'The notorious Doctor Doom’s endless craving for power unleashes a soul-destroying plague on the world, in the latest devastating Marvel Untold novel
'Victor von Doom saw his future for an instant, and now he cannot rest. His obsession with regaining those memories leads him into the arcane science of geomancy. As he delves into the ancient memories that lie beneath his land, Doom discovers a tremendous concentration of power... one that should never be explored. Doom's excavations and necromancy fracture the prison of something awful: the Devourer of Souls. Now free to roam Latveria, the Devourer spreads a plague of soul-hungry vampires. Doom must choose between seizing this power for himself or destroying it, before his realm is no more.'
Reign of the Devourer marks the second time that David Annandale has written a prose novel dedicated to the 'super villain' Doctor Doom, and, much like the first book in the series, Annandale continues to make Doom one of the most interesting characters in Marvel; turning my perception of him from a moustache twirling villain into a complex and caring leader of a nation that genuinely seems better for having him around.
With that being said, it's important to know that this is indeed a sequel book to The Harrowing of Doom, and whilst I wont say that it'd be impossible to read this on its own and still enjoy it, I think that reading it alongside the first would definitely provide the most enjoyment, as not only does it carry on a number of plot threads established in the first, but several minor characters make a return too.
The story takes place several months after the events of the first book, where Doom and his people had to face off against a horde of demonic entities that were let loose across Latveria. Since then Doom has been attempting to find a way to regain the knowledge he lost during that event, knowledge of the future. To this end he's been using science and magic to investigate strange mental activity found in corpses with the help of Orloff, a star doctor who's now been brought into his project; as well as searching the very earth of Latveria for a depository of memories and knowledge with the help of former priest and geomancer Zargo.
Eventually Zargo discovers something hidden deep within the ground, and Doom leads a drilling team beneath the surface to find chambers filled with strange artefacts and half remembered things, as well as an unusual, impossibly resilient stone that seems to hold some ancient presence within it. This prison is home to the Devourer, a force that feeds upon memories, and could hold the secrets to regaining the knowledge that Doom has lost.
Unfortunately, the Devourer has a will of its own, and does not want to go willingly to Doom. The entity reaches out across Latveria to find Maleva Krogh, a former member of the ruling class of Latveria from the time before Doom freed the people from the despotic regime that enslaved them all. A supporter of the former king, Krogh was one of the most feared and hated people in all Latveria, seeing the common people as nothing more than her playthings for her twisted, psychotic games. The Devourer reaches out to her, and with promise of power and the chance for revenge against Doom, transforms her into an urvullak, a deadly vampiric creature who feeds upon the memories of others, and whose touch can transform humans into monsters under her control. Now, as Doom tries to find a way to reach the Devourer he must contend with an army of monsters that begins to sweep across the country, changing all they come across in their mission to reach the Devourer before Doom.
The first Doom book was something of a slow burn, a novel that let you spend time getting to know the characters over the course of months as Doom prepared himself for something he knew was coming, as he was able to formulate plans far in advance and set things in motion to his own will. Reign of the Devourer is very different. Things move fast here, with the main events of the novel taking place over a much shorter time. It also has Doom and his allies being on something of a back-foot for most of it too. Instead of knowing what's going to happen and being able to prepare in advance Doom is very much taken by surprise by the appearance of the urvullak, and has to think and act quickly in order to save his people and his country.
This change might not seem like much, but it shows us an entirely different side to Doom. Instead of being the man who's always thinking several moves ahead, who's always got a plan, we see a man struggling to catch up, who's having to do all of his thinking and planning mid-battle, and who's watching everything he cares about slipping through his fingers. It allows us a different kind of insight into the man, and at times shows the more 'villainous' side of him as he's forced to become more ruthless and uncaring in order to do what needs to be done to save everyone.
It's not just Doom who gets a chance to shine, however, as two of the returning characters, Zargo and Orloff, get pushed in new directions; taking the foundation that was established in the first book and going in some unexpected places. At the start of the book Zargo is still a man questioning who he is, especially in relation to his geomancer powers and his position as a man of god. He can't reconcile those two parts of himself, only ever seeing them as two things in conflict with each other. Over the course of the book he very much learns to rely on his powers more, coming to understand them better, and even having to use them to greater heights in order to combat and survive the urvullak.
Orloff also gets challenged in similar ways, starting the book as a doctor in Latveria's best hospital, but then being assigned to work on Doom's special project. This project introduces her to whole new realms of science and understanding that she was unaware of, and in order to help fight the urvullak she's even forced to become something of a warrior; becoming one of Dooms best weapons in the fight. The two of them feel so much more fleshed out and alive in this book than they did the first, and they get huge amounts of room to grow and develop as the story goes on. If there are more books to come that focus on Doom I really hope that they'll be incorporating both of these characters too.
What I probably liked the most about this book, however, was Krogh and the urvullak. These creatures are legit scary. The early scenes where Krogh is the only one, and she's stalking her victims through the quiet buildings of a small town at night were terrifying, and felt like something straight out of a horror movie. Every time we had the urvullak finding new victims and changing people into more of them it was chilling and tonally very, very dark. Even when there were hundreds or more of the creatures and they were engaging in open warfare with Doom and his people they still managed to be frightening as they were this horde or monsters that were hard to stop, that just kept coming for you, and would destroy who you are with just a single tough. In some ways they made me think of the xenomorph from the Alien series, one of them alone stalking you through dark hallways is just as terrifying as a swarm of them coming at you en mass. In either scenario your chances of survival are incredibly small, and that made them so frightening.
Reign of the Devourer is a fascinating exploration of Doom and his home country, of how he's very much a hero there who has earned the love and admiration of his people. The book shows that he's not just pretending, or making it seem like he's a benevolent leader to the rest of the world, but actually cares about doing the right thing for Latveria, even if that means putting himself between his people and an army of vampire-like monsters. It builds upon the characters and themes established in the first book in exciting ways, and takes an even harder turn into horror than the first book that really sets this apart from the other Marvel books being produced by Aconyte. An absolute must read for anyone who's a fan of Doctor Doom.
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