I must confess, I didn't really read the Counter-Earth arc of Dr. Doom before now (to my eternal shame)
Having read it, I can now see a whole bunch of call-backs to it in the Chaos Engine Trilogy by Steve Roman. This makes sense, becasue the first book of the series "Doom" was published in October 2000
Another cover, another metal concept - in this case it's Doom having an underwater fist fight with the freaking Kraken. Because why not? Design-wise the creature is gnarly, all teeth and tentacles and one gooey, multi-irised eye which is itself surrounded by yet more tentacles. Doom has gotten himself a helmet to adapt to the new situation, but he's otherwise still in his slapdash needs-must gear from the slave camp. To stick with the theme set up in the first issue of this three-parter… this is Doom without his armor. Time to finish up this trilogy, then…
Story Overview
Fight Back to Baxter
Doom's will be done. We open with Doom still in the cockpit of his rocketship. He takes off from the surface of the doppelganger world that orbits the sun on the opposite side of the Earth of his birth, from the place where the Dreaming Celestial banished him. He must return to New York City, to the Baxter Building, the seat of his power on this planet - it's there that he will find the means of return to the world of his origin. Doom is alone out here, and without the use of his vast arsenal, he has only this ship and the scant weapons aboard to rely on. For Doom… that is enough. The rocket careens across the landscape, leaving a burning trail where it goes, before leveling off when the city comes near. The entire top section shears off, revealing that the rocket was actually a booster section attached to a smaller craft which is capable of going underwater. Because of course Doom's rocket is also a submarine, why not?
Diving into the depths with his private sub, Doom recognizes that he's now within striking distance of the Baxter Building, and the clock is ticking. He must reach his goal by the designated time! Should he be delayed, he'll be trapped here - so woe to any who stand in his path! No matter their strength, no matter their number! I am not entirely sure what supposed time pressure Doom is talking about here, but presumably he has some plan… Anyway, the submarine passes by a drowned Statue of Liberty, and as he does so, several Atlans riding on armored sharks spot his passage…
Back at the Baxter Building, Lancer and several other troops are holding out against the ongoing Atlan assault, but it seems hopeless. One of the men shouts that this is pointless - they're raking the Kraken with every weapon in their arsenal, but it's not even flinching! Lancer uses her powers to lash out with plasma beams and tells the men that they should consider the alternative here - they either keep fighting, or they give up. In either case they're going to end up dead, because the Atlans aren't the forgiving sort. But at least there's still a slim chance that Doom will return, and as his second in command it's her duty to keep the faith. Since the rest of them are sworn soldiers of Doom, it's their duty as well - they have no choice but to hold on!
Lord Byrrah, who is suddenly named to Byraah because spelling is for losers, watches the Kraken assault and states that Doom is no longer here, so why do his subordinates continue to resist? Who is it that defies him? The Atlan Lord is soon contacted by his shark-riders, and they inform him that a strange underwater vessel is making its way inland - how should they proceed? Byraah is shocked at the new arrival, since he immediately recognizes the ship as Doom's own. By the black depths, he curses, Doom cannot be allowed to reach his goal! The Lord quickly commands his shark-riders to stay in Doom's wake so he has to keep moving, since he's currently headed straight towards Byraah's own position…
Doom spies the pursuing Atlans and muses that eighty percent of the planet's surface is evidently still not enough for them - he can relate, since it wouldn't be enough for him either. As he approaches something which appears to be an enormous cybernetically enhanced crab, it turns out to be an Atlan combat vehicle of some kind, and it opens fire with all torpedo banks. Due to a mishap, a text box implies it's Doom that's shouting the command to fire, but presumably that's intended to be Byraah, as the Atlan Lord appears to be on board, and continues to threaten Doom, telling him that he should have stayed where he was, because New York City is his now!
Doom easily maneuvers his sub to avoid the spray of missiles, but the vessel has become a clear target now - Doom decides it will serve him better as a weapon. He also realizes he's come back not a moment too soon, since the city is under full assault by the fish-men, and he knows full well what the target of this attack must be! Still, he's mere city blocks away from the end of his travels, and the beginning of his journey home. He hits the eject button and pops out of his sub in a tricked-up diving suit while letting his submarine move on without him. Byraah scoffs at the stupid air-breather for coming right towards his position - until his expression turns, since he belatedly realizes Doom is coming right towards him! By the dark deep! Doom jets away through the water with his diving suit, while his unmanned rocket ship rams straight into Byraah's combat crab and detonates, severely damaging the vehicle and all aboard in a titanic underwater explosion.
Inside the Baxter Building, we watch a gleefully smiling Breegan communicating with Lord Byraah on the building's communication system - he is most definitely a traitor, we learn, as he informs the Atlan Lord that his siege progresses well. The building will soon fall, and Byraah's creature has done its work well! And so has he…! Byraah hasn't forgotten his promise to Breegan, right? Byraah snarls that there will be no prize for failure, and the future is uncertain now that Doom has reappeared! Breegan murmurs the name 'Doom' under his breath as his good mood evaporates, and his smile disappears…
Out on the roof of the building, Lancer is overseeing the conflict against the Kraken. A gigantic particle thruster is being used to fire down along the side of the building to impact the creature below - it's wounding the beast, or at least angering it. Lancer tells the men to give it a full charge, only for her to go wide-eyed at something just off-panel… and then the entire gun explodes, sending men flying and tossing Lancer straight off the edge of the building and into the waters far below.
As she falls she apologizes to 'Victor' - she tried to hold the fort, but that's not quite enough, is it? Success or failure, black or white. Victory or defeat, no matter how high the odds are stacked. She dives into the waters below, landing amid the coils of the thrashing Kraken, then finds safety inside an underwater section of a nearby building - just like that Macy's when she was first introduced. If Doom comes now, she thinks, he'll find only ruins and corpses… she's failed him!
A tremor rises from the street - it's the pounding of battle ahead. Doom walks along the sunken streets, his heavy diving suit keeping him from floating away, and his hands clenched in fury. He realizes that the Atlans are making their final assault on the Baxter Building, now that they know Doom has returned - they redouble their efforts in desperation, to try and get there ahead of him.
Doom stands alone in a sea of killers, alone in a world hostile to him, alone and outnumbered by his enemies. Fools. They think Doom defenseless, but as long as he draws breath, Doom is never without resources. A horde of shark-riders spot him and attack, launching their harpoons after him, narrowly missing as he dodges to the side. Then Doom touches something on his wrist, on a partial gauntlet akin to those of his armor, and four tethered missiles launch from his back… The four spikes land into a sign on the side of the Baxter Building and Doom quickly electrifies them - in an instant the water turns into a cauldron, boiling his enemies in their armor. Still, that trick utilized valuable energy from his batteries, power he cannot afford to waste. Time grows short, and survival and victory are now bound as one goal…
Lancer, meanwhile, escapes from her dire predicament by exiting from another angle and swimming along the roads until she can pull herself out of the drink and onto one a nearby roof. From there she can see the Kraken writhe around the burning Baxter Building. It can't last much longer - and there's nothing that can stop that monster now! Doom, meanwhile, walks closer to the monster, and stares the enormous monster in its blood-red cyclopean eye from beneath the waters. It's a creature out of a nightmare, and Doom has no armaments to turn it away - little else but the power of his body. Nothing but that, and his mind. And that… that will suffice.
Byraah snarls that he will have victory yet from within his damaged vehicle, grinning viciously at having his enemy in his sights, and tells the enchantress to have her beast slay the human Doom. The woman says that she fears the Kraken has already found him! As the Kraken approaches the battle-crab, looming over the Atlans, Byraah tells the enchantress to order the creature away - it's close enough. With desperate fear in her expression, the woman admits that she would do so… if she was still its master! The Kraken then throws itself onto the battle-crab, smashing it to smithereens and killing Lord Byraah and his retinue in short order. Doom, darkly amused, comments that for all its bulk the Kraken had a brain the size of an apple. To control its movements was mere child's play!
With the Atlans massacred, Doom faces no more challenges after that - the Baxter Building is once more his! Launching out of the water with the remnants of his armor's power, he lands next to Lancer on the roof. She's shocked to see him alive, of course. Doom admits he's not often surprised himself - but he thought she was back on the other Earth! Lancer quickly explains that Reed sent 'the Doomsmen' and her back here - she's been defending the Baxter Building in his absence ever since. Doom compliments her on holding out for this long - she'd done well! But… their work is only beginning!
They soon enter the still-burning building and Doom leads Lancer to a specific machine that's hidden deep within - that's the prize he came for, what he traveled across the world for. It's a device which, along with its duplicate in his castle on Earth, will allow him to teleport home! Lancer tells Doom that he's lucky this chamber survived the attack intact, but Doom says luck is for idiots - the room is specially armored. Even if the building was reduced to gravel, this vault would endure. Lancer wonders how Doom is going to convince an enemy back on Earth to help him by activating the device on their end, and Doom mysteriously states that if there's one subject he understands more than science, more than magic, it's betrayal…
As if to illustrate his point, Breegan then enters the room and tells 'Lord Doom' how pleased to see that he's returned, and that his servant awaits his next command, doing the full-on smarmy minion act. Doom immediately narrows his eyes when he recognizes Breegan's voice, and says he does indeed have an order for him… to die! He then shoots Breegan to death right then and there - not for double-dealing with the Atlans, but for hanging up on him in the last issue! Lancer, confused by the sudden violence, asks what that was about, but Doom refuses to explain.
He then tells Lancer to leave him, for now - he must contact Earth. Lancer wonders how he means to do that here - there's no communication devices in this room! Doom sits down in the middle of the place, cross-legged, and tells her there are other ways to do so… We soon see a vision slowly forming - he is here, Doom, in the dreamtime, a place he found with the help of aboriginal magic. And the one he seeks is here as well, and this will be his first of many visits to her - it is Susan Richards, the mate of his hated rival. Only she may help Doom achieve his intended goal, and to do so she must betray the one she loves, and ally herself with her most bitter foe!
After some events that happen in Fantastic Four issues I'll cover after this, Doom holds the activated teleportation device while standing outside the Baxter Building, ready to leave for his ancestral Earth once again. Lancer incredulously asks him if this really is goodbye. What is she supposed to do now? Doom tells her to rule the world in his stead - Doom's enemies on this world have been decimated, so this is her world… for now. Lancer wonders if that's really how he's going to end things, but Doom assures her that she served him loyally… and he will not forget that. Doom then activates the device, and returns home - to begin a new battle, to regain what is his… and to destroy the Fantastic Four! The rest is, as the comic states, already history! We'll cover what happens next soon…
Rating & Comments
Returning once more to Counter-Earth for the finale to this three-parter, I'm left… disappointed in the writing here, particularly the apparent lack of internal logic on display. We continue to follow Doom's relentless push back to the Baxter Building, sure, and that's still good - but the final pages end with a bit of an anticlimax, and then much of the previous few issues are essentially invalidated when Doom finally, finally pulls out some of the tricks that he logically should have been using all along to resolve his problems. I'd say it's just his ego getting in the way, but he seemed perfectly willing to get his minions to help during the last issue, so that doesn't really make sense… Anyway, let's just get into it.
First, after recapping the last few issues, we get to see the latest of Doom's cool inventions - in this case it's a rocketship which has a second detachable stage that's a submarine. That seems remarkably niche and also pretty awesome - but he's made underwater tanks before. I'm a bit unclear as to why he decided to ditch his rocket on the far side of town instead of just flying straight to his building and parking on the roof, but I guess there wouldn't be a sufficiently dramatic entrance involved. What's more confusing is that Doom is suddenly acting as if he's under time pressure here, since he thinks about how he'll be trapped here on this planet if he delays any longer. That whole concept seems to be dropped by the end of the issue, and at the time of his sudden hastiness he hadn't even found out about the Atlantean attack on his building yet, so that couldn't be what he was referring to either. It's weird.
Lancer gets another good run in this issue - she's keeping the doomed defense of the Baxter Building going basically by her lonesome, commanding all the other random people around her - we never really see where Doom got all of them from, given that he and Lancer has the Baxter Building to themselves last time around, but presumably they're just Latverian imports or New York survivors. Lancer remains Doom's most loyal servant, of course, which is presumably why she gets handed control of the entire planet at the end of the issue - that whole affair is rushed and a bit abrupt, but deserved. I'm pretty sure this isn't the last time Lancer shows up, so we'll see how her rule develops later, probably in the sequel series to this one which closes out the Counter-Earth saga. It'll be sad to see her vanish from continuity…
The confusingly renamed Lord Byraah plays a role here that's actually very similar to the villains from last issue - he's more an inconvenient obstacle than an actual enemy, since Doom doesn't really interact with him at all, and he gets taken out with relative ease while the titular character is busy dealing with more immediate issues. I appreciate Doom's quip that the Atlans don't think eighty percent of the world is enough for them… and that he agrees with them! Heh. I'm not sure I fully understand Doom's decision to scuttle his submarine to take out the combat-crab when he still has a freaking Kraken to fight, but at least it's effective! I don't like how the art makes it seem like the crab-machine that the Atlans are using gets totally blown up, only for it to show up again later - and it doesn't seem like the baddies were even particularly harmed by the attack. That's more an art than a writing issue, though.
The conflict with the Kraken is decent, though it's kind of dumb that despite showing several dramatic shots of the beast, Lancer gets taken out by an offscreen undefined something - there's no real indication of what happens to her. My interpretation is that the mounted weapon probably blew up on its own due to overcharging it, but there's no explanation about that, just a sudden detonation.Lancer's fall into the water neatly parallels Doom's own when he first arrived back on Counter-Earth… and when Lancer then goes to hide out in a nearby building, trapped by the giant monster there, it's Doom who stomps towards her rescue, in much the same way she was the one who originally went after him. (It's like poetry, it rhymes!)
As Doom charges the Atlants with the last of his weapons, including a jury-rigged electrified set of cables, he's never seemed more like Doomguy, given that he's wearing a heavy-duty diving suit with bare biceps and an attitude to match the Slayer. He's alone down there, but he mocks his enemies for thinking he's helpless because of that. After slaughtering his way through a bunch of Atlans, he comes to his final challenge - the Kraken, a demon from a nightmare. He's without weapons - the only thing he has is his body, and his mind. And that's, of course, enough. The ending which follows is abrupt, with Byraah unexpectedly reappearing from his apparent demise, only to get immediately squashed by his own Kraken which is now under Doom's control. It's left ambiguous exactly how Doom pulled this off, but my interpretation is that Doom used his age-old mind-swapping psychic ability to temporarily mind-control the peanut-brained monster and smash his would-be enemies…
The finale after that is rather anticlimactic - the defeat of Byraah gets barely any mention, and the Kraken is forgotten in the same moment. Doom flies back to his base unmolested, and within a page he's already been informed about the return of Lancer to Counter-Earth, and about the situation with Reed in his armor. Doom then reveals that the reason he came back to New York is to use a teleportation machine he's got stashed away, one that would allow him to return to the regular Earth. Except… hold on a second. Doom. You literally just learned that Lancer returned to Counter-Earth… in your enormous spaceship. The one that you built specifically to travel to the Earth. You have the means to head back at any time. Why would you require a teleporter that needs someone to activate it on the other end? Just fly back! Or, if you can't do that, just build a new one! You built two of those huge spaceships in the space of about a month, given that you started building them after the invasion of Galactus and finished by the time of Return!
At least one other mini-arc gets a satisfactory conclusion, though - Breegan's treachery. Not only is his betrayal made explicit in this issue, by revealing that he was making deals with the Atlanteans, but he then tries to ingratiate himself with Doom when he returns, presumably to make the most out of his situation. Doom, naturally, recognizes the voice of that asshole that hung up on him… and fries the smiling guy right there without explanation, then walks off. Lancer, it seems, is so used to Doom just pulling this sort of stunt that she barely says anything. Hah! It's kind of hilarious that for all the crimes Breegan is guilty of, the one that gets him ganked is being rude on the phone.
Then, as if to mock me, Doom suddenly starts using magic. After three entire issues in which Doom relies heavily on nothing but his brawn and willpower, he decides it's time to start communicating telepathically with people. What the fuck? Doom, if you could do this all along, why not call Lancer earlier? Even if you thought she was still back on Earth, it's not like it would have hurt your chances! She has a spaceship, or she could arrange for a pickup! I even mentioned how strange it was that it never came up a few issues ago, but figured the writers just didn't want to deal with it. But apparently they do? Gah! I'm still not sure it makes any sense to try and convince Sue Storm to betray Reed instead of just hitching a ride on your own spaceship, but whatever. That's what we're going with.
As mentioned, the final few pages of this issue feel very rushed - the Byraah situation gets handled abruptly, and then it's immediately off to tying up Lancer's story, then quickly dealing with Breegan, then hastily setting up the next storyline's plot elements. Feels like they ran out of space to actually tie this into the ongoing plot line it was meant to slot into. I think the final three pages are meant to be weeks apart chronologically, spanning several issues of Fantastic Four - Doom changes clothes there, donning his classic green cloak again, for example, That said, he's still wearing that stinky lion-skin mask by the end… We'll see if that makes the journey over.
I'm ending this one with a pretty middling three stars - the rushed ending which feels like it's trying to quickly and belatedly shove some continuity into the proceedings doesn't help it much, and honestly much of it left me cold. Doom kills three villains in these issues and he hasn't spoken a word to any of them!
Best Panel(s) of the Issues
Gotta give Lancer her due, in one of her final appearances.
I thought this shot of Doom dodging spears was also pretty cool, plus launching those missiles/spikes.
