Doctor Doom #8 "Peace in the Valley" Review and SPOILERS

[Iron Maiden]

That's OK....I don't consider it being derailed if it pertains to the actions of characters in the story. I get what you are saying about Blue Marvel because over the years I've had the same issue with Doom.....Just be glad Blue Marvel doesn't have an albatross like Squirrel Girl. Or have Dan Slott in his forget or ignore just about all the developments that happened in Infamous Iron Man in his Fantastic Four "Herald of Doom" arc.

[4sake Baned]

Sadly, no. The farce continues. This is more of the same tripe where Blue Marvel is concerned. First, he doesn't need to breathe. Secondly, his intellect, which is supposed to be on Reed Richards - Doctor Doom level, was grossly nerfed the entire series. He doesn't fully grasp Doom's plan, didn't understand Otto's plan either, and has no plan of his own. The portal he stepped into must be called BM Futility. Thank you Cantwell for reminding us. And the clincher, of course, is that he's sitting there with Otto stark naked as if this is some kind of weird cult metaphysical exercise. When it's all said and done, Blue Marvel, a man that has gone toe to toe with the likes of King Hyperion and Sentry without even needing his energy manipulative powers, turns and run from the Brood. The Brood.

At the end of the day I'm still left wondering why they used Blue Marvel at all for this story. But I guess a Sunday picnic all by itself wasn't good enough. They needed strange fruit swinging from the tree, too. Thus, we get this disastrous spectacle. I'm not familiar with Cantwell, but if this represents par for his storytelling ability, I'm embarrassed for him and Marvel.

Can’t be better said I won’t be buying/reading any comics with this writer attached in the future and will also tell others to avoid his work aswell..

[Iron Maiden]

Can’t be better said I won’t be buying/reading any comics with this writer attached in the future and will also tell others to avoid his work aswell..

Personally I think that is a very narrow POV but that's of course your choice. He's relatively new to the world of comic book writing but had been a TV show runner, etc. He has been a Marvel fan since childhood according to his interviews, etc. And after all, his writing on this title did earn an Eisner award nomination, which is a bit unusual considering the subject matter.

[JudicatorPrime]

Was just thinking about the King in Black (KiB) event. What's the reason why Doom's series had to be cancelled again? I don't mean to offend anyone, but I haven't seen anything in KiB, or any of the emerging ancillary titles (some new titles, other titles being restarted) that come across as stellar, ground-breaking fare. I may not be thrilled with Cantwell's handling of Blue Marvel, but his writing has to be better than the crap they are launching for KiB. What gives?

[Iron Maiden]

Was just thinking about the King in Black (KiB) event. What's the reason why Doom's series had to be cancelled again? I don't mean to offend anyone, but I haven't seen anything in KiB, or any of the emerging ancillary titles (some new titles, other titles being restarted) that come across as stellar, ground-breaking fare. I may not be thrilled with Cantwell's handling of Blue Marvel, but his writing has to be better than the crap they are launching for KiB. What gives?

There was really no reason given. I think it had to do with Cantwell switching over to the Iron Man title more than anything. I did find the announcement from the Marvel site and they use the phrase "ongoing series" though. We don't know for sure what the criteria in sales as to what would cause a series to get cancelled but the series was seeing a bump in sales just before the pandemic closures in March. In fact, according to the rankings, issue #6 did better than Slott's Fantastic Four for that month. According to the Diamond Comic Distributor's list of top 100 comics for September, issue #7 ranked 57th and there was a follow up announcement that the issue topped reorders of comics for that month. This can be that an LCS sold out and there was still a demand by customers. Sometimes I've seen that recorded as a sales amount in the following month. There were several times prior to the pandemic where the title got second or third printings. I was bored one day and put together an Excel file during the pandemic . IMO things point to Cantwell deciding to concentrate on Iron Man. It's always possible they could do a Doctor Doom volume 2 at some point with a different team I suppose.

Edited to add: Since the pandemic, Comichron (an independent site) has only put rankings and no sales estimates. At the end of October, they did put together their first charting with sales estimates but they give it a high/low figure. For Doctor Doom #7, the have it ranked at #87 with a 22,000/26,000 range. The reorder numbers will add a small bump to that. But still, I wouldn't say that is in cancellation territory. I just can't figure out why Diamond, the source of their data, has a ranking for issue #7 being ranked at 57th while Comichron has 87th

[dkrook]

Personally I think that is a very narrow POV but that's of course your choice. He's relatively new to the world of comic book writing but had been a TV show runner, etc. He has been a Marvel fan since childhood according to his interviews, etc. And after all, his writing on this title did earn an Eisner award nomination, which is a bit unusual considering the subject matter.

