Doctor Doom Appreciation

[Iron Maiden]

I hope I can get out of work a bit early since I have a long Memorial Day holiday weekend. I'm taking some encouragement from the August solicitations that just came out today:

Here is the issue promotional summary of Fantastic Four #1

"Fourever," Part One

Since the end of SECRET WARS, there's been a gap in the Marvel Universe. A void no other team can fill. And it's time for the world to move on. But can it? A life-changing decision by the Thing! A momentous declaration by the Human Torch! A clarion call-to-arms that summons Doctor Doom! And a signal in the sky that heralds the return of hope to the Marvel Universe! All this, and Alicia Masters adopts kittens! So cute! Plus, the Impossible Man!And bonus stories illustrated by Simone Bianchi and Skottie Young!

From reading this, maybe we have a small glimmer of hope, Abe!

I see that Slott has Victor going back to using Doctor Doom as his nomme de guerre . I hope that this call to arms means that Victor will continue with his determination to act on the side of the heroes, whether they want him or not. Considering that he gets it from both sides like being attacked by both the Thing and the Hood and his gang, you have to give him credit for his perseverance. Without knowing Amara's fate I'd like to think at least she is coming around to believing in him.

[Kintor]

Just finished #600, I think it might be one of the most unpleasant comics I've ever read. Not necessarily for the story, although I do take exception to that as well. The most glaring problem in this book is that there are so many red text boxes everywhere! I don't know if the red lettering made it harder to read or just because of the sheer quantity of them but I found #600 to be a real chore to get through mentally. Honestly, I feel tired after reading it.

As for Doom's immediate future, I'll save the detailed discussion of that for later. With that said I do have two thoughts:

spoilers:

Looks like things are rapidly shifting back towards the status quo. Also, I feel the conclusion to the Red Hood subplot was a really asinine twist that detracts from what happened in Infamous Iron Man.

end of spoilers

[Digifiend]

^Correction: spoilers:

THE Hood! Red Hood is DC's Jason Todd.

end of spoilers

Thoughts:
spoilers:

I assume Two-In-One is set before Iron Man #600? Doom loses his pretty face at the end and learns that Tony is back, these two events are why he switches back to being Doctor Doom.

end of spoilers

[bubibartra]

Ok, read

ummmhhhh

spoilers:

The face, ummmhhhh, well it's better than killing Amara and the baby, And he fixes his castle and returns to latveria All right! I see the face as something analogous to the legs of Chartles Xavier, in the end he will recover it definitively, not worry PD the comic has a horrible writing and is confusing. Dan Slott does not have much work to improve this

end of spoilers

[Kintor]

^Correction: spoilers:

THE Hood! Red Hood is DC's Jason Todd.

end of spoilers

Whoops...

spoilers:

Silly me for forgetting the name of a D-list villain. I mean, the guy wears a hood and it is coloured red. I can be forgiven when I confuse him with a more successful DC villain/anti-hero.

end of spoilers

[PaxHouse]

Whoops...

spoilers:

Silly me for forgetting the name of a D-list villain. I mean, the guy wears a hood and it is coloured red. I can be forgiven when I confuse him with a more successful DC villain/anti-hero.

end of spoilers

^Correction: spoilers:

THE Hood! Red Hood is DC's Jason Todd.

end of spoilers

Thoughts:
spoilers:

I assume Two-In-One is set before Iron Man #600? Doom loses his pretty face at the end and learns that Tony is back, these two events are why he switches back to being Doctor Doom.

end of spoilers

Somehow.......I suspected that most of the readers should've seen that coming....!!!

[Biclopcicle]

God IM#600 was hot garbage. All those extra pages and failed to tie up some major loose ends. If Jason Aaron can de-age Strange then we can just forget everything Bendis has done after Secret Wars. I can't believe editorial let this comic go through

[fantastic]

i would be glad if things got back to normal.

[Abe]

I won't add much to what have been said yet : how could I disagree? I just feel a bit less optimistic than bublbartra I'm afraid...

Really curious to read what DoomScribe and Iron Maiden have to say of course.

[JasonEsta]

So he's a full villain again?

[Abe]

We don't know yet. I guess it's for Slott to decide. But Bendis put the toy back in the box with the possibility of status quo. Hey, it won't even be difficult to put Amara and the kid in limbo for ever: they could receive money every month and the file is closed.

What bothers me is that the situation at the end of Secret Wars had much more potential. Even Bendis kinda recognized in the book his failure to give Vic a true motivation.

[bubibartra]

Amara's pregnancy is written after Bendis announced his departure. I do not think it was raised before.

Many of us thought of Amara's existence so that death would cause Domm to be evil again. It has not been like that, but I think that if it exists, it's because of something. Marvel could have blocked that story with Bendis with one foot out.

Victor's lack of motivation is a problem. This is a problem, therefore, the toys should be placed back in the box, but the existence of Amara and her baby is because it is a tool that can make a Victor vulnerable and move the situation where necessary. It can also be left in the box. But at this moment it is there as an extra toy. .

The problem is that Victor, outside of Latveria, is like pulling Reed out of the 4F, just not. It could have been raised in different ways, including a more constitutional monarchy, that Victor tries to do things right from Latveria. but let Latveria burn, lose diplomatic status and Victor without a fixed place is not something I buy

Victor needs Latveria because his motivation is always linked to power. Even in the case of a good Doom, a good Doom would be less tyrannical, but it would still be in Latveria. I do not buy it as a superhero without a fixed place because Doom needs a motivation either to conquer the world or to make a safer world, but always from his position of power.

[Iron Maiden]

I had problems with my internet on Wednesday evening and then went on an out of town trip yesterday to meet family for lunch. I hope no one mines if I don't put spoiler tags up now but I will post a bit warning space.

*************** SPOILERS AHEAD ************************************************** ************************************************

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So here goes...

The positives:

• Bendis will likely never write Doom again, or Iron Man either which will also be a relieve for IM fans for that matter.
• Victor and Amara are expecting a son.....but why does Tony's A.I know this?
• Victor performed as a hero to the end. There was no heel turn back to villainy. The ironic part of it is no one knows it, at least at this point they don't. Where he goes from here is mainly up to Slott. Even though I am glad Bendis is out of the loop now, I have to give him some props for trying something different with Doom. There's little doubt IMO that Doom would have gotten a solo with Infamous Iron Man were it not for Bendis pitching it. The title had it's ups and downs but I think it ended in a good spot
• Even though it really doesn't make any sense we know now that for at least part of the time Victor was being attacked by Mephisto again. Even though Bendis doesn't come out and say it explicitly I think we can agree that Mephisto is the only suspect that fits. It also explains why Victor was having such a difficult time eluding the Hood, who would have the ability to keep tabs on him more so than the Hood.
  
  #edited to add: Or some other demon?? Dormammu?? With Bendis, who knows

The negatives: (of which there are many but I'll just go with this):

• Victor says very few lines in this and we are subjected to a lot of groan worthy dialogue from everyone else throughout the story. I really cringe at the way Bendis writes Mephisto's dialogue, which is that is just about the same as everyone else in the story. Rhodey and Tony's pages sounded like Tony just talking to himself. The worst is the even Leonardo da Vinci was given the same treatment. Of all the characters in the story, da Vinci and Mephisto should at least sound less jokey. Mephisto has been around for untold centuries and da Vinci was born in the Middle Ages. I think their manner of speaking should still reflect a lot of that.
• Tony's aging rocker mom is still around.
• I found the change of artists every few pages to be a bit jarring but was glad that Maleev did most of Victor's pages.

[MarvelMaster616]

Ok, read

ummmhhhh

spoilers:

The face, ummmhhhh, well it's better than killing Amara and the baby, And he fixes his castle and returns to latveria All right! I see the face as something analogous to the legs of Chartles Xavier, in the end he will recover it definitively, not worry PD the comic has a horrible writing and is confusing. Dan Slott does not have much work to improve this

end of spoilers

I didn't think it was too bad, but yeah. It does sound like Marvel is pushing to get Doom back to his pre-Secret Wars self. It's fairly consistent with what they've been doing lately with other characters. They've been getting back to basics with classic Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America returning to the fold. I guess that extends to the villains too. I just hope that Doom retains some of the changes he's undergone since Secret Wars. Just throwing it all away at this point and reverting him completely would just be a waste of good character development.

[Coulson]

Total tangent, but what happened to Kristoff? He was there before Secret Wars and then he disappeared.