Most Gloriously Villainous Doom Quotes
"Doom is alone. I am without the use of my vast arsenal. Only this ship and the scant weapons aboard. For Doom it is enough."
"Eighty percent of the planet's surface is not enough for them. As it would not be enough for me."
"Alone in a sea of killers. Alone in a world hostile to me. Alone and outnumbered by my enemies. Fools. They think Doom defenseless. As long as I draw breath - Doom is never without resources."
"A creature out of a nightmare. I have no arms to turn it away. Little else but the power of my body. And my mind. And that will suffice."
"Luck is for idiots."
"If there is one subject I understand more than science, more than magic... it is betrayal."
"You have served Doom loyally. I will not forget that."
Doom's Bad Hair Day
Besides the 'Byraah' spelling change and the stray textbox, the dodgy 'exploded crab' which is pretty much fine later in the same issue is also an art problem. I guess 'The Atlans in general' fits here, then.
Doom-Tech of the Week
Well, first of all, Doom rode himself a Rocket-Submarine into town, then used Electrified Tethered Missiles to get rid of a bunch of Atlans, and he was obviously wearing a Specialized Diving Suit of his own devising, which at the very least was capable of propelling him into the air on its own power after the threat was dealt with.
We're back with the Fantastic Four, to read their leadup to the point when Doom and Reed have their next meeting. I have to admit - that's a pretty great cover! Reed is miming the classic Shakespearean scene between Hamlet and the skull of Yorick, but using Doom's mask as the stand-in, and given Sue's reaction in the background this might not be the great news that it appears to be. Despite her husband's freedom from the armor, she seems more scared than anything. It's certainly an image that invites some intrigue, so this image is doing its job as a cover…
Story Overview
Fear!
We open on an image of a barren wasteland - it's bitterly cold in the high desert in the hours just before dawn, but Susan Richards doesn't notice, nor care. She's set herself a punishing pace that refuses to acknowledge the vagaries of the terrain, or the inherent limits of even superhuman physiology. Around her rises a stark natural beauty unmatched across the face of the planet, but she has no eyes for it… all she wants to do is run. She gives no thought to stopping, nor to anything else save the necessity of placing one foot before the other, over and over again. Because if she stops she'll look back, and she can't bear to see who might be gaining on her... As the moon rises from beyond the horizon behind her, looking squashed at first due to atmospheric refraction, we see her body loom into view… and the first shot of her is not exactly flattering due to the weird angle. She has a bit of a bobblehead.
Sue's lungs burn, but she ignores them. A crevice splits the landscape ahead like a scar, but without breaking stride she crosses it atop a bridge made from her invisible force fields. It's a magnificent effort, but for all the tremendous powers that come to her as the Invisible Woman, one-fourth of the world-renowned adventurers known as the Fantastic Four, she's still only human. As she steps off her bridge and back onto land, she misses an outcropping in the half-light of dawn, and stumbles. It's an awkward, painful landing, but the tears in her eyes have nothing to do with that. They have their origin in an older, deeper hurt - the kind that sometimes never heals. Part of her wants to lie where she fell, and never move again. But she's too stubborn for that, since it represents a victory she refuses to concede. With effort she starts again, but now there's a division to her focus. A part of her is fixed on the challenge at hand… while the other looks back to the events that brought her here.
We flash back to another day, another dawn - to a time when postal employee Wilhelmina Lumpkin is hard at work delivering the mail to Pier 4, the warehouse which serves as the Fantastic Four's headquarters and home. Usually she's delighted by the chance to see one of the famed quartet, but that's about to change… As the door opens, who is it that steps forward? It's Doctor Doom! Reed, still stuck in the armor of his worst enemy, asks Ms. Lumpkin for forgiveness, stating that he did not mean to startle her. As he reaches out to take the mail, a freaked out Wilhelmina objects that the letters are addressed to the Fantastic Four, not to him! Doom points out that since he has recently proclaimed Susan Richards as the Baroness von Doom, he is now considered part of both the team and the family! Now, about those letters…? Wilhelmina hastily hands them over, clearly terrified.
Back inside the building, Reed muses that he must have scared poor Willi - even though he's been trapped inside the armor for only a comparatively short time, he's gotten so used to it that he keeps forgetting the effect it has on people. Looking at him, they don't see Reed Richards, but the infamous Emperor of Latveria! Reed walks over to Ben and tells him he's gotten the mail and wants to go get breakfast, and wonders if the others will join him. Ben tells him that he appreciates the thought, but he's just getting started on configuring the new stealth modules he's been fitting to the electronics suite of the Pogo Plane. After all, just because every agency in the Federal, State, and city government has revoked pretty much every license they possess, doesn't mean they shouldn't try to slip some surprise up their sleeves! Reed pretends to be scandalized at the thought of Ben breaking the law, but he notes he's just stretching it - twisting it into knots, really. Anyway, by the time he's done, once Sue makes the plane invisible, folks standing by the front door won't even notice them taking off out of the back! Reed compliments the work - very impressive, as always!
He next walks over to the pool, where he spots Johnny and Namor's cousin Namorita - at least now he knows where Johnny went all night! They seem quite taken with each other. Fire and water can be a very volatile combination… Reed goes to grab a cup of coffee for himself, but the moment he goes to sip from it, Sue takes his breakfast from his fingers in her invisible form, cheerfully declaring that hot cinnamon toast and coffee are her favorite! Reed snaps that they're his favorites as well, thank you! Also, he continues balefully, such behavior is intolerable for the Baroness von Doom - he demands his wife show herself. Doom commands it! Sue frostily demands to know what exactly Reed just said to her, but Reed immediately crawls back - he wasn't being serious!
Sue, annoyed, asks Reed if he's got any idea what's in store for her today - whether he knows about the officials she has to negotiate with to keep the roof over their head - not to mention keep herself out of jail for the presumed disappearance of her son and husband? Reed reiterates that he meant no harm, and can't a husband offer his wife some comfort and support…? When he goes to approach, Sue quickly places a force field between them, which Reed takes quite badly - how dare she! He taps something on his gauntlet and Sue's force field suddenly destabilizes. Sue is appalled, but Reed argues he just wanted to embrace his wife - is that such a crime?!
Before the confrontation can continue Johnny shows up to grab breakfast, taking the coffee and toast that the couple had been bickering over, while also picking up a new game sent through the mail by Wyatt Wingfoot. Behind him, Sue goes invisible and leaves…
Later, we see the number '4' blazing above the city - something's wrong! Ben and Reed approach the common room together, with the former complaining that Johnny could have waited until he was out of the shower before he sounded that alarm! Reed agrees that the timing does leave much to be desired, since he feels he was very close this time to decrypting the locking codes on Doom's armor and opening its seals. What's even more frustrating is that only the most menial household systems will even acknowledge his presence, since the network persists in treating him like the real Doom! Ben wonders if Reed can really blame it - by every objective criteria like voiceprint, retinal imprint and the like, he is Doom! It's a miracle they were able to override the active defense net, or he'd start a firefight with the house simply by walking down the hall!
Joining the others in the common room, Johnny informs the others that they have a situation. See, embedded within the core scenario of the game he received from Wyatt Wingfoot was a secret SOS message! His family and tribe are apparently being held hostage by the Wizard and his Frightful Four, and he's asking for help. Sue determines that it's time to suit up. As soon as everyone's dressed, and assuming Ben's stealth systems are what he claims them to be, they'll be on their way with the Pogo Plane! Reed impetuously reminds Sue that he is still the leader of this team. Sue comments that she wasn't aware they had an absolute hierarchy, and asks Reed if he's got any objections to her orders. Reed doesn't - but when they go into battle, the chain of command must be clearly understood and accepted by all concerned to avoid dangerous confusion! Surely this is obvious? Sue turns away and says it won't happen again…
We switch over to Silver Rock Springs - to the casual observer this ramshackle collection of adobe houses and crude wickiups is emblematic of the worst of reservation life - the crushing poverty speaks for itself. Here is a people stripped of pride, a land bereft of hope. Which is precisely the impression the Keezawi seek to establish. Those who judge solely by surface impressions simply aren't worth the time of day. When oil was discovered on their land, making the Keezawi as wealthy as the Oklahoma Cherokee, the tribe made a great show of constructing a refinery to process the crude. Then, to nobody's surprise, it went bust. What nobody knew, of course, was that a far greater percentage of the tribe's income went to educating the young. The end result was the establishment of an entrepreneurial technology base to rival Silicon Valley. Of course, the Wizard knows nothing about this… They're just here for 'hidden treasure.'
The current line-up of the Frightful Four consists of the Wizard, the Trapster (formerly Paste-Pot Pete), the original Punisher (a robot, not Frank Castle), and She-Thing… Yeah, that last one is the current supervillain name of one Sharon Ventura. Oh boy, her previous appearances on this read-through have been… problematic. Let's hope things are better…?
The Trapster muses to himself that he really should get his head examined. Doesn't the Wizard read the Financial Times or the Economist? The folks out here run a software gaming company to rival Lucasarts, and yet he's babbling about some vault of buried treasure! Trapster admits it says something that he's standing here right besides the guy… while talking to another colleague who's a robot! The Wizard, meanwhile, has plastered Wyatt and Wynona Wingfoot to a wall and tells them his patience is finite. Wyatt just says that there is no treasure - how many times does he have to repeat himself? The Wizard comments that he sent his female colleague, the She-Thing, out of the room because she's somewhat squeamish about certain aspects of their profession, so she'd better remain ignorant of what transpires until it's too late. He assumes his implication is plain…
Wynona tells 'weasel-face' that if he wants to solve this in a simple way, he should cut her loose for five minutes, and she'll teach him never to mess with the Keewazi! The Wizard comments that her thoughts parallel his own, but Wyatt snaps that he should leave his sister out of it! The Wizard agrees to do so, as long as Wyatt tells him what he wants to know. Wyatt repeats that he can't lead the guy to something that doesn't exist, but the Wizard wonders what Wyatt takes him for - since the days of the Spaniards, there have been stories about a magnificent storehouse on Keewazi land, guarded by their legendary totem Tomazooma! Then, without warning, his instruments intercepted Wyatt's message to the Avengers and the Fantastic Four about a mysterious spacecraft, and there are residual emissions from the vehicle itself. There is something hidden in these mountains, and he means to possess it!
While an invisible Sue approaches and does something to Wynona, she snarls that her ancestors fought the U.S. Army to a standstill, so does a dweeb like the Wizard really think they'll cave to him? The Wizard comments that it was hardly the most eloquent of epitaphs, then places a disc on her chest, which sends Wynonan flying into the sky, crashing through some glass on the way up. The Wizard states that thanks to his anti-gravity disk, she'll be the first Native American in outer space! The Wizard then turns to Wyatt and threatens that he's got more than enough disks to go around… who among his family, or his friends, would he like to see suffer the same fate? Wyatt responds that he can kill them all… but it won't matter! The stories of treasure are nothing more than that: stories!
The Trapster cuts in and tells the Wizard that, no offense, has he considered that there's such a thing as being too greedy? He signed on for a down-and-dirty heist - get in, make a score, get out. Now they're talking about committing capital crimes here, and for what? The Wizard snarls that he's the one doing the thinking for the crew! 'Famous last words.' The Wizard gets offended by that, but the Trapster distracts him by mentioning that scanners are picking up a falling object - Wynona must have dumped his disk. She's going to make a real mess, total street pizza! Sue, becoming visible at last, sarcastically states that is such a kind and generous sentiment… don't human lives mean anything to the likes of him? She kicks Trapster in the head, and the villain gets a bit nervous realizing that the rest of the team must also be around… Sure enough, Ben comes falling out of the sky and lands with a crash right in front of him…
The Punisher immediately goes to attack Ben, who is astounded to recognize it as the same thing that used to work for Galactus! The Wizard compliments Ben for being observant. It's really quite remarkable what kind of things can get… misplaced… during battles of cosmic proportions! The creature's inner workings and programming would be an insoluble mystery to most… but to the Wizard, deciphering them and making him a faithful servant was child's play! Johnny starts blasting the robot, not interested in its backstory, but Ben warns him that it shouldn't be treated lightly. Johnny decides to crank up the heat, so see if it can burn through the shell and fry some circuits…
Wyatt, still stuck to the wall, yells at Sue to save his sister. The Wizard responds that his friends cannot save her - for indeed, they cannot even save themselves! Does he really think he would not have prepared for just this contingency? On the contrary, he was hoping for it! Behold, fools, the final defeat of the Fantastic Four! The villain lights up with a brilliant flash, and almost immediately Johnny falls from the sky, screaming in pain that he's burning up! That, the Wizard states, is what happens when the biological mechanics which protect him from his powers… are eliminated! Ben is frozen in place, with the villain noting that of course he can't move - he's made of rock! As for the Invisible Woman… she can no longer draw oxygen to breathe through her otherwise impermeable force field. She could still use it offensively, but she can't effectively defend herself… and should she turn invisible, she won't be able to see!
The Wizard continues, stating that the best, of course, is saved for Reed Richards - his heart will no longer be able to pump blood throughout his elastic, extensible body when he indulges in his repertoire of outlandish shapes. Speaking of Reed… where exactly is he? Sue smiles and wonders if the Wizard really hasn't heard the news yet? While the villain's been out of touch, there's been some changes. From off-screen a voice announces that Reed Richards is no more… and Susan Storm Richards has been proclaimed the Baroness von Doom! To assault her… is to court the wrath of Doom! Reed then shows himself in full Doom-armor, floating a few feet off the ground, crackling with energy…
She-Thing shows up to shout at Victor that she's been there, done that - she courted Doom's wrath, and wasn't impressed! The Wizard tries to call her off, but She-Thing declares that it's her turn now, which seems only fair! Doom destroyed her life, so now she gets to do the same to him! She slams an enormous object into Reed from above - I think it's supposed to be the Fantastic Four's plane, though the art is very vague on this, and everything is suddenly engulfed in flame. The Wizard asks She-Thing if she's demented? She's ruined any chance of a peaceful resolution to this imbroglio - now the Frightful Four will have to fight Doctor Doom! She-Thing notes that the Fantastic Four used to do that all the time - and they won! The Wizard just nailed the rest of the team, and she nailed Doom… end of story!
Reed pushes the debris off himself, looming like Sephiroth among the flames, and states that this is hardly over. He will only make this offer once - surrender, or face the consequences! Trapster sarcastically mutters that those sure sound like attractive alternatives, right? If they get out of this alive, he tells the Wizard to remind him, next time he knocks on the door, to pound him on the head! Trapster sends some of his adhesives towards Reed, but he quickly diverts them away from himself and towards She-Thing, tangling her up.
Someone from off-panel then commands the Punisher to kill, and Reed notes that despite its relatively small stature, the robot possesses strength equal to Ben's, and he's not sure if his force field can withstand a sustained attack… or the armor itself, for that matter! The Wizard decides that now that his robot has Doom on the defensive, he'll affix a brace of specifically configured Assault Disks to his armor, then use his Wonder Gloves to send a surge of raw electricity through them! They'll amplify his power levels a thousandfold, making it the equivalent of being struck by an unending sequence of lightning bolts. No shield can withstand such a barrage! Clenching his fists, the Wizard lets loose his charge and Reed cries out in pain as he is electrocuted.
She-Thing states that if the Wizard wants to take Doom down a notch or three, he can be her guest… just as long as she gets to finish him! He promised to restore her to normal, she argues, to make her the woman she was before she became the She-Thing. He made her betray her friends, and the man she loved! But those promises were lies - his supposed cure only made her worse! (This is a bit of a mangled history of events, but sure.) She doesn't really care anymore, she argues - because his mistakes have given him the strength to break him to bits! She then rips herself free from the Trapster's glue.
Reed uses a remote image to contact a prone Johnny, still burning on the ground where he fell, and tells him to flame on! Johnny wonders if he hasn't been paying attention- doesn't Reed know what the Wizard did? If he flames on, he's dead! Reed assures him that there's no real danger, and Johnny argues that's easy for him to say! Reed then calls on their shared history - has Johnny ever known him to lie? Or does he believe the mask more than the man who wears it? He must trust Reed… all their lives, and the Keewazi, depend upon it! Johnny decides to go with it, and flames on. Reed immediately tells him to pour flames over him to burn away the Wizard's disks! Johnny cheerfully complies, freeing Reed from his predicament.
As he rises up to meet Johnny in the air, Reed mentions that just as he suspected, the Wizard's effect was illusory - not factual! He did not materially alter their abilities, but merely made them believe it was the case! Johnny, aghast, repeats the word 'suspected.' Reed defends himself by saying it was a calculated risk. Johnny shouts that if Reed was wrong, he could have been killed! Reed agrees, and says that he may yet be, if this conflict is not expeditiously resolved in their favor…
Suddenly the Punisher robot jumps up and grasps onto Reed before slinging him away towards the heart of a nearby factory. Sue figures they've had about enough of that mechanical man and turns to the Trapster, grabbing him with invisible force fields and manipulating his equipment to open the nozzles wide and then generate invisible tubes to lead the sticky substance inside to where it will be the most good… in the Punisher's joints! They gum up the inner workings so it can't move!
She-Thing, meanwhile, snarls that the Trapster's paste can't hold her - or keep her from her revenge! She attacks Ben, who asks what the deal is here - for a time, she was a part of the Fantastic Four! Sharon snarls that this was only until she became a monster! When she began to mutate, when she became so hideous, she couldn't bear the sight of her own reflection - she turned to her teammates, her friends, her lovers, to him - for support… and what happened? Reed Richards put her into a stasis tube and everyone forgot all about her!
