Doom #1: The Universe According to Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night

Rage, rage against the dying of the light

–”Do not go gentle into that good night”, Dylan Thomas

Valeria Richards finds massive Doom armor, of a size that rivals Galactus, floating in space. The armor itself is destroyed, but Doom is inside, barely alive. Doom #1 tracks Galactus’ mad charge throughout the galaxy. No longer content to consume only what he needs to to replenish and maintain a level of energy, the cosmic force of nature ravaged planet after planet after planet until it came to Earth. While Reed Richards tried to solve the problem, Doom faced Galactus head on. He failed. And Earth fell. Now Valeria and Doom may be all that stands between Galactus and the end of everything.

Most of Doom #1 is told in the past tense. Valeria catches Doom up on events since his near death. In the process she explains what changed about Galactus’ behavior. He had abandoned any pretense about balancing his consumption and energy needs. Instead he was accumulating as much energy as he could as fast he could. Doom failed because he proceeded from a false assumption. Valeria’s recollections create a comic that on a surface level is a science fiction epic. It’s tailor made to be a giant event. But the choice to condense the story into a single issue drives a nonstop sense of urgency that only increases as the issue goes on.

Even more basic that a sci-fi epic, Doom #1 is two people fighting to save all of creation. And because Doom is the main character, there is no shortage of ego and revenge driving his and Valeria’s action. So like the sci-fi epic, on a surface level, this is the ultimate Doom character story.

But in truth Doom #1 is neither of those things. Not truly. Galactus is a force of nature. As far as the universe is concerned, he’s death. And as the book says in its opening, everyone is on borrowed time.

Dylan Thomas’ poem “Do not go gentle into that good night” (it has no title beside the first line, a refrain in the poem) is about what everyone assumes it’s about from its most famous lines: death. The poem begins:

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage. rage against the dying of the night.

The second line is interpreted in one of two ways, one of them being that this is a point of aloneness and loneliness before death. In Doom #1, there is only Valeria and Doom remaining to try and stop the most powerful being the universe has seen. The two characters have a plan but don’t necessarily have hope.

The poem’s following stanzas refer to all manner of men: “wise”, “good”, “wild”, and “grave” who embody the poem’s refrains. Each of them lived their lives in different ways. But each of them also rages and does not go gentle. And in looking at Doom as a character, each of those descriptions have fit him at various times. In a roundabout way, Thomas’ poem reminds the reader that death waits for everyone and that it’s important to seize the day. If death likely waits for Valeria and Doom in any event, why fight back? Because time is short and life should be embraced.

Hickman tells this story with a lot of dialogue. There are major events to be sure. But much of the issue is Valeria monologuing. The dialogue is largely matter of fact. But beneath that is a kind of desperation. At its simplest the story taps into the universal and recognizable idea of not going down without a fight. But if Galactus, like death, cannot be stopped, is not Hickman saying the same thing Thomas was: live a full life, and don’t lie down when it ends.

Doom #1 possesses a nearly unrivaled visual scope. There are no traditional grids. Most pages feature panels of various shapes and sizes set against full page spreads. Greene doesn’t waste a single one of those full page spreads. Space settings are expansive. The collection of Earth heroes standing against him rivals some of the best drawings of large collections of characters, especially given the level of detail expected today.

The smaller panels provide closeups in most cases, and Greene handles those with similar skill. Valeria is the only human character in the issue, and Greene makes her emotions easy to read. Indeed, in every panel she appears tired, exhausted in an existential way.

Most importantly, at no point does Galactus feel second to any other character. He is massive at all times. All the Earth heroes combined are about the size of his head. Doom’s armor looks insignificant in their battle even though the two characters are ostensibly the same size. When Galactus stares upward at a group of Celestials, it’s plain to see that the Celestials have no chance. 

Supporting all of this galactic size art is Greene and Rosenberg’s coloring. Stars and stellar phenomena are often Galactus’ backdrop. Waves of green/blue energy flow around and from Doom’s new armor. On the other hand, Doom’s old wrecked armor is dull, especially when compared to the still rich colored Galactus who defeated him.

Doom #1 features a surprising amount of dialogue given the massive scale of the story and art. Dialogue descriptions of events didn’t necessarily need to be as detailed. It could just as well have been something along the lines of “they enter the arena and race.” But Hickman’s writing is heavily detailed. Caramagna successfully organizes all of the dialogue bubbles and caption boxes to keep from intruding on Greene’s art. To paraphrase an idea that does a disservice to letterers, good lettering is when you don’t notice it. In this case, though, it describes very good work.