Welcome to the First Issue Bin, where I — Ethan Kaye — randomly grab one of this week's comics that’s just starting up and give you the details on whether it should get added to your collection … or remain on the comic shop shelf.
One World Under Doom #1
Writer: Ryan North
Artist: R.B. Silva
Color Artist: David Curiel
Letterer: VC's Travis Lanham
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Marvel's first big crossover of 2025 starts off with a bang and just keeps ramping up the stakes page after page. One World Under Doom #1 pays off everything that's been set up for the last few years over at Marvel and gets us prepared for absolute chaos going forward. I'm thrilled!
Over the last year or two, Doctor Doom has been making big moves across the Marvel Universe. He's usurped the title of Sorcerer Supreme from Doctor Strange. He's closed the borders to his home country of Latveria. He's killed his old "Acts of Vengeance" ally the Red Skull. It's all been leading up to something big.
And that something ... is world domination!
And, at least at first, it's a benevolent rule. He assures the world, through a global media transmission, that all the governments have acquiesced to his plan of a one-world dictatorship. War is outlawed. Education is free. He conscripts H.Y.D.R.A. to build schools and clear landmines. But he also sends Doombots against anyone who even whispers dissent.
Of course, the Avengers plus the Fantastic Four plus Spider-Man plus ... Squirrel Girl and her friends whisper dissent. While not being sure of what Doom's angle is, they stage an invasion that goes abysmally. Doctor Doom, as well as his Doctor Doom-ified Tyrannosaurus Rex buddy, play them for fools and he solidifies his control of the world.
It would be understating it to say that writer Ryan North has only been upping his game on his Marvel books of late. His Squirrel Girl runs are classics, which is why characters like Brain Drain and Nancy Whitehead are in One World Under Doom chatting with Iron Man and the like. His Fantastic Four books have been a perfect blend between action and family humor. He's 100% my favorite writer at Marvel right now, so much so that I've subscribed to his Dinosaur Comics strip that arrives three times a week on my phone.
That balance of clever "thats-how-I-talk-too" humor and significant plot motion is on display in One World Under Doom. I was engaged as much in the dialogue between Spider-Man and Johnny Storm as I was with Baron Zemo and H.Y.D.R.A. storming Latveria. R.B. Silva's art plays between the calm of situation room discussions and freakin' T-rex stomping chaos so well that I felt like I was reading a book twice its length. There's so much to take in, so many gags, so many brilliant speeches from the mouths of Doom and Tony Stark and even Baron Zemo (who's sporting a great costume that I hope gets an action figure someday).
Best of all, North maintains the great characterization of the Fantastic Four that he's developed with over two years of writing on their own title. Sue is hyper-competent and inventive (instead of making an airplane invisible to take everyone to Latveria, she just creates an entirely invisible plane out of force fields), Reed is constantly second-guessing himself, and Johnny is a great mash-up of being a thorough dumbass but also totally confident about himself. It's all part of this great web that North has woven through his Marvel work.
Like any publisher, Marvel crossovers are hit or miss. They all get hyped up but while some soar (Hickman's Krakoa arcs over on X-Men), others flop (2023's Contest of Chaos was a stinker and 2024's Infinity Watch failed to thrill). As One World Under Doom plays out in books like Fantastic Four and new titles like Red Hulk and Doom Academy, I think that this one's going to be a winner.
Doom: Doom/Doom
Squirrel Girl Supporting Cast: 2/2 — I mean Brain Drain, come on
Fascism: 0/5
Johnny Storm's Mustache Continuity From Fantastic Four: 3/3
Big Moves: 5/5
Verdict: Even if you have been away from the Marvel U for a while, this one's mandatory reading. It sets up a great storyline AND it's fun!