Ben wrestles with her and argues that's not true - but sometimes they can't get what they want. Sometimes, the cures don't come easy. Maybe that's why he's still the Thing… to remind Reed that he's only human. Sharon snarls that she doesn't care about him anymore - it's not about him!
Meanwhile, deep inside the nearby factory, Wynona shows back up and reveals that she was pretty sure she was riding the trail of stars right to the lodges of her ancestors… until right out of nowhere she was saved from her anti-gravity fate by Doctor Doom! Too weird for words! But at least her survival gives her a chance to release her people. She finds a jammed door in the factory and tries to open it, but Reed shows up again right then to offer his assistance, cutting a neat round opening with a tiny finger-laser, then tossing then opening the metal slab aside. Inside, Wynonan reunites with her father and the rest of the captive tribe, glad that the message she and Wyatt send got through, and everyone managed to get to safety before the villains arrived. Wynona's father, Black Eagle, is rather baffled by Doctor Doom's presence - as an ally!
The Wizard, meanwhile, muses to himself that a prudent leader knows when to cut his losses - and what dead wood to sacrifice along the way. While She-Thing and her ex are trading punches, he's found a perfect opportunity to make his escape! The Wizard suddenly finds himself intercepted by Reed, however, who asks him not to delude himself - as it applies to the wrath of Doom, escape is a word without meaning! The Wizard, caught flat-footed, admits that he's many things… but not fool enough to want Doom as his enemy. He surrenders.
Elsewhere, Sharon is still pounding away at Ben, declaring that she won't get tired, and she won't quit - she's got too much hate for that! There's only one way to stop her--! Wyatt suddenly rushes into the fight between titans and shouts he refuses to believe that! Ben asks him if he's nuts? Wyatt explains that he knows Sharon's history, that she was a member of the Fantastic Four, a hero. That puts her in select company, and he knows the kind of people they allow into their lives - hate isn't part of their make-up! Sharon points out they're hanging with Doom now, so maybe the old rules don't apply. They change - so maybe she does too! Wyatt asks if she's really changed enough to cast aside everything that once held meaning to her? Enough to commit murder? This is Keewazi land, and the FF are their friends, so if she truly wants revenge… she'll have to go through him! Sharon pauses, and instead of violence, Sharon's response is to crumple to her knees and hug Wyatt.
Later, as the villains get carted off, Sue tells Wyatt that it was a brave and generous thing he did. Wyatt explains that they've offered Sharon a refuge among the tribe - she's a good person at heart, and perhaps here, in time, she'll learn the truth of that once more. Fact is - even the best can sometimes go astray. Sue wryly wonders if that includes present company. Wyatt admits that her present title, and relationship, takes some getting used to. Sue agrees - for the both of them! All she can ask is for some trust and acceptance for as long as Doom remains with the FF… for now, the world has nothing to fear.
Later still, after night falls and everyone gets some sleep before traveling back to the city, Sue wakes up to find herself alone in bed. Something woke her up… She sneaks out of bed and hears someone talking from the other room - something about remote server data uplinks, and recognition protocols. She recognizes it as a way to log into the warehouse's datanet, and laments that poor Reed has been trying to log on to that system but every time it rejects him - as far as it's concerned, he's Doom! This time, however, as she watches invisibly through the doorway… access is approved! Laying on the desk where Reed is sitting, next to his laptop, is the detached mask of Doom. What?
Reed, unaware of being watched, goes to the security protocols and tells it to add a new subroutine - it should now accept Victor von Doom as an authorized user… with access equal to that of Reed Richards and greater than that of the other current members of the Fantastic Four. Sue concludes this must be a dream… a nightmare! Reed has struggled so hard to be free of the armor, and with the threat of his generals resolved, there's no need to maintain the masquerade. If he's won, what's this all about? When the computer confirms his request, Reed commands it to erase all records of these new commands from cache memory accessible to other members of the Fantastic Four. As Sue panics, trying to find a reason, Reed puts Doom's mask back on voluntarily, and speaks the final log-off commands in the voice of his greatest foe - and the system obeys…
We return to where this comic started - to Sue still running breakneck through the desert. The moment she found out about the mask situation is when she started running - even though she knew that, where Doom was concerned, escape was a word without meaning. He has unrestricted access now to every aspect of their lives, as the unstable molecules of their very uniforms are linked to a datanet that lets Reed know where each of them is and what they're doing. There are no more secrets…
Johnny and Ben come flying in, chasing after Sue, with the former yelling at her to slow down and take a break - she took off without a word, is everything okay? Sue briefly uses her invisibility to avoid pursuit, judging by a stray text balloon from Johnny, but she is finally intercepted by Reed, who lands on a rocky spire ahead of her, asking if she's alright. Sue's heart is beating like a jackhammer, but he'll presume it's from the exertion of her run, so she has to act like nothing's wrong. Has to deceive Reed as completely as he's deceiving them… until she can figure out a way to set things right. And she'll find that way! Reed says they were worried, but Sue just argues she's fine - she just wanted to stretch her legs. Reed says that it's time to go home! Ominously, the next issue is titled: 'Latveria!'
Rating & Comments
Okay, did anyone else feel like this issue was a solid 70% filler, with most of the content only there to justify the actually important 30% which bookends the thing? The extended framing device with Sue's desert run doesn't really help either in that regard, since the opening pages don't fully make sense in context of the final reveal - the art is way too lowkey for the alleged 'panicked running' which it's supposed to represent. In any case, before we get around to discussing that finale, the only reason to actually read this comic, let's cover the rest of it.
It's neat to see a version of the 'normal day at the Fantastic Four' morning ritual while Reed is in the armor - he unintentionally scares the mailwoman, for example, which is a fun little opener. That said, I'm still unclear why he's maintaining the masquerade at this point - with Doom's armies back to the other planet and his minions in prison, it doesn't seem like there'd be any harm in admitting that Reed is stuck in the armor at the moment. Hell, Reed has gotten so used to playing the role that he keeps forgetting the effect it has on people… though I think the implication there is a little more sinister. When Sue plays an innocent prank on him, Reed gets fully offended and invokes the name of Doom - and though he plays it off like a joke, I don't think it was. Clearly the whole trapped situation is getting to him, because shortly afterwards he uses the armor's technology to break down his wife's instinctual force field between them, before acting like she's being unreasonable. Reed, what the hell? You're… a little out of line there, my man.
So, what's going on here, exactly? Reed is acting weirdly… in character as Doom, isn't he? Not all the time, as some of his casual chatting is pretty much as expected from Reed, but sometimes he slips into Victor's mindset a little too much. If we go back to a previous issue, where Reed was trying to break the defenses on Doom's armor, they were said to adapt and change to respond to the one trying to break through, and the implication was that you needed to think like Doom in order to beat them. Reed's been attempting to break out for a while now - has he gotten himself a little brainwashed by the very technology he's trying to defeat? Reed, don't stare too long into the abyss, lest it stare back into you…
The vaguely creepy but homely direction of the story is abruptly diverted when Wyatt Wingfoot, a random side-character who's coming up weirdly often of late, sends a secret message along with a video game disc for Johnny. Seems the random conflict of the day is the Wizard and his wacky supporting cast, collectively going by the legacy name of the Frightful Four, have decided to take over Silver Rock Springs, which is a supposed poor Native American reservation which is actually hiding a secret Silicon Valley inside a defunct oil refinery. Okay. Sure. There's no vaguely racist undertones there at all. The Wizard is there to follow up on rumors about the area - because this happens to be the place where the secret Celestial prison from a few issues ago is located, and also where Doom's ship appeared when it returned to Earth. The Wizard, though… he's looking for treasure. Riveting.
It's funny that the Trapster has no idea what he's even really doing there - the Wizard is chasing ghosts, he's brought a mindless robot along, and now he's threatening random locals with death over… what, exactly? Even this numbskull knows these people are just a bunch of tech nerds, not the pot at the end of the rainbow. In any case, the moment the Fantastic Four join the party, the Wizard pulls his one good trick - to mind-whammy the team into thinking their secondary powers are gone, and that they're no longer immune to the negative side-effects of their powers. Johnny thinks he's burning himself, and Ben gets stuck because rocks can't move on their own. Of course, the Wizard is dumb enough that he didn't watch the news, so he flashed the team before realizing that, uh, Reed's not exactly stretchy right now…
This is, of course, when the comic takes another random turn - Sharon Ventura returns. Do I need to repeat my distaste and discomfort with her entire plotline again? The last few times she showed up in this readthrough she attempted violent suicide on account of being turned into a 'monster', and we get a thinly veiled variation on that here, where she tries to beat up the Fantastic Four (and Doom) for their perceived slights against her. She blames Reed for not curing her condition, but the reason she was left in that stasis tube is because both Reed and Doom ostensibly died fighting each other (back when Hyperstorm kidnapped them) which meant Reed wasn't actually around when her tube was stolen from the lab by villains. She also blames Doom for not curing her in this issue, but he in fact did cure her in exchange for some services. She went back on their deal that she would spy on the Fantastic Four for him, so he took the cure back. It's dickish, sure, but Sharon is definitely misrepresenting what happened.
The Sharon narrative gets even worse when she faces Ben, and starts reiterating her old 'I'm a monster' nonsense, in which she claims that after she became hideous, she turned to her teammates and they all betrayed her and forgot about her. (No, that was the writers.) Then she starts doing the 'you're gonna have to kill me!' shtick once more, and I just get tired of the whole affair. She never gets to 'automatic 1 star' levels here, as bizarrely enough Sharon's revenge-filled mad tirade gets ended not by Ben, who has an actual history with her, but by a random 'wise Native American' interrupt. Wyatt Wingfoot says absolutely nothing of note but somehow convinces her to hang up the hatchet and chill out anyway. This instant kumbaya moment doesn't take after this issue, by the way, and she's back to being a random Frightful Four baddie the next time she shows up. Fantastic, really worth including her in this issue.
Back with the main plot, still in progress, my perception of Reed's increasing Doomliness is reinforced when he convinces Johnny to turn his flames back on, invoking Johnny's trust in Reed's leadership, only for him to reveal afterwards that he wasn't certain at all - he just suspected he was right, and was willing to bet Johnny life on that. That likely wouldn't be something Reed would do, but it's exactly the kind of cold mercilessness that Doom thrives on. There's no discussion about how fucked up that whole thing is, even though Johnny brings it up, because Reed gets flung away into the nearby refinery by the Punisher robot, but it's something to keep in mind going forward. The moral crusader is a little less moral these days, methinks…
Belatedly we get informed that Reed saved Wynona (who got yeeted into the sky by the Wizard at the start) just in time for her to be relevant again. Apparently everyone in the town was locked inside a random vault deep inside the oil refinery. I'm unclear why it's on fire, though - the combat didn't reach this far from what I saw. The entire sequence is a bit poorly explained, really, and is quickly forgotten. The Wizard makes a run for it, and then immediately gives up when 'Doom' corners him - he claims he doesn't want to make enemies with Doom, which is a little rich given that earlier in the same fight he threw a bunch of EMP grenades onto his back to explode him, then had his minion robot toss him away. Those weren't hostile actions to the Wizard…? Still, having him just go 'welp, Doom got me, I'm fucked' is great. Shows how much respect the villains do have for this guy.
With the whole mess summarily resolved, however haphazardly, everyone goes to have a rest - and the scene for which this comic was written finally happens. Sue wakes up at night to realize that Reed's been lying to her. To everyone. The central conceit of the last few issues, that he's locked inside Doom's armor… isn't true anymore. Reed found a way to get the mask off… but chooses willfully to keep wearing it anyway, without telling his family, and she catches him as he's adding Doctor Doom as a person allowed access to the highest level of information, equivalent to Reed's own. That's above even that of the rest of the Fantastic Four! (Shades of Reed's ego there, by the way - he is the 'first among equals' even when he's in his right mind, huh?) Reed then deletes any trace that he ever did so and puts the mask back on, and the system now answers to the voice of Doom himself…
While the rest of the issue is pretty bad, I have to give the issue this - that's a great twist. Reed hooked himself into every system of the Fantastic Four while he's inside Doom's armor - he now has total awareness of what the others are doing, and that includes Sue. She knows something is terribly wrong… but can she do anything about it? Telling the others would just tip Reed off. What are his motives here? Is he going darkside, as his previous lapses would suggest? Apparently the FF jumpsuits are equipped with full Big Brother surveillance, so Sue is essentially incapable of acting on the information she's just learned in any way until she gets everyone to a place where Reed can't overhear… The only thing she can really do is run, but as the comic reminds us, where Doom is concerned, 'escape' is a word without meaning.
Where does that leave this issue? The foreshadowing of Reed's turn to the dark side is pretty good, and the actual nighttime reveal is great - plus I appreciated the Wizard folding to Doom when things get dicey. But beyond that this issue is a bunch of pointless and dubious Wyatt Wingfoot stuff, basic Frightful Four combat, and a bunch of perpetually problematic Sharon Ventura interactions to add to the list. So, I'll add a star for the twist, and remove one for Sharon? Three is as high as I'm willing to go here, and even that is pushing it…
Best Panel(s) of the Issues
I quite like the mundanity of Reed getting the mail in the morning in just, full-on regalia. I'm pretty sure that cloak comes off, he's just wearing that for effect.
Most Gloriously Villainous Reed Quotes
"Such behavior is intolerable for the Baroness von Doom! Show yourself, my wife! DOOM commands it!"
Reed: "Can't a husband offer his wife some comfort and support - what the DEVIL?! How dare you put your force field between us?!"
Sue: "My field - it's destabilizing! What have you done to me?!"
Reed: "I want to embrace my wife. Is that such a crime?"
"Reed Richards is no more! Susan Storm Richards has been proclaimed the Baroness von Doom! To assault her… is to court the wrath of DOOM!"
"Have you ever known me to lie, Johnny? Or do you believe the mask more than the man who wears it?"
Reed: "As I suspected, the effect the wizard created was illusory, not factual. He did not materially alter your abilities, but merely made you believe such was the case."
Johnny: "As you suspected?!"
Reed: "It was a calculated risk."
Johnny: "I could have been killed!"
Reed: "And may yet be, Torch, if this conflict is not expeditiously resolved in our favor!"
"As it applies to the wrath of Doom… escape is a word without meaning."
"Core network is now to accept Victor von Doom as an authorized user… with access equal to that of Reed Richards and greater than that of the other current members of the Fantastic Four."
Doom-Tech of the Week
Well, we at least find out Doom has some sort of Force Field Disruption built into his gauntlet, since Reed uses it against his wife... and technically Doom has access to all FF tech now. Maybe Reed should have thought this through, the real Doom could just show up and coopt everything now...
This makes me think of the problem Iron Man had with his original armor designs. The neurocircuits which allowed him to control the armor were specifically keyed to Tony's brainwaves. This caused anybody else wearing the armor to become mentally unstable over time. I suspect something like this is happening now, except Doom would consider this a good thing rather than a design flaw.
Well, that's… kind of horrifying? A shot of Reed screaming is overlaid with Doom's armor here, but it's transparent with its electronics highlighted. The whole thing neatly surrounds Reed and keeps him trapped, presumably a metaphor for his situation. I'm not sure the scale is entirely correct (as it would imply Doom's armor is paper-thin) but the concept is pretty cool, and the transparency effect is surprisingly effective. Reed also comes across as pretty monstrous here, which seems fitting given what happened at the end of the last issue. I'm not entirely sure if the right side of the face makes sense (the 'eye socket' of the mask seems misaligned) but that's a detail that's easy enough to ignore.
Story Overview
Latveria
This comic opens with the Fantastic Four gathered together while they are being showered with flower petals, with Sue wearing the 'Baroness von Doom' pauldrons, gauntlets and shoulderpads first shown in the Valeria von Doom issues, as well as the iconic green cloak of Doom. Ben and Johnny are just sort of there, and the latter notes that in all the times they've visited the home turf of Doctor Doom, they've never had a welcome quite like this! Ahead of them, drinking in the adulation of the surrounding masses with gusto, stands Reed Richards - still clothed in the imposing armor of Doom himself…
Situated in the heart of the Balkans where Europe begins its transition to Asia Minor, we are reintroduced to the Principality of Latveria… a postage-stamp monarchy whose influence on the world stage is far out of proportion to its diminutive size. That's due to one man - Latveria's ruler, Victor von Doom, who has single-handedly made this country one of the most respected and feared on Earth! Renowned as a scientist, reviled and condemned as a would-be conqueror, he is to many in this land - which is situated in one of the most strife-torn regions on the globe - paradoxically loved.
His name tells you all you need to know about the man, the narration claims - he is Doctor Doom! And until very recently, the trio standing by his side right now were counted among his greatest adversaries. They are three of the world-renowned team of adventurers, the Fantastic Four. However, while Ben and Johnny are present as mere honored guests, Johnny's big sister Susan joins Doom as his consort... She wears the royal tiara that proclaims her, for all in the central plaza of Latveria's capital of Doomstadt to see and for all the world to acknowledge, as the Baroness von Doom! This narration really wants to slow-roll the not-at-all reveal that it's not really Doom in the armor, doesn't it?
While throngs of civilians crowd the rustic plazas of Doomstadt, overlooked from on high by Castle Doom, Johnny asks Ben if it's just him, or does it seem like their fearless leader is getting a little too caught up in the adulation? Reed is playing to the crowd like he was born to it! Ben tells Johnny to keep his voice down, since he doesn't want people to hear them, and admits that he always figured the locals supported Doom out of fear, but watching the faces since they arrived and seeing this kind of spontaneous reaction, he's not so sure anymore. How would these people react if they learned that this isn't their beloved Baron in front of them, but instead his oldest foe, Reed Richards, playing masquerade?
