Issue - 32Writer - Mark Miller
Issue - 32
Writer - Mark Miller
Art- Greg Land
Summary:
After convincing Reed to swap bodies with him, Van Damme leaves Latveria with Sue and Ben to head back to New York. As soon as he arrives he proceeds to keep his word to Reed and cure Johnny despite the larger threat of the zombie FF opening a gateway to their world. However van Damme mispronounces the spell which would banish the creature incubating in Johnny. The creature then searches for the most powerful host on the planet which turns out to be Victor van Damme, or his body at least. Reed shows up in New York in van Damme's body and proceeds to defeat the zombie FF using a mix of sheer force and magic. After disposing of them, Reed decides that the safest way to dispose of the Zvilpogghua is to carry it into the zombie infested Earth. Having been discovered, van Damme then feels honor bound to swap bodies yet again so that it is he that saves the world.
Comments:
Admittedly I have not read the first 2 parts of this arc, but from this issue I feel I really don't need to do. The recap on the first page fills me in nicely. I'm not crazy about the Marvel Zombie's craze, mostly because I am not a zombie fan. Mixing the zombie plot with van Damme's ploy to get into Reed's body [a homage I imagine to the classic FF story] is a nice touch though. His motives for wanting to switch bodies is a little fuzzy to me though, especially when at the end it turns out he is the most powerful being on the planet. This raises the question of what exactly makes him the most powerful being, the mind or the body? If it is the mind then I suppose then that Reed is actually the most powerful being. Interesting to note here is that Ultimate Reed finds it easier to manipulate magic than his 616 counterpart, or even his zombie version.
The biggest development for me that is worthy of noting is that "Ultimate Doom" aka Victor van Damme has been made more to resemble his 616 original. Gone are the goat hooves which were the source of so much ridicule. So too is the ghastly devil face with the pointy chin. Remaining is the armor for skin and poisonous vomit. His fashion sense has also improved and he now rules "ultimate" Latveria instead of a free zone in Denmark. I find the attempt to make him seem more like his 616 version somewhat sad. While I personally did not like the first Ultimate Doom arc for all its radical changes to the original Doom idea, this quick discarding of Ellis' take seems to only prove my point. Ultimate Doom as originally conceived is too radical. The fundamental problem for me is that his name is Victor van Damme. Exactly why does he now call himself Doom? No one in their right mind would rename themselves Doctor Doom. 616 Doom gets away with it only because Doom is his real name. Again, while I'm not crazy about the Ultimateverse, I will admit that Mark Miller has crafted the single best Doom moment in a long time, namely van Damme's reaction to the zombie infested Earth.
Notes: