BOOKS OF DOOM #2 (2005)
by Ed Brubaker & Pablo Raimondi
cover by Paolo Rivera
Another solid cover for an extremely important part of Doctor Doom’s origins.
It’s a pity that we don’t often see Doom in full armor in this series, because he’s fantastic!
Victor Von Doom is now in America, and in addition to attending university he’s also secretly working for the US military.
While it’s not said explicitly, there are heavy hints that this is set during the Cold War, so the Americans are just recuiting Von Doom to be a step ahead of the Russians.
Interestingly, while Doom doesn’t typically speak highly about his time in America, in his narration he’s almost nostalgic about this.
Doom mentions that another student was offered to work for the military but refused, and the interviewer (we still don’t know who it is) asks about Reed Richards.
Fittingly since this is Doom’s version, the way he tells it Reed was pretty much inconsequential.
This scene of them meeting for the first time is not compatible with the way it’s shown in other retellings… but to be honest I prefer this one.
Here there’s a reason why Victor meets Reed immediately, while in the original version it’s completely by chance.
The first time Victor notices his future nemesis is during class, where he’s arguing with a physics professor about time travel.
Reed actually agrees with Victor about the existence on other dimensions, but he’s more scientific about it.
As for the social part of college, you can imagine that Doom was not a fan. But it’s very interesting to read his thoughts on American society.
Victor Von Doom, ladies man.
Victor actually did get some groupies, although not the kind you’d imagine.
Unfortunately, while the military did have deep enough pockets to fund any project Doom came up with… they weren’t genre savvy enough to figure out he was just giving them scraps.
Better not think about what they would’ve done with a machine to contact the otherworld.
Things were pretty uneventful the first three years. Until Victor decided to attend a party.
Told you he was a ladies man.
You might wonder why you’ve never heard of this girl.
Well that’s because Victor was already, and try not to be surprised here, a freakin’ psychopath.
I mean, he did just try to murder a girl because she made him slightly emotionally vulnerable!
And the only reason he didn’t ACTUALLY kill her was a flashback to his mother and to the soldier he murdered in issue 1.
Doom has actually convinced himself that the girl disappeared because she was “overwhelmed by her shame”.
Yeah, uhm, not creepy at all Doom.
But according to one of the witnesses, this was actually the military trying to save face.
Further proof that, even before the accident, Doom was not really all there.
This is actually when Victor did his best work, from the prototype for his time platform…
…to proto-Doombots.
Another development is that Reed has changed his mind about working with the military, as a stepping stone towards the space program.
We get the obligatory scene with Reed looking through Victor’s notes, but it has two interesting twists. First of all, Doctor Doom (who is narrating this) is lurking around in full armor, reinforcing the idea that he’s nostalgic about this era… but him focusing on the mirror is also foreshadowing.
Second, and more importantly, this is basically the ONLY time this scene does NOT include Reed warning Doom that he made a mistake in his calculations. Just that the equations “don’t make sense to him”.
I find this truly fascinating. Remember, this is DOOM telling the story: while it’s perfectly in character him not acknowledging a mistake and to depict himself as smarter than Reed… this omission means that he can’t blame him for the experiment’s failure!
Also: according to both Doom and his assistant (who is also being interviewed), the machine actually DID work… sorta.
At least it doesn’t immediately explode like it does in other retellings.
After “what seemed like weeks”, Victor DID manage to contact his mother in Hell!!!
As well as Mephisto (although he’s not called by name here).
In other words: according to Doom his experiment DID work, and it’s heavily implied that the machine exploded because of Mephisto, not because of any mistake on his part.
There’s a lot to unpack here. Is this REALLY what happened? Is it just wishful thinking on Doom’s part, unable to accept his failure?
Another interesting point is that this leaves no space to blame Reed for the accident in any way.
We get the obligatory scene with the bandaged Victor being expelled, once again with Doctor Doom lurking around mirrors.
In possibly the best scene in the issue, and perhaps the series, we get the reaction of both Victor and Doctor Doom to the first sight of his wounds.
And if you are wondering: no, this comic does not address the controversy about how extensive the scars were.
In a nice bit of housecleaning, we also take care of any invention left behind by Victor, to explain why the military didn’t have access to time machines and murder robots: Doom remote controlled them to burn everything down.
And so we end with Victor Von Doom leaving the United States, without a clear destination in mind.
Doom significance: 6/10
This is a tough call. Obviously this is a crucial moment in Doom’s life and this is probably the most detailed retelling we’ll ever get… but I’m not aware of any future story that acknowledges the minor retcons. Doom’s experiment working pretty much as intended is especially hard to reconcile with other stories. Oddly enough the biggest retcon, the fact that Doom worked for the US military, is the easiest one to believe: why would either of them want to admit it?
In my headcanon, the Life Model Decoys of the S.H.I.E.L.D. stories were based on what the military salvaged from Doom’s work. (not that I’m aware of any comic supporting this)
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Much like the first issue, it’s nearly impossible to see any Silver Age-ness here.
Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
While it doesn’t quite have the same emotional punch of the first issue, this comic strikes a good balance between showing Victor’s descent into madness while also showing that he was clearly not mentally stable even before the accident. His megalomania is in full display in both obvious and subtle ways.
Times Doom has tried to save his mother from Hell: 3
Canonically this was the first time!