Doctor Doom may have headlined Marvel Comics’ 2025 event, but 2026 is truly the year of Doom thanks to the upcoming MCU movie and Doomquest. Written by head Fantastic Four writer Ryan North, the twelve-issue maxiseries promises an epic time travel story for the ages. Given the covers Alex Ross has created, it’s fairly clear that the creative team will have a lot of fun with key moments in human history.
Doomquest opens on a commercial celebrating Doctor Doom. It’s not obvious from the first page, which is a highly detailed full-page splash by Francesco Mobili, but a double-page layout that cleverly follows shows frames angled slightly, which lead to a panel pulling out to reveal it’s been playing on a TV over a market. North’s captions serve as the narration in the commercial, efficiently introducing Doctor Doom if you were somehow unfamiliar. Soon, we learn that even with a full-court press of propaganda, Latveria isn’t prospering as Doctor Doom would like.
Much like most of Doom’s motivations, North finds one through Reed Richards, who discusses a different kind of time travel in a keynote conversation broadcast on TV. It’s fair to say North knows how to write in Doom’s voice, from his grumpy remark about being refused to be the keynote speaker himself to how he treats his assistant who brings him news.
Love the look Doom gives him in the bottom left panel.
Credit: Marvel
As an extra-sized issue, the creative team does a lot to give the story an event-caliber feel. That goes for the stakes, but also the heroes who show up. There are so many, this might as well have been an event book, though once Doom hits the timestream, who knows what threats he’ll face outside of these heroes. Given the cliffhanger, the story is very much going to shift in a big way, which is exciting and should make most come back for more.
Outside of Doom building a time machine and then fighting the heroes who aim to stop him, there are also some nuanced moments that’ll make you think. Not in a deep philosophical way, per se, but in a way that’ll make you wonder how time travel factors into this opening. In what Reed says at one point, and what another hero does to help Doom, one has to think it’s due to the time travel adventure already taking effect. At the very least, there’s a mystery to unpack there.
Mobili outdoes himself on the art, with impressive full-page splashes, and captures the many heroes who pop up with gusto and detail. A double-page layout of Doom building his time machine is particularly great, with Doom wearing goggles and working on a gizmo that takes up the center of both pages, and panels running left and right of him, showing all the effort of Doom and his people to build it. The machine itself is revealed in a double-page layout, with an impressive look that’s somehow both cultural and alien all at once.
If I were to find a gripe, and I’d have to go searching to honestly really find one, it’s how this story feels outside of continuity. The events of One World Under Doom don’t seem to factor into what is happening, nor Chip Zdarsky’s recent run on Captain America. That’s perfectly fine, but without any reference or even nod to current events, this could just as well be an elseworlds story rather than one taking place in the 616.
Doomquest #1 launches with the scale and confidence of a true Marvel event, delivering a larger-than-life Doctor Doom story fueled by Ryan North’s sharp characterization and Francesco Mobili’s stunning visuals. The issue balances blockbuster superhero action with intriguing time travel mysteries, all while fully embracing Doom’s ego, brilliance, and obsession with Reed Richards. While the story currently feels detached from ongoing Marvel continuity, the ambitious setup and striking cliffhanger make this one of the strongest Doom-focused debuts in years.
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