- Location
- Netherlands
No relation. Also unrelated to the incelly Nordic guy. allegedly.
Doom's Day Has Come! (Let's Read Marvel's Doctor Doom)
- Thread starter Roarian
- Start date
- Comics
2099 - Doom 2099 A.D. #32 - Rise
- Location
- Netherlands
⚠ Warning: This issue contains depictions of Suicide and Genocide. ⚠
Doom 2099 A.D. #32 (August 1995)
Cover
We get an imperious image of Doom this time featuring his Presidential armor, though I'm not sure having his eyes down so low relative to the eyeholes of his mask is entirely sensible. I guess the idea is that he's raising his chin up a little, pose-wise? I'm also not certain what's up with that weird silvery effect going on around his fist - perhaps this was originally a glowy cover with reflective bits that got messed up in the scan? It looks more like an error than intentional. Or maybe it's just an odd choice in visual effects, since the coloring of the armor is strangely blue anyway. Who knows, the comic itself may explain it?
Story Overview
Rise
For once, the recap of previous events is a tasteful one-page written summary - it includes brief references to the last few Doom 2099 issues, recapping the invasion of America, and mentioning the events of the Ravage tie-in where Hellrock was decimated. This places us, temporally, after that particular issue but before the final events of Spider-Man and the Hulk. Accompanying the summary is an image of Doom's hand grasping the American flag in a fashion quite similar to the cover of Fantastic Four v1 #258, to the point that I'm fairly certain that it's a direct reference, though without the neat reflections…
The sun does not rise over Chicago, the comic announces, as we're shown an image of an enormous cathedral-like building looming over the sprawling and decrepit-looking remains of a large city. The building is surrounded on all sides by enormous searchlights which guide in a variety of rocket-powered airships. We follow one of those ships down as it descends and announces itself as an Alchemax flight bound for the Reserve. The pilot lays out their final approach and relays to the local security people that his passenger wants another confirmation that Chicago Interzone Diplomatic Law is in force. Local security forces quickly respond that despite the current political situation, the Reserve is still owned by the coalition of megacorporations, and Mr. Herod has personally assured the passenger's safety.
'Shockin' well better have done,' the passenger complains as he exits his vehicle among voluminous clouds of billowing steam. Running off to visit the Reserve was risky enough in the old days, and that's why he used to always let someone else do it. This time, though, Tyler Stone has arrived in person. He announces himself by name and uses the trigger phrase 'Step on Spiders' - cute - before raising a finger and transmitting a code using an 'safebox locking sequencer' that Herod implanted there. Impatient, he asks if they can get on with it already, and the security forces welcome him to the Reserve and tell him that a nearby float silo - a classic sci-fi tube transporter - will convey him directly to his safebox, where he can then enter into a conference with Herod and his fellow CEOs. Lotta security rigamarole here!
As he descends into the Reserve building, Tyler is reminded of diplomatic law within the Chicago Interzone. No hostile economic action is to be taken within or upon the Interzoe, as it is ruled by a coalition of corporations. No hostile physical action is to be taken upon corporate personnel of any denomination, since the reserve is neutral territory. The float silo announces that it will seal up in three seconds, upon which Tyler is dropped into his safebox, designed by neutral Reserve technicians on Herod's behalf. Layered force-fields and phase-shell cascades power up to protect him from all harm, but Tyler is just annoyed with all the verbal explanations, waving off the information as more of Herod's blasted infomercials. He's ready for the teleconference to start.
Switching over to the inside of the actual Chicago Reserve, the cathedral-like building from before, we see the suddenly-relevant Herod for the first time. He's a bald man sitting on a throne wearing a fancy blue-and-yellow bomber jacket with a cape, though he's not wearing a shirt under it. He's covered entirely in multi-colored tattoos, including several facial ones in swirling patterns, various barcode-like segments, and what could be the stitched-up evidence of nearly getting disemboweled. One tattoo across his face resembles the Eye of Ra, though rendered in neon green. Herod's technologically augmented butler, Murdock, walks up to him and announces that the last safebox has registered the tardy arrival of Tyler Stone of Alchemax, and he hands over Herod's Guarana cigarettes as well as Herod's favorite (and heartbreakingly cheap) brand of whiskey. Herod observes that Stone is something of a liability, then makes a point of mentioning that Glen Fujikawa is a good whiskey. The butler muses that it should also make a pleasant political statement to the head of Stark-Fujikawa, and an amused Herod tells him that his lawyer's soul is showing.
Activating the teleconference, Herod greets the various CEOs he's gathered for a meeting - there's not really any super-familiar faces there to work with, beyond Tyler Stone. Most of them show up as just floating heads in various resolutions and styles, while Tyler is shown fully, sitting in a chair. Herod apologizes for the conference's rather patchwork nature, but explains that the reason they're such a motley crew is that each of their safeboxes have a different frequency in their phase shell cascades which unfortunately interfere with various different forms of broadcast medium. What works for one, doesn't work for another. However, this is still safer than meeting face-to-face! He need not remind the group of a time before safeboxes, when an Alchemax executive released a knife-missile into a crowded conference room! Now, he announces, let's speak of ruling America…
We switch over to… Latveria! The nation has never known things to be so quiet, and in the time that Doom has been gone life has settled into a sweet and easy rhythm unknown there since the 19th century. In Doom's absence, Fortune is running Latveria as head of the indigenous Zefiro, and doing a pretty good job of it. We see her nursing a cup of coffee as she gets an encoded call from some operatives she sent out.
It's a reclamation team in hazmat-gear that was sent over to inspect the devastated nation of Makhelastan, though they seem unclear on who they've contacted. Fortune wonders if they don't have visuals, and the reclamation team's leader Josef explains that none of their electronics are working properly, possibly due to the large amounts of released moisture or high skin cell content in the air. Makhelastan is a bit of a biological nightmare right then. .
Fortune asks if they've found any survivors in the stricken country, or any attempts to - you know - harvest what remains? Josef tells her that his colleague Ligno went mad upon witnessing the fate of the Makhelastani people, and he ate several mouthfuls of the remains before they could restrain him. Ew. Maxim found an unvented delivery system which triggered, and she lost both her legs in the accident. In summary, there's nothing left alive in Makhelastan - the necrotoxification eradicated everyone, leaving nothing but skeletons and purple sludge. There's absolutely nothing to reclaim…
Over in Washington, Libera Cielo hovers serenely above the White House. Inside the floating monolith we see Indigo, Minister of Signal, strolling through a galaxy made of money - a holographic representation of the American corporate structure. Planets are megacorporations, subsidiary firms are spun as moons, there are great ghost worlds of shady legal magic… and something in Chicago is sucking in any light she tries to shine on it. She's starting to think that the megacorps are trying to hide something there, but that's ridiculous. Megacorps, as a rule, don't work together… Still, she stares at that voracious black hole at the heart of the galaxy and worries…
In the Oval Office, Nkrumah is watching a holovideo of Captain America, commenting that he sees only a man in bedroom attire. It's actually an ad for Star-Spangled, a new novel by Jack King and published by the Chicago Arts Lab. Interestingly, it includes the classic Cap with his old shield as well as the more familiar round one. Doom explains to the Wakandan that he's looking at one of America's more interesting players during the Heroic Age, Captain America. It seems that in America's search to cope with Doom's presidency, they're looking for pure American icons. Star-Spangled, the life-story of the Captain, is currently the most popular novel around, so Doom thought it worth study. He found it to be full of mistakes.
Doom makes an interesting comment after that - he mentions that he had forgotten that Captain America was a contemporary of the Black Panther of the era, T'Challa. Doom's memory is not quite as complete as we've been led to believe, perhaps? Or it's simply due to the fact that he spent several decades after the Heroic Age we're familiar with before going to 2099, and he simply fogged up some details that were by then decades old. Doom also does not recall another image of the Captain, armed and shirtless on the street fighting in the New York language riots of the early 2000's. Because it never happened!
Nkrumah wonders why one would place such an obvious lie in a biography, and Doom concludes that unlike Wakandas, Americans have no respect for history. Quite simply, the audience doesn't know it's a lie, and thus Captain America has been recast as a patriot soldier - a conservative icon of war and cultural stasis. A comfortable fable for conservative little people in chaotic times. Doom decides he will allow the people such fairy stories.
Back in Chicago, Herod describes the nature of the Chicago Reserve to the CEOs - it started as a location to hold all the technologies that the great nation of America was considered not yet ready for. The meat harps that would ease communication so much if not for their origin, and the star-drive that feeds on perversion - the CEOs placed him, Herod, in charge of all the spoils of the Heroic Age. They referred to him as Sepulcher in volatile memos, entrusted him with the strangest and most horrendous things in the world. Now, he asks for yet more trust!
When one CEO asks why they were all called here, it's Murdock who answers - he announces that Doom has yet to locate and divine the true nature of the Reserve, and has not yet even heard of Herod. Still, Herod planned for every eventuality, including an invasion of the country! Doom is intelligent and intrepid, so they have only a limited time before he's discovered, and out of all of them he's the only one in a position to act against Doom's regime. However, there is a price for his removal of Doom from the stage - he wants to rule America himself! In this bargain, Herod will take the unconditional Presidency for himself - capitalism in action!
Herod announces that he has an American dream, recalling the last issue of Doom 2099. He wants to bleed this great nation dry, and maybe even the world! It's what they're supposed to do, to take everything from the mother world and start again elsewhere! He proposes to the CEOs to take their corporate ethos to its natural extreme and asset-strip the planet before relocating to Mars. They can have a wondrous retirement in fine colonies built with the Earth's blood, rearing strong children to take the ethos to new territories. That's why they're all here. Murdoch claims it'll take less than five years to achieve, noting that activities which do not generate direct profit will be curtailed or removed - including civic services. The workforce will reduce as a result, true, but even when the cities are husks and the air is thick and brown - heck, if they kill seventy-five percent of everyone - he figures they'll be okay.
We get an update on the state of the nation, next. In New York, the EMP net overhead has worked wonders, and the air can now be breathed without protection for over ten hours at a time. SHIELD provides police protection to everyone, regardless of their financial status, and organ traders who preyed on the destitute are just the first strata of the criminal life to feel the pinch. Cynex bodywork stores are giving cheap and easy cyber interface implants free to all comers, and dive booths are busy - information is free. A TV channel has been given over to a 24 hours vigil on plant life springing up across American cities.
On board Libera Cielo, Sharp Blue wanders down darkened halls to retrieve Wire from yet another multi-day stint of self-exile. She hits the lights, impatient, only to discover Wire dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Xandra's name scrawled in blood on the wall behind him. Oh, Jesus Christ. No! Why would you do that?!
Tyler Stone, having listened to Herod's screed, calls him a complete madman. Herod calls himself a visionary instead - he's offering all of them a life of wonder under his guidance - or a long dull existence with their most precious bits in Doom's hand! He can take Doom out for them, take the nation as a crucible for a new world - but they must agree unanimously, for they have little time and much to do. They will not question his methods, nor hinder him in his appointed tasks, that's all he asks! Well, what will it be? What is their answer?
Tyler Stone asks what happens if they refuse, and Murdoch comments that under Interzone law, they're all safe from physical harm. The Reserve cannot take retribution, that would violate every diplomatic tenet. But… unfortunately for the CEOs, the law is easily broken! A smiling Herod explains that he voided the coding on the locking sequencers, so he can open those safeboxes any time he likes. Indeed, he could assassinate all of them right here and now, and create more than enough turmoil in the world for him to begin his task. But he owed them all the chance to enter the New Order on the ground floor. One chance! Sure enough, the safebox containing Tyler Stone opens up as an armed robot raises its weapon towards him.
The corporate royalty of America, one by one, are taken away from the Reserve at high speed and returned to the real world before they are missed. Each of them stare at their pilots and bodyguards in a new way. They each resolve privately to make fewer friends in the coming years, for following the deal they all made under duress, almost every person they will meet has a maximum life expectancy of five years. We see one last shot of Tyler Stone onboard one of the airships, crying to himself as he departs.
In the White House, Doom gets an urgent call from Indigo, who looks haggard and in tears. Impatient, Doom asks her what's going on, and she answers that it's California. Something's happened in California and it's terrible! We end on a shot of Doom's furious eyes and a last quote: "The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned; the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." - William Butler Yeats
Rating & Comments
This is a Doom-lite issue of Doom 2099, focusing more on his enemies and allies than the man himself. Tyler Stone is the framing device, of sorts, which makes some sense since he's one of the CEOs who got a new job directly under the big man himself, and a long-standing character in Spider-Man 2099 as well. He visits a highly respected and secretive location with a bunch of other CEOs - the Chicago Reserve, an unseen location before this. I am a little confused how a massive city dominated by an enormous cathedral-building which shows up as a black hole of information on the internet would fall below notice, but perhaps I don't have these future people's excellent reasoning skills. Yeeeah. It's also weird that all these CEOs either show up in person or send someone over to do that, when several methods of remote communication are already canon and would probably attract less attention, especially when Stone himself calls out the risk.
Weirder still is our newly introduced villain, Herod. Although he's never been seen or mentioned before, Herod shows up as this larger-than-life figure that all the various feuding corporations apparently trusted for some reason to run their black site for them. All of them put their rare stuff together for some reason, instead of each having their own secret stash of technology - which contradicts earlier issues which suggested Doom's people were digging up hidden Stark-Fujikawa technology and even earlier references to Pixel hiding its own advances like PALOMA. I guess that's different? Herod apparently has control over a vast array of alien and anomalous technology which the corporations consider too hot to handle for current society, and he's also apparently gone a bit insane in recent times. That's what I have to conclude, at least, since I have to presume the corporations all used to trust him for a reason.
It's almost cute how the comic spends fully half of its pagetime building up the intense security measures of the Reserve to prevent unauthorized guests and to keep various guests from using the shared presence to act out private rivalries and wars. There's various laws between megacorporations, special technology meant to make communication super-secure, an entire theater of safety… and it was only ever a theater. Herod held the keys from the start, capable of murdering any of the CEOs whenever he wanted, able to press the advantage of these people trusting in the system which allegedly protected them. Here, he uses that ability to press through his own dream - his own insane, over-the-top nonsense plan of world domination. And it sounds familiar. You remember how Avatarr's original idea for Valhalla was to stripmine the Earth and then escape into the sky? Yeah, this is that idea write large.
We catch up with some other characters too, like Fortune, who we hadn't seen since the start of the invasion when Doom left her behind in Latveria. The actual focus of the story isn't on the nation itself, though - which is doing fine - but on nearby Makhelastan, the nation stricken by genocide shortly before Doom departed for America. The descriptions and imagery are fairly horrific, as usual, and really emphasize the level of fucked up that Doom is replacing. Yeah, he's a dictator - but if the alternative is rendering entire nations to sludge because they got uppity, maybe that's an improvement. I was reminded a little of the game Control, actually, when it mentioned one of the men going mad and proceeding to eat the remains - that's some mold nonsense, man!
A few other Black Ministers also get screen time - Indigo discovers the 'black hole' of the Chicago Reserve while exploring cyberspace, presumably putting her on the road to discovering its existence and alerting Doom to the problem, and she returns at the end to warn Doom of the events of Hulk 2099 #10, though since Doom was holographically present when that went down, he's probably already aware. Sharp Blue, meanwhile, finds something rather more depressing - she goes to find Wire in the Signal Pit where he's been holing up, only to discover he's committed suicide over the death of his oldest friend, Xandra. So, um, why exactly was he resurrected if he never actually got to do anything in the story? I guess his digital ghost is still around, but that was already the case before he got resleeved. It's a tragic and kind of wasteful development.
The only scene Doom is actually involved in, beyond that ending snippet, is one he shares with Nkrumah, the Wakandan who is his Minister of Enemy Relations. It's a curious scene which echoes the earlier encounter Nkrumah had with Thorites - this time it seems something of a cult of personality around Captain America has formed as the result of a popular biography. Said biography is inaccurate, not unusual when it comes to details about the heroic age, but ultimately it's pretty harmless. What is salient is the fact that history is apparently retold to make Cap a more conservative icon of war and cultural stasis than he really was, presumably to better fit in with the current political narratives. How often does that happen in real life, that historical people get reframed as supporting this or that modern political view they never espoused or didn't even know about? Bonus points if media sources make up quotes to support those positions. I'm thinking in particular of certain conspiracy circles, but I'm sure you can find the same in the mainstream.
This issue has a lot of setup, and since I know that the next issue is the finale of the One Nation Under Doom storyline - premature, maybe half a dozen issues earlier than originally intended - it's pretty clear that Herod is being set up to be Doom's great nemesis. It's a bit sad that a last-minute Deus Ex Machina is invoked here by inventing the owner of a massive stash of super-technology that apparently was so super-secret that every single CEO knows about it but somehow it completely escaped Doom's awareness. If Reed Richards had shown up in 2099 (as I know he will) this might have seemed less of an ass-pull, but I expected at least a little more foreshadowing than this… or maybe a more internal reason for his departure, like worsening paranoia after the Avatarr incident. I guess we'll see what they decided on next time…
Quotations from President Doom
"Unike you Wakandans, Americans have no respect for history. Quite simply - the audience doesn't know it's a lie. They have recast the Captain as a patriot soldier, a conservative icon of war and cultural stasis. A comfortable little fable for conservative little people in chaotic times. I should allow them their fairy stories."
Art Spotlight
There's some visual parallels going on between Doom and Herod in this issue, and one of the more obvious is the poses - for example, these are two panels in succession in which both Doom and Herod fold their hands in front of them in the same way, both speaking of historical artefacts and their relevance in current times. Coincidence? I think not.
Doom 2099 A.D. #32 (August 1995)
Cover
We get an imperious image of Doom this time featuring his Presidential armor, though I'm not sure having his eyes down so low relative to the eyeholes of his mask is entirely sensible. I guess the idea is that he's raising his chin up a little, pose-wise? I'm also not certain what's up with that weird silvery effect going on around his fist - perhaps this was originally a glowy cover with reflective bits that got messed up in the scan? It looks more like an error than intentional. Or maybe it's just an odd choice in visual effects, since the coloring of the armor is strangely blue anyway. Who knows, the comic itself may explain it?
Story Overview
Rise
For once, the recap of previous events is a tasteful one-page written summary - it includes brief references to the last few Doom 2099 issues, recapping the invasion of America, and mentioning the events of the Ravage tie-in where Hellrock was decimated. This places us, temporally, after that particular issue but before the final events of Spider-Man and the Hulk. Accompanying the summary is an image of Doom's hand grasping the American flag in a fashion quite similar to the cover of Fantastic Four v1 #258, to the point that I'm fairly certain that it's a direct reference, though without the neat reflections…
The sun does not rise over Chicago, the comic announces, as we're shown an image of an enormous cathedral-like building looming over the sprawling and decrepit-looking remains of a large city. The building is surrounded on all sides by enormous searchlights which guide in a variety of rocket-powered airships. We follow one of those ships down as it descends and announces itself as an Alchemax flight bound for the Reserve. The pilot lays out their final approach and relays to the local security people that his passenger wants another confirmation that Chicago Interzone Diplomatic Law is in force. Local security forces quickly respond that despite the current political situation, the Reserve is still owned by the coalition of megacorporations, and Mr. Herod has personally assured the passenger's safety.
'Shockin' well better have done,' the passenger complains as he exits his vehicle among voluminous clouds of billowing steam. Running off to visit the Reserve was risky enough in the old days, and that's why he used to always let someone else do it. This time, though, Tyler Stone has arrived in person. He announces himself by name and uses the trigger phrase 'Step on Spiders' - cute - before raising a finger and transmitting a code using an 'safebox locking sequencer' that Herod implanted there. Impatient, he asks if they can get on with it already, and the security forces welcome him to the Reserve and tell him that a nearby float silo - a classic sci-fi tube transporter - will convey him directly to his safebox, where he can then enter into a conference with Herod and his fellow CEOs. Lotta security rigamarole here!
As he descends into the Reserve building, Tyler is reminded of diplomatic law within the Chicago Interzone. No hostile economic action is to be taken within or upon the Interzoe, as it is ruled by a coalition of corporations. No hostile physical action is to be taken upon corporate personnel of any denomination, since the reserve is neutral territory. The float silo announces that it will seal up in three seconds, upon which Tyler is dropped into his safebox, designed by neutral Reserve technicians on Herod's behalf. Layered force-fields and phase-shell cascades power up to protect him from all harm, but Tyler is just annoyed with all the verbal explanations, waving off the information as more of Herod's blasted infomercials. He's ready for the teleconference to start.
Switching over to the inside of the actual Chicago Reserve, the cathedral-like building from before, we see the suddenly-relevant Herod for the first time. He's a bald man sitting on a throne wearing a fancy blue-and-yellow bomber jacket with a cape, though he's not wearing a shirt under it. He's covered entirely in multi-colored tattoos, including several facial ones in swirling patterns, various barcode-like segments, and what could be the stitched-up evidence of nearly getting disemboweled. One tattoo across his face resembles the Eye of Ra, though rendered in neon green. Herod's technologically augmented butler, Murdock, walks up to him and announces that the last safebox has registered the tardy arrival of Tyler Stone of Alchemax, and he hands over Herod's Guarana cigarettes as well as Herod's favorite (and heartbreakingly cheap) brand of whiskey. Herod observes that Stone is something of a liability, then makes a point of mentioning that Glen Fujikawa is a good whiskey. The butler muses that it should also make a pleasant political statement to the head of Stark-Fujikawa, and an amused Herod tells him that his lawyer's soul is showing.
Activating the teleconference, Herod greets the various CEOs he's gathered for a meeting - there's not really any super-familiar faces there to work with, beyond Tyler Stone. Most of them show up as just floating heads in various resolutions and styles, while Tyler is shown fully, sitting in a chair. Herod apologizes for the conference's rather patchwork nature, but explains that the reason they're such a motley crew is that each of their safeboxes have a different frequency in their phase shell cascades which unfortunately interfere with various different forms of broadcast medium. What works for one, doesn't work for another. However, this is still safer than meeting face-to-face! He need not remind the group of a time before safeboxes, when an Alchemax executive released a knife-missile into a crowded conference room! Now, he announces, let's speak of ruling America…
We switch over to… Latveria! The nation has never known things to be so quiet, and in the time that Doom has been gone life has settled into a sweet and easy rhythm unknown there since the 19th century. In Doom's absence, Fortune is running Latveria as head of the indigenous Zefiro, and doing a pretty good job of it. We see her nursing a cup of coffee as she gets an encoded call from some operatives she sent out.
It's a reclamation team in hazmat-gear that was sent over to inspect the devastated nation of Makhelastan, though they seem unclear on who they've contacted. Fortune wonders if they don't have visuals, and the reclamation team's leader Josef explains that none of their electronics are working properly, possibly due to the large amounts of released moisture or high skin cell content in the air. Makhelastan is a bit of a biological nightmare right then. .
Fortune asks if they've found any survivors in the stricken country, or any attempts to - you know - harvest what remains? Josef tells her that his colleague Ligno went mad upon witnessing the fate of the Makhelastani people, and he ate several mouthfuls of the remains before they could restrain him. Ew. Maxim found an unvented delivery system which triggered, and she lost both her legs in the accident. In summary, there's nothing left alive in Makhelastan - the necrotoxification eradicated everyone, leaving nothing but skeletons and purple sludge. There's absolutely nothing to reclaim…
Over in Washington, Libera Cielo hovers serenely above the White House. Inside the floating monolith we see Indigo, Minister of Signal, strolling through a galaxy made of money - a holographic representation of the American corporate structure. Planets are megacorporations, subsidiary firms are spun as moons, there are great ghost worlds of shady legal magic… and something in Chicago is sucking in any light she tries to shine on it. She's starting to think that the megacorps are trying to hide something there, but that's ridiculous. Megacorps, as a rule, don't work together… Still, she stares at that voracious black hole at the heart of the galaxy and worries…
In the Oval Office, Nkrumah is watching a holovideo of Captain America, commenting that he sees only a man in bedroom attire. It's actually an ad for Star-Spangled, a new novel by Jack King and published by the Chicago Arts Lab. Interestingly, it includes the classic Cap with his old shield as well as the more familiar round one. Doom explains to the Wakandan that he's looking at one of America's more interesting players during the Heroic Age, Captain America. It seems that in America's search to cope with Doom's presidency, they're looking for pure American icons. Star-Spangled, the life-story of the Captain, is currently the most popular novel around, so Doom thought it worth study. He found it to be full of mistakes.
Doom makes an interesting comment after that - he mentions that he had forgotten that Captain America was a contemporary of the Black Panther of the era, T'Challa. Doom's memory is not quite as complete as we've been led to believe, perhaps? Or it's simply due to the fact that he spent several decades after the Heroic Age we're familiar with before going to 2099, and he simply fogged up some details that were by then decades old. Doom also does not recall another image of the Captain, armed and shirtless on the street fighting in the New York language riots of the early 2000's. Because it never happened!
Nkrumah wonders why one would place such an obvious lie in a biography, and Doom concludes that unlike Wakandas, Americans have no respect for history. Quite simply, the audience doesn't know it's a lie, and thus Captain America has been recast as a patriot soldier - a conservative icon of war and cultural stasis. A comfortable fable for conservative little people in chaotic times. Doom decides he will allow the people such fairy stories.
Back in Chicago, Herod describes the nature of the Chicago Reserve to the CEOs - it started as a location to hold all the technologies that the great nation of America was considered not yet ready for. The meat harps that would ease communication so much if not for their origin, and the star-drive that feeds on perversion - the CEOs placed him, Herod, in charge of all the spoils of the Heroic Age. They referred to him as Sepulcher in volatile memos, entrusted him with the strangest and most horrendous things in the world. Now, he asks for yet more trust!
When one CEO asks why they were all called here, it's Murdock who answers - he announces that Doom has yet to locate and divine the true nature of the Reserve, and has not yet even heard of Herod. Still, Herod planned for every eventuality, including an invasion of the country! Doom is intelligent and intrepid, so they have only a limited time before he's discovered, and out of all of them he's the only one in a position to act against Doom's regime. However, there is a price for his removal of Doom from the stage - he wants to rule America himself! In this bargain, Herod will take the unconditional Presidency for himself - capitalism in action!
Herod announces that he has an American dream, recalling the last issue of Doom 2099. He wants to bleed this great nation dry, and maybe even the world! It's what they're supposed to do, to take everything from the mother world and start again elsewhere! He proposes to the CEOs to take their corporate ethos to its natural extreme and asset-strip the planet before relocating to Mars. They can have a wondrous retirement in fine colonies built with the Earth's blood, rearing strong children to take the ethos to new territories. That's why they're all here. Murdoch claims it'll take less than five years to achieve, noting that activities which do not generate direct profit will be curtailed or removed - including civic services. The workforce will reduce as a result, true, but even when the cities are husks and the air is thick and brown - heck, if they kill seventy-five percent of everyone - he figures they'll be okay.
We get an update on the state of the nation, next. In New York, the EMP net overhead has worked wonders, and the air can now be breathed without protection for over ten hours at a time. SHIELD provides police protection to everyone, regardless of their financial status, and organ traders who preyed on the destitute are just the first strata of the criminal life to feel the pinch. Cynex bodywork stores are giving cheap and easy cyber interface implants free to all comers, and dive booths are busy - information is free. A TV channel has been given over to a 24 hours vigil on plant life springing up across American cities.
On board Libera Cielo, Sharp Blue wanders down darkened halls to retrieve Wire from yet another multi-day stint of self-exile. She hits the lights, impatient, only to discover Wire dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Xandra's name scrawled in blood on the wall behind him. Oh, Jesus Christ. No! Why would you do that?!
Tyler Stone, having listened to Herod's screed, calls him a complete madman. Herod calls himself a visionary instead - he's offering all of them a life of wonder under his guidance - or a long dull existence with their most precious bits in Doom's hand! He can take Doom out for them, take the nation as a crucible for a new world - but they must agree unanimously, for they have little time and much to do. They will not question his methods, nor hinder him in his appointed tasks, that's all he asks! Well, what will it be? What is their answer?
Tyler Stone asks what happens if they refuse, and Murdoch comments that under Interzone law, they're all safe from physical harm. The Reserve cannot take retribution, that would violate every diplomatic tenet. But… unfortunately for the CEOs, the law is easily broken! A smiling Herod explains that he voided the coding on the locking sequencers, so he can open those safeboxes any time he likes. Indeed, he could assassinate all of them right here and now, and create more than enough turmoil in the world for him to begin his task. But he owed them all the chance to enter the New Order on the ground floor. One chance! Sure enough, the safebox containing Tyler Stone opens up as an armed robot raises its weapon towards him.
The corporate royalty of America, one by one, are taken away from the Reserve at high speed and returned to the real world before they are missed. Each of them stare at their pilots and bodyguards in a new way. They each resolve privately to make fewer friends in the coming years, for following the deal they all made under duress, almost every person they will meet has a maximum life expectancy of five years. We see one last shot of Tyler Stone onboard one of the airships, crying to himself as he departs.
In the White House, Doom gets an urgent call from Indigo, who looks haggard and in tears. Impatient, Doom asks her what's going on, and she answers that it's California. Something's happened in California and it's terrible! We end on a shot of Doom's furious eyes and a last quote: "The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned; the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." - William Butler Yeats
Rating & Comments
This is a Doom-lite issue of Doom 2099, focusing more on his enemies and allies than the man himself. Tyler Stone is the framing device, of sorts, which makes some sense since he's one of the CEOs who got a new job directly under the big man himself, and a long-standing character in Spider-Man 2099 as well. He visits a highly respected and secretive location with a bunch of other CEOs - the Chicago Reserve, an unseen location before this. I am a little confused how a massive city dominated by an enormous cathedral-building which shows up as a black hole of information on the internet would fall below notice, but perhaps I don't have these future people's excellent reasoning skills. Yeeeah. It's also weird that all these CEOs either show up in person or send someone over to do that, when several methods of remote communication are already canon and would probably attract less attention, especially when Stone himself calls out the risk.
Weirder still is our newly introduced villain, Herod. Although he's never been seen or mentioned before, Herod shows up as this larger-than-life figure that all the various feuding corporations apparently trusted for some reason to run their black site for them. All of them put their rare stuff together for some reason, instead of each having their own secret stash of technology - which contradicts earlier issues which suggested Doom's people were digging up hidden Stark-Fujikawa technology and even earlier references to Pixel hiding its own advances like PALOMA. I guess that's different? Herod apparently has control over a vast array of alien and anomalous technology which the corporations consider too hot to handle for current society, and he's also apparently gone a bit insane in recent times. That's what I have to conclude, at least, since I have to presume the corporations all used to trust him for a reason.
It's almost cute how the comic spends fully half of its pagetime building up the intense security measures of the Reserve to prevent unauthorized guests and to keep various guests from using the shared presence to act out private rivalries and wars. There's various laws between megacorporations, special technology meant to make communication super-secure, an entire theater of safety… and it was only ever a theater. Herod held the keys from the start, capable of murdering any of the CEOs whenever he wanted, able to press the advantage of these people trusting in the system which allegedly protected them. Here, he uses that ability to press through his own dream - his own insane, over-the-top nonsense plan of world domination. And it sounds familiar. You remember how Avatarr's original idea for Valhalla was to stripmine the Earth and then escape into the sky? Yeah, this is that idea write large.
We catch up with some other characters too, like Fortune, who we hadn't seen since the start of the invasion when Doom left her behind in Latveria. The actual focus of the story isn't on the nation itself, though - which is doing fine - but on nearby Makhelastan, the nation stricken by genocide shortly before Doom departed for America. The descriptions and imagery are fairly horrific, as usual, and really emphasize the level of fucked up that Doom is replacing. Yeah, he's a dictator - but if the alternative is rendering entire nations to sludge because they got uppity, maybe that's an improvement. I was reminded a little of the game Control, actually, when it mentioned one of the men going mad and proceeding to eat the remains - that's some mold nonsense, man!
A few other Black Ministers also get screen time - Indigo discovers the 'black hole' of the Chicago Reserve while exploring cyberspace, presumably putting her on the road to discovering its existence and alerting Doom to the problem, and she returns at the end to warn Doom of the events of Hulk 2099 #10, though since Doom was holographically present when that went down, he's probably already aware. Sharp Blue, meanwhile, finds something rather more depressing - she goes to find Wire in the Signal Pit where he's been holing up, only to discover he's committed suicide over the death of his oldest friend, Xandra. So, um, why exactly was he resurrected if he never actually got to do anything in the story? I guess his digital ghost is still around, but that was already the case before he got resleeved. It's a tragic and kind of wasteful development.
The only scene Doom is actually involved in, beyond that ending snippet, is one he shares with Nkrumah, the Wakandan who is his Minister of Enemy Relations. It's a curious scene which echoes the earlier encounter Nkrumah had with Thorites - this time it seems something of a cult of personality around Captain America has formed as the result of a popular biography. Said biography is inaccurate, not unusual when it comes to details about the heroic age, but ultimately it's pretty harmless. What is salient is the fact that history is apparently retold to make Cap a more conservative icon of war and cultural stasis than he really was, presumably to better fit in with the current political narratives. How often does that happen in real life, that historical people get reframed as supporting this or that modern political view they never espoused or didn't even know about? Bonus points if media sources make up quotes to support those positions. I'm thinking in particular of certain conspiracy circles, but I'm sure you can find the same in the mainstream.
This issue has a lot of setup, and since I know that the next issue is the finale of the One Nation Under Doom storyline - premature, maybe half a dozen issues earlier than originally intended - it's pretty clear that Herod is being set up to be Doom's great nemesis. It's a bit sad that a last-minute Deus Ex Machina is invoked here by inventing the owner of a massive stash of super-technology that apparently was so super-secret that every single CEO knows about it but somehow it completely escaped Doom's awareness. If Reed Richards had shown up in 2099 (as I know he will) this might have seemed less of an ass-pull, but I expected at least a little more foreshadowing than this… or maybe a more internal reason for his departure, like worsening paranoia after the Avatarr incident. I guess we'll see what they decided on next time…
Quotations from President Doom
"Unike you Wakandans, Americans have no respect for history. Quite simply - the audience doesn't know it's a lie. They have recast the Captain as a patriot soldier, a conservative icon of war and cultural stasis. A comfortable little fable for conservative little people in chaotic times. I should allow them their fairy stories."
Art Spotlight
There's some visual parallels going on between Doom and Herod in this issue, and one of the more obvious is the poses - for example, these are two panels in succession in which both Doom and Herod fold their hands in front of them in the same way, both speaking of historical artefacts and their relevance in current times. Coincidence? I think not.
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SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Well, they won't teach you in school that Hellen Keller was a pro-union socialist or that Thomas Jefferson thought a lot of the Bible was made up and published his own version with all those bits excised, for example.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
America under Doom still seems like a fairly nice place. True, there are some issues, but most of those issues like the destruction of California and the isolation of Los Vegas aren't actually his fault, but the fault of his enemies.
So far, the only decision Doom has made that went really wrong was putting the Punisher in-charge of SHIELD. And that actually works really well in the beginning, until he went out of his mind.
So far, the only decision Doom has made that went really wrong was putting the Punisher in-charge of SHIELD. And that actually works really well in the beginning, until he went out of his mind.
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SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
I'm going to disagree with you there. But not entirely. America under Doom seems like a bad place but substantially less terrible than it was before Doom. When things get bad enough, even a competent fascist can be an improvement, but that doesn't mean they couldn't be better still.
...
Wait, what.
What school did you go to that they didn't teach you about Thomas Jefferson being a Deist who published his own version of the Bible?
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Well, I'm referring to compulsory education here, high school and below. And while it was quite some time ago, I suspect there are still many places not teaching that today. It doesn't match the idea of the Founding Fathers a lot of people want to push.
- Location
- Netherlands
I think the Hulk comics put it best there - he might be the lesser of two evils, but sometimes you kinda have to smash all the evils. Doom might be a net positive in some respects like the environment or getting everyone internet access, but someone who commits genocide, normalizes police brutality and street justice, and constantly mind-controls people into obedience isn't a great choice either. Of course, if the alternative is someone like Herod...
Incidentally, we're swiftly approaching the crossover issues with mainline Marvel - I believe there's only about six issues to go before that, consisting of the tail end of One Nation and the 'Doom in the dumps' shockriding trilogy. It means I'll have to get a move on the mainline comics a bit, there's a few more Interim Doom updates to finish up before he makes his grand return in time for a crossover and another death. Well, at least we're nearly done with 1995 at long last!
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2099 - Doom 2099 A.D. #33 - Fall
- Location
- Netherlands
⚠ Warning: This issue contains depictions of Genocide. ⚠
Doom 2099 A.D. #33 (September 1995)
Cover
Lo, there shall come a conclusion to One Nation Under Doom! Last issue seeded some mentions of Captain America into the narrative, so it makes sense we'd be greeting a 2099 counterpart soon enough, though I didn't expect it to be an identical clone. Maybe literally? Although Cap was already a bit of a man out of time anyway, so having him pop up another century later is honestly not that much weirder than taking a seventy year powernap under the ice. As per tradition, Giant Cover Doom watches the proceedings from afar…
Story Overview
Fall
This issue picks up with the after-effects of Hulk 2099 #10, as Doom is looking over footage of the earthquake that ruined much of California and killed a huge amount of people there. He's in the communication suite, and various holograms make it look like he's physically standing inside the volcanic hellscape left behind by the combination of Adonai's doomsday bomb and Apolonio's nuclear mind-control device that explodes too. Doom observes the devastation and names it America's nightmare, and asks if this is the Big One, but Indigo isn't sure - she's only got satellite signals available since every other line into California is down, and there's talk of a gamma explosion to boot. Doom orders rescue teams into the state immediately, noting that the restitution fund will bear the cost - presumably this is the money Doom demanded on live TV for allowing aliens to walk among them.
Indigo asks if they're going to shut down news coverage, but she's surprised that some news item has been given blanket coverage, and calls it up on the big screen. It's on all channels, and it's not from California! The image displayed shows New York's harbor, where the Alchemax R&D submarine has returned from Antarctica with a mystery cargo. A reporter present at the dockside mentions that they had advance word of a very exciting discovery made at the South Pole, but they don't know what it is. Behind her a hatch on the conning tower of the submarine opens and a read-gloved hand reaches out from inside. This is all a little showy for Alchemax, isn't it? The reporter isn't too convinced about this mystery stuff, only for her to pause when she recognizes who is climbing out of the sub. She just watched this documentary, didn't she? Oh Lord, it's Captain America!
Doom imperiously declares that he wants this broadcast killed, but a communications operator tells him that they're shut out of the national television system - it's as if someone's gotten hold of their own capabilities for locked-in blanket broadcasting like they used after the invasion! Doom commands Indigo to get her Cyberdive Cadre in the net five minutes ago to investigate, and she agrees that he doesn't have to tell her twice. The operator mentions they'd better make it quicker than that - Cap is speaking! Doom tells her to put a priority call in with Jake Gallows so he can send in a SHIELD team, and to get Sharp Blue. He tells her to give her the code 'Almighty' and coordinates for a possible airstrike. The operator agrees, but hesitantly asks if this Cap could be the real deal…
Over in the Cyberdive Chamber on Libera Cielo, Indigo commands her net-gliders to move their asses - she wants fast clearances and a clean dive to the national TV nexus points, and then some serious property damage until they stop that blanket broadcast. And while they're out there, she tells them, they should also look into the Chicago Art Labs - she wants to sniff around there, she's suspicious. Just pretend it's the invasion all over again! Plugging in, Indigo and her people dive into the net and go on the hunt…
Switching over to Cap's broadcast, the hero mentions that he's been told it's the year 2099, and he didn't really believe it until he saw New York's skyline. The explorers from Alchemax who found him told him a lot, explaining that he was found sealed in ice deep in Antarctica, close to the Savage Land - again. It's almost embarrassing. The last thing he remembers is, well, it was close to the end of all things. They were in battle with a monster who came from the depths of Europe, the enemy of the great nation of America. The last Avengers Quinjet was hit by a beam weapon and exploded, and Cap fell into the water. Doom had beaten them all. The American dream was over. And now… now they tell him he's the President!
Doom, glaring furiously, declares that what Captain America just said is a lie. There was never such a battle, so this cannot really be Steve Rogers!
He shoves his operator aside and declares he will have to attend this. He tells the computer to give him an audio cyber-interface to contact Indigo. He gets in contact, but Indigo tells him that they've got trouble - someone's locked them out of the net. They're stuck in Libera Cielo's OS at the moment, and while a couple of her minions - Cat and Ruiz - are going to try a bypass, she's not confident. Doom determines it's sabotage, and Indigo jokes that she thought she merely lost the key. Doom tells Indigo to leave Cat and Ruiz to their work while the rest log out and accompany Doom to the White House. There he's got a secondary dive chamber and solid landlines through which the net should still be accessible.
Not much later, Doom takes Indigo down towards the White House on board one of his little floating platforms. Indigo complains that she hates jumping in and out of cyberspace so quickly - it wipes her out. That's when Doom is contacted by his communications operator again, who tells him there's a problem. Doom agrees, noting that he hasn't heard anything about successful communication with Gallows or Sharp Blue - this administration demands competence!
The operator morbidly replies that these are her last words from the Comms suite, so he'd better listen. They've picked up three missiles of unknown origin which have dropped their stealth fields and are targeting Libera Cielo - and its defense system has been sabotaged. They're dead.
Before Doom and Indigo can do more than stare wide-eyed at the warning, the whole of Libera Cielo - of Alchemax's old Valhalla - detonates in the sky over the White House in an enormous fireball as the first two missiles punch into it and explode. The flying platform falls and Doom and Indigo both land painfully on the lawn amid a shower of fire and debris, the former clanking on the floor on his metal back. He crawls to his knees, declaring it a conspiracy - the return of Rogers, a lockout from the net, and perhaps even the California earthquake! He turns and sees huge chunks of Libera Cielo crushing parts of the white house. His only response in the moment, as he stares in disbelief, is a quiet: 'No.'
Over at the Chicago Reserve, the secret vault where the technologies that America was deemed not yet ready for are kept, Herod is using some of those technologies for his own ends. He employed a horrifically organic machine, a meat harp, which whispers obscenities to him with a thousand mouths the size of skin pores, because their terrible music could speak to communication systems and selectively paralyze them. This is but the first of the twisted sciences Herod has released, with the full backing of the corporate structure that Doom managed to cow into submission for a time. Herod runs a finger down the meat-machine and licks it, musing that some of his other technologies taste even better than this. Ew.
