Latverian Consulate

[maidofiron]

Doom mentions a grandfather that inspired his interest in robotics.

[maidofiron]

Doom tried to lift  Thor’s hammer twice with no luck

[maidofiron]

Kristoff Vernard is really looking all grown up these days.  Too bad no one has followed up on this  

[maidofiron]

An AU Doom leading an AU Masters of Evil  from FCBD Avengers/Hulk #1

[maidofiron]

From Books of Doom #1 by Ed Brubaker and Pablo Raimondi

[maidofiron]

“Doom is inevitable”   as is the return of the Doctor Doom series when issue #7 comes out September 23.  But why so freakin’ long since it should have come out in April???

[maidofiron]

“Doom is inevitable”   as is the return of the Doctor Doom series when issue #7 comes out September 23.  But why so freakin’ long since it should have come out in April???

[maidofiron]

Happy Mother’s Day, Victor. 

[justafriendlyfact]

Just a friendly reminder that Doctor Doom was inspired by Darth Vader.

[maidofiron]

Hah.     This one has no clue.   Lucas was inspired by Doctor Doom and probably Darkseid also when he created Darth Vader.  He’s a big Jack Kirby fan.

[comicsohwhyohwhy]

Victor von Doom isn’t white, he’s Romani

As I’ve seen a number of posts depicting Infamous Iron Man as the ‘white male protagonist’ alternative to Riri Williams’ Invincible Iron Man, I feel a point has to be made:

Victor von Doom is Romani, a highly problematic racial / ethnical and cultural identity within the history of European racism in particular. His non-white identity and the marginalisation following from it have always been a core part of his mythos.

His ‘original wound’ that leads to him becoming Doctor Doom is tied to the cruel fate his family suffered. His mother, dabbling in the arcane arts, sought to rectify the persecution she and her people, a clan of Romani, suffered:

(Books of Doom by Brubaker, 2006; all panels will be from this because I have it at hand, however, the basics of the story remain the same in all its versions)

But trying to make things better doesn’t work, and his mother gets possessed by a demon that goes on to slay some soldiers and every child of the village the Romani camped outside of.

His mother gets killed, which leaves Victor and his grief-stricken father alone.

A few years later, Doom’s father gets called to the Baron to heal his sick wife. Victor immediately fears for the worst.

At nightfall the next day his father returns - he hasn’t managed to save the Baron’s wife and is now persecuted by his soldiers, to be shot like a dog. Victor and his father flee into the mountains, trying to evade the soldiers, but winter is cruel, and at night Victor’s father freezes to death while holding his son close, giving him the last of his warmth.

The Baron’s men come to take the body away and present it to the Baron like a trophy, and young Victor becomes cold and furious, seeking revenge on the people who caused this suffering. The first person he kills is a soldier devalueing his life on account of him being Romani:

His main quest in many subsequent storylines is trying to free his mother’s spirit from hell, where the demon who possessed her trapped her. The reason for his disfigurement is one experiment going tragically wrong and literally blowing up in his face. The fact that young Reed Richards had tried to warn Doom and correct some of his calculations spawns the feud between Reed and Victor that lasts to this day.

Even when at University in the US, Doom is by the way confronted with a perception of his as ‘foreign’:

Depending on the storylines, there’s more explicit examples of discrimination he suffers.

Evidently, there are problematic and stereotypical aspects to that origin story, but those aren’t the point of this post. The point is that Doom belongs to a marginalised group and is hardly fit to be cast in the ‘default white male protag’ role that some seem to expect him to be cast in as Iron Man.

Don’t erase the well-established non-white identity of a character to make your argument about the series’ concept sucking.

[maidofiron]

This guy gets it.    I’ve been annoyed by the posts by the uninformed calling Doom white

[personblogging]

Riri Williams (a black teenage girl) becomes Iron Man

public: no! fucking political correctness has gone too far. why can’t tony just stay iron man!

Victor Von Doom (another white guy) becomes Iron Man

public: yes! this was a brilliant decision! im not racist or sexist or anything loooool

[maidofiron]

Makes me sad when so called comic book fans don’t realize that Victor von Doom is Romani

[dr-archeville]

Though Doom and Skull have worked together, not that Doom was particularly happy about it.

Yeah, I can’t recall Doom ever acting out against Skull the way Joker did, or the way Magneto did (more here), but I do vaguely recall Doom telling him off at one point.

And for added anti-Skull fun: Kingpin vs. Red Skull.

[maidofiron]

smh. Doesn't anyone remember Doom's first solo series Astonishing Tales where the Red Skull and Doom fought, or the rousing fight they had on the moon in Super-Villain Team up #11?

[simonwilliamscomicart]

Doctor Drumpf! by Simon-Williams-Art

[maidofiron]

This is an insult to Doctor Doom.   :-)    Victor Von Doom has more class than the short fingered vulgarian Trump.  

