in his country where she might tip Kristoff off to the whole "your daddy has nuclear missiles pointed at you just in case" deal. However, we still don't get to learn exactly what her history with Doom is, and she's still alive to potentially cross swords with him again.
So, all in all a pretty satisfying wrap-up. Doom gets to be portrayed in all his complex glory: tech genius, man of honour, brutally ruthless in dealing with both enemies and allies, and prone to petty insults. It's all good. :D The art is still great, though again it suffers a bit for having multiple inkers. Perfectly solid stuff, just not quite as gorgeous as it was when Guice was doing all his own inking in the early issues. But that's a petty complaint.
Overall, I would definitely recommend these issues to all fans of Doom. Ed Brubaker has a brilliant grasp of Doom's character (no surprise, after Books of Doom) and the art is very nice too. Quality stuff.
In the Latverian missile silo where we left them, Von Bardas and her team rewire the missiles to alter their targets, while the Red Ghost ogles all the pretty Doom-tech.
In flight over the Atlantic Ocean, Nick Fury boggles over the fact that Doom made his Doombots such exact replicas he even programmed them with the nuclear launch codes. He also calls Doom "the second-smartest man in the world", which - leaving aside the obvious pro-Richards bias ;) - is an interesting assessment to hear from somebody as up-to-date on his supergeniuses as Fury.
Doom mocks Fury for his constant series of promotions and demotions and elects to start calling him, "Mister Fury." He rewires Reed's teleport rigs for them so it can make a long range jump. (Black Widow calls him "Victor" in this sequence, which is interestingly informal of her. Oh, that Doom and his way with the ladies.)
We also finally get some timeline info for Doom's presence in this book, since it's revealed it's during Kristoff's rule of Latveria. (Kristoff doesn't get to know about the secret missile silo, because Doom has the missiles pointed at him.)
They teleport into the silo, and Doom gets to beat up some super-apes, declaring "Finally... a challenge worthy of Von Doom!" But he rapidly gets bored with that, demanding that Von Bardas face him. She says gladly, calling him a pompous ass, but seems to have badly overestimated her chances. Doom makes very quick work of her, brutally ripping out her cybernetic eye, which sends her electrical powers haywire and electrocutes the apes.
Natasha seems somewhat taken aback by Doom's ruthlessness, but he just asks her if she wants to cry over an insane woman or go and help Bucky. Elsewhere, Bucky has killed the sleeper agent Dmitri and the Red Ghost has done a runner, so it's all over bar Bucky telling Doom to "shut his metal face". (Which he takes surprisingly well. A moment of tact and diplomacy there?)
In the aftermath, Fury cuts a deal with Doom: they won't expose his nuclear bunker provided Doom dismantles it and keeps quiet about Bucky being alive. As Bucky notes, Doom is many things, most of them bad, but he is a man of his word.
Fury's people also get to keep Lucia Von Bardas as their prisoner, since Doom doesn't really want her hanging around in his country where she might tip Kristoff off to the whole "your daddy has nuclear missiles pointed at you just in case" deal. However, we still don't get to learn exactly what her history with Doom is, and she's still alive to potentially cross swords with him again.
So, all in all a pretty satisfying wrap-up. Doom gets to be portrayed in all his complex glory: tech genius, man of honour, brutally ruthless in dealing with both enemies and allies, and prone to petty insults. It's all good. :D The art is still great, though again it suffers a bit for having multiple inkers. Perfectly solid stuff, just not quite as gorgeous as it was when Guice was doing all his own inking in the early issues. But that's a petty complaint.
Overall, I would definitely recommend these issues to all fans of Doom. Ed Brubaker has a brilliant grasp of Doom's character (no surprise, after Books of Doom) and the art is very nice too. Quality stuff.