Another technology Herod has activated are the Wave Spiders, a life form grown for guerilla war and banned in treaties back in 2064, enormous flying spider-creatures which use a human being strapped to the front as a control mechanism. They are suspended in the cloud cover over Washington, where they are grazing on radio signals and excreting enough microwaves to disrupt computer systems. Elsewhere, an air cavalry fleet of helicopters in strike formation is busy growing horrific combat organs on their underbellies while they cross the Atlantic. Those organic weapons are a technology which was salvaged from a timequake in Nevada, 2081, though artifacts from the future have been banned by a coalition agreement since 2049.
There's even more things Herod let loose, other creatures he let loose upon America - oh yes! The page closes out with his grinning face, and an in-set of Captain America…
In New York, the rain is pouring down as we visit Spider-Man, and we're reminded that his secret identity is Miguel O'Hara, an Alchemax man with a touch for science. He knows his technology and deduction, his cause and effect, and he does plenty of reading to keep up with current advancements. So when he sees an EMP falling from the sky and into the city, one of thousands across the nation, he knows something has happened to their control network - to Libera Cielo over in Washington. A harder rain begins to fall on the mountains and canyons of Manhattan as dozens more EMPs begin crashing down like meteors…
Over at the White House, Doom rushes into the building as he muses to himself that his world is burning at the edges. His armor's onboard systems shiver with static because the nanoprocessors in his blood are struggling to cope with an ubiquitous disruption field. The White House's machines, like Libera Cielo, aren't quite so resistant. Doom meets with his staff, but they jabber on about Libera Cielo, and fires, and radioactive clouds over California, and compromised telephone lines, and treachery… Doom commands them all to be silent!
He tells the lot to reroute all working lines of communication to the Oval Office, which is still intact, and to deploy guards and arm themselves. And he tells them to be strong. That is all! Doom then throws open the door to the Oval Office, where he's greeted by the image of Sharp Blue, who's relieved to see him. Doom asks her where she is, and she tells him she's on the Holy Spook, the Guild of Elite's best plane, en route to California. They wanted to confirm the level of gamma radiation before the rescue squads got there, but now they're forced to dodge falling EMPs! Before the conversation can continue, however, the signal goes on the fritz.
When the image returns, it's not Sharp Blue that's on Doom's screen anymore, however, but a special broadcast meant directly for the President. From John Herod. He explains that Doom is currently paying for the single mistake he made during his presidency - he did not kill the corporate heads of America and did not thoroughly dismantle the corporate infrastructure. That's where he was hiding. However, he admits Doom is still coping admirably well. To that end, Herod has some television he wishes to show him. The image switches to a satellite uplink, depicting Doom's native nation of Latveria.
Hovering over Latveria, like gruesome parodies of insects, are the helicopters that were heading across the Atlantic earlier, their pustule-like organs now full-grown and ready to burst. Doom watches in horror as his armor's analysis arrays prove against his instincts that these pictures are not faked. Those alien helicopters really hover over his beautiful nation. Who is this Herod? What are his connections to the megacorps? Even as Doom wonders this, the helicopters open fire by rupturing their organic underbellies and leaking streams of piss-yellow liquid down into the streets. It takes Doom only a moment to recognize what's happening and to recoil. Necrotoxins.
America necrotoxified Makhelastan before the takeover, turning the entire population to sludge - and now they're killing his country, his beloved Latveria, while he is so far away… and there is nothing he can do.
Doom sinks to his knees in utter defeat, lowering his head, even as the Wave Spiders descend from on high and begin firing their weapons into what remains of the White House, very nearly vaporizing Doom with the first shot as it impacts just behind his collapsed form. More impacts follow and decimate Doom's staff while he sits there, on his knees, caught up in his personal hell.
The last shot we see is the obliteration of the White House and its explosion while the final quote passes by: "I saw the vast Halls and Palaces of men falling slowly, decaying, crumbling, destroyed by nothing but the rains and the touch of Time." - James Elroy Flecker.
Rating & Comments
Well, welcome to another cataclysm y'all. 2099 is making a habit of these now, isn't it? Before we get to the explosive elephant in the room, there's a tidbit near the start which puts another tick in the positive box where it comes to Doom - we open up with a scene in which Doom reacts to the disaster unfolding in California by ordering rescue teams over there immediately, and he also seems to have sent Sharp Blue over to check matters out, or she went on her own accord. Before the disaster can even become a centerpiece of the President's day, however, Herod begins executing his plan and Doom never gets around to actually implementing relief efforts in the destroyed state, leaving its fate uncertain - but it's certainly dire.
One major plank of Herod's takeover plan, it appears, is the fake resurrection of Captain America in 2099 as cover and a propaganda tool. It is an amusing conceit that there was a supposed repeat of the freak coincidence that allowed him to travel forward in time in the first place, and thus he once again finds himself a man out of time. It's clever, especially since Herod was clearly already preparing this plan ahead of time by having some of his Chicago friends release a sanitized and manipulated holographic biography of the hero, as shown in the previous issue. Cap is the ideal frontman to accuse Doom of being responsible for the end of the Heroic Age, since he's one of the few people around who might actually know the real history of that era. As the man-behind-the-man, I can imagine the intent behind Herod engineering this trick already!
Herod reveals more of the tools at his disposal too, and I actually think they go a long way towards explaining why Doom seems so caught off guard and fairly powerless to stop him during the latter half of the issue. Unlike the electronic technology that Doom's a virtuoso with, or the magical spells that he's studied for ages, Herod mostly employs alien biotechnology from possible futures and monstrous civil wars in decades Doom never experienced. Wave Spiders are the obvious ones here, biotechnological flying monsters that eat radio waves and disrupt Doom's armor, but there's also weird biotech helicopters with humanoid bodies strapped to their front that grow their own weapons on command - and that's before mentioning a biological means of manipulating cyberspace with the so-called meat harps. That technology is what allows him to circumvent most of the defenses Doom has put in place, basically pulling off the same feat that the Cyberdive Cadre did on Doom's behalf. Herod is attacking from an angle that nobody, not even our main character, seems to have anticipated or thought was even possible - and he is also a total creep and kind of insane, but we knew that already.
When the attack on Doom comes, it comes abruptly and with tremendous violence. The destruction of Libera Cielo as an opening salvo is awesome and fitting, since it was the home base of the new government and led the charge in the invasion of America in the first place - it's honestly very lucky that the enormous building didn't flatten the White House entirely right away. The perils of parking your car upstairs, I guess? The frantic phone call just before the end is haunting, since the caller already knows she's doomed when she makes it. Doom's initial paranoid reaction after being blasted off his ride is to suspect all events going against him are related to some central conspiracy - and to be fair to him, most of them are! What is perhaps less expected is that Doom ignores the currently malfunctioning machines that make his rule possible and tries to rely on his human staff. Unfortunately they're barely more coherent than he is at the moment so he just tells them to shut up and tries to work things out by himself. Well, that tracks.
While Sharp Blue informs Doom on the unfolding humanitarian disaster in California, Herod finally makes himself known to Doom in person - a surprise, honestly, since he seemed he was much more interested in staying a background ruler from some of his earlier implications. Instead, transmitting from his base in Chicago, Herod informs Doom of the method by which he covered up his existence, monologuing because he is apparently secure in the knowledge his enemy will be dead soon. Then, in an effort to break Doom's spirit before he breaks his body, Herod goes one step further and attacks not just Doom's person or his home base, but his very soul - his home country of Latveria. And here, at long last, we realize why the Makhelastan genocide was part of the events that were a prelude to Doom's takeover of America. In a twist of dark irony, the very events that Doom instigated to smoke out his enemies were doomed to happen again with him as the target…
The destruction of Latveria's people, their genocide at Herod's hands, is as horrific as necrotoxification ever is - and Doom's very human reaction is to sink to his knees, head bowed, palms up, incapable of verbalizing anything but pain. He's utterly defeated by the realization that he's watching a live feed of his beloved country being destroyed while he can do absolutely nothing to stop it. In the wake of that horror, Doom seems to be in shock and doesn't react as the Wave Spiders open fire and reduce the entire White House to slag around him, killing most of his staff and melting the Oval Office itself until the windows blow out. We don't see what happens to him in the end, though the last shot of him sees Doom still on his knees, eyes wide, as fire erupts around him.
Even though Herod is a pretty random newly introduced villain to be able to pull off Doom's downfall, I have to admit that this issue is pretty freaking awesome. It's a dramatic downturn for Doom, obviously, but it's a spectacle that ties together several plot threads from way earlier in the read order, and gives a plausible explanation for why it's so unanticipated even to our main character. With Libera Cielo destroyed and both his revolution and spirit broken, Doom will have to crawl up from dust after this. Yes, the ending was hastened by editorial mandate so originally there probably would have been a bunch of issues featuring Doom and Herod facing off before this happened, but it was inevitable someone was going to knock Doom off his pedestal. Unfortunately, it appears that his replacement is someone much, much worse…
We're back to Doom 2099 #1 here. Doom is out of power, humiliated by the current monarch, his allies scattered or gone and the country of his birth lost to him. He's backed into a corner, but Doom always was more vicious when put in that situation. We all know he's not dead, but we'll have to wait a while to pick up where we left off here - next time we cover the only completely Doom-less issue of Doom 2099. For now, I'm giving this one a boost in grade for some great art, a hell of a finale to the President arc even if it came prematurely. Herod is easy to hate, so it'll be a fun ride to see Doom get back on the furious vengeance train of old...
Quotations from President Doom
"This administration demands competence, young lady."
"I am Doom. My world is burning at the edges."
"Deploy all guards and arm yourselves. And be strong. That is all."
They're killing my country - my beloved Latveria, so far away - and there is nothing I can do."
Art Spotlight
Hell of a picture, isn't it? Farewell Valhalla, Libera Cielo - you were with us for an unexpectedly long amount of time for a plot device from a crossover.
Doom 2099 A.D. #33 (September 1995)
Cover
Lo, there shall come a conclusion to One Nation Under Doom! Last issue seeded some mentions of Captain America into the narrative, so it makes sense we'd be greeting a 2099 counterpart soon enough, though I didn't expect it to be an identical clone. Maybe literally? Although Cap was already a bit of a man out of time anyway, so having him pop up another century later is honestly not that much weirder than taking a seventy year powernap under the ice. As per tradition, Giant Cover Doom watches the proceedings from afar…
Story Overview
Fall
This issue picks up with the after-effects of Hulk 2099 #10, as Doom is looking over footage of the earthquake that ruined much of California and killed a huge amount of people there. He's in the communication suite, and various holograms make it look like he's physically standing inside the volcanic hellscape left behind by the combination of Adonai's doomsday bomb and Apolonio's nuclear mind-control device that explodes too. Doom observes the devastation and names it America's nightmare, and asks if this is the Big One, but Indigo isn't sure - she's only got satellite signals available since every other line into California is down, and there's talk of a gamma explosion to boot. Doom orders rescue teams into the state immediately, noting that the restitution fund will bear the cost - presumably this is the money Doom demanded on live TV for allowing aliens to walk among them.
Indigo asks if they're going to shut down news coverage, but she's surprised that some news item has been given blanket coverage, and calls it up on the big screen. It's on all channels, and it's not from California! The image displayed shows New York's harbor, where the Alchemax R&D submarine has returned from Antarctica with a mystery cargo. A reporter present at the dockside mentions that they had advance word of a very exciting discovery made at the South Pole, but they don't know what it is. Behind her a hatch on the conning tower of the submarine opens and a read-gloved hand reaches out from inside. This is all a little showy for Alchemax, isn't it? The reporter isn't too convinced about this mystery stuff, only for her to pause when she recognizes who is climbing out of the sub. She just watched this documentary, didn't she? Oh Lord, it's Captain America!
Doom imperiously declares that he wants this broadcast killed, but a communications operator tells him that they're shut out of the national television system - it's as if someone's gotten hold of their own capabilities for locked-in blanket broadcasting like they used after the invasion! Doom commands Indigo to get her Cyberdive Cadre in the net five minutes ago to investigate, and she agrees that he doesn't have to tell her twice. The operator mentions they'd better make it quicker than that - Cap is speaking! Doom tells her to put a priority call in with Jake Gallows so he can send in a SHIELD team, and to get Sharp Blue. He tells her to give her the code 'Almighty' and coordinates for a possible airstrike. The operator agrees, but hesitantly asks if this Cap could be the real deal…
Over in the Cyberdive Chamber on Libera Cielo, Indigo commands her net-gliders to move their asses - she wants fast clearances and a clean dive to the national TV nexus points, and then some serious property damage until they stop that blanket broadcast. And while they're out there, she tells them, they should also look into the Chicago Art Labs - she wants to sniff around there, she's suspicious. Just pretend it's the invasion all over again! Plugging in, Indigo and her people dive into the net and go on the hunt…
Switching over to Cap's broadcast, the hero mentions that he's been told it's the year 2099, and he didn't really believe it until he saw New York's skyline. The explorers from Alchemax who found him told him a lot, explaining that he was found sealed in ice deep in Antarctica, close to the Savage Land - again. It's almost embarrassing. The last thing he remembers is, well, it was close to the end of all things. They were in battle with a monster who came from the depths of Europe, the enemy of the great nation of America. The last Avengers Quinjet was hit by a beam weapon and exploded, and Cap fell into the water. Doom had beaten them all. The American dream was over. And now… now they tell him he's the President!
Doom, glaring furiously, declares that what Captain America just said is a lie. There was never such a battle, so this cannot really be Steve Rogers!
He shoves his operator aside and declares he will have to attend this. He tells the computer to give him an audio cyber-interface to contact Indigo. He gets in contact, but Indigo tells him that they've got trouble - someone's locked them out of the net. They're stuck in Libera Cielo's OS at the moment, and while a couple of her minions - Cat and Ruiz - are going to try a bypass, she's not confident. Doom determines it's sabotage, and Indigo jokes that she thought she merely lost the key. Doom tells Indigo to leave Cat and Ruiz to their work while the rest log out and accompany Doom to the White House. There he's got a secondary dive chamber and solid landlines through which the net should still be accessible.
Not much later, Doom takes Indigo down towards the White House on board one of his little floating platforms. Indigo complains that she hates jumping in and out of cyberspace so quickly - it wipes her out. That's when Doom is contacted by his communications operator again, who tells him there's a problem. Doom agrees, noting that he hasn't heard anything about successful communication with Gallows or Sharp Blue - this administration demands competence!
The operator morbidly replies that these are her last words from the Comms suite, so he'd better listen. They've picked up three missiles of unknown origin which have dropped their stealth fields and are targeting Libera Cielo - and its defense system has been sabotaged. They're dead.
Before Doom and Indigo can do more than stare wide-eyed at the warning, the whole of Libera Cielo - of Alchemax's old Valhalla - detonates in the sky over the White House in an enormous fireball as the first two missiles punch into it and explode. The flying platform falls and Doom and Indigo both land painfully on the lawn amid a shower of fire and debris, the former clanking on the floor on his metal back. He crawls to his knees, declaring it a conspiracy - the return of Rogers, a lockout from the net, and perhaps even the California earthquake! He turns and sees huge chunks of Libera Cielo crushing parts of the white house. His only response in the moment, as he stares in disbelief, is a quiet: 'No.'
Over at the Chicago Reserve, the secret vault where the technologies that America was deemed not yet ready for are kept, Herod is using some of those technologies for his own ends. He employed a horrifically organic machine, a meat harp, which whispers obscenities to him with a thousand mouths the size of skin pores, because their terrible music could speak to communication systems and selectively paralyze them. This is but the first of the twisted sciences Herod has released, with the full backing of the corporate structure that Doom managed to cow into submission for a time. Herod runs a finger down the meat-machine and licks it, musing that some of his other technologies taste even better than this. Ew.
Another technology Herod has activated are the Wave Spiders, a life form grown for guerilla war and banned in treaties back in 2064, enormous flying spider-creatures which use a human being strapped to the front as a control mechanism. They are suspended in the cloud cover over Washington, where they are grazing on radio signals and excreting enough microwaves to disrupt computer systems. Elsewhere, an air cavalry fleet of helicopters in strike formation is busy growing horrific combat organs on their underbellies while they cross the Atlantic. Those organic weapons are a technology which was salvaged from a timequake in Nevada, 2081, though artifacts from the future have been banned by a coalition agreement since 2049.
There's even more things Herod let loose, other creatures he let loose upon America - oh yes! The page closes out with his grinning face, and an in-set of Captain America…
In New York, the rain is pouring down as we visit Spider-Man, and we're reminded that his secret identity is Miguel O'Hara, an Alchemax man with a touch for science. He knows his technology and deduction, his cause and effect, and he does plenty of reading to keep up with current advancements. So when he sees an EMP falling from the sky and into the city, one of thousands across the nation, he knows something has happened to their control network - to Libera Cielo over in Washington. A harder rain begins to fall on the mountains and canyons of Manhattan as dozens more EMPs begin crashing down like meteors…
Over at the White House, Doom rushes into the building as he muses to himself that his world is burning at the edges. His armor's onboard systems shiver with static because the nanoprocessors in his blood are struggling to cope with an ubiquitous disruption field. The White House's machines, like Libera Cielo, aren't quite so resistant. Doom meets with his staff, but they jabber on about Libera Cielo, and fires, and radioactive clouds over California, and compromised telephone lines, and treachery… Doom commands them all to be silent!
He tells the lot to reroute all working lines of communication to the Oval Office, which is still intact, and to deploy guards and arm themselves. And he tells them to be strong. That is all! Doom then throws open the door to the Oval Office, where he's greeted by the image of Sharp Blue, who's relieved to see him. Doom asks her where she is, and she tells him she's on the Holy Spook, the Guild of Elite's best plane, en route to California. They wanted to confirm the level of gamma radiation before the rescue squads got there, but now they're forced to dodge falling EMPs! Before the conversation can continue, however, the signal goes on the fritz.
When the image returns, it's not Sharp Blue that's on Doom's screen anymore, however, but a special broadcast meant directly for the President. From John Herod. He explains that Doom is currently paying for the single mistake he made during his presidency - he did not kill the corporate heads of America and did not thoroughly dismantle the corporate infrastructure. That's where he was hiding. However, he admits Doom is still coping admirably well. To that end, Herod has some television he wishes to show him. The image switches to a satellite uplink, depicting Doom's native nation of Latveria.
Hovering over Latveria, like gruesome parodies of insects, are the helicopters that were heading across the Atlantic earlier, their pustule-like organs now full-grown and ready to burst. Doom watches in horror as his armor's analysis arrays prove against his instincts that these pictures are not faked. Those alien helicopters really hover over his beautiful nation. Who is this Herod? What are his connections to the megacorps? Even as Doom wonders this, the helicopters open fire by rupturing their organic underbellies and leaking streams of piss-yellow liquid down into the streets. It takes Doom only a moment to recognize what's happening and to recoil. Necrotoxins.
America necrotoxified Makhelastan before the takeover, turning the entire population to sludge - and now they're killing his country, his beloved Latveria, while he is so far away… and there is nothing he can do.
Doom sinks to his knees in utter defeat, lowering his head, even as the Wave Spiders descend from on high and begin firing their weapons into what remains of the White House, very nearly vaporizing Doom with the first shot as it impacts just behind his collapsed form. More impacts follow and decimate Doom's staff while he sits there, on his knees, caught up in his personal hell.
The last shot we see is the obliteration of the White House and its explosion while the final quote passes by: "I saw the vast Halls and Palaces of men falling slowly, decaying, crumbling, destroyed by nothing but the rains and the touch of Time." - James Elroy Flecker.
Rating & Comments
Well, welcome to another cataclysm y'all. 2099 is making a habit of these now, isn't it? Before we get to the explosive elephant in the room, there's a tidbit near the start which puts another tick in the positive box where it comes to Doom - we open up with a scene in which Doom reacts to the disaster unfolding in California by ordering rescue teams over there immediately, and he also seems to have sent Sharp Blue over to check matters out, or she went on her own accord. Before the disaster can even become a centerpiece of the President's day, however, Herod begins executing his plan and Doom never gets around to actually implementing relief efforts in the destroyed state, leaving its fate uncertain - but it's certainly dire.
One major plank of Herod's takeover plan, it appears, is the fake resurrection of Captain America in 2099 as cover and a propaganda tool. It is an amusing conceit that there was a supposed repeat of the freak coincidence that allowed him to travel forward in time in the first place, and thus he once again finds himself a man out of time. It's clever, especially since Herod was clearly already preparing this plan ahead of time by having some of his Chicago friends release a sanitized and manipulated holographic biography of the hero, as shown in the previous issue. Cap is the ideal frontman to accuse Doom of being responsible for the end of the Heroic Age, since he's one of the few people around who might actually know the real history of that era. As the man-behind-the-man, I can imagine the intent behind Herod engineering this trick already!
Herod reveals more of the tools at his disposal too, and I actually think they go a long way towards explaining why Doom seems so caught off guard and fairly powerless to stop him during the latter half of the issue. Unlike the electronic technology that Doom's a virtuoso with, or the magical spells that he's studied for ages, Herod mostly employs alien biotechnology from possible futures and monstrous civil wars in decades Doom never experienced. Wave Spiders are the obvious ones here, biotechnological flying monsters that eat radio waves and disrupt Doom's armor, but there's also weird biotech helicopters with humanoid bodies strapped to their front that grow their own weapons on command - and that's before mentioning a biological means of manipulating cyberspace with the so-called meat harps. That technology is what allows him to circumvent most of the defenses Doom has put in place, basically pulling off the same feat that the Cyberdive Cadre did on Doom's behalf. Herod is attacking from an angle that nobody, not even our main character, seems to have anticipated or thought was even possible - and he is also a total creep and kind of insane, but we knew that already.
When the attack on Doom comes, it comes abruptly and with tremendous violence. The destruction of Libera Cielo as an opening salvo is awesome and fitting, since it was the home base of the new government and led the charge in the invasion of America in the first place - it's honestly very lucky that the enormous building didn't flatten the White House entirely right away. The perils of parking your car upstairs, I guess? The frantic phone call just before the end is haunting, since the caller already knows she's doomed when she makes it. Doom's initial paranoid reaction after being blasted off his ride is to suspect all events going against him are related to some central conspiracy - and to be fair to him, most of them are! What is perhaps less expected is that Doom ignores the currently malfunctioning machines that make his rule possible and tries to rely on his human staff. Unfortunately they're barely more coherent than he is at the moment so he just tells them to shut up and tries to work things out by himself. Well, that tracks.
While Sharp Blue informs Doom on the unfolding humanitarian disaster in California, Herod finally makes himself known to Doom in person - a surprise, honestly, since he seemed he was much more interested in staying a background ruler from some of his earlier implications. Instead, transmitting from his base in Chicago, Herod informs Doom of the method by which he covered up his existence, monologuing because he is apparently secure in the knowledge his enemy will be dead soon. Then, in an effort to break Doom's spirit before he breaks his body, Herod goes one step further and attacks not just Doom's person or his home base, but his very soul - his home country of Latveria. And here, at long last, we realize why the Makhelastan genocide was part of the events that were a prelude to Doom's takeover of America. In a twist of dark irony, the very events that Doom instigated to smoke out his enemies were doomed to happen again with him as the target…
The destruction of Latveria's people, their genocide at Herod's hands, is as horrific as necrotoxification ever is - and Doom's very human reaction is to sink to his knees, head bowed, palms up, incapable of verbalizing anything but pain. He's utterly defeated by the realization that he's watching a live feed of his beloved country being destroyed while he can do absolutely nothing to stop it. In the wake of that horror, Doom seems to be in shock and doesn't react as the Wave Spiders open fire and reduce the entire White House to slag around him, killing most of his staff and melting the Oval Office itself until the windows blow out. We don't see what happens to him in the end, though the last shot of him sees Doom still on his knees, eyes wide, as fire erupts around him.
Even though Herod is a pretty random newly introduced villain to be able to pull off Doom's downfall, I have to admit that this issue is pretty freaking awesome. It's a dramatic downturn for Doom, obviously, but it's a spectacle that ties together several plot threads from way earlier in the read order, and gives a plausible explanation for why it's so unanticipated even to our main character. With Libera Cielo destroyed and both his revolution and spirit broken, Doom will have to crawl up from dust after this. Yes, the ending was hastened by editorial mandate so originally there probably would have been a bunch of issues featuring Doom and Herod facing off before this happened, but it was inevitable someone was going to knock Doom off his pedestal. Unfortunately, it appears that his replacement is someone much, much worse…
We're back to Doom 2099 #1 here. Doom is out of power, humiliated by the current monarch, his allies scattered or gone and the country of his birth lost to him. He's backed into a corner, but Doom always was more vicious when put in that situation. We all know he's not dead, but we'll have to wait a while to pick up where we left off here - next time we cover the only completely Doom-less issue of Doom 2099. For now, I'm giving this one a boost in grade for some great art, a hell of a finale to the President arc even if it came prematurely. Herod is easy to hate, so it'll be a fun ride to see Doom get back on the furious vengeance train of old...
Quotations from President Doom
"This administration demands competence, young lady."
"I am Doom. My world is burning at the edges."
"Deploy all guards and arm yourselves. And be strong. That is all."
They're killing my country - my beloved Latveria, so far away - and there is nothing I can do."
Art Spotlight
Hell of a picture, isn't it? Farewell Valhalla, Libera Cielo - you were with us for an unexpectedly long amount of time for a plot device from a crossover.
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- Location
- Wörms, the half continent
I just don't like how... unannounced it is. There's no substance to it, it doesn't feel... earned. Especially the Latveria things. It just smacks of editorial dictates and bland faced status-quoism. Even when it's the future, Marvel seemingly can't escape the rolling behemoth of an inability to change anything, except for the worse.
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
I can actually see the mega-corps fighting back with devices they've kept for themselves and the clone Captain America plan is right up their ally considering the fake Asgardians, but things could have been set up better and the attack on Latveria seems pointless.
- Location
- Netherlands
Yeah, basically 90% of the building blocks of this sudden dethroning were put in place last issue - it's a huge ass-pull instead of something built up over time. I do think that the necrotoxification of Latveria was planned, since it makes total sense why there would be such a focus on Makhelastan in the run-up to the takeover of America only for it to stop mattering.
I would not be shocked if it was recontextualized, though, compared to original plans for the story line. According to interviews, One Nation Under Doom was expected to last maybe twice as long as it did, and you could easily have built a more solid foundation for this conclusion in that sort of timespan, especially since it'd be line-wide across all titles and not just Doom 2099. Instead, editorial mandate demanded multiple massive status quo changes, none of which were popular enough to keep 2099 afloat.
The attack here is justified by Herod as something of a personal assault on Doom, to try and break his spirit. It also ties heavily into the forthcoming time-travel crossover story, so perhaps it's easier to judge whether it had a purpose after that story has run its course?
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
That old enemy of proper pacing-- having your superiors suddenly cut your run-time. As a fan of both comic books and SF/fantasy in general, I'm well familiar.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
And so, Doom's takeover ends in total defeat, as it usually does. Ironically, the only thing obviously fake about Captain America was that he described a battle that did not happen. In truth, if the real Captain America had returned, he would have denounced Doom anyway, and would have had plenty of real examples of him threatening the world to draw on.
I don't think I've ever seen Doom so defeated. Even when the Beyonder was vivisecting him, he would not give up.
I don't think I've ever seen Doom so defeated. Even when the Beyonder was vivisecting him, he would not give up.
- Location
- Netherlands
One thing to note, though, to set him apart... Ravage was utterly defeated, and his comic run ended. Hulk was utterly defeated, and his comic run ended. Punisher was utterly defeated, and his comic run ended. Doom was utterly defeated, and his comic run has another ten issues and a sequel series.
Doom does not do 'dead.'
162: Interim Dooms - Fantastic Force #7 & Fantastic Four v1 #400 - The Masque of Doom / Even Watchers Can Die!
- Location
- Netherlands
Interim Dooms - Fantastic Force #7 & Fantastic Four v1 #400 (May 1995)
Covers
We're back for the finale of the unnecessarily lengthy Watcher arc, consisting of a tie-in Fantastic Force issue and the anniversary #400 issue of Fantastic Four. The former's cover art confirms that it'll continue the storyline related to Sue in the Negative Zone, while the other has the enticing image of the Fantastic Four charging at the camera with Kristoff Vernard taking up Reed's slot on the team. Surely not? Surprisingly, this super-sized issue actually has a lengthier story than usual instead of just putting in a bunch of reprints to pad it out, but there's still a bite-sized bonus tale slotted at the end which is all sorts of unnecessary.
Story Overview
Fantastic Force #7 - The Masque of Doom!
We read a spinoff title first, Fantastic Force, which follows the adventures of Psi-Lord, the alternate future teenage version of Franklin Richards, and the team he founded with Nathaniel Richards' daughter Huntara, Vibraxas from Wakanda, and Devlor the shapeshifting Inhuman. When this issue happens they're still reeling from a recent story in which Vibraxas took a life in defense of his own, with Franklin arguing in his favor while both Huntara and Devlor are various levels of skeptical and worried about what else the Wakandan might be capable of if he'd stoop to 'murder.'
As they arrive at Four Freedoms Plaza, Devlor spots a shady figure keeping an eye on them and goes in for the attack, turning into a werewolf at the same time that the shadowed person transforms into a Gorn. As the two struggle, Franklin comes in and threatens the lizard-person, only for it to call him by name before raising a claw and telling him it doesn't want to fight. Turning back from dino-person into a green-skinned woman, Johnny's ex-wife Lyja explains that she failed to recognize Devlor as one of Franklin's compatriots and thought he was another interloper trying to gain access to the Fantastic Four headquarters while the owners were away.
They soon congregate inside Four Freedoms Plaza, and Lyja asks for forgiveness for intruding on their territory, but she had nowhere else to turn. Franklin understands that mentality, recalling a period when everyone was treating him like a pariah and Lyja stuck with him and believed him. He trusts her now. Lyja explains that the reason she's present is not an easy subject to broach, since it involves Franklin's mother. She admits she's been stalking Johnny a bit in human disguises, hoping to reconcile with him, but a flaming image of Sue appeared while she was doing that - this heralded terrible danger in the past, so Johnny took off to follow up on that warning, and by the time Lyja arrived back in New York he was already gone and it was too late to follow…
Vibraxas wonders what that flaming image of Sue Richards might have meant, only for it to suddenly appear behind Franklin at that very moment, calling out that there danger, great danger! It announces that Franklin must reach the Fantastic Four, as only he can save them! He has to look to the Moon, to the Moon! There's not much time! The image vanishes, and Franklin figures that settles the question, they'll have to get it together so they can go for an impromptu moonwalk!
Not so fast! Huntara announces that they should not embark on a fool's errand when the very convenient appearance of the fiery manifestation is by its very nature dubious. In fact, her psionic scythe allowed her to detect a very terrestrial and very contemporary origin of the phenomenon they just witnessed. This was no image transmitted from across time, so before going blindly to the Moon they should delve into the mystery of its origins more deeply! She uses her scythe to cut a portal through space-time to the origin of the signal, tracing the projection back to its source.
What they find on the other side is so-called 'Doom-bots', actually just servo-guards, who are manipulating the holographic imaging system seen at the end of the last issue to generate Sue's image. Franklin determines that they've arrived in Latveria, and concludes this must mean that Doctor Doom is still alive and they've all been had! Doom's been pulling their strings the whole time! The robots go on alert and send out a signal for more backup defense units, but Franklin is ready for them - no power on Earth will keep him from the man who killed his father, Reed Richards! The Fantastic Force quickly goes on the attack, even Vibraxas, who focuses on the fact that he's killing soulless robots and not people. Lyja exclaims that it's great aerobic exercise to destroy robots, but when is the Lord of Latveria going to make his big entrance? Franklin figures that'll happen when they finish off his flunkies - then he'll surely show his face!
An armored figure from the shadows comments that Franklin is most perceptive - but as always he only sees the smallest portion of the great tapestry! Franklin is astounded to discover it's Nathaniel Richards, his own grandfather, whom he thought lost to time! Huntara, the man's daughter, angrily shouts that she'd prayed they'd meet again in his lifetime, so that she might be the one to end his life! She goes on the assault while Nathan dryly comments that his daughter is a delight as ever. Huntara rejects their kinship, explaining that she has no bond to one who would transgress the boundaries of time and reality to further his own ambitions. Nathan hastily claims his labors have all been covertly sanctioned - as a 'renegade' he's free to act in a way that her teacher Kargul, protector of the sacred timelines, cannot. They still share a common vision! Huntara just calls him a liar and keeps attacking anyway. Good call, Huntara.
Devlor is a bit confused that Franklin is just letting all this happen, and asks if they shouldn't be stopping the fight. Franklin figures they will step in if they really need to, but this rage has been welling up in Huntara for several years - they should probably let her do her thing. Best to get it out of her system. Huntara starts smashing Nathan around the room with her scythe, announcing that he must think her a fool - but even if she's not as smart as Franklin, she's also not as oblivious to Nathan's deceits. She knows he would say anything to advance his agenda, and that truth is a concept that's lost on him, thus rendering any level of trust in him utterly forfeit. There can be only one punishment for his crime, she declares, and since that crime is high treason against reality, the sentence is death!
Franklin finally intervenes there, stopping Huntara's attempt at a lethal strike with his psionic powers, freezing her in place. Huntara tells him that he doesn't have the authority to stop her - she's a guardian of the sacred timelines, so she must exact judgment! Franklin pulls rank within the team to stop her, then points out that she only very recently criticized Vibraxas for unwarranted use of lethal force. Whatever crimes Nathan might stand accused of, they owe it themselves and to justice to hear his side of the story as well. Nathan approves of this development and concludes that the Psi-Masters of Elsewhen who raised him still know how to instill respect for one's elders!
He then explains the situation on the Moon, arguing that it urgently requires the presence of the Fantastic Force, since the Fantastic Four presently face a rogue Watcher all by themselves. Without Franklin's help, they'll likely not survive! Franklin wonders how he could believe Nathan, since he just found out the man posed as Doctor Doom and faked all those flaming images of Sue to manipulate everyone as though they were puppets. Nathan claims it was a necessary deception since there are things he is forbidden to reveal. Already he's dabbled too much in Franklin's destiny, but he promises that if they rally around his standard one last time, everything will be made clear. Huntara concludes Franklin is suckling at his grandfather's teat as usual - ew - but she swears that when this affair is done, nothing will stand between her and retribution. Not even her nephew!
Nathaniel activates his trans-mat device with the coordinates of the citadel on the Moon, and teleports the entire group up there to meet with the Fantastic Four. Franklin first sees the monitors displaying his mother adrift in the Negative Zone, before freezing as he spots Doctor Doom standing peacefully among the Fantastic Four as if he's their ally. Kristoff immediately identifies himself as the heir of Doom, not the original article, and explains that Sue faces interspatial peril - and they've yet to find a means to rescue her! Huntara hears this and tells him to stand back, since for a warrior of Elsewhen the whole of time and space is but a pond to be skipped across at will. She raises her scythe…
In the Negative Zone, Sue has recovered from the hit to her head last issue but she's forced to keep jumping from asteroid to asteroid to stay away from the explosive zone that threatens her from beneath. She insists to herself that there's no need to panic, no need to lose hope - she just has to keep moving, using force fields to propel her from one place to another to buy herself time. Suddenly she hears a voice calling out to her, and identifies the source as Huntara - as if things weren't bad enough! Sue makes a force field around herself and proclaims she's not leaving this life without a fight! Huntara reaches out and yells that Sue misjudges her intent - she's here on behalf of her son, to rescue her! Though they first met on the field of battle, this day she hasn't come as foe… but as salvation!
Huntara cuts another hole in space-time and returns to the Moon with Sue in tow, and she and Franklin have a quick hug as they reunite. Sue then decides there's no time for happy family reunions yet, since they've still got trouble on their hands. The Dark Raider she fought in the Negative Zone told her something huge which involves Aron, the Rogue Watcher, and the only way to discover what he's up to and to set matters right is to voyage into the cosmic rift which swallowed Uatu!
Kristoff concludes that such a plan might prove troublesome, since the interior of the rift defies even his armor's most powerful probes, so anything in there remains a mystery. However, with access to the Watcher's own trans-spacial deliverance systems, he should be able to get them safe passage through the wormhole. Devlor thinks to himself that he feels anything but safe being so close to the Inhuman city of Attilan, since he doesn't have the greatest relationship with that place, so he wouldn't complain about getting out of there. Kristoff readjusts some controls on one of the Watcher's machines and warns everyone to steel themselves for the trip, since there may be some discomfort. He then pulls a handle and sends everyone into a tailspin through another dimension, passing through the rift's event horizon and spitting them out again.
The Fantastic Four and Fantastic Force get to their feet after the rough ride, and try to identify where exactly they ended up - Franklin can't begin to guess. The only thing he senses for sure is… something that's hugely dangerous! Whatever it is, it's really, really big! Staggering in size! They look up to witness a spectacular starry sky which is dominated by several gigantic figures - they've clearly landed in the middle of a cosmic war zone! On one side stand half a dozen huge Watchers, very nearly identical to each other, who are facing off against a group of multi-colored Celestials, titanic stompy armored space gods. Each group is led by one overly gigantic specimen that towers over the rest, and it seems the biggest Celestial is ready to let loose with a destructive blast at any moment now.
And where are the interlopers from Earth in relation to all this? They're apparently standing right on the big gold amulet the biggest Watcher is wearing!
Fantastic Four #400 - Even the Watchers Can Die!
The next issue picks up with that same huge Watcher lying unconscious on the ground, and textboxes proclaim that it was hit by a bolt of celestial energy which forced him to collapse, apparently without affecting the humans standing around on its amulet. Okay, so that wasn't something you actually bothered to show? Fine. Sue asks Franklin if he can locate Uatu, since she believes he's their only hope to avert disaster, but the psychic interference is incredible with so many alien minds around. Then Franklin notices someone psychically reaching back - it's Uatu! Sue prepares to hover everyone over towards him with a force field, but Franklin asks Huntara for assistance, and she uses her scythe to cut a hole in space-time which lands the group at the Watcher's feet. Handy, that.
Uatu explains that he's aware of their reasons for seeking him out, that their recent encounters with Aron and the Dark Raider correctly led them to conclude that reality is in jeopardy, but he also says that his sole responsibility at the moment is to observe the final fate of the One, the giant unconscious Watcher. The One is the repository for all the knowledge and observations that the Watchers have ever gathered, you see. Sue asks why the Celestials are attacking this being, and Uatu explains that for countless millennia the Watchers and Celestials have stood in conflict, struggling on every level of existence in ways and for reasons beyond human comprehension. Arishem, the Celestial Judge, has recently evaluated the One and declared him a threat to the cosmic balance of power, which is why his people are here now, to take care of that issue…
Ben makes a few bad jokes, and Kristoff grumbles that an ignorant gargoyle like him can't possibly appreciate the metaphysical drama unfolding before them. The power of these beings is almost impalpable! Uatu continues his exposition, explaining that for the last several thousand years the largest Celestial, Exitar the Exterminator, has gathered his energy for the sole purpose of eradicating the Watchers from this reality, and the One will be the first to vanish. The rest will soon follow. Huntara asks why they won't defend themselves, and Johnny points out that it's not really the style of the Watchers to be warlike, since they're dedicated to being passive observers. Ben figures the Watchers can throw the towel in if they want, but he just wants to know how to stop Aron before they go. Uatu tells him that further discourse is not permitted, as it violates his oath.
Franklin, incensed at the less than helpful Watcher, tells him they can't just be brushed off like gnats. They've come too far, suffered too much to leave without the answers they seek! He'll get them, even if he has to force them from him! Franklin then unleashes a burst of psychic energy and for the briefest moment Psi-Lord is able to read the Watcher's thoughts. He immediately crumples as his mind feels like it's on fire, and Nathaniel muses that it was a foolish risk to take - the kid could have crippled himself, or worse! Ben and Sue catch the flagging Franklin and help him down, telling him to take a rest even as the kid protests that they're in too much danger.
Scott finds a new device suddenly lying at his feet, and concludes that even while Uatu was giving them the silent treatment, he left yet another gizmo behind for them to find, the final part to the super-weapon they've been compiling for a while now. Kristoff asks if he can study it, since he claims Scott's lack of advanced scientific training renders his opinion unreliable, but Scott isn't so sure he wants to hand the deadliest weapon in the galaxy over to someone raised by Doctor Doom. Franklin tells both of them to stop bickering - this is no time for such trifles. That apparatus might well be the solar system's only hope, based on what he saw in the Watcher's mind, so it needs to be assembled!
It turns out Aron set up a base in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, as a sort of last ditch holdout - he believes that a Celestial victory in this cosmic war is a foregone conclusion, so he intends to save himself by converting the entirety of the Milky Way into his own private pocket universe away from their presence. Ben is pissed off that Aron isn't just running out on his own people, but is willing to sacrifice humanity in the bargain too! Vibraxas and Johnny vote to head back home to resolve this problem immediately, but Nathan doesn't agree with them, claiming that they have a moral responsibility to help the Watchers, since their sacred oath prevents them from saving themselves. The entire universe could be imperiled if the Celestials upset the cosmic balance of power! Kristoff stares at Nathan and muses that he never really noticed before, but there's something about Nathaniel Richards which reminds him of his master, Doctor Doom…
Sue reluctantly admits that she agrees with her father-in-law here, since Uatu has aided the human race on more occasions than come readily to mind. They can't just run out on him now! Scott notes that they only have one super-weapon, but they're dealing with two separate problems. Sue figures that's easily solved - it's time to split the party! She tells Ben to assemble a team and give her regards to Aron, then turns to Franklin and tells him that the Fantastic Force is his team, so she has no right to assume what they might do. Her kid promises that they'll all fight side-by-side with the Fantastic Four as well! Two groups quickly assemble with some members from both teams, and Sue and Franklin give each other a mental goodbye in which the latter grants Sue access to all the thoughts he took from Uatu's mind, just in case.
Sue, Johnny, Nathan, Devlor, and Lyja stay behind on the planet of the Watchers. Sue is thrust into the role of leader among them, and once again she's a bit uncertain about that, wondering how Reed always did it and if he really was as confident as he seemed in the role. She considers that perhaps she just sent six people to their death against Aron while the rest of them are facing an overgrown Celestial. She must be crazy! She asks Lyja if she knows anything about Celestials, and the alien woman confirms that she learned plenty as a Skrull intelligence officer - and all of it is discouraging!
