Doctor Doom Gets New Marvel Comic From Jonathan Hickman & Sanford Greene

Marvel Has announced Doom #1, a one-shot issue coming in May from writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Sanford Greene. Doom #1 is billed in Marvel's announcement as the end of Doctor Doom's story, and his "final journey," in which Doom battles Galactus. Marvel's press release promises the showdown between Doctor Doom and Galactus will be "universe-shattering" and that the story will be a definitive demonstration of what makes Doctor Doom such a memorable, iconic villain as Doom teams with Valeria Richards – one of the few people on Earth he respects – to challenge the world-devourer. Greene also created the Doom #1 cover, which can be found below. Here's the issue's official synopsis from Marvel:

"IN THE NEAR FUTURE…DOOM ALONE MUST SAVE THE MARVEL UNIVERSE! Witness Doctor Doom on a journey unlike any he has undertaken before! With Valeria Richards at his side, Doom goes on a quest to harness more power than any human has ever wielded before in order to try to stop Galactus from bringing about the death of the universe!"

In a statement, Greene Says, "Growing up reading Marvel comics, I became fascinated by Doctor Doom and how he potentially is the center of the entire Marvel Universe! He is one of my bucket list characters and this story is somewhat a love letter to Doom and Marvel."

Hickman adds, "Sanford and I have been waiting to work together for quite a while, so when he told me that he'd come up with an amazing Doom story and he wanted me to help out, I jumped at the chance. It's a giant-sized story about a giant-sized character and I can't tell you how excited I am to get to write Doom again."

"Jonathan is a longtime friend and he always amazes me with his vast knowledge of all types of things, especially the Marvel universe," Greene said. "I couldn't think of anyone better to collaborate with."

Hickman has become one of the definitive Doctor Doom writers. Not only did Doom feature prominently in Hickman's time writing Marvel's Fantastic Four and FF comics from 2009 to 2012, but Doom's story continued through Hickman's subsequent runs writing Avengers and New Avengers, culminating with Doom reigning as God-Emperor of Battleworld in the 2015 Secret Wars event.

Doctor Doom: The End?

The premise of Doom #1 seems to be keeping in the spirit of Marvel's now-defunct "The End" line of comics from the early 2000s, which featured miniseries and one-shots telling theoretical last stories of some of Marvel's most popular characters. Most of Marvel's marquee characters received the "The End" treatment, with the Fantastic Four getting two, of a sort, in 2007: the Fantastic Four: The End miniseries by Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom and The Last Fantastic Four Story one-shot by Stan Lee and John Romita Jr.

Marvel's "The End" comics took place in different alternate universes without impacting Marvel's core universe. It's unclear if that's the case with Doom #1 or if this may tie into whatever the story is that has been bubbling in the background of the Marvel Universe via the annual Timeless one-shots, which broke into the main Marvel publishing line via Kang's involvement in the current Avengers series.

Doom #1 goes on sale on May 15th.