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doomfans2019-10-10 09:09 pm
nomadicwriter) wrote in doomfans2019-10-10 09:09 pm
Doctor Doom #1
The first issue is out! And I really enjoyed it.
We open with the launch of the Antlion project, a Richards-Stark joint venture to turn CO2 into hydrogen fuel and dispose of the waste in a stable black hole on the moon. Doom claims it will be a disaster of interstellar proportions (honestly, even if he wasn't already my favourite, I would be with him on Team "Yes. Nothing will go wrong with a black hole on the moon," here) but naturally it's dismissed by the media as sour grapes.
Doom is writing in his diary about his foresight weakening with each passing year when he gets a visit from Kang, who's apparently having trouble with his time travel and keeps popping up where Doom is no matter when and where he's trying to go. Neither is sure why beyond a vague theory about them being distant relatives. They share a glass of wine and Kang remarks on Doom's unusually melancholy mood.
Doom, it seems, is having strange visions of an alternate/future life, where he's the unscarred World Minister of a utopia, and has a scientist wife Fruzsina, a son Costin, and an unnamed younger daughter. (Their relative ages seem to closely parallel the Richards family, interestingly enough, and I actually thought for a moment the wife was supposed to be Sue before she got a name.) He's also having visions of the black hole causing disaster.
Weeks pass and it appears he was wrong, but then the moon base is attacked - seemingly by Latveria. Missiles are launched without Doom's order and terrorists flying Latveria's flag claim responsibility for thousands of deaths. Retaliatory strikes are launched on Latveria, and Doom shocks Victorious by ordering immediate, unconditional surrender. She agrees to take over as regent when he's arrested and cede control to NATO, but asks him one thing first: is this his doing? "How dare you, Zora. How dare you." He stalks out without looking back.
The first couple of superpowered wannabes show up to try to claim the bounty on Doom. He smacks the crap out of them with magic, and then says: "I'd like to inform you both that I intend to surrender." He has one final vision of his alternate self telling his wife that there's still plenty to work on in their utopia and he'll never get bored with peace as the helicopters surround Castle Doom.
To be continued...
Woo! Really enjoyed this and thought it was a great start. It doesn't directly reference the events of the Infamous Iron Man storyline, but Doom's apparent depression and loss of his usual certainty feels very fitting tonally as a follow-up. Slott's stuff is largely ignored as well beyond the fact Victorious exists. Suits me.
So far, Cantwell's dialogue and characterisation is impressing me: he sounds properly Doomy without being too much of a Silver Age cliché, and there are some good lines and nice touches. I really liked the little detail of Petra parroting Doom's exact words from his interview when asked for her opinion; it makes the point of Doom's hold over his people without any heavy-handed thing of him going into a rage at disagreement.
It's also nice to get a nod to Boris even if we don't see him, and I love what's implied of their relationship here: the fact he and Doom apparently have bets on the situation in neighbouring countries and him paying up in a way that Doom terms, "Respectful with a hint of insolence. I like it." (I really hope Boris fighting cancer is meant to be just another factor feeding into Doom's low mood rather than a sign he's going to be killed off; we only see Doom's supporting cast once in a blue moon as it is, and Boris in particular has a unique, irreplaceable relationship to him that really doesn't get explored enough.)
I was wary of Larroca on art given memories of his Iron Man, but he acquits himself decently here. There are probably some awkward photo-referenced-looking faces, but they pop out more because I'm looking for it than because it's bad enough to bug me; mostly the subject matter doesn't let him get too lazy. Lots of spectacular backgrounds, and his Doom armour is really pretty nice. I also dig the glimpses of more casual private Doom in his dressing gown and mask. Lovely colouring job from Guru-eFX as well: warm lights and shadowy atmospheres but brighter scenes too, instead of everything being mired in gloom the way I got a bit bored with in Infamous.