The Burgomeister/Mayor of Doomstadt soon approaches Reed - hell of a callback there to Fantastic Four v1 #247 - and declares that on behalf of his loyal subjects, Doom is welcomed home. He also explains to Reed that the land has… suffered in his absence! (That's a bit of an understatement…) Reed gives his solemn pledge that those days are done! An unnamed Countess soon approaches Sue and says that long have they hoped and prayed that their liege would find himself a suitable consort, but they never expected the honor would fall to her! Sue agrees with that sentiment, and the Countess observes that she hopes Sue will soon learn why their Sovereign is truly beloved by his people. Sue points out that given their history, she would more readily label Doom a tyrant, but the Countess scoffs at that idea and says that some malcontents would claim so, but they're misguided. Doom provides peace, a standard of living unmatched on Earth, and the respect of all nations! She then dryly asks: 'When was the last time that a citizen of Latveria ever came to harm in foreign lands?' The world knows that to threaten a child of Latveria is to court the wrath of Doom…
Reed cuts in here and rhetorically asks what true sovereign would not treasure his homeland above all other prizes? Sue muses to herself that before they came here, when Reed told her they were going home, it never occurred to her that he could be talking about Latveria as that home. And yet, now that they've arrived, after watching him before that crowd, no decision seems more natural… or more awful! Reed asks her if everything is alright, noting she seems so withdrawn and pensive, then adds that he almost doesn't know who she is anymore. Sue nervously wonders if Reed suspects that she knows about his deception, but pretends she's just not used to the situation, to this whole royalty thing. Reed hugs her and tells her that the labels, the costumes, are only vanity. What matters, what sustains them, is their love for one another! The people cheer and cry: 'Hail Doom!' and 'Hail the Baroness!'
Sue, embracing Reed back, thinks that he couldn't have chosen more calculated words to break her heart. She wants to believe Reed, to believe in him… but she doesn't dare to! For weeks she's believed he was trapped inside Doom's armor, and that his greatest goal was to escape it. But the other night she found him with his mask off… which means he's been lying about what's really going on. She thought he was forced by circumstance to play the role of Doom, and in the beginning that may have been true… but she now knows that he's still doing it by choice! The worst part of it is that she can't tell the others. She learned the truth when she caught Reed hacking into the FF's datanet, reconfiguring the security protocols to give him unrestricted entry to the system - as himself or as Doom. Reed has access to all of the secrets of the FF, including the network that links their costumes together. As long as they're dressed as the Fantastic Four, he can easily monitor every word they say, every move they make. He's the most brilliant man alive, and holds what looks like an unbeatable hand… and yet somehow Sue has to find a way to stop him!
The Four head towards Castle Doom, and Reed notes that in Doom's absence terrible events have taken their toll on Latveria - and especially the castle. It's fascinating to watch his robots working in tandem with local craftsmen and artisans to recreate the building in every detail! Sue mutters that they're all suitably impressed… but they've also been here before, so it's not exactly new ground. Reed apologizes for sounding like a tour guide, but there are just so many marvels to explore here that he gets a bit lost in them. That brings him to a more urgent concern, though - all these recent incursions into Latveria only emphasize the danger of Doom's inventions falling into the wrong hands. Ben agrees, concluding that to stop Doom's stuff from getting hijacked by villains every five minutes, they should hijack it themselves for safekeeping! Reed says that he's already cleared Ben through the entire security network so there shouldn't be any unpleasantness on that front. The sooner he gets started with defusing the dangerous equipment, the sooner they'll all breathe a little easier. Ben wonders why Reed's delegating that job instead of dealing with this tech himself, but Reed claims he has 'business of state' to attend to and quickly leaves. Figures…
Sue tells Ben and Johnny that she's going to slip into something more appropriate, and then the Invisible Woman will be at their service! A servant immediately intercepts her and tells her that's quite impossible! He introduces himself as Deiter, the household Chief of Staff! Ben has a bad feeling about this, and Sue also tries to wave him off, but Deiter insists that the Baroness von Doom has obligations to the crown which cannot be shirked! He presents today's schedule, which includes meetings with staff, fittings, delegations, a visit to a hospital, a school, an awards ceremony… Those are just her morning duties! Johnny asks if there's anything for him to do too, but Deiter just tells him flatly: 'No.' Harsh.
Ben and Johnny are left on their own, and decide to have a stroll through the castle's expansive gardens, with the former feeling bad for Sue and her sudden slew of obligations. Johnny is just glad they're all on the same side here - after all, they let themselves get split up so easily! Against Doom they'd all be on guard, suspicious of every move, but because it's Reed in the armor, they do as they're told, no questions asked! Johnny seems suspicious of the whole situation. Ben points out Reed is right about the fact that Doom's technology is too dangerous to be left lying around, and Johnny reluctantly agrees - but Reed always has a point, and he always makes sense… Yet he still can't help but get a little spooked at how completely the man seems to slip in and out of character. Sometimes he sounds more like Doom than the real Doom!
Spying on his family from Doom's throne, Reed thanks Johnny for this compliment, then narrates to himself that he and Ben are behaving precisely as he anticipated, which allows his plan to unfold without distractions. On his surveillance feed we see Johnny admit that it's a shame Reed deactivated all the Doombots, since it doesn't feel quite right coming to Latveria and not having to fight for their lives! Reed immediately reaches for a big red button and muses that Johnny should be careful what he wishes for…
Moments later a holographic image of Doom's mask pops up in front of Ben and Johnny, and Reed pretends to frantically warn them that there's a 'problem' - there's been a malfunction in the castle's Guardian program, which may result in a squad of Doombots acting independently, and in defiance of his most recent directives! Ben concludes this should be blamed on Johnny's big mouth. Moments later a squadron of robots - closer to Servo-Drones than Doombots, really - arrive to hunt down intruders, recognizing the unauthorized incursion of the Fantastic Four. Use of ultimate force is mandated! They start hammering Ben and Johnny with shockwave pulses, and the former tells Johnny he's going to run interference, as one solid hit from these beams will squish him to a pulp! Johnny flames on, but realizes that his flames can't penetrate the robots' thick armor - that's why they decide to team up on these foes, with Ben cracking the shell so Johnny can toast the insides.
Sue hears the commotion from afar and wonders if there's a fight going on, but Deiter and the Countess tell her that whatever it is, it's of no concern to her! The household sentinels are more than adequate to deal with any such situation! She should remember her position, as the Baroness von Doom has no place in battle! Sue rushes up the stairs anyway, getting a gratuitous boobshot for her trouble, and wonders what kind of Baroness she would be if she didn't rise to the defense of her family and new home? So much for Reed's assurances, she darkly muses to herself, as she'd recognize the sound of those blast signatures anywhere… they're Doombots operating in full combat mode!
Ben and Johnny are still breaking robots by smashing them into each other, only for Johnny to get blindsided when one of them sprays him with fire suppressant - actually it's more than that, it's some sort of contact anesthetic too! He… can't focus his thoughts… or actions, everything's flipped out of kilter… Johnny nearly falls unconscious and his flames falter, and a giant robot soon looms over the Human Torch and declares his ability to resist has been neutralized… now initiating immediate termination! 'Don't think so!' Sue shouts as she arrives and blasts a neat hole straight through the robot, and we briefly see her through the hollowed-out robot torso before the thing drops. Johnny relights his fires in the wake of being rescued by his sister and finishes off the last robots, thanking her for the help.
In the wake of the random bout of violence Sue complains that more often than not, Johnny's a royal pain… but she's her only brother, and she kind of likes him the way he is. She then icily comments that Reed must have a reasonable explanation for this incident. Reed immediately radios in again to say that it's still under investigation, but he's pleased to report that the fault itself has been corrected, and the units involved have been deactivated. This foolishness won't reoccur! That said, it'd probably be best that Ben and Johnny proceed with their assigned tasks while Sue returns to her new duties as Baroness. Sue sarcastically observes that they got their marching orders, but Ben comments that those can wait. He doesn't like the tone in Sue's voice, and asks if she's alright. Sue assures him it's just jet lag, and she's fine… Here's a hug to prove it! As she leaves, though, Ben muses that the hug felt like Sue was grabbing onto him for dear life…
After heading back inside the castle, the Countess tells Sue off for her uncouth behavior, but Sue just tells the lady to get used to it. She asks after 'Doom', but is told the Baron is unavailable. Afterwards she has dinner by herself, and is told by the maid that the Baron is still unavailable and won't be joining her. Later, after denying help with getting ready for bed, one of the maids argues that it's their duty and pleasure to make sure that at all times, and all occasions, she looks her very best! When Sue asks after her husband again, she's once more told Doom is unavailable.
Sue muses to herself that Reed is right next door in the laboratory, and she can even hear him working. She's just expected to wait for him? For how long? Does it matter? Does she even care? When the man she loves has become the one she fears the most? She crumples down onto her bed and slips into sleep...
Moments later Sue startles awake, very confused… She's suddenly wearing her proper Fantastic Four uniform again, and finds herself standing in the living room of the original headquarters of the Fantastic Four - the Baxter Building! As she looks outside through the windows, though, she doesn't see the New York she knows, but a flooded city instead. That means she's looking at the version of the city from the Earth that was created by her son, Franklin… The world that some have started to call Planet Doom! Her head tells her she must be dreaming, but every sensory perception proclaims it's real! She can feel the breeze in her hair, the sun on her face, smell the brine of the ocean, hear the surf crash against the buildings below…
Something moves behind Sue and she immediately lashes out with an invisible projectile, but the figure behind her effortlessly blocks it with a force field of his own. Doctor Doom appears before her - and this time it's the real deal, clad in his somewhat improvised armor from Doom #3, and sporting a metal version of the lion-skin mask he used in that mini-series. He explains that this experience Sue is having is actually a synthesis of reality and a dream… and she should calm down and set aside her force fields. Doom has brought her here to ask for her help, not to attack her. He explains that the way he's communicating with her is magical in nature - she can't have forgotten he's as much of a sorcerer as he is a technologist, right? It's perhaps the single aspect of his being which her husband Reed, Doom's greatest rival, can neither comprehend nor equal. And that might prove to be the salvation of them both!
Sue turns towards Doom and says she doesn't understand what he's saying, and Doom explains that utilizing disciplines learned on Earth and honed on Planet Doom, he entered the Australian Aboriginal state known as 'Dreamtime', and through their respective dreams he has drawn the two of them together. It is Doom's only means of communicating with her without risking discovery. Sue wonders what makes him think she'll listen, but Doom notes that they both know Reed Richards is in the gravest danger right now - which would ordinarily be of no consequence to Doom… but he needs his armor back! If he is to bring order to this chaos of a world, he must have his proper visage to accompany his name! To achieve that end, he must confront Reed directly. He's already established one terminus of a teleport link between the Baxter Building of Planet Doom and his castle back on Earth… but Sue must activate the other side!
Doom then explains that if action is not taken, and quickly, Sue's husband is truly doomed. See, the armor that Doom wears was crafted by him, and also for him, and thus only Doom may wear it. In a sense Reed is being possessed by it - he is slowly coming to think and act like Doom, and ultimately become Doom! Sue notes that Doom is asking her to betray the man she loves, and in response Doom reaches out to her and proclaims that she knows he speaks the truth of what is happening… What now remains is that she acts upon it!
The dream is abruptly ended and Sue jolts up in bed with a cry - it turns out Reed has finally arrived to bed, and he apologizes to Sue for getting so wrapped up in his work and losing track of time. She looked so lovely lying there asleep that he couldn't bear to disturb her, though… until she suddenly cried out! He asks if she's alright, if there's anything he can do. Sue thinks to herself that he could once more become the man she loves, then tells him that it was just a bad dream… Only a dream.
The next day, Johnny, Sue, and Ben are going through some of Doom's old equipment - Johnny finds a familiar object and wonders if the others remember this puppy, the Cosmic Energy Siphon that Doom used to steal the powers of the Silver Surfer! That's one fight he's amazed they survived! Ben carries some heavy equipment around and when Sue asks him if he can handle it, he promises that anything her force fields can lift his muscles can also handle, no problem! He's forgotten how big some of this stuff was, though! Sue mutters that Victor always was a man who felt his creations should reflect his opinion of himself… Ben suddenly notices that Sue's wearing some unusual working clothes today - she's taking this new job awfully seriously! Sue admits that the staff have certain… expectations of their Baroness. I'm not entirely clear what they're talking about, since her work-clothes are hardly opulent, and she dispensed with the armor…
Spying on his teammates once again, Reed muses to himself that there are far worse fates than to be Doom's Baroness… especially considering the future he has planned for their family, and the world! We then see him staring at extrapolations and scans of various people and events - these include detailed analyses of the members of the Fantastic Four, but also his vision of the future for New York City, Moscow, and Beijing, all of which look like science-fiction incarnations of themselves with elevated tracks for monorails, domes, flying vehicles aplenty, and the same tall skyscrapers in each, modelled after the Baxter Building…
The next night, Sue dreams once again, and she is revisited by the real Doctor Doom. Doom asks her if she's ever heard of legends about ancient artifacts - including suits of armor - which were said to be haunted? To wield them, to wear them, was to become possessed by the spirit of their creator. Doom's armor is an extension of his self in the same way. To escape it, or even to simply use it, Reed Richards must think like him… and to think like Doom is, ultimately, to become him!
Meanwhile, we see Reed extrapolating on the future of Cairo, envisioning that where once there were endless miles of barren Sahara desert, soon there shall be fertile farmland producing food enough to feed a score of planets!
The following night, Sue once again argues with Doom - she tells him that Reed isn't like him at heart, he's a good and decent man! Doom agrees with that… and says that therein lie the seeds of Reed's damnation. Sue has always condemned Doom because he believes, like Louis XIV of France, that 'L'etat c'est moi.' - I am the State. Sue reveres freedom, so to her Doom represents the ultimate tyranny. But what true difference is there in a world defined by Doom, and one defined by Reed? His means may seem more gentle, but their ultimate goals are the same… and she'll learn that he will prove as implacable and unyielding in that determination as Doom. And as unforgiving of defiance…
The next day, we catch up with the team in Castle Doom's library - Johnny explains that one of the maids claimed this was one of the greatest mystical libraries on Earth, and that there's books here that date back to the dawn of writing! Ben remarks that there are books which give him major creeps just touching them, so the sooner all of this is all put into storage, the happier he'll be! Sue mutters that thankfully Reed has no mystical bent, so his natural curiosity shouldn't tempt him to read these books… Perhaps he'll let them donate the collection to Doctor Strange? Ben points out that to do that, Reed would have to come out of his lab and speak to them. Fact is, none of them have seen the man in days - those affairs of state the staff keeps throwing at them as an excuse must be pretty damned important!
Reed, at that very moment, is busy planning out the most expeditious means to neutralize the conventional and nuclear military forces of the Great Powers… Wow, that escalated quickly! Reed decides he'll use a semi-sentient computer virus introduced through their communications networks that will transfer all their command and control functions to him… to Doom!
As night comes again, Sue communes with the real Doom, and asks him pointedly why she should trust him… Ever since he and Reed met, they've cast themselves as rivals. And since the founding of the Fantastic Four, Doom has dedicated himself - Lord knows why - to their destruction! For all she knows, this is nothing but his latest and cruelest plan!
The next day, the whole team is together, eating in the formal dining room - Johnny asks how come they rate eating here, and Sue tells him they really don't… but this is for family meals. Johnny complains that it makes conversation hard when they're sitting like thirty feet apart at the far ends of the huge table… Reed just waves it off as the habits of different lands. Now, if they'll excuse him… Reed then goes to leave again, but before he can depart Ben asks whether he's avoiding the rest of them? He's been absent a lot of late. Reed tells him not to be absurd, claiming there's just so much to do. Ben tells him that the world won't suffer if he takes an hour off, and invites him to a game of chess for old times' sake. Reed agrees, and Sue tells the two to enjoy themselves, then leaves with the excuse that she's getting a headache, turning invisible as she departs.
Johnny follows his sister out of the room and down a long winding staircase, and calls down to her, stating that there was a time when a complaint like a splitting headache would have sent Reed to the lab for his latest invention to make things instantly right. Sue pauses and agrees pensively. Johnny asks if she's going to wait up, or force him to fly after her? Sue then apologizes to her brother for being so evasive, stating she has a lot on her mind. Johnny figures that's probably why her head hurts so bad, and the two share a hug. Johnny asks his sister if she wants to talk about it - as her brother, he'll stand by her. Sue tears up, and soon after we find her laying on her bed in the fetal position…
Back in the Dreamtime, Doom asks Sue that if she's so certain of his betrayal, why is she still coming here? Why hasn't she revealed these conversations to her husband, and taken the necessary steps to thwart Doom's supposed 'foul ambitions?' No, the fact that she continues to visit this dreamscape reveals her true feelings - she knows full well what is happening to Reed, and knows what is at stake. Now she must decide whether or not to act! Sue startles awake again, yelling 'No!' Not much time has elapsed since she went to lie down, though, since Sue realizes that there's no lights on in the room next door - Reed must still be downstairs with the others. She'll never have a better opportunity to discover what Reed's really been doing than now, so she decides to go into his labs…
Back downstairs, Reed and Ben are still playing chess, with Ben commenting that Reed's adopted a very ruthless strategy. Reed comments that sometimes sacrifices must be made for the greater good - especially when it gets the job done. Check! Upstairs, Sue slams open the door to Reed's labs with her powers, and almost immediately an alarm begins wailing. Johnny recognizes it as internal security - someone broke into Reed's lab! …And now they're breaking out! Sure enough, Sue used her powers to break one of the castle's windows and jumped outside, using her powers to sail down towards the ground far below her. Reed, meanwhile, promises Johnny and Ben that the intruder won't get far…
Sue is almost immediately faced with a barrage of stun-flares, and she's forced to keep her concentration locked tight, because if her force field collapses it's a long fall to the ground! Several robots arrive to warn her to cease all resistance - escape is impossible! 'So my husband tells me,' Sue responds darkly. Reed's voice then comes from one of the robots and asks what's wrong. She wonders if he can't ask her to her face, but Reed says the robots are extensions of his will - talking to them is like talking to him! Sue says she just wants to go home, but Reed tells her they are home! That's what she was most afraid he'd say… She quickly floats over towards Johnny and Ben, who have just made their way outside at ground level, and she surrounds them with her force field as well, much to their confusion.
