In this review of Doomquest #4, Dr. Doom decides to forgo his quest to rebuild Latveria, in favor of living out a normal life with Valeria. It gives way to a strong revelation from Doom on who he is.
DOOMQUEST #4
Written by: Ryan North
Art: Francesco Mobili
Main Cover: Alex Ross
Variant Covers: Luciano Vecchio, Steve Rude, David Mack, Paco Medina, Germán Peralta
Page Count: 23 pages
Release Date: September 9 2026
This review contains spoilers
Doomquest #4 takes the foundations of everything else the previous 3 issues did and presents the most complete character study yet of the man known as Dr. Doom. The last issue ended with Doom’s next time jump landing him in his younger self’s body, with his lover Valeria. He takes the opportunity to tell her what will transpire and say goodbye, however she’s not satisfied.
She persuades him to stay and forget about his quest, and instead love her. Doom gives in and ignores Latveria. He and Valeria settle down in eastern Europe. They buy a house and have two kids. Victor helps them with homework, teaches his daughter the piano, buries the family dog, and watches them go off to prom. Soon, they have grandchildren, and both Victor and Valeria blissfully grow old together. He’s happy, until she gets sick and is close to death. As much as it hurts Doom initially, he has an epiphany at the hospital room.
Despite everything his life with Valeria gave him and everything they’ve built, it’s simply not enough. It didn’t satisfy him fully, and Doom resolves to gain true satisfaction the only way he knows how; conquer the world in Latveria’s name.
The former Sorcerer Supreme slips back into the time stream as Valeria dies, opting to not cast the spell that preserves the alternate timeline. The next time he wakes up, he is within the body of Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman.
Analysis
Ryan North has been on a tear, and Doomquest undoubtedly has a case for the best Marvel comic series this year. To understand this story properly, I recommend reading this in tandem with Chip Zdarsky’s Captain America. Issue #14 of that series features Doom encountering Valeria in hell (after he struck a deal to banish her there), where the villain firmly states that he has no regrets about what he did to his lover.
However, it’s contradictory because despite his claim, Doom feels enough guilt to offer Val the opportunity to kill him for revenge. Here again, we gain a supplementary story for those ideas. Despite the claim of no regrets, he still decides to live out decades of time alongside Valeria, showing he had–at the very least–enough regret to take this opportunity. To give both another chance at a life together.
He gains that in its purest form. Yet, the tragedy of Doom is that it’s not enough for him. A core tenant of the conqueror’s character is that he’s never satisfied. As he said in Doomquest #1, as great as Latveria had become, he built the Doom engine because he still did not feel like Latveria had enough.
Same thing here. Even if he is happy with Valeria, it’ll never be enough for Doom. Even if he returns to Latveria and makes her greater than she already had become, it’ll never be enough for the man who desires the whole world.
Final Thoughts
An absolute stellar issue and a must-have for all Dr. Doom fans. A rich character study and tragic admittance, Doomquest #4 remained committed to peeling back the mask of Doom. Ryan North’s pen is blazing.
