written by Ryan North
drawn by R.B. Silva
colored by David Curiel
It's not as hard to imagine an authoritarian running the world these days as it would have been around sixteen years ago, which was the last time Marvel Comics introduced a story in which the bad guys were "in charge." Back then, after Norman Osborn ended the Secret Invasion storyline by shooting the Skrull queen, Veranke in the head, he was basically named the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., and along with his supervillain cohorts plunged the world into a form of dystopia until the heroes kicked them out of power.
In 2025, Marvel Comics launched a slightly "refreshed" version of this concept, except instead of Skrull invaders, it was vampires threatening the world in the "Blood Hunt" event, and instead of Norman Osborn blowing someone's brains out, it was instead Doctor Doom who, as Sorceror Supreme, defeated the vampire scourge. Except this time around, Doom doesn't settle for running S.H.I.E.L.D.; he becomes Emperor of the World. He does this not through subjugation, but somehow, through global consensus.
This is, of course, completely illogical to the world's heroes, who, knowing Doom as they do, instantly suspect that he has an angle somehow, with the prevailing theory being some form of mind-control, and so the Avengers, X-Men and Fantastic Four join forces to ferret out the truth, and figure out a way to take Doom down. The reality they discover, however, is far different from anything they could have imagined, and not only do they realize that defeating Doom will be far more challenging than they anticipated, but they actually find themselves asking: do they actually want to beat Doom this time?
This isn't quite a new story, having been published from 2024 to 2025, but I only just recently got my hands on the collected edition so I wanted to share my thoughts on it. As much as I appreciate the craft and earnestness on display here, I do confess that, having read the book and thought about it at length, I have some mixed feelings about the story. It's far from the staightforward, old-fashioned superhero yarn one hopes for from a book featuring the X-Men, Avengers and Fantastic Four taking on one of the Marvel Universe's biggest bad guys, which is a good thing. That said, even though, as political allegory it works a bit better than the controversial "Civil War" storyline did 20 years ago, it still doesn't quite capture what's particularly disturbing about the way so much of the world has embraced authoritarian rule. Writer Ryan North clearly tries his level best to lay the basis for a world that would accept Doom and to be fair, a lot of the beats ring true. For example, when Doom argues that a lot of the heroes opposing him are actually villains in their own right, like Reed Richards who hoards his intellectual property instead of using it to cure cancer, or Tony Stark, who using his vast fortune and intellect for machines or war rather than ending world hunger, he actually makes a bit of sense.
For me, though, the allegory falls a bit short. In most situations, authoritarian rulers don't actually make life better for great masses of people like Doom does here. They don't solve all of society's problems at some hidden, unspeakable cost (which is revealed later in the story, spoiler alert) but rather, they identify a problem and sell themselves as the solution, creating a narrative that, in the beginning at least, they are able to to control. This problem is usually identified as an "other" whom the authoritarian seeks to eliminate. It's a playbook we've seen played out quite a lot over the last decade or so, with very unfortunate results, like mass murder and human rights violations. The worst part is that this has widespread buy-in from the population, something not discussed enough in the story. Still, this is a superhero book so I can grudgingly allow North his creative liberty. Also, R.B. Silva's lavish artwork makes this story go down so much easier that it would with a lesser artist. This is some really extraordinary work on display across all nine volumes. I applaud Silva for not only his exquisite linework and storytelling, but for finishing the entire series without any fill-in artists. It's sad that this even has to be mentioned, but it is what it is.
From a superhero story standpoint, it's a little harder to swallow the insane amount of plot armor bestowed on Doom here. I acknowledge that Doom is canonically one of the most formidable villains in the entirety of the Marvel Universe, but even then, the way he takes on basically all of the big superhero teams in the Marvel Printed Universe is somewhat...hamhanded. There are a number of Omega class mutants in that lineup who could have easily handed him his ass if we were to go into a whole power-scaling discussion, but clearly the story imperatives here were...different. Doom's definitely lucky that Magneto wasn't among the masses of superheroes that he had to face. I accept that it's at least debatable that Doom is capable of the power he puts on display here, but personally, I don't buy it.
I will give this to North; he doesn't try to change Doom from villain to misunderstood hero or antihero. His Doom is just as vain, narcissistic and frankly evil as he has ever been. Sure, there's a glimpse of his humanity at the end, but at no point did I ever root for him, even when I found myself agreeing with some of his points. North doesn't shy away from this being a story centered around the bad guy, and whatever my qualms with the overall story may be, this key aspect of the story ensures its narrative integrity.
8/10
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