Ben asks her to stop acting crazy, but she assures him that there's a method to her madness… hopefully they'll understand before it's too late! Sue quickly makes her way through some sort of secret entrance back into the castle - a hidden alcove, the place is full of them. Inside, she finds a familiar looking spindly device. Ben wonders if maybe she should reconsider whatever she's got planned, but Sue assures him she's made her choice. Reed then arrives, looming behind her in the darkness, and wonders if he has any say in the matter. He commands Ben to grab Sue, and at the same time he uses a modulated energy pulse to break down Sue's force fields, just as he did in the last issue.
Johnny and Ben try to understand what's going on, just as Reed suddenly stretches Doom's armor - he's figured out a way to be as extensible in the armor as he is in his natural body! Reed uses his extendo-arms to grab the teleportation module from Sue's hands, and she realizes in that very moment that she only has one shot… and uses her powers to hit its activation button from afar. 'Splendid!' a familiar voice states as light suddenly overtakes the room. Materializing from the aether, the familiar form of Victor von Doom arrives back on Earth. Finally, he tells Reed, the time has come to end his pathetic charade! Reed should prepare to be humbled, and to meet the fate he has so long and richly deserved: DOOM!
Rating & Comments
After the last issue's grand reveal, this is a very longform depiction of Sue's internal struggle in the wake of it - all the other characters are almost entirely irrelevant to what's going on here, irrelevant to the greater point. Unfortunately the insertion of various time-wasting interludes and side-content does make that feel a little boring, and splitting up the dream-segments into a whole bunch of little bits instead of just having a pair of full scenes hurts it a little… And that's without mentioning the entirely pointless combat sequence which is just there to give the least relevant characters something to do. Bleh.
That said, a lot of what's in here is good. Latveria has been through a mess of late, and this is really the proper reintroduction of the place in the 2000's. At least from initial reading here, it seems they're going with 'the people are mostly happy' instead of a full 1984 route where everyone's forced to pretend - given that these folks have been strung along by several violent psychopaths including a defective Doombot, they probably just like that they know what they're in for again. Reed really plays into his 'Doctor Doom' persona, and the whole issue actually lays that on pretty thick - to the point that I'm not sure why Johnny and Ben aren't more skeptical of what's happening. Johnny seems to catch on that something is dodgy several times, but he never actually acts on that…
Latveria gets several more side-characters in this issue - the Burgomeister makes a comeback for a bit, and there's a nondescript Countess who plays propagandist/apologist for Doom, and Deiter, who just seems to be there to badger Sue into official functions. All of them are essentially just there because Reed himself makes himself scarce, mostly just there as a vague background menace. Due to Sue repeatedly thinking about how he can overhear everything, and the revelation that he's regularly spying on his allies, that feeling comes across pretty well - Reed makes for a pretty good background manipulator in the style of Doom!
Reed says many of the right things in conversation with Sue - he asks if she's alright regularly, tells her that all the rigamarole is secondary to the love they share, all that good stuff. In reality, of course, his personality has gone completely over the edge - not only does he send some killer robots after his friends just for a laugh and then lies about it, but at various points it's revealed that he's been working on a grand world-conquering plan… It seems that it started from good intentions, as his future vision for the world includes vast sci-fi megalopolises and high technology, but it soon turns to troubling means - at the very least he intends to defuse the world's arsenals in order to forcibly take over all the major powers, which is some high-tier supervillain shit. Then, of course, he lays claim to the name… he calls himself Doom.
The reason for all of this is, if anything, even better than the realization of Reed going to the dark side - and that's all revealed in a dream. While I'm not a fan of the way it's chopped up in this book, the concept of Doom using a magical communication technique to circumvent Reed since he's completely oblivious to magic is great. It explains why Doom doesn't just use the spaceship to return to Earth - that would be picked up by Reed long before he'd arrive. Magic, though, leaves no trace for Reed to notice, and Sue is probably the last person he'd suspect if we assume some part of Reed's personality still remains. And what Doom explains in those dreams… it's probably my favorite addition to canon.
Doom's armor has always been represented as at least partly mystical - it was forged in the mountain in a forge maintained by a bunch of magical monks, after all. Beyond a bit of techno-wizardry in Of Triumph and Torment, though, it's never really come up what that means. Here, we're told that in a very real sense Doom's armor is cursed - haunted. It's inhabited by the spirit of its creator, Doom himself, and just like haunted artifacts of old, it seeks to imbue its wearer with the qualities of its original owner. The armor is Doom's One Ring of Power. It was already revealed a few issues back that the programming adapts itself to the wearer and seems to rely on its user sharing Doom's thought processes - perhaps this is an extension of that idea? Or maybe the programming is a part of the possession-effect? Either way, this might also explain why Kristoff began acting less Doom-like after he ditched the armor for extended periods…
Another detail to note is highlighted when Sue mentions that Reed is a good man at heart - and Doom readily agrees. But that's not the point. Even if his intentions are good, the armor is twisting his thoughts and methods towards totalitarian, world-conquering ones. As Doom points out, the two of them might have different ways of getting there, but their goals are not so different - to change the world in ways that they envision as better than the status quo. Forcing the world to adapt to your vision of what it should be is going to be messy, whether or not you envision a dictatorship or a futuristic Utopia. Given that Reed is resorting to semi-sentient computer viruses to transfer all the worlds militaries to his control, he's clearly on track to do this, even if nothing he says here seems to indicate he's trying to start a war. Given that he's preparing food to settle multiple planets, he's probably got a high-minded ideal... but he's planning to get there through the most heavy-handed methods, influenced as he is by Doom's armor.
Sue takes a pretty long time to accept the real Doom's plan as a valid means of resolving her current issues - she's pretty set on finding a solution by herself, so I suppose having Freddy Krueger show up to tell you that he's totally on your side on this one is probably a bit of a hurdle to get over. Reed also isn't openly acting evil in a way that might tip off the other members of the Fantastic Four - he's mostly just absent. It's actually pretty neat that Reed trying to keep the ruse going ultimately plays into the resolution of the issue - Ben basically forces the issue of his constant absences, and he's talked into playing some chess instead of returning to his world-destroying plans, allowing Sue to pull off her caper. I'm not sure if the final dream conversation actually pulls her over the edge - I think it might be her conversation with Johnny, or the fact that she couldn't have a truthful one. Whatever the case, when she finally breaks, she breaks bad.
It's interesting that a part of the comic is completely skipped - and that's the inside of Reed's lab. We see Sue slam open the door to his laboratory with her powers while still in her pajamas, and then we immediately switch over to her jumping out of the window on the far side of that lab, now fully clothed. We're left in the dark on what she found in there - did she see Reed's world-conquest plans? Did she find the location of the teleportation node in there, or did she get that from Doom? Either way, she's galvanized into heading straight for the teleportation node to call Doom over. Johnny and Ben are perpetually confused in this issue, completely oblivious to the conflict brewing between Sue and Reed, and even seem to be on Reed's side towards the end despite Johnny stating just a little earlier that he'd be on her side with anything. Feels like those two are just complete idiots in this issue, honestly.
We leave off, of course, with the return of Doctor Doom to Earth, after an extended absence on Planet Doom - just in time for a duel with Doom-Reed! Given that we're more than a year away from Doom's semi-permanent return, and there's another three-parter on Planet Doom, I'm not holding my breath on this sticking for very long. I do like that Doom returns in mostly-accurate gear from his 'Doom' three-parter mini-series… given that it hadn't been released at the time, I suppose I can forgive the continuity inconsistency with his mask. I can buy that he made himself a metal version since we last saw him at the end of those issues, but we saw him do the Dreamtime thing and he was definitely wearing the lionskin version there, not this fancier version!
This issue is a bit long-winded, and the combat encounter was entirely superfluous filler, but I do appreciate the new angle of Latveria that's shown, the way that Reed's ideals have been corrupted to the point that he's basically Doom's twin, his stalkerish tendencies dialed up to eleven, and basically all of Sue's inner conflict. The best parts, though, are the way that magic is handled - Doom's armor is literally possessing him, and Reed's ignorance of magic is the reason he can be circumvented since it's a weakness the real Doom doesn't share, and all the answers are probably available in Doom's library… but Reed doesn't go there because such subjects don't even register as important to him. It all makes sense! I'll dock this a point for the extraneous material and the sluggishness, but add one for magic goodness… which leaves us at 3 again! Fine issue.
Best Panel(s) of the Issues
I appreciate the framing of these two panels - one of them Reed planning his future, which apparently includes taking over other planets (and conquering the world) while the latter is Doom's hands maniacally clawing towards a crying Sue despite being the ostensible good guy. Pretty neat contrast!
Most Gloriously Villainous Doom Quotes
Reed: "The labels and costumes are but vanity. What matters, what sustains us, is our love for one another."
Johnny: "Sometimes, he sounds more like Doom than Doom."
Reed: "Thank you, Johnny. I'll take that as a compliment."
"Set aside your force field - I have brought you here to ask your help! As for the means - have you forgotten I am as much sorcerer as technologist? That is perhaps the single apsect of my being that your husband, my greatest rival, can neither comprehend nor equal. It may prove the salvation of us both."
"If I am to bring order to this chaos of a world, I must have my proper visage to accompany my name."
"Have you ever heard the legends of ancient artifacts - including suits of armor - said to be haunted? To wield them, to wear them, is to become possessed by the spirit of their creator. My armor is an extension of my self. To escape it, or to simply use it, Richards must think like me. To think like me, is ultimately to become me."
"You revere freedom. To you, I represent ultimate tyranny. But what true difference is there in a world defined by Doom and one defined by your husband? His means may seem more gentle, but our ultimate goal is the same. And you will learn, he will prove as implacable and unyielding in that determination as I. And as unforgiving of defiance."
"Finally, Richards, the time has come to end your pathetic charade! Prepare to be humbled - and to meet the fate you have so long and richly deserved: DOOM!"
Doom-Tech of the Week
Reed uses a sort of hologram to communicate with his family at one point which shows only Doom's mask - I presume it's an extension of that stuff Nathaniel Richards was using to trick his grandson, though. We've already mentioned the teleporter, but I'm not sure I mentioned the Modulated Energy Pulses which Doom's gauntlets can emit to break Sue's force fields. I guess Doom's Armor is more magitech than just tech, but we learned a fair bit more about how it works, so that sort of counts...
To be fair, you can see some buildings around the text boxes... and there's an explanation in issue #31 where Reed actually explains his plan, so patience?
Doom and Doom are duking it out today - while Sue watches in amazement as Doom lays the hurt on Doom! One notable difference from the previous issue that I noticed immediately is Sue's clothing - she ended last issue wearing a dark costume, but here she's back in her Baroness von Doom gear, complete with fanservice - and a pretty weird detail where part of her costume is stretched over her arm in an unnatural way? Not sure what's going on there. I appreciate that they kept Doom's miniseries costume, even if it's somewhat different in detail and coloring - the concept is still there. I presume that the dramatic flaming hand that Reed is using here is some sort of plasma discharge, since I don't think he's the one who's likely to sling around a spell or two…
Story Overview
Doomsday!
We return to Castle Doom, where Doom has just appeared from being teleported and announces that Reed has usurped the place, the raiment, and even the name of Doom! At long last he has come to reclaim what is rightfully his! Johnny immediately snaps back that'll only happen in his dreams - he can make all the threats he wants, but now - as always - the Fantastic Four will stand ready and eager to stop him! Reed agrees and says that he's not sure how Victor induced his wife to betray him, but he swears he'll make him pay!
Reed lashes out with his suddenly stretchy body - at the end of last issue he suddenly gained the ability to elongate while still wearing Doom's armor, contorting its metal into strange new shapes, rendering it as elastic as himself. Sue erects an invisible force field between herself and her husband, but Reed uses the same disrupting pulse from the last few issues to rend her protection apart, and Reed tells her off for trying what has already failed before - she should have learned her lesson. Doom compliments Reed for striking with the cold calculation and ruthlessness of his stolen name, but the Monarch of this realm will never be a counterfeit! (Except for all the times that it was, I suppose…)
Johnny asks Ben why he's just standing around doing nothing, and he comments that he's just watching a fair fight. Johnny doesn't think there's such a thing where Doom is involved - he's already conned his sister, has he gotten to Ben too?
As Reed and Doom battle, the narrator comments that these two men are so much alike in so many ways - in spirit if not in flesh - that they might be brothers. Yet in the ways that truly matter, they are as fundamentally different from one another as night and day. One has always been a dreamer, inspired by a soul-deep sense of wonder. For Reed Richards, his lifelong quest has ever been for knowledge as an end unto itself. For Victor von Doom, knowledge is a means to an end, and that end is power. The world is a prize that he has always fought to claim because of his own certainty that it would be a paradise if he became its absolute monarch. To Doom, Reed represents intellect without focus, almost the embodiment of chaos. Whereas Doom, to Reed, is an enemy of human freedom. Small wonder that fate always casts them as adversaries…
In the past, though, Doom was invariably the aggressor, while the Fantastic Four regularly found themselves pitted against nigh-hopeless and insurmountable odds. It's strange for some of them to find those positions reversed - and watching the progression of the duel, Ben Grimm isn't sure he likes it. Johnny Storm, of course, has no such qualms… He asks Ben what he's doing, still just watching… is he going to wait until Doom has Reed on the ropes? The Fantastic Four have the muscle, they have the odds - if he won't help, then Johnny will have to do this by himself and flame on! Ben tells him not to get his knickers in a twist - he gets the message. To himself, though, he admits that if he didn't know the difference, he'd have a hard time choosing which Doom was the real one!
As the two move to intervene at last, Sue uses her force field to isolate them from the battle - she apologizes, but she can't allow them to get involved. Ben tells Sue that this is nuts, and she admits that she knows what it looks like - but she doesn't care, there's too much at stake! Johnny comments that Sue is wearing Doom's colors - somehow he must be controlling her mind! (This, I think, confirms that the colorists screwed up by making her clothes all-purple, unless that's supposed to be the 'royal color' or somesuch.) Reed comments that the mind control is a state of affairs he will speedily rectify by unleashing Doom's Nega-Pulse Blasters, and Doom himself compliments this superb stratagem - it's exactly the move he would have made! The charge is set to kill, too! Still, that is Doom's own armor, and those are his own weapons… did Reed truly think he would have prepared no defenses against their use? Doom activates a gizmo on his wrist and reflects the beam straight back, and Ben cries out to find cover as there's an enormous explosion which resounds with a loud 'DOOM!'
Down in the city, the people of Doomstadt are terrified by the noise and light from up above - something's happening up at the castle. Heaven have mercy, is there a battle? Are the bad times coming again? A little girl is scared, saying that she thought that with the Baron returned, they'd all be safe again!
Back at the castle, Ben and Johnny recover from the Nega-Pulse blast to realize Doom has disappeared - and Sue with him. Reed states that they'll find them - not to worry! Ben muses that the counterattack could have hurt them all seriously, but for some reason Doom held back… why would that be? Reed tells him to ask the man himself… once he's in custody! Reed calls up a holographic image of the castle and comments that Doom, in his arrogance, probably assumes he hasn't decrypted the control codes of his castle's security system. More the fool, him! He's about to find, to his dismay, that Reed has complete control! Ben thinks to himself that it's really something, the way Reed switches character from himself to Doom and back again without missing a beat… sort of like what Johnny said the other day - he's playing the role like he was born to it. But Ben, he's starting to wonder which is the role, and which is the reality…
Unfortunately for Reed, the scan of the castle shows nobody except the three of them and the household staff! Furious, Reed snarls that Doom may rot in Hades! In his ire he blasts the teleport node that Doom used to get to the castle, figuring that at least there won't be any reinforcements from Planet Doom that way. Fine, so it seems Doom has a means of cloaking himself from the internal sensors. Reed will simply find a way to uncover him! It's far from the first time they've matched wits, and Reed figured Doom would have learned from experience which outcome is inevitable in that particular conflict…
Meanwhile, inside one of the many labyrinthine passageways in the walls of Castle Doom, Sue and Doom make their way along. Doom comments idly that without a secret network of tunnels like this, it really wouldn't be a proper castle, would it? When Sue points out that there's no hint of these in the castle database, or in the memories of the construction robots, Doom muses that they wouldn't be much of a secret if they could be so easily uncovered! Doom built this castle, and it's his home - only he is truly safe here! Sue suddenly loses her footing and Doom catches her before she can fall. He immediately apologizes for grabbing her so roughly, but he explains that the stairway she tripped across descends all the way to the catacombs - a fall would have undoubtedly proved fatal!