[captainaspie-deactivated2021052]

Can anyone recommend me some good Doctor Doom stories?

[maidofiron]

GN:  Doctor Strange/Doctor Doom:  Triumph & Torment

The Silver Age Astonishing Tales series esp Astonishing Tales #8

Any Doom story by Jonathan Hickman esp Secret Wars

Doom 2099 series (one volume by Warren Ellis was collected in a TPB)

Books of Doom by Ed Brubaker

[peterrasputin]

Secret Wars #3 - Doom and Sue…

Once again it needs to be said that far and away, Secret Wars is an outstanding success for Hickman and the marvel team.  And clearly the fans agree with the sales reports on the first issue dominating the market.  Now, gushing aside I need to get this out before it’s actually revealed, but when I read, re-read, and re-re-read this issue I was torn.  The panels with Doom and Sue together were so beautifully written and so emotionally painful to watch unfold.

Seeing Doom succeed where all others failed.  Watching the scions of the Richards family and Susan Storm-Richards treat Doom as the god he’s become made me sick to my stomach, but not for the obvious reasons.

The easy explanation for their behavior is unlike Stephen Strange, these innocents have been warped into the thinking/personalities that Doom desired to be the cherry atop his godhood sunday.  That would mean that there is hope for things to be righted once Reed and the remaining 616′ers go on the offensive.

However… the thing that scares me about where this story goes; and again let it be said how fucking awesome this story is… is that there is a logic that I can see where the Richards family survivors have not been altered, tweaked, or changed any more than Strange has.  

The 616 life raft is being opened now, 8 years since Battleworld was forged.  Let’s assume that Susan, Valeria, Franklin, and Johnny have been conscious and alive since it’s formation.  Eight years is a long time for a wife to wait for a husband that could very easily not exist.  And I don’t think it’s strange at all that conceptually while we’ve seen many baronies that touch the big Marvel groups (Avengers, X-men, Spider-man, Hulk, etc) there are or at leave have yet to be any fractured Fantastic Four, and definitely no sign of any Reed Richards.  But then, Doom would want it that way.

But how much sweeter a victory for Doom… if after eight years Susan made the choice to save her children, and a life for herself and commit to her husbands greatest enemy.

Now that being said… there are moments in this issue that speak against this potential plot.  If Sue, like Stephen had her full memories Doom would not likely have to explain what he did to save existence as he said he did when talking with Susan.  Stephen when speaking with the survivors of Marvel 616 seemed genuinely shocked that they still had their memories of the past.  If Sue and the others also had these memories Strange would have likely had a less shocked reaction to that news.  I really hope I’m just jumping at shadows on this one… 

Anyone have a thought on this?

[maidofiron]

Hickman has said in interviews that Sue and the others died on the life raft that split away from Reed in SW#1   This is a different Sue.   Not sure about Franklin and Val but they might be their biological children born during their relationship.   From Hickman:   “ She is his wife. I don't want there to be any confusion, and we'll get into it a little bit more, but the Susan and Johnny that we talk about in this issue are not the Marvel Universe Susan and Johnny that died in issue #1. Those people are dead and gone. This is a different Sue from a different Earth, and I'll leave it at that for now”  http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/hickman-talks-secret-wars-3-battleworlds-key-players

[natshasromanoff]

Could you possibly fill me in on the Whedon/fandom drama?

Ok, this seriously might take a while. Whedon is just very problematic, but I only really know about his problems regarding AOU, so I’ll just fill you in on that :] Possible spoilers ahead.

Whitewashing-  In the comic books Wanda and Pietro Maximoff are I believe Romanian, and also Jewish. Whedon cast a couple more white people to play them (Because you know we don’t have enough of them in the MCU already) and on top of that made them work for Hydra. Although in the comics the twins are Jewish. And, you know, Hydra is basically the Marvel version of the Nazis. Not cool Wheodn. 

His handling of Black Widow in this movie sickens me- And I have not even seen the movie yet.  Everyone has said she is out of character. Everyone says she serves as little more than a lover interest. Everyone says that he has taken this strong female character, and reduced her to an idiot who does nothing but pine after Banner. Even if I did not ship Clintasha I would be mad about this. He took this strong female superhero that little girls might look up to, and is showing them “Hey, yeah, her role in this movie is to be in love, and pine after Bruce. That’s her most important part in this movie.” It seriously makes me mad, I don’t know how I am going to react actually watching this movie on Friday, having to sit through that.

He gave Clintasha fans a lot of hope for their ship, and is now acting like it never happened.  Ok, so maybe not everyone is mad about this. But come on, basically the entire Avengers movie it was implied Clint and Natasha had SOMETHING going on. I am glad apparently they are going to be close friends in AOU, but really, I still feel like I have had the rug yanked out from under me. And then when that rug was yanked I fell into a pit of despair, and landed in a pile of spikes that impaled my heart. Basically he set up this relationship in Avengers, decided he was bored with it, and pulled Brucenat out of nowhere.

