BOOKS OF DOOM #5 (2006)
by Ed Brubaker & Pablo Raimondi
cover by Paolo Rivera
This is once again a great cover, but there are a few details easy to miss.
First of all the somewhat creepy image of Doom holding a baby…
…but also we see the people are tearing down the statue of the previous Latverian leader. Nice little touch!
Doom makes his return to Latveria, starting with freeing some prisoners.
If there’s someone who excels at badass boasts, it’s Doctor Doom.
Unlike the previous issues, the situation allows for some action. Which, considering the context, means Doom curbstomping everybody.
Turns out the entire reason Doom freed the prisoners was to spread word that he’s back.
In case you’re wondering “wait, why does Doom need any of this?”, he explains.
He also recruits Boris, in a scene that has been shown in other retellings of the origin that we haven’t covered in the retrospective yet.
In addition to Boris, he also gathers all the surviving members of his clan.
He wants their support to spread his legend, but there are some disagreements.
Not for long, though.
We are informed in one of the interview inserts that the guy Doom just murdered in cold blood was a close friend of his parents. If that’s not cold enough for you, he makes the rest of the clan bury him!
Boris is not the only old acquaintance to witness Doctor Doom for the first time.
I just love this rendition of Doom’s mask hidden in the shadows!
This is technically the Doctor Doom of the 60s stories, so it’s quite fitting for him to be at least a bit sexist.
And as always, Valeria sees right through his bulls#it.
Doom orders his Tibetan servant to escort her out of his hideout…
…but she gets to land one last truth bomb.
He does care about her enough to ensure she’s safely out of the country before the coup starts.
Notice the reference to Valeria’s uncle. Sometimes Boris is said to be her uncle, sometimes he’s her grandfather, sometimes there is no mention of them being related. I suppose this was a compromise.
Only in Latveria you can have modern soldiers, bandits on horseback and murder robots in the same army.
Despite the science fiction elements, the comic doesn’t shy away from representing the coup as a violent warzone.
This is all explicitly deliberate from Doom: he doesn’t want the people of Latveria to see him like just another despot, but one of their own taking back power for the common people.
Doom delivers a personal message to the king, via a miniature holographic projector.
There’s a bit of housecleaning regarding the Latverian monarchy.
The problem with the original story is that “baron” is a rather low title of nobility, so it didn’t make much sense that Latveria’s monarch was just a baron.
In the new version, the current king was a baron when he caused the death of Doom’s father and later ascended to the throne as king, presumably because there was nobody else with a higher title in line for the throne. Still a bit unlikely but not impossible.
Doom threatens the king to kill him if he doesn’t surrender, and of course the king refuses.
Which is exactly what Doom planned!
CLASSIC Doctor Doom: he’s not TECHNICALLY lying!!!
And so we end with Doctor Doom vowing to take Latveria.
That will be next issue, which will conclude both this miniseries and the origins section of the retrospective!
Doom significance: 10/10
I haven’t seen any direct reference to this specific issue in other comics, but it’s hard to believe we will ever get a more detailed exploration of the conquest of Latveria.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Just look at that panel showing the devastation of war and tell me you can imagine it in the Silver Age.
Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
This was excellent. The transformation from Victor to Doctor Doom in the previous issue was perhaps a little rushed, but this one has enough breathing room to show off just how different and more extreme he has become. He’s also as cold as he’s ever been, going so far as prolonguing the war because he wants to win the hearts of the Latverians.