Doctor Doom #5

[nomadicwriter]

Doom, plagued by increasing visions, tracks down Dr Fruzsina Markovich, his supposed future wife; she's a Latverian weather scientist living in New York, who's not entirely thrilled at the idea of marrying him given that he's had her journalist father imprisoned since she was 13. Brashear and HERBIE arrive during their confrontation, swiftly followed by Sable and Victorious, whose absence from Latveria has allowed Dmitri Fortunov to take over.

Doom is not happy about either this or Fruzsina's defiance, and that's when Kang shows up too with a suit of Doom's armour, claiming he was instructed by his future self to deliver it to Doom to save the world. Brashear appeals to Doom, saying Reed needs his help to save the moon, but Doom, donning the armour up, declares that the moon should be allowed to die due to Richards' folly and the world will bow before him.

Hrm. Lots of reasons for Doom to be furious right now, but I still can't help but feel like his return to megalomania is suspiciously abrupt. Fruzsina is supposed to be part of the plot to destroy him, so could her cloud-seeding project have been co-opted to play some role in the mental attack on Doom? Is Kang up to something with that convenient suit of armour? Did Morgan do something while he was unconscious in her care?

Lots of things coming together, but still no major answers. I guess it may be part of the plot against him that Doom's constantly harried without much time to think, but I wish there was time for a bit more character interaction. The scenes with Fruzsina are good and give her a bit of personality that the vision version was lacking, but I'm still feeling shortchanged regarding Brashear's part in events. (Plus the lack of any reference to Amara and Doom's unborn child feels steadily more glaring with Doom now fully pursuing the idea of Fruzsina as his future wife, especially given how many other storylines Cantwell puts in references to.)

I hope we get a chance for a bit more of the confrontation next issue rather than Doom just ditching everyone to head off to Latveria/Symkaria right away. I'd like to see a bit more meaty conversation between Doom and his pursuers at this point instead of just the ongoing chase.

Comments

[ladyvictorious]

There certainly was a lot to digest in this issue. And I thought the same thing as you; that Doom is being constantly assailed with these various conflicts and with Kang randomly popping up. It probably brings back unpleasant memories to his youth when his family was harassed from place to place and then later when he was hunted by the authorities when he was on his own leading a small band of rebels.

It certainly is a contrast to Bendis's style in Infamous Iron Man. On the other boards, Bendis got a reputation for decompression so that you could become impatient with the slow development of the story. Cantwell seems to like to keep many balls in the air at the same time. I prefer the latter but I hope we get more info on some of the ones Cantwell has set aside, like what will Mistress Death demand of him now that he owes his life to her. I am also growing suspicious of Kang but I suppose Cantwell is using him as a sort of comic relief for now. But one never knows what version may show up with a time traveler like that.

I also agree about Blue Marvel. I really have never read much about him and he does seem to get "jobbed" as they say. Silver Sable should not be able to toss him like that. From what I do know, he is like a sane version of Sentry in level of power.

The courtship of Fruszina has hit a huge barrier now that we know how she relates to everything. Her father being in prison since she was 13 means he's probably spent a minimum of 10 years as a prisoner. This certainly isn't the film version of the "meet cute" and Victor is not exactly showing a good side of himself here. As for Fruszina, in order to have all of these accomplishments I would guess she is at least in her mid to late 20s. I have a sense of her being younger than Amara....and yes, please give us an update on her and the baby! I like little clues as to how old Victor is and I have always placed him, Reed and Ben be 40ish. This also means Doom is probably entering his 2nd decade of being in power in Latveria, minus those times when Kristoff ruled instead

[nomadicwriter]

Yeah, I don't want to complain about too much going on in the issues after years of Bendis pacing, but it is reaching the point where I'd like to see some of it given a bit more room to breathe. It feels like Doom's bouncing around from one scenario or newly introduced character to another with much time for relationships to develop from one issue to the next. Making this issue a big multi-confrontation where everybody comes together at the same time means he doesn't get to have a proper in-depth exchange with any of the characters chasing him, so I hope there's going to be a bit more to it next issue rather than Doom immediately leaving them all behind and running off home to interact with another different set of characters again.

I like little clues as to how old Victor is and I have always placed him, Reed and Ben be 40ish.

