Doom’s influence in the Marvel Universe will continue after ‘One World Under Doom’ ends

Things aren’t looking so great for Doctor Doom, based on the latest issue of One World Under Doom and the teases Marvel has released for the post-Doom world. But whatever his fate is in the next couple issues of the big event miniseries by Ryan North and RB Silva, another Canadian writer has dibs on the villain after it ends.

“Between The Will of Doom and Captain America, we’re charting a new course for the Marvel Universe with one simple statement: Doom always has a plan,” said Captain America writer Chip Zdarsky.

The Will of Doom, a cleverly titled one-shot by Zdarsky and CAFU, not only wraps up the last year’s worth of stories, but also sets up Zdarsky’s next storyline in Captain America. It’ll also feature General Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross, who has been Doom’s prisoner these last few months, as shown in the pages of Red Hulk, and of course the Fantastic Four.

“A Latveria with Doom in charge is incredibly dangerous. A Latveria without Doom in charge is even worse,” Zdarsky said. “Thunderbolt Ross and Latveria’s new leader, Salvation, have their eyes on Latveria’s deadliest secrets, and whoever gets their hands on them will be a threat that will undo the world.”

Here’s a look at the new villain, Salvation, on a variant cover for issue #6 of Captain America by artist Josemaria Casanovas:

Zdarsky’s run on Captain America — which has been great, by the way, if you haven’t checked it out — has so far been set in the past, featuring a recently de-iced Steve Rogers returning to his military roots before he took the Avengers up on their offer to join them. Because of Marvel’s sliding timeline, it’s not set in the 1960s, when the original Avengers #4 was published, but rather in a post-9/11 period. Rogers wakes up to learn a soldier named David Colton has been serving as Captain America.

The story also details Rogers’ first encounter with Doom, as he, Colton and a new batch of Howling Commandos infiltrate Latveria to rescue some hostages. The flashback will end before December’s issue #6, which will jump to the present day and features a team of heroesfrom around the world coming together “to keep Latveria from falling into chaos.” The new storyline will introduce four new characters, each representing one of the member countries of the United Nations Security Council: Captain Kingdom, representing United Kingdom; Captain France, representing France; Red Widow, representing Russia; and the Star, representing China:

“One of the things I like most about my job is designing new characters,” said Valerio Schiti, the regular artist of Captain America. “It has always been a great hobby of mine, even before becoming a professional! I tried to incorporate some traditional symbols from the countries of origin of the new Captains into their uniforms, which are also practical and suitable for combat.”

While Schiti designed the new faces, they’ll leap into action thanks to two guest artists on the arc — Frank Alpizar and Delio Diaz, who drew the recently released Doomed 2099 special. Here’s a look at Schiti’s main cover and another variant by Ivan Tao for Captain America #6

Finally, here’s a wraparound variant cover for The Will of Doom #1 by J. Scott Campbell, which is a collage that features several images that have appeared individually on several variant covers recently:

The Will of Doom comes out on Christmas Eve, while Captain America #6 comes out Dec. 17.