Doom has spoken

In a recent issue of Mighty Avengers, writer Brian Michael Bendis had the once mighty despot of Latveria seemingly erupt into a torrent of insults while the Avengers hung in the air, helpless. This went on for page upon page while nothing really happened, truly a first even for plot-thickener Bendis.

It seems that I wasn’t the only one who thought as such. On his message board John Byrne attacked the issue with a simple panel showing how Doom should be depicted.

John Byrne’s run on the Fantastic Four ranks amongst the best of the series. His take on the series was both exciting and poignant (with stories ranging from being shrunken into dolls, traveling back in time to kill Hitler and Sue’s miscarriage). A comic creator who has worked on some of the biggest properties in the industry (X-Men, Spider-Man, the Avengers, Captain America, Superman, Batman and the JLA) and created his own series to boot (Next Men, etc), his opinion is certainly worth its weight in back issues. That said, he has also openly attacked Bendis as a hack, posting a picture of the writer from his 20’s when he was a camp counselor. Byrne’s comment? ‘The world lost a great counselor when this man entered comics.’

In any case, he’s also correct.

It’s a writer’s responsibility to not only respect the work of others on a legacy like Marvel Comics but also to maintain a kind of cohesiveness of character. Bendis portrayed Doom as a kind of nincompoop ranting and spouting while having overly long internal monologues explaining his motives to himself. This is not only a poor representation of Doom, but poor writing as well. Again, the only reason I bring this up is because I know that he is capable of better. An accomplished writer who has brought more new readers to Spider-Man than Stan Lee and to Daredevil than Frank Miller, the guy knows his stuff. Any time he wants to show this skill is fine with me.

As the writer of three of the highest profile comics that Marvel publishes (Mighty Avengers, New Avengers, Secret Invasion), he should be held accountable for a higher standard of quality than he has delivered. His first issue of Secret Invasion was overpriced trash with more backpedaling than story and less explanation than was needed for such a high impact new series targeted to new readers.

Maybe in this time of hotshot new creators what we really need are more of the old guard coming back to comics; not necessarily as writers, but certainly as consultants. If only to point out that lime green text on a lemon yellow background is invisible to the eye.

Doom has spoken.