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doomfans2018-08-09 11:56 pm
nomadicwriter) wrote in doomfans2018-08-09 11:56 pm
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Fantastic Four #1
The new Fantastic Four series begins with an extra-long issue that contains two stories. The main feature starts out with Ben and Johnny still convinced the rest of the F4 are gone for good and is pretty much killing time until Reed and Sue send them the 4 signal at the end, thus spoiling that Marvel 2 in 1 will likely conclude without changing anything much, and must slot into the timeline sometime before Iron Man #600. So at least that's sorted out.
The backup story picks up from the events of IIM #600 to reveal what's next for Doom. Latveria, under the rule of its new president for life, is under an evening curfew, with Doom's servo-guard robots helping to enforce it. A woman named Zora Vukovic breaks the curfew to investigate sightings of lights in Castle Doom. She's attacked by Doombots, who are deactivated by the real Doom when he shows up. He's apparently ditched the Iron Doom armour but not yet bothered to find an alternative, so is currently chilling about the place barefoot and shirtless in his cloak and a ragged green skirt held up by a rope belt. As you do when you're not expecting visitors.
He tells Zora to leave, but she says the people have prayed for his return, and begs him to be their saviour. He shows her his newly scarred face, his reward for playing hero, and asks if that's the face of a saviour. Zora says the Latverians would welcome Doom however he looked, but what they most want to see is his true face: she gives him the mask from one of the Doombots. He thanks her for reminding him that while he was born with one face and fate keeps returning the scarred one, the mask was the only one that he chose.
With the mask back in place, but without putting on the rest of his armour (or indeed even stopping to get dressed) Doom goes out with Zora to reclaim his country. However, this time he's doing it differently. He announces that he's not going to use robots, armour, or allies, but show he can liberate Latveria alone by the strength of his will.
So! Cautiously optimistic about this direction. Doom is being very old-school Doomy in his speech and has re-embraced the classic mask, but he's not yet fully going back to the rest of his supervillainous trappings, and it's still kind of up in the air whether he's just going to reclaim Latveria or backslide further into world-conquering ambitions. It seems we're going to get another period of Doom-without-armour, so I'm curious what kind of look they're going to go with for that, as I feel like this take is a bit too classic to fit with the mundane business suits of the Bendis era. (I mean, I'm assuming he's not going to spend the whole time running about half naked, but who knows? Doom does what Doom wants.)
Art on the Doom story is by Simone Bianchi, who gives good Doom both in the form of Doombots and his half-naked guise, though I don't love that the glimpses of his scars are back to that weird blobby cracked-skin type depiction that never made very much sense to me. Plus once again there's my pet peeve of Doom having blue eyes, aargh! Why is it so hard to get that simple detail right? (Also, I've gotta say, I am getting a bit cheesed off with Marvel repeatedly pulling the trick of having an artist with a bright, cartoony style that's right up my street drawing the main story, and then sticking Doom off in his own separate storyline where it's all muted colours, more realist type art, and everything buried in murky shadows. Just give me my cartoony brightly-coloured Doom, dammit!)
But those complaints aside, the final splash page/end title is beautiful work, and I'm disproportionately delighted by the detail of Doom's hairy legs. (Especially because the kind of stubbly appearance manages to make it look like he usually shaves all over but has neglected to keep up for a couple of weeks, which is now my new headcanon you can't take away from me.)
All in all, I like it! It wasn't initially clear Doom was going to be in the early issues of F4 at all, so I'm glad to see immediate follow-up, and I appreciate this balancing act where even if Doom does end up going full status quo villain again, it looks like it's going to be a gradual slide that follows on from his attempt at heroism rather than just ignoring or contradicting it. I'd be more than happy with that.
The backup story picks up from the events of IIM #600 to reveal what's next for Doom. Latveria, under the rule of its new president for life, is under an evening curfew, with Doom's servo-guard robots helping to enforce it. A woman named Zora Vukovic breaks the curfew to investigate sightings of lights in Castle Doom. She's attacked by Doombots, who are deactivated by the real Doom when he shows up. He's apparently ditched the Iron Doom armour but not yet bothered to find an alternative, so is currently chilling about the place barefoot and shirtless in his cloak and a ragged green skirt held up by a rope belt. As you do when you're not expecting visitors.
He tells Zora to leave, but she says the people have prayed for his return, and begs him to be their saviour. He shows her his newly scarred face, his reward for playing hero, and asks if that's the face of a saviour. Zora says the Latverians would welcome Doom however he looked, but what they most want to see is his true face: she gives him the mask from one of the Doombots. He thanks her for reminding him that while he was born with one face and fate keeps returning the scarred one, the mask was the only one that he chose.
With the mask back in place, but without putting on the rest of his armour (or indeed even stopping to get dressed) Doom goes out with Zora to reclaim his country. However, this time he's doing it differently. He announces that he's not going to use robots, armour, or allies, but show he can liberate Latveria alone by the strength of his will.
So! Cautiously optimistic about this direction. Doom is being very old-school Doomy in his speech and has re-embraced the classic mask, but he's not yet fully going back to the rest of his supervillainous trappings, and it's still kind of up in the air whether he's just going to reclaim Latveria or backslide further into world-conquering ambitions. It seems we're going to get another period of Doom-without-armour, so I'm curious what kind of look they're going to go with for that, as I feel like this take is a bit too classic to fit with the mundane business suits of the Bendis era. (I mean, I'm assuming he's not going to spend the whole time running about half naked, but who knows? Doom does what Doom wants.)
Art on the Doom story is by Simone Bianchi, who gives good Doom both in the form of Doombots and his half-naked guise, though I don't love that the glimpses of his scars are back to that weird blobby cracked-skin type depiction that never made very much sense to me. Plus once again there's my pet peeve of Doom having blue eyes, aargh! Why is it so hard to get that simple detail right? (Also, I've gotta say, I am getting a bit cheesed off with Marvel repeatedly pulling the trick of having an artist with a bright, cartoony style that's right up my street drawing the main story, and then sticking Doom off in his own separate storyline where it's all muted colours, more realist type art, and everything buried in murky shadows. Just give me my cartoony brightly-coloured Doom, dammit!)
But those complaints aside, the final splash page/end title is beautiful work, and I'm disproportionately delighted by the detail of Doom's hairy legs. (Especially because the kind of stubbly appearance manages to make it look like he usually shaves all over but has neglected to keep up for a couple of weeks, which is now my new headcanon you can't take away from me.)
All in all, I like it! It wasn't initially clear Doom was going to be in the early issues of F4 at all, so I'm glad to see immediate follow-up, and I appreciate this balancing act where even if Doom does end up going full status quo villain again, it looks like it's going to be a gradual slide that follows on from his attempt at heroism rather than just ignoring or contradicting it. I'd be more than happy with that.