Marvel Two-in-One #6

[nomadicwriter]

The issue opens with our universe's Doom and AU beardy Reed working together. Doom is being remarkably polite, and AU Reed muses on how it feels right to be working together and how much they could have accomplished if they'd been doing it for all these years.

The team attack Galactus Doom, but our Doom diverts from the plan, ostensibly to save Johnny ("I do not need your moronic death on my conscience") but really because he wants to take over: the plan is for Emma Frost to swap minds with Galactus Doom, and our Doom thinks he can do it better himself. Johnny tries to convince him not to let his ego take over, and that the reason the F4 always beat him is their ability to trust each other. Doom steps back and lets Emma do the job; it works, and after the bodyswap, he gets to hear the other Doom's dying words: "I have seen everything... they always return and you are f-forever their vill..."

Day saved, they all go and hang out at the grave of the original Galactus, who went mad with guilt when he was swapped into the AU Doom's human body. Ben asks "Ya ain't creeped out by that, Doomsie?" but so far as Doom's concerned "He is no more me than I am him." Meanwhile, AU Reed pulls Ben aside; he's confused about how Ben and Johnny ended up in his universe if they were tracking their own Reed and Sue, and suspects that Ben already knows they can't be alive.

Jim Cheung back on art for this issue, which is hard to complain about it, though I'm sad not to see more of Valerio Schiti's version of unmasked Doom; Cheung's one of the few artists whose unmasked Doom we've already seen, and the clock is ticking on how long that face will be around to see other artists' takes on. He does draw a fab Iron Doom suit, though, and I like his versions of the beardy AU Reed and Johnny Storm.

Anyway, fun hijinks and a bit of a chance for Doom to work with the F4 and demonstrate his efforts to change here, so all good, but this plotline is really kind of a diversion rather than moving the plot forward much. Still, next issue is the annual, and it's intriguingly advertised in the back as starring "The Thing and the Infamous Iron Man", rather than the Thing and the Human Torch like the other 2-in-1 issues. Bodes well!

Comments

[harveysdent]

“Being remarkably polite” LOOOL. I mean you’re right, he was very patiently staying quiet while AU Reed gushed at him? That’s a big deal for him.

Considering that Doom’s foreboding last words and IIM 600 AND the fact that Slott is starting FF #1 vs. him putting his ego to the side here and the general ambiguity behind his fate in invincible, I think it’s kind of a 50/50 chance of him either lapsing into grey again or being reset to villainy for the sake of the status quo. I know I’d prefer the former, but shrewdly.. i’m a little whatever lol, I just want to see him somewhat consistently post-FF #1.

[nomadicwriter]

He was all, "If you could, please..." which is really more polite than he needs to be even within the bounds of grudging cooperation! (And it stands out all the more for the fact Zdarsky's been writing him as much quicker to lapse into old-school Doomy speech patterns when he gets irritated with people as opposed to the muted way he speaks in Iron Man.)

To be honest, I'm really expecting this book to end with Doom in a fairly ambiguous place, similar to IIM #600. I think they're leaving it open for the next person to pick it up to go any way they want for it. (I just wish Slott wasn't writing both Iron Man and FF at the same time, because if he goes in an annoying way with it or doesn't want to write Doom at all, he's got control of both books Doom has most reason to appear in and we won't get an alternative take.)

I'd like to see a morally greyer Doom going forward, but honestly I'd be okay with a return to villainy if they do it here, because at least we've now had a decent arc where the renewed villainy would come from being embittered over having done the right thing and still ended up, well, doomed, regardless, rather than some kind of "lol, no, he was totally just faking trying to be good all along" crappy handwave.

[harveysdent]

HAHA he actually said please! No, you’re right, you can def see him lapsing back into it when he’s dragging Johnny back into the ship. I really enjoy Zdarsky’s Doom voice, I think he’s actually said he’s his favorite to write.

Yeah, I’m getting more or less the same vibe. The annual will be the best indicator probably; I saw a preview panel that seems like they’re about to fill in blanks between secret wars and his reintroduction in IIM, which is great. So at least whatever the outcome, at least it seems he’s getting a good story that won’t infuriate me about where he ends up.

It’ll be an easier pill to swallow from here rather than IIM #600 for me personally, just because he at least has agency and a primary role in the plot in 2-in-1? Since infamous ended, he’s just been on the outskirts of the main ongoings in IIM, it felt so disconnected.

[nomadicwriter]

Yep, I was pleasantly surprised by how good his scenes were in the last two issues of Iron Man, because before that it felt like Bendis had run out of any ongoing plot for him about three issues in and was just recycling the same fight scene with the Hood's gang over and over. The stuff with Amara was great, but I was really hoping we were going to see Doom get more involved in the search for Tony and be working together with Riri and co instead of being off in isolation until the end. Really, the whole series suffered for being artificially dragged out to make sure Tony's return didn't happen until #600 when nobody actually had anything important to do in the meantime.