They all take to the skies - Johnny and Nathan under their own power, Lyja by growing wings, and Devlor and Sue by using the latter's invisible force fields to lift them. Lyja explains that the Celestials are a star-spanning race of genetic engineers who usually perform their experiments on a planet's highest lifeform, and many Skrulls believe their shape-shifting abilities are a direct result of their manipulations. Sue decides that with such a different ethos from the Watchers, it's no wonder they ended up at odds. While she keeps an eye on Nathan, convinced he's not here out of some form of altruism, Lyja explains that nobody has ever seen a Celestial outside their armor, and it's possibly they only use them to interact with the physical plane of reality, since they might exist only in Hyperspace otherwise. Johnny complains that he's not sure how they're supposed to fight someone that's not even really there…
Within a glowing anomaly that sits somewhere in the solar system's asteroid belt, Aron the Rogue Watcher is assembling a deadly device with the help of the modified Ultimate Nullifier that the Dark Raider altered. He's turned it into a Universal Converter and will soon transform the solar system into a new and vital pocket universe! (Wait, is it the solar system or the galaxy he's converting?) A portal opens up and disgorges Ben, Franklin, Huntara, Scott, Vibraxas, and Kristoff, who are all ready to punch him in the face. Aron is dismissive of their presence, convinced that not even they can be deluded enough to think they could stop him at this late stage. Their situation is hopeless! Ben quickly gives Scott the super-weapon, hankering for some manual clobbering, while Aron declares once again he does not want to soil his hands in mindless combat.
Aron smugly mentions that his anomaly intrudes into time as well as into space, so by selecting the appropriate portals he can easily arrange for some allies to keep his enemies at bay. Out of one portal pops the villain Blastaar, while another releases Dragon Man on the group. Even as the group takes down these villains, others start to appear in their place. For example, the Frightful Four show up next, consisting of the Wingless Wizard, Trapster, Medusa, and Sandman. How very retro! I suppose this is an anniversary issue, so being pointlessly nostalgic is mandatory…
Over on Watcher world, Johnny attempts to harm the giant Celestial, Exitar, but even heat enough to incinerate a city isn't affecting him at all - in fact, he's completely oblivious to the assault! Sue tells her brother to conserve his energy since they'll probably need it later, while Lyja observes that their mission appears destined to fail, for though she can transform into many shapes and forms, none are powerful enough to pierce this being's armor! Sue tells her there must be a way, for nothing is truly invincible. Every living being has some weakness, and they just have to find it!
Nathaniel smugly comments that the answer is right under her pretty little nose. Sue asks him what he's on about, and Nathan points out that Reed never fully analyzed the true origin of Sue's so-called 'invisible force energy.' Sue recalls that he often speculated it was a vibration from a higher dimension, much like light and gravity are presently thought to be vibrations from the fifth dimension. Nathan, though, believes her power originates from hyperspace instead - perhaps the very same that is home to the Celestials. By marshaling all her strength, focusing all her intensity, she alone can reach the proper harmonic chord to rupture the alien shell. He tells her to concentrate, concentrate, and sure enough with enough mental fortitude she manages to blast a small hole in the Celestial's armor.
In the asteroid belt, we watch the B-team fighting the Red Ghost and his Super Apes when Annihilus shows up, the same villain who very nearly killed Franklin as a little child. Franklin hits him with a psi-blast and sends him flying off his transportation glider, but he has no time to gloat because Devos the Devastator shows up next, and after him comes the Mole Man who brought a couple subterranean monsters along with him as well. While the team gets ready to face off against his creatures, another new person appears to join the fight - it's the Black Panther! Vibraxas is stunned, and wonders if his noble chieftain has come to aid them, or add to their misery…
Inside the Celestial, Johnny is baffled by the alien Innerspace landscape - they're traversing the equivalent of a blood artery! Lyja tells him off for taking the Beavis and Butthead approach to alien physiology, asking if he really thinks he can equate space gods with humans. While Nathan's armor is straining to analyze all the weird stuff in this alien environment, Sue comments that he seems mighty pleased with himself. Nathan points out they're exploring the great mysteries of the universe. Think of the secrets, the power, which could soon be his - um, he meant theirs! Sue irritably tells him this is no science outing, they have a job to do!
Devlor, now in a more ape-like combat form, interrupts the conversation to point out that they've got company. A whole array of strange floating bug things with sharp talons are approaching them. Johnny quickly blasts them apart, only to get approached by a new array of creatures which are much more gelatinous and prove impervious to flame. It's like they learned from the others! Lyja concludes they must be part of the Celestial's immune system, and turns into a tentacled bug-dragon thing to save her ex. Johnny hears her promise she'd never abandon him, and muses that the way she said it suggests she still cares about him. Is it possible there's still hope for them? No - he won't go down that road again! He tells Sue to keep moving, and that he and Lyja will eventually catch up.
Ben complains to himself that he can't get anywhere near Aron or his universal machine-thingy because all these old villains keep popping up to bother him - it's a small mercy that they don't seem to last long, since they are soon teleported back to whatever time period they came from. While Ben takes out one of Mole Man's monsters, the Super Skrull flies in from behind him and starts pelting him with fireballs, and Ben actually throws the monster at the flying Skrull and scores a direct hit. Devos proves a difficult foe for Franklin so Huntara steps in, deftly forming a wormhole into an unpopulated dimension and wishing the bad guy farewell when he falls in. A still villainous Namor the Sub-Mariner and a bunch of Atlanteans appear, and Scott wonders why he ever signed up with FF - he doesn't belong here, he never did! Kristoff confronts Scott and tells him he shouldn't stand rooted to the ground but fight to get closer to Aron like the rest of them! If he lacks the necessary courage to proceed, then he should just hand the super-weapon over to him!
In the Celestial, Sue and her team approach a valve-like structure in the wall that's blocking their path, and she uses the information Franklin uploaded into her mind to conclude they have to get through there, and Devlor immediately starts pounding on the warm and slimy surface. Nathan tells him there's no need for him to risk getting sick, and tags in to blast the entrance with some Doom-style gauntlet blasts. The group moves into the next, even slimier tunnel, which suddenly comes alive as the floor tries to entangle everyone - only Sue manages to avoid the tentacles with her force fields. Nathan tells Devlor not to panic since the tentacles seem to grow if more force is used against them.
Sue tries to free them for a while, but Nathan tells her she doesn't have the time for such a delicate operation - he'll attempt to free both of them while she proceeds! Sue warns Nathan that he'll answer to her if Devlor is injured, then continues deeper into the Celestial by herself - if the odds were incalculable before, they've only gotten steadily worse! As she travels, Sue wonders if she chose the right side in this conflict by helping the Watchers. Uatu might have aided the Fantastic Four before, but that doesn't give her the right to interfere in this conflict, and both races are so alien that she can't even really comprehend the issues which separate them…
Back in the asteroid belt, a full-fledged fight has broken out between the Atlanteans, Namor, and the team - a battle which is interrupted by the arrival of the Silver Surfer who proclaims that he did not choose this destination, for it does not possess the energy upon which Galactus feeds. Ben figures that with him on the scene things can't get much worse, only for Terrax the Terrible to appear next. Kristoff concludes that every adversary so far seems to be more powerful than the ones before, thus it's only a matter of time before he will appear. Sure enough, an early Doctor Doom shows up right then and calls out to Kristoff, declaring him an impostor!
Doom raises the gun he always had strapped to his side, back in the day, and tells Kristoff to turn and face the one whom he would dishonor with such a crude and pitiful masquerade. Kristoff introduces himself, declaring himself a most loyal servant, but it seems this Doom is from a time period before they ever met. Terrax intervenes and recognizes Doom as the person who once imprisoned him, which means he must be from yet another time period. Anyway, Scott pulls Kristoff away from the two villains and tells him this isn't the Doom he knew - this one would blow Kristoff apart as soon as look at him. Kristoff just tells Scott to unhand him - indeed, he should oxidize the man for having the unmitigated gall and insufferable arrogance to befoul his imperial person! 'You're welcome,' Scott sarcastically replies.
Unexpectedly a stray blast from a villain hits Uatu's super-weapon which Scott was carrying around and utterly destroys it, much to the hero's horror. Their only hope was just destroyed, and it's all his fault! The milky way is doomed, because he blew it up! Scott gathers his courage and decides he might be the weakest link on this team, but he still refuses to surrender, to give up. He knows there has to be a way to beat Aron, and he's determined to find it, even if it costs him his life!
Sue, meanwhile, has reached a giant glowing sphere which she concludes must be the Celestial's brain - or a bio-mechanical core which functions as his nerve center. So much is unknown about Celestials that even Uatu was hazy on the details, and she questions the right of any group - be they space gods or not - to determine which group of people shall live or die. And yet, isn't she doing the same thing by siding with the Watchers here? How could she harm something this awesome, this magnificent? If only they could communicate… Sue reaches out, and in the very moment she makes contact with the Celestial shell her mind erupts with memories of her entire life. But among all days, one stands out in particular - the day of the crash, when she first gained her powers. Sue sinks to her knees, feeling like her soul just got flayed.
A burst of energy streaks towards her and coalesces into humanoid form - her form. The toga-clad Sue duplicate announces that she should be very proud, for few dare this deadly gauntlet, and fewer still reach the sacred sanctum. Sue concludes she must be speaking to a genetic duplicate designed to communicate, and asks her double what's going on - why are the Celestials attacking the Watchers? What purpose will be served by their destruction? Her twin explains that the reasons are complex, and the conceptual divergences too vast to be expressed within a human language. Still, Sue's powers allow her some harmony with the duplicate's Celestial masters, so she'll attempt a partial explanation.
The dimension plane of the universe, she explains, was formed eons ago by a minor aftershock of a much greater cataclysm. That aftershock, curiously enough, is known as the Big Bang to human beings. Innumerable millennia later the race known as the Watchers took up their passive observation after an experiment in altruism resulted in the nuclear destruction of the planet Prosilicus. Yet, not all Watchers followed the same agenda, and for millions of years the sect on the planet they're currently on downloaded their observations into the One, a Watcher whose sole purpose is to survive the so-called Big Crunch and live into the next universe. Unfortunately the One has recently achieved a troubling state of mind, and his very presence appears to be slowing down the cosmic expansion generated by the Big Bang. The Celestials have concluded that the One is in fact subtly attempting to destroy the universe before its time is due.
Sue asks why that might be, and the duplicate theorizes that perhaps the One simply wishes to start over, to correct mistakes of the past such as the misstep at Prosilicus. Sue recalls that the Dark Raider told her a similar story before he died, and wonders if the Celestials plucked that tale from her mind to convince her, or if the evil Reed was actually telling the truth. She acknowledges that everyone has some regrets, decisions or actions they'd change if given a second chance, and that she would sacrifice almost anything to go back in time to save Reed. How could she begrudge the One similar thoughts? Even as she weighs her options, Arishem the Celestial Judge raises his right hand and exposes the formula that enables him to obliterate worlds - the judgment has been made, the decision reached! The Celestials can no longer suffer the Watchers to live! The duplicate Sue announces that the process has begun, and the genetic code for the destruction of the Watchers has already been transferred to Exitar. Time is running out…
Sue realizes that she is the only person in a position to decide what happens next, and Uatu deliberately led her to this location to do that. Was he only trying to use her as a patsy? No - suddenly understanding burns inside her as the Exterminator pulses with unidentifiable energies, and with no hesitation the huge Celestial launches a fatal blast of energy which kills the One in a single devastating blow. As his death cry echoes around the planet, the Watchers proclaim that all their efforts have come to naught, and they will soon join him in oblivion. Uatu, however, thinks differently…
The duplicate compliments Sue on choosing well - clearly she agrees that the Watchers aren't worthy of survival, and the universe will be richer without them! Sue refuses to accept that conclusion, however, stating that while she's not omniscient nor claims to understand half of what's happened here, she will go with her gut - and her gut tells her that since the Celestials have just eliminated the threat of the One, the cosmic balance of power must now be restored in the other direction! She turns and inflicts her full power on the nerve center of Exitar, shattering the orb. This makes the entire giant explode and then disappear in an instant, and Sue wonders if she actually killed him or just ousted him from this dimension - there's no way to be sure.
Uatu catches the falling Sue and the others and brings them back to himself, telling them to be at ease - they're safe for the moment. Johnny explains that Uatu zapped them all behind a force-shield when the fireworks started, and Uatu explains that the Celestials will eventually manifest a new Exitar, just as his brother Watchers will regenerate the One. Their actions here today have merely delayed the inevitable resolution of this conflict by a few millennia. Sue concludes this must be exactly what Uatu planned, since it will allow mankind to evolve to a level where they can be an equal player in this fight as well. Uatu Isn't fooling anyone - he wants humanity to survive, and that is why he so often ignores his non-interference oath. Unfortunately, his subtle manipulations will be wasted unless he helps them once again…
Back with Ben and the others, the fight between them and the Yakety Sax parade of old villains is still ongoing, while Aron cackles in triumph as he completes his device and wishes everyone a lovely final fight. Soon, the solar system will be his private paradise, and all he needs to do is activate his Converter! Aron goes to do so, only for his device to start moving and shaking on its own - something's gone wrong! Cracks spread through the artifact until, in a flash, Giant-Man rises up from inside the device, shattering it into a million pieces as he grows huge within its confines! Seeing this, Kristoff compliments Scott for seizing an unexpected victory from the grasp of defeat!
Aron angrily shouts that the Fantastic Four have won nothing, for he can easily reconstitute that Converter in mere instants! At that moment Uatu shows up with the rest of the cast to tell him that his madness ends here and now. Uatu tells the rogue Watcher to surrender, for he does not wish to harm him, but Aron claims not to fear Uatu - while he has occasionally disregarded his oath, he would never engage in mortal combat! He is forbidden to interfere in matters of this solar system, and not even he would risk such abject defiance! Uatu tells Aron not to force him into a fight - because he will, if he must!
'So be it!' Aron cries. The rogue Watcher attacks at once, energy cascading across a thousand planes of reality, and he shouts that Uatu's devotion to humankind has always been his most exploitable weakness. Why does he care about these puny insects? Uatu explains that there's a sparkle of unmistakable splendor within this infant race, one which might someday outshine the stars themselves. All they need is a chance to grow, to evolve, to rise above petty bigotries and antagonisms. And he intends to give them that chance! For many tension-filled moments a brutal and savage war occurs across the infinite rivers of reality, until Uatu finally gains the upper hand. He declares that he could easily destroy Aron, erase him from existence, but that is not his way. Instead, he'll convert Aron into living energy - he who always scorned the One will now serve as the core of his regeneration, so perhaps in the millennia to come Aron's desperate hunger for life will temper his subtle machinations…
After Aron is reduced to energy, Sue comments that Uatu might just have solved problems for today and tomorrow! Uatu admits that he hopes her words prove true, just as the big, bulbous-headed Watcher appears again - He-Who-Summons. He announces that Uatu committed a grievous violation of his oath by interceding in the affairs of other races and taking the life of a fellow Watcher, and such a transgression cannot go unpunished. Thus, with the full blessing of the High Tribunal, Uatu is cast out. He is a Watcher no more! He is hereby banished from his race, pariah to be shunned and ridiculed! After blasting Uatu with a beam of energy the other Watcher soon vanishes again to parts unknown…
Sue doesn't think it's remotely fair to punish Uatu for saving the Earth and insists there must be someone who will listen to reason. Uatu denies this, however, explaining that while their ways might look strange and alien to her, the judgment he received from his peers is just, his punishment deserved. By his own actions he is condemned! Suddenly the whole place starts shaking, and Uatu explains that the anomaly they're in cannot retain its structure without Aron's presence, and thus he asks everyone to gather to him. Though he is no longer a Watcher by duty, he still has the cosmic power which is his birthright, and that should allow him to effortlessly transcend the boundaries of mere physical space. He shall carry them home…
Back on the Moon, within the Stealth-Hawk which is still parked next to Uatu's citadel, the entire cast rematerialized next to a shocked Boris as if the whole thing never happened. Franklin observes that everyone except Uatu is there, and Nathan wonders if he returned to his citadel or left it unguarded - something to look into later! Ben compliments the Fantastic Force's competence, and Sue admits it's a shame things are working out so well for Franklin, since the original Fantastic Four could really use a fourth member. Ben wonders incredulously if she's really thinking of giving away Reed's slot, and she admits that if this adventure has taught her anything, it's the importance of making decisions and moving on with life…
Sue glances at Scott and wonders if he cares to make things official, and he's shocked to realize she's actually offering him permanent membership on the team. He's flattered by the offer, but concludes that Ant-Man doesn't belong in the Fantastic Four. Kristoff observes that Scott clearly lacks the necessary courage and says he'd eagerly accept their generous invitation in Scott's place, but Ben rejects this instantly, while Johnny goggles at the thought of the adopted son of Doom being a member of the Fantastic Four. Devlor idly wonders what'll happen to the Watcher now that he's on his own, and Sue admits she has no idea - but she has a hunch he'll continue trying to make the universe a better place for everyone, and he'll do just fine! So say we all!
Fantastic Four #400 - In Memoriam!
With heads bowed and voices hushed, many heroes travel from great distances - from the ocean depths and desolate silent space - to pay respects to the man the world knew as Mister Fantastic. Beloved father and faithful husband, loyal friend and decisive leader. Brilliant scientist and noble hero… Reed was all those things. Also he 'died' quite a while ago, but I guess you can't rush these things.
At the funeral reception, Namor asks Scott how Sue is holding up, and Scott thinks that the lecherous creep is probably ready to provide a broad shoulder to cry on. Nearby, Kristoff remarks that he finally has reason to compliment Scott, since he makes a fine usher! Perhaps he should consider a change in careers? Scott thinks to himself that it's weird to see the arrogant little snot when he's not dressed up in armor that looks like Doctor Doom. Boris, meanwhile, studies every attendee and observes that there are so many of his old enemies in the same place here - he could so easily… No! Revenge should be savored like vintage wine. He will bide his time!
Sue is off by her lonesome, reflecting on the need for a memorial service but also admitting that somewhere in the pit of her heart she still nourishes a secret flame of hope. Johnny comes by to see how she's doing, and the entire story devolves into a beat-by-beat retelling of the Fantastic Four origin story. Rocket ship, crash, mutations, all the usual story beats complete with artwork from the sixties. At the end of the rehash, the three remaining members of the Fantastic Four declare they still have work to do - they have to protect mankind by seeking and confronting the unknown. It's a heavy responsibility which has been entrusted to them by Reed Richards! Sure, whatever. See you in a few issues, Reed.
Rating & Comments
I'm not a big fan of Franklin Richards, and his alternate teenage version can be pretty terrible too and often slides into being a domineering dick to his allies - but I actually liked the little shit in this Fantastic Force issue. The actual team and title are alien to me, and since they were only published for a little over a year back in the mid-90's, I don't think that's a huge surprise, but gotta give credit where it's due - it made total sense that they would be the ones to finally deconstruct Nathaniel's trickery, what with multiple members having connections to the man, and some pretty relevant power interaction. Huntara is really the standout there, but between her and Franklin, it's a pretty neat fit.
Nathaniel made the fatal mistake that unveiled his deceptions himself, just last issue, when he decided to call in his errant grandson to fix the situation on the Moon using yet another use of his mysterious holographic fiery Sue, a bit of a staple at this point. He was probably unaware that his descendant had recently teamed up with another, Huntara, who has keen awareness of time bullshit due to being a bit of a time-lost warrior like dear old dad, and has a scythe which allows her to teleport to various dimensions. Nathan might have fooled Franklin with his illusions and honeyed words, again, but Huntara saw through him immediately, much like Kristoff did, and caused a confrontation.
Franklin's conviction that it has to be Doctor Doom who was responsible for the whole overarching plot was entertaining, especially when he starts arguing that obviously Doom covered up his death and pulled all their strings the entire time. Who else? When it turns out Nathan is actually responsible, Franklin finally has a bit of a breakdown over the manipulations he's constantly subjected to by that old asshole - the man had once again faked his death and pretended to be other people, and Franklin fell for it too. That particular storyline still feels unresolved, at least for now, as we then move on from Doom's Castle towards the Moon to deal with the more immediate plot issues, and Nathan's fate is left uncertain. Huntara certainly intends to get her pound of flesh, and I'm not sure Franklin will intervene again should a rematch come between her and her dad…
The tail end of the Fantastic Force issue is setting up the super-sized Fantastic Four issue to follow, by retrieving Sue from the Negative Zone so she can participate in the new adventure, and transporting everyone to the Watchers' world. It turns out that despite his doomful pronouncements at the end of last issue, Kristoff is able to modify some of the Watcher's equipment to build them safe passage through the wormhole that was left behind, even if it's not exactly a stable ride. I guess that's an easier feat to accomplish than accessing the Negative Zone? It does underline once again that at this time, Kristoff is essentially the hilariously competent tech support of the group in Reed's absence, and it kind of makes sense he'd be a temporary member of the group, even if he doesn't get a labeled jumpsuit. Also he's a sarcastic little shit who can't stop ribbing Ant-Man, which is just fun.
The actual #400 special is a grand cosmic spectacle which is honestly pretty awesome, even if it kind of gets split into a fairly exciting and high-concept A-plot featuring Sue as the central character, and a stalling B-plot with Ben, Scott, Kristoff and most of the Fantastic Force duking it out against randoms. Sue gets to physically invade the body of a Celestial and strike a weird kind of deal between eldritch races, while the others… fight a bunch of Aron's random villains for like two panels each before they get replaced with new ones until eventually the others come back to finish him off. The gimmick of just tossing a hundred retro villains into the mix is amusing but it's a pretty tired concept, and Aron isn't even one of the villains known to do that kind of thing! At least there's an underlying thread in there which is actually good, which makes it a bit more than just pagefiller with fighty-punch action.
The transition between the two issues is rather wonky, since some pretty cataclysmic action is implied to have taken place in between issues which rationally should have affected the cast. Still, once we're in the swing of things it picks up. A grand conflict between Watchers and Celestials is set up, but it's looking pretty one-sided from the start - the 'One' that the Watchers are gathered around has been unilaterally attempting to restart the universe to correct their past mistakes, and the Celestials are here to put the kibosh on that. Uatu claims he can't intervene, but surreptitiously he keeps assisting by dropping technology and hints, even if his actual position doesn't quite align with the Watchers - or he would have been more receptive to helping out two issues back when He-Who-Summons showed up. It's a pretty nice mystery that's set up there, of what exactly his goal is. Presumably the presence of Franklin learnings details from Uatu's mind was another trick by him to get that information out without explicitly violating his oath. Clever…
Nathan argues they should help the Watchers' side, claiming it's out of some sort of respect for the cosmic balance of power. It's pretty obviously not that, and Kristoff recognizes that fact pretty easily - Nathan is just covering up his real motives, among which is undoubtedly his interest in looting the Watchers' citadel back on the Moon, which would probably go bye-bye if the Celestials wiped out the Watchers. I believe it's this penchant for deception and double-speak that Kristoff recognizes as so similar to Doctor Doom in this issue. Sue also sees through Nathan, as she's been pretty skeptical of his motives for a while now, and she decides having Nathan close enough to keep an eye on is preferable to having him out of sight. Despite being an ass, he does come in handy. I'm not sure how exactly he figured out the true nature of Sue's power - presumably it's future knowledge - but he informs her that (at least until someone retcons it) her power works through hyperspace manipulation, the very same dimension that's home to the Celestials. This allows her the ability to punch through their impenetrable shell by matching harmonic frequencies, giving them an entrance.
Over in the Asteroid Belt with the B-team, we see them fight off Aron who's trying to change either the Solar System or the entire Milky Way into his personal pocket demesne, presumably at the cost of the inhabitants of the Earth. While most of this involves the heroes fighting off a bunch of random villains to get to Aron's doomsday machine, the ongoing plot of the Watcher's various secret weapon parts gets resolved too. In a fun twist, while they do get reassembled into an overpowered super-gun that's implied to be key to finishing off some major threat… it gets shattered halfway through without ever being used by complete happenstance. It's a nice bit of misdirection, as Chekhov's gun actually turns out to be a red herring. Scott, in failing to protect the device, decides he has no choice but to go beyond his own comforts and risks himself in a bid to destroy Aron's machine instead, and manages to use his giant form to destroy it from the inside - no Watcher gun required. The true power was inside him all along!
Funnily enough, Doctor Doom does make an appearance in this comic, even if it's a very atemporal version - it's a version of Doom form the early days before Kristoff was ever even a thing, perhaps around the dawn of the character. He's actually using that piddly gun he's always carrying around in the old art (even if he never really uses it there) which kind of dates him. He doesn't really last long enough to do anything except show up that Kristoff - now no longer brainwashed to believe he's Doom - does still very much respect or even love his adoptive father/guardian and wishes to be accepted by him. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait a while to see if that's a realistic expectation.
Over on Sue's side of things, after the infiltration of the Celestial picks off everyone else, she's the only one to actually get to its equivalent of a brain. There she faces off against herself - a clone of sorts - who attempts to convey some part of this grand cosmic conflict to Sue. And that's where Sue realizes that Uatu's plan involved her getting this far along and doing something other than siding with one or the other. She's not there to help the Watchers, since the existence of the One is actually a universal threat and can't be allowed - but neither can she permit the Celestials to destroy the cosmic order and end the long-standing conflict in their favor. Uatu just wants to delay the end of the war a little longer, a moment on the cosmic stage, to permit humanity to be able to meaningfully contribute to how it'll all shake out millenia down the line. And it works! Sue banishes the main Celestial back to hyperspace to be reborn, as such, and with the One dead the Watchers similarly will have to recover. See you again in issue #4000 I guess…
The Aron fight gets concluded when, shortly after Scott manages to destroy his machine, Uatu and the others arrive to intervene and end the conflict once and for all. Perhaps stirred into action by Sue's actions preserving his species, Uatu forgoes his oath of non-interference and decides to end the threat of Aron once and for all, killing and dispersing the rogue Watcher such that his energy might eventually form the core of a new One. That, Uatu hopes, might temper the subtle machinations of the present One with a bit of Aron'd desperate hunger for life. It makes it easier to tell he's evil, at least! For his actions Uatu is fired from his job, and though he retains his powers, he does abandon his base on the Moon shortly afterwards and disappears for a time.
With everything resolved, pretty much, we get a nice little conclusion in which Scott finally rejects taking a permanent position on the Fantastic Four, having learned from this whole mess that he probably prefers slightly less insane encounters in his life, as a rule. Don't blame him. Kristoff is happy to step up and take his place, and though Ben and Johnny are none too pleased with the thought, he does stick around for a while longer in this 'technically not a member but constantly there anyway' state. Until the forthcoming return of Doom makes him more relevant again, of course!
This entire storyline is insanely crowded with characters, but that's mostly because a ton of them are bit-characters from old stories purely brought in for the B-team fights - nostalgia material to fill up space. Still, the overall story is good, it does manage to do a fair job in seeming like a special 'memorial' issue in which a lot of memories are stirred up, and the conclusion is pretty good. As for repercussions - Although Uatu is stripped of his title of Watcher, he continues this job anyway as seen when he appears next in Uncanny X-Men #335, not even a year later. It appears that he later regains favor among his people as he is seen working alongside other Watchers again in She-Hulk #18, but that's way down the line. Aron the Watcher, on the other hand, does not return after this issue - he's properly dead.
If you like cosmic nonsense and everyone-fights-everyone stories, try this one out. 3 stars, I guess? Probably would give it more if any of the Doom-plicates had a bigger role to play, but this is the territory of Sue, Scott, and Uatu.
Best Panel(s) of the Issues
While the bonus story featuring the FF origin is pointless, this one-page summary is pretty neat, especially using Sue's invisible hair as the frame.
Most Gloriously Villainous Kristoff Quotes
"Save your breath, Mrs. Richards! An ignorant gargoyle like Grimm cannot possibly appreciate the metaphysical drama unfolding before us! The power these beings employ is almost impalpable!"
"Don't stand rooted to the ground like an abandoned sapling, Lang! You must fight your way closer to Aron! If you lack the necessary courage to proceed, deliver the weapon to me!"
"Master! It is I… Kristoff… your most loyal servant!"
"Unhand me, Lang! I should oxidize you for having unmitigated gall, the insufferable arrogance to befoul my imperial person!"
"Lang obviously lacks the necessary courage… but I shall eagerly accept your generous invitation!"
Covers
We're back for the finale of the unnecessarily lengthy Watcher arc, consisting of a tie-in Fantastic Force issue and the anniversary #400 issue of Fantastic Four. The former's cover art confirms that it'll continue the storyline related to Sue in the Negative Zone, while the other has the enticing image of the Fantastic Four charging at the camera with Kristoff Vernard taking up Reed's slot on the team. Surely not? Surprisingly, this super-sized issue actually has a lengthier story than usual instead of just putting in a bunch of reprints to pad it out, but there's still a bite-sized bonus tale slotted at the end which is all sorts of unnecessary.
Story Overview
Fantastic Force #7 - The Masque of Doom!
We read a spinoff title first, Fantastic Force, which follows the adventures of Psi-Lord, the alternate future teenage version of Franklin Richards, and the team he founded with Nathaniel Richards' daughter Huntara, Vibraxas from Wakanda, and Devlor the shapeshifting Inhuman. When this issue happens they're still reeling from a recent story in which Vibraxas took a life in defense of his own, with Franklin arguing in his favor while both Huntara and Devlor are various levels of skeptical and worried about what else the Wakandan might be capable of if he'd stoop to 'murder.'
As they arrive at Four Freedoms Plaza, Devlor spots a shady figure keeping an eye on them and goes in for the attack, turning into a werewolf at the same time that the shadowed person transforms into a Gorn. As the two struggle, Franklin comes in and threatens the lizard-person, only for it to call him by name before raising a claw and telling him it doesn't want to fight. Turning back from dino-person into a green-skinned woman, Johnny's ex-wife Lyja explains that she failed to recognize Devlor as one of Franklin's compatriots and thought he was another interloper trying to gain access to the Fantastic Four headquarters while the owners were away.
They soon congregate inside Four Freedoms Plaza, and Lyja asks for forgiveness for intruding on their territory, but she had nowhere else to turn. Franklin understands that mentality, recalling a period when everyone was treating him like a pariah and Lyja stuck with him and believed him. He trusts her now. Lyja explains that the reason she's present is not an easy subject to broach, since it involves Franklin's mother. She admits she's been stalking Johnny a bit in human disguises, hoping to reconcile with him, but a flaming image of Sue appeared while she was doing that - this heralded terrible danger in the past, so Johnny took off to follow up on that warning, and by the time Lyja arrived back in New York he was already gone and it was too late to follow…
Vibraxas wonders what that flaming image of Sue Richards might have meant, only for it to suddenly appear behind Franklin at that very moment, calling out that there danger, great danger! It announces that Franklin must reach the Fantastic Four, as only he can save them! He has to look to the Moon, to the Moon! There's not much time! The image vanishes, and Franklin figures that settles the question, they'll have to get it together so they can go for an impromptu moonwalk!
Not so fast! Huntara announces that they should not embark on a fool's errand when the very convenient appearance of the fiery manifestation is by its very nature dubious. In fact, her psionic scythe allowed her to detect a very terrestrial and very contemporary origin of the phenomenon they just witnessed. This was no image transmitted from across time, so before going blindly to the Moon they should delve into the mystery of its origins more deeply! She uses her scythe to cut a portal through space-time to the origin of the signal, tracing the projection back to its source.
What they find on the other side is so-called 'Doom-bots', actually just servo-guards, who are manipulating the holographic imaging system seen at the end of the last issue to generate Sue's image. Franklin determines that they've arrived in Latveria, and concludes this must mean that Doctor Doom is still alive and they've all been had! Doom's been pulling their strings the whole time! The robots go on alert and send out a signal for more backup defense units, but Franklin is ready for them - no power on Earth will keep him from the man who killed his father, Reed Richards! The Fantastic Force quickly goes on the attack, even Vibraxas, who focuses on the fact that he's killing soulless robots and not people. Lyja exclaims that it's great aerobic exercise to destroy robots, but when is the Lord of Latveria going to make his big entrance? Franklin figures that'll happen when they finish off his flunkies - then he'll surely show his face!
An armored figure from the shadows comments that Franklin is most perceptive - but as always he only sees the smallest portion of the great tapestry! Franklin is astounded to discover it's Nathaniel Richards, his own grandfather, whom he thought lost to time! Huntara, the man's daughter, angrily shouts that she'd prayed they'd meet again in his lifetime, so that she might be the one to end his life! She goes on the assault while Nathan dryly comments that his daughter is a delight as ever. Huntara rejects their kinship, explaining that she has no bond to one who would transgress the boundaries of time and reality to further his own ambitions. Nathan hastily claims his labors have all been covertly sanctioned - as a 'renegade' he's free to act in a way that her teacher Kargul, protector of the sacred timelines, cannot. They still share a common vision! Huntara just calls him a liar and keeps attacking anyway. Good call, Huntara.
Devlor is a bit confused that Franklin is just letting all this happen, and asks if they shouldn't be stopping the fight. Franklin figures they will step in if they really need to, but this rage has been welling up in Huntara for several years - they should probably let her do her thing. Best to get it out of her system. Huntara starts smashing Nathan around the room with her scythe, announcing that he must think her a fool - but even if she's not as smart as Franklin, she's also not as oblivious to Nathan's deceits. She knows he would say anything to advance his agenda, and that truth is a concept that's lost on him, thus rendering any level of trust in him utterly forfeit. There can be only one punishment for his crime, she declares, and since that crime is high treason against reality, the sentence is death!
Franklin finally intervenes there, stopping Huntara's attempt at a lethal strike with his psionic powers, freezing her in place. Huntara tells him that he doesn't have the authority to stop her - she's a guardian of the sacred timelines, so she must exact judgment! Franklin pulls rank within the team to stop her, then points out that she only very recently criticized Vibraxas for unwarranted use of lethal force. Whatever crimes Nathan might stand accused of, they owe it themselves and to justice to hear his side of the story as well. Nathan approves of this development and concludes that the Psi-Masters of Elsewhen who raised him still know how to instill respect for one's elders!
He then explains the situation on the Moon, arguing that it urgently requires the presence of the Fantastic Force, since the Fantastic Four presently face a rogue Watcher all by themselves. Without Franklin's help, they'll likely not survive! Franklin wonders how he could believe Nathan, since he just found out the man posed as Doctor Doom and faked all those flaming images of Sue to manipulate everyone as though they were puppets. Nathan claims it was a necessary deception since there are things he is forbidden to reveal. Already he's dabbled too much in Franklin's destiny, but he promises that if they rally around his standard one last time, everything will be made clear. Huntara concludes Franklin is suckling at his grandfather's teat as usual - ew - but she swears that when this affair is done, nothing will stand between her and retribution. Not even her nephew!
Nathaniel activates his trans-mat device with the coordinates of the citadel on the Moon, and teleports the entire group up there to meet with the Fantastic Four. Franklin first sees the monitors displaying his mother adrift in the Negative Zone, before freezing as he spots Doctor Doom standing peacefully among the Fantastic Four as if he's their ally. Kristoff immediately identifies himself as the heir of Doom, not the original article, and explains that Sue faces interspatial peril - and they've yet to find a means to rescue her! Huntara hears this and tells him to stand back, since for a warrior of Elsewhen the whole of time and space is but a pond to be skipped across at will. She raises her scythe…
In the Negative Zone, Sue has recovered from the hit to her head last issue but she's forced to keep jumping from asteroid to asteroid to stay away from the explosive zone that threatens her from beneath. She insists to herself that there's no need to panic, no need to lose hope - she just has to keep moving, using force fields to propel her from one place to another to buy herself time. Suddenly she hears a voice calling out to her, and identifies the source as Huntara - as if things weren't bad enough! Sue makes a force field around herself and proclaims she's not leaving this life without a fight! Huntara reaches out and yells that Sue misjudges her intent - she's here on behalf of her son, to rescue her! Though they first met on the field of battle, this day she hasn't come as foe… but as salvation!
Huntara cuts another hole in space-time and returns to the Moon with Sue in tow, and she and Franklin have a quick hug as they reunite. Sue then decides there's no time for happy family reunions yet, since they've still got trouble on their hands. The Dark Raider she fought in the Negative Zone told her something huge which involves Aron, the Rogue Watcher, and the only way to discover what he's up to and to set matters right is to voyage into the cosmic rift which swallowed Uatu!
Kristoff concludes that such a plan might prove troublesome, since the interior of the rift defies even his armor's most powerful probes, so anything in there remains a mystery. However, with access to the Watcher's own trans-spacial deliverance systems, he should be able to get them safe passage through the wormhole. Devlor thinks to himself that he feels anything but safe being so close to the Inhuman city of Attilan, since he doesn't have the greatest relationship with that place, so he wouldn't complain about getting out of there. Kristoff readjusts some controls on one of the Watcher's machines and warns everyone to steel themselves for the trip, since there may be some discomfort. He then pulls a handle and sends everyone into a tailspin through another dimension, passing through the rift's event horizon and spitting them out again.
The Fantastic Four and Fantastic Force get to their feet after the rough ride, and try to identify where exactly they ended up - Franklin can't begin to guess. The only thing he senses for sure is… something that's hugely dangerous! Whatever it is, it's really, really big! Staggering in size! They look up to witness a spectacular starry sky which is dominated by several gigantic figures - they've clearly landed in the middle of a cosmic war zone! On one side stand half a dozen huge Watchers, very nearly identical to each other, who are facing off against a group of multi-colored Celestials, titanic stompy armored space gods. Each group is led by one overly gigantic specimen that towers over the rest, and it seems the biggest Celestial is ready to let loose with a destructive blast at any moment now.
And where are the interlopers from Earth in relation to all this? They're apparently standing right on the big gold amulet the biggest Watcher is wearing!
Fantastic Four #400 - Even the Watchers Can Die!
The next issue picks up with that same huge Watcher lying unconscious on the ground, and textboxes proclaim that it was hit by a bolt of celestial energy which forced him to collapse, apparently without affecting the humans standing around on its amulet. Okay, so that wasn't something you actually bothered to show? Fine. Sue asks Franklin if he can locate Uatu, since she believes he's their only hope to avert disaster, but the psychic interference is incredible with so many alien minds around. Then Franklin notices someone psychically reaching back - it's Uatu! Sue prepares to hover everyone over towards him with a force field, but Franklin asks Huntara for assistance, and she uses her scythe to cut a hole in space-time which lands the group at the Watcher's feet. Handy, that.
Uatu explains that he's aware of their reasons for seeking him out, that their recent encounters with Aron and the Dark Raider correctly led them to conclude that reality is in jeopardy, but he also says that his sole responsibility at the moment is to observe the final fate of the One, the giant unconscious Watcher. The One is the repository for all the knowledge and observations that the Watchers have ever gathered, you see. Sue asks why the Celestials are attacking this being, and Uatu explains that for countless millennia the Watchers and Celestials have stood in conflict, struggling on every level of existence in ways and for reasons beyond human comprehension. Arishem, the Celestial Judge, has recently evaluated the One and declared him a threat to the cosmic balance of power, which is why his people are here now, to take care of that issue…
Ben makes a few bad jokes, and Kristoff grumbles that an ignorant gargoyle like him can't possibly appreciate the metaphysical drama unfolding before them. The power of these beings is almost impalpable! Uatu continues his exposition, explaining that for the last several thousand years the largest Celestial, Exitar the Exterminator, has gathered his energy for the sole purpose of eradicating the Watchers from this reality, and the One will be the first to vanish. The rest will soon follow. Huntara asks why they won't defend themselves, and Johnny points out that it's not really the style of the Watchers to be warlike, since they're dedicated to being passive observers. Ben figures the Watchers can throw the towel in if they want, but he just wants to know how to stop Aron before they go. Uatu tells him that further discourse is not permitted, as it violates his oath.
Franklin, incensed at the less than helpful Watcher, tells him they can't just be brushed off like gnats. They've come too far, suffered too much to leave without the answers they seek! He'll get them, even if he has to force them from him! Franklin then unleashes a burst of psychic energy and for the briefest moment Psi-Lord is able to read the Watcher's thoughts. He immediately crumples as his mind feels like it's on fire, and Nathaniel muses that it was a foolish risk to take - the kid could have crippled himself, or worse! Ben and Sue catch the flagging Franklin and help him down, telling him to take a rest even as the kid protests that they're in too much danger.
Scott finds a new device suddenly lying at his feet, and concludes that even while Uatu was giving them the silent treatment, he left yet another gizmo behind for them to find, the final part to the super-weapon they've been compiling for a while now. Kristoff asks if he can study it, since he claims Scott's lack of advanced scientific training renders his opinion unreliable, but Scott isn't so sure he wants to hand the deadliest weapon in the galaxy over to someone raised by Doctor Doom. Franklin tells both of them to stop bickering - this is no time for such trifles. That apparatus might well be the solar system's only hope, based on what he saw in the Watcher's mind, so it needs to be assembled!
It turns out Aron set up a base in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, as a sort of last ditch holdout - he believes that a Celestial victory in this cosmic war is a foregone conclusion, so he intends to save himself by converting the entirety of the Milky Way into his own private pocket universe away from their presence. Ben is pissed off that Aron isn't just running out on his own people, but is willing to sacrifice humanity in the bargain too! Vibraxas and Johnny vote to head back home to resolve this problem immediately, but Nathan doesn't agree with them, claiming that they have a moral responsibility to help the Watchers, since their sacred oath prevents them from saving themselves. The entire universe could be imperiled if the Celestials upset the cosmic balance of power! Kristoff stares at Nathan and muses that he never really noticed before, but there's something about Nathaniel Richards which reminds him of his master, Doctor Doom…
Sue reluctantly admits that she agrees with her father-in-law here, since Uatu has aided the human race on more occasions than come readily to mind. They can't just run out on him now! Scott notes that they only have one super-weapon, but they're dealing with two separate problems. Sue figures that's easily solved - it's time to split the party! She tells Ben to assemble a team and give her regards to Aron, then turns to Franklin and tells him that the Fantastic Force is his team, so she has no right to assume what they might do. Her kid promises that they'll all fight side-by-side with the Fantastic Four as well! Two groups quickly assemble with some members from both teams, and Sue and Franklin give each other a mental goodbye in which the latter grants Sue access to all the thoughts he took from Uatu's mind, just in case.
