"3 - To The Victor"
Misunderstanding always seem to be the root cause of conflicts in the superhero community and that certainly has been the case in this series until the third issue. IMO it has taken too long to get to this point and I am disappointed in how it has been handled so far. There is fault on both sides and at this point and a bit tedious to rehash too much. The story opens with the pursuit of the FF by a team of X-Men consisting of Professor X, Scott, Emma Frost, Magneto and the Beast. The FF are able to trace the location of Franklin and Val so when the X-Team downs the FF's ship everyone winds up on the not so creatively named Doom Island. IMO maybe New Latveria would have been better for this island somewhere in the South Pacific. Zdarsky includes map/data sheet of the island and it's location, a nod to the graphics in Hickman's X-titles.
Just as Emma threatens to put the FF on trial for espionage and illegal entry back on Krakoa Doom interrupts the scene to remind that they are now illegally on Latverian soil. Now both teams realize that Doom has both the missing X-Men along with Franklin and Valeria. There is some disagreement among the X-Men about Kate (I still think of her as Kitty) agreeing to Doom's terms. Franklin's decision to submit to Doom's experiment does not sit well with Reed and Sue either. But tt is agreed that they will allow Doom to proceed while Reed and Hank oversee the process to prevent Doom trying anything nefarious. Meanwhile Susan agrees to join Emma, Magneto and Wolverine in a search for the mutant signatures they picked up on the island. They do find 2 Latverian children hiding in a cottage but a squad of Doombots breaks down the walls and during the fight Wolverine runs his claws through one of them. But it starts to bleed....Wolverine has killed a Latverian.
I have mixed feelings about this issue, along with the project as a whole. I enjoyed Chip Zdarsky's Marvel Two in One series features Ben, Johnny and Doom along with Dr. Rachna Koul. Together they briefly became a Fantastic Four in spirit if not in name. Rachna is also mentioned here in regards to her research on what she named "godpower", something which Doom has also been research and dubs them "Von Doom particles" I liked this callback to that series because she was powering up other superhumans with depleted powers as I recall she was quite mercenary about it charged a steep fee. It's not clear whether Doom was already on a parallel path of research or not on the same field. But the idea he expressed here makes sense to explain how a human could wield such vast amounts of energy.
But I have to repeat my complaint that it's not a terribly original plot to have the heroes in conflict over a misunderstanding. Undoubtedly Doom is "up to something"...he didn't build those Doom sentinels just as a hobby. The fourth issue is going to have a lot of territory to cover and I have my doubts that it will come to a conclusion that will be satisfying to all the fans of the various characters. As to the art, it looks not to be up to the past efforts of the Dodson's. Valeria in particular is drawn very inconsistently.. at times looking like a cute preteen, then as some kind of goofy looking elf girl. I do think Doom so far has come off the best in this series and throws shade at Charles, Reed and Magneto. I was interested to see how that meeting would come off and everyone always thinks that Doom/metal = easy win for Magneto. But he proves to be prepared for that eventuality. I liked this exchange with Charles where Doom rejects the Krakoan diplomatic overtures that dangle the promise their plants in exchange for diplomatic immunity. Both Wakanda and Latveria have rejected this offer and probably with good reason. We'll have to see how that play plays out as Hickman's story unfolds I guess.