'Books of Doom' Volume Three Review: The suffering of a villain

I took a short break from comics over the past week due to an increasingly busy schedule ranging from trying to enjoy my 30th birthday to experiencing utter Hell from a landlady that needs a reality check. My time nor my patience have been remotely present for the world of comics, unfortunately. But I have greatly missed them. Comics have been a nice release for me, something that I jump into to get immersed into another world both through reading and visually in the various unique art styles. I have been reading through Books of Doom recently to get a deeper look into the Doom character, a supervillain that recently caught my attention with other releases, though Books of Doom was the first comic featuring the character that seemed to actually dive into his backstory and give the character more context and depth. I wasn't sure what to expect from it at first, it's an older comic at this point and certainly shows with the difference in style it holds, where most comics these days have more cartoonish features to them, as well as more vibrant colours that comes with the improved technologies surrounding digital art and colouring. I've mentioned that this art style wasn't something that initially spoke to me, it's far from the usual that I would find myself enjoying, but I am thoroughly enjoying the story to the point where I can put the art style preferences aside.

The last volume saw Doom as a teenager being given an escape from the gypsy life and a home in the United States providing he worked secretly for the government, helping them test and develop new technologies for the military. He accepted the offer only to further witness the nature of humanity, having no interest in the social life and distractions that most in the modern world experience, as well as hating on the military for the foolish behaviour. Doom quietly developed certain technologies that matched his agenda, with him ultimately wanting to create a device that would allow him to enter the other realm and find his mother again in death, secretly creating this technology amongst other weaponry that would remain under his control, lying about its development stage and keeping things slightly under the rug. And when the time came, his move was made. As the government realised how dangerous Doom really was, he had his pieces in place, having activated the various technologies he created and fled. This was a solid volume that saw the evil in Doom starting to appear, the lack of empathy he had towards the common person, that he no longer saw others as equals but rather those lesser than him, particularly in his area of intelligence and capabilities. We even saw the events that led to Doom's face being scarred!

It was interesting to see Doom's weakness revealed: his childhood trauma over losing his mother. The inability to then save her as an adult. With this, he was also left visually a monster with the scars upon his face, his life after the United States having changed completely. Nightmares haunting him every single night as he constantly remains on the move throughout Eastern Europe in fear of being hunted by the United States government. I really like the character of Doom so far given the current context shows him to be a horrible, bitter person, but one that has in fact had an impossibly difficult lifestyle growing up. and having experienced things that the average person definitely could not relate to nor even understand. When his mother was effectively a witch tormented by demons, now in the after life and still tormented by them. The desperation he has to want to save her. Not to fail to mention the secret operations for governments in developing secret technologies for the military. I also enjoyed that Doom was also enjoying the bandages on his face that actually kept him more hidden within society. People would notice him and look, but nobody truly knew who he was. He was slowly casting himself even more out of society.

I really liked the way this volume played out, with Doom stating he is a man with nothing left to live for, and that he no longer feared death where others would. No government agencies could threaten him. Though that was until his long lost love appeared under the claim that a gypsy from the village had seen what had happened to Doom and stated the two needed each other to find peace. Though that was simply a trap to which she was also exploited. Another example of Doom trying to find an ordinary life and having a love but external factors yet again making it clear that it isn't possible. Life constantly getting in the way and ruining any chances of him having happiness. A prophecy to be fulfilled that was out of his control, to which a strange homeless man had also referenced it after saving his love during yet another conflict with the KGB that desperately wanted Doom's abilities on their side against the United States. There was so much character development within this volume that I thoroughly enjoyed it yet again, seeing the conflicts of Doom's character, the fact that he isn't necessarily evil, but is thrown into a world where evil finds him, and he has to stay strong and prepared to fight at any moment just to live in a cold basement.

Given that this is the halfway point in this comic book series, I do think it's still going strong. I'm very curious as to what happens from here to the Doom character that increasingly develops the supervillain side of him, as he loses more humanity and bridges more into the cursed depths of Hell where demons are constantly haunting from within, just like his mother. It's clear that this isn't a happy ending story, but that makes it more interesting!