Inhumans: Attilan Rising #5... We need to talk about that ending!!! (SPOILERS)

[marvelprince]

Holy damn, that was good. And it really, when you think about it, says much about what Charles Soule thinks of Black Bolt and Medusa. Think on it: Doom switches the field and implies that every time he resets the experiment, the same result happens. Black Bolt (king/rebel) and Medusa (rebel/queen) eventually find each other again and love each other, come what may. In it's own way, it's an assurance, given the state of their marriage and family post-SW. Brilliant.

Not just them romantically, but their relationship to Attilan. No matter what, they bought are working towards the goal of protecting their people.

[jackolover]

Wow. That ending was great. Doom exerting his omnipotent nature in one single snap of his fingers. And just the "back to the beginning" nature of the whole thing with Medusa being the un-terrigenesis-ed Inhuman bar owner. Short hair like BB's speaking at the end of issue #1. So good.

The thought occurred to me that Doom has been doing this many times, so Victor set up a system where all he has to do is snap his fingers, and it starts a new game with random variable changes. Like Minesweeper.

[jackolover]

I love how the comic seems to set-up how 'fragile' and 'weak' Doom's rule and system is...then subverts it Matrix-style.

Though I wonder like, what part of the 'timeline' we're in. Are these events from the past (as in earlier in the 8 years Battleworld's existed), or Doom has enough power to twist the timelines and memories so well that the new 'status quo' at the end of the comic is effectively what's been the status quo for years?

Issue 2 introduced Starlord singing in the bar. This is the Raftee Starlord who only appears in Attilan after Secret Wars #4 when Strange scattered them. This issue sets three series after SW #4 and after Inhumans. Starlord and Kitty Pryde, Guardians of Knowhere, and Future Imperfect, (because Maestro was defeated in the last issue).

[jackolover]

Have we seen the floating Doomstadt Island before? I've forgotten that. That scene threw me for a while, because Doom was so interested in this series he had to lay off the coast of Manhattan to observe what happens and Bolt gets close enough to almost blast the Island. How very Asgard of Doom.

I don't know that the Attilan Tower controls all of Battleworld, because Bolt has stated that as far as I know, that there are transmission towers in most Domains. That will have to be clarified.

But this is another of the endings I've been waiting for, where Doom comes down hard on dissent, and cleanes the Domain to start again. It was mentioned in Ultimate End, and now we've seen it first hand. The brutal rejection of freedom to act, and, Doom reinstating a different set of circumstances, like doing a reset on the computer. The way Doom casually sits and observes the curiosity that is the dynamic between Bolt and Medusa, is a clue to why Doom has constructed Battleworld the way he has. Doom is unconcerned the inhabitants will rebel against him, because the system is held stable, and besides, who can challenge a Beyonders power, so what is there to worry about? Oh. Richards! Richards did set off some alarms when Doom confronted him, and it wasn't because Richards had power to equal the Beyonders. Richards could push Dooms buttons, and that is what upsets Dooms stability. Dooms psychosis kicks in when Richards walks in the door and all of a sudden, Dooms composure evaporates. Much like Osborn with Spider-Man.

[jackolover]

He has the Beyonders powers, they treated life as an experiment. I see Doom doing the same here. Something about conflict on Battleworld must give him power or something because he always sets up "obstacles" to himself. I put obstacles in quotes because Battleworld is built on conflict (look at the name) and engineered in a way to facilitate it, but real threats to Doom are just wiped out (ala Korvac and Strange).

It would be interesting if Doom behaves like experimenting Beyonders and doesn't realise he isn't in charge. Then it would be a real plot twist that Richards could exploit in the future, by making Doom realize none of this is constructed by Doom, is controlled by Doom, and is for Dooms purposes. That Doom has just been another pawn again, like he always is and he should let the Beyonders go.