Doctor Doom: Books of Doom Paperback – 21 Jan. 2025

This was a decent read. I'm always dubious about revealing too much of a mysterious characters background, but it works for Doom. Elements didn't work for me, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment.

A reworking of the classic Von Doom origin story, but appears well dated with its depiction of semi feudal Latvaria. The ending was apt.

Books of Doom has provided me with two things; first, a tangible account of his origins in one glorious volume, and second, a graphic novel about Doctor Doom, and barely anyone else. I'm grateful enough for these reasons alone, but for it to be well adapted for the modern age while still retaining important details (no Victor Van Damme here) there was evidence enough for me to buy it on sight.The story takes in the magical dealings of his mother, his family's problems with the Baron, the scholarship to America, meeting Reed Richards, the accident and its aftermath, the time in tibet and the revolution against the Baron, and nothing collides into anything else, we move fluidly along the timeline as the story slowly builds. The wilderness between his disgrace in America and his convalescence is particularly compelling.The writing and characterisation are pretty spot on, and the colours are vivid and give the alpine nation of Latveria an aura of beauty. Most of the line work is diligently worked out, although Victor's pre-accident look isn't as consistent as i'd like, despite his growth from child to student. This is forgivable as the dark glare is present from his early days, and Raimondo goes with a swarthy, slavic mien rather than the lantern-jawed teutonic of earlier incarnations, while still having that look of iron determinancy. The mask is pretty much the original sixties number, with a little more detail. His endearing arrogance remains unaltered as well, and by the end just stops short of referring to himself in the third person.I'd recommend this to Marvelites everywhere and a must for subjects of Latveria's favourite son.

The origin story of Dr Doom is a classic super villain tale, that has changed little, since the fantastic four annual #2 where it was first told by the great Stan lee and jack kirby.This tale fleshes out the characters, and makes von doom a (slightly) more sympathetic character. It would be nice to have the annual collected here as a backup, to compare further.The book follows from Victors early years, as a small boy, showing the tragedies that befall him and set him on his dark path. Narrated by doom himself, the writers really do well to get across his arrogance, and his sense of superiority to all those around him, through this narration.The kindle ebook is fine, read this on my iPad mini, was very clear, aside from the splash pages, which were still ok, when using the "guided view". All in all a good read, highly recommended.

Quick delivery. Fab book.

Ed Brubaker brings his considerable writing talents to colour in the past of one of Marvel's more mysterious characters - Dr Doom. We get to see Victor as a young man, innocent and in love, travelling with his roaming family in an Eastern European-esque country before things go sour. "The Baron" is an evil noble who forces Victor and his family to go on the run, ultimately ending in tragedy, while Victor's mother dabbles in the black arts leading to more tragedy. It leads to Victor's escape to America where he first encounters Reed Richards before he returns to Latveria to wreak his revenge on the Baron and secure his country's future.All highly dramatic stuff, "The Books of Doom" is a good read with a lot going for it. Victor even comes across as a sometimes sympathetic character though oftentimes the coldness of his character that comes from suffering so much so young makes his actions more difficult to forgive. And for long-time fans of the Fantastic Four, we get to see how their greatest nemesis gets into the Darth Vader-type suit and finally goes from Victor von Doom to Dr Doom.Brubaker's writing is top notch as always and I enjoyed the artwork of Pablo Raimondi which suited the colourful landscapes that Victor's journey took him on. It's a fascinating read as all Origin stories should be, it's just a shame that it's fallen out of print in the UK. For fans of superheroes, as well as those of Ed Brubaker, it's a must-read.