Marvel 2 in 1 #11

[nomadicwriter]

A team-up between Ben and Reed in this issue, with some bonus Doom.

So, this issue takes place after the return of the rest of the F4, and features Reed and Ben on a bit of a universe-hopping trip while Reed tries to explain himself regarding the whole "letting Ben and Johnny think they were all dead" business. He takes Ben to an alternate universe where they meet an AU version of Doom, who... greets Reed with a friendly hug. This is universe P-1837, where the native Reed Richards is dead and the rest of the F4 went on to live mundane no-powers lives.

Apparently, Reed discovered this AU a while back when he was first experimenting with the Multisect. He fought AU Doom and lost, but was stunned when this Doom showed him mercy, and kept coming back to hang out with him and try to find out what the difference was, even having Franklin restore that particular universe after the events of Secret Wars so he could visit it some more. Reed says to Ben that even if Doom's main priority is the quest for power, you can't be a genius without having a sense of curiosity, and as long as Doom has that then it's possible he's going to have a revelation and come to see things differently. Though Reed can't be sure his death was the one specific change that made this AU Doom different, he thought it was worth leading our Doom to believe he was dead to see if it would be enough to change him - even if it meant letting Ben and Johnny believe it too so they wouldn't give the game away.

Ben talks a little about what happened with our Doom while they were gone: "He tried. I never trusted him, and maybe I should have. 'Cause I could... I could see he was tryin' to be a good guy." But even friendly Doom from this AU is still a little, well, Doom-y, and he wonders whether it's inevitable that any version of Doom is going to backslide into evil. He accepts that Reed was trying to fix things, but is unhappy that he didn't trust them and remember that the F4 are better together.

Reed says his goodbyes to friendly AU Doom. AU Doom gets the impression that Ben doesn't trust him, and Reed reassures him that, "He's just being protective of me." Then they hug again goodbye, and AU Doom leaves them with one final parting message: "Don't give up on me."

So, no actual appearance by our universe's Doom here, but lots of lovely material on the Reed-Doom relationship, and even a little bit of closure on the Ben and Doom stuff from Infamous Iron Man that never really went anywhere. Not only do we get confirmation that Reed's whole faking his death scheme was all for Doom's sake, but we also learn he's been running off to another universe to hang out with his secret AU Doom buddy ever since he invented the Multisect.

We don't get a lot of background on P-1837 Doom, but there are all sorts of intriguing hints about him and his relationship with Reed. This Doom goes unmasked, but is still scarred, although not so badly - interestingly, he has a set of four slashes like clawmarks across his right eye, which ties with the Books of Doom origin where he talks about feeling the lingering touch of Mephisto's claws. Perhaps in this Reed-free universe he still got thrown out of hell by Mephisto, but the machine didn't explode so he wasn't as badly injured? (Which would... actually kinda point to the explosion being indirectly caused by Reed's interference, if only perhaps because it prompted Victor to test the machine too early or made him stubborn about refusing to double-check math that he might have otherwise gone over.)

There's also a fascinating snippet of a scene where Doom shows Reed his latest discovery, Reed realises he's been exploring hell again and is all, "Are you... Is this... is this about your mother again?" and Doom gives him such a dirty look that it basically comes off exactly like some kind of married couple argument that the two of them have all the time. I love it. I want all the backstory on these two and the development of their relationship from initial fighting to cuddly science buddies.

The art by Ramón K. Pérez is not quite so much to my taste - I'm not a big fan of the angular faces or the thick lines in the inking, though he draws a good Ben and has an interesting skull-like version of the Doom mask. Also, once again the colouring is overly dark and shadowy. Can't even nice guy Doom catch a break and get some bright, shiny primary colours once in a while?

But that's a minor complaint. All in all, this issue was a lovely surprise, since I'd given up on expecting Doom back in this book after the whole "finding the F4" storyline got resolved off in the main F4 comic, and though this isn't our Doom, there are still plenty of implications for the whole Iron Doom arc and how it's affected his relationship with the F4. I just hope this eventually sees some follow-up in the main F4 book, since we still don't know much about how Slott or whoever else is going to play Doom's possible return to villainy after the end of IIM #600.

Comments

[harveysdent]

I want this to have ramifications on 616 Doom soooo badly, oh my god. I don’t know if it WILL, because the preview for #3 is already diverging and the solicit for the start of his arc in FF sounds like a factory reset, but it’s what I waaaant.

Even if it ends up not factoring into the bigger picture though, it really was a nice cap on Zdarsky’s Doom & Doom&Reed interactions in 2-in-1. ‘Don’t give up on me’!

[nomadicwriter]

Yeah, the timeline for how this series is possibly supposed to fit in with Fantastic Four is a hopeless mess by now, but I guess we can imagine Reed and Ben taking this little trip at some point wherever it fits in. At least it's now canon that this universe is out there and basically the whole post-Secret Wars business was Reed trying to save Doom so they can be BFFs like he is with this version. Hopefully someone will pick that element up later even if Slott just does a reset-button return to villainy right now.

[harveysdent]

Lol exactly! TBH I’m still surprised Doom showed up in this issue? I really appreciate Zdarsky’s last push of hopefulness for redeemed Doom lmfao, he’s a real one. I liked that it was realistic about what kind of person he is across universes, with even Ben and Reed even a little unsure, but like, not at all dismissive of the notion. This title’s been amazingly solid on that front, imo. I’ll definitely miss it!

[nomadicwriter]

Yeah, I appreciated getting a little bit of closure on Ben and his scepticism towards Doom's reformation as well, since that whole angle got pretty much dropped from the Iron Man run in the end. Even if he would never give Doom a chance it's nice to have him acknowledge a little bit of doubt over whether maybe he should have done. (I was never really that interested in the Ben and Doom relationship before Infamous because it was basically just one-note hatred on both sides, but this whole arc has given the whole thing a lot more layers in a way I love. The writers really should do more with the fact that Ben's the only other person who remembers knowing Victor back when he was just an ordinary college kid.)

[harveysdent]

I was thinking the same! I’ve really grown fond of their weird dynamic and Doom somewhat thawing around him is a testament to how he’s been trying to change. It was definitely one of my favorite parts of IIM and then obviously 2-in-1. That Victor basically stalked/joined them out of some weird paternal concern in the latter also just cements his status as the F4 murder uncle and I support that lmao

[nomadicwriter]

Ha, yes! I was initially irritated at the twist of Doom not remembering Reed was alive because it made his motivations for joining up with Ben and Johnny in this a whole lot less logical, but in retrospect the fact that he has no apparent motivation other than "hang out with these two grieving idiots and try to stop them getting killed" is pretty fun too. There's zero personal gain for him and he already believes there's no chance of finding the F4, so I guess he's just... tagging along to keep an eye on them?