As Fall of X continues, ongoing stories that have lasted years are getting wrapped up. That includes stories yet to be told but deserving of their time in the sun. Enter Dr. Doom in a new issue where Gerry Duggan and Joshua Cassara reveal how Doom formed his mutant super-team in anticipation of the fall of Krakoa.
This is an exciting done-in-one story, opening in the past to reveal Dr. Doom prevented Xavier from telegraphing his message to Latveria. In the opening scene, we see Magneto, Xavier, and Moira slightly confused as Xavier gets a message. It sets the stage for his mutant team with incredible powers before they eventually face the X-Men.
There are a lot of great little moments in this issue, which is easy to do as it jumps around in time a bit. It’s funny to see Magneto say, “Block him and move on.” in an age where that’s the only option with social media. Or when we first meet Dr. Doom, he’s testing a weapon on costumes of high-profile superheroes. The introduction of the Latverian mutants is also smartly done, showing them pre-training, with training, and finally mastered in training.
Duggan unveils the different powers of these outcast Latverian mutants through a data page. Each one has clever powers, and through the issue, we get to see Dr. Doom interact with them and bring them into the fold. A key data page outlines their powers via Dr. Doom’s notes, which adds a nice flourish of his ego into the mix. Duggan has a great handle on Dr. Doom’s voice, who never wavers and is always certain of himself.
I love that Dr. Doom made this device but also designed it.
Credit: Marvel
Cassara comes in with highly entertaining visuals as Dr. Doom’s team tussles with the X-Men. Wolverine is mostly a punching bag, but Ms. Marvel gets a moment to shine while the Doom mutants are the real stars of the show. The flashbacks to show how Dr. Doom met each mutant are well done by Marte Gracia, creating a dreamlike quality with great colors.
My only gripe is not knowing if any of this will matter. It’s a nice aside, and there’s some promise that Dr. Doom will be entering the fray with Orchis at some point, but it’s also an intro to new mutants and not much more. The cliffhanger leads directly into a major conflict for the X-Men to take on, but as it stands, you could skip this issue if you weren’t feeling the need to meet new mutants.
X-Men #29 is a fine side mission to Latveria, where we meet brand new mutants with incredible powers. At its core, Dr. Doom reigns supreme reminding us he’s the ultimate tactician and the most egomaniacal fascist in Marvel Comics.
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