Books of Doom

The main controversy with the origins of Doctor Doom concern the different ones established by John Byrne and Jack Kirby. During Kirby's solo run on Fantastic Four, he implied that Doom's face actual only had a small scar, but Doom's vanity causes him to hide it from the world. During Byrne's run on Fantastic Four, he introduces Doom as someone despite being a villain had certain honorable qualities retconing much of Kirby's work. In an attempt to reconcile with Kirby, in Byrne's origin Doom only gets a small scar from the accident and receives his major scarring from putting his mask on before the metal cools. Given Doom's constant depiction as one of the smartest men in the world, such carelessness would be uncharacteristic to say the least. On to Books of Doom. In this series, Doom's origins are expanded upon like never before. Even as a child Doom is a scary and intimidating figure, but Brubaker also incorporates a lot of Byrne's honor into the character. The scene his facial scarring, which is many ways signals the death of Victor von Doom and birth of Doctor Doom, is handed especially well. Overall, Books of Doom give a great incite into the life of Marvel's greatest villain.

As a hard core fan of Doctor Doom, my hopes were set very high for this and, much to my pleasant surprise it exceeded them. For some people, it might be too long "six issues dedicated to Dr. Doom's origin?" was a question I heard more than once. But, yes, and it's wonderful. Be sure to follow this up with another GREAT graphic novel: "Triumph and Torment" a Dr. Strange/Dr. Doom team-up that is nothing short of amazing.

I love Dr. Doom and this book only made it better. Great series, great art, ending was a little dissapointing.

This is one of the best pieces of literature that I've ever had the pleasure to read. If you are a comic fan in any sort you must read this book. If you have seen the movie Interview with the Vampire and enjoy the interview point that the director gives while telling the story, then you will truely enjoy this book. A ton of content and book you will lose sleep over if you don't start reading it early in the day.

I grew up being a HUGE DC fan. Marvel stuff was, largely, the way of mutants, and I just never really caught that bug. However, I can remember as a little reading some cheap black-n-white adaptations of the Fantastic Four and being thrilled by the major evildoer, Doctor Doom aka Victor Von Doom, and, having seen the recent FANTASTIC FOUR film on DVD, I thought I'd pick this up to explore Ed Brubaker's take on Von Doom's origins ... and I'm certainly glad I did. FANTASTIC FOUR: BOOKS OF DOOM isn't your run-of-the-mill graphic novel; it isn't chockful of fisticuffs and derringdo. Rather, it's largely a meditation done from the point of view of a documentary film -- think of it as a History Channel flick, an investigative journalist piece about the legend behind the man who is Victor Von Doom. Brubaker takes Doom way back to his origins -- to the fateful day when his mother, a witch, slipped away from her hold on life and the young boy -- already tainted by evil -- was raised by his guilt-ridden father. Not long after losing his father, Victor ventures to America -- with the help of an unnamed shadowy American government organization -- where he's to use his genius for the benefit of "world peace" ... or what services as American interests at the time. Of course, he meets Reed Richards, but that's the only substantive link back to the Fantastic Four. Otherwise, BOOKS OF DOOM (a collection of a six-part Marvel mini) is largely a meditation -- through the eyes of those who knew him best -- on how this boy grew into man who would be shaped by evil perhaps, largely, not of his own accord. It's a fascination exploration of the psyche behind one of all of comicbook's greatest villains. It's tragic, it's relevant, and it's terrific. Also, there's a great twist ending that isn't fully revealed until the last page ... usually the sign of a great yarn.