Victor Von Doom: Doctor Doom Appreciation 2019

[Iron Maiden]

I am excited that Doom is facing off against Mephisto again but I just worry that Cantwell is going for the "big gun" so soon. I do think that Doom needs some payback because I'm pretty sure that it was Mephisto that possessed the Hood when Doom got scarred again.

In the meantime, Alex Maleev is at it again with a new Doom portrait. This one is a paid commission at this weekend's NYCC. He just can't seem to get away from doing Doom art! Not that he minds.

[Reviresco]

GORGEOUS! That splash of blood on the sword ... perfect.


waves at Abe

[K7P5V]

Agreed. Also, wouldn't it be great if that sword Doom was holding is actually Excalibur.

[Coatl]

Agreed. Also, wouldn't it be great if that sword Doom was holding is actually Excalibur.

I don't think so, let's Excalibur rest, seems like it is the only sword who exist and is not, He is Doom if he wants to kill someone he can do it with any regular sword and if he wants a magical sword he can do it himself without any merlin or Nimue involved

[K7P5V]

I don't think so, let's Excalibur rest, seems like it is the only sword who exist and is not, He is Doom if he wants to kill someone he can do it with any regular sword and if he wants a magical sword he can do it himself without any merlin or Nimue involved

Yeah, you're absolutely right. With his ingeniously-built armor & state-of-the-art technology (and a holstered pistol by his side), Doom definitely doesn't need to go medieval on anyone.

[Iron Maiden]

I like the first time they had Doom using a sword in SVTU #13 when he fulfilled his debut to Namor to release his people from their comatose state. Warlord Krang was up to some mischief to keep Namor from regaining the throne but Doom made short work of him





I think he has wielded Excalibur but have to go back and read this.

[Coulson]

There is something surprisingly versatile about Doom's design. When you put a sword in his hand you're reminded that he is very much a medieval knight in shining armour, this was even more the case with his original appearance. But I otherwise see him as modern or even futuristic, he's not tied to a particular gimmick so he can be transplanted into whatever story you like. He can be in a Fantastic Four story as easily as he can be in one about Doctor Strange or Iron Man.

[Abe]

GORGEOUS! That splash of blood on the sword ... perfect.


waves at Abe

Waves to you, Rev !

[Abe]

The Maleev commission is gorgeous... as usual. No surprise. (What's surprising me is that I put Bendis' Scarlet and Leviathan books on my pull-list just because I'm nostalgic of the art from Infamous Iron Man... lol... -both books are not that bad, bit it's not the point...)

And I really should read the SVTU collected edition I bought a few years ago, following both your excellent advices, Rev and Iron Maiden. That sword fight is just perfectly tasty!

[Kintor]

There is something surprisingly versatile about Doom's design. When you put a sword in his hand you're reminded that he is very much a medieval knight in shining armour, this was even more the case with his original appearance. But I otherwise see him as modern or even futuristic, he's not tied to a particular gimmick so he can be transplanted into whatever story you like. He can be in a Fantastic Four story as easily as he can be in one about Doctor Strange or Iron Man.

You make a good point; with some slight variation depending on the artist Doom's armour has remained virtually unchanged since the 1960s. Which makes a certain amount of sense when you think about it; there is a trend in science fiction, that the further the story is out from the present day the more things tend to resemble the medieval or even ancient world. My favourite example of this is Warhammer 40,000, one of the furthest timelines in all of fiction and yet everything has a highly ornate gothic aesthetic. In short, Doom is both an archaic throwback to a more noble time and simultaneously ahead of the curve. It all circles back towards Doom eventually.

[Coatl]

I'm not really fan of Mongirl and I think that this is one of those times when I would cringe for the treatment of Doom.

So I plan to skip this issue.

But for those interested seems like Doom is getting an apparition an apparition in the Final Issue of Moongirl and Devildinosaur.

http://www.adventuresinpoortaste.com...l-dinosaur-47/

[Iron Maiden]

Kintor & Coulson: I can only add that I agree totally you both. I only furthers my appreciation for the blue collar genius of Jack Kirby when you see how little Doom's regalia has changed through the decades. I can appreciation other iterations out there and the Doom 2099 ones, the blue and silver with the spiked accents and the more regal Presidential armor are my favorites. It's too bad we never really have a more explicit reason why Doom chooses to encase this extremely sophisticated high tech armor in medieval trappings. That era is highly romanticized in fiction so my guess is it may go back to the kind of stories he read as a child. I suspect there was not much sitting in front of the television and reading was his primary source of entertainment. Even the more contemporized version of Victor's early years in Books of Doom places him in the campground setting of people who spend a lot of time on the move. Who knows? Maybe he have been taken by the tales of the Knights of the Round Table.

