BOOKS OF DOOM #6 (2006)
by Ed Brubaker & Pablo Raimondi
cover by Paolo Rivera
This is it: the last Book of Doom, the end of the origin part of the retrospective.
I would love to see a detailed version of the Latverian currency on the background.
A cover detail easily lost: Doom has a drink next to his book. The man loves his wine.
The first page takes us back to the conquest of Latveria, where we see a version of the Latverian flag that will pop up occasionally.
One detail that will receive some minor controversy is the fact that a child soldier is explicitly shown. I don’t have a problem seeing Doom condoning something like that; in fact I would really like to know what happened to that kid!
No wonder the Latverian army doesn’t stand up to Doom, they look like they’re from the 40s!
There is the question about what to do with them once they’re defeated.
Which isn’t really all that hard: they want to join Doom’s forces!
Things are not looking good for the current government. It’s been shown before very briefly, but now we clearly see that the king is wearing the iconic Doom cape.
We get an acknowledgment about the king’s sons, future Doom adversaries Rudolfo and Zorba.
Doom waits until dawn to begin the standoff between the rebels and the Latverian army.
Except… there is no fight. Doom has already won!
Doom even makes it a point to calmly walk through the city like he owns the place, because at this point he already does.
Having lost all support, the king is now hiding in the cathedral. That’s where Doom makes his grand entrance.
Doom is itching for a fight.
The king’s entire strategy is to take off his cowl.
I love his expression. What did he think this was going to accomplish!?
Doom strangling the king in a church is already melodramatic, but his narration makes it awesome.
Interestingly, we don’t get a huge reaction from Doom. The panel composition really makes me thing about the scene were we are shown his first murder.
And just like that, Doom is now the leader of Latveria. Also it turns out the king’s general was already on Doom’s side.
The original castle is said to be destroyed. We always knew Doom made MASSIVE changes to the castle, but this is a lot more.
We are shown the coronation. We actually already saw a flashback to this in Astonishing Tales #2, meaning this guy is actually Rudolfo’s robot double.
Since we are quickly establishing Doom traditions, we get to see when his pact with Mephisto (still unnamed) was first agreed.
There’s some interesting bits here.
First of all Mephisto claims that whenever Doom fails it will lead the people of Latveria to hate him; since this entire series is being narrated by Doom, I wonder if that’s true or if he’s using it as an excuse?
Also note the foreshadowing about him freeing his mother but losing the chance to be with her since she’ll go to heaven (where Doom is DEFINITELY not going).
That is indeed what will eventually happen in the masterpiece “Triumph and torment” book.
And that concludes Doom’s narration! We are now switching to the present day for the finale.
And we finally get to see who has been interviewing Doctor Doom this entire time… a random journalist whose name we never learn.
Well… it’s KIND of Doctor Doom.
Yes this entire story has been narrated by a Doombot!
As I’ve said before many times during the previous issues, this is Doctor Doom’s origin story in the sense that this is how Doom tells it. So that takes care of any potential discrepancy, but it also means that Doom deliberately left stuff out and/or added some details to make himself look better.
Also apparently this Doombot is more Doom than usual. That’s not the only time we’ll see this happen, so I wonder if maybe this is the same Doombot of, for example, Walt Simonson’s run.
As for the journalist, if you wonder why we never saw her again…
I’m sure she’ll be fine.
And that’s the end!
What, you expected a happy ending from Doctor Doom?
Next step: Doctor Doom in the 80s !
Doom significance: 5/10
There isn’t a lot of new information here. I think this is the first time it is firmly established that Doom’s cape is a symbol of the Latverian monarchy, but that’s about it.
Silver Age-ness: 1/10
I’m not counting the fact that Doom is technically crowned by a robot since that detail isn’t from this issue, but still there is SOME Silver Age-ness in his pact with Mephisto.
Does it stand the test of time? 6/10
This is a tough one. It’s well-written, well-drawn and well-paced… but not a lot of stuff actually happens, and compared to the previous issues we are very light on characterization. The final twist is pretty good but I feel like we could’ve spent a little more time on it.
Times Latveria has been conquered: 5
Obviously this is the first one. For there record we are at 1 Doom, 2 Red Skull, 1 Rudolfo, 1 Zorba.
Times Doom has tried to save his mother from Hell: 4
He doesn’t explicitly fight Mephisto this time, but since it’s the entire reason the contest works I’m still counting it.