That's a timely comics bump, my thanks!
And speaking of Timely Comics!
Marvel's hip-deep in a Big Event:
One World Under Doom!
The second issue of the main event is out, but there's nothing quite as visually entertaining as "Doctor Doom the T-Rex" this time around. Instead, we're getting right into the meat of the matter, as Doom answers a point-blank question from his goddaughter Valeria: "Why are you doing this?" From there we get a polite debate on the political ethics of Doom's actions as they magic about the Earth for dramatic effect.
Tough question to throw at a ten-year old, man.
Doom's reasoning can be summed up as "Benevolent Absolute Monarchy", as the monarch of Latveria expands his rule to the rest of the Earth. (Funny aside, Doctor Doom doesn't canonically refer to himself as a king; the only title he ever uses is "Doctor").
It's ironic that some of us have been talking about
Squadron Supreme; the big argument presented in the finale of that book will probably apply here as well. To paraphrase, even if some truly altruistic super-powered beings *can* fix the world and abolish injustice, eventually they have to pass the reins, and there's no guarantee the next hands holding power will be quite so compassionate. Seems relevant here as well, unless Doom plans to magic up some immortality while he's at it.
(Another relevant reference for this story is the graphic novel
Emperor Doom, *also* mentioned earlier in the thread by
@Cuestionador!)
Anyhow, while he's chatting with Valeria, her parents and the rest of the Fantastic Four plan to beat Doom's ass and get him to blurt out all his dumb intentions the way he has for....shit, sixty years now? Since it's only issue 2 though, that won't work yet! Instead, Doom gloats and stunts on Richards, removing Ben Grimms "condition" as the Thing; a service Reed has never been able to provide to his best friend. (It does kinda beg the question, "Why hasn't Dr. Strange been able to do that?" Obviously, Stephen Strange isn't looking to subjugate populations and the other shit Doom's getting up to, buuuut he's known Grimm for years; he couldn't do the guy a solid?)
I'd still give the book a pretty light recommendation, but if you *do* look into it, you should follow the main
Fantastic Four comic as well. It's the same writer - Ryan North - and the books go hand in hand. (This weeks entry was mostly Grimm dealing with the fallout of not having powers anymore....it's a decent bit of drama).
Elsewhere, the event continues in...
Thunderbolts - Doomstrike
Bucky "Please don't call me the Winter Soldier anymore" Barnes relives his glory days and organizes the resistance to Doom's regime. For writers Lanzing and Kelly, this mostly means Bucky quoting Churchill to a bar full of yokels. It's fine though, last issue ended with Doom nuking Indiana; this book is about
striking a tone. With artist Tommaso Bianchi, that's not a problem. Last week we got nuclear hellfire. This week, it's
Hellfire Hellfire!
It's a crossover with another recent book on the shelves,
Hellhunters! Barnes calls an old war buddy out of retirement - the G.I. Ghost Rider of WWII - to help hijack a magic supply train. (The train design is also *perfect*). Sure, I like the debate and theory happening in the main event, but this right here? This goes down just as smooth.
I will say, if you didn't read the previous
Thunderbolts series, there's some characters and plot that aren't gonna make much sense here. *Technically* that series served as a lead-in to
One World Under Doom, but it feels so tangential to the main event. It is damned fun in places though; it's another light recommendation to anyone who wants a bit more grit to their big comics crossover.
There's a few other event spin-offs, and one interesting new addition this week was
Doom's Division by writer Yoon Ha Lee and art by Minkyu Jung. It's primarily set in South Korea, but the premise of the book is a Pan-Asian Avengers, tasked to safeguard Doom's Pax Victoris. (Peace Under Doom). It's a little fun, and features that Luna Snow character that you hate to see on the enemy team in Marvel Rivals.
It is nice to see the rest of the world having super heroes, and other cities and cultures bringing a touch of variety to Marvel's ubiquitous "We live in New York, thanks".
That said, being a mini-series team book tied into an ongoing event puts a short clock on the lifespan of this thing. Some of the character writing is charming, but it's mostly a "getting to know you" setup for this debut issue. If it catches fire over the next few chapters, it would be nice to see these yahoos spun off into a mainstay book though; the closing pages show some new team members, including Karma from the New Mutants. Some of my earliest comics were the original Wolverine series by Claremont and Frank Miller, and Karma had a major role in one of the first arcs of that book. She's unironically one of the first X-Men I knew about, it's nice to see the character in more stories.
Oh oh oh, this one's
yet another Ryan North/Fantastic Four book, but I have to mention it!
Godzilla vs. The Fantastic Four
They printed a ton of variant covers, but this ass-whuppin' number comes courtesy of Lelini Francis Yu (easy to recognize if you were reading Marvel circa 2005-2010), with colors by Romulo Fajardo Jr.
This one is fun because it's not *just* a Godzilla crossover, it's a pitch-perfect homage of Stan Lee's
Fantastic Four. The dialogue is just right, and it's functionally a sequel to the original Galactus story! That's probably all that needs to be said, I think the rest of this can speak for itself.
Art by John Romita Jr., of course. (Plus another variant cover from Skottie Young).
There's also been a crossover happening in the X-Men books,
X-Manhunt, but I'd be lying if I said it was worth following. It's mostly been an impediment to the books dragged into it, I feel.
I'll do another installment with some details soon, got sidetracked with some other things annoyingly.
no worries.