Sue, Johnny, Nathan, Devlor, and Lyja stay behind on the planet of the Watchers. Sue is thrust into the role of leader among them, and once again she's a bit uncertain about that, wondering how Reed always did it and if he really was as confident as he seemed in the role. She considers that perhaps she just sent six people to their death against Aron while the rest of them are facing an overgrown Celestial. She must be crazy! She asks Lyja if she knows anything about Celestials, and the alien woman confirms that she learned plenty as a Skrull intelligence officer - and all of it is discouraging!
They all take to the skies - Johnny and Nathan under their own power, Lyja by growing wings, and Devlor and Sue by using the latter's invisible force fields to lift them. Lyja explains that the Celestials are a star-spanning race of genetic engineers who usually perform their experiments on a planet's highest lifeform, and many Skrulls believe their shape-shifting abilities are a direct result of their manipulations. Sue decides that with such a different ethos from the Watchers, it's no wonder they ended up at odds. While she keeps an eye on Nathan, convinced he's not here out of some form of altruism, Lyja explains that nobody has ever seen a Celestial outside their armor, and it's possibly they only use them to interact with the physical plane of reality, since they might exist only in Hyperspace otherwise. Johnny complains that he's not sure how they're supposed to fight someone that's not even really there…
Within a glowing anomaly that sits somewhere in the solar system's asteroid belt, Aron the Rogue Watcher is assembling a deadly device with the help of the modified Ultimate Nullifier that the Dark Raider altered. He's turned it into a Universal Converter and will soon transform the solar system into a new and vital pocket universe! (Wait, is it the solar system or the galaxy he's converting?) A portal opens up and disgorges Ben, Franklin, Huntara, Scott, Vibraxas, and Kristoff, who are all ready to punch him in the face. Aron is dismissive of their presence, convinced that not even they can be deluded enough to think they could stop him at this late stage. Their situation is hopeless! Ben quickly gives Scott the super-weapon, hankering for some manual clobbering, while Aron declares once again he does not want to soil his hands in mindless combat.
Aron smugly mentions that his anomaly intrudes into time as well as into space, so by selecting the appropriate portals he can easily arrange for some allies to keep his enemies at bay. Out of one portal pops the villain Blastaar, while another releases Dragon Man on the group. Even as the group takes down these villains, others start to appear in their place. For example, the Frightful Four show up next, consisting of the Wingless Wizard, Trapster, Medusa, and Sandman. How very retro! I suppose this is an anniversary issue, so being pointlessly nostalgic is mandatory…
Over on Watcher world, Johnny attempts to harm the giant Celestial, Exitar, but even heat enough to incinerate a city isn't affecting him at all - in fact, he's completely oblivious to the assault! Sue tells her brother to conserve his energy since they'll probably need it later, while Lyja observes that their mission appears destined to fail, for though she can transform into many shapes and forms, none are powerful enough to pierce this being's armor! Sue tells her there must be a way, for nothing is truly invincible. Every living being has some weakness, and they just have to find it!
Nathaniel smugly comments that the answer is right under her pretty little nose. Sue asks him what he's on about, and Nathan points out that Reed never fully analyzed the true origin of Sue's so-called 'invisible force energy.' Sue recalls that he often speculated it was a vibration from a higher dimension, much like light and gravity are presently thought to be vibrations from the fifth dimension. Nathan, though, believes her power originates from hyperspace instead - perhaps the very same that is home to the Celestials. By marshaling all her strength, focusing all her intensity, she alone can reach the proper harmonic chord to rupture the alien shell. He tells her to concentrate, concentrate, and sure enough with enough mental fortitude she manages to blast a small hole in the Celestial's armor.
In the asteroid belt, we watch the B-team fighting the Red Ghost and his Super Apes when Annihilus shows up, the same villain who very nearly killed Franklin as a little child. Franklin hits him with a psi-blast and sends him flying off his transportation glider, but he has no time to gloat because Devos the Devastator shows up next, and after him comes the Mole Man who brought a couple subterranean monsters along with him as well. While the team gets ready to face off against his creatures, another new person appears to join the fight - it's the Black Panther! Vibraxas is stunned, and wonders if his noble chieftain has come to aid them, or add to their misery…
Inside the Celestial, Johnny is baffled by the alien Innerspace landscape - they're traversing the equivalent of a blood artery! Lyja tells him off for taking the Beavis and Butthead approach to alien physiology, asking if he really thinks he can equate space gods with humans. While Nathan's armor is straining to analyze all the weird stuff in this alien environment, Sue comments that he seems mighty pleased with himself. Nathan points out they're exploring the great mysteries of the universe. Think of the secrets, the power, which could soon be his - um, he meant theirs! Sue irritably tells him this is no science outing, they have a job to do!
Devlor, now in a more ape-like combat form, interrupts the conversation to point out that they've got company. A whole array of strange floating bug things with sharp talons are approaching them. Johnny quickly blasts them apart, only to get approached by a new array of creatures which are much more gelatinous and prove impervious to flame. It's like they learned from the others! Lyja concludes they must be part of the Celestial's immune system, and turns into a tentacled bug-dragon thing to save her ex. Johnny hears her promise she'd never abandon him, and muses that the way she said it suggests she still cares about him. Is it possible there's still hope for them? No - he won't go down that road again! He tells Sue to keep moving, and that he and Lyja will eventually catch up.
Ben complains to himself that he can't get anywhere near Aron or his universal machine-thingy because all these old villains keep popping up to bother him - it's a small mercy that they don't seem to last long, since they are soon teleported back to whatever time period they came from. While Ben takes out one of Mole Man's monsters, the Super Skrull flies in from behind him and starts pelting him with fireballs, and Ben actually throws the monster at the flying Skrull and scores a direct hit. Devos proves a difficult foe for Franklin so Huntara steps in, deftly forming a wormhole into an unpopulated dimension and wishing the bad guy farewell when he falls in. A still villainous Namor the Sub-Mariner and a bunch of Atlanteans appear, and Scott wonders why he ever signed up with FF - he doesn't belong here, he never did! Kristoff confronts Scott and tells him he shouldn't stand rooted to the ground but fight to get closer to Aron like the rest of them! If he lacks the necessary courage to proceed, then he should just hand the super-weapon over to him!
In the Celestial, Sue and her team approach a valve-like structure in the wall that's blocking their path, and she uses the information Franklin uploaded into her mind to conclude they have to get through there, and Devlor immediately starts pounding on the warm and slimy surface. Nathan tells him there's no need for him to risk getting sick, and tags in to blast the entrance with some Doom-style gauntlet blasts. The group moves into the next, even slimier tunnel, which suddenly comes alive as the floor tries to entangle everyone - only Sue manages to avoid the tentacles with her force fields. Nathan tells Devlor not to panic since the tentacles seem to grow if more force is used against them.
Sue tries to free them for a while, but Nathan tells her she doesn't have the time for such a delicate operation - he'll attempt to free both of them while she proceeds! Sue warns Nathan that he'll answer to her if Devlor is injured, then continues deeper into the Celestial by herself - if the odds were incalculable before, they've only gotten steadily worse! As she travels, Sue wonders if she chose the right side in this conflict by helping the Watchers. Uatu might have aided the Fantastic Four before, but that doesn't give her the right to interfere in this conflict, and both races are so alien that she can't even really comprehend the issues which separate them…
Back in the asteroid belt, a full-fledged fight has broken out between the Atlanteans, Namor, and the team - a battle which is interrupted by the arrival of the Silver Surfer who proclaims that he did not choose this destination, for it does not possess the energy upon which Galactus feeds. Ben figures that with him on the scene things can't get much worse, only for Terrax the Terrible to appear next. Kristoff concludes that every adversary so far seems to be more powerful than the ones before, thus it's only a matter of time before he will appear. Sure enough, an early Doctor Doom shows up right then and calls out to Kristoff, declaring him an impostor!
Doom raises the gun he always had strapped to his side, back in the day, and tells Kristoff to turn and face the one whom he would dishonor with such a crude and pitiful masquerade. Kristoff introduces himself, declaring himself a most loyal servant, but it seems this Doom is from a time period before they ever met. Terrax intervenes and recognizes Doom as the person who once imprisoned him, which means he must be from yet another time period. Anyway, Scott pulls Kristoff away from the two villains and tells him this isn't the Doom he knew - this one would blow Kristoff apart as soon as look at him. Kristoff just tells Scott to unhand him - indeed, he should oxidize the man for having the unmitigated gall and insufferable arrogance to befoul his imperial person! 'You're welcome,' Scott sarcastically replies.
Unexpectedly a stray blast from a villain hits Uatu's super-weapon which Scott was carrying around and utterly destroys it, much to the hero's horror. Their only hope was just destroyed, and it's all his fault! The milky way is doomed, because he blew it up! Scott gathers his courage and decides he might be the weakest link on this team, but he still refuses to surrender, to give up. He knows there has to be a way to beat Aron, and he's determined to find it, even if it costs him his life!
Sue, meanwhile, has reached a giant glowing sphere which she concludes must be the Celestial's brain - or a bio-mechanical core which functions as his nerve center. So much is unknown about Celestials that even Uatu was hazy on the details, and she questions the right of any group - be they space gods or not - to determine which group of people shall live or die. And yet, isn't she doing the same thing by siding with the Watchers here? How could she harm something this awesome, this magnificent? If only they could communicate… Sue reaches out, and in the very moment she makes contact with the Celestial shell her mind erupts with memories of her entire life. But among all days, one stands out in particular - the day of the crash, when she first gained her powers. Sue sinks to her knees, feeling like her soul just got flayed.
A burst of energy streaks towards her and coalesces into humanoid form - her form. The toga-clad Sue duplicate announces that she should be very proud, for few dare this deadly gauntlet, and fewer still reach the sacred sanctum. Sue concludes she must be speaking to a genetic duplicate designed to communicate, and asks her double what's going on - why are the Celestials attacking the Watchers? What purpose will be served by their destruction? Her twin explains that the reasons are complex, and the conceptual divergences too vast to be expressed within a human language. Still, Sue's powers allow her some harmony with the duplicate's Celestial masters, so she'll attempt a partial explanation.
The dimension plane of the universe, she explains, was formed eons ago by a minor aftershock of a much greater cataclysm. That aftershock, curiously enough, is known as the Big Bang to human beings. Innumerable millennia later the race known as the Watchers took up their passive observation after an experiment in altruism resulted in the nuclear destruction of the planet Prosilicus. Yet, not all Watchers followed the same agenda, and for millions of years the sect on the planet they're currently on downloaded their observations into the One, a Watcher whose sole purpose is to survive the so-called Big Crunch and live into the next universe. Unfortunately the One has recently achieved a troubling state of mind, and his very presence appears to be slowing down the cosmic expansion generated by the Big Bang. The Celestials have concluded that the One is in fact subtly attempting to destroy the universe before its time is due.
Sue asks why that might be, and the duplicate theorizes that perhaps the One simply wishes to start over, to correct mistakes of the past such as the misstep at Prosilicus. Sue recalls that the Dark Raider told her a similar story before he died, and wonders if the Celestials plucked that tale from her mind to convince her, or if the evil Reed was actually telling the truth. She acknowledges that everyone has some regrets, decisions or actions they'd change if given a second chance, and that she would sacrifice almost anything to go back in time to save Reed. How could she begrudge the One similar thoughts? Even as she weighs her options, Arishem the Celestial Judge raises his right hand and exposes the formula that enables him to obliterate worlds - the judgment has been made, the decision reached! The Celestials can no longer suffer the Watchers to live! The duplicate Sue announces that the process has begun, and the genetic code for the destruction of the Watchers has already been transferred to Exitar. Time is running out…
Sue realizes that she is the only person in a position to decide what happens next, and Uatu deliberately led her to this location to do that. Was he only trying to use her as a patsy? No - suddenly understanding burns inside her as the Exterminator pulses with unidentifiable energies, and with no hesitation the huge Celestial launches a fatal blast of energy which kills the One in a single devastating blow. As his death cry echoes around the planet, the Watchers proclaim that all their efforts have come to naught, and they will soon join him in oblivion. Uatu, however, thinks differently…
The duplicate compliments Sue on choosing well - clearly she agrees that the Watchers aren't worthy of survival, and the universe will be richer without them! Sue refuses to accept that conclusion, however, stating that while she's not omniscient nor claims to understand half of what's happened here, she will go with her gut - and her gut tells her that since the Celestials have just eliminated the threat of the One, the cosmic balance of power must now be restored in the other direction! She turns and inflicts her full power on the nerve center of Exitar, shattering the orb. This makes the entire giant explode and then disappear in an instant, and Sue wonders if she actually killed him or just ousted him from this dimension - there's no way to be sure.
Uatu catches the falling Sue and the others and brings them back to himself, telling them to be at ease - they're safe for the moment. Johnny explains that Uatu zapped them all behind a force-shield when the fireworks started, and Uatu explains that the Celestials will eventually manifest a new Exitar, just as his brother Watchers will regenerate the One. Their actions here today have merely delayed the inevitable resolution of this conflict by a few millennia. Sue concludes this must be exactly what Uatu planned, since it will allow mankind to evolve to a level where they can be an equal player in this fight as well. Uatu Isn't fooling anyone - he wants humanity to survive, and that is why he so often ignores his non-interference oath. Unfortunately, his subtle manipulations will be wasted unless he helps them once again…
Back with Ben and the others, the fight between them and the Yakety Sax parade of old villains is still ongoing, while Aron cackles in triumph as he completes his device and wishes everyone a lovely final fight. Soon, the solar system will be his private paradise, and all he needs to do is activate his Converter! Aron goes to do so, only for his device to start moving and shaking on its own - something's gone wrong! Cracks spread through the artifact until, in a flash, Giant-Man rises up from inside the device, shattering it into a million pieces as he grows huge within its confines! Seeing this, Kristoff compliments Scott for seizing an unexpected victory from the grasp of defeat!
Aron angrily shouts that the Fantastic Four have won nothing, for he can easily reconstitute that Converter in mere instants! At that moment Uatu shows up with the rest of the cast to tell him that his madness ends here and now. Uatu tells the rogue Watcher to surrender, for he does not wish to harm him, but Aron claims not to fear Uatu - while he has occasionally disregarded his oath, he would never engage in mortal combat! He is forbidden to interfere in matters of this solar system, and not even he would risk such abject defiance! Uatu tells Aron not to force him into a fight - because he will, if he must!
'So be it!' Aron cries. The rogue Watcher attacks at once, energy cascading across a thousand planes of reality, and he shouts that Uatu's devotion to humankind has always been his most exploitable weakness. Why does he care about these puny insects? Uatu explains that there's a sparkle of unmistakable splendor within this infant race, one which might someday outshine the stars themselves. All they need is a chance to grow, to evolve, to rise above petty bigotries and antagonisms. And he intends to give them that chance! For many tension-filled moments a brutal and savage war occurs across the infinite rivers of reality, until Uatu finally gains the upper hand. He declares that he could easily destroy Aron, erase him from existence, but that is not his way. Instead, he'll convert Aron into living energy - he who always scorned the One will now serve as the core of his regeneration, so perhaps in the millennia to come Aron's desperate hunger for life will temper his subtle machinations…
After Aron is reduced to energy, Sue comments that Uatu might just have solved problems for today and tomorrow! Uatu admits that he hopes her words prove true, just as the big, bulbous-headed Watcher appears again - He-Who-Summons. He announces that Uatu committed a grievous violation of his oath by interceding in the affairs of other races and taking the life of a fellow Watcher, and such a transgression cannot go unpunished. Thus, with the full blessing of the High Tribunal, Uatu is cast out. He is a Watcher no more! He is hereby banished from his race, pariah to be shunned and ridiculed! After blasting Uatu with a beam of energy the other Watcher soon vanishes again to parts unknown…
Sue doesn't think it's remotely fair to punish Uatu for saving the Earth and insists there must be someone who will listen to reason. Uatu denies this, however, explaining that while their ways might look strange and alien to her, the judgment he received from his peers is just, his punishment deserved. By his own actions he is condemned! Suddenly the whole place starts shaking, and Uatu explains that the anomaly they're in cannot retain its structure without Aron's presence, and thus he asks everyone to gather to him. Though he is no longer a Watcher by duty, he still has the cosmic power which is his birthright, and that should allow him to effortlessly transcend the boundaries of mere physical space. He shall carry them home…
Back on the Moon, within the Stealth-Hawk which is still parked next to Uatu's citadel, the entire cast rematerialized next to a shocked Boris as if the whole thing never happened. Franklin observes that everyone except Uatu is there, and Nathan wonders if he returned to his citadel or left it unguarded - something to look into later! Ben compliments the Fantastic Force's competence, and Sue admits it's a shame things are working out so well for Franklin, since the original Fantastic Four could really use a fourth member. Ben wonders incredulously if she's really thinking of giving away Reed's slot, and she admits that if this adventure has taught her anything, it's the importance of making decisions and moving on with life…
Sue glances at Scott and wonders if he cares to make things official, and he's shocked to realize she's actually offering him permanent membership on the team. He's flattered by the offer, but concludes that Ant-Man doesn't belong in the Fantastic Four. Kristoff observes that Scott clearly lacks the necessary courage and says he'd eagerly accept their generous invitation in Scott's place, but Ben rejects this instantly, while Johnny goggles at the thought of the adopted son of Doom being a member of the Fantastic Four. Devlor idly wonders what'll happen to the Watcher now that he's on his own, and Sue admits she has no idea - but she has a hunch he'll continue trying to make the universe a better place for everyone, and he'll do just fine! So say we all!
Fantastic Four #400 - In Memoriam!
With heads bowed and voices hushed, many heroes travel from great distances - from the ocean depths and desolate silent space - to pay respects to the man the world knew as Mister Fantastic. Beloved father and faithful husband, loyal friend and decisive leader. Brilliant scientist and noble hero… Reed was all those things. Also he 'died' quite a while ago, but I guess you can't rush these things.
At the funeral reception, Namor asks Scott how Sue is holding up, and Scott thinks that the lecherous creep is probably ready to provide a broad shoulder to cry on. Nearby, Kristoff remarks that he finally has reason to compliment Scott, since he makes a fine usher! Perhaps he should consider a change in careers? Scott thinks to himself that it's weird to see the arrogant little snot when he's not dressed up in armor that looks like Doctor Doom. Boris, meanwhile, studies every attendee and observes that there are so many of his old enemies in the same place here - he could so easily… No! Revenge should be savored like vintage wine. He will bide his time!
Sue is off by her lonesome, reflecting on the need for a memorial service but also admitting that somewhere in the pit of her heart she still nourishes a secret flame of hope. Johnny comes by to see how she's doing, and the entire story devolves into a beat-by-beat retelling of the Fantastic Four origin story. Rocket ship, crash, mutations, all the usual story beats complete with artwork from the sixties. At the end of the rehash, the three remaining members of the Fantastic Four declare they still have work to do - they have to protect mankind by seeking and confronting the unknown. It's a heavy responsibility which has been entrusted to them by Reed Richards! Sure, whatever. See you in a few issues, Reed.
Rating & Comments
I'm not a big fan of Franklin Richards, and his alternate teenage version can be pretty terrible too and often slides into being a domineering dick to his allies - but I actually liked the little shit in this Fantastic Force issue. The actual team and title are alien to me, and since they were only published for a little over a year back in the mid-90's, I don't think that's a huge surprise, but gotta give credit where it's due - it made total sense that they would be the ones to finally deconstruct Nathaniel's trickery, what with multiple members having connections to the man, and some pretty relevant power interaction. Huntara is really the standout there, but between her and Franklin, it's a pretty neat fit.
Nathaniel made the fatal mistake that unveiled his deceptions himself, just last issue, when he decided to call in his errant grandson to fix the situation on the Moon using yet another use of his mysterious holographic fiery Sue, a bit of a staple at this point. He was probably unaware that his descendant had recently teamed up with another, Huntara, who has keen awareness of time bullshit due to being a bit of a time-lost warrior like dear old dad, and has a scythe which allows her to teleport to various dimensions. Nathan might have fooled Franklin with his illusions and honeyed words, again, but Huntara saw through him immediately, much like Kristoff did, and caused a confrontation.
Franklin's conviction that it has to be Doctor Doom who was responsible for the whole overarching plot was entertaining, especially when he starts arguing that obviously Doom covered up his death and pulled all their strings the entire time. Who else? When it turns out Nathan is actually responsible, Franklin finally has a bit of a breakdown over the manipulations he's constantly subjected to by that old asshole - the man had once again faked his death and pretended to be other people, and Franklin fell for it too. That particular storyline still feels unresolved, at least for now, as we then move on from Doom's Castle towards the Moon to deal with the more immediate plot issues, and Nathan's fate is left uncertain. Huntara certainly intends to get her pound of flesh, and I'm not sure Franklin will intervene again should a rematch come between her and her dad…
The tail end of the Fantastic Force issue is setting up the super-sized Fantastic Four issue to follow, by retrieving Sue from the Negative Zone so she can participate in the new adventure, and transporting everyone to the Watchers' world. It turns out that despite his doomful pronouncements at the end of last issue, Kristoff is able to modify some of the Watcher's equipment to build them safe passage through the wormhole that was left behind, even if it's not exactly a stable ride. I guess that's an easier feat to accomplish than accessing the Negative Zone? It does underline once again that at this time, Kristoff is essentially the hilariously competent tech support of the group in Reed's absence, and it kind of makes sense he'd be a temporary member of the group, even if he doesn't get a labeled jumpsuit. Also he's a sarcastic little shit who can't stop ribbing Ant-Man, which is just fun.
The actual #400 special is a grand cosmic spectacle which is honestly pretty awesome, even if it kind of gets split into a fairly exciting and high-concept A-plot featuring Sue as the central character, and a stalling B-plot with Ben, Scott, Kristoff and most of the Fantastic Force duking it out against randoms. Sue gets to physically invade the body of a Celestial and strike a weird kind of deal between eldritch races, while the others… fight a bunch of Aron's random villains for like two panels each before they get replaced with new ones until eventually the others come back to finish him off. The gimmick of just tossing a hundred retro villains into the mix is amusing but it's a pretty tired concept, and Aron isn't even one of the villains known to do that kind of thing! At least there's an underlying thread in there which is actually good, which makes it a bit more than just pagefiller with fighty-punch action.
The transition between the two issues is rather wonky, since some pretty cataclysmic action is implied to have taken place in between issues which rationally should have affected the cast. Still, once we're in the swing of things it picks up. A grand conflict between Watchers and Celestials is set up, but it's looking pretty one-sided from the start - the 'One' that the Watchers are gathered around has been unilaterally attempting to restart the universe to correct their past mistakes, and the Celestials are here to put the kibosh on that. Uatu claims he can't intervene, but surreptitiously he keeps assisting by dropping technology and hints, even if his actual position doesn't quite align with the Watchers - or he would have been more receptive to helping out two issues back when He-Who-Summons showed up. It's a pretty nice mystery that's set up there, of what exactly his goal is. Presumably the presence of Franklin learnings details from Uatu's mind was another trick by him to get that information out without explicitly violating his oath. Clever…
Nathan argues they should help the Watchers' side, claiming it's out of some sort of respect for the cosmic balance of power. It's pretty obviously not that, and Kristoff recognizes that fact pretty easily - Nathan is just covering up his real motives, among which is undoubtedly his interest in looting the Watchers' citadel back on the Moon, which would probably go bye-bye if the Celestials wiped out the Watchers. I believe it's this penchant for deception and double-speak that Kristoff recognizes as so similar to Doctor Doom in this issue. Sue also sees through Nathan, as she's been pretty skeptical of his motives for a while now, and she decides having Nathan close enough to keep an eye on is preferable to having him out of sight. Despite being an ass, he does come in handy. I'm not sure how exactly he figured out the true nature of Sue's power - presumably it's future knowledge - but he informs her that (at least until someone retcons it) her power works through hyperspace manipulation, the very same dimension that's home to the Celestials. This allows her the ability to punch through their impenetrable shell by matching harmonic frequencies, giving them an entrance.
Over in the Asteroid Belt with the B-team, we see them fight off Aron who's trying to change either the Solar System or the entire Milky Way into his personal pocket demesne, presumably at the cost of the inhabitants of the Earth. While most of this involves the heroes fighting off a bunch of random villains to get to Aron's doomsday machine, the ongoing plot of the Watcher's various secret weapon parts gets resolved too. In a fun twist, while they do get reassembled into an overpowered super-gun that's implied to be key to finishing off some major threat… it gets shattered halfway through without ever being used by complete happenstance. It's a nice bit of misdirection, as Chekhov's gun actually turns out to be a red herring. Scott, in failing to protect the device, decides he has no choice but to go beyond his own comforts and risks himself in a bid to destroy Aron's machine instead, and manages to use his giant form to destroy it from the inside - no Watcher gun required. The true power was inside him all along!
Funnily enough, Doctor Doom does make an appearance in this comic, even if it's a very atemporal version - it's a version of Doom form the early days before Kristoff was ever even a thing, perhaps around the dawn of the character. He's actually using that piddly gun he's always carrying around in the old art (even if he never really uses it there) which kind of dates him. He doesn't really last long enough to do anything except show up that Kristoff - now no longer brainwashed to believe he's Doom - does still very much respect or even love his adoptive father/guardian and wishes to be accepted by him. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait a while to see if that's a realistic expectation.
Over on Sue's side of things, after the infiltration of the Celestial picks off everyone else, she's the only one to actually get to its equivalent of a brain. There she faces off against herself - a clone of sorts - who attempts to convey some part of this grand cosmic conflict to Sue. And that's where Sue realizes that Uatu's plan involved her getting this far along and doing something other than siding with one or the other. She's not there to help the Watchers, since the existence of the One is actually a universal threat and can't be allowed - but neither can she permit the Celestials to destroy the cosmic order and end the long-standing conflict in their favor. Uatu just wants to delay the end of the war a little longer, a moment on the cosmic stage, to permit humanity to be able to meaningfully contribute to how it'll all shake out millenia down the line. And it works! Sue banishes the main Celestial back to hyperspace to be reborn, as such, and with the One dead the Watchers similarly will have to recover. See you again in issue #4000 I guess…
The Aron fight gets concluded when, shortly after Scott manages to destroy his machine, Uatu and the others arrive to intervene and end the conflict once and for all. Perhaps stirred into action by Sue's actions preserving his species, Uatu forgoes his oath of non-interference and decides to end the threat of Aron once and for all, killing and dispersing the rogue Watcher such that his energy might eventually form the core of a new One. That, Uatu hopes, might temper the subtle machinations of the present One with a bit of Aron'd desperate hunger for life. It makes it easier to tell he's evil, at least! For his actions Uatu is fired from his job, and though he retains his powers, he does abandon his base on the Moon shortly afterwards and disappears for a time.
With everything resolved, pretty much, we get a nice little conclusion in which Scott finally rejects taking a permanent position on the Fantastic Four, having learned from this whole mess that he probably prefers slightly less insane encounters in his life, as a rule. Don't blame him. Kristoff is happy to step up and take his place, and though Ben and Johnny are none too pleased with the thought, he does stick around for a while longer in this 'technically not a member but constantly there anyway' state. Until the forthcoming return of Doom makes him more relevant again, of course!
This entire storyline is insanely crowded with characters, but that's mostly because a ton of them are bit-characters from old stories purely brought in for the B-team fights - nostalgia material to fill up space. Still, the overall story is good, it does manage to do a fair job in seeming like a special 'memorial' issue in which a lot of memories are stirred up, and the conclusion is pretty good. As for repercussions - Although Uatu is stripped of his title of Watcher, he continues this job anyway as seen when he appears next in Uncanny X-Men #335, not even a year later. It appears that he later regains favor among his people as he is seen working alongside other Watchers again in She-Hulk #18, but that's way down the line. Aron the Watcher, on the other hand, does not return after this issue - he's properly dead.
If you like cosmic nonsense and everyone-fights-everyone stories, try this one out. 3 stars, I guess? Probably would give it more if any of the Doom-plicates had a bigger role to play, but this is the territory of Sue, Scott, and Uatu.
Best Panel(s) of the Issues
While the bonus story featuring the FF origin is pointless, this one-page summary is pretty neat, especially using Sue's invisible hair as the frame.
Most Gloriously Villainous Kristoff Quotes
"Save your breath, Mrs. Richards! An ignorant gargoyle like Grimm cannot possibly appreciate the metaphysical drama unfolding before us! The power these beings employ is almost impalpable!"
"Don't stand rooted to the ground like an abandoned sapling, Lang! You must fight your way closer to Aron! If you lack the necessary courage to proceed, deliver the weapon to me!"
"Master! It is I… Kristoff… your most loyal servant!"
"Unhand me, Lang! I should oxidize you for having unmitigated gall, the insufferable arrogance to befoul my imperial person!"
"Lang obviously lacks the necessary courage… but I shall eagerly accept your generous invitation!"
2099 - Doom 2099 A.D. #34 - To Begin the World Again
- Location
- Netherlands
Doom 2099 A.D. #34 (October 1995)
Cover
With Doom out of office and the White House destroyed, I suppose it only makes sense that we open this issue with an epitaph to a lost President. Doom gets a dramatic statue of 'our leader' surrounded by lightning bolts, but that's about it -the art is pretty miserly outside that with vague outlines of what could be hills in the background. Officially this issue is still sorted under 'One Nation Under Doom' but I think we can all agree it's more of an aftermath affair!
Story Overview
To Begin the World Again
An hour has passed since the White House was attacked, and the balance of power has changed. The building has been reduced to bloodstained rubble as the revolutionary government fell, and we see SHIELD troopers inspect the fallen, many of whom lay crushed under debris. Doom is gone, and no one yet knows why. Overhead, Wave Spiders fly by, and Captain Wark of SHIELD's beltway precinct special unit - presumably of the Chocobo mounted police - wonders what they are. She notes that SHIELD central told her to ignore them. She gets a call, and wonders if someone's going to finally fill her in. Commissioner Kernahan from Chicago announces he's assuming temporary command of the situation, and Wark comments that she means no offense, but Chicago is a helluva long way from this situation!
Kernahan tells her that he knows more about the situation in Washington D.C. than she could possibly want to, and tells her off for her lip. He's been authorized to inform her that all members of the revolutionary government are - oh, god - they've been approved as targets. Capture is a secondary option. He hangs up after that before Wark can ask any questions. Some SHIELD troops approach her with a familiar face among them. It's Nkrumah, who was found locked in a barracks on the west edge of the grounds. Nkrumah explains that when the White House's generators were destroyed the electronics doors were also sealed. It's all a bit embarrassing! Wark accused the grinning man of being the Minister for Enemy Relations. Nkrumah happily agrees, but then points out he's also the head of Panther's Rage, the royal elite troop of Wakanda. He has but two words for her- diplomatic immunity!
In Washington D.C. we see Indigo Eshun, who got away from the White House because she was outside alongside Doom when the missiles impacted Libera Cielo. Minister of Signal until only a few hours earlier, she's now either back to being your standard-issue criminal element cyberspacer… or maybe a war criminal. As she cowers from the patrolling Wave Spiders overhead, she concludes there's an easy way to find out the extent of her situation, and to get help. There's dive booths everywhere these days thanks to Doom's net-glider initiative, and she can access the net through one of those like anyone else. As Minister of Signal she helped design and disseminate them, so she's proud of them, and she hopes it's brought her luck. She hopes she didn't use up that luck already just getting out of the White House in the first place. Jacking into the net, it takes only a moment before there's a jolt, and a splat. Indigo's headless body drops down into the dive booth, a kill charge attached to her signature waiting in cyberspace for her to appear. She didn't have time to feel any pain.
We watch the Manhattan news next, which summarizes various local events in New York. Steven Rogers, the heroic age super-soldier that history called Captain America, has apparently returned from the dead and appeared there. In a bizarre repeat of the fluke cryonic phenomenon that flung him from the middle to the end of the twentieth century, he has once more been recovered from the Antarctic by Alchemax. An hour ago he was whisked away from Manhattan by a flight of Alchemax Edge-Runners, destination unknown. This followed a controversial speech in which Rogers named President Doom as the architect of the Heroic Age's end, and Alchemax appears to be focusing on protecting Rogers from the White House's retribution. The news briefly spoke to Jake Gallows on the subject, who proclaimed his intent to cut Rogers' skin off. Figures.
We switch over to California, where we get the distorted signal of the Los Angeles Defense Commission on an emergency radio channel. Regular communication media are all down due to what they gather was the detonation of a gamma bomb, triggered by a massive earthquake in the region. They don't know what else might be set off by the aftershocks, so the radio advises everyone to seek cover. They also announce they're trying to contact the government for aid since they can't cope with radiation poisoning. We see the dead and dying across the crumbling city of Los Angeles, the sky filled with fallout, and some of the survivors are already losing their hair from the radiation exposure. The person on the radio becomes more desperate, calling out that if there's anybody left out there, could they please stay on the channel? Please? The signal then reduces to static…
Overhead, Sharp Blue coasts by onboard her airplane, the Holy Spook, monitoring the destruction of California. She comments that Los Angeles is going to be dirty for decades - Doom's going to go insane when he finds out! There's just a shield-field between all that and them… She asks Chill and Scratch, her mercenary subordinates, if there's any news from Washington, and the former tells her that it's difficult. Sharp Blue snaps that he should use her authority as Minister of Order to get through - they probably just think they're a regular Guild airplane. Chill corrects her, saying that's not what he meant - he's tapping SHIELD frequencies, but it seems that the Washington branch is now under command of the Chicago office for some reason. They're broadcasting that all government Ministers are to be shot. They're saying the White House was destroyed! Sharp Blue stares in shock, realizing that there's been a coup. Someone pulled a coup while she was away!
Chill warns her that they need to get out of American airspace quickly, and decides they should head to Mexico - they have people there. Sharp Blue, distraught by the news, tells him that she's not going anywhere until she figures this out! Scratch mentions that they'll do whatever she says - but she has a deadline of about twenty seconds, since they've developed a little company in front of them! Sure enough, two of the biologically augmented helicopters approach from up ahead, pilots strapped to the front and fully exposed…
Scratch asks what the hell she's looking at - do the others have the faintest clue what these things are? Fascinated by the bizarre technology on display, Scratch takes a moment too long to react and radioactive shells start impacting the hull at a speed of a thousand kilometers an hour. Sharp Blue asks her pilot if he's going to lose these attackers or if he'd just let himself be impressed to death, which is when Scratch hits the accelerator and pulls away from the oncoming fire. With some acrobatic flying the Holy Spook circumvents the helicopters' attacks and counterattacks with missiles. As they manage to take the first helicopter down, it's shown that the humanoid figures strapped to the hulls aren't even fully human - they don't have faces, it's just flat skin. After the first blows up, the other tries to get away, but the Holy Spook catches up and blows it sky-high as well.
With the threat eliminated, Sharp Blue decides she's never seen anything like those things before, and asks if they had the gun camera on, figuring they can inspect the footage later - in Mexico. Chill says it's about time, and they lay in a course for Atzlan, the secure airship of the Painted Sky Corporation, since they have some credit with them. Scratch mentions wanting the worm out of their first bottle of tequila. Sharp Blue, closing her eyes, sends a quick prayer to Nkrumah, Indigo, Morphine, wherever the shock they are - and Doom. She promises she won't forget them. Not any of them - not ever. With that, she disappears from the page and from Doom 2099 entirely.
We move over to the Chicago Reserve, corporate America's biggest secret which Doom never uncovered. In its central chamber, wrapped within the secret, sits Anthony Herod - who has apparently changed his name since last issue - the head of the Reserve, guardian of forbidden technologies, organic tissues grossly leaking and wrapping around him from the meat harps and other weird alien biotech. He watches the Holy Spook escape and muses that he knew that sending air cavalry after her would get rid of her one way or another, thereby taking care of the last of Doom's Black Cabinet.
Murdock comments that he hasn't quite gotten all of them - Morphine Somers is still missing. Herod just calls him a little ray of sunshine, and decides the Minister of Humanity has doubtlessly gone to ground with the X-Men in the midwest. Without Doom, he's not worth worrying about.
Murdock says he won't be an issue until Herod formulates a policy regarding mutants - and he's heard some strange things from those parts. Anyway, Alchemax has informed them that the Captain will arrive in a few minutes, and the local SHIELD commissioner has been apprised of his new working conditions. Herod wonders how much Murdock told him, and the butler begins laughing, assuring him he merely conveyed that the revolutionary government has fallen, and an intercorporate team has formed a transition team… What, did Herod really think his butler would out him to the world and reveal he was behind everything? Herod wonders if he should have Murdock's excuse for a sense of humor removed.
Herod begins to walk off with Murdock in his wake and considers his future police on mutants, informing Murdock he should record his thoughts for dissemination to SHIELD stations on a top secret basis. He decides after a moment that mutants found in urban areas are to be executed without trial. Now that's a sexy piece of policy-making, no? Herod then steps into a float silo heading up. He's off to meet an approaching Alchemax Edgerunner with special cargo on board. They're all too eager to drop off their only passenger and leave - no offense, but he creeps the pus out of the pilots! Sure enough, it's Captain America…
Cap runs a hand through his hair and smiles as he asks some local guards if they can tell an old soldier where he's pitched up this time, and Herod introduces himself as someone representing the patriotic forces opposing Doom's regime. He announces they have won a great victory today - President Rogers! Cap is shocked at this form of address, and Herod declares that the corporate coalition that is America has chosen a new leader to lead them through these trying times. And who better to lead them into the next century than the very embodiment of America, its Captain? Cap muses that there was no vote, no democracy, but Herod just tells him that democracy sucks. People should just stand back and let the big dog eat, that's what he thinks. Cap will make a fine emblem. He won't actually have to do much, of course - he'll simply do what Herod says, and get out from under his feet as he runs the show from behind the curtain.
Unconvinced by this rhetoric, Cap replies that this is wrong, only for Herod to violently lash out at him with an electronic stun-stick, sending the supposed super-soldier to the floor.
Rule One: The teacher is always right. Rule Two: If the teacher is wrong, rule one applies! A wounded cap asks what Herod wants, and the man conveys his insane plan to bleed America dry to travel off-would and do it all again somewhere else. He just needs Cap as a front from which to do it. Cap asks if this will involve killing people, coughing up blood all the while, and Herod promises that it most certainly will. Cap grins, and agrees that he's in. Uh, okay, we've got a fake evil Cap now I guess?
Herod scoffs and tells some of his guards to take this sorry-looking sack to makeup, since he goes on air with his inaugural speech in ten minutes. It's a blanket broadcast, so they'd better make him pretty… Cap, fully cleaned up again by the magic of cosmetics, is soon visible on television as he announces his takeover, declaring that he hopes that together they can make our nation great again, and make it a safe place for all its people…
Back at the White House, Captain Wark has been informed what the Wave Spiders are and that they're directly tied into the SHIELD computers. She decides that the commissioner from Chicago was either full of it, putting her on, or that the world has gotten a hell of a lot weirder while her back was turned. Wark is soon called over by one of her minions, and she comes across an area of the White House ruins which is spattered liberally with dried blood. She sarcastically wonders if this was where they stored all their red meat, but the SHIELD trooper tells her it was actually the Oval office. Heat records show that the temperature there got high enough to cut through even adamantium… and it apparently did. The trooper shows what he's found, and it turns out to be Doom's left gauntlet, spattered with blood and its electronics ripped to pieces. It might very well be all that's left of him…
The final quote is hopeful, though: "We have it in our power to begin the world over again." - Thomas Paine
Rating & Comments
For the first and only time in this comic's run, we actually get no Doom at all in this issue - it's all supporting cast and enemies from beginning to end. It makes sense, really - last time around Doom basically got destroyed and his status quo shattered, so this issue is picking up some of those pieces. Or shattering them a bit further still in some cases. This and the next issue are what I consider 'aftermath' stories to One Nation Under Doom, which then smoothly transition into the next storyline proper. With Doom losing his powers and most of his supporting cast on the run, it's a bit of a change of pace - though that's not necessarily a total negative. Nothing quite gets a villain going like a legitimate impetus for ruthless revenge, after all…
Herod's takeover has been very well-planned, it appears, as SHIELD almost immediately gets suborned via Chicago-based members of good standing. Those were presumably in league with the Reserve as well as the various corporations that support it, willingly or not. Wave Spiders and other forbidden biotech machines fill the skies and are immediately put to use to enforce the second new world order in as many months, freaky cyborg monsters which spit body-dissolving acid at whoever looks at them funny. For all that they're scary, though, their primary purpose appears to be information control - and for all that Doom was looking into mind control, he did actually allow people a surprising amount of leeway in speaking their mind, between the Captain America idolization he allowed, the Spider-ite protesters, and the free dive booths and internet access for all. Herod is like what you'd expect Doom to be like.
The comic is bookended by SHIELD exploring the ruins of the White House, but in between are a series of vignettes following other members of Doom's cast as they're hunted down by the new regime. The simplest of these is Nkrumah, who simply invokes diplomatic immunity and heads home to Wakanda with a big grin on his face - he escapes repercussions. That's a lot nicer than what happens to poor Indigo, hunted down in the street as a war criminal after nearly getting bombed, and then getting her head blown off when she tries to contact some help through the internet. She trusts in her own creation, the dive booth, and that proves to be a fatal decision since that's what Herod expected. It's a painfully ironic end to her character, murdered by the very change she sought to make in the world - but at least it was quick.
Sharp Blue and her colleagues get a pretty neat scene to themselves on board the Holy Spook, filling us in the current state of California - which is still thoroughly destroyed by that gamma bomb and earthquake. Riveting. Sharp Blue has no idea what's going on back in Washington until some of Herod's bio-helicopters show up to shoot her out of the sky for being part of the previous, now deposed administration. The mercs wisely decide to flee the country, but it's pretty sweet to realize that Sharp Blue actually cares quite a bit about all the people she worked with, and has difficulty moving on without knowing what happened to everyone. Her last words are something of a personal prayer to her lost friends, including Doom, wherever they are. She promises she'll never forget them as she departs for safer skies…
Herod discusses the missing member of Doom's posse too, Morphine Somers, but since this isn't an X-Men title that guy is not showing up for a guest appearance today. Herod then reveals that his decision making about his policies is psychopathic even for hardcore fascists, distractedly mentioning that every mutant in urban areas should be executed without trial. Lovely. He then follows that up by catching up with another psychopath, though it takes a while for that to be unveiled. Perhaps the fact that the people transporting dear old Captain America were creeped out by him is a sign, but initially he seems to be talking the talk, at least, bringing up the perversion of democracy at play in his selection as the new President. That is, of course, until Herod violently assaults him to fall in line as an obedient little puppet. Then, Cap reveals that whatever else he might be - clone, genetically manipulated - he's also a sadist without any real sense of morality, who is all too happy to sign up to a job if it involved murder. No wonder he was considered a creep!
