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Who Is ... The Shroud?
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After all the excitement last time building up to who Doom's mysterious guest might be, this issue kicks off with Henry Kissinger right there on the splash page, agreeing with Doctor Doom that "these super-heroes have enjoyed too much freedom to this point."
Next time some idiot on the internet complains about comics "becoming" political, please feel free to show them the above!
The Fantastic Four leave, with Mr Fantastic, supposedly the most intelligent man on the planet, having complete trust in his goverment
Johnny Storm accuses him of being like Neville Chamberlain, and Doom like Hitler, which might be going a little bit far, but does show that the Human Torch didn't sleep through quite ALL of his classes at school.
Kissinger then hops into a helicopter, while Namor storms off in disgust, back to the castle where he bumps into The Shroud. Namor hops into the bath to recharge, and The Shroud decides it's a good time to tell him his origin story.
It turns out that his parents were murdered right in front of him on the way home from a public entertainment one night, and the young orphan swore to spend his life avenging their death by fighting all criminals.
He trains himself but, somehow, that doesn't seem quite enough until he realises that he should become a Superhero instead so...
Hang on, does this sound eerily familiar? Sadly he doesn't decide that criminals are a cowardly superstitious lot but does very much head into the himalayas where he meets a mystic sect who teach him their mystic ways, which leads to him having his face scarred horribly and...
Come on Steve Engleheart, this is just combining the origins of Batman and Doctor Doom isn't it? I mean, it's not like they were that different to begin with! (actually, a brief Google tells me that he was actually meant to be a mix of Batman and The Shadow!)
With that story told The Shroud reveals that he plans to kill Doctor Doom in order to... jumpstart his superhero career?
"Oh. I see... you're insane," says Namor, which is an entirely fair point.
Doom himself is out walking his dogs, thinking about the fact that where his subjects used to respect him, they now fear him instead.
We addressed this in the previous blog, and I think it's worth noting that Doom's version of history isn't quite correct. He was depicted as loved by his people well after he first attacked the Fantastic Four, and has shown to be similarly respected quite recently. This is a major rewrite of Doom's character, with Engleheart claiming that Doom's attitude towards his people was a "mask" all along, rather than heartfelt. This is a massive change, but it's nothing compared to what happens next.
What the ACTUAL HECK? Doctor Doom is a rapist now? Nothing like this has ever happened before with this character, and it's a sudden leap that makes even the biggest previous changes seem like nothing. On first reading this I hoped that he was maybe using this as an excuse to take the girl out to the woods to maybe give her cosmic powers or something, but no, he's definitely doing exactly what it looks like he's doing.
Thankfully for all concerned, The Shroud chooses this moment to attack, and launches into a big fight that shows all of Doom's gizmoes and tactics are pretty much useless against someone who knows how to jump out of the way.
Doom finds the entire thing very tiresome, especially when this "upstart super-hero" attaches a magnetic magnesium bomb to his chest plate.
Doom simply rips off his chest plate, but then, bizarrely, is attacked from behind by a wolf who knocks him off the side of a cliff.
It is, to be frank, all a bit rubbish. The Shroud rushes back to tell Namor that he's killed Doctor Doom and therefore the Sub-mariner is no longer bound by his oath. Namor finds this all a bit unbelieavble but slinks off anyway, and the issue ends with his suspicion being proved correct, as Doom wakes up in a submarine.
Hang on, they found him in a river? What on earth were the inhabitants of Hydrobase doing in a river in Eastern Europe? And doesn't Doom's army have an air supply? The whole thing is most unsatisfactory, much like this entire issue. If I sound annoyed it's because I am - let's hope there's another Exciting New Direction for this series coming soon!
link to information about this issue
posted 7/8/2019 by Mark Hibbett
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