Sue points out that she has a force field, and Doom replies that its use would have registered on Reed's scanners - ultimately producing the same result - her death! Sue snaps that Reed would never kill. Doom darkly responds that she knows as well as he does that the man wearing his armor is now as much Doom as he is Reed Richards. That is, after all, why she is helping him - to save the man she loves from himself! Unless, of course, this is yet another one of Doom's devious schemes… Sue yells at Doom to stop it and pushes him away, and Doom comments he's just giving voice to her doubts. Sue says he doesn't have any doubts - the more she's with him, the more she knows she's doing what's right. She'd die before she lets Reed become anything remotely like him! Doom grins and tells Sue that her spirit is as indomitable as his own! (Creepy...)
Back with the team, Reed complains that if only they were all wearing their proper uniforms with their integral sensor network, he could track them anywhere and download a comprehensive scan of their immediate vicinity and situation. Ben mutters 'so much for privacy.' Reed notes that given the lives they lead, personal privacy is a luxury they can't afford - but no matter - he'll find Doom and Sue regardless! Ben and Johnny say they have a few ideas, but Reed waves those off as irrelevant and immaterial - especially against a foe like Doom. He's the brains of the team, they're just the muscle. Johnny, furious, yells that for all his talk about them being a team, he's really just talking about Reed von Doom and his three flunkies! Johnny flies out of there - if things get desperate, don't bother to call!
Afterwards, Reed says that Johnny is too headstrong and immature by half. Ben just says 'whatever,' and tells Reed he'll take a hike and see if he can calm Johnny down. Reed agrees, and says that should the need arise, he'll summon both of them. As Ben walks away, he muses that Reed's not wasting any time - he's got the castle's foundry pumping out a brand new squad of Doombots to execute his search profile, using Doom's own gizmos to track Doom on Doom's turf… it's some kind of irony. Gives him the feeling that they're just doing exactly what's expected of them, though. So maybe he'll cannibalize some of the equipment around here and see if he can throw a monkey wrench of his own into the machine…
Within the hour, a squad of newly minted Doombots (again, the same ersatz Servo-Guards from last time) rise into the air and station themselves around the periphery of the castle, just above the topmost tower. Between them they generate a scanning grid with a resolution so fine that nothing of human size could evade its crosshatched beams. On command from Reed, they begin a slow and gradual descent, and the field is configured to the specific resonance frequency of the invisible woman's force field - even when dormant it generates a unique signature. If he finds Sue, Reed presumes he'll find Doom as well, and then he'll bring all this foolishness to its final conclusion. He can't help smiling at the thought, and his pulse races in anticipation. He enjoys the hunt, but he also knows that it's nothing compared to what will follow. The kill.
Down in the tunnels, Sue warns Doom - Victor - that something's happening. It's as though the walls of the castle, the very air itself, have become supercharged with electricity - some people in her family used to feel this way when they sensed an approaching storm. She's not sure what it means, but she suspects it's bad! Doom comments that as he expected, her husband is proving to be as inventive as he is tenacious. He posits they're facing some sort of detector grid - undoubtedly keyed to Sue's power signature, since Reed has a far more intimate knowledge of her physiology than Doom's own. Sue concludes that Reed is assuming the two of them are together, and using her to find Doom. They'd better separate! Doom says this is out of the question, though - they merely need to ensure that they are discovered at a place and time of their choosing! As Alexander of Macedon did against Darius III of Persia at the Battle of Gaugamela… they will dictate the terms and conditions of battle. And thereby the ultimate outcome. Richards seeks to use Doom's own weapons against him - and while he might wear the armor and name of Doom, it is time he learned who the true master is, here!
Outside, Johnny is flying around the castle and ranting to himself - 'too headstrong and immature by half' is he? Who's he kidding? And where does Reed get off calling him 'boy' in that kind of tone? Who does he think he is? Who does he think Johnny is?! He's been part of this team from the very start, he doesn't have to prove that he can hold his own anymore! As Johnny calms down a little, he begins to think. He's never heard Reed talk about anyone with that kind of contempt before - that's always been more Doom's style. Great… just when he decided it's safe to trust him… Ugh, he'll worry about Reed later. First priority is to get his sister out of the hands of Doom!
He focuses his vision to track down heat patterns - the world of the infra-red. Reed's lab is using so much power that it shines like the sun, but he's not interested in that - he's looking for human signatures. Sure enough, he soon spots a double set of footprints leading to a solid wall - and now that he's got a lock on the heat profiles of Doom and Sue, all he has to do is focus his concentration, and he should be able to follow the trail no matter how thick the walls between them are…
Inside the castle, Ben is using a homemade stethoscope to listen at the walls - sometimes, he muses, Reed can be too smart for his own good. Every tool and gizmo he uses has to be cutting-edge and when they don't do the job, it's second-nature to him to build something better. Never occurs to him that, occasionally, going the other way to something comparatively low-tech might do the trick! Of course, Reed always used to be open to suggestions. This time he blew both of them off without so much as a 'never you mind' - not his style at all. And Sue's body language when she's with him… it's like she's standing next to a stranger! And yet he knows in his heart that the man is really Reed Richards. A shadow suddenly looms over Ben and whacks him into the wall - it's one of the 'Doombots!' Ben mutters that it was a nice shot… too bad it didn't finish him! Now the tin can is going to learn first-hand why his trademark battlecry is: 'It's clobberin' time!'
Meanwhile, at the top of the castle's tallest tower, Reed finds himself surrounded on all sides by robots - his own Doombots, turned against him by Doom! He can't say this is a surprise. Reed lashes out and shouts that he hopes Victor is watching - he's as much a match for his mechanical surrogates as he's always been for Doom himself! Johnny, meanwhile, is also under attack by the robots - but are they at Doom's call, or at Reed's? Doesn't matter until the fight's over! Johnny manages to take one out with a point-blank blast of Nova intensity, but a second one manages to sucker-punch him from behind. Ben, too, got suckerpunched by the robot that attacked him - either Doom is building his toys better, or he's way out of shape. But those two shots are all the bot gets, and Ben punches the thing to pieces with one blow. He also opens a hole in the wall, leading to a void behind it - his low-tech scanner did indicate there was a hollow space here, and it seems he's uncovered a tunnel. It'd be a shame not to see where it leads…
Reed, still fighting the horde of robots, complains that it's like fighting a Hydra - for each robot he destroys, two more take its place and their numbers are inexhaustible. Reed's strength and resources are not. Reed's analysis indicates that their command protocols are being subsumed by a self-replicating virus, and the possibility exists that it might eventually be able to subvert the systems in his armor, so there's only one foolproof way to neutralize this threat - and that's to deactivate the castle's entire security network! With a gesture Reed turns every robot off at the same time, and Doom snarls: 'Splendid!' This round goes to him without question!
From off-screen Ben comments that Victor should enjoy his moment - it's going to be the only one he gets! 'Thing!' Doom says in surprise, and Ben wonders why he's shocked - they've danced this dance too many times for that. Beating Reed - beating any one of the Fantastic Four - that's easy for a guy like him. Problem is, Johnny says, that they're a team! He reveals himself as well. Where one of them might be weak, the others are strong - somebody falters, the others pick up the slack. The whole is always greater than the sum of the component parts. Like Ben said, they've done this before - they're the good guys, and Doom is their greatest foe. They know how this is supposed to be - but never in a million years would he have figured that his sister would turn against her family! Her own husband!
Johnny turns to Sue, who's been at Doom's side the entire time. She faces her brother and tells him that in some ways, there's nobody who knows her better than him… and she promises that she hasn't been coerced in any way. She's doing this of her own free will - and she'll bet her life that he and Ben know the reason why. Ben agrees - that's why they're talking, not punching. But the life at stake here isn't hers. Johnny asks Doom whether, as far as lives go, he'd feeling lucky…?
Shortly thereafter, we see Doom and Sue being led before the throne of Doom - now occupied by Reed - by Ben and Johnny. Reed compliments the two on capturing the errant pair. Doom snarls that battles may be lost, usurper, but the ultimate victory will fall to Doom! Johnny comments that he'd getting real tired of hearing that boast, and he's also sick and tired of him! No matter how many times they win, he keeps coming back for more! He argues they should end this feud - once and for all! Reed agrees wholeheartedly, and declares that for the good of humanity, Johnny should make it so! Johnny says it's his pleasure, and with a scream Doom bursts into intense flames - not a moment's hesitation!
Sue crumples to her knees and asks Reed how he could do that - to order a man killed?! Reed argues it's no less than the man deserved! Sue, crying, tells Reed that he was the man who told her, when they first met, that having the power to kill, and even sometimes the right, requires a person of ethics and morality and civilization to try to find a better way? Self-defense she could at least understand, but this… this was murder! As she sits at the smoking remains, Reed decides to regale her with an explanation of the world he foresees…
As monarch, he explains, the lives of his subjects are his responsibility, and their execution - for the common good - a regrettable but necessary sacrifice! Behold what lies ahead for their beloved Earth and its people! Where once their species sprawled helter-skelter across the entire face of the globe, despoiling its beauty and resources as they pleased, he will instead house the entire populace in a score of arcologies, super-cities that will provide every citizen with a safe and comfortable habitation. The rest of the planet will be restored to its pristine, natural state. He offers an end to pollution, to hunger, to want, to war! Nations, tribes, factional strife and bigotry - will be no more! They are one species, and they shall become one world, united and free!
The best and brightest of the breed, Reed continues, will comprise the Four Corps. They will be the inventors, the explorers, the driving force behind expansion into the cosmos. The blessings of this Earth will be offered to the very stars. Those who remain behind will be handsomely provided for, with access to an unparalleled wealth of Virtual Reality Entertainment. Go or stay, all will share in this ultimate adventure! Each in their own way, all will contribute! Ben observes that this sounds a lot like Shadow City, a virtual society they recently encountered in the Negative Zone, and Reed acknowledges that's where he got the idea - it's the ideal solution to the world's problems! Johnny wonders how he can say that - he's talking about warehousing billions of people and making them into little more than slaves to machines. What about freedom? Reed argues he'll make them happy - he'll make them safe.
'And you call Doom a monster?' a voice speaks from off-panel, and blasts Reed aside - there's nobody there, though. 'Even I would never contemplate such an atrocity!' Victor reappears, partly transparent through Sue's powers, and he announces that Reed would, for their own so-called good, strip from humanity the very essence of what makes them human. He would forever crush every last vestige of true spirit. And his 'noble' ends so justify his acts that he cannot even see what an obscenity it is! How fortunate, then, that Doom remains to teach him the error of his ways… Reed gets back on his feet and tells Victor that he should have stayed 'dead' - and he should have remembered that tasks of true importance are ones he should do himself!
As Reed flings himself at Doom, Sue intervenes and knocks him back, wondering why he'd think they'd let him. She calls for Ben to hold Reed, in echo to Reed telling Ben to hold her last issue. Doom explains that Johnny's control over his flames is truly remarkable - they came within a hair's-breadth of his skin, but never touched Doom, only his armor. He never felt even the slightest heat! As he dropped to the floor, Sue made him invisible, thereby escaping Reed's notice. Doom reaches for Reed's mask with his bare hand, even as he yells that they're making a terrible mistake - Johnny, Susan, Ben… don't let him do this!
Ben apologizes for not complying, and Doom comments that he pleads in vain. With a gesture and a few sparks - a magical spell, no doubt, he releases the locks on his mask. Doom then explains that the little play they set up was a test, to determine who held true sway over Reed's soul - the dreamer, or the despot. And Reed failed. In all creation, there can be but one true Doom! Doom returns to visibility, briefly appearing in inexplicable shadow with his smile and heavily scarred skin showing, before Doom releases the mask on Reed's face and the entire armor strips away from him, quickly reassembling itself in a burst of electric power around the body of Victor von Doom. 'And I alone am he!' Doom announces as he rises once more wearing his mask, his very own face.
Sue congratulates Doom for his victory - he finally faced Reed in a fair fight, and he won! She wonders if there is any hope that he'll be satisfied with that? That his insane rivalry between them will finally end? Doom doesn't seem to agree, musing that they each have their karmic roles to play. For the present Doom's chosen role is to bring order to a world in chaos. Afterwards, though, who knows…? He warns the Fantastic Four that even in absentia he is once more the rightful master of Latveria, so they shouldn't overstay their welcome. Ben, carrying an unconscious Reed away, wonders how Doom plans on getting back to Counter-Earth, and Johnny mentions that Reed zapped Doom's transmat gizmo earlier, so that's not an option… Doom's response is to dryly remark that he missed. As Reed Richards, he notes, he has no equal. As Doom, he had no chance!
Sue thanks Victor for coming through on his side of the deal they struck in the tunnels of Castle Doom - she's in his debt for him freeing Reed and letting him go. Doom tells her they're even. He did not do this for her, or even for himself - but for Latveria and Planet Doom. He then goes back to his teleporter - or just a different one he scrounged up somewhere - and says farewell to his greatest and most worthy adversaries. Rest assured, they'll meet again! Until then they should content themselves that in suffering this bitter defeat, they may have also achieved their greatest victory…
Rating & Comments
After an extended run of issues dealing with Reed inside Doom's armor, and two issues of Reed evidently going kind of nuts in there, we come to the finale of this arc - and it's a pretty good one! Doom returned from his sojourn to Counter-Earth, at least for the duration of the issue, and as a result most of this story is all about how he and Reed face off one last time to see who has real claim to the armor and name of Doom… all while Ben goes 'this is weird' and Johnny rages about Reed talking down to him. Figures. Still, it doesn't go quite as you'd expect - the initial conflict is heavily slanted in Reed's favor and he starts to overpower Doom, in stark contrast to the usual situation where a one-on-one conflict with Doom tends to go the other way. Reed effortlessly disarms his wife's powers too, which takes her out of the actual fight and forces her to do some background work instead.
It's interesting to see that Doom fights very differently than he usually does - he pulls out a weapon resembling a two-pronged sai to stab with, but Reed disarms him and then uses that weapon right back at him. Reed also stretches his armor at several points, though I don't think it's ever very relevant during this issue - it's mostly just an advantage in combat early on so he can reach unusual angles, and is forgotten by the midpoint of the comic. Doom eventually gets his weapon back from Reed, but that's when Reed pulls out the big guns - and I mean that literally. Using Doom's own weapons against him turns out to be a bad strategy - a mistake that Reed can't seem to stop making, which probably reflects how screwed he is mentally. It's intriguing that it's explicitly mentioned here that Doom dialed down his defenses to avoid hurting Ben and Johnny - presumably this is a concession to keep Sue on his side instead of immediately alienating her again. Given that she just used her force fields to forcibly keep her teammates out of his little duel with Reed, that seems only fair.
After that fight, I don't really understand why both Ben and Johnny seem fine with staying on Reed's side when it's abundantly obvious that something hinky is going on here. Ben explicitly muses about Reed's odd behavior and how he can barely tell which of the two fighters was Doom, but he doesn't seem to connect the dots between that and Sue's apparent betrayal of her husband. Even when Reed goes into a full-blown arrogant villain speech about how much smarter he is than Victor (only for that to be immediately disproven) that just makes him scratch his head and hang back some more instead of actually doing anything. Indeed, Reed's ego is really dialed up to eleven here when he starts to boast that in duels of wits he has always come out on top against Doom - a claim which said monarch would dispute, no doubt, if mostly out of his own overblown ego. Hah! Johnny's not much better than Ben, since he seems entirely fine with thinking his sister is a traitor, even though he promised he'd always be at her side in thelast issue.
Doom and Sue share some actual space in this issue instead of dreams, and that gets a little… uncomfortable. I love Doom's insistence that no castle is complete without a network of secret passages, and his explanation for keeping them out of blueprints and even deleting them from his own robots makes sense - because otherwise they wouldn't be very good secrets, would they? The only person who ultimately knows everything about the castle is Doom himself. I was a little weirded out, though, by the sequence in which Doom catches Sue after she falls - he's holding onto her quite closely for a while there, and Sue eventually pushes him away with a loud 'Stop it!' It's not entirely clear to me if she's doing that in response to him intentionally needling her about her distrust in him, or if she's actually put off by him being uncomfortably close physically. I do get creepy vibes from him there, especially that final grin and statement that he's impressed with Sue's indomitable spirit, likening it to his own. Admittedly, he might just delight in making her cringe. He did get a bit grabby in the dreams too…
I am tickled that part of Reed's plan from Fantastic Four v3 #29, to track his allies via their costumes, is rendered entirely useless because none of them bothered to actually put them on - hah! There's a brief mention of privacy concerns, but that's quickly ignored because Reed puts his foot in his mouth far more emphatically by dismissing the intellectual contributions of Ben and Johnny entirely, proclaiming them merely the muscle of the team while he is the brains of the operation. While those are commonly roles they end up taking, it's not surprising that Johnny would get mad at Reed for so callously insulting them and shutting them out. Ben just kind of observes this and goes 'that's weird' instead of acknowledging that Reed has gone to the dark side, even after Johnny calls Reed 'Reed von Doom' to his face. Feh, these people need genre savviness.