All the accolades you mentioned says nothing to his poor writing perspective on black male heroes, in particular one with the depth and nuances that Adam has. He is close to being a human made god. One has to have grasp of that, and then Cantwell should be aware enough to consider the optics of his decision to take the only super power black male hero of his level and just play him like a swagless clown to boost Doom...??? You got a choice of heroes with same power set, but he settled on Blue Marvel, and from the way he's written I can't believe that he's a fan of Blue Marvel.

[Iron Maiden]

All the accolades you mentioned says nothing to his poor writing perspective on black male heroes, in particular one with the depth and nuances that Adam has. He is close to being a human made god. One has to have grasp of that, and then Cantwell should be aware enough to consider the optics of his decision to take the only super power black male hero of his level and just play him like a swagless clown to boost Doom...??? You got a choice of heroes with same power set, but he settled on Blue Marvel, and from the way he's written I can't believe that he's a fan of Blue Marvel.

Sorry to see that you feel that way but I think the negativity is premature considering the crisis with the Antlion still has to be addressed. If you want to pass on the last two issues that's is your perogative. And once again, compared to how Doom has been jobbed by the annoying Squirrel Girl, you have very little to worry about. I'm sure there will be other stories in the future where you can follow Blue Marvel

[Shadey]

Sorry to see that you feel that way but I think the negativity is premature considering the crisis with the Antlion still has to be addressed. If you want to pass on the last two issues that's is your perogative. And once again, compared to how Doom has been jobbed by the annoying Squirrel Girl, you have very little to worry about. I'm sure there will be other stories in the future where you can follow Blue Marvel

You can't really compare them. Doom has had decades of stories where he is written as a top character before the squirrel girl jobbing. Blue Marvel doesn't have that. He is still trying to get established

[Iron Maiden]

You can't really compare them. Doom has had decades of stories where he is written as a top character before the squirrel girl jobbing. Blue Marvel doesn't have that. He is still trying to get established

You're right. There's just no comparison to the level of "jobbing" in the two cases. This has lived on for decades and as recently in the recent Squirrel Girl series. I mean, how is it that just a bunch of squirrels can cause any damage to Doom's armor? Hey, as a home owner I know they can be annoying. But actually chewing through titantium grade armor is ridiculous.

[jackolover]

First, I agree Bendis is less culpable than Slott. But he did re-scar his face, which was part of a return to status quo

There are definitely some loose ends that will stay that way. The last train ride with Kang helped, but I was expecting a lot more.

Strange, BP, and now Doom have all lost their ongoings...such a shame. I'll still go back to my old idea of a Namor, Doom, Strange, and BP team up...like a modern Defenders. It could even work as a strictly GN format (maybe 2-3 volumes a year), but that's not how marvel does it

I don’t know how the Namor, Doom, and BP teamup would work, proposed when BP got married. BP originally rejected the proposal, I suppose to give Doom War a clear run, but it also led to P5 Namor destroying Wakanda. If all bygones are bygones now, I suppose that Kingly Triumvirate is a possibility in these times. But one has to have a good reason for it to exist, and I can’t think of a justification for it at this stage. Can You?

[jackolover]

What an excellent idea! But I don't know what BP's current frame of mind is and whether he would put up with Doom. In Doomwar his uncle was killed even if Doom didn't have a hand in it directly. IIRC one of the Wakandan dissidents shot him (the Desturi?)

I figured that Doom would not keep that nice face....they want to keep some of Doom's "issues". It is this horror that he has lived with for years and keeps him in isolation from any kind of close relationship. People that get too close get shoved away. I'm surprised there has been no incident with Valeria now that she is older. BTW, I keep wondering if Zdarsky was laying the track for some kind of war with the mutants in the X-Men/Fantastic Four mini considering that conversation between Doom and Val in the last issue.

I was expecting more developments with the Ultimate Nullifier but that was wrapped up pretty quickly too, another sign perhaps that there were more than 10 issues planned. I hope one day there is a volume 2. It seems like Marvel keeps producing mini series for Doom at certain intervals for the book market.