Rounding out the comic with the discovery of one of Doom's lost gauntlets, it's pretty clear that our main character survived - if the continuing series of Doom-titled comic books didn't reveal that much. In general, this issue felt a bit perfunctory and box-checking, since it's mostly just confirming that various members of the Doom supporting cast are fine (Nkrumah), away (Sharp Blue, Morphine), or decidedly not fine (Indigo.) Even the survivors are scattered to the four winds, however, leaving Doom back on his own - and with Latveria liquified into sludge, there isn't even a nation or Fortune to fall back on. It's gonna be a bumpy ride getting back to some semblance of stability for Doom, and he's got vengeance to dole out. But that'll be for next time... I'm docking a point here not because this comic is bad, strictly speaking, but because there's absolute no Doom whatsoever, and I refuse to give Herod the nod just for being a dick. Plus they disappeared some supporting cast without ever really giving them stories of their own. At least Wire and Xandra got some of that!
Art Spotlight
I quite like this image of the Holy Spook facing off with its bio-tech enemies - the clouds especially are pretty intricate and swirly!
Cover
With Doom out of office and the White House destroyed, I suppose it only makes sense that we open this issue with an epitaph to a lost President. Doom gets a dramatic statue of 'our leader' surrounded by lightning bolts, but that's about it -the art is pretty miserly outside that with vague outlines of what could be hills in the background. Officially this issue is still sorted under 'One Nation Under Doom' but I think we can all agree it's more of an aftermath affair!
Story Overview
To Begin the World Again
An hour has passed since the White House was attacked, and the balance of power has changed. The building has been reduced to bloodstained rubble as the revolutionary government fell, and we see SHIELD troopers inspect the fallen, many of whom lay crushed under debris. Doom is gone, and no one yet knows why. Overhead, Wave Spiders fly by, and Captain Wark of SHIELD's beltway precinct special unit - presumably of the Chocobo mounted police - wonders what they are. She notes that SHIELD central told her to ignore them. She gets a call, and wonders if someone's going to finally fill her in. Commissioner Kernahan from Chicago announces he's assuming temporary command of the situation, and Wark comments that she means no offense, but Chicago is a helluva long way from this situation!
Kernahan tells her that he knows more about the situation in Washington D.C. than she could possibly want to, and tells her off for her lip. He's been authorized to inform her that all members of the revolutionary government are - oh, god - they've been approved as targets. Capture is a secondary option. He hangs up after that before Wark can ask any questions. Some SHIELD troops approach her with a familiar face among them. It's Nkrumah, who was found locked in a barracks on the west edge of the grounds. Nkrumah explains that when the White House's generators were destroyed the electronics doors were also sealed. It's all a bit embarrassing! Wark accused the grinning man of being the Minister for Enemy Relations. Nkrumah happily agrees, but then points out he's also the head of Panther's Rage, the royal elite troop of Wakanda. He has but two words for her- diplomatic immunity!
In Washington D.C. we see Indigo Eshun, who got away from the White House because she was outside alongside Doom when the missiles impacted Libera Cielo. Minister of Signal until only a few hours earlier, she's now either back to being your standard-issue criminal element cyberspacer… or maybe a war criminal. As she cowers from the patrolling Wave Spiders overhead, she concludes there's an easy way to find out the extent of her situation, and to get help. There's dive booths everywhere these days thanks to Doom's net-glider initiative, and she can access the net through one of those like anyone else. As Minister of Signal she helped design and disseminate them, so she's proud of them, and she hopes it's brought her luck. She hopes she didn't use up that luck already just getting out of the White House in the first place. Jacking into the net, it takes only a moment before there's a jolt, and a splat. Indigo's headless body drops down into the dive booth, a kill charge attached to her signature waiting in cyberspace for her to appear. She didn't have time to feel any pain.
We watch the Manhattan news next, which summarizes various local events in New York. Steven Rogers, the heroic age super-soldier that history called Captain America, has apparently returned from the dead and appeared there. In a bizarre repeat of the fluke cryonic phenomenon that flung him from the middle to the end of the twentieth century, he has once more been recovered from the Antarctic by Alchemax. An hour ago he was whisked away from Manhattan by a flight of Alchemax Edge-Runners, destination unknown. This followed a controversial speech in which Rogers named President Doom as the architect of the Heroic Age's end, and Alchemax appears to be focusing on protecting Rogers from the White House's retribution. The news briefly spoke to Jake Gallows on the subject, who proclaimed his intent to cut Rogers' skin off. Figures.
We switch over to California, where we get the distorted signal of the Los Angeles Defense Commission on an emergency radio channel. Regular communication media are all down due to what they gather was the detonation of a gamma bomb, triggered by a massive earthquake in the region. They don't know what else might be set off by the aftershocks, so the radio advises everyone to seek cover. They also announce they're trying to contact the government for aid since they can't cope with radiation poisoning. We see the dead and dying across the crumbling city of Los Angeles, the sky filled with fallout, and some of the survivors are already losing their hair from the radiation exposure. The person on the radio becomes more desperate, calling out that if there's anybody left out there, could they please stay on the channel? Please? The signal then reduces to static…
Overhead, Sharp Blue coasts by onboard her airplane, the Holy Spook, monitoring the destruction of California. She comments that Los Angeles is going to be dirty for decades - Doom's going to go insane when he finds out! There's just a shield-field between all that and them… She asks Chill and Scratch, her mercenary subordinates, if there's any news from Washington, and the former tells her that it's difficult. Sharp Blue snaps that he should use her authority as Minister of Order to get through - they probably just think they're a regular Guild airplane. Chill corrects her, saying that's not what he meant - he's tapping SHIELD frequencies, but it seems that the Washington branch is now under command of the Chicago office for some reason. They're broadcasting that all government Ministers are to be shot. They're saying the White House was destroyed! Sharp Blue stares in shock, realizing that there's been a coup. Someone pulled a coup while she was away!
Chill warns her that they need to get out of American airspace quickly, and decides they should head to Mexico - they have people there. Sharp Blue, distraught by the news, tells him that she's not going anywhere until she figures this out! Scratch mentions that they'll do whatever she says - but she has a deadline of about twenty seconds, since they've developed a little company in front of them! Sure enough, two of the biologically augmented helicopters approach from up ahead, pilots strapped to the front and fully exposed…
Scratch asks what the hell she's looking at - do the others have the faintest clue what these things are? Fascinated by the bizarre technology on display, Scratch takes a moment too long to react and radioactive shells start impacting the hull at a speed of a thousand kilometers an hour. Sharp Blue asks her pilot if he's going to lose these attackers or if he'd just let himself be impressed to death, which is when Scratch hits the accelerator and pulls away from the oncoming fire. With some acrobatic flying the Holy Spook circumvents the helicopters' attacks and counterattacks with missiles. As they manage to take the first helicopter down, it's shown that the humanoid figures strapped to the hulls aren't even fully human - they don't have faces, it's just flat skin. After the first blows up, the other tries to get away, but the Holy Spook catches up and blows it sky-high as well.
With the threat eliminated, Sharp Blue decides she's never seen anything like those things before, and asks if they had the gun camera on, figuring they can inspect the footage later - in Mexico. Chill says it's about time, and they lay in a course for Atzlan, the secure airship of the Painted Sky Corporation, since they have some credit with them. Scratch mentions wanting the worm out of their first bottle of tequila. Sharp Blue, closing her eyes, sends a quick prayer to Nkrumah, Indigo, Morphine, wherever the shock they are - and Doom. She promises she won't forget them. Not any of them - not ever. With that, she disappears from the page and from Doom 2099 entirely.
We move over to the Chicago Reserve, corporate America's biggest secret which Doom never uncovered. In its central chamber, wrapped within the secret, sits Anthony Herod - who has apparently changed his name since last issue - the head of the Reserve, guardian of forbidden technologies, organic tissues grossly leaking and wrapping around him from the meat harps and other weird alien biotech. He watches the Holy Spook escape and muses that he knew that sending air cavalry after her would get rid of her one way or another, thereby taking care of the last of Doom's Black Cabinet.
Murdock comments that he hasn't quite gotten all of them - Morphine Somers is still missing. Herod just calls him a little ray of sunshine, and decides the Minister of Humanity has doubtlessly gone to ground with the X-Men in the midwest. Without Doom, he's not worth worrying about.
Murdock says he won't be an issue until Herod formulates a policy regarding mutants - and he's heard some strange things from those parts. Anyway, Alchemax has informed them that the Captain will arrive in a few minutes, and the local SHIELD commissioner has been apprised of his new working conditions. Herod wonders how much Murdock told him, and the butler begins laughing, assuring him he merely conveyed that the revolutionary government has fallen, and an intercorporate team has formed a transition team… What, did Herod really think his butler would out him to the world and reveal he was behind everything? Herod wonders if he should have Murdock's excuse for a sense of humor removed.
Herod begins to walk off with Murdock in his wake and considers his future police on mutants, informing Murdock he should record his thoughts for dissemination to SHIELD stations on a top secret basis. He decides after a moment that mutants found in urban areas are to be executed without trial. Now that's a sexy piece of policy-making, no? Herod then steps into a float silo heading up. He's off to meet an approaching Alchemax Edgerunner with special cargo on board. They're all too eager to drop off their only passenger and leave - no offense, but he creeps the pus out of the pilots! Sure enough, it's Captain America…
Cap runs a hand through his hair and smiles as he asks some local guards if they can tell an old soldier where he's pitched up this time, and Herod introduces himself as someone representing the patriotic forces opposing Doom's regime. He announces they have won a great victory today - President Rogers! Cap is shocked at this form of address, and Herod declares that the corporate coalition that is America has chosen a new leader to lead them through these trying times. And who better to lead them into the next century than the very embodiment of America, its Captain? Cap muses that there was no vote, no democracy, but Herod just tells him that democracy sucks. People should just stand back and let the big dog eat, that's what he thinks. Cap will make a fine emblem. He won't actually have to do much, of course - he'll simply do what Herod says, and get out from under his feet as he runs the show from behind the curtain.
Unconvinced by this rhetoric, Cap replies that this is wrong, only for Herod to violently lash out at him with an electronic stun-stick, sending the supposed super-soldier to the floor.
Rule One: The teacher is always right. Rule Two: If the teacher is wrong, rule one applies! A wounded cap asks what Herod wants, and the man conveys his insane plan to bleed America dry to travel off-would and do it all again somewhere else. He just needs Cap as a front from which to do it. Cap asks if this will involve killing people, coughing up blood all the while, and Herod promises that it most certainly will. Cap grins, and agrees that he's in. Uh, okay, we've got a fake evil Cap now I guess?
Herod scoffs and tells some of his guards to take this sorry-looking sack to makeup, since he goes on air with his inaugural speech in ten minutes. It's a blanket broadcast, so they'd better make him pretty… Cap, fully cleaned up again by the magic of cosmetics, is soon visible on television as he announces his takeover, declaring that he hopes that together they can make our nation great again, and make it a safe place for all its people…
Back at the White House, Captain Wark has been informed what the Wave Spiders are and that they're directly tied into the SHIELD computers. She decides that the commissioner from Chicago was either full of it, putting her on, or that the world has gotten a hell of a lot weirder while her back was turned. Wark is soon called over by one of her minions, and she comes across an area of the White House ruins which is spattered liberally with dried blood. She sarcastically wonders if this was where they stored all their red meat, but the SHIELD trooper tells her it was actually the Oval office. Heat records show that the temperature there got high enough to cut through even adamantium… and it apparently did. The trooper shows what he's found, and it turns out to be Doom's left gauntlet, spattered with blood and its electronics ripped to pieces. It might very well be all that's left of him…
The final quote is hopeful, though: "We have it in our power to begin the world over again." - Thomas Paine
Rating & Comments
For the first and only time in this comic's run, we actually get no Doom at all in this issue - it's all supporting cast and enemies from beginning to end. It makes sense, really - last time around Doom basically got destroyed and his status quo shattered, so this issue is picking up some of those pieces. Or shattering them a bit further still in some cases. This and the next issue are what I consider 'aftermath' stories to One Nation Under Doom, which then smoothly transition into the next storyline proper. With Doom losing his powers and most of his supporting cast on the run, it's a bit of a change of pace - though that's not necessarily a total negative. Nothing quite gets a villain going like a legitimate impetus for ruthless revenge, after all…
Herod's takeover has been very well-planned, it appears, as SHIELD almost immediately gets suborned via Chicago-based members of good standing. Those were presumably in league with the Reserve as well as the various corporations that support it, willingly or not. Wave Spiders and other forbidden biotech machines fill the skies and are immediately put to use to enforce the second new world order in as many months, freaky cyborg monsters which spit body-dissolving acid at whoever looks at them funny. For all that they're scary, though, their primary purpose appears to be information control - and for all that Doom was looking into mind control, he did actually allow people a surprising amount of leeway in speaking their mind, between the Captain America idolization he allowed, the Spider-ite protesters, and the free dive booths and internet access for all. Herod is like what you'd expect Doom to be like.
The comic is bookended by SHIELD exploring the ruins of the White House, but in between are a series of vignettes following other members of Doom's cast as they're hunted down by the new regime. The simplest of these is Nkrumah, who simply invokes diplomatic immunity and heads home to Wakanda with a big grin on his face - he escapes repercussions. That's a lot nicer than what happens to poor Indigo, hunted down in the street as a war criminal after nearly getting bombed, and then getting her head blown off when she tries to contact some help through the internet. She trusts in her own creation, the dive booth, and that proves to be a fatal decision since that's what Herod expected. It's a painfully ironic end to her character, murdered by the very change she sought to make in the world - but at least it was quick.
Sharp Blue and her colleagues get a pretty neat scene to themselves on board the Holy Spook, filling us in the current state of California - which is still thoroughly destroyed by that gamma bomb and earthquake. Riveting. Sharp Blue has no idea what's going on back in Washington until some of Herod's bio-helicopters show up to shoot her out of the sky for being part of the previous, now deposed administration. The mercs wisely decide to flee the country, but it's pretty sweet to realize that Sharp Blue actually cares quite a bit about all the people she worked with, and has difficulty moving on without knowing what happened to everyone. Her last words are something of a personal prayer to her lost friends, including Doom, wherever they are. She promises she'll never forget them as she departs for safer skies…
Herod discusses the missing member of Doom's posse too, Morphine Somers, but since this isn't an X-Men title that guy is not showing up for a guest appearance today. Herod then reveals that his decision making about his policies is psychopathic even for hardcore fascists, distractedly mentioning that every mutant in urban areas should be executed without trial. Lovely. He then follows that up by catching up with another psychopath, though it takes a while for that to be unveiled. Perhaps the fact that the people transporting dear old Captain America were creeped out by him is a sign, but initially he seems to be talking the talk, at least, bringing up the perversion of democracy at play in his selection as the new President. That is, of course, until Herod violently assaults him to fall in line as an obedient little puppet. Then, Cap reveals that whatever else he might be - clone, genetically manipulated - he's also a sadist without any real sense of morality, who is all too happy to sign up to a job if it involved murder. No wonder he was considered a creep!
Rounding out the comic with the discovery of one of Doom's lost gauntlets, it's pretty clear that our main character survived - if the continuing series of Doom-titled comic books didn't reveal that much. In general, this issue felt a bit perfunctory and box-checking, since it's mostly just confirming that various members of the Doom supporting cast are fine (Nkrumah), away (Sharp Blue, Morphine), or decidedly not fine (Indigo.) Even the survivors are scattered to the four winds, however, leaving Doom back on his own - and with Latveria liquified into sludge, there isn't even a nation or Fortune to fall back on. It's gonna be a bumpy ride getting back to some semblance of stability for Doom, and he's got vengeance to dole out. But that'll be for next time... I'm docking a point here not because this comic is bad, strictly speaking, but because there's absolute no Doom whatsoever, and I refuse to give Herod the nod just for being a dick. Plus they disappeared some supporting cast without ever really giving them stories of their own. At least Wire and Xandra got some of that!
Art Spotlight
I quite like this image of the Holy Spook facing off with its bio-tech enemies - the clouds especially are pretty intricate and swirly!
2099 - Doom 2099 A.D. #35 - To Bring You My Love
- Location
- Netherlands
Doom 2099 A.D. #35 (November 1995)
Cover
Well, that is one ghoulishly spooky cover - but mostly that's just the style. Doom looks menacing as hell, and both Captain America and Herod look creepy with their shadowed features. I've checked, and this art style isn't used for the actual comic's art, so I'll just appreciate it as a very 90's metal cover type affair and move on!
Story Overview
To Bring You My Love
We open up in Washington D.C. with a young girl with pigtails running down an alleyway with a sharp spike embedded into her back.
'Static' Annie Wagner is having a rotten year. Her boyfriend, the one with the skinniest legs in town, dumped her when he found out she was a mutant, and her lousy conveyor belt job in munitions vanished when Doom took over. She figures getting killed will round out the year just fine! Just standing around on a street corner, thinking about joining one of those Re-Activ-8 Anti-America groups, a bored SHIELD team decided to put the meter on her. The meter - called Xavier's Nightmare on the streets - screamed the moment it detected her active X-Gene, and they promptly put an inhibitor spike in her without even blinking, shutting off her mutant power. Then they let her run - they showed her their guns and then they let her run. These assholes are enjoying this. They love it.
Annie runs past the collapsed remnants of a statue of President Doom, his hand holding the planet Earth snapped off from the wrist. She rushes past a homeless man hiding in a corner who seems to be listening in on the reserved Federal Control radio channel, which announces that any private citizens hearing its broadcast must switch channels immediately or face prosecution. She passes by ads for President Steve Rogers and a bounty poster for Jake Gallows, former Minister of Punishment, all the while chased down by a bizarre flying orb of luminance that's half-technology, half-organic - Herod's version of a searchlight. She never wanted to be political, she muses, never wanted to hurt anyone - she'd never been different to anyone else in anything that mattered. She just wants the rest of her life back!
Wave Spiders wheel and swoop high above Mount St. Helens, conducting a complex courtship ritual, tracing wild patterns in the air as they play. They feed on radio signals and graze contentedly on martial music and barked orders from the governmental Control Station that's five miles distant. Sprays of musk settle lightly on the obsidian-ringed trees and bushes on the volcano's side below. Wave Spiders were originally grown as guerilla war lifeforms in 2057, by an American government fearful of invasion from South America. Their brains, tied directly to command computers beneath Chicago, are simple but vicious. The invasion never came, and the spiders were banned by the 2064 Xenogenesis Treaties. Herod cloned them from DNA deposits to use as utterly loyal martial devices. Since they were never put into service, they've also never had the opportunity to reproduce before…
Somewhere in New York squats the Punisher, sniffing at the air like a wild animal. Jake Gallows is a public enemy, and the atrocities he performed while he was the head of SHIELD's elite force have been selectively released to corporate-friendly media services. The former Minister of Punishment is now on the run from the same police force he once controlled, and cannot even perform his previous role as a vigilante. His life is over, but he doesn't realize it yet. He hides in the streets and alleys and dreams only of a chance to press his gun to another man's head - and punish him.
Steven Rogers, whom the 20th century called Captain America, is President - or so the 21st century is led to believe. He poses dramatically in front of the country he is identified with preserving, the fine western light lining his strong American handsomeness. The country is convinced by the pretty images and sends him money and love letters. Away from the cameras and backdrops, he can be found weeping on a cold floor from the bruises that Herod's punches left, wondering how he came to this, wondering where all the glory days went.
The living machinery that Herod used in the overthrow of Doom has lain in the guts of the Chicago Reserve for decades, but it's letting out spores now, growing new nodes appearing across Washington's approved testing zone every day. They called it Carnotech back at the Reserve, and none of them understood it. None of them even knew where it came from. If they did know - if they knew why it liked to grow near large concentrations of people, if they knew why those who originally discovered it were shot - they would have torn Herod apart with their bare hands.
We briefly revisit the Chicago Reserve, Herod's kingdom, and get a recap of its nature - it was created decades earlier by a coalition of America's megacorps, and it is the current seat of government - though nobody will ever be told that. It remains a secret, as it did when Herod kept all his technology a secret. From there, the exploitation will begin - the country will slowly be stripped of all its resources and assets, driven into its grave in pursuit of profit. Eventually, when the abused corpus of America finally gives up the ghost, Herod and his co-conspirators intend to relocate off-world, ready to do it again somewhere else, teaching their children to be good little vampires like daddy.
Still running from the cops chasing her, Annie's legs and lungs are shouting at her almost as loudly as her impaled back, so she knows she can't keep running - she needs to hide out somewhere. She spots a warehouse on her way and figures she could hide in there, maybe well enough that her pursuers get bored. It's the best chance she's got! She quickly slips through the front door. The SHIELD troopers chasing her pause outside, watching her go in. According to their database, all the other exits of the building have been sealed shut - there's only one way in or out, and she just used it.
One of the troopers intends to go in, but his superior Captain Cognburn holds him back, noting that this is a fine opportunity to field-test some of the new ordnance they keep giving out. The latest they have is the Slamgun - it runs off a little powerpack stored in the butt, five or six shots each. Like a pump-action shotgun that auto-cycles new ammo. Sexy looking thing! One of the troopers asks what this fancy gun actually does, and Cogburn answers that it kills folks. Now, let's catch that nasty little mutie girl and he'll show it off! With that, they open up the front door and head in…
Over in the middle of the country, where the new mutant citystate of Halo City is taking shape, there has been a revelation. Death is obsolete, and life as they know it is over. Many, many people will die for it before the story is over, but for now heaven's electricity etches white lines in dusty air, and awe fills the space where the man with life in his hand goes to work… This is a preview of a forthcoming X-Men storyline that we'll tangentially touch in when Doom intersects with it, but for now let's note that the exact details of the scene here are more symbolic than really what happens.
Cogburn tells his men to spread out, and as he looks into the dark building he asks who brought the flares. Does he look like he's some kind of big cat, or some seeing-in-the-dark vampire fella? Throw some up! Cogburn also tells them to pull out their meter and sets it to motion tracking to find their charge. In the darkness, an armored man prepares...
One of the men turns a corner and moves between some boxes looking for Annie, asking if using the meter doesn't spoil the fun a little. He's suddenly and violently smacked across the face by a partially disassembled metal gauntlet that suddenly lashes out of the darkness. Doom says: 'Excuse me,' and explains that his weapon systems are inoperative before snatching a Slamgun of his own from the collapsing trooper.
A trooper wonders what the hell the noise was that he just heard - was that glass breaking? Cogburn observes that the few windows in this place aren't breakable, so he asks for a roll call. Before he can get one, though, one of his troopers spots Annie and he opens. As various boxes get blown sky-high, Annie manages to duck away. The troopers wonder if they got her, but Cogburn doubts it, telling his underlings that if you do the job long enough, you get to recognize the smell of death when it happens. A second later the chest of the trooper suddenly explodes in a burst of fire as Doom manages to hit him from afar. Americans, Doom muses. Monsters. The sort of creatures who would create a Gammadion - or a Latveria - without a thought for the pain.
Oh, Latveria… Latveria, Motherland of Doom, remains as silent as it did the day that Herod arranged for its necrotoxification. Necrotoxins were created in Europe in the 2070's when poverty-stricken, starving Italy found a use for the overstuffed concentration camps they kept in the Basque territory. They sprayed the thousands of inmates with the chemical which swiftly reduced them to a protein-rich sludge that could cheaply be converted into foodstuffs. Latveria remains as silent, and as lost to history, as that concentration camp, save for the buzz of fat and happy insects.
Gammadion, meanwhile, is what the news services are calling the post-quake remains of California, suffused with radiation from the Gamma Bomb detonation at the tail end of Hulk 2099. Someone with a radio set in the ruins of Lotusland, obviously dying of radiation poisoning, has been gasping out that word over and over again for the last two weeks. That's where they got it from. A dry, rasping female voice, occasionally wracked with a cough that tears at her throat, obsessively broadcasting a word that plainly says everything to her, and nothing to the world she's talking to. The world will hear her die on air soon, as Herod has forbidden any medical and rescue services from entering California altogether.
Cogburn goes to his knees as the man next to him is shot in the gut, shouting that the others should get their guns out - they've got a rat in the house! Man down, they should fall back to his position! The hurt man survived due to his armor, but can barely move, so Cogburn covers him as he threatens whoever is in the darkness to move. The trooper against his back suddenly cries out in shock about a gun, and recognizes Doom in the moments before he's blasted in the side of the head.
A third trooper yells that he saw the shooter, and that he's already nailed another one of the guys - and then Doom destroys the flare hovering his head and it goes up in a burst of chemicals and flame, pouring down on the poor guy's face before it detonates. BOOM!
With a dramatic gesture Doom pumps his borrowed Slamgun one-handed. Tchink. A nervous Cogburn states that the mutie dog wasn't armed, and her powers were shut down, so what is this? His subordinate on the floor murmurs that he needs a doctor real bad, because his guts are all loose. Cogburn declares he doesn't want any girls on his team and finishes the guy off with a gunshot in a final bit of weird misogyny on his part. When another body suddenly comes flying overhead, he turns and spots Doom just as the former President fires a shot straight upwards to attract attention. 'You!' Cogburn cries with wide eyes, and Doom answers: 'Oh, yes.' Then he lowers his Slamgun and blasts Cogburn in the chest with one final, fatal shot.
With the police finished, Doom moves over to the place where Annie went to hide, and tells her that the threat is gone. Annie says she's afraid, and Doom wonders if she's afraid of him. Granted, he's certainly looked better, but she has nothing to fear from him. Doom then invites her along, promising her she's safe, and she can dry her eyes. There is a better world to come. As we see our first clear image of Doom in his mangled, partially disassembled armor, he quotes from the Demolished Man by Alfred Bester: 'There has been joy. There will be joy again.'
Aftermath
With the Black Cabinet in shambles and Doom slumming it, we can check what other heinous stuff Herod is up to in the pages of 2099 A.D. Apocalypse, another special issue. It follows a news organization as it covers ongoing events like the discovery of Jacob Gallows, the Punisher, former head of SHIELD under Doom and currently America's most terrifying serial killer and war criminal. The reporters chase Jake while he's hunted down by SHIELD, and he kills a host of his own former personnel with gunfire and pure brawn. Finally he makes his last stand, turning a street into a slaughterhouse until a Wave Spider shows up overhead, hovering menacingly with its weapons ready. Jake realizes what he's up against and a flash of shock crosses his face - and then he chooses to go out guns blazing. The Wave Spider fires a burst in return, and the Punisher is vaporized where he stands in a single moment on live television, reduced to nothing more than ash on the wind.
In response to the death of the Punisher, Captain America soon gets on a blanket national broadcast to boast about this great accomplishment, but more importantly he's there to speak about creatures like himself who have been debasing the delicate system of American life - people who wear costumes, not uniforms, who wear disguises to hide who they are and fight the system without showing their faces. Today, he announces, they will show these creatures that America will no longer stand with them! Alongside the signal comes a kill order to the nation, a presidential decree of death to all superheroes!
Elsewhere, a bunch of SHIELD troopers hunt down the superhero Galahad, actually a robot armor developed by Stark-Fujikawa that's controlled by the mind of Ethan Shields. We get an image of Ethan, who lacks an immune system and is locked in a sterile enclosure because of it, as he's bleeding from the head, dying. It turns out he controls Galahad remotely through a neurally implanted chip which is boiling his brain in its own juices because SHIELD deployed high frequency radio weapons to take him down. SHIELD also catches up to the magician Metalscream, the first documented user of magic in a hundred years, and deploys anti-magic dampening tools from Herod's Reserve to rob the wizard of his gift before he can put it to use. Putting a gun to his head, the cops declare that there is no such thing as magic. Switching over to the destroyed remains of California, or Gammadion in current parlance, we see SHIELD hunt down the Hulk, last survivor of his comic book, and finally put him down for good, wondering if the last wild man of the West even had anything left to fight for in the end...
Finally, Herod murders the news crew that's been covering all these events for their temerity of disagreeing with his murderous rampage, and we close out the issue with the narrator declaring that it's a dark day in America, and it's not getting any brighter. As he lays dying from gunshot wounds, he reminds the reader that you can roll over to fascists and let them stamp on your face, or do the heroic thing - and disobey!
Rating & Comments
Continuing our exploration of One Nation Under Doom's aftermath, we open up with the results of Herod's most recent policy decision. Last issue he ordered the execution of all mutants found in urban areas, and it seems SHIELD is following through on that command, using scanners to investigate anyone they come across in the street. Going beyond firing squads, it seems the local cops have instead decided that disabling mutants and then hunting them down for sport is an enjoyable new pastime. ACAB, even in the future, clearly. The target of today's nazi purge is 'Static' Annie Wagner, a teenager who hasn't had the best year so far. She's a newly introduced person in 2099 in general, not an X-Men transplant, but I wouldn't be shocked if that's where she ends up.
A lot of this comic, especially in the first half, is a bunch of catchup with everything that's happened in the past few issues without actually advancing anything. We get no less than three full pages about Herod's technology, and one each about the Punisher, Captain America, the Chicago Reserve, the X-Men, and what happened in Latveria and California respectively. None of these add anything meaningful to the mix - they're just reminders of what happened in those storylines or issues, summarized in text boxes over a splash page. They're not bad pages or anything, but I fail to grasp the point of them, since most of those things happened only an issue or two ago and they'll just have to recap them again when they become relevant.
Some of these exposition pages do have some new info, though, specifically those about Herod's tech. Carnotech is the formal name for all those weird pseudo-organic part-cybernetic creatures Herod has been tossing about, and it seems they're running wild everywhere now. One of the freakier observations included in this issue is that Herod's monstrosities are actually breeding on their own, something they'd never actually been able to do before because they'd been banned as weapons of war decades in the past. They never had a chance to breed because the war they were originally bred for never happened. The Wave Spiders remind me, honestly, a lot of Mass Effect's Reapers in their design and general concept. The art in this issue makes them look more fully biological in nature than the helicopter-things, but they still eat radio waves and are controlled by remote, so make of that what you will.
We get a bit more insight into the way carnotech works generally speaking on a later page, noting that Herod set apart an approved test zone within the confines of Washington D.C. to allow the organic machines to sporulate and grow. Apparently, some of them become phallic building-sized globs of flesh and ghoulish eyeballs which burp out green gas and beams of energy. The observation that carnotech can only grow in the proximity of large groups of people is creepy, and my interpretation is a simple one - it eats people. Probably, given the crapsack cyberpunk nature of 2099, the poor get literally swallowed up and used for resources to construct more freaky meat-scrapers in the city. Soylent Green and so forth. Ugh.
After that long detour through side-content is over, we return to the actual reason we're here - and that would be the belated return of 2099's Doom after his absence last issue. Annie flees into an apparently abandoned warehouse, and the prospect of an exciting chase through a mostly sealed building appeals to the cops hunting her. They have a plan, a leadership structure - strategies, agreements. None of that proves enough when someone currently hiding out in the building goes full-on slasher villain on their asses and starts stalking the invaders. Doom is perhaps his weakest here in all that I've read, short of his origin story. He doesn't have any of his weapons or armor tricks, he doesn't have allies, he doesn't have robots, he doesn't even have a country anymore. What he has is a broken set of armor, his brain, and an endless reserve of rage.
Doom proceeds to quietly and efficiently decimate a squadron of cops in quick succession, using the shadows left by the carnotech lights to sneak up on them one by one, pilfering a shotgun from the first to use as a replacement for his hand blasts. He even shoots one to make a distraction so he can reload and pick a new target. When some serious toxic masculinity has the enemy leader take out one of his own men, Doom then intentionally makes himself known to said last survivor by blasting the ceiling, before walking closer for a gut shot. It's a badass scene with several awesome panels throughout, and it kind of makes up for the lackluster recapping. Why couldn't this entire issue have been about this stuff? Slasher villain Doom! Badass!
The ending is pretty cool too - a bedraggled and busted up Doom finally reveals himself to a terrified Annie, stepping from the shadows with a rueful admission that he has looked better - but he's here to help. His look is sweet, as half his armor is intact, while the other is crumpled and seared apart, with one arm missing and the skeletal supports of his under-armor visible. Doom promises Annie a better world to come before dropping a pretty heavy quote on her - and for someone who's at the end of his rope and had everything taken from him, it's rather optimistic of Doom to summarize the status quo as such: 'There has been joy. There will be joy again.' Doom might be down, but he's not out! The final act would get this issue four stars, if it weren't attached to a bunch of rather pointless bloat dragging it down.
The aftermath I cover here, incidentally, is depressing and gleefully relentless at once. Characters like the Punisher and the Hulk barely even get a word in edgewise before they're murdered on the page, without much in the way of resolution for any of their plotlines. Some others didn't have a huge presence to begin with, but still got killed off for shock value, presumably because Galahad and Metalscream just weren't popular enough. The entire 2099 line, at this time, seems to be thematically going for the actual apocalypse, as the title of the issue underlines. The end of the world, and the imprint, is nigh!
Quotations from Former President Doom
"Excuse me." [Smashes face, steals gun] "My weapon systems are inoperative."
Cogburn: "You."
Doom: "Oh, yes."
Doom: "The police are gone. It is over, child."
Annie: "I'm afraid."
Doom: "Of me? Granted, I have looked better - but you have nothing to fear from me. Come with me, child. You are safe. Dry your eyes. There is a better world to come. There has been joy. There will be joy again."
Art Spotlight
This full-on Terminator shot here has to get the nod, right? Badass.
Cover
Well, that is one ghoulishly spooky cover - but mostly that's just the style. Doom looks menacing as hell, and both Captain America and Herod look creepy with their shadowed features. I've checked, and this art style isn't used for the actual comic's art, so I'll just appreciate it as a very 90's metal cover type affair and move on!
Story Overview
To Bring You My Love
We open up in Washington D.C. with a young girl with pigtails running down an alleyway with a sharp spike embedded into her back.
'Static' Annie Wagner is having a rotten year. Her boyfriend, the one with the skinniest legs in town, dumped her when he found out she was a mutant, and her lousy conveyor belt job in munitions vanished when Doom took over. She figures getting killed will round out the year just fine! Just standing around on a street corner, thinking about joining one of those Re-Activ-8 Anti-America groups, a bored SHIELD team decided to put the meter on her. The meter - called Xavier's Nightmare on the streets - screamed the moment it detected her active X-Gene, and they promptly put an inhibitor spike in her without even blinking, shutting off her mutant power. Then they let her run - they showed her their guns and then they let her run. These assholes are enjoying this. They love it.
Annie runs past the collapsed remnants of a statue of President Doom, his hand holding the planet Earth snapped off from the wrist. She rushes past a homeless man hiding in a corner who seems to be listening in on the reserved Federal Control radio channel, which announces that any private citizens hearing its broadcast must switch channels immediately or face prosecution. She passes by ads for President Steve Rogers and a bounty poster for Jake Gallows, former Minister of Punishment, all the while chased down by a bizarre flying orb of luminance that's half-technology, half-organic - Herod's version of a searchlight. She never wanted to be political, she muses, never wanted to hurt anyone - she'd never been different to anyone else in anything that mattered. She just wants the rest of her life back!
Wave Spiders wheel and swoop high above Mount St. Helens, conducting a complex courtship ritual, tracing wild patterns in the air as they play. They feed on radio signals and graze contentedly on martial music and barked orders from the governmental Control Station that's five miles distant. Sprays of musk settle lightly on the obsidian-ringed trees and bushes on the volcano's side below. Wave Spiders were originally grown as guerilla war lifeforms in 2057, by an American government fearful of invasion from South America. Their brains, tied directly to command computers beneath Chicago, are simple but vicious. The invasion never came, and the spiders were banned by the 2064 Xenogenesis Treaties. Herod cloned them from DNA deposits to use as utterly loyal martial devices. Since they were never put into service, they've also never had the opportunity to reproduce before…
Somewhere in New York squats the Punisher, sniffing at the air like a wild animal. Jake Gallows is a public enemy, and the atrocities he performed while he was the head of SHIELD's elite force have been selectively released to corporate-friendly media services. The former Minister of Punishment is now on the run from the same police force he once controlled, and cannot even perform his previous role as a vigilante. His life is over, but he doesn't realize it yet. He hides in the streets and alleys and dreams only of a chance to press his gun to another man's head - and punish him.
Steven Rogers, whom the 20th century called Captain America, is President - or so the 21st century is led to believe. He poses dramatically in front of the country he is identified with preserving, the fine western light lining his strong American handsomeness. The country is convinced by the pretty images and sends him money and love letters. Away from the cameras and backdrops, he can be found weeping on a cold floor from the bruises that Herod's punches left, wondering how he came to this, wondering where all the glory days went.
The living machinery that Herod used in the overthrow of Doom has lain in the guts of the Chicago Reserve for decades, but it's letting out spores now, growing new nodes appearing across Washington's approved testing zone every day. They called it Carnotech back at the Reserve, and none of them understood it. None of them even knew where it came from. If they did know - if they knew why it liked to grow near large concentrations of people, if they knew why those who originally discovered it were shot - they would have torn Herod apart with their bare hands.
We briefly revisit the Chicago Reserve, Herod's kingdom, and get a recap of its nature - it was created decades earlier by a coalition of America's megacorps, and it is the current seat of government - though nobody will ever be told that. It remains a secret, as it did when Herod kept all his technology a secret. From there, the exploitation will begin - the country will slowly be stripped of all its resources and assets, driven into its grave in pursuit of profit. Eventually, when the abused corpus of America finally gives up the ghost, Herod and his co-conspirators intend to relocate off-world, ready to do it again somewhere else, teaching their children to be good little vampires like daddy.
Still running from the cops chasing her, Annie's legs and lungs are shouting at her almost as loudly as her impaled back, so she knows she can't keep running - she needs to hide out somewhere. She spots a warehouse on her way and figures she could hide in there, maybe well enough that her pursuers get bored. It's the best chance she's got! She quickly slips through the front door. The SHIELD troopers chasing her pause outside, watching her go in. According to their database, all the other exits of the building have been sealed shut - there's only one way in or out, and she just used it.
One of the troopers intends to go in, but his superior Captain Cognburn holds him back, noting that this is a fine opportunity to field-test some of the new ordnance they keep giving out. The latest they have is the Slamgun - it runs off a little powerpack stored in the butt, five or six shots each. Like a pump-action shotgun that auto-cycles new ammo. Sexy looking thing! One of the troopers asks what this fancy gun actually does, and Cogburn answers that it kills folks. Now, let's catch that nasty little mutie girl and he'll show it off! With that, they open up the front door and head in…
Over in the middle of the country, where the new mutant citystate of Halo City is taking shape, there has been a revelation. Death is obsolete, and life as they know it is over. Many, many people will die for it before the story is over, but for now heaven's electricity etches white lines in dusty air, and awe fills the space where the man with life in his hand goes to work… This is a preview of a forthcoming X-Men storyline that we'll tangentially touch in when Doom intersects with it, but for now let's note that the exact details of the scene here are more symbolic than really what happens.
Cogburn tells his men to spread out, and as he looks into the dark building he asks who brought the flares. Does he look like he's some kind of big cat, or some seeing-in-the-dark vampire fella? Throw some up! Cogburn also tells them to pull out their meter and sets it to motion tracking to find their charge. In the darkness, an armored man prepares...
One of the men turns a corner and moves between some boxes looking for Annie, asking if using the meter doesn't spoil the fun a little. He's suddenly and violently smacked across the face by a partially disassembled metal gauntlet that suddenly lashes out of the darkness. Doom says: 'Excuse me,' and explains that his weapon systems are inoperative before snatching a Slamgun of his own from the collapsing trooper.
A trooper wonders what the hell the noise was that he just heard - was that glass breaking? Cogburn observes that the few windows in this place aren't breakable, so he asks for a roll call. Before he can get one, though, one of his troopers spots Annie and he opens. As various boxes get blown sky-high, Annie manages to duck away. The troopers wonder if they got her, but Cogburn doubts it, telling his underlings that if you do the job long enough, you get to recognize the smell of death when it happens. A second later the chest of the trooper suddenly explodes in a burst of fire as Doom manages to hit him from afar. Americans, Doom muses. Monsters. The sort of creatures who would create a Gammadion - or a Latveria - without a thought for the pain.
Oh, Latveria… Latveria, Motherland of Doom, remains as silent as it did the day that Herod arranged for its necrotoxification. Necrotoxins were created in Europe in the 2070's when poverty-stricken, starving Italy found a use for the overstuffed concentration camps they kept in the Basque territory. They sprayed the thousands of inmates with the chemical which swiftly reduced them to a protein-rich sludge that could cheaply be converted into foodstuffs. Latveria remains as silent, and as lost to history, as that concentration camp, save for the buzz of fat and happy insects.
Gammadion, meanwhile, is what the news services are calling the post-quake remains of California, suffused with radiation from the Gamma Bomb detonation at the tail end of Hulk 2099. Someone with a radio set in the ruins of Lotusland, obviously dying of radiation poisoning, has been gasping out that word over and over again for the last two weeks. That's where they got it from. A dry, rasping female voice, occasionally wracked with a cough that tears at her throat, obsessively broadcasting a word that plainly says everything to her, and nothing to the world she's talking to. The world will hear her die on air soon, as Herod has forbidden any medical and rescue services from entering California altogether.
Cogburn goes to his knees as the man next to him is shot in the gut, shouting that the others should get their guns out - they've got a rat in the house! Man down, they should fall back to his position! The hurt man survived due to his armor, but can barely move, so Cogburn covers him as he threatens whoever is in the darkness to move. The trooper against his back suddenly cries out in shock about a gun, and recognizes Doom in the moments before he's blasted in the side of the head.
A third trooper yells that he saw the shooter, and that he's already nailed another one of the guys - and then Doom destroys the flare hovering his head and it goes up in a burst of chemicals and flame, pouring down on the poor guy's face before it detonates. BOOM!
With a dramatic gesture Doom pumps his borrowed Slamgun one-handed. Tchink. A nervous Cogburn states that the mutie dog wasn't armed, and her powers were shut down, so what is this? His subordinate on the floor murmurs that he needs a doctor real bad, because his guts are all loose. Cogburn declares he doesn't want any girls on his team and finishes the guy off with a gunshot in a final bit of weird misogyny on his part. When another body suddenly comes flying overhead, he turns and spots Doom just as the former President fires a shot straight upwards to attract attention. 'You!' Cogburn cries with wide eyes, and Doom answers: 'Oh, yes.' Then he lowers his Slamgun and blasts Cogburn in the chest with one final, fatal shot.
