Doctor Doom vol. 1: Pottersville

Doctor Doom is unquestionably one of Marvel’s A-List villains.  Even though his main nemeses are the Fantastic Four, it’s always a big deal whenever he shows up to tangle with another hero or team like Spider-Man or the Avengers.  While the character’s stature and popularity have been enough to warrant a few solo miniseries over the years, this new series from “She Could Fly’s” Christopher Cantwell and artist Salvador Larroca represents Doom’s first ever ongoing series.  Has it been worth the wait?  If you’re looking for a low-key, character-driven, occasionally quirky superhero title, then… yes.

Key to Doom’s appeal are his arrogance, and ruthlessness.  He’s the kind of character who has an unshakeable belief in his superiority to those around him and he’s not one to suffer fools lightly, if at all.  Doom is also willing to go to any means to achieve power, no matter how questionable they may seem.  These are great qualities for a villain to have, but they’re something of a handicap when you want to make him the focus of a series and actually want your audience to have some sympathy for, or even empathize with their protagonist.

Cantwell’s solution to this problem is to take Doom down a notch.  The series begins inauspiciously enough with the good Doctor giving his opinion on a news program about a new energy facility on the Moon.  The Antlion will take carbon dioxide emissions from the Earth’s atmosphere and convert them to stable hydrogen fuel, while funnelling the highly toxic waste from the procedure into a stable black hole in the facility.  Doom is, shall we say, skeptical of the wisdom of such a setup, but he’s got a bigger problem on his hands than the anchor who keeps cutting him off.

You see, Doom has been haunted by visions recently.  Scenes of him happy, married, and with two children.  It’s not the family life that holds appeal to him, but the fact that these scenes suggest that he’s helped engineer an utopia on Earth.  While the Doctor is at a loss regarding what to do about these scenes and whether or not they represent a potential future for him, the Antlion is attacked.  Worse yet is the fact that someone has framed Latveria for the attack.  With the world against him, Doom does the unthinkable:  He surrenders.

There you have it:  Doom is a man without a country while also back to being public enemy number.  This time for a crime he didn’t commit.  Now he has to clear his name without the resources of his country behind him, but with his wits, a few friends, and his knowledge of spellcraft.  It’s a good setup for an ongoing series featuring the character though the issues I have with it lie in its execution.

Despite the high-stakes nature of the setup, the pacing of this first volume lacks urgency.  The series meanders from scene-to-scene, following the character as he crosses paths with Morgan Le Fay, tangles with Taskmaster, and A.I.M., and is sought by Dr. Adam “Blue Marvel” Brashear.  Everything flows well together, but the narrative lacks any real must-read spark or genuine surprise to it.  Even when Doom winds up facing off against an old foe over a matter of souls.

That’s not to say these encounters are written badly, however.  Cantwell has a good handle on the cast and the general absurdity of the Marvel Universe.  One of the best bits of the series so far is the recurring presence of Kang who keeps popping in and out of the timestream to offer assistance and aid to Doom.  These encounters play up the absurdity of the character’s time-travel schtick and they come pretty close to being gleefully unhinged.

As for the good Doctor himself, it’s always fun to see someone rely on their wits to get by.  A humbled Doom is still an interesting Doom as he tries to work out the nature of the conspiracy against him.  More interesting are these visions he’s been having and how they play against what we know of the character.  While it’s implied that they’re visions of his future, it’s possible that Doom could just be seeing an alternate timeline that he won’t be able to be a part of.  It’s possible, given what we learn about his wife in the final issue of this volume.  So it could be that this is just another means of torment for him, engineered by an as yet unseen adversary.  Whatever it is, I’m genuinely curious to see where the writer is going with this.

The volume does look very solid overall thanks to Larroca’s efforts.  Even if this volume does entail a lot of talking heads, he’s good at making sure it all flows smoothly with solid emoting from the cast.  However, he can also turn on a dime to deliver a straightforward action scene, or a money shot like Victor witnessing the apparent destruction of the Antlion up close and personal.  Then there’s the quirky bits with Kang that would normally appear to be at odds with the rest of the narrative, that Larroca manages to ground with everything else.  What I’m saying here is that the writer asks a lot of different things from his artist, and the artist delivers on every front.

So it feels kind of weird that I didn’t like this first volume more than I did.  The writing and art are perfectly solid and “Pottersville” is always readable, even quite enjoyable at certain parts.  Still, even with the lack of urgency to the plot, there’s this feeling that I know where this story is headed.  That it will end with Doom triumphing over his adversaries and restored to his place of power as ruler of Latveria.  Maybe a little sadder and more contemplative, as he realizes that other life is something he can never have.  If that isn’t how this series ends, then I’d sure like to see some proof of that in vol. 2.