There's a brief scene that happens when Ben goes to find Johnny after that which I appreciated for its relative subtlety - he makes his way past the foundry on his way out and observes that Reed is printing whole squads of new Doombots to go look for Doom and Sue, except the subsequent scene reveals that Reed is only using four robots. So who's making those other squads? Foreshadowing! The art representing the scanning grid seems a bit poorly drawn, by the way - the robots are at different heights, basically generating a plane that isn't horizontal with respect to the castle, and the squares of their grid seem far too large for the claim that no human would be able to avoid it… probably this was some writer-artist miscommunication. As this is happening, though, we get a bit more insight into Reed's thought processes… and he's pretty far gone by this point. Not only does Reed actively enjoy the hunt for Doom and Sue, but he is also anticipating the kill…
Doom quickly susses out what Reed is doing after Sue mentions the weird static in the air, presumably because it's the same thing he would have done himself. Interestingly, he dismisses Sue's reasonable suggestion to separate - he doesn't explain why, but I guess it seems too much like running away? He at least explains his strategy by calling out a historical analogy. Between the last issue and this one, he's gotten into the habit of just calling out such references, hasn't he? He mentions the Battle of Gaugamela here, considered Alexander the Great's final blow against the Achaemenid Empire where, despite being heavily outnumbered, the Army of Macedon emerged victorious due to the employment of superior tactics, forcing the enemy to attack him first, and then finishing the battle through the clever usage of light infantry forces. Doom wants to similarly dictate the conditions of battle in his favor, thereby ensuring the ultimate outcome…
I've said plenty about Ben's lack of involvement in the plot, but Johnny is barely any more relevant - he's more fiery in his temper and rushes off in a rage, but it's only at this point of this entire arc that he finally, finally starts thinking and realizes that there's something wrong with Reed… only for him to immediately dismiss that thought since right now his priority should be to free his sister from Doom! (D'oh.) Using his powers to try and track down Doom and Sue via infrared traces is clever, though you'd think this is something that Reed's robots would also be capable of doing. Similarly, Ben uses some kludged-together toys to listen at the walls, which also seems relatively simple to replicate.At least Ben excuses it by claiming Reed is so obsessed with high-tech solutions that he skips over the low-tech ones at all. That said, I'm not sure why Ben is listening at the walls when, as far as I'm aware, he should have no reason to believe that Sue and Doom are hiding in there. Remember, Sue didn't know about those tunnels at all because they weren't on any of the blueprints!
The first part of Doom's plan to take down Reed becomes clear when a bunch of robots attack Ben, Reed, and Johnny in succession - he infected them with a virus to set them back to their usual behavior, which would naturally include violently repulsing the Fantastic Four. Reed himself isn't too shocked to find that Doom found a way to turn the robots against him and arrogantly proclaims he'll take them all on single-handedly. When that proves difficult, he eventually admits he may have bit off more than he could chew since whole legions keep showing up to replace the destroyed ones! This is neatly explained by that foundry Ben saw earlier - Doom presumably set it to produce as many robots as it could to flood the castle, which suggests he was already prepping for this particular tactic while he hadn't even discussed strategy with Sue yet. Also, while Reed is attacked by scores of these things, Ben only ever faces one robot, and Johnny takes down two, which suggests Doom must have mostly sent them in Reed's direction instead of just haphazardly spreading them out. Regardless, the ultimate goal wasn't actually to beat Reed… but to force him to deactivate the castle's security network.
That's, of course, when Doom's plan finally runs into a potential snag. Ben accidentally uncovered the tunnel network while fighting a robot, and Johnny tracked heat signatures to a blank wall and presumably found the tunnel entrance there, so they both arrive from opposite directions and surround Doom and Sue. Thankfully the two of them have finally connected the necessary dots and realized that while they've all danced this dance many times before, something about this latest encounter with Doom is different. Sue has allied herself with Doom, and she evidently did it of her own free will - thus she must have a good reason. Ben and Johnny have realized that reason separately, which is why they came to talk this out instead of punch. They're willing to work alongside Doom for now, based on Sue's word…
The transition from that clandestine tunnel-meeting to showing up in front of Reed in the throne room is abrupt and poorly explained - Doom and Sue are not shackled or anything, so I'm not sure why Reed would ever buy that Doom of all people would just voluntarily give up and play prisoner. Johnny starts blabbing some very obvious villain dialogue, basically telling Reed that he's sick of Doom and obliquely suggesting they should execute the villain, acting way out of character as he does so. When Reed immediately agrees and commands Johnny to carry out the sentence, and the Human Torch happily does so, it's quite clear what's going on here - they don't even have to mention that it was a test, that's patently obvious. Clearly this was an attempt to see if Reed was still in control… a test which he failed. This is all the proof the team needs to go through with their alliance with Doom against Reed. Sue knows that Doom is not really dead, of course, but her impassioned plea that what he just did wasn't like him - that it was murder - falls on deaf ears. Technically it would have been Johnny's murder anyway, but still.
Reed finally decides to explain himself at this point - and we learn the full scope of Reed's plans. And it almost sounds good, at first - almost. It's clear that Reed's vision for the future is very much based in his own futurism, full of grand sci-fi concepts and space exploration… but with a dark twist. The very first thing he mentions after echoing Doom in saying he's responsible for his subjects is that executing them for the 'greater good' is a necessary sacrifice to make his future come about. Wow. He then goes on an environmentalist rant in which he explains that he intends to house the entirety of humanity in dense arcologies, mechanized super-cities where people will lack for nothing because all their basic needs are met and they spend all their days in virtual reality daydreams instead of actually doing anything. They'd be happy, and safe, and entirely irrelevant. The Earth would be cleansed of pollution and returned to its pristine state, and by essentially removing society at large from the face of the planet, there would be no more nations, or tribes, or factional strife and bigotry of any kind. He claims that everyone would be united and free, but what he really seems to be describing is a world where they'll be separated and contained.
Of course, that's when the real egomania shines through - because the aforementioned is only the fate of most people. The best and brightest, the people he deems worthy, those special people will have freedom - they'll be the Four Corps, named after his own team, and they'll be the inventors and explorers of humanity that will actually go out into the universe and conquer it in the name of Earth, spreading their dubious blessings to every star, and sending all their adventures back to Earth's teeming masses as exciting VR programs to enjoy for entertainment - nobody will miss any of it! Reed considers this the ideal solution to every one of the world's ills - to put everyone into the Matrix with a good helping of Brave New World!
It's interesting, I think, that the one most horrified by this whole tirade, by Reed's grand plan, is Victor von Doom himself. He calls it an atrocity, an obscenity, and violently opposes Reed's ambitions, shouting that he'd be stripping humanity of the very essence of what makes them human for their own so-called good - he'd forever crush their very spirit! Perhaps this reaction hearkens back to Doom's own decision to forego world-conquering through mind control? It's not like Doom is unwilling to do some heinous things to take control, but clearly there are roads even he doesn't care to take. It is noteworthy that every time Doom has taken over the world in some form, he tends to actually implement positive changes for his subjects - unwilling as they might be to acknowledge him. He doesn't just shut them in a box. Ironically, he does give everyone VR access in Doom 2099, though it was entirely voluntary there, which makes a rather substantial difference!
While this scene between Doom and Reed is pretty great, I dislike that Doom is rendered as a blue ghost for most of it - he's presumably nearly naked because Johnny burned his clothes earlier to make the ruse work, but it still robs the scene of some power to have him cosplay Casper. Maybe he they should have let him have a scrap of cloak and his mask, just like in his death scene in Doom 2099? In any case, now that the Fantastic Four heard Reed's plans for the future and have seen him go full murder-death-kill on Doom, they grab him and let Doom retrieve his armor so they can finally close the book on this whole thing. It means giving their archvillain what he wants, of course, but they've also run out of options and allying with this raving version of Reed is off the table. Doom, pleased by this development, declares that in all creation, there can be but one true Doom! It's good to have you back, Vic!
Sue congratulates Victor on winning a fair fight with Reed, and I have to question whether she's being facetious there - not only did they win by ganging up on Reed at the end there, but it's clear that Reed was out of his mind here, while Doom was mentally stable. Beyond some technological advantages, Reed was pretty much screwed from the start. Doom seems uninterested in ending his rivalry with Reed after this victory, but he's at least courteous enough to acknowledge that he owes Sue, and allows the team to leave without further harassment. He calls out the karmic roles he and Reed play, seemingly aware that there's a certain inevitably in their future clashes, though for the moment his interests are still back on Counter-Earth, so he has no interest in prolonging things. That's when he drops the issue's best line: 'As Reed Richards, he has no equal. As Doom, he had no chance.' It's a hell of an ending to this arc, I think.
We do get a bit of an epilogue - Doom tells Sue that they're now even, then says farewell to his greatest and most worthy adversaries and teleports back to Counter-Earth… which is where we'll eventually meet him again when I cover the Doom: The Emperor Returns trilogy, the last Doom-centric comics to take place there. It'll be a while before we get to those, since those only came out at the start of 2002, while this comic is from 2000. And no, Doom did not take the rest of 2000 and 2001 off - far from it! He's got a bunch of appearances to go, and I'll get into how that works later. And that's without mentioning the return of Valeria von Doom and a bunch of alternate Dooms - argh! So much stuff!
This comic isn't perfect, clearly - Ben and Johnny's part in the whole arc is sort of phoned in, and they only really return to relevance in order to have a kumbaya 'the team is family and together we win' moral towards the end, after throwing the idiot ball around between them for several issues. That said, the rest of this comic is pretty good - Reed channels the full egocentric mania of Doom through his own lens, and Doom effortlessly takes advantage of this fact, constantly ahead of his rival by knowing exactly what he's going to do. He puts it well himself - as Reed he has no equal, but as Doom he had no chance. It's a bit disappointing that Doom just vanishes back to Counter-Earth at the end in order to avoid upsetting the status quo, but on the whole this is a satisfying conclusion to the arc. I'm giving this four stars - it's the strongest of the bunch here, I think, despite my minor misgivings.
Incidentally, although the new few comics about the Fantastic Four don't contain Doom, I will be covering their Annual from 2000 and the next issue of the Fantastic Four title in one post as a sort of 'aftermath', since both of them serve to tie off several dangling plot threads from this arc, and contain the (almost) last appearances of Doom's quartet of generals from his previous solo-series.
Best Panel(s) of the Issues
It might be a bit of a copout, but after like spending like ten issues (and around a year of publication time) ripped out of his armor, only for his rival to wear it in his stead, it's nice to have Vic back in his original regalia, even if it's only for like four panels. Good to see you back in fashion, my man.
Most Gloriously Villainous Doom Quotes
"Reed Richards - you have usurped the place, the raiment, and the name of DOOM! I have come at long last to reclaim what is rightfully mine!"
"You strike with a cold calculation and a ruthlessness that does credit to your stolen name. But the monarch of this realm will never be a counterfeit!"
Sue: "There's a labyrinth of passageways hidden within the castle walls."
Doom: "It would not be a proper castle without them."
Sue: "There's no hint of this in the castle database, or in the memories of the construction robots."
Doom: "What use are secrets that can so easily be discovered? I built this castle. It is my home. Only I am truly safe here."
"And you dare call Doom a monster?! Even I would never contemplate such an atrocity! For their own so-called 'good' you would strip from your own kind the very essence of what makes them human! You would forever crush every last vestige of true spirit. And your 'noble' ends so justify your acts that you cannot even see what an obscenity it is. How fortunate that Doom remains to teach you the error of your ways."
"You plead in vain, Richards. It was a test before, to determine who held true sway over your soul… the dreamer, or the despot. …And you FAILED! In all creation, there can be but one true DOOM! And I alone am he!"
"As Reed Richards, he has no equal. As Doom, he had no chance."
Doom's Bad Hair Day
The entire 'invisible Doom' sequence is a bit disappointing due to the art - the writing is fine, but the blue ghost thing is just dumb.
Doom-Tech of the Week
Reed makes use of some sort of Scanning Grid via Doom's robots, but I'm not sure if that's something he stole from Doom or just developed on his own. Given how much he's been cribbing from Doom's notes, though, it's probably something he nicked. Beyond that, I suppose there is the Nega-Pulse Reflector which he uses to counteract his own palm blasts and zap them back at the user, which seems unreasonably effective even while dialed down.
Doombot Count: 61 (+0)
Ironically, despite everyone calling the robots 'Doombots' throughout this entire arc, no actual Doombots ever show up!
Meanwhile, inside one of the many labyrinthine passageways in the walls of Castle Doom, Sue and Doom make their way along. Doom comments idly that without a secret network of tunnels like this, it really wouldn't be a proper castle, would it? When Sue points out that there's no hint of these in the castle database, or in the memories of the construction robots, Doom muses that they wouldn't be much of a secret if they could be so easily uncovered!
These are probably the same passageways Doom used to hide from the Doomsman back in Giant-Size Supervillain Team-Up #2, and to infiltrate his castle along with Captain America when the Red Skull took over it in Super-Villain Team-Up #10
For Reed Richards, his lifelong quest has ever been for knowledge as an end unto itself. For Victor von Doom, knowledge is a means to an end, and that end is power.
This reminds me of how Ben described the debates between Reed and Ben in college during the Fantastic Four vs. X-Men series. For Reed, those debates were wonderful, since he loved learning for it's own sake. For Doom, they were battles he had to win
This has always been the biggest character flaw of both Reed Richards and Tony Stark. Deep down, they both believe it is worthwhile to sacrifice freedom for safty
Since Reed treated that armor to become unstable molecules, so it would stretch like his uniform, I wonder if this means that Doom now has the secret of unstable molecules as well?
I don't really understand why both Ben and Johnny seem fine with staying on Reed's side when it's abundantly obvious that something hinky is going on here
Ironically, Reed is in the position Doom usually is. He raves about how superior is genius is, only to have Doom outmaneuver him and turn his technologies against him
These are probably the same passageways Doom used to hide from the Doomsman back in Giant-Size Supervillain Team-Up #2, and to infiltrate his castle along with Captain America when the Red Skull took over it in Super-Villain Team-Up #10
Probably - or at least reconstructions, since the entire castle was razed at least two or three times since then, heh.
This reminds me of how Ben described the debates between Reed and Ben in college during the Fantastic Four vs. X-Men series. For Reed, those debates were wonderful, since he loved learning for it's own sake. For Doom, they were battles he had to win.
Doom began learning witchcraft and science specifically to save his mother from her terrible fate, and later to free his country from oppression - in comparison, Reed's life was pretty great up until that point. It's perhaps something of a commentary on privilege that Reed could gallivant around like an eighteenth century natural philosopher just investating random stuff because he felt like it, while Doom was grasping for every advantage he could get to claw his people to freedom... Their pasts shaped them very differently.
This has always been the biggest character flaw of both Reed Richards and Tony Stark. Deep down, they both believe it is worthwhile to sacrifice freedom for safety.
Doom might protest, but it's pretty clear that he's also on board with that idea - he does, after all, play lord and sovereign over his people and spies on basically everything they do to make sure they're not stepping out of line. He might be on board with the idea of giving his people freedom, but only within the boundaries he specifies.
Since Reed treated that armor to become unstable molecules, so it would stretch like his uniform, I wonder if this means that Doom now has the secret of unstable molecules as well?
That entire thing felt very tacked on. Reed only stretches like two or three times in the armor, and never does anything too fancy with it - and when he's eventually captured he doesn't use that ability at all despite having a pretty easy way to escape from everyone's grasp. Seemed pointless, and I doubt it'll come up again.
Too many years of blindly trusting Reed. Old habits die hard
I guess so, but given that it's explicit that Reed currently sounds and looks exactly like Doom, and now he's acting like him, you'd think they'd be a bit more careful with where they put their trust... Especially when they know the real Doom is around. At least suspect there's some switcharoo stuff going on, it wouldn't be the first time Reed got possessed!
Ironically, Reed is in the position Doom usually is. He raves about how superior is genius is, only to have Doom outmaneuver him and turn his technologies against him
This is probably exactly what they were going for, yeah. Although Reed is outright delusional when he just easily accepts that Johnny went full murder-hobo without needing any explanation, which is surely easier to work around than a Reed who is actually cognizant of what's happening.
Doctor Doom doesn't show up on either of these covers - but a bunch of weird new characters sure do! We'll be meeting most of these in due time - they're a whole panoply of alternate universe villains, as you might expect. As for the heroes, we've actually seen this lot before, but just in case you forgot, they're American Dream, cousin of Sharon Carter, J2, the son of the Juggernaut, Mainframe, an android built by Tony Stark, Ant-Man's daughter Cassie Lang as Stinger, Kevin Masterson as the new Thunderstrike, as well as Blue Streak and Crimson Curse to fill out the roster. Plus, obviously, OG Captain America is around too…
Story Overview
#10 - Ragnarok!
We open this tale with Edwin Jarvis standing alone - as Chief of Staff of Avengers Mansion he has kept many lonely vigils, and tonight he prays for a sign of life from the woman the world once knew as the Scarlet Witch. For the past ten years she's slept within a cryogenic chamber - a selfless and heroic act undertaken in a desperate attempt to protect the earth. Jarvis startled when someone asks how she is - he can't believe it, it's Mister Stark?! Can it really be him, after all these years? Stark states that he came as soon as he heard that Jarvis was trying to contact him. He's sorry he was difficult to track down, but he's spent the past decade working in seclusion. Stark marvels at the fact that Scarlet Witch looks the same as he remembers her, and never imagined it would take him this long to… Jarvis interrupts him, telling him that they need to talk about the Avengers. Stark is happy to do so, since he's only just learned about this new team of heroes, and is anxious to meet them. Where is everyone? Jarvis looks away.
