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A review by mediaevalmuse
Fantastic Four: Books of Doom by Ed Brubaker
3.0
I love Ed Brubaker’s work. And I love Doctor Doom. But somehow, the mashup of those two things didn’t quite work the way I was hoping it would. I appreciated the origin story and the attempt to show Doom’s madness and obsession; however, I wasn’t as enthralled with this book as I was with other origin stories or Fantastic Four titles.
Things I Liked
1. Narration: I liked the way that Doom narrated this story. He’s talking to a reporter, but we don’t really know that until the end. In the meantime, the panels show him revisiting memories and his current self is drawn alongside his past self. It’s a small thing, but I kind of love when that happens.
2. Ending:
3. Art: Raimondi’s art is more along the style I tend to gravitate to for comics. It’s more realistic than stylized, and as a result, I have less trouble following the action and differentiating between characters.
Things I Didn’t Like
1. Loose Threads/Pace: There were some aspects of this story that I wish had been addressed more thoroughly or woven into the overall narrative more strongly. Doom’s rivalry with Reed Richards, for example, seemed to be an afterthought. Doom’s anxiety about his face wasn’t quite explored enough for me, as well as his ties to Valeria and why he bothers to save it if he’s cut off from humanity. Those kinds of things. It may have to do with pacing - there’s a lot of story packed into 6 issues, so everything seems to move very fast.
2. Women: I was a little annoyed by the fact that women were mostly used as tools to further Doom’s story. Doom’s mother is tortured by Mephisto and Doom spends most of his adult life trying to free her (which is largely responsible for his obsession with science and magic). On top of that, his love interest, Valeria, is threatened and doesn’t really do much, and he has a brief dalliance with a woman at college, who he nearly kills but the government hushes it up.
Recommendations: I would recommend this book if you’re interested in Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom, origin stories, madness, obsession, and revenge plots.
Things I Liked
1. Narration: I liked the way that Doom narrated this story. He’s talking to a reporter, but we don’t really know that until the end. In the meantime, the panels show him revisiting memories and his current self is drawn alongside his past self. It’s a small thing, but I kind of love when that happens.
2. Ending:
Spoiler
I kind of loved that we learn at the end that Doom wasn’t narrating this story at all, but a Doombot. It made me wonder whether the story itself was true or the bot was programmed to believe/tell this story as some kind of distraction.3. Art: Raimondi’s art is more along the style I tend to gravitate to for comics. It’s more realistic than stylized, and as a result, I have less trouble following the action and differentiating between characters.
Things I Didn’t Like
1. Loose Threads/Pace: There were some aspects of this story that I wish had been addressed more thoroughly or woven into the overall narrative more strongly. Doom’s rivalry with Reed Richards, for example, seemed to be an afterthought. Doom’s anxiety about his face wasn’t quite explored enough for me, as well as his ties to Valeria and why he bothers to save it if he’s cut off from humanity. Those kinds of things. It may have to do with pacing - there’s a lot of story packed into 6 issues, so everything seems to move very fast.
2. Women: I was a little annoyed by the fact that women were mostly used as tools to further Doom’s story. Doom’s mother is tortured by Mephisto and Doom spends most of his adult life trying to free her (which is largely responsible for his obsession with science and magic). On top of that, his love interest, Valeria, is threatened and doesn’t really do much, and he has a brief dalliance with a woman at college, who he nearly kills but the government hushes it up.
Recommendations: I would recommend this book if you’re interested in Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom, origin stories, madness, obsession, and revenge plots.