Five-time Eisner-nominated Best Writer Ed Brubaker turns his shadowy vision to Marvel's greatest villain, Victor Von Doom. With the phenomenal art team of Pablo Raimondi and Mark Farmer, you will witness Doom's life from his earliest moments to the day he took the throne of Latveria. A dark and revealing examination of how an innocent boy grows up to be a tyrant - a new twist on an old legend - Books of Doom is a sweeping epic of tragedy, madness and destiny! Collects Books of Doom #1-6.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Glory Doom,
This review is from: Fantastic Four: Books of Doom (Hardcover)
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.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Books Of Doom,
By sleeping sheepsnake "Seth" (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Fantastic Four: Books of Doom (Hardcover)
I've been working my way through the contents of Essential Super-Villain Team-Up Volume 1, which features Doctor Doom as the central character, and I decided to take a little detour over to this graphic novel called Fantastic Four: Books Of Doom, because Doom made me. He's very pushy that way, and hard to refuse when he asserts the full force of his personality to make me buy stuff.
Books Of Doom was originally six comic books providing the origin story of the Fantastic Four's greatest enemy; now it's this graphic novel. The story is surprisingly low-key, and in fact does not generate very much tension--Doom is sort of on a slow plod to ultimate greatness, starting from when he is four years old (one of the best scenes is when this child promises revenge against several Latverian gypsy kinsmen--full-grown men!--who have badmouthed his murdered mother and spoken harshly to their leader, Doom's pappy; I'm reminded of Rodney Dangerfield's old joke: "How tough was he?...When he was two years old, he came here from Italy......by himself!" Doom the toddler is issuing death threats). As the story jumps ahead in years, to focus on all the key events in young Doom's life that misshape him, there are no battles with super-heroes, no super-villain team-ups, no Fantastic Four or Avengers (though Doom-as-teenager meets up with fellow science whiz Reed Richards in some quick scenes, once Doom has fled to the USA). The US Government exploits his genius, getting him to build cool stuff for them, while Doom starts to think outside the box, but inside the pentagram, melding science and sorcery in an attempt to visit the spirit of his mother in the nether-realm, where she is tortured endlessly by a demon. The result of this: Doom scarred for life, face in bandages, so it's only a matter of time before linen will be exchanged for impenetrable armor. The armor represents Doom's removal of his person from regular people who disgust him in their foolishness (Doom has a slight arrogance problem, did you know that?), as does his sojourn through the mountains of Tibet to find a monks' temple that will afford him peace for a time. Once the armor is forged, and Doom starts building all his favourite killer robots, he sets his sights on Latveria--the claiming of it from its present king, an old enemy. Though the takeover of Latveria is a fairly straightforward affair--a coup that's over in the first round--it's probably one of the best sequences of the Books Of Doom, because the art shows Doom in all his striding, unstoppable majesty. He is ruler before he is ruler; ripping the green cape off the former ruler and throwing it about his shoulders is, for Doctor Doom, a mere formality (though he does look cool in it). Terrific stuff. If you liked the first part of Batman Begins, right up til when the main character puts on his costume for the first time, and then want the story to segue into something more like Revenge Of The Sith right when the lead character kills Mace Windu, then you will like Books Of Doom--or something like that. Reading this tale in tandem with Essential Super-Villain Team-Up has been rather fun. For all the toned-down atmosphere of Books Of Doom, this is definitely the same guy from Team-Up. I love the fact that Doom, in both, has the same over-the-top high-and-mighty speech patterns, the same florid melodramatic way with words (and threats)--it's just that he uses a lot more exclamation points in Super-Villain Team-Up ( a LOT more!!!!!!!..!!) And anyway, Doom doesn't need to shout--he's got a death-ray, and a time machine. It's also clear that Books Of Doom draws on material from previous comics like Super-Villain Team-Up to flesh out the origin; servile Boris, Prince Rudolpho, annual duels with a demon, a penchant for robots that eventually get above themselves--all are either shown or mentioned in both works, which makes Doom's life feel big, epic, spread out over a huge canvas which Books Of Doom collects together. I was tempted to award Books Of Doom a mere three-star rating for its lack of pyrotechnics, but hey, it wouldn't be the first origin story that's somewhat less dynamic and exciting than what comes later. You get used to it. And belated origin stories that stay faithful to pre-existing snippets are always a bit predictable (I'm sure Doom and Vader have lamented this over pints of Latverian Ale with a Force chaser). And while I didn't find the art all that impressive--except for depictions of Doom himself with his green cape that seems to slowly fade to black--it's certainly crisp and direct. So, enjoy the origin of Doctor Doom, and if you want louder mayhem, you know where to go to see him beat up on the Sub-Mariner.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic Four: Books of Doom,
By
This review is from: Fantastic Four: Books of Doom (Hardcover)
I love Dr. Doom and this book only made it better. Great series, great art, ending was a little dissapointing.
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