Review by Win Wiacek
Once upon a time, you hadn’t really made it as a Marvel superhero – or villain – until you’d clashed with Doctor Doom. Victor Von Doom is a troubled genius who escaped the oppression heaped on his Romani people via an ultimately catastrophic scholarship to America. Whilst there he succumbed to an intense rivalry with young Reed Richards, even then perhaps the most brilliant man alive.
The arrogant student performed unsanctioned experiments that went wrong and marred his perfect features, leading him down a path of super-science and sinister sorcery and fuelled his overwhelming hunger for ultimate power and total control. From the ashes of his failure, Von Doom rebuilt his life, returned to seize control of his Balkan homeland and become a danger to the world and the multiverse.
This truly king-sized and epically imperious compendium was released to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Lord of Latveria, who debuted in 1962, and gathers many of his greatest battles and other landmark moments of triumph and tragedy all the way to 2006. As such, it really needs a contextualising introduction from Ralph Macchio.
The drama begins as it must with that debut in Fantastic Four 5 (sample art left). At that time, aliens and especially monsters played a major part in Marvel’s output. However, after a tentative start, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s recreation of super-heroes embraced the unique basics of the idiom: taking a full bite out of the Fights ‘n’ Tights apple by introducing the first full-blown, unrepentant super-villain to their budding universe. The tale is sheer comics magic and the creators knew they were on to a winner, as the deadly Doctor returned in the very next issue, teaming with the recently revived and recalcitrantly reluctant Sub-Mariner to attack our heroes as ‘The Deadly Duo!’ in the first Super-Villain Team-Up of the Marvel Age.
Doom is most frequently seen confounding the Fantastic Four, but this heavyweight tome also has his villainy applied to Spider-Man, Daredevil, the X-Men, Iron Man and the Champions along with his early 1970s solo series. 1980s Graphic novels Emperor Doom and Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment are included in their entirety as are Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo’s five chapter ‘Unthinkable’, extended arcs written and drawn by John Byrne, and Ed Brubaker and Pablo Raimondi’s Books of Doom (sample art right), applying mature modern nuance to Doom’s origins and life. Follow the links for more detailed reviews. We also have Doom’s 1970s solo series, and his subsequent dealings with the Sub-Mariner from Super-Villain Team-Up, these not his greatest hour due to ever-changing writers, although the great Wally Wood drew most of the solo series.
The comic classics are supplemented by a gallery of covers by assorted artists; a section of Doom pinups; ‘Quotations from Chairman Doom 1984’; Doom’s entry from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe and spoof ads. Dedicated art lovers can luxuriate in layouts, design sketches and unused art from earlier Doom depictions revisited in this big book.
This is a selective rather than comprehensive collection of Doom’s appearances over the years, many encounters with the Avengers, for instance, not included. Sheer comic enchantment, this a book no lover of the fantastic fiction can afford to ignore – just as long as they eat plenty of spinach to be able to lift it.