With the police finished, Doom moves over to the place where Annie went to hide, and tells her that the threat is gone. Annie says she's afraid, and Doom wonders if she's afraid of him. Granted, he's certainly looked better, but she has nothing to fear from him. Doom then invites her along, promising her she's safe, and she can dry her eyes. There is a better world to come. As we see our first clear image of Doom in his mangled, partially disassembled armor, he quotes from the Demolished Man by Alfred Bester: 'There has been joy. There will be joy again.'
Aftermath
With the Black Cabinet in shambles and Doom slumming it, we can check what other heinous stuff Herod is up to in the pages of 2099 A.D. Apocalypse, another special issue. It follows a news organization as it covers ongoing events like the discovery of Jacob Gallows, the Punisher, former head of SHIELD under Doom and currently America's most terrifying serial killer and war criminal. The reporters chase Jake while he's hunted down by SHIELD, and he kills a host of his own former personnel with gunfire and pure brawn. Finally he makes his last stand, turning a street into a slaughterhouse until a Wave Spider shows up overhead, hovering menacingly with its weapons ready. Jake realizes what he's up against and a flash of shock crosses his face - and then he chooses to go out guns blazing. The Wave Spider fires a burst in return, and the Punisher is vaporized where he stands in a single moment on live television, reduced to nothing more than ash on the wind.
In response to the death of the Punisher, Captain America soon gets on a blanket national broadcast to boast about this great accomplishment, but more importantly he's there to speak about creatures like himself who have been debasing the delicate system of American life - people who wear costumes, not uniforms, who wear disguises to hide who they are and fight the system without showing their faces. Today, he announces, they will show these creatures that America will no longer stand with them! Alongside the signal comes a kill order to the nation, a presidential decree of death to all superheroes!
Elsewhere, a bunch of SHIELD troopers hunt down the superhero Galahad, actually a robot armor developed by Stark-Fujikawa that's controlled by the mind of Ethan Shields. We get an image of Ethan, who lacks an immune system and is locked in a sterile enclosure because of it, as he's bleeding from the head, dying. It turns out he controls Galahad remotely through a neurally implanted chip which is boiling his brain in its own juices because SHIELD deployed high frequency radio weapons to take him down. SHIELD also catches up to the magician Metalscream, the first documented user of magic in a hundred years, and deploys anti-magic dampening tools from Herod's Reserve to rob the wizard of his gift before he can put it to use. Putting a gun to his head, the cops declare that there is no such thing as magic. Switching over to the destroyed remains of California, or Gammadion in current parlance, we see SHIELD hunt down the Hulk, last survivor of his comic book, and finally put him down for good, wondering if the last wild man of the West even had anything left to fight for in the end...
Finally, Herod murders the news crew that's been covering all these events for their temerity of disagreeing with his murderous rampage, and we close out the issue with the narrator declaring that it's a dark day in America, and it's not getting any brighter. As he lays dying from gunshot wounds, he reminds the reader that you can roll over to fascists and let them stamp on your face, or do the heroic thing - and disobey!
Rating & Comments
Continuing our exploration of One Nation Under Doom's aftermath, we open up with the results of Herod's most recent policy decision. Last issue he ordered the execution of all mutants found in urban areas, and it seems SHIELD is following through on that command, using scanners to investigate anyone they come across in the street. Going beyond firing squads, it seems the local cops have instead decided that disabling mutants and then hunting them down for sport is an enjoyable new pastime. ACAB, even in the future, clearly. The target of today's nazi purge is 'Static' Annie Wagner, a teenager who hasn't had the best year so far. She's a newly introduced person in 2099 in general, not an X-Men transplant, but I wouldn't be shocked if that's where she ends up.
A lot of this comic, especially in the first half, is a bunch of catchup with everything that's happened in the past few issues without actually advancing anything. We get no less than three full pages about Herod's technology, and one each about the Punisher, Captain America, the Chicago Reserve, the X-Men, and what happened in Latveria and California respectively. None of these add anything meaningful to the mix - they're just reminders of what happened in those storylines or issues, summarized in text boxes over a splash page. They're not bad pages or anything, but I fail to grasp the point of them, since most of those things happened only an issue or two ago and they'll just have to recap them again when they become relevant.
Some of these exposition pages do have some new info, though, specifically those about Herod's tech. Carnotech is the formal name for all those weird pseudo-organic part-cybernetic creatures Herod has been tossing about, and it seems they're running wild everywhere now. One of the freakier observations included in this issue is that Herod's monstrosities are actually breeding on their own, something they'd never actually been able to do before because they'd been banned as weapons of war decades in the past. They never had a chance to breed because the war they were originally bred for never happened. The Wave Spiders remind me, honestly, a lot of Mass Effect's Reapers in their design and general concept. The art in this issue makes them look more fully biological in nature than the helicopter-things, but they still eat radio waves and are controlled by remote, so make of that what you will.
We get a bit more insight into the way carnotech works generally speaking on a later page, noting that Herod set apart an approved test zone within the confines of Washington D.C. to allow the organic machines to sporulate and grow. Apparently, some of them become phallic building-sized globs of flesh and ghoulish eyeballs which burp out green gas and beams of energy. The observation that carnotech can only grow in the proximity of large groups of people is creepy, and my interpretation is a simple one - it eats people. Probably, given the crapsack cyberpunk nature of 2099, the poor get literally swallowed up and used for resources to construct more freaky meat-scrapers in the city. Soylent Green and so forth. Ugh.
After that long detour through side-content is over, we return to the actual reason we're here - and that would be the belated return of 2099's Doom after his absence last issue. Annie flees into an apparently abandoned warehouse, and the prospect of an exciting chase through a mostly sealed building appeals to the cops hunting her. They have a plan, a leadership structure - strategies, agreements. None of that proves enough when someone currently hiding out in the building goes full-on slasher villain on their asses and starts stalking the invaders. Doom is perhaps his weakest here in all that I've read, short of his origin story. He doesn't have any of his weapons or armor tricks, he doesn't have allies, he doesn't have robots, he doesn't even have a country anymore. What he has is a broken set of armor, his brain, and an endless reserve of rage.
Doom proceeds to quietly and efficiently decimate a squadron of cops in quick succession, using the shadows left by the carnotech lights to sneak up on them one by one, pilfering a shotgun from the first to use as a replacement for his hand blasts. He even shoots one to make a distraction so he can reload and pick a new target. When some serious toxic masculinity has the enemy leader take out one of his own men, Doom then intentionally makes himself known to said last survivor by blasting the ceiling, before walking closer for a gut shot. It's a badass scene with several awesome panels throughout, and it kind of makes up for the lackluster recapping. Why couldn't this entire issue have been about this stuff? Slasher villain Doom! Badass!
The ending is pretty cool too - a bedraggled and busted up Doom finally reveals himself to a terrified Annie, stepping from the shadows with a rueful admission that he has looked better - but he's here to help. His look is sweet, as half his armor is intact, while the other is crumpled and seared apart, with one arm missing and the skeletal supports of his under-armor visible. Doom promises Annie a better world to come before dropping a pretty heavy quote on her - and for someone who's at the end of his rope and had everything taken from him, it's rather optimistic of Doom to summarize the status quo as such: 'There has been joy. There will be joy again.' Doom might be down, but he's not out! The final act would get this issue four stars, if it weren't attached to a bunch of rather pointless bloat dragging it down.
The aftermath I cover here, incidentally, is depressing and gleefully relentless at once. Characters like the Punisher and the Hulk barely even get a word in edgewise before they're murdered on the page, without much in the way of resolution for any of their plotlines. Some others didn't have a huge presence to begin with, but still got killed off for shock value, presumably because Galahad and Metalscream just weren't popular enough. The entire 2099 line, at this time, seems to be thematically going for the actual apocalypse, as the title of the issue underlines. The end of the world, and the imprint, is nigh!
Quotations from Former President Doom
"Excuse me." [Smashes face, steals gun] "My weapon systems are inoperative."
Cogburn: "You."
Doom: "Oh, yes."
Doom: "The police are gone. It is over, child."
Annie: "I'm afraid."
Doom: "Of me? Granted, I have looked better - but you have nothing to fear from me. Come with me, child. You are safe. Dry your eyes. There is a better world to come. There has been joy. There will be joy again."
Art Spotlight
This full-on Terminator shot here has to get the nod, right? Badass.
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SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Well, let's face it, the kinds of guys who are willing to enforce the kinds of orders Herod is giving out are probably bottom of the barrel even as far as ex-corporate security goes. This guy is basically a serial killer who gets his kicks through his job and a lot of them have weird hang ups.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It's moments like this that the true greatness of Doom shines out. It's not his weapons that make him the Monarch of Menace (if it were, Nathaniel Richards or Kristoff would be a lot more impressive) it's his brain, his guts, and his iron will.
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163: Interim Dooms - Fantastic Four v1 #401-405, Fantastic Force #9, Fantastic Four: Atlantis Rising #2
- Location
- Netherlands
Interim Dooms - Fantastic Four #401-405, Fantastic Force #9, Fantastic Four: Atlantis Rising #2 (June-October 1995)
Covers
Since the Watcher-related storyline didn't end up being super-relevant for Kristoff or Nathaniel beyond some incidental moments, I'm going to be less in-depth about the remainder of the interim issues, unless there's ones in there that really call for a full-length dive. Firstly, there's a crossover about Atlantis Rising to discuss, which has a Nathaniel focus, though Kristoff only really shows up to do a few technical tasks and is otherwise irrelevant. This is followed by a Thing-focused trilogy of connective tissue stories which have some relevance towards the end. Kristoff shows up on a few covers, but they're all group shots without much focus - he's actually on the back of the Atlantis Rising one.
Story Overview
Fantastic Four v1 #401 - At the Mercy of Maximus!
We catch up with Sue, Ben, Kristoff, and Scott trapped inside the miniaturized city of Attilan as they are finishing up a battle with some rowdy Inhumans. The latter two decide to pick up their old discussion about justifiable use of deadly force, with Kristoff arguing that the battle would have ended sooner and with far less risk to themselves if they went for the kill. Ben agrees that this might be the way of his old pal Doctor Doom, but that's not the FF's style! Above them, the gigantic face of Maximus the Mad dominates the sky…
The comic helpfully catches us up on what happened to lead to this situation in a special 'Fantastic Four: Atlantis Rising #1' issue - due to Nathaniel Richards trying to steal technology from the Watcher using that teleporter pad he left behind in his citadel a few issues ago, an emergency device was activated which destroyed the building utterly. Good going, Nate! The subsequent loss of the Blue Area of the Moon's artificial atmosphere also put the city of Attilan in danger, and the Inhuman Genetics Council abandoned the city to head to Earth, after which Maximus the Mad saw an opportunity to free himself from captivity and take charge of what remained. The Fantastic Four arrived to help but lacked a large enough spacecraft to evacuate everyone, so they decided to use some of Doctor Doom's old technology, gained through Kristoff's knowledge of such things, to shrink the city and take it back with them. Soon an Inhuman delegation is formed to meet with the Fantastic Four - which naturally consisted of Maximus and his loyal followers who promptly dropped their human saviors into the tiny city they just left and took over the ship. Aside from Johnny, who's busy being brainwashed to hate his friends…
One of Maximus' minions soon arrives with Boris in tow, explaining to his boss that he found a strange man hiding out on the ship. Boris introduces himself as servant to Kristoff, heir of Victor von Doom, and this sets Maximus off about arrogant, armored popinjays. Boris muses to himself that Maximus' life dangles over a precipice - he'd better not force Boris to reveal his true form! Later, Boris looks at the bottled city and wonders if he has any way to aid Kristoff and the others. Inside I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Kandor, Sue lifts herself and her companions up towards the top of the glass bottle, where Kristoff proposes blasting their way out. Scott warns him that falling glass could endanger the Inhumans below, which doesn't really bother Kristoff much. Ben reasons that it'd also alert Maximus and the boy seems to accept that justification, so they end up using Ben's immense physical strength to lift the cap of the bottle instead.
Outside, Boris decides he must gain access to the ship's communication center and try to contact Kristoff that way. He can't put it off much longer, which means he has to drop his foolish disguise and - hold on, what's this? He spots the top of the bottled city moving on its own and is thrilled to see that the Fantastic Four and Kristoff have freed themselves. He decides he has to buy them as much time as possible and draws attention to himself by screaming and running off, but that doesn't really work since Maximus' minions notice the open bottle and the 'vermin' that escaped from it…
Over at Castle Doom in Latveria, Nathaniel is watching a twenty-four hour news station covering the recent events at Atlantis and declares the world was terribly boring before the advent of such channels. Still, he also sees advantages to keeping the masses ignorant and uninformed… Sheesh, as if I didn't hate this guy enough already, now he's in favor of the 24-hour news cycle? Nathan has some servo-guards equip him with a vibro-vest which should render him invisible, then goes on scouting mission to learn whether the Fantastic Four succeeded in rescuing the Inhumans from a disaster that he himself accidentally initiated. He moves to the trans-mat and teleports over to the flying Stealth-Hawk…
Back on said ship, the miniature Fantastic Four and friends fight the regular-sized minions of Maximus, and Kristoff tells Scott to pay attention to how carefully he tracks his enemy. Scott isn't impressed, stating that it's hard to miss such a huge target, but Kristoff reveals that his foe wasn't actually his target - instead he blasts the end of one enemy's ball and chain weapon while he's mid-attack, and the ball flies off and smacks one of his own allies in the face. KWAK!
Maximus releases Johnny from his brainwashing machine in retaliation and sets him on his friends, and Johnny immediately obeys and starts trying to burn them alive. Nathaniel teleports into the room invisibly at this point and observes that the Fantastic Four could use some assistance - it's a pity that he's on a rather tight time-table here, though, and has other things to do! Dick.
After a bunch more Atlantis-stuff happens involving Namor, Kristoff sees Ben taking out one of the giant enemies and decides he can do no less. He throws himself at a centaur-like Inhuman and announces that he's the adopted son of Doom and possesses his memories, his peerless genius, and his unequaled mastery of physical combat. He strikes for Doom's honor, for Doom's glory! His attacks hit hard, even while very tiny, and manage to take down the centaur by himself.
Nearby, Nathan approaches the bottle city and salivates at having all the secrets and hidden sciences of the Inhumans for the taking, and he only has to grasp this bottle and return to Latveria! Maximus notices the city moving and suspects Sue is involved, but the mind-controlled Johnny blankets the area in heat and reveals a very different outline instead - it's Nathaniel! Johnny angrily throws himself at the man just as he activates his emergency teleporter, and they both vanish from the ship.
Not much later Ant-Man gets into a bit of a jam fighting one of his big enemies, only for an off-screen character to blast the enemy in the back, just in the nick of time. The shooter is actually Boris, still hidden in the shadows. Scott reaches the gas canisters which will allow them all to enlarge again, and it's a hop and skip from there to the whole team regaining normal size and surrounding the last man standing, who is naturally Maximus himself. At that moment, however, the ship shakes violently - something that shouldn't happen with anything less than a nuclear attack due to inertial stabilizers. Maximus comments that what they're facing is far worse than a nuke. Outside, on the hull, a mind-controlled Mighty Thor demands that the Fantastic Four abandon their vessel in the name of Morgan Le Fay!
Fantastic Force #9 - The Torch is Passed
Nathaniel Richards arrives back at Castle Doom with the Human Torch, who is still affected by the brainwashing. Nathan sets his loyal servo-guards on Johnny, but he easily incinerates them all with a nova blast. It's at this moment that the Fantastic Force arrives on the scene to help out. Seeing the ongoing battle, Franklin demands to know what is going on here, but the Torch attacks him and sends the entire team smashing through the castle walls and out into the streets of Latveria. Franklin then attacks Johnny telepathically and probes his mind until he finally breaks the brainwashing done to him by Maximus, freeing him.
Later, Franklin verbally unloads on Nathaniel, fed up with being manipulated and lied to time upon time.
Nathaniel warns Franklin that since his father and Doctor Doom have fallen, he and his team must step up for the great evil that will soon be upon them. Franklin refuses to follow Nathaniel's lead anymore, however, and Nathan responds by blasting his grandson with his cybernetic eye, causing Franklin's psi-powers to flare dangerously out of control. While the Fantastic Force is distracted by that, Nathaniel makes a grab for the bottle city of Attilan again but is attacked by the newly arriving Inhuman Triton. When Triton wrests the bottle from Nathaniel's hands and flees, Nathan follows Triton into the puff of smoke that is teleporting him away again, leading him to get captured by Morgan Le Fay on the other end…
Fantastic Four v1 #402 - By Our Friends, Besieged!
With Thor still pounding on the hull of the ship with Mjolnir, Ben tries to do some fancy flying to lose the Asgardian. He does manage to dislodge Thor, but the god quickly rights himself with his hammer and goes in for another attack run. Sue tells Kristoff to load a graviton torpedo, shocking Scott and Ben with how violent and fatal that solution is, but Sue tells them she doesn't have time to explain her plan or debate it. She tells Kristoff to lock on target. Boris, nearby, muses that he must never forget who the deadliest member of the team is! Kristoff confirms that Thor is in his sights, but Sue warns him not to fire until she gives the signal, and tells Ben to get ready to punch it, to get them the hell out of dodge. At the last possible moment Kristoff hits the button, and the missile narrowly misses Thor, who is thrown off balance by it.
Scott tells Sue that her plan failed since Thor is already back on their tail and gaining fast. Kristoff tells Scott that since the missile didn't explode he can easily redirect it, but Sue informs them all that it was actually her intention to get Thor behind them. She then tells Kristoff that his timing must be perfect, because he has to wait until Thor has reached the furthest edge of the torpedo's blast radius before he sets it off. The explosion manages to catch up to Thor and takes him out, and Kristoff concludes that it was never Sue's intention to destroy the god, but merely use the intense concussive force of the warhead to knock him unconscious. Falling into the cold sea below will probably revive Thor. He congratulates Sue on her devious gambit, concluding that even Doctor Doom would have approved of such a tactic. Sue isn't sure that's much of a compliment…
In Atlantis, meanwhile, Nathaniel attempts to ingratiate himself with his captor, Morgan Le Fay, by promising to enlarge the shrunken city of Attilan.
Fantastic Four: Atlantis Rising #2
With Thor shaken loose of mind-control, the group races off towards Atlantis for a final confrontation with Morgan le Fay with a plan to crack through the magnetic ley lines that keep them outside of the island. Inside, Morgan le Fay presents to the Inhuman Genetic Council the recently captured shrunken city of Attilan. Said Genetic Council, growing increasingly angry over Morgan's arrogance, demands that it be restored to its normal size. Morgan assures them that it will be done, thanks to the scientific knowledge of their prisoner: Nathaniel Richards. Nathan recognizes the internal tensions between all of her allies and prepares to use it for his own ends by playing everyone off against each other. Elsewhere, a priest takes Morgan into the basement of Atlantis where they have been unearthing artifacts, and reveals that they have found the Ebony Blade, the mystical sword made by Merlin himself.
While Namor and Thor wait on one end of the city, Sue unleashes the full force of her invisible force powers on the barrier around Atlantis. When her power strikes, Thor then unleashes the power of Mjolnir on the other side. These attacks combine to physically harm Morgan who realizes that there are intruders on her captured island. While everyone is distracted, Nathaniel activates a device in his armor which downloads the computer files from shrunken Attilan's Hall of Science, learning the weaknesses of the Inhumans and adding to his database of knowledge. When the Genetic Council decides their first priority should be to secure their Terrigen Mists, Nathan pivots in his goals and now wants some of it for himself…
At that moment at Castle Doom, the members of Fantastic Force are reeling at the sudden reappearance of a young Franklin Richards wearing his old Tattletale costume, a consequence of Franklin's powers going out of control. As the frightened boy rushes to his Uncle Johnny demanding to be brought home, the boy suddenly disappears again. Realizing that Nathaniel had deactivated the inhibitors in his armor which kept his powers in check, Franklin hastily tries to patch them up, but he's not too confident in his ability to repair them. Still, with the danger under control for the moment, he mobilizes the Fantastic Force and goes to look for the missing city of Attilan and Nathaniel.
The Fantastic Four and entourage manage to breach the barrier around Atlantis and are attacked by the Crimson Cadre while Namor and Thor have a tussle with the Inhuman Royal Family. Suddenly Morgan le Fay emerges from within the palace wielding the Ebony Blade and defeats all the heroes with a single mystical bolt from the enchanted weapon. While the Genetic Council gloats over the Fantastic Four's defeat and Black Bolt's seemingly fatal injuries, Nathaniel attempts to take advantage in order to steal a sample of the Terrigen Mist, because of course that's where his head is at.
The Fantastic Force teleport into the Atlantean palace too, and Franklin begins mentally probing for his grandfather, warning the team to be careful. General Ator recognizes Nathaniel as the one responsible for the entire mess by stealing from the Watcher, and grabs him in the act of trying to steal the Terrigen Mists. Meanwhile, the Fantastic Force have their cover blown when Franklin's old Ego-Spawn identity suddenly manifests before them due to more power incontinence. The battle is cut short when Vibraxas causes an earthquake to serve as cover while the group escapes into the lower tunnels, where they run into the Fantastic Four and their allies who were mystically bound there as prisoners of Morgan le Fay.
Nathaniel breaks loose from imprisonment and fights Ator again, while Franklin finally manages to focus his powers enough to send the Ego-Spawn away and free his family and their friends too. After Morgan's spell is destroyed by Huntara she reels in pain, and at the same moment Nathaniel causes Attilan to resume its normal size within the palace, rupturing the tank of Terrigen Mists in the process. With the fortress falling down around them, the Fantastic Four, Force and their allies all escape in one of Sue's invisible bubbles. While the city is still enlarging, the leader of the Genetic Council activates the Negative Zone barrier around the city of Attilan, trapping the Terrigen Mists inside.
Out on a makeshift life raft, all of the heroes are shocked when Johnny announces that he is leaving the Fantastic Four to join the Fantastic Force. Uninterested in these things, the Sub-Mariner abruptly departs and surveys the full extent of the damage that has been done to his former kingdom, shedding a single tear.
Fantastic Four v1 #403 - Things to Come (Part 1) - Things to Come!
Later, after everyone's returned home from the events in Atlantis, Scott walks in on Kristoff in one of Four Freedoms Plaza's labs, and it turns out he has been hard at work developing a brand new suit of armor for Ant-Man to wear on missions, in an effort to make him more effective in battle. Sadly, Kristoff declares, even he cannot increase Scott's limited intellect, but with the additional firepower Scott might actually be useful to the team instead of shrinking to insect size whenever danger threatens. Harsh! When Kristoff inquires why Lang is dressed up in fancy civilian clothes today, he gets his answer when the secretary calls in to inform Scott that his daughter Cassie has arrived at reception. Delighted to hear this, Scott sprints off to meet her, but advises Kristoff not to mention that he is Ant-Man because he is trying to maintain a secret identity.
Elsewhere in the headquarters the Thing is shocked to hear that Johnny is packing up to join the ranks of Fantastic Force. Johnny tries to make it sound as though he is going to lend his expertise to the group, but in reality he is concerned about Franklin's increasingly unstable psionic powers in the wake of Nathaniel's treachery, and he wants to keep an eye on things without alarming Ben or Sue. Finishing his packing, Johnny says goodbye to Ben, leaving him his autographed Joe DiMaggio baseball. Scott is surprised when Kristoff - devoid of his armor - comes down to introduce himself to Cassie as well. Charming the young girl with his courtly manners, Kristoff offers to show her around the Four Freedoms Plaza, and Scott is completely freaked out that Kristoff Vernard is hitting on his daughter right after insulting him to his face!
Hearing that Kristoff has been inside one of the labs to work on an Ant-Man suit, Ben goes to tell Sue about it but discovers that she is busy talking with a representative of NATO. They learn that after the bottled city of Attilan was restored to its normal size in the wake of the Atlantis Rising event, it was trapped in a barrier around the island, but there were reports of some costumed individuals teleporting away before the dome sealed. Sue suspects that it might be the Inhuman royal family and signs off. She hopes for the best for the Inhumans, also thinking of how many Atlanteans died when Atlantis was raised from the ocean floor. Ben is troubled to hear that Sue is worrying over Namor again, but can't help but wonder what happened to the Sub-Mariner. Meanwhile, deep below the ocean, Namor views the ruins left by the raising of Atlantis. Seeing his homeland decimated again sparks a deep anger within the former monarch of Atlantis and he vows to get revenge.
Back at Four Freedoms Plaza, Kristoff continues to give Cassie her tour while Scott tries to keep his temper in check. Kristoff calls out to his assistant Boris, and the mysterious unseen man who has been posing as Boris shifts back into the form of the man he is impersonating so he can introduce himself to Scott's daughter…
Meanwhile, deep in the jungles of Brazil, Professor Kenneth Robeson researches mysterious carvings he found that resemble the Thing of the Fantastic Four. When he is interrupted by the sound of gunshots he goes to find their source and catches his guide, a man named Mico, shooting at a leopard. Because hunting is illegal on archaeological digs, Jenson scolds Mico reminding him what their purpose is in the jungles. When Robeson goes back to his studies, one of Mico's men asks why he puts up with being scolded like that and Mico reminds him that this expedition could lead to untold riches.
Robeson's concerns about Mico are soon put aside when one of his aids comes to tell them that they have found the long lost temple of the sun demons. Quickly they go to the site and begin the exploration. Inside they find hieroglyphics that tell of a device that can turn men into monsters which resemble the Thing. They find a strange machine in the ruins, but as one of Mico's men goes to examine it, Mico accidentally activates the device and it blasts the man with energy.
In New York City, Johnny spends time with Laura Green, still unaware that she is really his ex-wife Lyja in disguise. After buying her a flower, he tells her that he has to rendezvous with Fantastic Force. 'Laura' respond that it's fine because she has an appointment to keep herself. After Johnny flames on and flies away, Lyja drops her disguise and takes wing to the Four Freedoms Plaza where she meets with Sue, who explains that with Johnny leaving the team the Fantastic Four are short a person, and she asks Lyja to join in the Torch's place.
Suddenly there is an alarm bringing the Fantastic Four to the communications room, where they receive a distress call from Professor Robeson. Before he can tell them of the danger he is in, a figure with rocky hands like the Thing smashes his communicator to bits. Surprised by this development, Sue begins mobilizing the group, and when Scott tells them that he can't leave due to Cassie being around, Lyja agrees to join the mission in his stead. Soon the Fantastic Four and Kristoff fly away in the Stealth-Hawk, allowing the man who is posing as Boris to begin his private work in peace. With the others gone, Cassie also asks Scott if Kristoff has a girlfriend, much to her father's despair and frustration…
A few hours later the Fantastic Four arrive in the Brazilian rainforest and begin searching for Professor Robeson and his crew. While the others try to make ground by traveling over the top of the jungle, Ben opts to walk through instead. As the Thing travels into the jungle alone, he mentally recounts his concerns about Kristoff and how Sue enlisted Lyja without consulting him. His thoughts are interrupted when he is attacked by a group of men who have been transformed into Things just like him. Meanwhile, Sue and the others have located Robeson's camp which has been smashed to pieces.
As they search for clues, Sue comes across the strange statue that resembles Ben, similar to an artifact which Robeson brought to them some time earlier. Suddenly they are ambushed by Mico and his men who stun Sue and Lyja with blow darts and incapacitate Kristoff's armor with a strong adhesive.
Ben manages to fight off his transformed attackers who lack his years of experience in fighting in his body. Pressing onward through the jungle, Ben comes to the temple of the sun demons where he finds Mico waiting for him. When Ben demands answers, Mico defies him by unleashing Sue, Lyja, and Kristoff who have also been transformed into Things, solely loyal to him…
Fantastic Four v1 #404 - Things to Come (Part 2) - With Friends Like These
Namor comes knocking at Four Freedoms Plaza's door to find Sue, and won't take no for an answer, so Scott decides to ask Boris to get his daughter to safety while he deals with the situation. Ultimately Scott decides that it's not worth getting into a fight over, and he agrees to lead Namor to her. Scott explains to Namor that Sue and the others went to Brazil, and brings him to Reed's Time/Space lab where he sends Namor off with the Time-Platform. Before he goes, Namor tells Lang that he intends to petition Sue for membership in the Fantastic Four. Watching from the shadows, the man pretending to be Boris is surprised by this development and resolves to contact his master…
Meanwhile, in Brazil, Ben fights off Sue, Lyja, and Kristoff who have all been Thingified by the device Mico is abusing.
With everyone's attention turned to the battle, Professor Robeson makes a break for it in the hopes he can somehow help Ben. The original Thing soon creates a distraction to cover his own escape from the battle, though he doesn't get very far. Ben is just about to rejoin the fight with his teammates when he is unexpectedly joined by the Sub-Mariner. When Namor tries to appeal to Sue's inner nature, her transformed self ignores his pleas and attacks him anyway, and the two get into a protracted fight. While Namor is busy with that, Professor Robeson makes his presence known to Ben and tells him about the device that can change people into Things, and also that he believes that the transformations are only temporary.
In New York, Not-quite-Boris contacts his master to inform him of recent developments, and this pleases the mystery individual pulling his strings, who believes events are reaching the critical juncture in which he will enact the final phase of his plan. As the impostor Boris continues his report he suddenly realizes that Cassie has been spying on him for the last few minutes, and he chases after the girl lest she blow his cover. Scott is busy looking for his daughter when he runs into Boris chasing her down, and the impostor drops pretenses and threatens Scott by holding Cassie hostage and blasting him aside with a laser. Scott manages to dive out of the way of the blast, and this sudden revelation of betrayal makes Scott suspect that Kristoff could turn on them as well, since he and 'Boris' came as a package deal.
In Brazil, Ben and Robeson sneak into the temple and examine the writings on the wall, and Ben wonders if this machine could also restore his long lost humanity rather than just turn people into more of him. They are suddenly surrounded by Mico and his men, and the villain explains that he intends to use the device to create an army of Things which he will use to take over and plunder the entire world. Ben wants nothing to do with this nonsense and goes in for a clobbering. As Mico's armies pile onto Ben and pound him, Sue continues her battle with Namor outside...
Suddenly the effects of the strange device wear off and Sue reverts back to human form. Hearing that Ben is fighting alone against a bunch of Mico's men, Sue and Namor rush inside to help. The brutal beating continues there until Mico's men, Kristoff, and Lyja all revert back to normal as well when their transformations run out of steam. Mico tries to take control of the situation by holding Kristoff at gunpoint while his men expose themselves to the machine again, but they are stopped when Sue erects a force field between them and the device. Since Namor can tank bullets and is thus not in any particular danger anymore, he dives at Mico and easily disarms him.
In the aftermath of the battle Professor Robeson examines Ben and realizes that he has been seriously injured in the fighting and could even die as a result. Realizing Ben's only salvation could be the machine they discovered, the Fantastic Four agree to expose Ben to its power. Soon, Ben is placed on the table beneath it and both Professor Robeson and Kristoff activate the controls in the hope they can save the Thing's life…
Fantastic Four v1 #405 - Things to Come (Part 3) - Terror Is Tomorrow!
The Fantastic Four, Namor, Kristoff and Professor Robeson watch in awe as Ben is not only healed by the machine Kristoff repaired, but restored to human form in the process. Ben is happy to discover this, but when he looks in the mirror he sees that the device did not heal the scars on his face that he received from Wolverine. Losing his temper, Ben smashes the mirror he is looking in anger, furious that his new found humanity has a catch to it. However Sue calms him down by telling him that they will seek a plastic surgeon to see what they can do to restore his face. Ben's tantrum uncovered more hieroglyphics behind the walls, and after examining them Robeson informs Ben that his own transformation back to humanity is also temporary.
Ben is about to lose his temper again when Kristoff talks him down, pointing out that they could just load the device into the Stealth-Hawk and set it up at the Four Freedoms Plaza so Ben can use it whenever he wants to turn human for a while. When this is met with protests from the Professor because it'd mean losing out on his archeological find, Ben points out that the machine creates monsters and is a threat, so it is safest with the Fantastic Four. Although all are in agreement now, Sue can't help but notice that Ben became more volatile after being exposed to the rays.
Back at Four Freedoms Plaza, Boris is still trying to kill Scott before he can alert the others to his treachery, and Scott flees to the lab and seals himself inside. There he finds the new Ant-Man armor that Kristoff has been making for him and puts it on. Boris, meanwhile, decides to seal Ant-Man inside the lab by welding the door shut with his ray gun, though this doesn't really stop someone who can shrink to diminutive size and slip through the tiniest of cracks...
The Fantastic Four are flying home in the Stealth-Hawk when Ben loses his temper again because Scott is not answering their calls. Lyja and Kristoff suggest that Lang is probably spending time with his daughter Cassie, and Lyja jokes that Kristoff appears to have a crush on Cassie, which causes her to think about her ex-husband Johnny. Meanwhile, Namor attempts to convince Sue that they deserve to be together after the apparent death of her husband and the loss of his kingdom. Sue denies him, telling Namor that she needs more time to grieve the loss of Reed. The Sub-Mariner respects Sue's wishes and tells her that he can wait, though Sue is left to wonder if she should still be waiting so long after Reed's demise.
Boris reports back to his master that the Fantastic Four are on their way back, unaware that Scott is spying on him through the ventilation shaft. Scott ambushes Boris from behind, but the man is ready for this and suddenly, inexplicably, Conan the Barbarian appears from out of nowhere and tries to kill the diminutive Ant-Man with his sword. He is also joined by the Iron Man of the year 2020 who tries to blast Ant-Man, and by this point Boris has decided to drop his disguise and revealed himself to be the time traveler known as Zarrko the Tomorrow Man all along.
Ant-Man manages to trip up his two attackers and they vanish, but in their stead appears the original Green Goblin. Zarrko gloats over his impending victory, unaware that his presence has set off a device which alerts Nathaniel Richards, who fears that the events he has come to this time period to prevent are about to come to pass.
When the rest of the Fantastic Four return home they are attacked by more time-displaced super-humans: The Red Raven, Bucky Barnes, Toro, the Once and Future Thor, the Melter, Snowbird, and the original Union Jack. While they defend themselves, Ben reverts back to his Thing form to lend a hand in the battle. Scott continues to fight for his life against further threats like Omega the Unknown while Zarrko continues to gloat. The heroes in the other room have to face off against the Rawhide Kid, the original Black Knight, the original Blizzard, Blackout, and Skurge the Executioner. Back in the lab, Ant-Man narrowly dodges the Whizzer and manages to snag Zarrko's time control device attached to his belt. With the device disabled it returns all the attackers to their proper era. Before Zarrko can attempt to retrieve his technology, Ben comes crashing through the wall and apprehends him.
With the battle over with, Sue reassures Scott that she sent Lyja over to free Cassie. Before Scott can doff his costume and preserve his double identity, Cassie enters the room and instantly recognizes him, and Scott is surprised to learn that his daughter has known about his double identity all along - and she mentions that it's not like he's a cool superhero like Spider-Man anyway. Ouch! Defeated, Zarrko offers to give the heroes information regarding the true fate of Mister Fantastic and Doctor Doom in exchange for his freedom, which comes as a shock to Sue. Before Zarrko can say any more, however, he is seemingly incinerated by a blast of energy, leaving behind only ash in his wake. However, Kristoff was scanning the room when it happened to make sure Zarrko didn't have any more tricks up his sleeve, and informs the others that what they witnessed wasn't incineration at all, but a time-beam which spirited Zarrko away. More importantly, he can track that beam to its source!
Rating & Comments
We round out our Interim Dooms coverage with two storylines which, on the whole, didn't impress me all that much. The Atlantis Rising event is a convoluted mess which is focused mostly on the Inhumans, with the Fantastic Four getting relegated to the background for large chunks, even though it's their title. Nathaniel is quite relevant there, as this is where we get the resolution for his continual attempts to steal power wherever he can find it - and never before has he channeled his inner Doctor Doom quite as much as he does here. His extensive manipulation of everyone to meet his own ends combined with constant attempts to steal everyone's power for himself is pretty recognizable. Though, somehow, he manages to outstrip Doom in his utter lack of loyalty or care about others… He ends up stealing some information, but otherwise loses most of what he attempts to gain.
The second storyline focuses more on Ben, at least in part of its plot, and he does end up with a significant status quo change at the end - the mysterious machine which can turn people into copies of the Thing can also temporarily turn him back into his human form. It seems to have some side-effects like an incandescent temper and it doesn't actually heal his Wolverine-inflicted facial disfiguration (which is still around, it's been there a long time!) Still, at least for the forthcoming stories, Ben can actually go out without being an orange rock pretty much whenever he wants, and that'll doubtless play into some of these stories. Good for him! Kristoff gets to strut his stuff during this story too, since he's the one who ends up repairing the ancient machine so it can be used well outside of its intended use.
Something more relevant to my Doom readthrough which gets a bit of a resolution here is that Kristoff is building something of a friendship with Scott Lang, even if he tends to be an arrogant twit about it. He demeans Scott constantly when they fight together, and even to other people, but at the same time he is also first to come to Scott's aid and to compliment him when he pulls off something impressive. Nothing displays their growing friendship more, though, than Kristoff going out of his way to build Ant-Man a complete new costume for the explicit purpose of making him a stronger combatant. Yeah, he might argue it's because it's practical to have Scott be less useless, but I'm not seeing Kristoff build the rest of the team any fancy gadgets without a request! It's endearing, really. The armor comes in handy against Zarrko, too!
To add to the 'Kristoff learns how to do feelings' bandwagon, he also develops something of a crush on Scott's daughter Cassie Lang, which is simultaneously endearing and honestly kind of creepy. I'm sure Scott would agree on the latter. Kristoff usually comes off as a young adult due to his adult-sized armor, so it's very easy to forget he's not - and it's jarring to be reminded that he's a child similar in age to Cassie and there's no skeevy stuff going on here. Add to this Scott's entirely justified suspicion of Kristoff after his supposed retainer proves to be an impostor supervillain, and it's no shocker that he's uncomfortable with the growing friendship between these kids. The storyline in question, however, is not actually tied up in the issues I've covered - it'll carry forward into the Strange Days multipart arc that's coming up next. Yes, that's the one where Doom comes back! Should be fun...
Speaking of Boris, by the way, the long-running mystery of who is masquerading as Doom's retainer is finally answered here, and the truth is that Boris was never actually in the story at all! Shocker. From the very start where he was defrosted, Boris was actually an undercover supervillain who was keeping an eye on everything for his shadowy, mysterious supervillain master. Zarrko the Tomorrow Man is a bit of a schlocky dumbass of a villain who summons random enemies from throughout time, pretty much identically to the way Aron did in the last story. Using the same power twice in a row with different characters, huh? They must have run short on ideas, since even the comic calls out Aron as a likely suspect. Zarrko also has a quirk where he's overweight, so naturally he has to constantly make random references to eating. Not cool, man, fat jokes are a cheap excuse for comedy.
What we also get in this issue, once and for all, is a confirmation that what truly happened to Doom and Reed was not their deaths, but some type of time-transportation. We already knew they'd be alive somehow, of course, but now characters actually realize it too so they can stop moping about and start fixing the problem. Thankfully Kristoff is around to be implausible competent tech support and confirms that what they're dealing with is a time-travel related plot rather than vaporization. Since Zarrko was there, though, I suppose the time travel part wasn't actually much of a shocker anymore. Sue never lost her faith, and she honestly has come quite a ways in recent times in both power and authority within the group, so I hope Reed's imminent return won't ruin all that progress. This time her character development didn't even require a boob window!
Next time, we leave the interim Doom years behind and welcome back the Monarch of Menace from a very long nap (and a parallel existence in 2099) with the Strange Days arc, a six-part epic. See you there!
Most Gloriously Villainous Kristoff Quotes
"If a brainless gargoyle like Grimm can reduce our foes by one... I can do no less!"
"Do not flatter yourself, you barbarous buffoon! I am the adopted son of Doctor Doom! I possess his memories, his peerless genius and his unequalled mastery of physical combat! I strike for his HONOR! His GLORY!"
"Your gambit was as successful as it was devious! Even Doctor Doom would have approved!"
"Freeing my armor will take precious seconds! Doom will never forgive me for being victimized in this fashion!"
"Stop patronizing me, Professor Robeson! I possess the scientific expertise of Doctor Doom himself - and I shall not FAIL!"
Covers
Since the Watcher-related storyline didn't end up being super-relevant for Kristoff or Nathaniel beyond some incidental moments, I'm going to be less in-depth about the remainder of the interim issues, unless there's ones in there that really call for a full-length dive. Firstly, there's a crossover about Atlantis Rising to discuss, which has a Nathaniel focus, though Kristoff only really shows up to do a few technical tasks and is otherwise irrelevant. This is followed by a Thing-focused trilogy of connective tissue stories which have some relevance towards the end. Kristoff shows up on a few covers, but they're all group shots without much focus - he's actually on the back of the Atlantis Rising one.
Story Overview
Fantastic Four v1 #401 - At the Mercy of Maximus!
We catch up with Sue, Ben, Kristoff, and Scott trapped inside the miniaturized city of Attilan as they are finishing up a battle with some rowdy Inhumans. The latter two decide to pick up their old discussion about justifiable use of deadly force, with Kristoff arguing that the battle would have ended sooner and with far less risk to themselves if they went for the kill. Ben agrees that this might be the way of his old pal Doctor Doom, but that's not the FF's style! Above them, the gigantic face of Maximus the Mad dominates the sky…
The comic helpfully catches us up on what happened to lead to this situation in a special 'Fantastic Four: Atlantis Rising #1' issue - due to Nathaniel Richards trying to steal technology from the Watcher using that teleporter pad he left behind in his citadel a few issues ago, an emergency device was activated which destroyed the building utterly. Good going, Nate! The subsequent loss of the Blue Area of the Moon's artificial atmosphere also put the city of Attilan in danger, and the Inhuman Genetics Council abandoned the city to head to Earth, after which Maximus the Mad saw an opportunity to free himself from captivity and take charge of what remained. The Fantastic Four arrived to help but lacked a large enough spacecraft to evacuate everyone, so they decided to use some of Doctor Doom's old technology, gained through Kristoff's knowledge of such things, to shrink the city and take it back with them. Soon an Inhuman delegation is formed to meet with the Fantastic Four - which naturally consisted of Maximus and his loyal followers who promptly dropped their human saviors into the tiny city they just left and took over the ship. Aside from Johnny, who's busy being brainwashed to hate his friends…
One of Maximus' minions soon arrives with Boris in tow, explaining to his boss that he found a strange man hiding out on the ship. Boris introduces himself as servant to Kristoff, heir of Victor von Doom, and this sets Maximus off about arrogant, armored popinjays. Boris muses to himself that Maximus' life dangles over a precipice - he'd better not force Boris to reveal his true form! Later, Boris looks at the bottled city and wonders if he has any way to aid Kristoff and the others. Inside I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Kandor, Sue lifts herself and her companions up towards the top of the glass bottle, where Kristoff proposes blasting their way out. Scott warns him that falling glass could endanger the Inhumans below, which doesn't really bother Kristoff much. Ben reasons that it'd also alert Maximus and the boy seems to accept that justification, so they end up using Ben's immense physical strength to lift the cap of the bottle instead.