Yes, it's hard to tell with the constantly changing timeline, but I tend to assume they're meant to be somewhere around about 38-40. I'd prefer it if they were actually allowed to get a little bit older, but I feel like Marvel wants to keep all its characters at least nominally "young" so they never seem to quite get into the mid-40s range. I suppose it's all tied back to keeping Spider-Man eternally young since he and Johnny are contemporaries. Still, the Richards kids have finally been allowed to age up a bit, so perhaps there's hope! I think the kind of stories we're seeing with Doom now in this and Infamous Iron Man are pretty fitting for a character who's getting a bit older and perhaps starting to have something of supervillainous midlife crisis.

[ladyvictorious]

Midlife crisis...yes! now that would be fun. I imagine in my head canon that when Doom goes up against a younger opponent that he's thinking "I'm getting too old for this nonsense". In fact, that's probably how he feels now with Fruszina being less than enamored with him. Now next issue should be interesting if it involves Doom arguing with Reed about the black hole....even better if Adam is there too.

Here's a link to an interview with Christopher Cantwell, where he talks about his comic book projects

http://wmqcomics.com/interviews/christopher-cantwell-opens-up-on-she-could-fly-doom-everything/

He has a great line in that interview " To me, Doom is both Dr. Frankenstein and the Monster. He is able to love, but he feels he is unable to be loved." That last part has been my takeaway from Triumph and Torment. He has this great love for him mother but he deliberately did something to make her hate him. Could there have been another way to achieve her redemption. Maybe...but this was his plan and he carried it on knowing that.

Are you reading X-men vs Fantastic Four? Funny how the billing order on the title has switched since the first mini-series :-P It's pretty interesting so far even if the conflict is a bit contrived, hinging a bit on Reed being secretive and a bit underhanded in his relationship with Franklin. So in two comics this week, Doom gets the last page but that's the extent of Doom's appearance in XMen/FF. The second issue of X-Men/Fantastic Four is shipping twice this month so the next issue comes out on Feb. 19th Let's hope we finally get to see Doom and Valeria reunited in this, especially now that she nearly a teen-ager. Will she have a crush on him like Nadia Van Dyne? I still was disappointed that she wasn't around for Infamous Iron Man.

[nomadicwriter]

No, I haven't been following that one - I didn't know Doom was going to be in it! Must admit I haven't been paying very close attention to what's going on with the F4 lately; I've been finding Slott's run too boring to do more than briefly skim, and there seem to have been a lot of spinoffs coming out recently. Sadly I don't have the time or the budget to keep up with too many different comics these days.

We're definitely overdue some interaction between Doom and Valeria. It's so disappointing that his first post-Infamous reunion with the F4 had to be Slott's cheesy Silver Age throwback version, so we missed out on getting any proper reactions from anyone.

[ladyvictorious]

You are so right about Slott's take on Doom. So lacking imagination. When you have characters that have been around as long as Doom I think you are practically obligated to polish them up and give them a fresh look. Slott was too lazy to do that...it's easier to come up with a hostage taking/death trap villain then to try something new.

I don't always agree with everything that Cantwell does with Doom but I support his initiative to do it. I mean, how can you not like that we found out Doom is a Lennon fan? He's humanizing him but not forgetting that Doom gets up to some bad stuff sometimes. His ego can be so fragile, which impels him to capture that poor talking head news guy and torture him for a while. It's so petty but so Doom. He's showing us many facets instead of the narrow view of Slott.

The X-Men/Fantastic Four mini is only four issues and is our best chance to l get us the Valeria / Doom reunion. She and Franklin are stowaways on Kitty's boat (don't ask, I have no idea why she has a boat!) when Doom's craft rises from the depths and confronts them. So once again Doom confirms his unofficial (except to me) title of King of Last Page Appearances.

I agree with you on the pricing because Marvel has been sneaking in these issues at $4.99, sometimes for just the first issue and then they go back to $3.99. They've had these special issues for $9.99 too. But many of us posters on CBR feel that they are slowing rolling in this new $4.99 price plateau. DC was holding things down to $2.99 but that stopped too and they're at $3.99.

It makes it hard for someone like me who after all these years only follows the comics with a Doom appearance. So I will buy them for one arc then that's that!