Why Brucenat? This one might sound dumb, but I have seen a few people saying that Whedon fabricated this romance because he and Ruffalo are around the same age, and that this is basically an ego trip for Whedon, showing that older guys like him and Ruffalo could still get a girl like Natasha Romanoff/Scarlett Johansson. So, yeah, that’s one reason he might have chosen Brucenat over Clintasha, Romanogers or Buckynat, three relationships that are cannon in the comics, and much loved by fans. This is basically a massive ego trip for him.

He disregards previous events that have happened in the MCU- In the last week Whedon has said that Bucky should have died and that the events in Marvels Agents of Shield are not actually in the MCU. You know. Even though he is the one who invented that show, and last night in the episode a character predicted the events of Age of Ultron were about to happen. More importantly than that, I am saddened by reviews I have read that say Whedon has tossed aside all of the character development that happened to the characters in Phase 2. People are saying we do not get any of PTSD Tony, we don’t get the Tony we had at the end of Iron Man 3. We do not get Captain America who learned his best friend is alive, and almost had to kill him and is dealing with that. We don’t get the Captain America who helped destroy Shield, and learned he basically died for nothing because Shield and Hydra were the same thing. I have not read much about Thor, but I am guessing we do not get a Thor who has lived on earth for well over a year, we probably get a Thor who still doesn’t know what a cellphone is and eats a dozen boxes of freaking pop tarts because that is funny. Again, I have not seen the movie so I don’t know if this is 100% true, but from what I HAVE seen it seems to be accurate. Whedon had so much potential with so many rich characters and back stories, and just ignored all of them. He once said in in an interview “I don’t really think about the fans, I think about what I want.” Oh, well that explains a lot.

(trigger warning infertility. Also kind of the only spoiler I will give)

He implied that if you are infertile, you are a monster. Yeah, you read that right. Apparently in the movie Natasha implies that she is a monster because she was sterilized in the Red Room and can’t have children. I of course don’t know the exact details, but if you want to read more about the scene there is a very helpful article here that does not spoil anything more than what I just said. It horrifies me that he would put a scene like that in here, and that Marvel let him get away with it. If I was struggling with infertility, and went to see this movie and saw that scene, I would have broken down right there in the theater. Whedon implies that basically if you can not have biological children, you are a monster. This is insulting, hurtful, thoughtless, and I am genuinely worried about how many women are going to be hurt when they see this scene. 

He claims to be a feminist, but oh look, there’s a weird rape joke. 

Right here around the 30 second mark. Tony is trying to life Thor’s hammer, and says “If I lift it, do I get to rule Asgard?” Thor says “Of course!” Tony then replies with “I will be reinstating prima nocta”. You know. That ancient rules where creepy old kings and emperors could take the virginity of whoever they wanted? Yeah. Really funny Whedon. 

I know there are more things I am forgetting, but this should be enough for you to understand why most of the fandom is unhappy with Joss. I am still excited for Age of Ultron, but I honestly feel cheated, like I am getting a pathetic excuse of the movie I hoped and waited for for three years. I hope this helped!

[maidofiron]

It’s really frightening how poor some people’s ability to comprehend can be re; the Black Widow ‘ s reason for seeing herself as a monster.    It’s because she was trained to be a killer ….they show people with sacks over their heads being used as target practice in the flashback.   It has nothing to do with her being sterilized as part of her training.

[brianmichaelbendis]

People online seem to be under the impression you don't like the Scarlet Witch or the Vision. Is that true? I thought you did Dissassembled because you wanted to tell a story, not out of spite.

 of course is not true. 

nobody writes stories to spite fictional characters.  to spite real people? sure. :-)

 it’s a very weird wrestling fan mentality that puts the creative person as the ‘heel’ character because  the reader doesn’t like what happened to their favorite character. 

or the reader doesn’t wait to find out that even though something bad happened this month that the hero will be triumphant the next month.

 people would constantly write to me: you must really hate daredevil, you must really hate Spider-man…

 people become so passionate in love with their favorite characters that they don’t realize that it is our job to make those characters interesting and that the only way to make them interesting is to have things happen to them. to put obstacles in front of them for them to overcome.

  and it’s overcoming those obstacles that make them the characters that we all love so much.

  there isn’t a Marvel character that I have written that I don’t feel sympathy  empathy or complete love for. 

 and some people just hate change. for these characters to thrive and survive they have to have change.

[maidofiron]

Yeah, but for the Scarlet Witch it was a bad change since she was removed from comics for years because of one story.  A story that ignored the ending to Darker than Scarlet.  Many of today’s readers  now think she was always crazy and genocidal when she is neither.  That was not the Wanda I used to read prior to Disassembled.