Outside, Boris decides he must gain access to the ship's communication center and try to contact Kristoff that way. He can't put it off much longer, which means he has to drop his foolish disguise and - hold on, what's this? He spots the top of the bottled city moving on its own and is thrilled to see that the Fantastic Four and Kristoff have freed themselves. He decides he has to buy them as much time as possible and draws attention to himself by screaming and running off, but that doesn't really work since Maximus' minions notice the open bottle and the 'vermin' that escaped from it…
Over at Castle Doom in Latveria, Nathaniel is watching a twenty-four hour news station covering the recent events at Atlantis and declares the world was terribly boring before the advent of such channels. Still, he also sees advantages to keeping the masses ignorant and uninformed… Sheesh, as if I didn't hate this guy enough already, now he's in favor of the 24-hour news cycle? Nathan has some servo-guards equip him with a vibro-vest which should render him invisible, then goes on scouting mission to learn whether the Fantastic Four succeeded in rescuing the Inhumans from a disaster that he himself accidentally initiated. He moves to the trans-mat and teleports over to the flying Stealth-Hawk…
Back on said ship, the miniature Fantastic Four and friends fight the regular-sized minions of Maximus, and Kristoff tells Scott to pay attention to how carefully he tracks his enemy. Scott isn't impressed, stating that it's hard to miss such a huge target, but Kristoff reveals that his foe wasn't actually his target - instead he blasts the end of one enemy's ball and chain weapon while he's mid-attack, and the ball flies off and smacks one of his own allies in the face. KWAK!
Maximus releases Johnny from his brainwashing machine in retaliation and sets him on his friends, and Johnny immediately obeys and starts trying to burn them alive. Nathaniel teleports into the room invisibly at this point and observes that the Fantastic Four could use some assistance - it's a pity that he's on a rather tight time-table here, though, and has other things to do! Dick.
After a bunch more Atlantis-stuff happens involving Namor, Kristoff sees Ben taking out one of the giant enemies and decides he can do no less. He throws himself at a centaur-like Inhuman and announces that he's the adopted son of Doom and possesses his memories, his peerless genius, and his unequaled mastery of physical combat. He strikes for Doom's honor, for Doom's glory! His attacks hit hard, even while very tiny, and manage to take down the centaur by himself.
Nearby, Nathan approaches the bottle city and salivates at having all the secrets and hidden sciences of the Inhumans for the taking, and he only has to grasp this bottle and return to Latveria! Maximus notices the city moving and suspects Sue is involved, but the mind-controlled Johnny blankets the area in heat and reveals a very different outline instead - it's Nathaniel! Johnny angrily throws himself at the man just as he activates his emergency teleporter, and they both vanish from the ship.
Not much later Ant-Man gets into a bit of a jam fighting one of his big enemies, only for an off-screen character to blast the enemy in the back, just in the nick of time. The shooter is actually Boris, still hidden in the shadows. Scott reaches the gas canisters which will allow them all to enlarge again, and it's a hop and skip from there to the whole team regaining normal size and surrounding the last man standing, who is naturally Maximus himself. At that moment, however, the ship shakes violently - something that shouldn't happen with anything less than a nuclear attack due to inertial stabilizers. Maximus comments that what they're facing is far worse than a nuke. Outside, on the hull, a mind-controlled Mighty Thor demands that the Fantastic Four abandon their vessel in the name of Morgan Le Fay!
Fantastic Force #9 - The Torch is Passed
Nathaniel Richards arrives back at Castle Doom with the Human Torch, who is still affected by the brainwashing. Nathan sets his loyal servo-guards on Johnny, but he easily incinerates them all with a nova blast. It's at this moment that the Fantastic Force arrives on the scene to help out. Seeing the ongoing battle, Franklin demands to know what is going on here, but the Torch attacks him and sends the entire team smashing through the castle walls and out into the streets of Latveria. Franklin then attacks Johnny telepathically and probes his mind until he finally breaks the brainwashing done to him by Maximus, freeing him.
Later, Franklin verbally unloads on Nathaniel, fed up with being manipulated and lied to time upon time.
Nathaniel warns Franklin that since his father and Doctor Doom have fallen, he and his team must step up for the great evil that will soon be upon them. Franklin refuses to follow Nathaniel's lead anymore, however, and Nathan responds by blasting his grandson with his cybernetic eye, causing Franklin's psi-powers to flare dangerously out of control. While the Fantastic Force is distracted by that, Nathaniel makes a grab for the bottle city of Attilan again but is attacked by the newly arriving Inhuman Triton. When Triton wrests the bottle from Nathaniel's hands and flees, Nathan follows Triton into the puff of smoke that is teleporting him away again, leading him to get captured by Morgan Le Fay on the other end…
Fantastic Four v1 #402 - By Our Friends, Besieged!
With Thor still pounding on the hull of the ship with Mjolnir, Ben tries to do some fancy flying to lose the Asgardian. He does manage to dislodge Thor, but the god quickly rights himself with his hammer and goes in for another attack run. Sue tells Kristoff to load a graviton torpedo, shocking Scott and Ben with how violent and fatal that solution is, but Sue tells them she doesn't have time to explain her plan or debate it. She tells Kristoff to lock on target. Boris, nearby, muses that he must never forget who the deadliest member of the team is! Kristoff confirms that Thor is in his sights, but Sue warns him not to fire until she gives the signal, and tells Ben to get ready to punch it, to get them the hell out of dodge. At the last possible moment Kristoff hits the button, and the missile narrowly misses Thor, who is thrown off balance by it.
Scott tells Sue that her plan failed since Thor is already back on their tail and gaining fast. Kristoff tells Scott that since the missile didn't explode he can easily redirect it, but Sue informs them all that it was actually her intention to get Thor behind them. She then tells Kristoff that his timing must be perfect, because he has to wait until Thor has reached the furthest edge of the torpedo's blast radius before he sets it off. The explosion manages to catch up to Thor and takes him out, and Kristoff concludes that it was never Sue's intention to destroy the god, but merely use the intense concussive force of the warhead to knock him unconscious. Falling into the cold sea below will probably revive Thor. He congratulates Sue on her devious gambit, concluding that even Doctor Doom would have approved of such a tactic. Sue isn't sure that's much of a compliment…
In Atlantis, meanwhile, Nathaniel attempts to ingratiate himself with his captor, Morgan Le Fay, by promising to enlarge the shrunken city of Attilan.
Fantastic Four: Atlantis Rising #2
With Thor shaken loose of mind-control, the group races off towards Atlantis for a final confrontation with Morgan le Fay with a plan to crack through the magnetic ley lines that keep them outside of the island. Inside, Morgan le Fay presents to the Inhuman Genetic Council the recently captured shrunken city of Attilan. Said Genetic Council, growing increasingly angry over Morgan's arrogance, demands that it be restored to its normal size. Morgan assures them that it will be done, thanks to the scientific knowledge of their prisoner: Nathaniel Richards. Nathan recognizes the internal tensions between all of her allies and prepares to use it for his own ends by playing everyone off against each other. Elsewhere, a priest takes Morgan into the basement of Atlantis where they have been unearthing artifacts, and reveals that they have found the Ebony Blade, the mystical sword made by Merlin himself.
While Namor and Thor wait on one end of the city, Sue unleashes the full force of her invisible force powers on the barrier around Atlantis. When her power strikes, Thor then unleashes the power of Mjolnir on the other side. These attacks combine to physically harm Morgan who realizes that there are intruders on her captured island. While everyone is distracted, Nathaniel activates a device in his armor which downloads the computer files from shrunken Attilan's Hall of Science, learning the weaknesses of the Inhumans and adding to his database of knowledge. When the Genetic Council decides their first priority should be to secure their Terrigen Mists, Nathan pivots in his goals and now wants some of it for himself…
At that moment at Castle Doom, the members of Fantastic Force are reeling at the sudden reappearance of a young Franklin Richards wearing his old Tattletale costume, a consequence of Franklin's powers going out of control. As the frightened boy rushes to his Uncle Johnny demanding to be brought home, the boy suddenly disappears again. Realizing that Nathaniel had deactivated the inhibitors in his armor which kept his powers in check, Franklin hastily tries to patch them up, but he's not too confident in his ability to repair them. Still, with the danger under control for the moment, he mobilizes the Fantastic Force and goes to look for the missing city of Attilan and Nathaniel.
The Fantastic Four and entourage manage to breach the barrier around Atlantis and are attacked by the Crimson Cadre while Namor and Thor have a tussle with the Inhuman Royal Family. Suddenly Morgan le Fay emerges from within the palace wielding the Ebony Blade and defeats all the heroes with a single mystical bolt from the enchanted weapon. While the Genetic Council gloats over the Fantastic Four's defeat and Black Bolt's seemingly fatal injuries, Nathaniel attempts to take advantage in order to steal a sample of the Terrigen Mist, because of course that's where his head is at.
The Fantastic Force teleport into the Atlantean palace too, and Franklin begins mentally probing for his grandfather, warning the team to be careful. General Ator recognizes Nathaniel as the one responsible for the entire mess by stealing from the Watcher, and grabs him in the act of trying to steal the Terrigen Mists. Meanwhile, the Fantastic Force have their cover blown when Franklin's old Ego-Spawn identity suddenly manifests before them due to more power incontinence. The battle is cut short when Vibraxas causes an earthquake to serve as cover while the group escapes into the lower tunnels, where they run into the Fantastic Four and their allies who were mystically bound there as prisoners of Morgan le Fay.
Nathaniel breaks loose from imprisonment and fights Ator again, while Franklin finally manages to focus his powers enough to send the Ego-Spawn away and free his family and their friends too. After Morgan's spell is destroyed by Huntara she reels in pain, and at the same moment Nathaniel causes Attilan to resume its normal size within the palace, rupturing the tank of Terrigen Mists in the process. With the fortress falling down around them, the Fantastic Four, Force and their allies all escape in one of Sue's invisible bubbles. While the city is still enlarging, the leader of the Genetic Council activates the Negative Zone barrier around the city of Attilan, trapping the Terrigen Mists inside.
Out on a makeshift life raft, all of the heroes are shocked when Johnny announces that he is leaving the Fantastic Four to join the Fantastic Force. Uninterested in these things, the Sub-Mariner abruptly departs and surveys the full extent of the damage that has been done to his former kingdom, shedding a single tear.
Fantastic Four v1 #403 - Things to Come (Part 1) - Things to Come!
Later, after everyone's returned home from the events in Atlantis, Scott walks in on Kristoff in one of Four Freedoms Plaza's labs, and it turns out he has been hard at work developing a brand new suit of armor for Ant-Man to wear on missions, in an effort to make him more effective in battle. Sadly, Kristoff declares, even he cannot increase Scott's limited intellect, but with the additional firepower Scott might actually be useful to the team instead of shrinking to insect size whenever danger threatens. Harsh! When Kristoff inquires why Lang is dressed up in fancy civilian clothes today, he gets his answer when the secretary calls in to inform Scott that his daughter Cassie has arrived at reception. Delighted to hear this, Scott sprints off to meet her, but advises Kristoff not to mention that he is Ant-Man because he is trying to maintain a secret identity.
Elsewhere in the headquarters the Thing is shocked to hear that Johnny is packing up to join the ranks of Fantastic Force. Johnny tries to make it sound as though he is going to lend his expertise to the group, but in reality he is concerned about Franklin's increasingly unstable psionic powers in the wake of Nathaniel's treachery, and he wants to keep an eye on things without alarming Ben or Sue. Finishing his packing, Johnny says goodbye to Ben, leaving him his autographed Joe DiMaggio baseball. Scott is surprised when Kristoff - devoid of his armor - comes down to introduce himself to Cassie as well. Charming the young girl with his courtly manners, Kristoff offers to show her around the Four Freedoms Plaza, and Scott is completely freaked out that Kristoff Vernard is hitting on his daughter right after insulting him to his face!
Hearing that Kristoff has been inside one of the labs to work on an Ant-Man suit, Ben goes to tell Sue about it but discovers that she is busy talking with a representative of NATO. They learn that after the bottled city of Attilan was restored to its normal size in the wake of the Atlantis Rising event, it was trapped in a barrier around the island, but there were reports of some costumed individuals teleporting away before the dome sealed. Sue suspects that it might be the Inhuman royal family and signs off. She hopes for the best for the Inhumans, also thinking of how many Atlanteans died when Atlantis was raised from the ocean floor. Ben is troubled to hear that Sue is worrying over Namor again, but can't help but wonder what happened to the Sub-Mariner. Meanwhile, deep below the ocean, Namor views the ruins left by the raising of Atlantis. Seeing his homeland decimated again sparks a deep anger within the former monarch of Atlantis and he vows to get revenge.
Back at Four Freedoms Plaza, Kristoff continues to give Cassie her tour while Scott tries to keep his temper in check. Kristoff calls out to his assistant Boris, and the mysterious unseen man who has been posing as Boris shifts back into the form of the man he is impersonating so he can introduce himself to Scott's daughter…
Meanwhile, deep in the jungles of Brazil, Professor Kenneth Robeson researches mysterious carvings he found that resemble the Thing of the Fantastic Four. When he is interrupted by the sound of gunshots he goes to find their source and catches his guide, a man named Mico, shooting at a leopard. Because hunting is illegal on archaeological digs, Jenson scolds Mico reminding him what their purpose is in the jungles. When Robeson goes back to his studies, one of Mico's men asks why he puts up with being scolded like that and Mico reminds him that this expedition could lead to untold riches.
Robeson's concerns about Mico are soon put aside when one of his aids comes to tell them that they have found the long lost temple of the sun demons. Quickly they go to the site and begin the exploration. Inside they find hieroglyphics that tell of a device that can turn men into monsters which resemble the Thing. They find a strange machine in the ruins, but as one of Mico's men goes to examine it, Mico accidentally activates the device and it blasts the man with energy.
In New York City, Johnny spends time with Laura Green, still unaware that she is really his ex-wife Lyja in disguise. After buying her a flower, he tells her that he has to rendezvous with Fantastic Force. 'Laura' respond that it's fine because she has an appointment to keep herself. After Johnny flames on and flies away, Lyja drops her disguise and takes wing to the Four Freedoms Plaza where she meets with Sue, who explains that with Johnny leaving the team the Fantastic Four are short a person, and she asks Lyja to join in the Torch's place.
Suddenly there is an alarm bringing the Fantastic Four to the communications room, where they receive a distress call from Professor Robeson. Before he can tell them of the danger he is in, a figure with rocky hands like the Thing smashes his communicator to bits. Surprised by this development, Sue begins mobilizing the group, and when Scott tells them that he can't leave due to Cassie being around, Lyja agrees to join the mission in his stead. Soon the Fantastic Four and Kristoff fly away in the Stealth-Hawk, allowing the man who is posing as Boris to begin his private work in peace. With the others gone, Cassie also asks Scott if Kristoff has a girlfriend, much to her father's despair and frustration…
A few hours later the Fantastic Four arrive in the Brazilian rainforest and begin searching for Professor Robeson and his crew. While the others try to make ground by traveling over the top of the jungle, Ben opts to walk through instead. As the Thing travels into the jungle alone, he mentally recounts his concerns about Kristoff and how Sue enlisted Lyja without consulting him. His thoughts are interrupted when he is attacked by a group of men who have been transformed into Things just like him. Meanwhile, Sue and the others have located Robeson's camp which has been smashed to pieces.
As they search for clues, Sue comes across the strange statue that resembles Ben, similar to an artifact which Robeson brought to them some time earlier. Suddenly they are ambushed by Mico and his men who stun Sue and Lyja with blow darts and incapacitate Kristoff's armor with a strong adhesive.
Ben manages to fight off his transformed attackers who lack his years of experience in fighting in his body. Pressing onward through the jungle, Ben comes to the temple of the sun demons where he finds Mico waiting for him. When Ben demands answers, Mico defies him by unleashing Sue, Lyja, and Kristoff who have also been transformed into Things, solely loyal to him…
Fantastic Four v1 #404 - Things to Come (Part 2) - With Friends Like These
Namor comes knocking at Four Freedoms Plaza's door to find Sue, and won't take no for an answer, so Scott decides to ask Boris to get his daughter to safety while he deals with the situation. Ultimately Scott decides that it's not worth getting into a fight over, and he agrees to lead Namor to her. Scott explains to Namor that Sue and the others went to Brazil, and brings him to Reed's Time/Space lab where he sends Namor off with the Time-Platform. Before he goes, Namor tells Lang that he intends to petition Sue for membership in the Fantastic Four. Watching from the shadows, the man pretending to be Boris is surprised by this development and resolves to contact his master…
Meanwhile, in Brazil, Ben fights off Sue, Lyja, and Kristoff who have all been Thingified by the device Mico is abusing.
With everyone's attention turned to the battle, Professor Robeson makes a break for it in the hopes he can somehow help Ben. The original Thing soon creates a distraction to cover his own escape from the battle, though he doesn't get very far. Ben is just about to rejoin the fight with his teammates when he is unexpectedly joined by the Sub-Mariner. When Namor tries to appeal to Sue's inner nature, her transformed self ignores his pleas and attacks him anyway, and the two get into a protracted fight. While Namor is busy with that, Professor Robeson makes his presence known to Ben and tells him about the device that can change people into Things, and also that he believes that the transformations are only temporary.
In New York, Not-quite-Boris contacts his master to inform him of recent developments, and this pleases the mystery individual pulling his strings, who believes events are reaching the critical juncture in which he will enact the final phase of his plan. As the impostor Boris continues his report he suddenly realizes that Cassie has been spying on him for the last few minutes, and he chases after the girl lest she blow his cover. Scott is busy looking for his daughter when he runs into Boris chasing her down, and the impostor drops pretenses and threatens Scott by holding Cassie hostage and blasting him aside with a laser. Scott manages to dive out of the way of the blast, and this sudden revelation of betrayal makes Scott suspect that Kristoff could turn on them as well, since he and 'Boris' came as a package deal.
In Brazil, Ben and Robeson sneak into the temple and examine the writings on the wall, and Ben wonders if this machine could also restore his long lost humanity rather than just turn people into more of him. They are suddenly surrounded by Mico and his men, and the villain explains that he intends to use the device to create an army of Things which he will use to take over and plunder the entire world. Ben wants nothing to do with this nonsense and goes in for a clobbering. As Mico's armies pile onto Ben and pound him, Sue continues her battle with Namor outside...
Suddenly the effects of the strange device wear off and Sue reverts back to human form. Hearing that Ben is fighting alone against a bunch of Mico's men, Sue and Namor rush inside to help. The brutal beating continues there until Mico's men, Kristoff, and Lyja all revert back to normal as well when their transformations run out of steam. Mico tries to take control of the situation by holding Kristoff at gunpoint while his men expose themselves to the machine again, but they are stopped when Sue erects a force field between them and the device. Since Namor can tank bullets and is thus not in any particular danger anymore, he dives at Mico and easily disarms him.
In the aftermath of the battle Professor Robeson examines Ben and realizes that he has been seriously injured in the fighting and could even die as a result. Realizing Ben's only salvation could be the machine they discovered, the Fantastic Four agree to expose Ben to its power. Soon, Ben is placed on the table beneath it and both Professor Robeson and Kristoff activate the controls in the hope they can save the Thing's life…
Fantastic Four v1 #405 - Things to Come (Part 3) - Terror Is Tomorrow!
The Fantastic Four, Namor, Kristoff and Professor Robeson watch in awe as Ben is not only healed by the machine Kristoff repaired, but restored to human form in the process. Ben is happy to discover this, but when he looks in the mirror he sees that the device did not heal the scars on his face that he received from Wolverine. Losing his temper, Ben smashes the mirror he is looking in anger, furious that his new found humanity has a catch to it. However Sue calms him down by telling him that they will seek a plastic surgeon to see what they can do to restore his face. Ben's tantrum uncovered more hieroglyphics behind the walls, and after examining them Robeson informs Ben that his own transformation back to humanity is also temporary.
Ben is about to lose his temper again when Kristoff talks him down, pointing out that they could just load the device into the Stealth-Hawk and set it up at the Four Freedoms Plaza so Ben can use it whenever he wants to turn human for a while. When this is met with protests from the Professor because it'd mean losing out on his archeological find, Ben points out that the machine creates monsters and is a threat, so it is safest with the Fantastic Four. Although all are in agreement now, Sue can't help but notice that Ben became more volatile after being exposed to the rays.
Back at Four Freedoms Plaza, Boris is still trying to kill Scott before he can alert the others to his treachery, and Scott flees to the lab and seals himself inside. There he finds the new Ant-Man armor that Kristoff has been making for him and puts it on. Boris, meanwhile, decides to seal Ant-Man inside the lab by welding the door shut with his ray gun, though this doesn't really stop someone who can shrink to diminutive size and slip through the tiniest of cracks...
The Fantastic Four are flying home in the Stealth-Hawk when Ben loses his temper again because Scott is not answering their calls. Lyja and Kristoff suggest that Lang is probably spending time with his daughter Cassie, and Lyja jokes that Kristoff appears to have a crush on Cassie, which causes her to think about her ex-husband Johnny. Meanwhile, Namor attempts to convince Sue that they deserve to be together after the apparent death of her husband and the loss of his kingdom. Sue denies him, telling Namor that she needs more time to grieve the loss of Reed. The Sub-Mariner respects Sue's wishes and tells her that he can wait, though Sue is left to wonder if she should still be waiting so long after Reed's demise.
Boris reports back to his master that the Fantastic Four are on their way back, unaware that Scott is spying on him through the ventilation shaft. Scott ambushes Boris from behind, but the man is ready for this and suddenly, inexplicably, Conan the Barbarian appears from out of nowhere and tries to kill the diminutive Ant-Man with his sword. He is also joined by the Iron Man of the year 2020 who tries to blast Ant-Man, and by this point Boris has decided to drop his disguise and revealed himself to be the time traveler known as Zarrko the Tomorrow Man all along.
Ant-Man manages to trip up his two attackers and they vanish, but in their stead appears the original Green Goblin. Zarrko gloats over his impending victory, unaware that his presence has set off a device which alerts Nathaniel Richards, who fears that the events he has come to this time period to prevent are about to come to pass.
When the rest of the Fantastic Four return home they are attacked by more time-displaced super-humans: The Red Raven, Bucky Barnes, Toro, the Once and Future Thor, the Melter, Snowbird, and the original Union Jack. While they defend themselves, Ben reverts back to his Thing form to lend a hand in the battle. Scott continues to fight for his life against further threats like Omega the Unknown while Zarrko continues to gloat. The heroes in the other room have to face off against the Rawhide Kid, the original Black Knight, the original Blizzard, Blackout, and Skurge the Executioner. Back in the lab, Ant-Man narrowly dodges the Whizzer and manages to snag Zarrko's time control device attached to his belt. With the device disabled it returns all the attackers to their proper era. Before Zarrko can attempt to retrieve his technology, Ben comes crashing through the wall and apprehends him.
With the battle over with, Sue reassures Scott that she sent Lyja over to free Cassie. Before Scott can doff his costume and preserve his double identity, Cassie enters the room and instantly recognizes him, and Scott is surprised to learn that his daughter has known about his double identity all along - and she mentions that it's not like he's a cool superhero like Spider-Man anyway. Ouch! Defeated, Zarrko offers to give the heroes information regarding the true fate of Mister Fantastic and Doctor Doom in exchange for his freedom, which comes as a shock to Sue. Before Zarrko can say any more, however, he is seemingly incinerated by a blast of energy, leaving behind only ash in his wake. However, Kristoff was scanning the room when it happened to make sure Zarrko didn't have any more tricks up his sleeve, and informs the others that what they witnessed wasn't incineration at all, but a time-beam which spirited Zarrko away. More importantly, he can track that beam to its source!
Rating & Comments
We round out our Interim Dooms coverage with two storylines which, on the whole, didn't impress me all that much. The Atlantis Rising event is a convoluted mess which is focused mostly on the Inhumans, with the Fantastic Four getting relegated to the background for large chunks, even though it's their title. Nathaniel is quite relevant there, as this is where we get the resolution for his continual attempts to steal power wherever he can find it - and never before has he channeled his inner Doctor Doom quite as much as he does here. His extensive manipulation of everyone to meet his own ends combined with constant attempts to steal everyone's power for himself is pretty recognizable. Though, somehow, he manages to outstrip Doom in his utter lack of loyalty or care about others… He ends up stealing some information, but otherwise loses most of what he attempts to gain.
The second storyline focuses more on Ben, at least in part of its plot, and he does end up with a significant status quo change at the end - the mysterious machine which can turn people into copies of the Thing can also temporarily turn him back into his human form. It seems to have some side-effects like an incandescent temper and it doesn't actually heal his Wolverine-inflicted facial disfiguration (which is still around, it's been there a long time!) Still, at least for the forthcoming stories, Ben can actually go out without being an orange rock pretty much whenever he wants, and that'll doubtless play into some of these stories. Good for him! Kristoff gets to strut his stuff during this story too, since he's the one who ends up repairing the ancient machine so it can be used well outside of its intended use.
Something more relevant to my Doom readthrough which gets a bit of a resolution here is that Kristoff is building something of a friendship with Scott Lang, even if he tends to be an arrogant twit about it. He demeans Scott constantly when they fight together, and even to other people, but at the same time he is also first to come to Scott's aid and to compliment him when he pulls off something impressive. Nothing displays their growing friendship more, though, than Kristoff going out of his way to build Ant-Man a complete new costume for the explicit purpose of making him a stronger combatant. Yeah, he might argue it's because it's practical to have Scott be less useless, but I'm not seeing Kristoff build the rest of the team any fancy gadgets without a request! It's endearing, really. The armor comes in handy against Zarrko, too!
To add to the 'Kristoff learns how to do feelings' bandwagon, he also develops something of a crush on Scott's daughter Cassie Lang, which is simultaneously endearing and honestly kind of creepy. I'm sure Scott would agree on the latter. Kristoff usually comes off as a young adult due to his adult-sized armor, so it's very easy to forget he's not - and it's jarring to be reminded that he's a child similar in age to Cassie and there's no skeevy stuff going on here. Add to this Scott's entirely justified suspicion of Kristoff after his supposed retainer proves to be an impostor supervillain, and it's no shocker that he's uncomfortable with the growing friendship between these kids. The storyline in question, however, is not actually tied up in the issues I've covered - it'll carry forward into the Strange Days multipart arc that's coming up next. Yes, that's the one where Doom comes back! Should be fun...
Speaking of Boris, by the way, the long-running mystery of who is masquerading as Doom's retainer is finally answered here, and the truth is that Boris was never actually in the story at all! Shocker. From the very start where he was defrosted, Boris was actually an undercover supervillain who was keeping an eye on everything for his shadowy, mysterious supervillain master. Zarrko the Tomorrow Man is a bit of a schlocky dumbass of a villain who summons random enemies from throughout time, pretty much identically to the way Aron did in the last story. Using the same power twice in a row with different characters, huh? They must have run short on ideas, since even the comic calls out Aron as a likely suspect. Zarrko also has a quirk where he's overweight, so naturally he has to constantly make random references to eating. Not cool, man, fat jokes are a cheap excuse for comedy.
What we also get in this issue, once and for all, is a confirmation that what truly happened to Doom and Reed was not their deaths, but some type of time-transportation. We already knew they'd be alive somehow, of course, but now characters actually realize it too so they can stop moping about and start fixing the problem. Thankfully Kristoff is around to be implausible competent tech support and confirms that what they're dealing with is a time-travel related plot rather than vaporization. Since Zarrko was there, though, I suppose the time travel part wasn't actually much of a shocker anymore. Sue never lost her faith, and she honestly has come quite a ways in recent times in both power and authority within the group, so I hope Reed's imminent return won't ruin all that progress. This time her character development didn't even require a boob window!
Next time, we leave the interim Doom years behind and welcome back the Monarch of Menace from a very long nap (and a parallel existence in 2099) with the Strange Days arc, a six-part epic. See you there!
Most Gloriously Villainous Kristoff Quotes
"If a brainless gargoyle like Grimm can reduce our foes by one... I can do no less!"
"Do not flatter yourself, you barbarous buffoon! I am the adopted son of Doctor Doom! I possess his memories, his peerless genius and his unequalled mastery of physical combat! I strike for his HONOR! His GLORY!"
"Your gambit was as successful as it was devious! Even Doctor Doom would have approved!"
"Freeing my armor will take precious seconds! Doom will never forgive me for being victimized in this fashion!"
"Stop patronizing me, Professor Robeson! I possess the scientific expertise of Doctor Doom himself - and I shall not FAIL!"
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- PA
I almost feel like Nathaniel and Kristiff are meant to be taken as the two sides of DOCTOR DOOM's personality.
Keistoff being the call-back to the bright young man Victor was in his youth, while Nathaniel is effectively Doom without the honor, power or competence that makes him terrifying.
Doom as good guy and Doom as bad guy, but without having wrangle the side of Doom you don't wish to deal with.
Ah, for when Writers could handle conplex characters!
Keistoff being the call-back to the bright young man Victor was in his youth, while Nathaniel is effectively Doom without the honor, power or competence that makes him terrifying.
Doom as good guy and Doom as bad guy, but without having wrangle the side of Doom you don't wish to deal with.
Ah, for when Writers could handle conplex characters!
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Ah, Stallior and Timberius. I remember when those losers thought they could fight the Hulk. The fact the comic wanted us to take it seriously was almost as funny as what happened with the ball and chain here.
164: Fantastic Four v1 #406 - Doom Quest!
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Fantastic Four v1 #406 (November 1995)
Cover
Lo, what do I see, a mainline non-interim issue? Yes! If you were wondering which issue would bring Doctor Doom back, I don't think you'd have much trouble figuring that out at the comic stands. For witness: DOOM IS BACK! It's been a while since we've seen classic Doctor Doom, green cloak and all, and he hasn't been a mainstay of my readthrough for a while, so it'll be interesting to get back to brass tacks with old Vic. What has he been up to in the last couple years while Nathaniel stole his country and took his castle for his own, and his adopted son decided to hang out with his greatest enemies while making derogatory jokes about Ant-Man? Maybe it'll turn out that the Doom who died was also just a ruse while a yet more advanced version of Doctor Doom wasn't even present in the entire history of Marvel up to this point? It wouldn't be out of character or without precedent!
Story Overview
Doom Quest!
The tagline of this issue announces the long-awaited and much-demanded return of comicdom's greatest super-villain, so it's canon now. Take that, Joker! Anyway, we start the actual story with a quick recap of the last issue, explaining that the Fantastic Four found out from their enemy Zarrko the Tomorrow Man that Reed Richards and Doctor Doom might still be alive. Now, only a few days later, a deadly threat suddenly menaces Four Freedoms Plaza - a time-bomb! It's actually a rather literal description, since they receive a bomb sent to them through time, as a response to Kristoff tossing a scanning device into the distant future to chase down Zarrko after he got teleported away. Someone booby-trapped the probe and sent it back, and it's only thanks to Sue wrapping it in an invisible force field that anything unfortunate is prevented from happening.
After the scanner implodes within Sue's power-bubble, the rest of the team rushes over to see what happened - Ben, Scott, Lyja, and even Namor are there due to previous events. Kristoff tells them that everything is under control, recounting how his internal sensors locked onto the beam of temporal energy which zapped Zarrko away in the last issue. His scanner was an attempt to learn what awaited anyone who chased the villain down, and Scott guesses the response means there's a 'no trespassing' sign. Ben thinks it's just an invitation to kick butt, but Lyja doesn't see the wisdom in rushing in without proper intelligence. Sue says she agrees with her in theory - but they don't really have a choice right now. She's already decided they're going to follow up on this brand new lead - and they're leaving in an hour! Namor wonders if Sue has lost her mind, pointing out that this could very well be an elaborate trap. Indeed, she's already run into exactly this scenario before in Fantastic Four Unlimited #8, and that was, in fact, a trap!
Switching over to a far distant future timeline, we see a huge thorn-covered Space Needle with eagle wings and a skull printed on the front. This is the very subtle, not at all overdone supervillain base which Zarrko was transported to, and it belongs to his mysterious master.
He and his anonymous blue-cloaked boss are watching the events in the past via spy footage from inside the Fantastic Four's base, with the former sarcastically commenting that Namor sure is a bright boy! Of course it's a trap! He loves it when a plan starts to come together, and pretending to be Boris for so long was terribly boring. He wonders if his boss is also anxious to finally confront all that's left of the Fantastic Four. The man argues he's not anxious at all, because this confrontation has always been as inevitable as it was necessary. He then excuses himself, saying he must see to the comfort of his most honored guest.
Walking into a nearby room, several flunkies in blue uniforms give their boss a straight-up Nazi salute and announce that their prisoner remains secure. They admit this has a lot less to do with their vigilance, though, than with the application of their master's Brain Disarrator, a device that removes all possibility of escape by making the wearer's formation of coherent thoughts impossible. The prisoner can't even think of escaping! The master dismisses his underlings, claiming he wishes some alone time with the prisoner. Afterwards he wanders closer, and we see that the prisoner is a brown-haired man suspended in mid-air by his wrists and ankles, the tattered remains of some kind of green tabard clinging to his body - hey, wait a minute! That guy hanging by his wrists with a crown of thorns on his head ain't Jesus, that's Victor von Doom! What's up, Doom? You've looked better. The master gleefully guesses that his trussed-up pal must feel so frustrated and humiliated by this painful ordeal - and that's a good thing! He'd hate to have wasted his efforts in that regard!
The boss's alone time with the mindless half-naked man hanging spread-eagle in his base is interrupted when one of his toadies enters and announces that he just received a message from the governor of the planet Alterra-4, who regrets to inform him that rebel forces have overrun his capital city. The master shakes an angry fist at the news and declares that the dissidents will pay for their defiance with the rest of their lives. So will that incompetent buffoon of a governor for failing to crush the insurrection! As he shakes his fist, we see his arm stick out from under the blue robe - it's clad in a fancy superhero-type wrist gauntlet in red, white, and blue…
Some time later, on the planet Alterra-4, local rebel forces keep a watchful eye out for the forces of the so-called 'Master Supreme', believing he will surely come to regain the planet. They have to keep alert - the lives and liberty of all they love is at stake! One of the scouts suddenly yells that he sees something - they're coming! The master has unleashed his Destructoids! We don't get a clear idea of what the so-called Destructoids actually are, but the new weapon is unstoppable, easily piercing the defenses of the rebel faction - they're doomed! As desperate rebels fight to keep their wives and children safe, Zarrko watches these events in horror on a video screen and despairs. Not again! He enjoys good payback as much as anyone, but this goes way too far! How many more worlds and civilizations will his lunatic master obliterate before he is done…?
Back in Four Freedoms Plaza, Sue packs various medical supplies for their trip, deciding that they have to be ready for anything since they still don't know who, or what, they might be facing. Namor admits he doesn't understand Sue's insistence on going - why would she risk herself and her teammates on this futile quest? Reed is dead and gone, and she should just accept it! Sue asks who the hell Namor is to say such a thing - when they first met he was searching for his own lost people, struggling to find them in the vast oceans - and he found them! How futile was his quest, in the end? Reed is her husband, so she can't give up on him, not if there's still the slimmest sliver of hope. If she's ever going to get on with her life, she has to learn the truth! Namor doesn't seem pleased with this answer, but decides they shall assist in the search for Reed, though to himself he prays they won't find him.
Namor then brings up another point of contention - Kristoff. How can he be trusted? Is he not Doctor Doom's heir? Was he not programmed with his master's memories and scientific knowledge? Will he not betray the group with the darting speed of a moray eel when it suits his own sinister purpose? We look in on Kristoff, who is doing some work on his armor. Scott walks into the lab and greets him, and Kristoff is quick to assume he's there as a spy, though he's actually just there to thank the kid for his new costume. It really helped against Zarrko! Kristoff mutters that he shouldn't sound so surprised about that, since it was designed with his bumbling ineptitude in mind! Scott sarcastically thinks to himself that Kristoff sure is a sweet kid. Distractedly, he also wonders what exactly Kristoff was working on when he entered that he'd be so discombobulated by someone interrupting him…
Sue catches up with Lyja using a very old-timey phone - even for the 90's - and asks if anything is wrong. Lyja admits that she's been trying to reach Johnny or Franklin for a while, but it seems the Fantastic Force are on a mission of their own and beyond reach at the moment. Sue figures it's just as well not to give them potential false hope. Lyja wonders if they'll really discover the truth about Reed soon, and Sue admits that while anything is possible, they can't ignore the possibility that all of this is a trap. As such, she's had an idea she'd like to discuss with Lyja in another room…
Ben, in human form but stripped to his underwear, walks into a laboratory in the base and decides he can't keep the others waiting - they're probably heading out on a fool's errand, but he doesn't really care about that. He could use a change of scenery, since he was getting bored of hanging around this place anyway. So, it's time to test out the fancy set-up Kristoff whipped up for him - it's the machine retrieved from Brazil last arc, which has been set up for easy access so it can transform Ben between forms at the touch of a button. He can now bombard himself with cosmic rays whenever he chooses, and this is one of those times, because someone went through a lot of effort to lure them to the future. They'd better be ready for the ever-lovin' blue-eyed Thing!
The entire group gathers together with all their gear, including Sue wearing a snazzy brown jacket she probably nicked from Reed's stash. Kristoff impatiently tells Ben it was about time he joined, but he smartly points out that there's no hurry - they're traveling by time platform after all, so when they leave isn't nearly as important as when they arrive! Scott mentions that he already programmed in the necessary coordinates, and exsplains that while he'd rather go with them, somebody has to stay behind and operate the machine. Ben tells him they'll all be counting on him to bring them back - and to tape Letterman while they're gone. Ben doesn't see Lyja anywhere and asks after her, and Sue evasively mentions that she can't join them now because she had to deal with an unexpected problem. Hmm. Just as Sue tells Scott he can activate the machine, there's a sudden yell - Nathaniel has teleported in from Latveria to warn them all that they mustn't leave. Their lives will be forfeit if they embark on this perilous mission!
Sue rolls her eyes and admits she was wondering when he was going to pop up again. Ben tells him that he appreciated the dramatic entrance - now it's time to make an even grander exit! Nathan asks to be listened to, that he's come to help, to save them. Sue figures they might as well listen him out, since he's clearly got some information about the threat they're about to go after. Nathan agrees, admitting he does know the menace they face - knows him intimately! He is the reason why Nathaniel was forced to become a vagabond of time and space! Sue asks who he is, and what his connection is to Nathan or Reed, but Nathan claims he dare not say the name, because she's not ready! She could not, would not accept the truth! Sue, impatient, tells him he can't seriously expect her to scrub the mission because he says so. She needs to know more! When Nathan adds nothing more, she just tells Scott to activate the time platform. Hit it! They're out of there!
After the team fades away into the future, Nathaniel angrily curses out Sue for being so stubborn and headstrong, but Scott warns him that the woman he's talking about is a friend of his. 'Lucky you!' Nathaniel snarls, and he suggests Scott should begin preparations on her eulogy, because she's definitely going to die unless he can return to Latveria right now! He activates his teleporter and is shocked to discover he doesn't materialize back home - he suddenly finds himself in the future, locked inside a little glass prison. It seems his transmat beam was hijacked by the mysterious Supreme Master, who then immediately ruins his gravitas by going 'It's soooo nice to see you again.' I can't help it, now I'm reading him with a valley girl accent! Nathan asks what his kidnapper wants, and the master announces that it's the usual - absolute power, blind obedience, total domination! But that wasn't really Nathan's question, was it? No, he's much more concerned with the present agenda for… the new Fantastic Four!
That new Fantastic Four - consisting of Ben, Sue, Kristoff, and Namor - materialize in the middle of a village square that looks uncannily like Latveria, to the point that it's literally a recreation of a scene from Fantastic Four v1 #84, back when the team was kidnapped, dropped into a Latverian village, and brainwashed into not using their powers. Various locals begin yelling that the guests of the hour have arrived, that the festivities can now begin! Strike up the band! Kristoff warns the others that something is definitely off, and Ben agrees - when he thinks of the future he imagines Star Wars, but this place looks like it's straight out of Frankenstein! Namor comments that the townspeople appear to be sincere, but their friendliness doesn't quite ring true, and he suspects they're actually in grave danger. Ben jokes that he was planning a restful vacation, but what can you do?
The mayor shows up and welcomes illustrious visitors from the distant past, and Sue responds that if they're aware of who is visiting, they must also know why the team has come to this time period… and it's not to listen to a band. Kristoff whispers to Sue that his internal scanners are telling him these people are not what they appear. Indeed, they are not people at all - they're robots! All of them! The mayor, undeterred, drags the team off to a special banquet in their honor, and when Ben tries to say no, he becomes rather insistent. The Master Supreme is waiting for them! He grabs Ben by the shoulder and his grip is extremely strong - it feels like his arm is being crushed in a vise! Ripping himself free, Ben also pulls off the robot's entire arm in the process.
This act, first blood in a sense, sets off all the robots - the visitors scorned their hospitality, so it's time to destroy them! Destroy them all! The band suddenly begin employing their instruments as laser weapons, and Ben quickly upturns a chunk of street to serve as an improvised shield, commenting that the locals sure have a unique way of dealing with tourists! Sue tells Ben not to clown around, noting that whoever built these robots might also be the one keeping Reed prisoner. Kristoff agrees, and says that these robots are the most sophisticated he's ever seen - with the sole exception of his master's personal Doombots. Namor starts ripping into the bots, and observes that they lack the power needed to defeat them - their sole purpose must be to weaken or distract them!
