The following contains major spoilers for The last ones #4, on sale now from Marvel Comics.
Earlier this year, one of the biggest pop culture events of the year (heck, the last FEW years) occurred when Marvel Studios revealed that the Russo Brothers would be returning to direct the next two Avengers films and that Robert Downey Jr. would be returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Doctor Doom. Following the reveal, Deniz Camp, the writer of The last onesposted on social media that “If you want to understand Robert Downey Jr. as Doom, you MUST read Ultimates 4 on September 4th (or whenever that comes out).”
WELL, The last ones #4 is out, and it was a fascinating look at the new Doom, but what, if anything, does it have to say about Downey Jr. as Doom? Well, I guess we'll just have to check it out, won't we? The last ones Issue #4 is the work of writer Deniz Camp, with guest artist Phll Noto (who also colored the issue) and letterer Travis Lanham.
How does Doom torment himself in this issue?
In case you're not familiar with the current Ultimate Universe, the idea is that The Maker (the original Ultimate Universe Reed Richards, who went insane and became a horrible villain) took over an alternate Marvel Earth, and then manipulated events to ensure that superheroes never rose to power. Instead, The Maker controls the entire planet, along with his Council. During the crossover event, Ultimate Invasion, The Maker was trapped by Howard Stark, which gives Howard's son, Tony, a chance to prepare for when The Maker is freed from Howard's trap. So Tony, who calls himself Iron Lad, goes to find all the heroes who never had the chance to become heroes and travels back in time to give them a chance to embrace their destiny again (one of the heroes who accepted this was Peter Parker, who was now married with two kids, but decides to embrace his stolen legacy as Spider-Man). This new team is the Ultimates.
Meanwhile, one of Tony's group members is this Earth's Reed Richards, whom the Maker has transformed into this world's Doom. Throughout the issue, Reed Richards tries to replicate the accident that gave the Fantastic Four their powers on some lab rats, while reliving the horrors of his life, as we see how the Maker altered events so that Johnny Storm, Sue Storm, and Ben Grimm all died horribly and the Fantastic Four never existed.
After Reed went through all this torment, the Creator took him and mentally destroyed him until Reed accepted that he was Doom. It's terrifying and Phil Noto's character-driven art (which has always been his greatest talent, the ability to draw people so realistic and relatable) makes it so brutal to read, but so compelling at the same time.
“Doom” has access to a time machine, and so he relives these moments over and over again, as he tries to replicate the accident that gave the Fantastic Four their powers on a quartet of lab rats, and IT WON'T. WORK. Think about how horrible that is: not only does “Doom” have to live the torment of his life, he also has to deal with the fact that an alternate version of HIMSELF did it, but on top of that, he was meant to live a heroic life with the woman he loved, his best friend, and his brother-in-law, and everything is ruined, and he's also disfigured and wearing an iron mask! How could ANYONE go through that kind of torment?
And yet, Doom endures the torment, secretly using his access to the past to watch everything over and over again, even as he continues to experiment on the rats. The story is cleverly set across four different time periods. The events leading up to the Fantastic Four's ill-fated trip, the aftermath of the Maker bungling the trip (and Reed being transformed into Doom), Doom looking into the past and devising a plan to set things right, and the “present,” where Iron Lad confronts Doom for missing the latest Ultimates mission due to his secret experiments.
It's such a clever set-up of Camp, and so beautifully executed by Noto, that you could actually see this issue easily being nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Single Issue next year. It's that good.
What can you say about Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom?
The thing is, this doesn't really matter to my analysis of the issue, so it's a bit superfluous, but hey, once Camp released what he released, how could we NOT talk about it, right?
So I think the only thing that comes to mind when we look at the plot of this issue is that maybe Downey Jr. will play an alternate reality Tony Stark who is damaged enough to essentially take on the identity of Doctor Doom. That would certainly fit well with the multiversal nature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in recent years, and hey, I'm not even saying it wouldn't be a good idea for a storyline, but I would worry that it would damage the REAL Doctor Doom. In the comics, we're so used to alternate realities that this version of Doom doesn't really impact the “real” Doctor Doom, but that wouldn't be the case in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In any case, if it is managed well as The last ones #4, on the other hand, I would have a hard time complaining.
The last ones #4 is on sale now
Source: Marvel