Best of this Week: Doctor Doom #3 – Christopher Cantwell, Salvador Larroca, Guru-eFX and Cory Petit

Doom is a very complex man.

He wants to be humanity’s savior, the one to see us lift ourselves up by our bootstraps and accomplish everything that he believes us capable of. At the same time, he wants to rule over it all as the supreme being over everything. His motivations are kinda good, but his methodology and lust for power will always be his downfall. For a man of immense intelligence and power, the only thing that trips him up is himself and it will always be that way, no matter how good he tries to be.

This issue starts off with Doctor Doom having a vision of the future. He sees a world made better by his own inentions, ideas that he might have hatched sometime after his accusation of terrorism from the first issue of this series if he had admitted himself to prison. Surprisingly, his face isn’t disfigured and he’s actually cordial with the crowd that’s allowed him to speak of solar skyscrapers and clean fuel. He seems like a calm, down to Earth, Victor Von Doom. However, amongst those in the crowd is current Doom himself, or what remains of him after being shot in the head in the last issue.

Salvador Larroca then switches from this bright, serene scene, to one of abject Heavy Metal terror as Doom climbs his way up from a sea of skulls in HELL. I cannot stress enough just how badass this art is. Larroca has always been good at visceral art and great backgrounds, but this scene alone is epic. There’s one wide, pulled out shot of a mound of maybe dinosaur bones and lightning crackling into the lava. The next pulls in to a pile of skulls placed against a mass of indeterminate flesh and organs. The next panel shows Doom’s hand breaking free of the pile and the last shows him crawling his way free of the skulls and flesh.

We then get one amazing shot of Doom in a badass set of armor surrounded by the flames, lava, skulls and lightning. Guru-eFX colors this in such a way that you feel the heat and intensity of the flames with hot oranges, the lightning is vibrant and dynamic and Doom stands above it all. His armor looks like something of a combination between a Dream Theater and Disturbed album cover. The use of shadows and lighting emphasize every detail and makes him look like the new biggest threat in Hell and he just strides through like a big dick G.

Eventually he comes upon Mephisto, former Ruler of Hell, and gloats that he finally has Doctor Doom’s soul for eternity. Doom is having none of this and punches Mephisto to the ground before picking him up by the throat, claiming that he was meant to save all of mankind and that he doesn’t belong in hell. Mephisto mocks him by saying that Doom did save his mother from the demon once upon a time (Doctor Doom & Doctor Strange: Triumph and Torment, 1989), but he then also sacrificed the love of his life for more power (Fantastic Four #67, 2003). He then snaps her soul into view of Doom to distract him.

Meanwhile, in Latveria, the political situation is the region is not getting any better as Symkaria is launching an assault with forces, tanks and artillery while NATO and the UN aren’t doing anything to stop it. Victorious is monitoring it all and notes that they plan to “stabilize” Latveria in Doom’s absence and retires to her quarters to clear her head. I do love stories of political intrigue and it’s clear to see how badly the moon base explosion is affecting Doom’s country with his people suffering because of the actions he’s accused of. It’s also interesting to see how Victorious is dealing with her newfound leadership.. She gets angry and her generals listen to her, but even she has to relax after everything.

When she goes to her room, Larroca draws an intimate scene where she removes her armor and works out her stress. It shows a level of dedication to her own personal strength and alertness as she success out an assassin in her window. She tries to blast the assassin away, but misses, only for them to enter the room and put up a short fight with Victorious. The fight is dynamic and allows Victorious to show off her hand to hand skills in a small space. Both of these scenes are colored with the backgrounds a nice blue hue to contrast the frenetic action and sees Victorious winning the battle.

Though it pains me to say, Latveria is in a state of disarray because it doesn’t have Doom there to lead it. No one ever tried to send assassins to kill Doom, nor did they try to send forces to stabilize the region when he was around. Though Doom is the very pinnacle of tyranny in the Marvel Universe, every time he is away from his throne, the country goes into shambles. It happened under Lucia von Bardas, it happened when Doom disappeared following Secret Wars (2015) and it happened after Riri Williams seized control from a returning von Bardas and her insurgent force and tried to turn the country into a democracy (Iron Man, 2018).

For all the good that Victorious is doing and the order she’s trying to maintain, Latveria needs Doom.

Shortly after the assassination attempt, we cut back to Doom who is being tempted by the form of his former lover’s soul in hell. She calls him a monster and tries to persuade him to stay in hell with her, but when he refuses because of the visions he’s seen of a future where he saves humanity, it is revealed to be a trick by Mephisto. He rages at Doom for thinking that he will ever be free because of some “visions” that he had and Doom proceeds to beat his ass. Doom punches the Demon, stabs him in the neck with a bone and plunges both of them off of a cliff, into another ocean of skulls.

The fight could have gone on forever with these two, but is soon stopped by Mistress Death. Death usually only appears when mass deaths are incoming and she allows Doom to return to life. Mephisto kneels to her and protests that Doom should be his forever, but she replies that he will actually her greatest servant of all. In light of Thanos being dead and Deadpool not talking to her much anymore, this is a grim portent for Doom and the Universe at large. 

I absolutely loved this issue of Doctor Doom. With the history the villain has in Hell, seeing how he might fare there alone is actually metal as hell to see. His armor was badass and made him look like a steampunk knight and the way he held his own without it when he fought Mephisto showed just how much he believed in his vision. Seeing the political crisis that Latveria is facing is intriguing now that we see how they’re dealing with things internally. Christopher Cantwell manages to give Victorious some dimension that was only slightly explored in her first appearance in Fantastic Four earlier this year and makes her a compelling character in this book

Salvador Larroca and Guru-eFX absolutely slayed on the art. Larroca continues to stun with his visceral and detailed art, even managing to make a hoodie clad Doom look strong. His designs, action and pacing make this so much more appealing than I originally thought it would be. Guru-eFX’s coloring only accentuates that feeling by eliciting strong emotions based on the hues used. I could feel just how hot and awful hell was through the oranges and I could feel the uncertainty of Victorious through the blues.

Overall, this issue of Doctor Doom and the series thus far is well deserving of a read. Because if you don’t, Doom will find you.