Doctor Doom #4

[nomadicwriter]

Doom invades an AIM facility and fights Taskmaster, learning that the codename of Taskmaster's assignment was Fruzsina, AKA the name of Doom's supposed future wife in his visions. Doom copies AIM's files on the project and then confronth MODOK, who claims to have algorithmically deduced the future Doom's been seeing. Doom assumes his plan is to sow doubt and make him reject this possible future, but MODOK claims he's calculated everything to push Doom into fighting to make it a reality.

Meanwhile, it becomes clear that the Symarkians are behind at least some of Doom's current problems: they've acquired a formerly homeless man they claim is Dimitri Fortunov, heir to the Latverian throne, and framed Doom for the 3000 deaths to get him arrested and put their puppet on the throne so there'll be peace and a soft border that allows their economy to recover. Since the arrest part failed, they're now hoping to track those searching for Doom so they can assassinate both him and Victorious.

Well, some answers at last, though this was kind of an expositional issue with not a whole lot going on for Doom except uncovering them, so I find I don't have a lot to say about it yet. It's good to get some first pieces of the puzzle rather than questions dragging out much longer unanswered, but I assume there are more twists to come. It feels like the Symarkians surely must have had some help in their efforts to frame Doom, and I'm guessing that MODOK's a pawn intended to give him a false trail to follow and put him on whatever path the master manipulator behind all this intends.

Bit disappointed that we're still only seeing a few little snippets of Brashear's investigation and nothing really yet of his supposed questioning of Doom's guilt. But given that he's now got the trail of the AIM attack to follow, hopefully we'll see more on that front next issue. I'm guessing that's meant to be Tony speaking to him from the moon base at the end and saying they might need Doom's advice to fix it? (Looks like him, though the spacesuit logo threw me a bit, given Cantwell's habit of bringing in obscure minor characters I can't necessarily recognise. But I'm assuming it's just a stylised 4 in relation to Reed's part in the project.)

Anyway, this was kind of a plot-advancing issue with more necessary exposition than interesting character moments, so I'm looking forward to the next one where hopefully we'll see more of Doom interacting with Brashear and/or Morgan again.

Comments

[ladyvictorious]

Was off the grid for a bit but I did get my copy of the comic on New Years Eve since I was going out of town for New Years Day lunch with family. The comic shop owner was unboxing things when I got there so he said just grab one out of the box. So I read this about a week ago. Actually I read it twice once I got to the end and saw that the ongoing conversation actually takes place at the point in the story when Doom finally reaches M.O.D.O.K. That knocks down my theory that the Wizard and his fellow members of the Intelligencia have anything to do with it. So I wonder how high up this conspiracy goes? I doubt Symkaria has undertaken this on their own. Was also surprised by Doom's brutal takedown of the Taskmaster, who usually can use his photographic reflex powers to copy an opponent. But since Doom really was making this up as the battles developed I guess there was nothing for Taskmaster to assimulate.

I still wonder if Caroline le Fey is involved. That shadowy figure looks female. I really don't like how she was defined as this time traveling middle aged offspring of Victor and Morgan who looked like Bea Arthur in her early renditions by the artist drawing her at the time. But if Cantwell is using her and can improve on that I am all for it. It's a longshot that it's her anyway.

I wonder how Reed will react if Tony brings in Victor for advice. I don't know if they are going to like any "I could have told you this was a mistake" admonishments from that quarter. :-)

I don't know what to think about the Dimitri Fortunov development since I've not read many of his appearances....and it's not like there are a lot of them. I do recall reading a digital only comic with him on the Marvel site some years back and IIRC he time traveled(?) and met Victor's parents at the time when Cynthia hadn't given birth yet. That's about all I remember about it.

I agree that we need to see more with Doom and Adam Brashear since as far as I know they have never met in any comics. The advanced promos can be very frustrating to read and sometimes I wish I didn't read them. But then I wouldn't know about other Doom appearances, like the really fun appearance in Savage Avengers. If you haven't you should check it out esp because Conan has taken a liking to Doom. He usually hates magicians and sorcerers but likes Doom because "he has the heart of a warrior" And it's always good when another writer promotes the kinship between Doom and Strange.

BTW, Cantwell on his Twitter has been hinting about Kristoff.....hooray! Give us Namor next!

[nomadicwriter]

Huh, I didn't even realise Dimitri was an established character, I must admit. Cantwell's definitely doing some deep digging to put his cast together! It would be great to see Kristoff show up again, especially in the wake of Doom's heroic stint. (Though I suppose it's probably too much to ask for any acknowledgement of the whole plotline with Amara and the potential Doom baby.)

And, no, I haven't been following Savage Avengers, but good to hear it's worth reading! Maybe I'll try and grab all the issues once the story arc is complete.

[ladyvictorious]

I missed the issue where Doom first showed up in Savage Avengers but when he started popping up on the covers I made sure to have Savage Avengers on my increasingly shorter pull list. Stephen and Victor are really a good team in this with a good measure of mutual respect.

I checked on Dimitri Fortunov's wiki and I see he was in issues 63-64 of the X-Force series from the 1990s. That appears to be his only major appearance. I remember when I returned to comics after a long hiatus I started looking up the Doom appearances. I recall picking up this in a back issue bin and it does have to do with the old Liddleville tech, which somehow was moved from the old castle in upstate New York to the catacombs of Doom's castle in Latveria. IIRC he used to trap people trying to sneak in the castle that way. I will have to look up those issues on Marvel Unlimited if they are there. I'm not sure if I kept those comics and I have a ton of things boxed up. I'm curious about Fortunov now because I don't remember much about his role in the story.

Another thing, that ninja woman that attacked Victorious? She is called Guillotine and is a character from one of the recent video games, I think Contest of Champions. I wiki'ed her too. So yeah, he's really digging things up. I wish Bendis had been more adventurous with his choice in cast in Infamous Iron Man.

I sure would like an update on Amara but it could be one of those things where Marvel deliberately lets it go and hopes readers forget about it.