I also remembered Doom also "borrowed" Kitty's Soulsword in this arc in Excalibur. The artist is Mark Badger, who was the colorist on Mignola's work in Triumph and Torment.

[Iron Maiden]

I'm not really fan of Mongirl and I think that this is one of those times when I would cringe for the treatment of Doom.

So I plan to skip this issue.

But for those interested seems like Doom is getting an apparition an apparition in the Final Issue of Moongirl and Devildinosaur.

http://www.adventuresinpoortaste.com...l-dinosaur-47/

Didn't know about this. But I think this is probably just another Doombot. I think she captured one once. Well, let's hope it's a Doombot.

[Doombot]

I've always felt one of the coolest things about Doom is that he decided to dress all this highly advanced tech in medieval aesthetic. Every other hero or villain in comics or sci-fi want to show off the super tech they have and be flashy tech heroes, IronMan being the most obvious example. Doom went a different route, his armor looks out of the middle ages, rivets and all, even his tunic and cowl are medieval. Add he cowl with a cape and he ends up looking almost like a crusader, a warrior monk. To me this always seemed to have two functions, one was straight up intimidation, power with an iron fist, the presence off it. Secondly it betrays Dooms personal views, that while he embraces modern technology and discovery, he doesn't exactly love modern society.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I've always felt one of the coolest things about Doom is that he decided to dress all this highly advanced tech in medieval aesthetic.

That's a Jack Kirby thing. He liked mixing traditional, mythical, occult stuff with modern elements. You have Wakanda which is African Tribal stuff mixed with high-tech finishes, Asgard is Ancient Norse but they are also technologically advanced aliens. Galactus and the Eternals have the Florid designs of Aztec deities, and then the Fourth World where technology is treated like occult, so computers are called Mother-Boxes and Darkseid's endgame is something called The Anti-Life Equation, some high occult math puzzle. The sentinel robots have the Olmec Head.

Doom went a different route, his armor looks out of the middle ages, rivets and all, even his tunic and cowl are medieval. Add he cowl with a cape and he ends up looking almost like a crusader, a warrior monk.

Doom's outfit is technically a surcoat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surcoat). The green stuff he wears on metal armor. The hood is very much a medieval monk while the gold clasps and flashy belt and that goblet add to the feudal baron look. Latveria was envisioned by Lee-Kirby as a kind of holdover of Dark Ages' Europe so you have witch burnings (Doom's mother Cynthia) and an administration run by decadent aristocrats that seem a bit like the regional rulers that existed in small principalities in Austria under the Hapsburgs but otherwise out of synch with European history just before and just after world war 2.

But Doom is also a modern figure. He's a Romani guerrila fighter, an oppressed minority and revolutionary who becomes a dictator and tyrant. That is kind of problematic because even today Romani peoples face discrimination and persecution across Europe, and the idea of a Romani dictator feels at times like pushing down especially since Doom's story does flirt with elements of medieval stereotypes about them (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiziganism). Doom 2099 is maybe the only story that touched on those aspects of Doom.

Secondly it betrays Dooms personal views, that while he embraces modern technology and discovery, he doesn't exactly love modern society.

That's an insightful view.

To me I always had this sense that Doom affects a peasant's idea of what a King should be. So that's why he tends to camp up...stuff like talking about himself in third person and so on. That's also a way to chalk up improbable stuff like his surname being "Von Doom". That's more Stan Lee's fault as a writer...Lee had no sense of realism so he never stopped to ask why a Romani kid would be on the Almanach von Gotha (that's the register which officially assigned and tracked whether a certain figure deserved or claimed the aristocratic "von"). I think he based that on the actor/director Erich von Stroheim (aka "The Man You Love to Hate"). Stroheim was a poor Austrian Jew who landed in America and claimed he was "von Stroheim" and Hollywood believed it and cast him as evil Prussian types and aristocrats.

To me Doom is deep down that peasant Romani kid who through his own genius became master of his world.