REVIEW – Doctor Doom #1 (2019)

Doctor Doom #1 - Marvel Comics

Written by Christopher Cantwell

Art by Salvador Larroca

Colors by Guru-EFX

Letters by VC's Cory Petit

Cover by A Co

Usually ruling with an iron fist is just an expression.  You could take that literally when you're talking about Doctor Doom.  Is Doom now for diplomacy?  Could it be that this evil genius now wants what's best for mankind?  Let's dive into the pages of this most recent #1 issue.

Victor Von Doom is a ruler, but he will always be a scientist.  As such, he is trying to warn everyone about a very risky endeavor to end climate change.  Why listen to a super villain though, right?  We see that there is much more going on in Doom's mind than you might think.  Something much more simple, in fact.  At times he's still the same Doom, and at others, he does things you never thought you would see Doctor Doom doing in the pages of a comic book.  Just when you're trying to figure out is really going on inside Doom's head, something catastrophic happens that changes the entire landscape of the story.  It's in that moment that we might actually get to see what kind of a man that Victor Von Doom really is.  This leaves lots of questions to be answered, but chief among them: who is Victor Von Doom really?

This is a side of Doom I don't think we've seen in a while, if ever.  The most interesting part is, it's the most simple and seemingly insignificant things in this story that caught my attention.  Things that actually made me wonder if there was still a villain inside of that familiar metal suit.  If you can get a long time reader to ask that question, you've done your job well as far as I'm concerned.  There are other things to ponder by the end of the issue, but I am locked in on this internal struggle that Doom seems to be having.  It also helps that the art is next level good.  Larroca gives the action sequences that pop, but there is also a moment in the story where Doom is just having a conversation, and the art really sold the mood of the scene.  I will admit, things seemed to drag a bit in the middle.  I am still slightly concerned about that, but I remain fairly sold that this story has a couple of twists yet to come.  At the same time, I'm not ready to surrender just yet.

RATING: PICK UP