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Tweak says, "trumpy u can do magic things"

sherkahn (sherkahn) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-06-02 09:14:00

Week of Doom: Unthinkable Part II
Dr. Doom shows why he's Marvel's TOP villain.

Doom begins his plan against the FF using his new mystic powers.

1st, he taps into his *familiar*, who happens to be the young Valeria Richards.
Talk about traumatizing the kid... strong grown men have fainted under the gaze of Doom's scarred face.

Using her as his mystic eyes and ears, he gets through their high-tech defenses.

He launches an assault on the FF headquarters.
Then he sends their eldest child Franklin to hell. Yup, just like the movie.

Since the Ghostbusters aren't available (and Reed never bothered to think about creating weapons and defenses against inter-dimensional threats).

The FF go to Latveria to force Doom to return Franklin back to them.

The FF throw everything they can at Doom. Nothing works.

Doom tortures the FF in particularly gruesome ways, then tortures Reed with the knowledge that as smart as Reed may be, he doesn't know enough to figure out how to stop Doom.

coming up... Reed gets humbled, and the villain gets his due.

*For the mods, FF Series 3, issues #68-70

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longhairedlady
2009-06-02 02:15 pm UTC (link)

I've never read this story, so to experience it like this, so shortly after seeing the actually quite touching scans with baby Valeria, is really jarring. Like, letting Reed know he'd saved his kid should have been enough.

That said, I know its never just you on scans_daily, but did anyone else read the panel with "I'll do anything you want" and "this room, why am I here" and think the next panel would pull back and show a bedroom?

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batcookies
2009-06-02 02:34 pm UTC (link)

That's one of my major beefs with this story. It's built on the premise that Doom is so tired of losing to Reed that he'll do anything to win. The idea that he'd give up on using technology and turn to magic (which is essentially like admitting he can't win using tech, which is just... no) is bad enough, but it ignores the fact that the last two times he'd met Reed before this (including saving Valeria) he'd essentially "beaten" Reed.

Horrible story in every way.

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bluefall
2009-06-02 02:49 pm UTC (link)

to experience it like this, so shortly after seeing the actually quite touching scans with baby Valeria, is really jarring.

The thing that baffles me is, in order to have written this story, you have to have read the other, right? So, like, how is it even possible to read Doom saving Sue and Valeria like that, and even conceive of Doom pausing somewhere in that scene to plant psychic spy magic in the baby? How can you have read that scene and still think the scene that opens this post makes any sense to write, that the Doom in that scene could have or would have ever done something like he does here? They just seem so clearly, drastically incompatible to me.

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	arbre_rieur 2009-06-02 03:17 pm UTC (link)
	Among his many other talents, Dr. Doom is an excellent actor. (Reply to this) (Parent)

sherkahn
2009-06-02 03:22 pm UTC (link)

I actually think it to be within Doom's character to do something like that... having the foresight to plant a tool and resource within Valeria herself in order to use against Reed. whether it is now, or 10 years later, or 15 years when she is a teen.
Doom has been known to leave secret bases and stashes across the globe (africa, antarctica, the middle east) should he need to replenish his tools, as well as plant spies and resources for him to access. That's why Doom is amazing at preparing... he thinks ahead.
when looking back at that scene when Doom helped deliver Valeria, that look in his eye as he considered Johnny's plea. Did it seem to you he is taking it as face value to trump Reed, or a golden opportunity to plant something within Sue, Johnny and Valeria to use against Reed in the future?

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	bluefall 2009-06-02 03:27 pm UTC (link)
	I just don't find "No harm will ever come to you" and "you're totally my tool to use against your father" particularly compatible. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	arbre_rieur 2009-06-02 03:37 pm UTC (link)
	Well, he's right. It doesn't actually harm her. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	xdoop 2009-06-02 06:02 pm UTC (link)
	(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	arbre_rieur 2009-06-02 06:17 pm UTC (link)
	Yes, but what did he actually do to her? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	xdoop 2009-06-02 06:22 pm UTC (link)
	Nothing, because he got distracted in the next panel by Reed's magic. Doesn't change the fact he was obviously contemplating it. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	arbre_rieur 2009-06-03 12:09 am UTC (link)
	Fair point. I haven't read the story since it first came out. I'll point out, though, that Doom could easily have harmed her earlier, and it was his promise made during her birth that stays his hand. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	xdoop 2009-06-03 07:43 am UTC (link)
	I doubt that's what Waid was thinking, seeing as how he's said that "the truism that Victor Von Doom is, despite his villainy, a noble man is absolute crap" and that Doom "would tear the head off a newborn baby and eat it like an apple while his mother watched if it would somehow prove he were smarter than Reed." (Reply to this) (Parent)

	sherkahn 2009-06-02 03:50 pm UTC (link)
	Actually, it works. Its the one "tool" that Reed would dare not destroy or hurt if it was turned against him. Reed would rather die himself. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	bluefall 2009-06-02 04:00 pm UTC (link)
	Reed is not the reason it's inconsistent. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	xdoop 2009-06-02 03:57 pm UTC (link)
	It's possible, but it basically destroys a pretty good story with lots of interesting potential (Doom's relationship with Valeria), all to make another crappy "Doom is eeevvilll" story. (Reply to this) (Parent)

aaron_bourque
2009-06-02 05:29 pm UTC (link)

The difference between making contingency plans on a whim (It is windy today. I have to find a landscape artist and plant the idea of creating lawn sculptures of a certain theme, so that if my plans regarding silk are unraveled, I will have secret knowledge to fall back on.) and "Unthinkable" is that it completely invalidates the basic premise of "Unthinkable," namely, that Doom was sort of desperate, and thus pulling out all the stops. He's always had THOUSANDS of plans, some of which would actually contradict others(!), meaning Doom always has another couple of tricks up his sleeves. He's NEVER desperate enough to skin the woman he might actually love ALIVE and wear her flesh, and then play keep away with the girl he delivered.

If Doom were as EEEEEVIL as Unprintable posits 1) He never would have saved Valeria, or Sue. He would have just twirled his mustache at Reed going "Did I do that on purpose, or was your wife's condition just soooo bad that even DOOM could not save her? Nyah neenyah nenyahnyah, I'LL NEVER TELL YOU, YOU'LL NEVER KNOW. Nanny nanny nyah."

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	sherkahn 2009-06-02 05:38 pm UTC (link)
	Doom's ends justify Doom's means, and all things serve Doom. Everything else is trivial. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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