One World Under Doom #2: Sympathy For The Devil…

It is One World Under Doom, and it is his first official day to speak to the former nations, as he addresses the countries of the world. Who better to address Doom at this point in time than the Fantastic Four? Will the First Family and Marvel’s successfully argue before Marvel’s biggest villain? Or will Doom use every power at his fingertips to get what he wants? Well, considering that the event doesn’t end here, it’s fair to assume that he doesn’t get stopped by the Fantastic Four. So let’s get this party started…

After the events of the first issue, Doom has made the entire world one big arm of the Latverian kingdom, with him reigning supreme. With his power he has given the world universal healthcare and education, with economic paths to becoming better the citizens, as long as they give Doom complete control. Ryan’s Doom seems like equal parts of an intelligent nod to Trump, while also parroting a lot of democratically social policies, like healthcare and education, giving us a mix politically. We see Doom and Valeria have a little side conversation, where Val basically asks Doom to show her the evidence of his beneficence, and she wants to hear it directly from Doom. This is probably one of the strongest moments in this issue, where Ryan uses their relationship to give us a deeper look into what Doom wants to accomplish now that he’s the supreme ruler of Earth.

Shortly after Doom and Valeria’s conversation, Doom addresses the world’s governments; meanwhile the Fantastic Four devise a plan to confront Doom, and show the world just who Doom is: a narcissistic sociopath, bent on nothing but power. Attacking the Doombots who are deployed as security while Doom is inside, are readily taken care of by the FF. Once they’re defeated, they’re approached by a second wave of security, this time being people who have joined Doom of their own free will, knowingly taking up this task despite knowing that if the weapons are destroyed, or taken from them, the guards would die by the weapons self-destructing. This move screams at how some people have an almost fanatical view in politicians, which causes these extremes, and makes some with more extreme political beliefs to become more mainstream.

Standing down after the debacle, Doom addresses the rest of the world, reveling in Reed’s shortcomings, especially his failure to return Ben to his original human form, stripping the FF of the Thing’s strength. Obviously a big power move on Doom’s part, but the action didn’t feel like Doom was doing it magnanimously, he did it to cripple his oldest, and deadliest adversaries. The issue had a decent flow, but unfortunately the book felt mostly like filler. Other than a few key elements, the story felt unnecessary to the characters involved.

Thankfully RB Silva’s on art duties, because they did the heavy lifting here. Silva’s no stranger to the Fantastic Four and their world. He was the artist for the last volume after the team had survived the events of Empyre, alongside the Avengers. Whether it’s Doom and Valeria’s jaunt around the world, to the FF’s fight against the Doombots, just incredible craftsmanship.