The Will of Doom #1: A Clumsy Follow-Up

The Will of Doom #1 combines Fantastic Four and Red Hulk story threads into an unconventional One World Under Doom aftermath issue. The issue’s main plot is two-fold. First, there is an attempt by the remaining Doombots to fill the void created by Doom’s disappearance and create a collection of Doom-inspired fiefdoms across the planet. Second is Valeria’s inheritance and her attempt to disable the Doombots with her newly gained knowledge. Zdarsky leans into this story which stands in for a more intellectual and emotional examination of what the world would be like in the wake of a global dictator suddenly disappearing. It’s a too-easy way to brush aside the reality created by One World Under Doom.

Considerably more successful, and the emotional heart of The Will of Doom #1, is what Zdarsky does with Valeria and Sue. The story successfully creates a tension between Valeria’s attempt to solve the Doombot problem and her mother’s fear of losing her again. Whereas Zdarsky doesn’t find any kind of emotional power on a larger scale with the Doombot storyline, he does find it here with the more intimate family connection. Sue is a raw nerve of overprotective maternal instinct. Valeria, meanwhile, is trying to solve a problem and, in the way a child sometimes doesn’t quite get what is going on with his or her parents, isn’t fully grasping why her mother is standing in her way. It’s a good piece of writing.

“Let’s respect Latveria’s sovereignty” is a story thread that feels especially out of place in all of this. Zdarsky uses General Ross’s experiences in One World Under Doom to criticize United States interventionist foreign policy. The question of what to do with Latveria in the wake of Doom’s actions and disappearance is the prism through which the commentary is shot. The unsubtle metaphor standing in for the interventionist policy Zdarsky is critiquing is the flag Ross planted in Latveria in Red Hulk’s final issue.

Unfortunately Zdarsky’s criticism is a clumsy inclusion in the larger story. It stands out like a sore thumb, especially when it rears its head in the middle of the emotional Sue/Valeria story thread. Whereas One World Under Doom found nuance in its arguments, The Will of Doom #1 doesn’t even try to. This isn’t to say that what Zdarsky comments on isn’t worth examining. But it doesn’t organically work in this issue.

Cafu elevates the less emotional narrative elements with good facial detail leading to expressive characters. Patches of shading, usually made up of thin straight lines, sometimes intersecting in crisp angles, accentuate features. This is especially true on a leaner, older character like General Ross. But even on younger characters and characters with less mileage, Cafu slips in this kind of detail–around the mouth or the eyes in smaller amounts–to always find emotion in the characters on the page.

Doombot action sequences deliver without going overboard. Background detail doesn’t suffer. There is a different energy in small spaces versus large because Cafu maintains a sense of scale in all the art, in large part because of that detail. The standout visuals in The Will of Doom #1 are character oriented, but these action sequences remain engaging and memorable.

Curiel favors a vivid color palette throughout The Will of Doom #1, and he dials it up even further with the expression of powers and explosions. This coloring style plays well into Cafu’s action oriented artwork, enhancing spectacle.

Lanham has a lot of text to deal with in The Will of Doom #1. Panels are repeatedly packed full of dialogue. Lanham is able to organize everything against borders and around significant art to keep the volume of text stealing the attention from the art.