All in all, this is a really great, promising start! Not entirely sure what to make of the rather cliché generic happy family visions yet (I'll be a bit miffed if it's supposed to be some sort of real future with zero reference to Amara's pregnancy) but I'm currently rolling with the assumption it's a someone messing with his head as part of the orchestrated attack on Doom. Anyway, I'm definitely looking forward to issue #2 now.
We open with the launch of the Antlion project, a Richards-Stark joint venture to turn CO2 into hydrogen fuel and dispose of the waste in a stable black hole on the moon. Doom claims it will be a disaster of interstellar proportions (honestly, even if he wasn't already my favourite, I would be with him on Team "Yes. Nothing will go wrong with a black hole on the moon," here) but naturally it's dismissed by the media as sour grapes.
Doom is writing in his diary about his foresight weakening with each passing year when he gets a visit from Kang, who's apparently having trouble with his time travel and keeps popping up where Doom is no matter when and where he's trying to go. Neither is sure why beyond a vague theory about them being distant relatives. They share a glass of wine and Kang remarks on Doom's unusually melancholy mood.
Doom, it seems, is having strange visions of an alternate/future life, where he's the unscarred World Minister of a utopia, and has a scientist wife Fruzsina, a son Costin, and an unnamed younger daughter. (Their relative ages seem to closely parallel the Richards family, interestingly enough, and I actually thought for a moment the wife was supposed to be Sue before she got a name.) He's also having visions of the black hole causing disaster.
Weeks pass and it appears he was wrong, but then the moon base is attacked - seemingly by Latveria. Missiles are launched without Doom's order and terrorists flying Latveria's flag claim responsibility for thousands of deaths. Retaliatory strikes are launched on Latveria, and Doom shocks Victorious by ordering immediate, unconditional surrender. She agrees to take over as regent when he's arrested and cede control to NATO, but asks him one thing first: is this his doing? "How dare you, Zora. How dare you." He stalks out without looking back.
The first couple of superpowered wannabes show up to try to claim the bounty on Doom. He smacks the crap out of them with magic, and then says: "I'd like to inform you both that I intend to surrender." He has one final vision of his alternate self telling his wife that there's still plenty to work on in their utopia and he'll never get bored with peace as the helicopters surround Castle Doom.
To be continued...
Woo! Really enjoyed this and thought it was a great start. It doesn't directly reference the events of the Infamous Iron Man storyline, but Doom's apparent depression and loss of his usual certainty feels very fitting tonally as a follow-up. Slott's stuff is largely ignored as well beyond the fact Victorious exists. Suits me.
So far, Cantwell's dialogue and characterisation is impressing me: he sounds properly Doomy without being too much of a Silver Age cliché, and there are some good lines and nice touches. I really liked the little detail of Petra parroting Doom's exact words from his interview when asked for her opinion; it makes the point of Doom's hold over his people without any heavy-handed thing of him going into a rage at disagreement.
It's also nice to get a nod to Boris even if we don't see him, and I love what's implied of their relationship here: the fact he and Doom apparently have bets on the situation in neighbouring countries and him paying up in a way that Doom terms, "Respectful with a hint of insolence. I like it." (I really hope Boris fighting cancer is meant to be just another factor feeding into Doom's low mood rather than a sign he's going to be killed off; we only see Doom's supporting cast once in a blue moon as it is, and Boris in particular has a unique, irreplaceable relationship to him that really doesn't get explored enough.)
I was wary of Larroca on art given memories of his Iron Man, but he acquits himself decently here. There are probably some awkward photo-referenced-looking faces, but they pop out more because I'm looking for it than because it's bad enough to bug me; mostly the subject matter doesn't let him get too lazy. Lots of spectacular backgrounds, and his Doom armour is really pretty nice. I also dig the glimpses of more casual private Doom in his dressing gown and mask. Lovely colouring job from Guru-eFX as well: warm lights and shadowy atmospheres but brighter scenes too, instead of everything being mired in gloom the way I got a bit bored with in Infamous.
