One World Under Doom

Near Mint Condition announced another Marvel omnibus for March 2027, and this omnibus is an all-in-on version of a massive storyline whose tie-ins were slightly slept-on by fans: One World Under Doom Omnibus!

One World Under Doom was the 2025 Marvel line-wide event focused on Doctor Doom as a main character. It spun out of one of the final consequences of the major 2024 line-wide event, Blood Hunt, which saw Doctor Doom taking over as Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme. With more power than ever, Doom decided it was time to exercise more control than ever – over the entire world.

As is typically the case with modern Doom stories, he was benevolent right up until the point his power was challenged… and then things got complicated.

I read just about every issue related to this event, as it was all coming out during the 2025 run of my weekly show The Pull List. The main event series had spectacular art and Ryan North had a terrific time writing Doctor Doom. Unfortunately, the premise of the book involved every single hero being a total moron. An utter fool. A massive nincompoop.

This is called an “idiot plot” – a trope where otherwise intelligent and capable characters have to show poor judgment so that their failures can be further the narrative.

Generally, when Marvel and DC events require beloved heroes to play their part in an idiot plot, those events are not terribly well-received. See Civil War II for an example. An event premised on, “Everyone is making poor decisions and no one is speaking to each other” tends to wear you down.

Except… is there an argument to be made that Ryan North did this deliberately? To Doom, aren’t we all idiots – all of us except for his god-daughter Valeria Richards? I think we could say that the stupidity of the heroes here is part of North telling a story where Doom is truly the main character… and I also think that would be a stretch even Reed Richards would have trouble making.

Luckily, a lot of the independent tie-ins to this event were incredibly intriguing – and Doom appeared in virtually none of them. Doom’s Division (2025) was one of my favorite comics of the year, an unlikely team book that felt Claremontian in inspiration. Thunderbolts: Doomstrike (2025) leaned into the fallibility of Winter Soldier. Runaways returned under the pen of Rainbow Rowell! Ryan North wrote the best issue of GODS we’ve had yet! Doom Academy continued the always-charming adventures of the Strange Academy kids! And, Red Hulk (2025) was surprisingly meaty and had some terrific artwork – plus, it set up this year’s world-shaking event, Armageddon! [Read more…] about Marvel Omnibus Announcement: One World Under Doom Omnibus