Marvel’s nine-month-long One World Under Doom event has had its fair share of big fights, and even some shocking moments — like the whole “Doctor Doom taking over the world without a fight” concept of the event. But nothing tops the end of this week’s One World Under Doom #8 where — and spoilers past this point — Doom accidentally decapitates Valeria Richards, a child.
Here’s how it happens, for some context. In the issue by Ryan North and R.B. Silva, Doom is battling the assembled heroes of the world and very much holding his own. In addition to being Doctor Doom, a challenge in and of itself, he’s also Sorcerer Supreme. And while the world he declared himself Emperor of has turned against him, thanks to the revelation that he was powering himself with the energy of the enslaved population of Latveria, he’s not giving up without a fight.
It’s important to mention here that a throughline of the series has been the relationship between Doom and Valeria, the daughter of Reed Richards and Sue Storm of the Fantastic Four. As previously established in Jonathan Hickman’s run on the title, the super-smart Valeria is the only person Doom loves and respects; and Valeria loves her Uncle Doom. And in One World Under Doom she’s challenged him as to why he’s taking over the Earth, leading to the opening of this issue where she asks him to stand down during a conversation on the astral plane.
He doesn’t, of course, and cuts off the conversation before Valeria can finish, leading her to decide to teleport over to the fight to convince him in person.
Okay, back to the scene in question. Just when it seems like the heroes have won, Doom blasts his armor to smithereens, using the shrapnel to incapacitate his enemies.
“Before the eyes and cameras of the planet, I defeat everyone,” Doom says. “Every shard finds a target. With power enough to bring these enhanced ‘heroes’ to the edge of death — but to just barely and painfully survive — they tear through their armor, through their flesh, through their bones. I’ve never been more magnificent. It’s perfect. All see Doom at his most glorious, creating an image they will carry with them forever.”
But as Doom revels in his triumph, he hears a voice from off-panel.
“Unc–” it says.
“Who dares…?!” Doom asks, before realization dawns on his face. “No. No.”
“Unc– Unc–” continues Valeria, who is riddled with the shrapnel and has clearly, and bloodily, lost a leg. Then they almost touch hands. “Doom,” Valeria says.
…and then in the final panel, it sure looks like her head falls off.
By the way, in case it isn’t clear, while Doom precisely targeted everyone else on the battlefield, he didn’t know Valeria was coming, leading to this literal fatal mistake.
With one issue of the series to go, it’s pretty clear the intention here is to have Doom take things too far, lose the one thing he loves, and give up the Earth and his mantle as Sorcerer Supreme. He was never going to stop fighting for control, but this is clearly a step too far… The only thing that could stop him.
And heck, we’ve all read comics before. He could use his remaining power to resurrect Valeria. And Valeria is smarter than Reed or Doom, so this might very well be her plan, to shock Doom into surrendering. Hey, that last panel is in silhouette, so perhaps her head didn’t slide off her neck as depicted, and instead she just… Fell over? I don’t know.
But none of this really matters, because a child was gruesomely and graphically killed in a Marvel comic, which is, to editorialize, also a step too far. It calls to mind a similar incident in Image and Skybound’s Walking Dead, which ended with the character of Carl Grimes getting shot straight through the eyeball, and out the back of the head. That issue ended with the reader being able to see through his brain, and for some readers, even in a book known for extreme violence and shocking twists, was too much, man.
Again: it’s comics. Carl (somehow) managed to survive a massive hole through his head. Valeria will likely survive her head falling off. And yes, children do die in horrific ways all the time in real life. But graphic child murder in a comic book about superhero fisticuffs, deployed for shock value, is not the sort of thing I want to read. There were definitely less horrific ways of executing on this plot point; even injuring Valeria would probably have been enough to turn Doom.
Instead we have to watch a child get decapitated, and the looming specter of a potential “superheroes gather for a funeral in the last issue but it’s for a child’s funeral.” Does anyone really want to read Sue and Reed mourning the death of their daughter? Was there really no better option?
As is, we’ll find out more in One World Under Doom #9 next month. But like with Walking Dead, it’s reasonable to think some readers may have checked out before we get there.
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