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doomfans2017-07-28 01:58 am
nomadicwriter) wrote in doomfans2017-07-28 01:58 am
Infamous Iron Man #10
We open with the flashback from the preview, where young Victor is introduced to his mother's magic. She asks him to sacrifice a rabbit, but he can't do it, and she calls him a coward.
Cut back to the present, where Doom and his mom are hanging around in a between-space called "the Tear", the void where the multiverse used to be before it went boom. (Guess the Richards family have been making slow progress on that whole "rebuilding universes" project from the end of Secret Wars.) Cynthia asks Doom if he has a plan for the whole Iron Man deal. He calls it the mantle of a 'colleague', which slays me, and claims he's keeping it alive for Tony. Aww. His plan is to take on the criminals law enforcement can't deal with and then go after organisations like AIM and Hydra.
He asks her to teach him some kind of magic he doesn't already know. Cynthia gets him to read from a spellbook, but his suspicions are raised when he makes a reference to them sacrificing baby frogs and she says she was just thinking the same thing. (Suggesting, perhaps, that either this isn't the real 616 Cynthia, or she doesn't have all of her memories.) Doom dons his armour as Ultimate Reed shows up, wondering why Cynthia has gone off-plan and brought Doom here.
Meanwhile, SHIELD send Ben to deal with Doom. He arrives at the ruins of Castle Doom, where he meets a girl scavenging for things to sell. He says that at least Doom's gone, but she says Doom loved and protected his people and they don't have anything now. Ben explores the darkened castle in a sequence of lovely atmospheric panels, and is baffled to discover that Doom kept a framed photo from their college days that features him, Ben and Reed together. (And so a new OT3 is born!)
Then, Doom falls from the sky (in a rather unfortunately phallic-looking energy blast, which does distract from the impact of the moment a tad). Doom grabs Ben and tells him to run "if you are who you say you are". I guess between not!Cynthia and Ultimateverse Reed he must be getting a little paranoid.
Anyway, I'm glad to see more explicit hints that this isn't quite the Cynthia we know, because I was starting to get a little itchy about the possibility they were going to retcon the backstory where Victor's parents were always fundamentally good people. The presumably-real flashback scene where she calls him a coward is maybe a little borderline, but that's more a flash of Doom-like ruthlessness and impatience than outright cruelty/evil, so I can roll with it as a one-off thing.
The flashback also has a far more innocent take on young Victor than Books of Doom, which makes some sense, since that's Doom creating his own legend. Though it does seem a tad implausible that a kid with Victor's background would really be that squeamish about killing an animal when his people surely trap and eat rabbits all the time. But I absolutely love the flashback art for young Victor - it seems rare for comic artists to be able to draw kids that look like kids at all, let alone believable as the adults they're supposed to grow into, and there are some really beautiful panels there.
I also continue to love the work Bendis is doing to build up the Reed-Ben-Doom relationship as a trio rather than just the usual Reed-Doom dynamic. The relationship between Ben and Doom has always been predictable one-note clobberin' before, but I'm suddenly about 500% more interested in Ben now the comics are actually delving more into the fact that he and Doom have their own long history stretching back to before the powers and the supervillainy. I also liked the nod to the high esteem that Doom has for Tony, which has been a running thread since long before he reformed.
So, many nice little details, and the story is progressing, though still a bit slow for my tastes. Now that we've had a reveal of sorts of Cynthia's dubious intentions, I hope next issue finally has some answers on whether she's the real 616 Cynthia and how come she's alive. It's about time to wrap up the mystery and find out what we're dealing with.
Cut back to the present, where Doom and his mom are hanging around in a between-space called "the Tear", the void where the multiverse used to be before it went boom. (Guess the Richards family have been making slow progress on that whole "rebuilding universes" project from the end of Secret Wars.) Cynthia asks Doom if he has a plan for the whole Iron Man deal. He calls it the mantle of a 'colleague', which slays me, and claims he's keeping it alive for Tony. Aww. His plan is to take on the criminals law enforcement can't deal with and then go after organisations like AIM and Hydra.
He asks her to teach him some kind of magic he doesn't already know. Cynthia gets him to read from a spellbook, but his suspicions are raised when he makes a reference to them sacrificing baby frogs and she says she was just thinking the same thing. (Suggesting, perhaps, that either this isn't the real 616 Cynthia, or she doesn't have all of her memories.) Doom dons his armour as Ultimate Reed shows up, wondering why Cynthia has gone off-plan and brought Doom here.
Meanwhile, SHIELD send Ben to deal with Doom. He arrives at the ruins of Castle Doom, where he meets a girl scavenging for things to sell. He says that at least Doom's gone, but she says Doom loved and protected his people and they don't have anything now. Ben explores the darkened castle in a sequence of lovely atmospheric panels, and is baffled to discover that Doom kept a framed photo from their college days that features him, Ben and Reed together. (And so a new OT3 is born!)
Then, Doom falls from the sky (in a rather unfortunately phallic-looking energy blast, which does distract from the impact of the moment a tad). Doom grabs Ben and tells him to run "if you are who you say you are". I guess between not!Cynthia and Ultimateverse Reed he must be getting a little paranoid.
Anyway, I'm glad to see more explicit hints that this isn't quite the Cynthia we know, because I was starting to get a little itchy about the possibility they were going to retcon the backstory where Victor's parents were always fundamentally good people. The presumably-real flashback scene where she calls him a coward is maybe a little borderline, but that's more a flash of Doom-like ruthlessness and impatience than outright cruelty/evil, so I can roll with it as a one-off thing.
The flashback also has a far more innocent take on young Victor than Books of Doom, which makes some sense, since that's Doom creating his own legend. Though it does seem a tad implausible that a kid with Victor's background would really be that squeamish about killing an animal when his people surely trap and eat rabbits all the time. But I absolutely love the flashback art for young Victor - it seems rare for comic artists to be able to draw kids that look like kids at all, let alone believable as the adults they're supposed to grow into, and there are some really beautiful panels there.
I also continue to love the work Bendis is doing to build up the Reed-Ben-Doom relationship as a trio rather than just the usual Reed-Doom dynamic. The relationship between Ben and Doom has always been predictable one-note clobberin' before, but I'm suddenly about 500% more interested in Ben now the comics are actually delving more into the fact that he and Doom have their own long history stretching back to before the powers and the supervillainy. I also liked the nod to the high esteem that Doom has for Tony, which has been a running thread since long before he reformed.
So, many nice little details, and the story is progressing, though still a bit slow for my tastes. Now that we've had a reveal of sorts of Cynthia's dubious intentions, I hope next issue finally has some answers on whether she's the real 616 Cynthia and how come she's alive. It's about time to wrap up the mystery and find out what we're dealing with.