I’ve never read anything Doom related. My only exposure to him is through the F4 movies but I’ve heard so much praise for the character from my cousins and online that I’ve adopted their views that he’s an absolute boss.
I’d get this with the throne purely for the display presence. He can fit somewhere on my comic X-Men shelf. That What If Ultron figure could make a cool accompanying piece. He could pull off being something like a royal guard to Doom.
I debated getting an Infinity Ultron as a stand-in for an Annihilation Conquest Ultron, but ended up deciding against it. Too cartoony and different from the cool design of the book.
Doom has his own Ultron, Andro the Doomsman.
Definitely not as much of a classic, to say the least... As for Doom himself, he's an acquired taste, honestly. Some see him as a villainous Gary Stu, and he can definitely be that. I don't like it myself when he's written as Thad ThunderCock who pwns everyone with little effort and so on. I don't like it when he's a joke either. I dislike it when he's a sadist and when he's "wholesome". Doom's a character that needs balance to work. Otherwise you end up with either an empty cliche or a self-inserting "anti-hero". There's books out now where he's working with a transexual doctor to fight off NeoNazi Quasi-Republicans. It's just silly and screams of [current day] Americanisms. He's a Balkan gypsy Dictator. He'd realistically be commiting war crimes and ethnic cleasings before his lunch every other Saturday. But self-inserting writers want to be the bad-*** edgy sadboy who's totes right and "on the right side of history" so they write such tripe. These stories have been with Doom since the beginning, but I've always found them ridiculous. Him fighting Red Skull and Nazis is fine, it's not like the Balkans have a good history with them. But Doom telling off Dracula for being wary of the Middle East, the guy who held the fort against the Ottomans so to speak, and is pretty much lionised in that area, is downright ridiculous.
To be fair, Doom has crossed paths with almost everyone, so he could be displayed with just about anybody. A few examples:
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I've always thought a mini T&T display would be pretty sick. Doom and Strange, a nice diorama, and Mephisto in the back. I'm planning a Marvel Magic shelf, depending on what they end up making, and I'd love to have that as the "centrepiece" of it, with Wanda, Loki, etc on the sides. We're still ways off on that though, considering how slow they're going on that front.
I've never heard of Dreadknight, I don't like Doom being married, nor having an adopted son.
Concubines are fine. But I don't want a nude-dude standing next to Doom.
I wish he had some definitive agent or assassin that was also cool (and not a copy of himself).
Oh well, alone shall he sit upon his throne.
Kristoff was a way to humanise Doom, but I've always found it rather limiting in a way. Doom's an egomaniac, there's no way he's not setting up his own flesh and blood as his heir, and is instead raising a ward to succeed him. Not that anyone's done much with Kristoff, which is a shame. Once Doom copied his own brain on top of little Kristoff's as a backup. On a good day, it's a touching enough relationship. Doom adopted him because his mother was murdered in front of him during a skirmish, and Doom considered it a personal failure to fail his people like that.
As for marriage, it's tricky. I usually see Doom as too vain and egocentric to be into it. Even concubines I feel he'd keep around for the ego trip and maybe screw them once every blue moon. He's not built like that. On the off chance we get some humanising moments you get the idea that he could find some happiness if he stopped being such a giant ****, but he goes and ruins it.
The funny thing is, Heroic Doom isn't that much of a stretch either. It can theoretically work. You just have to be careful with it.
I do agree that he should've had a better supporting cast by now, but it's Marvel's fault that they never pushed him as a solo character. The reason why the FF fell off so much in popularity is that the characters themselves are rather dorky and with the cyclical nature of comics, the repeated stories made them stocky and boring, even though they were rather spirited when they started. Who cares about Rock Guy and Fire Guy when you can read the X-Men with Gambit, Rogue, and so on? A bickering family in jumpsuits can become stale. Doom's popularity rose to the point where he surpassed the book he originated from. When the FF were banned from publication and were removed from almost all media, Doom kept appearing and was even playable in MMOs like Marvel Heroes. He's been THE Marvel villain for decades, but Marvel never capitalised on it. Yes, he had Doom 2099, but it's not the same. He did have a proper supporting cast there though, most notably Fortune.
And then there's his Generals from Heroes Reborn/Return.
You ask me, he should've had a solo ongoing, period. Same goes with Namor. But FF had to stay in publication for being a classic, and so they used people like Doom, Namor and T'Challa as recurring characters there to make people keep coming back to the book itself. If you're asking me, I'd have dropped Ben and Johnny ages ago and reworked it as a Think Tank book, but that's another talk. It's just that I've always liked the idea of the FF much more than the execution. Most days I prefer Moore's riff, Tom Strong, more.
The reason why I read FF, beyond Doom, were the plots and because they built the wider MU. But character wise? Eh. Iron Man has far more mid comics than the FF, but I read them because I liked Tony and his entire supporting cast. I never connected with the FF in that way. They were just a way for me to experience the stories themselves. Reed's the only one I can really say I like, and after him Susan, but I persist that they're dragged down by the other two. Ultimate FF with the super-genius teen think-tank worked better as a setup. In my mind, Johnny and Ben add nothing, and the book would've worked better akin to Heroes Reborn's Knights Of The Atomic Table, with Reed and Sue as a scientific adventurer power couple, and then some extra scientists coming and going as they explore the cosmos. But I know that's an unpopular idea. I wanted Star Trek: TOS with Super-Powers, basically. Hickman creating the Future Foundation was one of the best developments for me, and that's how I want my FF book.
I'll tell you this, I really don't want to spend 500€ on Ben and another 300€ on Johnny. I'd rather buy... dunno, Molecule Man before them. Ideally I'd want Reed, Sue and then aged up versions of Franklin and Valeria, which are unlikely. I'll probably buy all the Reeds (one for my Illuminati and then the rest for a quasi Council Of Reeds) and wait for an FF suit without a clear 4 so that I can pair Reed & Sue as a duo amongst my Marvel Cosmic dollies like Thanos and so on. I'd buy a Nathaniel in his Time Travel suit, Ponytail Franklin and Valeria Doom as well.
Now that's what I want to see when I read a "Fantastic" book. Not a Rockman whining or another argument or adventures around the block. I suppose it's why I like Hickman's books; he focuses on the same type of character I like. Average joes like Johnny and Ben don't appeal to me. Hey, we all have our power fantasies...
