The Iron Face Of God: Doctor Doom #4 Reviewed
by Josh Davison
Mild Spoilers Ahead
We jump back a year to witness the homeless Dimitri Fortunov being found and taken in by mysterious agents. In the present, Doctor Doom has located and is infiltrating an A.I.M. headquarters. He blows through their security forces with relative ease until he comes face-to-face with his killer: the Taskmaster. Meanwhile, Symkarian forces stand at the Latverian border. Prime Minister Sablinova demands that Victorious stand down and allow Dimitri Fortunov to take the throne. Victorious responds with force, so Silver Sable must bring her down.
Doctor Doom #4 finds Victor continuing his investigation into this potential future in which he establishes a utopian society. To this end, he has located A.I.M. and seeks answers there as well as why Taskmaster was hired to kill Doom.
The comic is accompanied by a narrative conversation between Doom and an unknown interlocutor. The person with whom Doom speaks has a hypothesis: Doctor Doom is god and this utopian future is inevitable. Doom is reticent to believe this, but the other voice is quite convincing.
The fight between Doom and Taskmaster is quite good, though we don’t get to see a lot of it. That said, I’ll take every Taskmaster appearance I can get.
Salvador Larroca continues to show himself to be an artistic powerhouse in this comic. His depiction of Doom succeeds in giving humanity to the iron visage and the fights between Doom and Taskmaster as well as Victorious and Silver Sable look great and flow well. His detailing continues to be breathtaking and color artist Guru-eFX backs him up with well-balanced and lively work.
Doctor Doom #4 brings Victor a step closer to his future. He still doesn’t understand what he’s learned in recent days, but he is determined to discover the truth of it all. He has been called God and Death herself has claimed that Doom will bring about untold destruction. It’s a compelling yet strange mystery that nonetheless feels very Doctor Doom. Needless to say, this issue gets a recommendation. Check it out.
Doctor Doom #4 comes to us from writer Christopher Cantwell, artist Salvador Larroca, color artist Guru-eFX, letterer VC’s Cory Petit, cover artist Tomm Coker with Michael Garland, and variant cover artist Will Sliney with Jason Keith.
Final Score: 8.5/10
