Doctor Doom #10 (2020)
by Christopher Cantwell & Salvador Larroca
After a lot of ups and downs in terms of quality, it’s time to finish the series.
After surviving the destruction of the Moon last issue, Doctor Doom wakes up in a different timeline to be greeted by himself.
Our Doom is quite impressed with his counterpart.
Not so much with Doctor Octopus.
Turns out that what Doom believed were visions of his future were visions of this timeline, because something something quantum something.
This Doom is all what Doctor Doom has always wanted to be… powerful and respected, but loved instead of feared.
More important than whatever technological breakthroughs this Doom had, the key difference is that he’s less doomy.
It is important to note that this is not presented as a reality where Doom has always been a good guy without any flaws. He’s never put on the armor, but he does admit it took a lot personal growth to get where he is now.
He doesn’t understand the importance of style, though.
Spoiler alert: this will bite him later.
Even this Doom’s wife… the counterpart of the scientist we met in earlier issues… is not so sure about having so many Dooms around.
He definitely didn’t teach his sons about self-preservation.
I like that in his own weird way, Nice Doom is nearly as arrogant as Doctor Doom…
…but he does have A LOT of insight on what it means to be Doom.
That line about Doctor Doom thinking of Latveria as a reflection of himself cuts deep, and I think it’s actually a good sense through which you can look at how Doom can end up hurting his subjects.
Nice Doom has done more than create a utopia on Earth: he kind of created the United Planets.
I think the last time I saw so many Cosmic McGuffins together was during JLA/Avengers.
Honestly I’m with Doom on this… Nice Doom’s humility is getting irritating, even Reed Richards isn’t THAT humble.
He’s not above sharing some harsh truths ith Doom…
…including something I’ve been certain for decades at this point: that the ONLY reason why Doom doesn’t try to fix his face anymore is that he doesn’t want to.
We have now reached the narrative climax of this series. While the way it unfolded has been… “inconsistent” is the most charitable term I can find… it has been Doctor Doom’s personal journey to find if there is a better person beneath his hatred.
There is, however, a gigantic Reed-shaped obstacle in his way.
Think of what this must look like from Doctor Doom’s point of view.
This is the reality where he accomplishes everything he could ever dream of… power, respect, love, family… and he STILL can’t do it without Reed Richards.
But here is where Nice Doom makes his mistake. He got through Doom’s demons and insecurities… but he forgot one key factor.
Doctor Doom’s pride.
You. Do not. Insult a man’s armor.
I mean, he’s ABSOLUTELY RIGHT that Doctor Doom is driven by his fears, but to tell that TO HIS FACE???
Yeah, how crazy would it be if Doctor Doom shot himself in the face?
It would be as crazy as Doctor Doom.
And if you think that was an extreme reaction… oh boy, you haven’t seen anything yet!
Using the Ultimate Nullifier, Doctor Doom DESTROYS AN ENTIRE UNIVERSE…
…because of what it represented: the fact that the only way Doom could achieve his dreams would be to go against everything he’s ever stood for, and STILL be lesser than Richards.
But mostly because Nice Doom called him ridiculous.
It’s also why, earlier in the series, Death itself would not allow Doom to die.
I don’t think Doom has ever shown how extreme his lack of empathy can be: he just DESTROYED AN ENTIRE UNIVERSE and thinks nothing of it.
If you know about the Ultimate Nullifier, the way Doom uses it is also ridiculously impressive.
That weapon is supposed to be so difficult to control that unless you control your thoughts with the utmost precision you can destroy an entire universe UNWILLINGLY.
Doom was able to do that AND avoid killing both himself and Blue Marvel, while also returning the latter to his native universe.
Normally only beings like Galactus can control the Ultimate Nullifier with THAT precision.
And if Doom’s cruelty wasn’t enough yet… remember that in issue 5 we meet the counterpart to his wife? We learned that in regular continuity, her father was a prisoner of the state.
Doom just orders his execution. Because he was his father-in-law in another reality… which Doom JUST disintegrated.
I said before that this was the series following Doctor Doom’s personal journey to find if there is a better person beneath his hatred.
And in the end, he found him.
Only to shoot him in the face.
Doom significance: 0/10
Granted it’s only been 6 years, but if at this point it’s gone without mention, it probably never will. Which is curious because there IS a storyline a couple of years later that involves both Doom and the Ultimate Nullifier, but that will explicitly be the one from the main universe.
So I guess Doom got rid of the Ultimate Nullifier of the alternate reality? Either that or he just keeps it around for later use… you can never tell with Doom.
I also expect that Doom will eventually attempt to be a good guy again.
Silver Age-ness: 3/10
As fun as it is to say “Doctor Doom destroyed a universe because he was called ridiculous”, it would be an oversimplification. I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t a factor, though.
Will it stand the test of time? 10/10
While the artwork continues to be the weak point… that is one of the ugliest Doom masks I have ever seen, he looks like a metal mummy… once again the positives are so overwhelming that they make up for it.
And it’s not like Larroca does everything wrong: Nice Doom has the good balance of smugness and sincerity in his facial expressions, while undeniably looking like the way Kirby draws Victor’s face.
With all the flaws of the previous issues… and there’s many of those… the ending works.
Doctor Doom gets through a personal journey and arrives juuuuust a step before turning his life around… but that’s a last step that he simply can’t take, and his anger at his own failures he lashes out as spectacularly as he possibly could.
I really like that up until that moment, Doom was REALLY trying to change and to see the perspective of Nice Doom. But his pride could never allow him to be less successful than another version of himself… a close friend of Richards, of all insults!
The ending is also a dark reminder of Doom’s twisted nature, where he must make others suffer in order to feel superior. There is no logical justification for killing the father of his “wife” other than making absolutely sure he could not possibly be tempted to become Nice Doom.
Times Doom has saved the world: 25
Lost in the shuffle is the fact that Doom PROBABLY saved the world.
It’s a bit unclear if the wormhole would have been created without his intervention. But considering that all the heroes were certain that the black hole was going to destroy the Earth… Doctor Doom probably did some good.
But the price for it…
Universes destroyed by Dr. Doom: 1
Once I am done covering 2025, I’m planning to do a post ranking the most cruel things Doctor Doom has ever done.
This issue will absolutely be on the podium.