WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Doctor Doom #7, by Cristopher Cantwell, Salvador Larocca, Guru-eFx, and Vc's Cory Petit, on sale now.

After an extended time away from his Latveria, Doctor Doom has returned to retake the nation that he famously rules with an iron fist. And in Doctor Doom #7, Doom returns to Latveria atop a grizzly bear with cold, calculated brutality that would have made Machiavelli smile.

Over the course of this series, Doctor Doom has seen the Fantastic Four's nemesis on the run after Latveria was framed for the destruction of the Antlion Moonbase by the rival nation of Symkaria. In his efforts to clear his name, Doom enlisted the help of Kang the Conqueror, who acted as an ally just long enough for Victor to acquire the Ultimate Nullifier. After Doom had gotten his hands on Marvel's terrifying weapon, Kang turned on him in an effort to steal it for himself. With Kang defeated and the nullifier on his belt, Doom continued on to Latveria, where he made his ground return.

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Doctor Doom Bear

In the desolate, snow-covered landscape of Northern Latveria, there's a small group of Doom loyalists. Among them are Latverian mainstays like Latveria's cosmic champion Victorius, Doom's heir Kristoff Vernard and General Vasily Makeyev. The last holdouts of Doom's regime are blasting apart vodka bottles with small arms when the silhouette of Doom, riding atop his bear like a noble steed, comes into view.

While this makes for an awesome image, Doom explains that the bear is named Novak and that he is to be fed and cared for while Doom prepares for the next phase of his plan. The next phase is for him to make all of his loyalists swear fealty to him while kneeling at his feet. After each oath, Doom responds to his loyalists' pledges with enigmatic questions that probe the depths of their adoration for him.

He says that he will decide whether their loyalty is true, and this mostly seems like a formality until Vasily Makeyev swears his oath. When Vasily is finished, Doom doesn't ask any enigmatic questions. Instead, he cuts to the heart of the matter saying that the Antlion incident was dependent upon severe failures in systems and organizations which Vasily controlled. He then begins reading from a love letter that the general wrote to the former monarch of Symkaria in which he states that he wishes for their countries to become one so that they may be together.

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With the traitor's fate all but sealed, Doom tells the general to start running before gunning him down with a single shot. To add insult to injury, Doom summarily has Makeyev's remains fed to his bear.

While Doom has toed the line between villainy and heroism in recent years, moments like this restore Doom's vicious character and reaffirm his status as one of the most ruthless characters in the Marvel Universe. While Doom may have ultimately played a meaningful role in saving the Marvel multiverse in Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic's Secret Wars, he flew an Iron Man-like armor as the Infamous Iron Man.

However, Doom's execution of the general, and of Latveria's current feckless ruler, prove that Doom hasn't lost any of his nerve, even if he's played a hero. And now, the Marvel Universe may feel how firm Doctor Doom's iron fist is once again.

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