As the team starts tearing through the entire robot population of the town, Ben comments that he's fine with a bunch of weaker robots - he was afraid he'd run out of these creeps long before he had his daily recommended clobbering. Bring on more bad guys! Kristoff comments that he really hopes Ben's bravado won't come back to haunt them, and Ben tells him to lighten up - he's just getting warmed up here! Besides, it's not like they're about to get flattened by some sudden bolt from the blue! That is, of course, when the entire group is suddenly flattened by a bolt from the blue, knocking them all unconscious. Figures.
Later, with the entire team locked up in glass prisons like Nathaniel's, a paralyzed Sue mutters that Ben really should learn to watch his mouth. Kristoff finds their situation interesting, observing that while they were stripped of all weapons and their bodies frozen in stasis, the chambers were designed to allow them all to talk to each other. Ben thinks their captor might want to play Trivial Pursuit, but Sue argues he won't get the chance. Namor thinks Sue sounds far more confident than the situation warrants, and she comments that she plans ahead. That's when Sue's equipment, laid out on a chair nearby, suddenly comes alive, and it turns out her tacticool vest was actually a shapeshifted Lyja! So this was the unexpected problem she was sent out to deal with, huh? Lyja tells them all to hold their applause until after she sets them free!
Soon enough the entire team is free from their stasis tubes, and Ben comments that he hates to spoil the mood - but that was all a little easy, wasn't it? A simple bio-scan should have uncovered Lyja's presence. Sue agrees, but doesn't want to blow the opportunity, and Kristoff says they should begin their search. Moving to the next room over, they discover a familiar man hanging in some sort of contraption - and that face… There's no way Sue could ever forget that face! It's Doom! Doctor Doom! Ben is stunned, deciding that if this guy is the real deal, that means there's a chance for Reed's survival as well. Kristoff announces that he can put Ben's mind to rest about this being the real Doom - he knows his beloved Master, and could not fail to recognize him! Without question, he can safely assure them that this is Victor von Doom! He then raises a hand and fires a beam into the paralyzed Doom's eyes, attempting to signal his cherished mentor so he'll know his salvation is at hand.
The party is interrupted, however, when a voice announces that Kristoff is being awfully presumptuous. They turn to find the villain of the hour behind them - and he looks ridiculous. He introduces himself too - he is Hyperstorm! Yeah, that doesn't sound silly at all.
He's thrown his blue cloak back to reveal that he's got red lapels, big silver pauldrons, pointy Magneto gauntlets, a gaudy gold belt with a winged skull for a buckle, a bird-shaped gold necklace, and a pointy mask which makes it look like he's got gigantic golden Rock Lee eyebrows. And that's not mentioning the weird multi-layered golden shin protectors. The newcomer announces that everyone should remain calm, for it is not his intention to harm them at this time, and it would be quite lamentable if he were forced to mar this momentous occasion with violence, wouldn't it? The Master Supreme has been rather anxious to greet them all, you see. Ever since his childhood - such as it was - he's heard inspirational tales of their daring and courage. Though he decides they are not quite prepared to learn his true identity, suffice it to say he is known by many names on countless worlds - but the one he most prefers is Hyperstorm, obviously. Though uninvited, the team shall be treated as guests for the remainder of their lives!
Not remotely interested in the theatrics, the Fantastic Four close in to fight Hyperstorm, with Lyja turning into a tentacled monstrosity while Namor observes that they've already seen how he treats his 'guests.' Sue rushes in and warns Namor not to let the villain goad him - they must fight on their own terms, not his! Hyperstorm tells Sue to save her breath as he dodges Namor, declaring that history has recorded that the Sub-Mariner is much too impetuous to be inhibited by mere reason. Ben wonders how Hyperstorm might describe him, and the villain effortlessly knocks him backwards while answering: 'In a word, senseless.' Kristoff unloads his gun while Lyja tries to strangle the guy, but they both get punted backwards when Hyperstorm unleashes some of his personal 'Hyper-Power', which he claims is better than the Power Cosmic. It's amateur night by his standards!
Sue tries to blast Hyperstorm with her force blasts, and admits that he has demonstrated repeatedly that his power is greater than any of theirs - very macho, whatever. She's not there for that stuff, she just wants to know the truth. If he's been holding Doom captive all this time, then he must also know her husband's fate. Where is he? What happened to him? Hyperstorm says he fully intends to divulge that information - just as soon as he shatters her irritating force shield! Blasting Sue backwards, Hyperstorm congratulates the group for lasting longer than he anticipated - they're as valiant as legends claim. Now, he shall reward their noble efforts by finally revealing the true fate of Reed Richards! Rather than bore them with exposition, though, he'll simply allow them to join him! Raising his arms high, he blasts them all with another time-transportation spell that leaves only ashes behind…
In the aftermath, Hyperstorm looks up at the suspended body of Victor von Doom and says that's what he calls entertainment! He adds that he really hopes young Kristoff didn't give him any false hopes - his suffering has only barely begun! After he departs, however, the body stirs. Doom, still paralyzed, thinks to himself that the abysmally arrogant fool who captured him didn't even notice that Kristoff's quick thinking served him well. The beam of light Kristoff used to contact Doom disrupted the Brain Disarrator, giving him back his most potent weapon - his unrivaled intelligence! At long last he can once again think, and plan! Doom shall have vengeance! A most terrible and unholy vengeance!
Rating & Comments
Yes, this comic only barely qualifies as one that contains Doctor Doom - he only gets like a handful of panels and a smattering of lines. But he's back! Isn't that the important part? After spending several publication years on the backburner, save for a couple stray references and an alternate universe version that's pretty starkly different, Doom gets retconned from the dead here, humiliated and debased, but very much alive. How long that particular state will last, this time around, is anyone's guess, but I'll be covering these developments as they come!
This issue follows pretty closely on the previous one, as Kristoff immediately went about trying to track down Zarrko after he got teleported away. Sue is pretty gung-ho about getting Reed back and that's understandable, but the team's general perception that they're dealing with a trap here is too. It's left vague whether or not the events of Fantastic Four Unlimited #8 actually happened, but if the team was conned into following a false lead before, it makes sense they'd be wary of a similar lead popping up here. Admittedly I'm a little confused how Kristoff's sensors are able to pick up on a mysterious time-beam zapping Zarrko away here, if he's using Doom's technology. Surely Doom's sensors in Latveria would have picked up on the same signature zapping Doom and Reed away, if the same method of transportation was employed in both cases? Why was the team so stumped about what happened, then? Sue took Doom's computers, so surely somebody took a look at those in the interim months?
Regardless of those details, we visit the future next - it's not made clear if this is just the actual future far beyond things like 2099, or if it's some alternate possible future. I'd bank on the latter. Hyperstorm spends most of the issue hiding out in a big blue cloak and gauntlets while being pointlessly mysterious, and it's almost like the comic is trying to imply he might be someone else than who he turns out to be, like a future version of Doom himself, perhaps? He switches between weird valley girl stuff and overly precise, stuffy forms of language though, so if that was the point it doesn't really come across. Another point against it is the blue-garbed man's obvious hatred and disdain for Doom, to the point that he designed an intentionally demanding and painful ordeal for Victor which also renders him utterly harmless. He hates Doom so much he apparently makes a habit of ranting about things to his prisoner in private, which implies there's some very personal issues behind this whole situation.
Zarrko returns in this issue, and it becomes pretty clear that while he's a flunky to Hyperstorm, and subject to his power, he's also not on board with the violent excesses that his boss regularly commits. He watches on as Hyperstorm sends some of his machines - Destructoids - to destroy a rebellion on Alterra-4, one of the many planets he controls, and feels despair at his inability to stop it. How many more worlds will his lunatic master obliterate? I wonder if Zarrko will turn out to turn on Hyperstorm in coming issues, given his current state of mind. Perhaps he and Kristoff will meet up again, and we'll finally get some resolution to hiding out as his underling Boris for like a dozen issues? It kind of came and went without comment…
The situation between Sue and Namor is becoming increasingly uncomfortable as the issues go on, especially after Atlantis Rising. While Sue never wavered in her quest to get her husband back from wherever he was whisked off to, others around her were pretty quick to write Reed off as dead. None more so than Namor, who seems actively intent on keeping him dead so he can shoot his shot with Sue. He doesn't seem to care that Sue has agency and can decide for herself, she just sees her attachment to a missing person as pointless when she could be with him. While I won't cover the relevant issue in my readthrough, this uncomfortable situation will eventually escalate into Namor forcibly kissing Sue, then physically imposing himself on her to try and take her away from a husband he thinks is unworthy of her. It's gross, and I don't really care to hear Namor's justifications on something which I'm pretty sure crosses the line into outright sexual assault. Ew. (The issue in question is Fantastic Four v1 #412.)
Other characters get a bit of development too - Kristoff is a bit paranoid and believes everyone is still spying on him, but his relationship with Scott remains delightful. That said, this comic does seed a bit of suspicion about Kristoff himself, with him installing some unspecified new technology into his armor. It's also explained why Johnny isn't present for an adventure which involved getting Reed back - and it's just vaguely that he's off doing some other mission with the team he's currently a part of. I can't imagine that'll last very long, though, if Reed does return. Who could resist a comeback story, after all? Reuniting the Fantastic Four seems pretty inevitable at this point if they're bringing the original leader back from the dead. Ben also shows off that the fancy machine that they recently found in the Amazon will be a staple plot device for at least the coming few issues. It's also weirdly retconned into allowing Ben to go back and forth between forms instead of - as Kristoff stated in a previous issue - being a temporary change. Maybe it's relative?
There are a couple further excuses to pare down the number of people actually going on this adventure, with Scott remaining behind to man the console and Lyja being written out for unspecified reasons (though there's a good explanation there, later.) When they move to leave, though, Nathan shows to once again be an unhelpful prick who spouts dire warnings about things he doesn't want to be clear about, and Sue is having none of it. Most of the cast have gotten used to just calling Nathan out on his dickery, and I'm here for it. Sue hears him out as usual, but when he refuses to give any specifics, she just tells Scott to hit the button and send them on their way, much to Nathaniel's chagrin. It's great, and I won't mind seeing more of furious Nathan cursing out his headstrong daughter-in-law.
Nathan, of course, turns out to have something of a point this time, as he's shanghaied from his teleport home to Latveria by Hyperstorm, who turns out to be an enormous ham who can't help but monologue to anyone who wants to hear it. He starts talking up his own greatness almost immediately to his captive audience, declaring that he seeks the usual - absolute power, blind obedience, total domination! Between that and his obsession with the Fantastic Four, I think the implication that this new guy is somehow Doom-related in some way is an intended reading. I'm not excluding that possibility given Hyperstorm's vindictive imprisonment of Doom, but we'll see how that all turns out in future issues of this arc, I'm sure.
In another twist which obviously implies some strong connection with Doctor Doom, Hyperstorm replicates the Latverian village from an early arc of Fantastic Four when the team was trapped there, and replaces all the locals with homicidal robots. Back then, the villagers were just compelled by Doom to have festivities in the team's honor, though here they're programmed to. Kristoff even observes, in another nod to Doom, that these robots are the most sophisticated he's ever seen - short of the Doombots. Interesting. There's just layers of implied connection here that will probably be explored at some point down the line, but I'm not seeing the specifics yet. Granted, this arc has like five issues, so there is time.
The entire team gets effortlessly blasted unconscious in one shot, which is a feat that should be kept in mind going forward. If Hyperstorm can manage that so easily, then clearly he's just toying with the team - and it's to be expected that they'd pick up on that pretty quickly. Lyja's trick of hiding out as Sue's jacket is neat, but it also works too effortlessly for the escape to be genuine. This is a set-up. It's pretty clear then from who they find in the next chamber over that this entire encounter was set up by their captor, manipulating them into a place where they could witness Doom's embarrassment. I would comment on Sue recognizing Doom's face, but everyone got a pretty good look when it was healed up during Secret Wars, so I think that particular ship has sailed. Personally, I'm interested in the fact that the design for Doom's face, from the little bits we can see of it, has changed substantially since the last time it was fully on display in a comic book. I'll make a comparison graphic at some point…
Hyperstorm eventually doffs the big blue cloak and shows off that he is, in fact, a complete dork. For all that he is a multiplanetary conqueror, the costuming department did him dirty, making him a rather garish multi-colored spectacle with details like a skull-emblazoned belt buckle, enormous bulbous shin protectors, and bright red lapels. And that's before I mention the pseudo-samurai mask. Granted, all superhero and villain costumes can all look a bit silly at times, but Hyperstorm is like if somebody designed a heavy metal version of Robin and stapled a golden butterfly to his face. And made him every bit as conceited and arrogant as Doctor Doom, but with none of the redeeming qualities, honor, or stately mannerisms. Being hateable is a good trait to have, though, for a supervillain, so I'll be interested in watching his (probably short) career.
Doom finally gets his own scene at the very end of this issue, after Kristoff manages to disrupt the brain-scrambling device that Hyperstorm used to keep him pliant. That said, Hyperstorm does give Doom some final comments after the team is zapped away into the distant past, which may imply he knows that Doom is awake and this is still all part of his plan somehow. But, then, he did speak to comatose Doom too… Would Doom still remember those conversations, even if he couldn't form coherent thoughts in response? Doom seems aware of the technology that was used to keep him under, after all! In any case, Doom regains control of his mind, which is once more confirmed to be his most potent weapon here (rather than his greatest weakness, as in 2099.) Next time, we'll see what Victor does with the ability to think and plan…
While I'm not a great fan of some of the constant love-triangle nonsense happening in the background, this issue was pretty good on the whole and promises to return things to a somewhat more familiar status quo going forward by bringing back both Reed Richards and Doom. That said, Hyperstorm comes off as a whiny man-child of a galactic conqueror who doesn't have much of a personality beyond gleefully toying with people because he can. There are several Doom-related references in this issue which are interesting but don't ultimately contribute terribly much - they all just seem to be Hyperstorm playing out fantasies, or perhaps just stories from the distant past he's learned about here or there. He does seem to have a fascination with the Four and their greatest nemesis, after all, since he did kidnap a couple of them for his personal reasons… Three stars, and one of them is just for Doom returning in this issue, however minor his role might be!
Best Panel(s) of the Issues
I like this big fighting shot of the entire team against a village of robots - just moments before they get blasted by Hyperstorm from afar. It's neat!
Most Gloriously Villainous Doom Quotes
"At last Doctor Doom again possesses his most potent weapon… His unrivaled INTELLIGENCE!"
"At long last I can begin to think… and plan! I will have vengeance! A most terrible and unholy VENGEANCE!"
Doom's Bad Hair Day
Don't want to get weird about it, but who is damaging the clothes of a paralyzed Doom in between pages? That's odd, right? Or is it weirder to notice that the damage pattern on his clothing changed? Next you'll tell me it's odd that I noticed this issue has shots of the Ass of Doom! (Wait, it is? I'll leave the pictures out just in case it's weird.)
Also here's a comparison between the new Doom, who has a duller brown hairdo and gray eyes, compared to old Dooms with other shades of hair and brown eyes, plus different eyebrows and a different nose. It's noticeable! (To complete nerds, of course. Wait, is this also one of the weird things? People are hard.)
Cover
Lo, what do I see, a mainline non-interim issue? Yes! If you were wondering which issue would bring Doctor Doom back, I don't think you'd have much trouble figuring that out at the comic stands. For witness: DOOM IS BACK! It's been a while since we've seen classic Doctor Doom, green cloak and all, and he hasn't been a mainstay of my readthrough for a while, so it'll be interesting to get back to brass tacks with old Vic. What has he been up to in the last couple years while Nathaniel stole his country and took his castle for his own, and his adopted son decided to hang out with his greatest enemies while making derogatory jokes about Ant-Man? Maybe it'll turn out that the Doom who died was also just a ruse while a yet more advanced version of Doctor Doom wasn't even present in the entire history of Marvel up to this point? It wouldn't be out of character or without precedent!
Story Overview
Doom Quest!
The tagline of this issue announces the long-awaited and much-demanded return of comicdom's greatest super-villain, so it's canon now. Take that, Joker! Anyway, we start the actual story with a quick recap of the last issue, explaining that the Fantastic Four found out from their enemy Zarrko the Tomorrow Man that Reed Richards and Doctor Doom might still be alive. Now, only a few days later, a deadly threat suddenly menaces Four Freedoms Plaza - a time-bomb! It's actually a rather literal description, since they receive a bomb sent to them through time, as a response to Kristoff tossing a scanning device into the distant future to chase down Zarrko after he got teleported away. Someone booby-trapped the probe and sent it back, and it's only thanks to Sue wrapping it in an invisible force field that anything unfortunate is prevented from happening.
After the scanner implodes within Sue's power-bubble, the rest of the team rushes over to see what happened - Ben, Scott, Lyja, and even Namor are there due to previous events. Kristoff tells them that everything is under control, recounting how his internal sensors locked onto the beam of temporal energy which zapped Zarrko away in the last issue. His scanner was an attempt to learn what awaited anyone who chased the villain down, and Scott guesses the response means there's a 'no trespassing' sign. Ben thinks it's just an invitation to kick butt, but Lyja doesn't see the wisdom in rushing in without proper intelligence. Sue says she agrees with her in theory - but they don't really have a choice right now. She's already decided they're going to follow up on this brand new lead - and they're leaving in an hour! Namor wonders if Sue has lost her mind, pointing out that this could very well be an elaborate trap. Indeed, she's already run into exactly this scenario before in Fantastic Four Unlimited #8, and that was, in fact, a trap!
Switching over to a far distant future timeline, we see a huge thorn-covered Space Needle with eagle wings and a skull printed on the front. This is the very subtle, not at all overdone supervillain base which Zarrko was transported to, and it belongs to his mysterious master.
He and his anonymous blue-cloaked boss are watching the events in the past via spy footage from inside the Fantastic Four's base, with the former sarcastically commenting that Namor sure is a bright boy! Of course it's a trap! He loves it when a plan starts to come together, and pretending to be Boris for so long was terribly boring. He wonders if his boss is also anxious to finally confront all that's left of the Fantastic Four. The man argues he's not anxious at all, because this confrontation has always been as inevitable as it was necessary. He then excuses himself, saying he must see to the comfort of his most honored guest.
Walking into a nearby room, several flunkies in blue uniforms give their boss a straight-up Nazi salute and announce that their prisoner remains secure. They admit this has a lot less to do with their vigilance, though, than with the application of their master's Brain Disarrator, a device that removes all possibility of escape by making the wearer's formation of coherent thoughts impossible. The prisoner can't even think of escaping! The master dismisses his underlings, claiming he wishes some alone time with the prisoner. Afterwards he wanders closer, and we see that the prisoner is a brown-haired man suspended in mid-air by his wrists and ankles, the tattered remains of some kind of green tabard clinging to his body - hey, wait a minute! That guy hanging by his wrists with a crown of thorns on his head ain't Jesus, that's Victor von Doom! What's up, Doom? You've looked better. The master gleefully guesses that his trussed-up pal must feel so frustrated and humiliated by this painful ordeal - and that's a good thing! He'd hate to have wasted his efforts in that regard!
The boss's alone time with the mindless half-naked man hanging spread-eagle in his base is interrupted when one of his toadies enters and announces that he just received a message from the governor of the planet Alterra-4, who regrets to inform him that rebel forces have overrun his capital city. The master shakes an angry fist at the news and declares that the dissidents will pay for their defiance with the rest of their lives. So will that incompetent buffoon of a governor for failing to crush the insurrection! As he shakes his fist, we see his arm stick out from under the blue robe - it's clad in a fancy superhero-type wrist gauntlet in red, white, and blue…
Some time later, on the planet Alterra-4, local rebel forces keep a watchful eye out for the forces of the so-called 'Master Supreme', believing he will surely come to regain the planet. They have to keep alert - the lives and liberty of all they love is at stake! One of the scouts suddenly yells that he sees something - they're coming! The master has unleashed his Destructoids! We don't get a clear idea of what the so-called Destructoids actually are, but the new weapon is unstoppable, easily piercing the defenses of the rebel faction - they're doomed! As desperate rebels fight to keep their wives and children safe, Zarrko watches these events in horror on a video screen and despairs. Not again! He enjoys good payback as much as anyone, but this goes way too far! How many more worlds and civilizations will his lunatic master obliterate before he is done…?
Back in Four Freedoms Plaza, Sue packs various medical supplies for their trip, deciding that they have to be ready for anything since they still don't know who, or what, they might be facing. Namor admits he doesn't understand Sue's insistence on going - why would she risk herself and her teammates on this futile quest? Reed is dead and gone, and she should just accept it! Sue asks who the hell Namor is to say such a thing - when they first met he was searching for his own lost people, struggling to find them in the vast oceans - and he found them! How futile was his quest, in the end? Reed is her husband, so she can't give up on him, not if there's still the slimmest sliver of hope. If she's ever going to get on with her life, she has to learn the truth! Namor doesn't seem pleased with this answer, but decides they shall assist in the search for Reed, though to himself he prays they won't find him.
Namor then brings up another point of contention - Kristoff. How can he be trusted? Is he not Doctor Doom's heir? Was he not programmed with his master's memories and scientific knowledge? Will he not betray the group with the darting speed of a moray eel when it suits his own sinister purpose? We look in on Kristoff, who is doing some work on his armor. Scott walks into the lab and greets him, and Kristoff is quick to assume he's there as a spy, though he's actually just there to thank the kid for his new costume. It really helped against Zarrko! Kristoff mutters that he shouldn't sound so surprised about that, since it was designed with his bumbling ineptitude in mind! Scott sarcastically thinks to himself that Kristoff sure is a sweet kid. Distractedly, he also wonders what exactly Kristoff was working on when he entered that he'd be so discombobulated by someone interrupting him…
Sue catches up with Lyja using a very old-timey phone - even for the 90's - and asks if anything is wrong. Lyja admits that she's been trying to reach Johnny or Franklin for a while, but it seems the Fantastic Force are on a mission of their own and beyond reach at the moment. Sue figures it's just as well not to give them potential false hope. Lyja wonders if they'll really discover the truth about Reed soon, and Sue admits that while anything is possible, they can't ignore the possibility that all of this is a trap. As such, she's had an idea she'd like to discuss with Lyja in another room…
Ben, in human form but stripped to his underwear, walks into a laboratory in the base and decides he can't keep the others waiting - they're probably heading out on a fool's errand, but he doesn't really care about that. He could use a change of scenery, since he was getting bored of hanging around this place anyway. So, it's time to test out the fancy set-up Kristoff whipped up for him - it's the machine retrieved from Brazil last arc, which has been set up for easy access so it can transform Ben between forms at the touch of a button. He can now bombard himself with cosmic rays whenever he chooses, and this is one of those times, because someone went through a lot of effort to lure them to the future. They'd better be ready for the ever-lovin' blue-eyed Thing!
The entire group gathers together with all their gear, including Sue wearing a snazzy brown jacket she probably nicked from Reed's stash. Kristoff impatiently tells Ben it was about time he joined, but he smartly points out that there's no hurry - they're traveling by time platform after all, so when they leave isn't nearly as important as when they arrive! Scott mentions that he already programmed in the necessary coordinates, and exsplains that while he'd rather go with them, somebody has to stay behind and operate the machine. Ben tells him they'll all be counting on him to bring them back - and to tape Letterman while they're gone. Ben doesn't see Lyja anywhere and asks after her, and Sue evasively mentions that she can't join them now because she had to deal with an unexpected problem. Hmm. Just as Sue tells Scott he can activate the machine, there's a sudden yell - Nathaniel has teleported in from Latveria to warn them all that they mustn't leave. Their lives will be forfeit if they embark on this perilous mission!
Sue rolls her eyes and admits she was wondering when he was going to pop up again. Ben tells him that he appreciated the dramatic entrance - now it's time to make an even grander exit! Nathan asks to be listened to, that he's come to help, to save them. Sue figures they might as well listen him out, since he's clearly got some information about the threat they're about to go after. Nathan agrees, admitting he does know the menace they face - knows him intimately! He is the reason why Nathaniel was forced to become a vagabond of time and space! Sue asks who he is, and what his connection is to Nathan or Reed, but Nathan claims he dare not say the name, because she's not ready! She could not, would not accept the truth! Sue, impatient, tells him he can't seriously expect her to scrub the mission because he says so. She needs to know more! When Nathan adds nothing more, she just tells Scott to activate the time platform. Hit it! They're out of there!
After the team fades away into the future, Nathaniel angrily curses out Sue for being so stubborn and headstrong, but Scott warns him that the woman he's talking about is a friend of his. 'Lucky you!' Nathaniel snarls, and he suggests Scott should begin preparations on her eulogy, because she's definitely going to die unless he can return to Latveria right now! He activates his teleporter and is shocked to discover he doesn't materialize back home - he suddenly finds himself in the future, locked inside a little glass prison. It seems his transmat beam was hijacked by the mysterious Supreme Master, who then immediately ruins his gravitas by going 'It's soooo nice to see you again.' I can't help it, now I'm reading him with a valley girl accent! Nathan asks what his kidnapper wants, and the master announces that it's the usual - absolute power, blind obedience, total domination! But that wasn't really Nathan's question, was it? No, he's much more concerned with the present agenda for… the new Fantastic Four!
That new Fantastic Four - consisting of Ben, Sue, Kristoff, and Namor - materialize in the middle of a village square that looks uncannily like Latveria, to the point that it's literally a recreation of a scene from Fantastic Four v1 #84, back when the team was kidnapped, dropped into a Latverian village, and brainwashed into not using their powers. Various locals begin yelling that the guests of the hour have arrived, that the festivities can now begin! Strike up the band! Kristoff warns the others that something is definitely off, and Ben agrees - when he thinks of the future he imagines Star Wars, but this place looks like it's straight out of Frankenstein! Namor comments that the townspeople appear to be sincere, but their friendliness doesn't quite ring true, and he suspects they're actually in grave danger. Ben jokes that he was planning a restful vacation, but what can you do?
The mayor shows up and welcomes illustrious visitors from the distant past, and Sue responds that if they're aware of who is visiting, they must also know why the team has come to this time period… and it's not to listen to a band. Kristoff whispers to Sue that his internal scanners are telling him these people are not what they appear. Indeed, they are not people at all - they're robots! All of them! The mayor, undeterred, drags the team off to a special banquet in their honor, and when Ben tries to say no, he becomes rather insistent. The Master Supreme is waiting for them! He grabs Ben by the shoulder and his grip is extremely strong - it feels like his arm is being crushed in a vise! Ripping himself free, Ben also pulls off the robot's entire arm in the process.
This act, first blood in a sense, sets off all the robots - the visitors scorned their hospitality, so it's time to destroy them! Destroy them all! The band suddenly begin employing their instruments as laser weapons, and Ben quickly upturns a chunk of street to serve as an improvised shield, commenting that the locals sure have a unique way of dealing with tourists! Sue tells Ben not to clown around, noting that whoever built these robots might also be the one keeping Reed prisoner. Kristoff agrees, and says that these robots are the most sophisticated he's ever seen - with the sole exception of his master's personal Doombots. Namor starts ripping into the bots, and observes that they lack the power needed to defeat them - their sole purpose must be to weaken or distract them!
As the team starts tearing through the entire robot population of the town, Ben comments that he's fine with a bunch of weaker robots - he was afraid he'd run out of these creeps long before he had his daily recommended clobbering. Bring on more bad guys! Kristoff comments that he really hopes Ben's bravado won't come back to haunt them, and Ben tells him to lighten up - he's just getting warmed up here! Besides, it's not like they're about to get flattened by some sudden bolt from the blue! That is, of course, when the entire group is suddenly flattened by a bolt from the blue, knocking them all unconscious. Figures.
Later, with the entire team locked up in glass prisons like Nathaniel's, a paralyzed Sue mutters that Ben really should learn to watch his mouth. Kristoff finds their situation interesting, observing that while they were stripped of all weapons and their bodies frozen in stasis, the chambers were designed to allow them all to talk to each other. Ben thinks their captor might want to play Trivial Pursuit, but Sue argues he won't get the chance. Namor thinks Sue sounds far more confident than the situation warrants, and she comments that she plans ahead. That's when Sue's equipment, laid out on a chair nearby, suddenly comes alive, and it turns out her tacticool vest was actually a shapeshifted Lyja! So this was the unexpected problem she was sent out to deal with, huh? Lyja tells them all to hold their applause until after she sets them free!
Soon enough the entire team is free from their stasis tubes, and Ben comments that he hates to spoil the mood - but that was all a little easy, wasn't it? A simple bio-scan should have uncovered Lyja's presence. Sue agrees, but doesn't want to blow the opportunity, and Kristoff says they should begin their search. Moving to the next room over, they discover a familiar man hanging in some sort of contraption - and that face… There's no way Sue could ever forget that face! It's Doom! Doctor Doom! Ben is stunned, deciding that if this guy is the real deal, that means there's a chance for Reed's survival as well. Kristoff announces that he can put Ben's mind to rest about this being the real Doom - he knows his beloved Master, and could not fail to recognize him! Without question, he can safely assure them that this is Victor von Doom! He then raises a hand and fires a beam into the paralyzed Doom's eyes, attempting to signal his cherished mentor so he'll know his salvation is at hand.
The party is interrupted, however, when a voice announces that Kristoff is being awfully presumptuous. They turn to find the villain of the hour behind them - and he looks ridiculous. He introduces himself too - he is Hyperstorm! Yeah, that doesn't sound silly at all.
He's thrown his blue cloak back to reveal that he's got red lapels, big silver pauldrons, pointy Magneto gauntlets, a gaudy gold belt with a winged skull for a buckle, a bird-shaped gold necklace, and a pointy mask which makes it look like he's got gigantic golden Rock Lee eyebrows. And that's not mentioning the weird multi-layered golden shin protectors. The newcomer announces that everyone should remain calm, for it is not his intention to harm them at this time, and it would be quite lamentable if he were forced to mar this momentous occasion with violence, wouldn't it? The Master Supreme has been rather anxious to greet them all, you see. Ever since his childhood - such as it was - he's heard inspirational tales of their daring and courage. Though he decides they are not quite prepared to learn his true identity, suffice it to say he is known by many names on countless worlds - but the one he most prefers is Hyperstorm, obviously. Though uninvited, the team shall be treated as guests for the remainder of their lives!
Not remotely interested in the theatrics, the Fantastic Four close in to fight Hyperstorm, with Lyja turning into a tentacled monstrosity while Namor observes that they've already seen how he treats his 'guests.' Sue rushes in and warns Namor not to let the villain goad him - they must fight on their own terms, not his! Hyperstorm tells Sue to save her breath as he dodges Namor, declaring that history has recorded that the Sub-Mariner is much too impetuous to be inhibited by mere reason. Ben wonders how Hyperstorm might describe him, and the villain effortlessly knocks him backwards while answering: 'In a word, senseless.' Kristoff unloads his gun while Lyja tries to strangle the guy, but they both get punted backwards when Hyperstorm unleashes some of his personal 'Hyper-Power', which he claims is better than the Power Cosmic. It's amateur night by his standards!
Sue tries to blast Hyperstorm with her force blasts, and admits that he has demonstrated repeatedly that his power is greater than any of theirs - very macho, whatever. She's not there for that stuff, she just wants to know the truth. If he's been holding Doom captive all this time, then he must also know her husband's fate. Where is he? What happened to him? Hyperstorm says he fully intends to divulge that information - just as soon as he shatters her irritating force shield! Blasting Sue backwards, Hyperstorm congratulates the group for lasting longer than he anticipated - they're as valiant as legends claim. Now, he shall reward their noble efforts by finally revealing the true fate of Reed Richards! Rather than bore them with exposition, though, he'll simply allow them to join him! Raising his arms high, he blasts them all with another time-transportation spell that leaves only ashes behind…
In the aftermath, Hyperstorm looks up at the suspended body of Victor von Doom and says that's what he calls entertainment! He adds that he really hopes young Kristoff didn't give him any false hopes - his suffering has only barely begun! After he departs, however, the body stirs. Doom, still paralyzed, thinks to himself that the abysmally arrogant fool who captured him didn't even notice that Kristoff's quick thinking served him well. The beam of light Kristoff used to contact Doom disrupted the Brain Disarrator, giving him back his most potent weapon - his unrivaled intelligence! At long last he can once again think, and plan! Doom shall have vengeance! A most terrible and unholy vengeance!
Rating & Comments
Yes, this comic only barely qualifies as one that contains Doctor Doom - he only gets like a handful of panels and a smattering of lines. But he's back! Isn't that the important part? After spending several publication years on the backburner, save for a couple stray references and an alternate universe version that's pretty starkly different, Doom gets retconned from the dead here, humiliated and debased, but very much alive. How long that particular state will last, this time around, is anyone's guess, but I'll be covering these developments as they come!
This issue follows pretty closely on the previous one, as Kristoff immediately went about trying to track down Zarrko after he got teleported away. Sue is pretty gung-ho about getting Reed back and that's understandable, but the team's general perception that they're dealing with a trap here is too. It's left vague whether or not the events of Fantastic Four Unlimited #8 actually happened, but if the team was conned into following a false lead before, it makes sense they'd be wary of a similar lead popping up here. Admittedly I'm a little confused how Kristoff's sensors are able to pick up on a mysterious time-beam zapping Zarrko away here, if he's using Doom's technology. Surely Doom's sensors in Latveria would have picked up on the same signature zapping Doom and Reed away, if the same method of transportation was employed in both cases? Why was the team so stumped about what happened, then? Sue took Doom's computers, so surely somebody took a look at those in the interim months?
Regardless of those details, we visit the future next - it's not made clear if this is just the actual future far beyond things like 2099, or if it's some alternate possible future. I'd bank on the latter. Hyperstorm spends most of the issue hiding out in a big blue cloak and gauntlets while being pointlessly mysterious, and it's almost like the comic is trying to imply he might be someone else than who he turns out to be, like a future version of Doom himself, perhaps? He switches between weird valley girl stuff and overly precise, stuffy forms of language though, so if that was the point it doesn't really come across. Another point against it is the blue-garbed man's obvious hatred and disdain for Doom, to the point that he designed an intentionally demanding and painful ordeal for Victor which also renders him utterly harmless. He hates Doom so much he apparently makes a habit of ranting about things to his prisoner in private, which implies there's some very personal issues behind this whole situation.
Zarrko returns in this issue, and it becomes pretty clear that while he's a flunky to Hyperstorm, and subject to his power, he's also not on board with the violent excesses that his boss regularly commits. He watches on as Hyperstorm sends some of his machines - Destructoids - to destroy a rebellion on Alterra-4, one of the many planets he controls, and feels despair at his inability to stop it. How many more worlds will his lunatic master obliterate? I wonder if Zarrko will turn out to turn on Hyperstorm in coming issues, given his current state of mind. Perhaps he and Kristoff will meet up again, and we'll finally get some resolution to hiding out as his underling Boris for like a dozen issues? It kind of came and went without comment…
The situation between Sue and Namor is becoming increasingly uncomfortable as the issues go on, especially after Atlantis Rising. While Sue never wavered in her quest to get her husband back from wherever he was whisked off to, others around her were pretty quick to write Reed off as dead. None more so than Namor, who seems actively intent on keeping him dead so he can shoot his shot with Sue. He doesn't seem to care that Sue has agency and can decide for herself, she just sees her attachment to a missing person as pointless when she could be with him. While I won't cover the relevant issue in my readthrough, this uncomfortable situation will eventually escalate into Namor forcibly kissing Sue, then physically imposing himself on her to try and take her away from a husband he thinks is unworthy of her. It's gross, and I don't really care to hear Namor's justifications on something which I'm pretty sure crosses the line into outright sexual assault. Ew. (The issue in question is Fantastic Four v1 #412.)
Other characters get a bit of development too - Kristoff is a bit paranoid and believes everyone is still spying on him, but his relationship with Scott remains delightful. That said, this comic does seed a bit of suspicion about Kristoff himself, with him installing some unspecified new technology into his armor. It's also explained why Johnny isn't present for an adventure which involved getting Reed back - and it's just vaguely that he's off doing some other mission with the team he's currently a part of. I can't imagine that'll last very long, though, if Reed does return. Who could resist a comeback story, after all? Reuniting the Fantastic Four seems pretty inevitable at this point if they're bringing the original leader back from the dead. Ben also shows off that the fancy machine that they recently found in the Amazon will be a staple plot device for at least the coming few issues. It's also weirdly retconned into allowing Ben to go back and forth between forms instead of - as Kristoff stated in a previous issue - being a temporary change. Maybe it's relative?
There are a couple further excuses to pare down the number of people actually going on this adventure, with Scott remaining behind to man the console and Lyja being written out for unspecified reasons (though there's a good explanation there, later.) When they move to leave, though, Nathan shows to once again be an unhelpful prick who spouts dire warnings about things he doesn't want to be clear about, and Sue is having none of it. Most of the cast have gotten used to just calling Nathan out on his dickery, and I'm here for it. Sue hears him out as usual, but when he refuses to give any specifics, she just tells Scott to hit the button and send them on their way, much to Nathaniel's chagrin. It's great, and I won't mind seeing more of furious Nathan cursing out his headstrong daughter-in-law.
Nathan, of course, turns out to have something of a point this time, as he's shanghaied from his teleport home to Latveria by Hyperstorm, who turns out to be an enormous ham who can't help but monologue to anyone who wants to hear it. He starts talking up his own greatness almost immediately to his captive audience, declaring that he seeks the usual - absolute power, blind obedience, total domination! Between that and his obsession with the Fantastic Four, I think the implication that this new guy is somehow Doom-related in some way is an intended reading. I'm not excluding that possibility given Hyperstorm's vindictive imprisonment of Doom, but we'll see how that all turns out in future issues of this arc, I'm sure.
In another twist which obviously implies some strong connection with Doctor Doom, Hyperstorm replicates the Latverian village from an early arc of Fantastic Four when the team was trapped there, and replaces all the locals with homicidal robots. Back then, the villagers were just compelled by Doom to have festivities in the team's honor, though here they're programmed to. Kristoff even observes, in another nod to Doom, that these robots are the most sophisticated he's ever seen - short of the Doombots. Interesting. There's just layers of implied connection here that will probably be explored at some point down the line, but I'm not seeing the specifics yet. Granted, this arc has like five issues, so there is time.
The entire team gets effortlessly blasted unconscious in one shot, which is a feat that should be kept in mind going forward. If Hyperstorm can manage that so easily, then clearly he's just toying with the team - and it's to be expected that they'd pick up on that pretty quickly. Lyja's trick of hiding out as Sue's jacket is neat, but it also works too effortlessly for the escape to be genuine. This is a set-up. It's pretty clear then from who they find in the next chamber over that this entire encounter was set up by their captor, manipulating them into a place where they could witness Doom's embarrassment. I would comment on Sue recognizing Doom's face, but everyone got a pretty good look when it was healed up during Secret Wars, so I think that particular ship has sailed. Personally, I'm interested in the fact that the design for Doom's face, from the little bits we can see of it, has changed substantially since the last time it was fully on display in a comic book. I'll make a comparison graphic at some point…
Hyperstorm eventually doffs the big blue cloak and shows off that he is, in fact, a complete dork. For all that he is a multiplanetary conqueror, the costuming department did him dirty, making him a rather garish multi-colored spectacle with details like a skull-emblazoned belt buckle, enormous bulbous shin protectors, and bright red lapels. And that's before I mention the pseudo-samurai mask. Granted, all superhero and villain costumes can all look a bit silly at times, but Hyperstorm is like if somebody designed a heavy metal version of Robin and stapled a golden butterfly to his face. And made him every bit as conceited and arrogant as Doctor Doom, but with none of the redeeming qualities, honor, or stately mannerisms. Being hateable is a good trait to have, though, for a supervillain, so I'll be interested in watching his (probably short) career.
Doom finally gets his own scene at the very end of this issue, after Kristoff manages to disrupt the brain-scrambling device that Hyperstorm used to keep him pliant. That said, Hyperstorm does give Doom some final comments after the team is zapped away into the distant past, which may imply he knows that Doom is awake and this is still all part of his plan somehow. But, then, he did speak to comatose Doom too… Would Doom still remember those conversations, even if he couldn't form coherent thoughts in response? Doom seems aware of the technology that was used to keep him under, after all! In any case, Doom regains control of his mind, which is once more confirmed to be his most potent weapon here (rather than his greatest weakness, as in 2099.) Next time, we'll see what Victor does with the ability to think and plan…
While I'm not a great fan of some of the constant love-triangle nonsense happening in the background, this issue was pretty good on the whole and promises to return things to a somewhat more familiar status quo going forward by bringing back both Reed Richards and Doom. That said, Hyperstorm comes off as a whiny man-child of a galactic conqueror who doesn't have much of a personality beyond gleefully toying with people because he can. There are several Doom-related references in this issue which are interesting but don't ultimately contribute terribly much - they all just seem to be Hyperstorm playing out fantasies, or perhaps just stories from the distant past he's learned about here or there. He does seem to have a fascination with the Four and their greatest nemesis, after all, since he did kidnap a couple of them for his personal reasons… Three stars, and one of them is just for Doom returning in this issue, however minor his role might be!
Best Panel(s) of the Issues
I like this big fighting shot of the entire team against a village of robots - just moments before they get blasted by Hyperstorm from afar. It's neat!
Most Gloriously Villainous Doom Quotes
"At last Doctor Doom again possesses his most potent weapon… His unrivaled INTELLIGENCE!"
"At long last I can begin to think… and plan! I will have vengeance! A most terrible and unholy VENGEANCE!"
Doom's Bad Hair Day
Don't want to get weird about it, but who is damaging the clothes of a paralyzed Doom in between pages? That's odd, right? Or is it weirder to notice that the damage pattern on his clothing changed? Next you'll tell me it's odd that I noticed this issue has shots of the Ass of Doom! (Wait, it is? I'll leave the pictures out just in case it's weird.)
Also here's a comparison between the new Doom, who has a duller brown hairdo and gray eyes, compared to old Dooms with other shades of hair and brown eyes, plus different eyebrows and a different nose. It's noticeable! (To complete nerds, of course. Wait, is this also one of the weird things? People are hard.)
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SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Honestly, I think if you just got rid of his terrible mask, his design would make a great Nazi supervillain. All the gold eagle wings and skulls, plus the black and red really scream "wanna-be-SS" to me for some reason (the other, less important change I'd make would be to make the dingy off-white part of his pants the same color as his red lapels, part of the reason they look weird is because they don't match).
Don't get me wrong he'd still look a bit dorky, but the right kind of dorky for the Nazi party. Picture Captain America punching him in his smug face.
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