The Books of Doom...

[fajrdrako]

The Books of Doom was a six-issue miniseries, now collected as a graphic novel, detailing the history of Victor Von Doom, the long-time villain in Fantastic Four. Written by Ed Brubaker, drawn by Pablo Rivera.

Yawn.

Now, I often like Ed Brubaker's writing, especially in Gotham Central, but as time goes on I am becoming less enchanted with it: he's best, I think, on crime noir but kind of heavy-handed on the fantasy.

In this case, I thought: What's he point? It's all pretty much a rewrite of what Stan Lee gave us (more briefly) back in the sixties, with the most interesting parts - such as Doom's romance with Valeria, or his acquaintance with Reed Richards - downplayed. Much of the story is told in first -person narrative, the problem being that Doom's heavy-handed self-importance slows down and burdens any sense of life the action may have had. There is no sense of humour in Victor Von Doom. No witty repartee. Even his sense of ambition is gloomy and dark.

Pablo Rivera is good - even great - on some of the covers and full-page art, where he can put menace and suspense right onto the page. Otherwise it was competent but not exciting art.

I found myself wondering what might have made the book less heavy-handed. Another point of view, perhaps? Or more structure - play up the personal nature of one of his vendettas - with the Baron? With Reed Richards? Perhaps use Valeria's point of view, her attempts to save her lover from his own self-destruction.

One scene I did like: young Doom and his father trying to escape the Baron's men, in the snowy mountains of Latveria. The father holds Doom in his arms to keep him warm through the night. In the morning, Doom wakes up, to find his father frozen immobile, and he is unable to move, trapped in his father's arms, freezing to death himself. It was delightfully chilling.

But even that was a but anticlimactic, as it turned out the father was still alive, and able to wake and move and live another day.

I wanted a new angle on Doom's story, and here, though we got his own perspective, it was nothing we haven't seen before, some of it cribbed from other comics - a section in the Himalayas was rather too much like Doctor Strange (or Iron Fist or any number of mystic-Himalayan-monks stories). Stan Lee gave it more sparkle.

Comments

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Whatever happened to Valeria, anyway?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I don't know. She's still alive, as far as this story implies. Not with the gypsies, though I suppose she could have gone back at any time. She's somewhere in Europe, dodging Von Doom, the Americans and the KGB, lucky woman. Probably lying low. I know I would!

Is she ever given a surname?

[dewline.livejournal.com]

I've asked a friend of longstanding who might be able to help us out.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Quoth the friend, miraclo AKA Mike Norton:

Marvel has with increasing frequency let almost anyone they think might help sales write whatever they want, no matter how much it flies in the face of items already established, that I've gotten well beyond arm's length distance from such things. It occurs to me that I didn't read the BOOKS OF DOOM, and as I cast my mind back for the most part my memories of Valeria are from a long time back. Much as with last year's (at least roughly last year's) mini on Stephen Strange (come to think of it, there was more than one in the past couple years) which I tried reading but couldn't stomach, I come around again and again to Marvel's editorial positions continuing to sinecures or at least a misnomer. In the end all Joey Q cares about is how many market percentage points they are ahead of DC. That's the only measure of success they pay attention to.

Claremont introduced a Valeria Von Doom during his often lamentable run on the current volume, then we end up with a Valeria Richards...

Once upon a time I would devour and catalog - even if only somewhere in mind - every new detail, but once upon a time I've come to realize is long, long ago. The feeble hope remains that the Marvel Universe will eventually return to more caring, custodial hands, but as month follows month of carelessness and wanton ugliness - it's like having some gang of well-armed punks invade one's hometown and decide that anything to get a laugh is worth doing - it becomes more and more difficult to disentangle. If they can't even be bothered to coordinate events happening in their huge crossover events (Civil War, and the ongoing Initiative and World War Hulk, are good examples) then how much hope do we have for details of characters and history?

Still, hey... Kurt Busiek took a good stab at fixing things during the early run of his last contact with Avengers, and we've seen Geoff Johns come in and do some wonderful repair work at DC, including the redemption of Hal Jordan in a way that didn't just toss out the stories that went awry, but - instead - used that info to his own ends.

So, back around to the initial question, I don't recall a full name being attributed to her.

Beyond that, I don't know what the current condition and location of VVD's childhood sweetheart may be. At this stage I'm convinced that who, what and where she is, under current Marvel policies, will be who, what- and wherever one of Marvel's "hot" creators will decide based solely on whatever whim hits them.

Mike's got one of the better memories for this sort of historical detail outside of, say, Peter Sanderson in my experience. If he doesn't recall a surname given to Valeria I(for want of a better alias), then no one's likely yet bothered with it.

I don't entirely agree with all of his opinion, although I've had my moments of sympathy...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I take it that miraclo is a stickler for established canon?

I think they're just leaving gypsy-Valeria in limbo until they (i.e., any writer with an interest) thinks of something to do with her.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Like you, Mike grew up with this stuff as it was starting out, albeit on the Marvel side of the fence. I can hardly hold it against him, as my vision of the Marvel Universe, like his, was shaped by the same cultural forces.

Heck, we're amazed to see Alpha Flight outlast the era of its creation, but not surprised to see it suffer a comic-book version of Mayerthorpe in the Harper years.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I was on the Marvel side of the fence for most of my comics reading career, too. Not all of it, just most. It was once uncomplicated enough to keep track of. No longer!

So is Alpha Flight still coming out?

Alpha Flight? Nope.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

"Comic-book version of Mayerthorpe" happened to them, after all.

As for would-be successor organizations, I think I mentioned something about Omega Flight elsewhere on LJ...

Re: Alpha Flight? Nope.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, I read your comments about Omega Flight, with mixed feelings. I keep hoping that they'll do something intelligent with Alpha Flight again.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Given how v.2 and 3 of Alpha Flight went for Marvel, and their apparent willingness per select accounts on Newsarama to blame the specific characters used as much as anything or anyone else for those two revival attempts...?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

If only they'd give it the quality writing and art it deserves!

As to Valeria...

[dewline.livejournal.com]

...you may well be right.

Re: As to Valeria...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

All we can do is wait and see.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Let me know what he says!

[dewline.livejournal.com]

See above.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Right!