I also wondered why Doom would say Victorius was more a daughter (than Valeria). That didn’t quite sit well with me considering Valeria brought Doom back to his full genius by making her dad, Reed Richards, help get Doom back together again. And then there was that whole daughter of God Doom in Secret Wars. But I suppose in the end Valeria lost faith in her father God Doom, when she learnt the truths about Battleworld, and Doom slinked away to do battle with Richards. Maybe Doom no longer sees Val in the same light anymore either?

My own appraisal of the book was that it was a precise of a 30 issue run on the story; all Cantwell could do is put in the main beats of the arc, as shocking as they were, revealing Victorius’ origin, and breaking of her heart. Doom just seems to spoil the pool, doesn’t he? I thought I sabotaged myself, but Doom has perfected it to an art.

I don’t know what the last two issues will be like. Issue #8 was just transitioning to another place where all the mysteries are solved. If the Black Hole is the only outstanding issue left in this series, then the last two issues are going to look at Reed, Stark, and Blue Marvel, and Doom being the hero that saves the day, but everyone thinking Victor farted in the room. It’s what always happens with Doom - he never gets the plaudits for the save, and has to slink back into obscurity, to try next time to outdo the recognised heroes. I suppose thats what makes Doom so different - he isn’t going to get the recognition, because that’s not him. Doom is that controversial character who comes in and does what needs to be done, not what gives him glory to other humans.

[JudicatorPrime]

I don’t know what the last two issues will be like. Issue #8 was just transitioning to another place where all the mysteries are solved. If the Black Hole is the only outstanding issue left in this series, then the last two issues are going to look at Reed, Stark, and Blue Marvel, and Doom being the hero that saves the day, but everyone thinking Victor farted in the room. It’s what always happens with Doom - he never gets the plaudits for the save, and has to slink back into obscurity, to try next time to outdo the recognised heroes. I suppose thats what makes Doom so different - he isn’t going to get the recognition, because that’s not him. Doom is that controversial character who comes in and does what needs to be done, not what gives him glory to other humans.

My hunch is that Doom will definitely have a hand in saving the day, and he'll get full credit, but he'll have to do it in a way that makes him look like a ruthless bastard. He'll save the 616 universe by sacrificing an infinite number of divergent universes, while in the background Blue Marvel will be chirping some clichéd drivel about finding a better way to save everything, when everything can't be saved. Of course Doom's approach will have cosmic implications. Out of the frying pan into the fire sort of deal, where both Blue Marvel and Doom will realize that their actions have all but emptied the sand from Eternity's hourglass. Or maybe all of the energies from destroying all of those infinite number of divergent universes will result in a great evil being freed from its prison. A fact that Victor and Doom must keep secret because merely uttering this evil force's name foments destruction on a massive scale. This leads into the next big company-wide event in 2021 or 2022.

[Iron Maiden]

That sounds like an interesting endgame but I get the feeling that nothing permanent will come out of this series except for the annexation of Symkaria and Kristoff's role as it's leader. Because it's not like Symkaria gets a lot of play in the MU. Of course, the bloom is off the rose now and Zora doesn't have the same idealized version of Doom in her head and will be keeping a more jaundiced eye on him

[jackolover]

My hunch is that Doom will definitely have a hand in saving the day, and he'll get full credit, but he'll have to do it in a way that makes him look like a ruthless bastard. He'll save the 616 universe by sacrificing an infinite number of divergent universes, while in the background Blue Marvel will be chirping some clichéd drivel about finding a better way to save everything, when everything can't be saved. Of course Doom's approach will have cosmic implications. Out of the frying pan into the fire sort of deal, where both Blue Marvel and Doom will realize that their actions have all but emptied the sand from Eternity's hourglass. Or maybe all of the energies from destroying all of those infinite number of divergent universes will result in a great evil being freed from its prison. A fact that Victor and Doom must keep secret because merely uttering this evil force's name foments destruction on a massive scale. This leads into the next big company-wide event in 2021 or 2022.

I am fantasising a Blue Marvel and Doom competitiveness from this. I think Reed is over competing with Victor, but Brashear is another character Doom could play by immersing in his universe with his power set. Blue Marvel needs some big name to be his rival, to tear his world apart so we can see how he ticks.