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rfmcdonaldIn the immediate aftermath of the recent British election, which gave the Conservative Party a majority and confirmed David Cameron as prime minister, an edited image from Marvel comics circulated. In it, some rather Orwellian phrases were superimposed on the speech bubbles of notorious Latverian tyrant Doctor Doom.
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I was amused, too.
The thing to remember, though, the thing that complicates all this, is that both David Cameron and Dr. Doom actually are at least somewhat justified, or at least can get away with saying what they want. In Cameron's case, this is a direct consequence of his party's crushing victory in the British elections, as the Conservatives' competitors were unable to field a strong challenger or compelling ideological platform. In the case of Dr. Doom, he can be quite right in his own right. In fact, as of current printing, Dr. Doom is very nearly a hero, as the person who saved the last shreds of the multiverse from destruction. Dr. Doom works; the heroes, not at all.
Background, first. Author Jonathan Hickman has been co-writing the two titles that are the arguable centrepieces of the Marvel line. Straddling between the two books, Hickman for the past several years has been telling the story of how incursions have been destroying the multiverse, and how the Illuminati--a self-appointed council of the wise and powerful--do nothing to stop it. A passage in New Avengers #2 demonstrated the physical phenomenon.
The only way to prevent these universes from being destroyed is to destroy an Earth in one of the universes, so avoiding this collision. For many issues, the Illuminati have been lucky, with the other Earths threatening their own being destroyed by forces native to their own universes, or having been already decimated by other interdimensional phenomenon and so being available to be destroyed by the planet-killing antimatter bombs they have built by the hundred. Then, their run of luck breaks as they come into contact with another Earth defended by heroes. After the Illuminati end up killing them, in New Avengers #21, they are left morally exhausted. They would have let their world and the heroes' world collide and end the two universes, but for the exceptionally pragmatic Namor, who realizes that their betrayed moral scruples mean nothing if they will condemn two universes to death.
This marks the end of heroism in the Marvel universe, as Black Bolt's mad brother Maximus reminds him in New Avengers #24. People who so badly betrayed their moral principles in the first place have little ability to condemn those people who do not recognize those principles at all, especially when these principles actually work.
In a telling moment, on the eve of a threatened destruction, Illuminati member Henry McCoy was condemned by his earlier self. This earlier iteration was brought forward in time by McCoy with his fellows, the other original X-Men, in Brian Michael Bendis' in the All-New X-Men book. Why did he do this, breaking the universe in the process? McCoy the elder wanted to make a point to once-friend Cyclops; he had lost his way.
Dr. Doom, meanwhile, has saved the last fragments of the multiverse from destruction by the near-omnipotent Beyonders who surrounded it, who wanted to destroy it to prove a point. What will happen next depends on the outcome of the ongoing Battleworld crossover, perhaps as much a consolidation as a remake. It is true, however, that in saving what remains of reality where the Illuminati could not Dr. Doom has proven himself more effective than any of the heroes.
What is the point of politics and heroism, Hickman has been asking, without firm principles? Might there not be situations where equivocating can cost dearly? What is to be done?
Food for thought.
<
I was amused, too.
The thing to remember, though, the thing that complicates all this, is that both David Cameron and Dr. Doom actually are at least somewhat justified, or at least can get away with saying what they want. In Cameron's case, this is a direct consequence of his party's crushing victory in the British elections, as the Conservatives' competitors were unable to field a strong challenger or compelling ideological platform. In the case of Dr. Doom, he can be quite right in his own right. In fact, as of current printing, Dr. Doom is very nearly a hero, as the person who saved the last shreds of the multiverse from destruction. Dr. Doom works; the heroes, not at all.
Background, first. Author Jonathan Hickman has been co-writing the two titles that are the arguable centrepieces of the Marvel line. Straddling between the two books, Hickman for the past several years has been telling the story of how incursions have been destroying the multiverse, and how the Illuminati--a self-appointed council of the wise and powerful--do nothing to stop it. A passage in New Avengers #2 demonstrated the physical phenomenon.
The only way to prevent these universes from being destroyed is to destroy an Earth in one of the universes, so avoiding this collision. For many issues, the Illuminati have been lucky, with the other Earths threatening their own being destroyed by forces native to their own universes, or having been already decimated by other interdimensional phenomenon and so being available to be destroyed by the planet-killing antimatter bombs they have built by the hundred. Then, their run of luck breaks as they come into contact with another Earth defended by heroes. After the Illuminati end up killing them, in New Avengers #21, they are left morally exhausted. They would have let their world and the heroes' world collide and end the two universes, but for the exceptionally pragmatic Namor, who realizes that their betrayed moral scruples mean nothing if they will condemn two universes to death.
This marks the end of heroism in the Marvel universe, as Black Bolt's mad brother Maximus reminds him in New Avengers #24. People who so badly betrayed their moral principles in the first place have little ability to condemn those people who do not recognize those principles at all, especially when these principles actually work.
In a telling moment, on the eve of a threatened destruction, Illuminati member Henry McCoy was condemned by his earlier self. This earlier iteration was brought forward in time by McCoy with his fellows, the other original X-Men, in Brian Michael Bendis' in the All-New X-Men book. Why did he do this, breaking the universe in the process? McCoy the elder wanted to make a point to once-friend Cyclops; he had lost his way.
Dr. Doom, meanwhile, has saved the last fragments of the multiverse from destruction by the near-omnipotent Beyonders who surrounded it, who wanted to destroy it to prove a point. What will happen next depends on the outcome of the ongoing Battleworld crossover, perhaps as much a consolidation as a remake. It is true, however, that in saving what remains of reality where the Illuminati could not Dr. Doom has proven himself more effective than any of the heroes.
What is the point of politics and heroism, Hickman has been asking, without firm principles? Might there not be situations where equivocating can cost dearly? What is to be done?
Food for thought.
