I've only come across the Living Tribunal once or twice, but from what I gather, it's a vastly powerful being that predates the multiverse and deals with events that threaten the balance of all universes. So a failed power-grab by Doctor Doom seems way too small-scale to get its attention. (It makes even less sense when you consider the Living Tribunal is a single entity that exists across all multiverses, and yet it apparently ignored all the Dooms who became the Annihilating Conqueror in other universes and only came to deal with one who didn't even succeed.) Plus the Tribunal choosing to punish Doom for his acts of malice makes absolutely no sense, since part of its function is actually preserving the balance between good and evil, and it has intervened before to introduce more evil to the world when the 616 heroes had tipped the balance too far the other way.
Also, yeah, I did think there was a definite "have your cake and eat it" aspect to the sociopath/psychopath stuff. First we get the implication that Scott's thrashing of Doom is thoroughly righteous because Doom is pure evil and incapable of any other feeling, but then we get an "eye for an eye" style karmic punishment at the end that only works as a plot device if you accept that Doom is capable of grieving a dead loved one just as much as Scott is. I guess you could assume it's supposed to be Scott's personal opinion and his actions here are intended as somewhat dark, but the issue really doesn't come off that way. (The whole "I meet people who think you're nuanced" bit in particular feels like the writer lecturing the readers for thinking that.)
I did think it was an interesting choice to have Doom speak in Latverian (I assume) at his supposed surrender. He could have been saying anything, really, since I doubt Scott understands the language, and Doom does go for the gauntlet immediately after. In fact, that whole ending sequence from there to the fakeout killing of Valeria really could have been a great, fitting way to end the story arc, but it's crammed into so few panels that I had to reread it a couple of times to even figure out what happened. This would have been a much better issue if they'd cut out the Living Tribunal bit and spent more pages on that.
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Date: 2014-01-24 11:59 pm (UTC)Also, yeah, I did think there was a definite "have your cake and eat it" aspect to the sociopath/psychopath stuff. First we get the implication that Scott's thrashing of Doom is thoroughly righteous because Doom is pure evil and incapable of any other feeling, but then we get an "eye for an eye" style karmic punishment at the end that only works as a plot device if you accept that Doom is capable of grieving a dead loved one just as much as Scott is. I guess you could assume it's supposed to be Scott's personal opinion and his actions here are intended as somewhat dark, but the issue really doesn't come off that way. (The whole "I meet people who think you're nuanced" bit in particular feels like the writer lecturing the readers for thinking that.)
I did think it was an interesting choice to have Doom speak in Latverian (I assume) at his supposed surrender. He could have been saying anything, really, since I doubt Scott understands the language, and Doom does go for the gauntlet immediately after. In fact, that whole ending sequence from there to the fakeout killing of Valeria really could have been a great, fitting way to end the story arc, but it's crammed into so few panels that I had to reread it a couple of times to even figure out what happened. This would have been a much better issue if they'd cut out the Living Tribunal bit and spent more pages on that.