'The infamous Doctor Doom must face his deadliest enemy, the evil Red Skull, to save his people and himself in this thrilling Marvel: Untold novel.
'Victor Von Doom has many enemies, but he has a special loathing for the Red Skull. When the Red Skull creates a flying haven for the billionaire elite who share his deplorable values, Doom prepares himself for the worst. When Latveria is beset by a rash of terrorist attacks, his suspicions are confirmed: the Red Skull is coming for Doom’s homeland. Now he must infiltrate the shielded microstate drifting in the skies above Latveria to save his people from annihilation. But finding a way on board the floating city is just the first in a series of trials that will test Doctor Doom to the limits of his beliefs, his strength and his powers.'
The final part of the fantastic Doctor Doom trilogy from Aconyte Books and David Annandale is finally here, and after battling the forces of hell in The Harrowing of Doom, and battling vampire-like monsters in Reign of the Devourer, Doctor Doom is facing his most evil and disgusting enemy yet, Nazis.
The Tyrant Skies follows on some time from the events of the previous book, and Latveria has begun to return somewhat to normal following the events of the last book. Not a huge amount of time has passed, as we open with the heroes of Latveria receiving a parade in their honour, celebrating the actions that saved the country. Doctor Orloff, who went through a huge number of changes in the last book, in particular is held up as an example of what it means to be a citizen of Latveria, willing to step up and fight, and to follow Doom without question.
During all of this, Doom's attention is turned to the new island nation of Wolkenland, who are petitioning the United Nations for membership. A new nation built for the rich and powerful, and promised as a place where the wealthy elite can hide away from the rest of the world, it already seems somewhat dubious; but Doom suspects it harbours something even worse. When the UN grants it membership, a membership that Latveria voted against the island vanishes.
Deep within Wolkenland it's leader, the evil Red Skull, uses the power harnessed from the Cosmic Cube to make his island nation into a fortress. A flying fortress that hovers now over Latveria. And this begins a war with the fate of both nations hanging in the balance as the Red Skull begins launching terrorist attacks upon Latveria, before initiating all out war. As Doom flies up to Wolkenland to deal with the threat, his people are left to fight the invaders on their soil below. But when Doom is captured by the Skull things begin to look dire for Latveria.
One of the things that I've loved about this series since the first book, and that David Annandale does so well, is that it makes Doctor Doom into a character that you want to root for. He's a villain. He's a character that has done some truly awful things over the years, and is considered one of the worst villains in the Marvel universe. There are some villains that you can walk back a bit, some characters who can have their villainy not only justified, but also acceptable (Magneto was right!); but can Doom really be one of them? Not really, no. But in these books he' definitely the hero.
Part of this is down to the fact that the people of Latveria that we're shown seem to approve of Doom. He took power through force, and is a dictator, but the lives of the citizens of Latveria seem to be massively better than under their last brutal leader. It's not always palatable to think of, but there are people thriving in Doom's Latveria who would have probably have just been killed under the previous regime. Making one of the main characters, and one of Doom's top people that he seems to have respect for be a queer trans woman was a huge part of showing that he might be a villain, but he's not a monster. It also helps that he does fight monsters in these books.
The first book has Doom tackling the forces of Hell, the second has monsters that would kill or convert everyone in their path. This book needs a villain that's on that level, a group that is as disgusting as that, that you don't feel bad seeing die at all. Nazis more than fill that role. Any decent person will agree that Nazis are scum, that they're a stain on human history, and anyone who identifies as a Nazi today is worthy of scorn and contempt. The Nazis in this book revel in hurting people, they enslave, they kill, they torture. They're led by the Red Skull, an actual World War Two Nazi. There's no moral grey here. They're scum. As such, when Doom and his people start killing them you actually feel fine about it.
Annandale puts a human face on the villains for this entry in the trilogy, but it's one that's barely a human face. We see the horrors that they perform, with the rich and powerful of Wolkenland coming to watch slaves being worked to death whilst they sip champagne. We see the fear that the Skull and his people bring with them as Orloff realises that as a queer trans woman she will absolutely be put to death if the Skull wins. These might be people Doom is fighting, but they're the worst of humanity. And him standing against that makes him a heroic figure.
It's tough reading these books in some ways, because you shouldn't like Doom. You shouldn't be seeing a decent side to a villain that has invaded other countries, that has experimented on aliens, that has killed thousands, and has literally sent a child to hell before. He's not a good person, but he might be the person that Latveria needs the most. I imagine that there are a lot of writers who would make him either too heroic, or too villainous, but Annandale leaves him in this middle ground where you can put him in either category, and yet both feel wrong. It's a complexity that you don't often get with villains, and one that can be a lot of fun when you do.
The Tyrant Skies marks the end of this trio of books, and some of the best comic book prose novels around. I hope that we can get more from Annandale with this character in the future, though I'd also love to see what he could do with other characters in Marvel. Give him a Magneto book that allows him to go this dark and this morally ambiguous and it could be the best one yet.
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