Doom All-On-One #1: One-Shot At Glory

“Synergy books” are limited series or one-shot comics made to push whatever is upcoming in the MCU. Hence the tiring amount of, at best, half-baked Spider-Man content prior to the release of the Brand New Day film earlier this year. With Avengers: Doomsday on the horizon, Marvel is putting on the full-court marketing press for Doctor Doom. These books are, usually, not worth their price tag given that they often tie into nothing and rarely commit to a decent, if at all passing, storyline. However, Doom All-on-One might be one of the rare exceptions.

By this point in his career, Al Ewing is known for beautiful sounding, poetic dialogue that often puts the character before the story and wraps them in themes of philosophical irony and a bit of mystery. His Marvel runs like the now-renamed Thor (formerly “The Mortal Thor”) and 2022’s X-Men: Red both have a deep “science-fantasy with a subtle sense of horror” blend to them, which is a style that could fit Doctor Doom quite well given the right conditions. Sadly, a one-shot is not “the right conditions,” but it’s better than nothing and by far Doom’s best outing this year (so far).

As Doom arrives to challenge Mephisto for his mother’s soul, he is met by Marvel heroes or illusions of them created by Mephisto. Ewing has doom narrate his rapid sets of battles with the Avengers, X-Men, and of course the Fantastic Four.

While each of the heroes use their familiar tricks and attacks, Doom does what he does best and pulls out continual “because I said so” gadgets and spells. It’s a testament to Al Ewing’s ability as a writer that with so many characters and constant action, the reader never gets lost. Doom’s narration keeps the pacing focused and the story centered on himself.

Ever since his run on Moon Knight back in 2021 with Jed MacKay, Alessandro Cappuccio has been one of those artists whose visual style alone could get me to put a one-shot on my pull list. In the 50+ pages of Doom All-On-One, Cappuccio goes buck freaking wild with dark, moody backgrounds and imposing, almost mythical character designs that boggle the mind and enthrall.

The pages run deep with a sense of scale and depth to the artwork. Characters move naturally from one spread to another, and the sheer scale of splash page after splash page gives them cinematic levels of impact as Storm calls down lightning or Thor hurls his hammer.

As Doom All-On-One is told exclusively in splash pages, there is no way of splitting up a scene into smaller panels or having different characters react individually to every new twist. Cappuccio puts more than a dozen characters on the same page, all without getting lost in the background or feeling like action set pieces. Impressive as it is, the line art can still be daunting.

It’s easy to freeze on a page and count characters like a veritable Where’s Waldo? of your favorite superheroes. The issue’s focus on action helps the readability of the art. It’s much easier to tell what character is making what move when they all have their own color-coded or elemental superpowers.

The colors, provided by Rachelle Rosenberg, only add to Cappuccio’s giant-sized pages, dominating characters, and seamless line art. There is a bit of clash between some of the characters who occupy similar color combinations, but nothing the line art isn’t able to differentiate. Mephisto’s realm, the endless slideshow of special effects, and varied the textures of characters and their scenery are all handled brilliantly by the coloring.

Like many, I am desperately tired of Doctor Doom being pushed out everywhere Marvel can fit him in in 2026. However, there is a certain indescribable symmetry between Ewing and Cappuccio in this issue, one that makes me forget I am reading an MCU synergy book handed down by some executive whose only goal is to pump ticket prices in December. That quality alone is enough to justify this read and a genuine recommendation.