Infamous Iron Man #4 (2017)
by Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev
If I didn’t know the premise of the book, I would swear that’s Tony Stark on the cover instead of Doom.
We begin with Maria Hill getting the news that Doom is now on the Helicarrier.
S.H.I.E.L.D. was ready for him, but Doom is completely unfazed.
Why couldn’t Doom just call first?
He’s here to tell her to please stop sending superheroes to arrest him.
This is a surprisingly polite conversation.
I swear I just don’t understand Bendis. He starts off with a very solid scene…
…and just when I think he’s left behind his gimmicks, he does something absurdly moronic like THIS.
Why would this random S.H.I.E.L.D. agent blurt out the location of an operative to the intruder they’re interrogating!?
I guess it’s just Bendis trying to be funny, but if that’s the case it breaks the pacing and more importantly it’s not funny.
Doom immediately flies to Latveria, and we get a very effective contrast between his memories of the place and its current state.
The place has degraded so much that Doom runs into armed children.
He decides to have a few words with the militia currently running the place.
This armor looks amazing in the shadows!
Doom is not playing around here.
Nice to see that, while Doom may have adopted Iron Man’s style of armor, he still flies in his own way.
He’s also attacked by some Doombot, and this is where the series has problems coordinating itself with the OTHER Iron Man series.
Because as I already mentioned, in the other series Ironheart fought the Doombots that were reprogrammed by Lucia Von Bardas, and later took over the place for a while.
So it’s possible these have been reprogrammed by Von Bardas, and later hints tell us that this is set BEFORE Ironheart takes over… but Doom doesn’t run into any of them, so the chronological placement is confusing.
Which is weird because Bendis was writing BOTH series, meaning he can’t even coordinate with himself.
Obviously this fight is incredibly one-sided.
After reprogramming the Doombots, Doom runs into the general he left in charge of the place.
Which I have to stress is NOT the same person who was ruling Latveria in the other series before Ironheart took over!!!
So far I have been buying Doom’s redemption arc, but I refuse to believe he’s going to let this guy live instead of executing him on the spot.
Something else I can’t believe: if Doom really wanted Latveria to be free (which IS one of the details I’m buying) and it was THIS easy to find a leader for its government… why would Doom leave a general in charge without involving her???
Doom is then distracted by something going on at Castle Doom.
I still believe he would have executed this guy, or AT THE VERY LEAST punish him!!!
I’ve said before that Maleev was not the right artist for this book, and I stand by it.
But I also have to acknowledge that he REALLY sells the quiet moments.
Doom finds the Thing in his castle…
…as well as his mother.
Infamous Iron Man #5 (2017)
by Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev
That is one hell of a cover.
The Thing wakes up on the Helicarrier, fully healed. I do find it funny that Doom is currently treating S.H.I.E.L.D. as a place where he can dump everything he can’t be bothered handling directly.
What I DON’T find funny is Bendis trying to lighten the mood by having characters act like idiots.
Why would Maria Hill, who is the current Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and who has been obsessing about Doom for the past days or weeks, not know about Doom’s mommy issues!?
We flash back to Doom meeting his mother, not believing for a second it’s her.
Understandably so, considering the last time he saw her he sent her to Heaven.
Credit where it’s due, I think Bendis is doing a decent job making us doubt whether this is the real Cynthia Von Doom or not.
Also, her joke about the armor looking expensive was genuinely funny.
See Bendis, you don’t HAVE to make your characters act stupid to be funny!!!
Still, why would she be back right now?
Cynthia’s opinion of her son is consistent with her last appearance, where she most definitely wasn’t fond of him being Doctor Doom.
Reconciling her torturing the Thing is a bit trickier, but hey she WAS literally a devil-worshipping witch.
Doom’s reply here genuinely had me laughing for how perfectly in-character it is.
She DOES give him a reason for torturing the Thing, but he convinces her to save him.
Back to the present, we learn that S.H.I.E.L.D. has now arrived in Latveria and has decided to intervene.
Bendis is framing this as S.H.I.E.L.D. being the good guys, but I’m reminded of a scene during Waid’s Fantastic Four run that called out the organization’s hypocrisy.
I think most of it STILL applies to this run as well.
Also, as we saw in the other Iron Man series, S.H.I.E.L.D. completely botched THIS operation as well.
Meanwhile, Dr. Perera gets interrogated again…
…and she also loses her job at Cambridge.
Doom, for a guy with a time machine, you have the worst timing.
I do find it funny that Doom is SO used to just go wherever he pleases that he has no concept of being intrusive.
It’s interesting that Doom decided to talk about this with her, instead of going to Boris as usual… perhaps Boris reminds him too much of his Doctor Doom days.
Also, Doom does have a point about meeting his mother for the first time since her death: that was the first time he met her IN PERSON, since the other times she just met her soul.
Evidently Doom continues to have a soft spot for the doctor…
…but he’s still more in love with the sound of his own voice.
We flashback one last time to the part of his interaction with his mother that the Thing wasn’t able to hear before being sent away.
I feel for poor Dr. Perera; imagine being dropped into this conversation without any knowledge of Doom’s history!!!
And there you have it: even Doom’s interest for a potential companion was entirely selfish.
And we close with the revelation that Doom’s mother is working with Reed Richards.
Obviously that’s not the regular Reed, since that one is currently outside the universe, but can you imagine if it was?
Doom significance: 4/10
This sets up the big mystery of the rest of the series: is that really Doom’s mom?
Silver Age-ness: 2/10
That dumb S.H.I.E.L.D. agent helping Doom for no reason is a bit Silver Age.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
Doom’s redemption arc continues to be very solid. My only complains are the typical Bendis way of ruining characters for unfunny humor, and the frankly out of character (even for this version of Doom) decision to let the general go without repercussions.
I really do like that Doom doesn’t buy that this is his mother, AT ALL, but then gradually begins to wonder if he even WANTS her to still be alive.
Times Latveria has been conquered: 17
To recap: during Doom’s absence the country was taken over by one of his generals, then there was a civil war between a militia and Von Bardas, it was ruled by Ironheart for a day at most, and only then they got free elections. This place just cannot catch a break.