FROM THE DOM POV: BRUBAKER ON THE BOOK OF DOOM
Announced as being on the schedule at this past weekends Cup o Joe panel at WizardWorld: Philadelphia, Ed Brubakers The Book of Doom promises, according to the writer, a look inside Doom like none before.
First off, if youre a Brubaker watcher, yes, you have heard about this project before it was one of the first things mentioned when the writer began working for Marvel after ending his exclusive relationship with DC.
Doom came a while back, like late last summer, Brubaker told Newsarama. [Editor] Tom Brevoort called me up and said, How'd you like to do the life story of Von Doom? He said that Marvel wanted to do something different, to make it like a sweeping Russian epic or something, a giant tragedy about one of the coolest characters of all time, and I said, I don't have time for this now, but do not give this to anyone else.
As Brubaker said, the story of the six-issue miniseries will be the life story of Victor Von Doom, starting appropriately enough, just prior to his birth, with issue #6 wrapping just before he takes the throne of Latveria. Each chapter covers a different period in his life, told mostly through his own words, Brubaker said. So, we'll see his time in college with Reed and Ben, and his formative years when the Fantastic Four first appear. This is a real world from Doom's point of view story, though, and he's the sympathetic lead, well
as much as he can be.
While Brubaker knows that a lot has been written about Doom in his 60+ years, The Book of Doom isnt about re-writing continuity, or juggling things to make every divergent story somehow fit. I took all the research about Doom's life before the armor we could find, and studied it all, all about his mother delving into the black arts and conjuring demons, all the stories we all know so well, and I just built a big narrative around it all. So, this is sort of like the, If you've never read Doom's life story this is all you need to know book. It's very new reader friendly, but there's a lot of new stuff in here, as well, and I do think I've found an angle that no one else has really explored in much depth, yet. I won't reveal what it is, but it really excited me when I realized it had never been touched on - this huge part of the tragedy of Victor's formative years that shaped him and made him what he would become. It was so obvious, too, that it just leapt out at me.
And given that the story is told from Dooms point of view, hes not evil, really, Brubaker said. He's just the smartest and most arrogant person in the world, a man who the world has tried to break since his birth, but who has never given in, but hes not evil, Brubaker said. He feels he's got a destiny, and it's something that drives him, and makes him more important than other people. Like I said, I'm writing this as if it's this giant twisted tragedy, so you watch him going from an innocent kid to the ultimate tyrant. It's a lot of fun, and deeper than most people would expect from something like this, I think. It's a mental journey, and I'm trying to give it the weight of a novel or something like Citizen Kane. Not that it'll be as good as Citizen Kane, but why not swing for the fences, right?
That said, Brubaker has assembled a key list of inspirations to pull from on The Book of Doom - along with Orson Welles: Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Chekhov, Shakespeare, pretty much in that order.
The Book of Doom is illustrated by Pablo (Madrox) Raimondi and Mark Farmer, and is slated for an October release.
