Secret Wars #4 (of 8)

   The most vital ingredient to every good superhero story (other than a hero, of course) is a great villain.

   And Marvel has (arguably) one of the greatest villain in the history of comics - Dr. Doom.

    The problem with every villain is that he has to lose at some point - and that diminishes him to some extent. Doom avoids this by being the ruler of his own country, and by being smart, powerful, capable and... well, awesome.

   But in recent years, Doom has been diminished a bit through overexposure, and through a series of defeats at the hands of lesser opponents.

   Secret Wars is fixing all that, because it gives Doom a chance to show why he's so formidable. While an army of heroes (Avengers, Illuminati and the Cabal) were dealing with the collision and destruction of alternate Earths, Doom was looking for the cause of the cosmic event - and, along with Dr. Strange and the Molecule Man, confronted that power - the Beyonder (or was it the Beyonders?) - and claimed that power to preserve a crazy-quilt version of the Earth.

   And now he rules over Battleworld as a god.

   But, as we see in this issue, not everything is under his control, and he finds himself facing old enemies - and a new threat.

   It's great to see Doom back at the pinnacle again, in a terrific story by Jonathan Hickman, with amazing, powerful art by Esad Ribic.

   We're halfway through this series and it's packed full of amazing concepts and plot twists galore. Oh, and quite a few shocking surprises. So far, it's the best comics "event" in years!

   Highly recommended!

Grade: A

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