All in all, this is a really great, promising start! Not entirely sure what to make of the rather cliché generic happy family visions yet (I'll be a bit miffed if it's supposed to be some sort of real future with zero reference to Amara's pregnancy) but I'm currently rolling with the assumption it's a someone messing with his head as part of the orchestrated attack on Doom. Anyway, I'm definitely looking forward to issue #2 now.
no subject
I really hope this becomes a successful title for Marvel. There's a lot of tough competition for the comic fans dollars right now, especially with Hickman's new X-Men stuff really topping the charts. And a relaunch starting up right after. I'd be happy if it just stays in the top 50 for a while. It's hard to say since the companies don't give out hard numbers on sales.
But enough of that. I'm really happy with what Cantwell has done so far too. I've been checking out his Twitter and talks about how he had a little Secret Wars Doom figure as a child. In case you've not read it, here is an interview link from Newsarama. I like the characters he's bringing into this, but please let Namor be among them!
https://www.newsarama.com/47356-doctor-doom-christopher-cantwell.html
I agree with you about Cantwell finding a good tone for Doom's dialogue. Very little, if any third person speech quirks. I like to think that Doom has outgrown that and only tosses it out there to amuse himself from time to time. I even liked the corny little Brexit line. We don't expect Doom to be Deadpool (thank god!) but that shows a more human side to him that a lot writers never use when he's just the other guy on the fight card.
I love that Boris is still around and kicking. I think Doom in his own way is showing a lot of affection for him. He's not a hand holding type but the bet is probably something to keep Boris in good spirits while he's fighting cancer. It's unusual for such examples to real life to appear in comics. After all, many of us have friends and relatives fighting cancer and other potentially fatal diseases. One wonders if Doom remembers some of his father's medicines and perhaps is giving his something to ease the pain. We know nothing about what stage his cancer is in or if it is the treatable kind. I just hope if Boris does pass away (let's hope not!) it makes for a powerful story.
I liked Larocca's work here and these days how an artist achieves it is up for debate. I know some use tech boosts like modeling and so forth. But I am realistic about it. The artist has to put to page some complicated stuff at times. For example, that last page is a fantastic...Doom surrounded by attack copters with guns trained on Doom. Doom has always been a solitary figure and this page really brings that point home.
One thing that I found intriguing, besides the mystery of the other life glimpsed, is this little scene showing Doom preparing his bandages with some kind of potion(?). I believe that since this source of this last injury is demonic that there should be a cure found in the use of magic instead of medicine or surgery. Maybe Doom is trying cures on himself? He looks totally different from the unmasked Doom we saw in FF #1. It was more that just scarring, his head looked deformed. In this issue that is not the case. But then artists have always been inconsistent about the unmasked Doom.
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And, oh, yes, I actually almost mentioned that scene with the bandages. I liked all the little glimpses we got of Doom's more private nightly routine; I guess it's up for debate whether the bandaging is a new thing because this is still a relatively recent injury, but it's an interesting little touch anyway. And it's true we never hear that much about his father's legacy as a healer and what Doom might have learned from him. (Although that's also kind of refreshing, in a way; it's nice to have the mother be the vastly more significant parent for a change. Plus I've always found it an interesting character note that Doom seems to nearly always pick women as his trusted lieutenants and generally appears to get on with them much better than with his few ill-fated male underlings, Boris being the obvious exception.)
I definitely think that this take on his injuries makes vastly more sense than what we saw in Slott's run. I never like it when artists draw him as effectively covered in all-over burns, and that makes even less sense given how he got his current injuries in Iron Man #600, where he was fully protected by armour apart from the missing faceplate. Despite the end of that storyline being kind of rushed mess, I do at least appreciate that it's demon-inflicted wound again, because that makes it so more reasonable that he still can't just easily cure or improve it despite all the magical and scientific skills at his disposal.
no subject