Marvel Two-in-One #5

[nomadicwriter]

We pick up where we left off, as Ben gets mad and goes to confront AU Reed, calling him a coward for giving up. AU Sue also shows up, agreeing with Ben, and there's a bit of a cross-universe F4 reunion. And it's not the only reunion, as, happily, our universe's Doom has followed the others to this universe! (Well, happily for us, anyway.)

And very handsome he looks too as Valerio Schiti gets a chance to draw him without the mask on. Others are less happy to see him than me, but Ben actually vouches for him, sorta, with the glowing endorsement "our Doom here is still a crumb-bum... but... he has been savin' lives recently..." Aw. Nice to see some subtle shift in opinion, considering the thread of Ben's reaction to Doom's new heroics has been rather dropped in Iron Man.

We also get a Reed/Doom handshake, which is something I am a total sucker for. I want one between our Reed and Doom, but intense beardy Reed definitely makes an acceptable substitute. He's looking good as well, actually - the windswept mad scientist look suits him. Or maybe it's just that Schiti's art makes everybody pretty.

Ben and Johnny raise their fading powers issue with AU Reed, but Doom points out it's not really the time and Reed reluctantly agrees with him. He sends them off to recruit the former Silver Surfer just as Galactus Doom makes his arrival.

Well, yay! Great to have our universe's Doom back in play: I was worried he was going to be stuck back on Earth in his own subplot for a while during all these universe-hopping shenanigans. Art continues to be ace as well, though my copy had a bit of an unfortunate printing error with no black inks on the first and last page. (I was staring at it for a while trying to figure out if it was some kind of special effect to show Ben's fiery rage or something.) But apart from that, a great issue, and I'm far more excited for the upcoming showdown with Galactus Doom now that our Doom's going to be teaming up with the good guys.

So, hopefully, fun times ahead! Though I'm not even going to try and figure out how the events of this are supposed to tie in with Iron Man timeline-wise at this point. Pretty sure it's going to take more than a Reed and Doom teamup to work out that one.

Comments

[harveysdent]

he looked so good! so did scruffy reed and broody scarred sue, tbh. removing the mask is up to the caprices of the writer/artist, but i'm glad in-story, doom decided it was important to show his pretty face to AU reed and sue lol.

zdarsky's really giving me everything i'd want, a doom & reed team up, doom going up against an AU doom, and the june annual promises him in the council of reeds, so stoked for that.

[nomadicwriter]

Oh, I hadn't heard that about the annual! That sounds awesome. I'm mostly just excited to see another artist draw unmasked Victor because Maleev's version is not really a fave of mine and Schiti's art is so pretty, but yeah, it's interesting that Victor seems to see removing his mask as a way of showing it's really him and he's on their side, since he doesn't do that for everybody.

[harveysdent]

Oh, absolutely same. like it's not as bad as deodato tracing vincent cassel and calling it a day but i think maleev works better for masked doom. i can't believe (fake) 1610 REED looked cuter in his style than doom in IIM. like... isn't victor supposed to be ridiculously handsome!! it's canon, guys! LOL

and yeah, the annual sounds like it's going to be fun. i LOVE the council of reeds & i'm glad someone's finally delivering on the conceit of good doom vs bad reed(s), i love that type of trope. it can make for really interesting character studies.

p.s. i'm sure you've heard by now that they're bringing the F4 back in august as well! i wonder if that's where doom'll be heading once bendis's arc wraps up, popping up whenever slott (bleh) feels like it.

[nomadicwriter]

i can't believe (fake) 1610 REED looked cuter in his style than doom in IIM. like... isn't victor supposed to be ridiculously handsome!! it's canon, guys!

Yeah, it's frustrating, because I feel like a lot of artists base their take off too-slavishly copying the Jack Kirby version (or by now other people's copies of that) but, like, Jack Kirby drew everybody kind of lumpy and craggy faced! That was his style! No need to take it as such a literal rendition of what a guy who's canonically incredibly good-looking should be drawn like. (Another thing that's annoying about it is it means college-flashback Victor usually ends up drawn looking like he's 35 instead of a teenager so it never really gets across that he's supposed to be just as much of a kid as Reed and Ben.)

i LOVE the council of reeds

Me too! One of my favourite things with Reed and Victor is that it's so easy to imagine it swapped around as to who ended up the hero and who as the villain, so I loved all the stuff in the Hickman run with Doom joining the FF and a bunch of ruthless AU Reeds as the villains. Definitely a fun thing to revisit with Doom playing outright hero this time around. Plus, like I said, I'm suddenly way more interested in this whole Galactus Doom business now it's turning out to be a good Doom vs. evil Doom confrontation instead of just the F4 fighting him.

And, yep, good to finally have the F4 back! I'm a little nervous that Slott's apparently taking both Iron Man and Fantastic Four, because if he's not interested in writing Doom that leaves him shut out of both books. (Or, worse, if Slott decides to revert him to simplistic villain again there's going to be no one else writing an alternative take.) But I'm hoping everyone's just keeping things quiet to avoid spoiling Iron Man #600 and the big F4 return and we'll hear a bit more about future plans for Doom soon. I really hope they keep heroic Doom going a while longer - there's so much more they can do with it that we've barely explored yet.

[harveysdent]

LMAO YES, the middle aged man in undergrad look. Whyyyy do they always do that.
FWIW, I think he didn't even look that bad in Kirby drawn flashbacks! Some artists draw him so old/sinister looking sometimes? Like... the brief flashback bit in the Christopher Priest/Paolo Rivera short literally makes him look like a demon lolol.

Yes, exactly! And I think Hickman really deftly captured that nuance re: Doom and Reed. I'm glad someone's playing with the good toys he's left, even if Zdarsky may not be able to deliver something with as much heft. He's done a good job with 2-in-1 though, & I did like that one Doom line, about how 'working together' eluded them across universes.

Mmmm yeah, idk what to expect with Slott after his ASM run. IA, there's still potential to do more with reformed Doom, & if the F4 are back, it would make for a good twist on the dynamic that'd be worthwhile to keep around.