As the Fantastic Four’s nemesis Doctor Doom assembles his own team of X-Men, he’s also updating his look with a costume that grants him surprising powers. Doom is Marvel’s most ambitious villain, and when the X-Men founded their own nation in 2019, it turns out he established his own mutant team to stop any Latverian superhumans jumping ship.
In a preview of Gerry Duggan, Joshua Cassara, Marte Gracia and Clayton Cowles’ X-Men #29, the narrative jumps back to the events of House of X, where Xavier, Magneto, and Moira X revealed the new mutant nation of Krakoa to the world. It turns out Doom saw it coming.
Not only did Doctor Doom have his own mutant team in training, but he even has a Cerebro-like helmet which allows him to intercept Xavier’s psychic broadcast. He lays out in clear terms that Latveria won’t accept Krakoa’s miracle drugs (the resource they used to get international recognition so quickly.) In the modern day, the Age of Krakoa is at an end, and the remaining X-Men just found themselves stranded in Latveria, facing Doctor Doom’s mutant team. The issue’s summary reads:
DOOM’S X-MEN! That’s right – Doctor Doom has his very own team of Latverian mutants, loyal to the benevolent leader that keeps their country safe, and they make their spectacular debut in this issue! The X-Men may be in the midst of a fall… but they’re not letting Doom’s personal squad take their title without a fight!
Doctor Doom Has Given Himself Telepathy
Doom Is Taking Replacing the X-Men Seriously
Over his career, Doctor Doom has harnessed all the great powers of the Marvel Universe. He’s stolen the powers of the Beyonder and Galactus, fired the Ultimate Nullifier, and came within a hair’s breadth of becoming the Sorcerer Supreme instead of Doctor Strange. Now, he’s turning his gaze to the X-Men, forming his own team of patriotic mutants and even going after the team’s codename. Doom’s team is made up of the the four-armed, plant-based fighter Nerium, the volcanic brawler Slag, the electrical Volta, and the mutant siblings Ironcloak and Dreamer.
Surprising many, Doom was relatively supportive of Krakoa from its inception. While he considers himself the only power in the world that matters, he made it clear that while Latveria would not accept Krakoa’s medicines, he saw the sense of a mutant nation – as long as it never crossed him by trying to take what is his. However, Doctor Doom also plays the long game, and as he perhaps guessed, Krakoa fell during the 2023 Hellfire Gala. Now, Wolverine, Ms. Marvel and Shadowkat have accidentally strayed into Latveria, with Cassara’s cover art showing them battling Doom’s team.
Doctor Doom having his own X-Men is a perfect fit for the tyrant who’s never seen power he didn’t covet, but no-one expected him to set himself up as the Latverian Professor X, complete with his own telepathic gifts.
X-Men #29 is available December 6 from Marvel Comics.
