- Written by: Chip Zdarsky
- Art by: CAFU
- Colors by: David Curiel
- Letters by: VC’s Travis Lanham
- Cover art by: Jonas Scharf (cover A)
- Cover price: $6.99
- Release date: December 24, 2025
The Will of Doom #1, by Marvel on 12/24/25, tries to answer the question of what happens after a supervillain dies. It turns out the answer is a lot of legal paperwork and a very expensive price tag for a story that feels like it has not quite started yet.
First Impressions
My initial reaction to the opening pages was confusion mixed with a bit of boredom. The dialogue tries to catch us up on a war we did not see, but it feels more like reading a history textbook than a comic book. I was waiting for something to actually happen, but instead, I got a lot of people standing around talking about feelings and flags.
Recap
Doom’s reign is over after he became emperor of the world and siphoned life force from his own people. The heroes lost the initial resistance, but Valeria Richards sacrificed herself to try and reason with him, leading a grief-stricken Doom to trade his life for hers with the Living Tribunal. Now, as the world recovers, all that is left of the dictator is his last will and testament.
Plot Analysis
The story opens with General Ross returning from Latveria, where he had been planting American flags and acting as a self-appointed liberator after Doom’s fall. He gets a cold welcome from Secretary Brooke in Washington, who sees his actions as a diplomatic nightmare rather than heroism. Meanwhile, the Fantastic Four are stuck in their own bureaucratic drama, discovering that Latverian law allows Valeria Richards to inherit Doom’s massive fortune and assets without any legal hurdles.
Just as the legal discussions get boring, Doombots across the globe activate simultaneously, seizing control of governments from the White House to the United Kingdom. The Avengers and X-Men scramble to contain the chaos, but the Fantastic Four realize the master switch must be hidden in a secret location Doom left for Valeria. Despite Sue Storm’s fears for her daughter’s safety, the family flies into the heart of the storm to find the source of the signal.
They arrive at a secret facility called Doom Island, where the team fights off robotic defenses while Valeria heads for the central control room. Instead of a physical fight, she confronts a “lifelike” Doombot of Doom himself, who tries to manipulate her into taking up his mantle and ruling the world as he did. Valeria rejects his legacy, choosing instead to liquidate his assets for charity, but she decides to keep the island and shuts down the global Doombot uprising with a single command.
In the aftermath, General Ross is recruited by the US government to lead a sanctioned mission back into Latveria to hunt for Doom’s weapons. Back on Doom Island, Valeria reveals a secret to her brother Franklin. She has kept a hidden army of Doombots active within the island’s depths, deciding that she might need her own personal backup plan for the future.
Writing
The pacing here is incredibly clunky. We spend half the issue watching people talk about wills and treaties, and then suddenly the entire world is under attack by robots. The transition is jarring, and it makes the action feel tacked on just to wake the reader up. The dialogue is heavy on exposition, explaining things that should be shown, which makes the characters feel like they are reading from a script rather than having real conversations.
Art
The art is serviceable but uninspired. It does a decent job with the talking heads, but when the action finally starts, it lacks energy. The Doombots look generic, and the battle scenes feel static. There is no real sense of danger or movement, which is a big problem when you are trying to sell a global crisis.
Character Development
Valeria is the only character who gets any real attention, but her shift to a darker pragmatism feels unearned. One minute she is the innocent victim, and the next she is keeping a secret robot army. General Ross is even worse. He is reduced to a grumpy caricature who just wants to smash things and yell at politicians, lacking any of the nuance that could make his story interesting.
Originality & Concept Execution
We have seen the “Doombot uprising” plot a dozen times before. This issue does nothing new with it. The idea of dealing with Doom’s legal will is actually more original, but the comic abandons that interesting premise to give us a generic robot fight. It feels like the creators did not trust their own core concept and panicked, throwing in explosions to hide the lack of substance.
Positives
The best part of this comic is the way it handles the relationship between Valeria and the memory of Doom. The scene where she confronts his Doombot assistant offers a nice emotional beat that shows her growth, even if the surrounding story is weak. It gives us a glimpse of the complex bond they shared without needing punches to sell the drama, proving that the writer understands these characters even if the plot fails them.
Negatives
The biggest issue is that this comic costs almost seven dollars for what is essentially a setup chapter with very little payoff. The action is brief and lacks tension because the solution is just Valeria pressing a button, while the rest of the pages are filled with dry conversations about politics and inheritance laws. It feels like an epilogue that was stretched out to fill a page count rather than a complete story on its own, leaving the reader feeling shortchanged.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers. Follow @ComicalOpinions on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
The Scorecard
Writing Quality (Clarity & Pacing): [1.5/4]
Art Quality (Execution & Synergy): [2.5/4]
Value (Originality & Entertainment): [0/2]
Final Verdict
The Will Of Doom #1 does not earn a place in a limited budget, especially with its inflated price tag. If you are desperate to know exactly where Ross is going or what Val is planning, you can probably just read a wiki summary later. Save your money for a book that offers a complete experience rather than just a preamble to an event you might not even want to read.
4/10
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