Elsewhere, the New Avengers gape in wonder as they arrive on an unfamiliar version of Times Square. Only fifty-two hours have passed since they first discovered a mysterious portal, as well as the cryogenic chamber containing the Scarlet Witch. As they attempted to free her from confinement, they accidentally opened that portal. Fearing they had unintentionally exposed their world to alien invasion, they entered it. Now, in another world, they are baffled at what they find. 'Cool! …Can we go home now?' Mainframe decides they can't - not until they learn of this world's intentions for their own Earth! Judging by all the signs mentioning the 'Thunder Guard', 'Obey the Leader', 'Doomsday is Coming' and 'Obedience, Diligence, Vigilance' - it's probably obvious what kind of world they've ended up on. And if that's not enough, there's a giant decorative D on a building, and ads from Sony. Those monsters!
J2 comments that Mainframe should really hurry up - this place makes him nervous! Thunderstrike agrees that all the signage is rather ominous. He wonders what it's supposed to mean? J2 tries to ask a nearby woman, but she runs away, stating that she will do whatever the guardsman commands! To hear is to obey! J2 scratches his helmet and wonders if it was something he said, or is she just prime prozac material? Thunderstrike suggests that they shouldn't jump to conclusions - there's a chance they're the first costumed heroes that woman has ever seen. They're soon approached by a uniformed guard with a 'D' on his helmet who gives them a Hitler salute and declares 'All Hail the Master!' He then asks forgiveness for not preparing a suitable welcome to new guardsmen - for reasons that are probably far beyond his security clearance, headquarters never told him their group was coming!
The guard suddenly freezes when he spots American Dream in the back - what in the name of Doom is she wearing? It almost looks like… Ah, they're not members of the Thunder Guard after all, are they? No loyal citizen would parade around in that forbidden flag! Guards congregate around them, and one demands that the team produce their identity discs, or their lives are forfeit! J2 immediately punches some of the guards out and mentions that he seems to have left his wallet in his other reality, and Stinger quickly joins in, as does Freebooter. Based on their overreaction to American Dream, he doubts these guys will listen to reason! Mainframe agrees, but complains that he'd hoped to complete this mission without violence. American Dream jumps in as well, and says she hoped the same. Blue Streak notes that if they're so against fighting, maybe they should have joined the Peace Corps instead of the Avengers! Thunderstrike says that's not the point - clobbering people is hardly the best use for their powers!
When the last trooper goes down, the Avengers are interrupted by a woman who overheard them mentioning their group's name - if her suspicions are correct, they're all in grave danger! Thunderstrike is shocked to recognize the woman as Maria Sapristi? She's an old friend of his! What's she doing here? Maria answers that if the Avengers are who she thinks they are, then she's not who he thinks she is! There's no time to explain, though - they should follow her!
Naturally they follow, and along the way the others interrogate Thunderstrike about this woman - who is she? Maria leads them to a hidden entrance in an alleyway, telling them they need to get off the streets because the troopers may have uplinked a distress call. Kevin, meanwhile, asks why Maria is putting herself at such great risk for them, and she answers that she's heard stories about the Avengers - very inspiring stories, Eric!
As they make their way through the sewers, Kevin asks about that name - why did she call him that? That was his father's name! Maria is shocked. Kevin? But he's…! It's too complicated to get into now. She promises to fill him in after they join the rest of her team. She addresses Mainframe as Iron Man, and he corrects her - she seems to have all of them confused with their predecessors. Maria double-checks they're still the Avengers, though, and they confirm that, at least. Soon they are faced with a bunch of armed rebels who tell everyone that they've gone far enough, and tell Maria she can step away from the prisoners - they have them surrounded! Maria instructs everyone to stay calm, stating that she believes these people are from the alternate Earth they've been told about. One of the rebels recognizes American Dream's costume, and Maria confirms his thoughts on her attire - that's exactly why they should be brought to the Captain at once!
A figure in the shadows warns Maria to hold her horses - he'll decide whether these new friends can see him after they answer a single question. Who won the Second World War? Bluestreak admits she only really knows about that war from movies like Saving Private Ryan, since they don't teach that in school anymore. Mainframe tells her to be quiet, and explains that the Allies - England, Russia, and the United States - won the war. American Dream asks what possible relevance that old war could have today, and the shadowed figure answers that in his world, it's got plenty! He then reveals himself to be an older version of Edwin Jarvis wearing an eye-patch, playing this world's version of Nick Fury…
Meanwhile, back in the MC2 universe proper, Stark demands to know how Jarvis could have allowed the children to use the portal - he's appalled! Jarvis points out that those children, as he calls them, are the current team of the Avengers. Stark argues he still should have stopped them, since the Scarlet Witch spent over ten years in suspended animation to seal that gateway! Jarvis argues that he tried, but was hampered by all the confounded and arbitrary security that Stark imposed on him! They're interrupted when Hawkeye arrives, reminding Stark that Jarvis is no longer his butler. Long time no see, by the way - literally! He pulls off his glasses to reveal that he's blind, and says it's good to hear their voices again. Anyway, he's here because he hasn't heard from Freeboter or the rest of the Avengers in the last few days, and he figured he'd check up on his former students…
In the other world, the alternate Jarvis leads the Avengers through subterranean tunnels, and J2 asks where exactly they are. Is this one of those standard grim and gritty sci-fi futures? Based on the evidence, Mainframe believes they merely journeyed across vibrational planes - think classic Star Trek, 'Mirror Mirror.' A parallel Earth. Jarvis takes them to the Commander in Chief - if Maria was correct about their point of origin they may recognize him, for he's from their world. He's Captain America! American Dream is shocked, because everyone back home thinks he's dead! Cap explains that this was a convenient cover story, as when his team of Avengers first came to this reality, they immediately realized that their own Earth would never be safe unless the gateway between worlds was permanently sealed. After completing the initial mission, Cap chose to stay behind to work with this world's underground while the others returned home, and they added his name to the long list of those who fell in battle to cover up the truth. Too many of his friends had already died here, he wanted to discourage the rest from trying to find him.
Introductions are quickly made, and Cap learns that American Dream is related to Sharon Carter - she was a good woman. He doesn't think he ever fully recovered from her unexpected death, and he admits it was a heavy factor in his decision to stay here. American Dream confirms that as someone who's read her personal diaries, she can safely say Sharon loved him very much! Thunderstrike hates to interrupt, but says they're all anxious to find out what's going on here. Cap can't blame him, and explains that while this world bears a striking resemblance to their own, it took a severe turn for the worse. As far as he can determine, both worlds were roughly identical until a seemingly trivial - but very pivotal - event in World War Two. On Cap's own Earth, the Red Skull was trapped within a hidden bunker and stayed in suspended animation until modern times. In this world, he somehow escaped instead!
Since the Red Skull was still believed dead, he was free to move behind the scenes, and he changed the world forever by assassinating Adolf Hitler. Others had tried to kill the Führer to end the war, but the Red Skull wanted to save the Nazis from certain defeat. With the entire Axis war machine now aligned behind him, the Red Skull was unstoppable, and he cut a bloody gash through the entire planet, killing everyone who dared oppose him - including this world's Captain America. With his handpicked cronies, each as merciless as him, the Skull eventually took over the entire world. He reigned supreme! Years later, however, during an annual purge in the Balkans, he made a fatal error. He chose to spare a young gypsy boy named Victor von Doom, and the boy became the Skull's official heir - until Doom eventually murdered him and took over in his stead! Since the entire economy of this planet was based on military aggression, Doom needed new worlds to conquer to keep the war machine going, so he spent billions on scientific research and ultimately produced a Universal Cube - a device which could open portals into other realities. That's when Cap's team of Avengers first learned of him!
This impromptu history lesson is interrupted when Maria runs into the room, warning everyone that they're under attack. The Thunder Guard has found them! Cap tells her to fire up the emergency jump portal, and evacuate the base. Thunderstrike offers the assistance of the Avengers to cover their departure, while American Dream asks for clarification on who exactly these mysterious Thunder Guard are that everyone keeps mentioning. Cap explains that in this world, people with superpowers or enhanced abilities are given two choices - to join the Guard, or to die! The Thunder Guard is Doom's most elite fighting force! There are only fifty members at present, which gives the New Avengers better odds than the nearly five-hundred that the original incarnation had to fight, but it's still a potent group…
After an explosion rips a hole in the ceiling and several members of the Thunder Guard drop through, Cap recognizes some of them - Iron Cross, Dead-Eye, the Swords-Master, S.S. Agent, Pincer, and Overman, plus a few others in the back. These are evil alternate versions of Iron Man, Hawkeye, Freebooter, U.S. Agent (John Walker), Ant-Man (Scott Lang), and Wonder Man respectively.
Walker thanks Cap for the handy intro, then says he's glad to see that the man has picked up a new bunch of costumed cheerleaders - it means there's still some fight left in him! His devotion to an antiquated ideal has made him a very special project of his! Cap snarls that Walker's kind would rather talk about an ideal than actually live it! He slams against the man's holographic shield, a mirror to his own, and sends him flying. Deadeye and Sword-Master team up against Freebooter, with the former stating he doesn't remember a dossier on this clown - though the guy kind of reminds him of Sword-Master, actually. Sword-Master gets offended - from that lackadaisical fighting stance, he'd say the guy bears a much closer resemblance to Hawkeye! Freebooter introduces himself, then complains there's nothing wrong with his stance! Nearby, the giggling, half-mad Pincer sees Stinger's wings and confides in her that his daughter used to have similar ones. So pretty, his little Cassie! P-pity she wouldn't swear allegiance to the Master! Had to kill her - his own little Cassie! Stinger is horrified when she realizes that the madman she's fighting is an alternate version of her own father!
Back in the MC2 world, a newly informed Hawkeye blames the whole situation on Stark - the new Avengers wouldn't be at risk if only the original guard had finished this job years ago! Stark argues it would have meant fighting an entire world, so closing the portal was the logical choice. Cap was crazy to stay behind and try to organize a resistance movement! Jarvis tries to get in between them, and tells both that arguing about the past is foolish, since they have to decide how to proceed from here! Elsewhere, a man informs an older villainous Hope Pym that efforts to reconstitute 'Ion Man' are almost complete - this is related to another storyline. Also he tells her that on a routine check of the Avengers compound he confirmed an energy discharge like the one she predicted. 'Those idiots!' she snaps. She knew they'd reopen the portal - it wasn't enough to kill her father, they're now making a mockery of his sacrifice! She's moving up her timetable!
At the rebel stronghold, Cap tells everyone to run and get out - several rebels are dragging supplies to rebuild wherever they end up. He tells Maria it's her responsibility to make sure they all get to the jump portal. Crimson Curse, meanwhile, should pass on that order to everyone - they're pulling out! Elsewhere, Iron Cross dukes it out with Mainframe, and he's surprised he's not fighting another Iron Man - Mainframe is not a Stark? And here he thought he recognized his own technology! Mainframe is confused by the question, so Iron Cross confirms that he's the local version of Tony Stark! Overman takes down Blue Streak, only for J2 to rescue her by punching him across the room. Sword-Master and Freebooter also face off, and learn that they both share the same teacher - Clint Barton, though under different 'super-names.'
Pincer manages to grab Stinger by her leg and takes out some kind of gas grenade, then wonders if she's the Janet Pym of the other world - the Wasp. The local Janet and Hank Pym were murdered by the resistance, but not before they showed Scott how to use their Pym particles! To better serve his Master, he's continued to mutate himself. He pauses, finally recognizing the woman he's grabbed - is she Cassie?! Is she really his little pretty? She's made him so happy… because now he gets to kill her all over again! Cassie yells out in horror, only for American Dream to jump in and clock her quasi-dad across the jaw. She quickly frees Stinger and they both rush to retreat…
Thunderstrike encounters Maria once more, and tells her that his team is bugging out, so she and the rebels should go ahead while they guard the back. Maria points out she has her own orders, so he should go first! The two bicker for a bit, with Maria telling Kevin that he reminds her too much of her own version of Kevin, who was also part of the resistance. He died covering for her, so she won't let it happen again! Kevin apologizes, saying he couldn't have known… only for him to immediately get hit in the back by an electrically charged arrow shot by Deadeye! 'I strike in the name of Project Doomsday!' Maria yells out Kevin's name, then opens fire on Deadeye with her automatic rifle. Deadeye says the Master will lead them to galaxies untold, but Maria just tells him the only place he's going is the local slag heap! Then, suddenly, Maria is killed from behind by a beam of energy, much to Kevin's shock.
Kevin runs over to her, horrified, and snarls at her killer - only to realize he's looking at an all too familiar face. The person standing there wonders if he's another one of those copycats from the other Earth who underestimates him? Kevin stares in shock as Eric Masterson, an alternate version of his father, steps forward. He is this world's version of Thunderstrike, known as Stormtrooper! The meeting is interrupted by Cap's shield, and the super-soldier in question rushes in to grab Kevin and drags him into the portal, telling him that they'll have to leave Maria's remains behind - they have no choice! They can't allow this portal to fall into Doom's hands, so the charges have already been set! The moment they enter the portal, the entire Stargate-style device explodes behind them.
Cap exits out the other side with Kevin still in his arms and asks for an update from Jarvis. The resistance leader explains that their people are already in the process of setting up a new base camp, and everyone appears to have made it through - everyone except for Lieutenant Maria Sapristi. Jarvis asks if they should prepare quarters for the Avengers, but Cap says that won't be necessary. He returns Kevin to the rest of the MC2 team and tells them they should all go home. Cap's people can set the appropriate coordinates on the jump portal - luckily Tony Stark left those behind, as well as the necessary technology to connect to the other world, in case he ever changed his mind about going home! American Dream argues they can help here, but Cap tells them to listen closely… He's only going to say this once!
The original Avengers, he explains, lost over half their team battling to destroy Doom's first Universal Cube, and they were all skilled professionals. It's taken Doom nearly ten years to develop a second Cube, and it's now Cap's job to find a way to stop him - him and the rebels. While he truly appreciates the offer, the new Avengers are much too young and inexperienced to take on this mission. This isn't their world - this isn't their fight! Go home! As he walks away, however, the Avengers say no. With all due respect, he's wrong about them! They are Avengers, the only ones as far as he's concerned - and they're staying!
#11 - Crucible
Back at the other end of the escape portal, the Thunder Guard zip up a body bag with Maria inside. One of them is pleased that there's one less insurrectionist - even if she was kinda cute. Ew. Eric Masterson pensively observes that he used to work with the woman's father. Pincer notices Eric's mood and asks if there's something wrong with him, since he looks so down after that fight - it was a good kill! Does he feel sorry for her, for a traitor their glorious Master? Eric grabs Pincer by the neck and tells the sadistic freak to get off his back, or she'll show him exactly how he feels about killing someone in cold blood! S.S. Agent intervenes and also asks if something's wrong with Eric, but he denies it. Nothing's wrong - nothing at all. S.S. Agent tells Eric that he should keep his murder attempts on his own time, just as Deadeye calls out a warning to the others - the big guy is here!
Entering from between two rows of guards comes an armored figure quite similar to both of the Mastersons, and he announces that the Master is displeased with them all. Doom's spies have already informed him of their failure to capture the criminal dissident known as Captain America, and thus they have brought disgrace on themselves and the entire Thunder Guard! They can't allow that madman Captain America to jeopardize Project Doomsday!
The Master secretly arrived in the city earlier this morning, he explains, and has already begun final preparations for the project. He then wonders why Pincer is holding his neck - was he injured in battle? S.S. Agent hesitates, saying it wasn't in battle. His superior 'Donar', the local Thor, turns to Eric, and asks if there's a problem here. Nothing's wrong. Nothing at all…
Twenty-seven hours have passed since the new Avengers arrived on this alternate Earth, and Cap is once more explaining to the group that Doom plans to use his new Universal Cube to open a dimensional gateway to invade every other Earth he can find. He's going to personally conduct the final tests tomorrow, in Central Park, and they must stop him there at any cost! Blue Streak is ready to do so, as he assumes 'Big D' plans to video the event for posterity, so they might be able to snag a copy for her folks back home! Mainframe apologizes to Cap for her flippancy, and says they all understand the gravity of the mission, and they won't let him down. J2 admits to Stinger that he wishes he were half as confident as Mainframe and Thunderstrike - he's so nervous he thinks he'll barf! Crimson Curse tells him to be at ease - she senses he'll acquit himself with great honor. Captain America instructs them all to study the plan, and to get some rest. He wants everyone assembled here at 1900 hours! American Dream approaches him after the rest leave, and thanks Cap for allowing them to fight, saying he made the right choice. Cap isn't so sure. She argues they may not be the team he grew up with, but they're still Avengers!
Stinger asks Thunderstrike how he's holding up, and he admits that while his head says they're in a parallel dimension battling evil doppelgangers of current and former Avengers, he still witnessed his long-deceased father murder his best friend. Cassie can relate, since Pincer is a twisted version of her father too. How are they supposed to handle this? The only way they can handle this is… as a team. Mainframe interrupts the pair and explains that he needs Stinger's help for something. She's surprised, but asks what's up. Mainframe explains that according to Cap, the Thor of this world goes by Donar - and Mainframe believes he knows a way to subdue him should it become necessary. His plan is not without risk, though, so if anything goes wrong he would like her to watch over his programming module - essentially a backup of his mind so he can be rebuilt. Stinger promises that she can count on her to get it home, and Mainframe accepts that.
It's 1945 hours, Central Park - the final checklist is complete, and the troops are assembled. The Cube's ready to go online, and all the gathered crowds need now is the presence of their Master, Victor von Doom himself! Standing at the platform are alternate versions of Baron Zemo and Reed Richards, employees of Doom in this reality, with the former even bringing his favorite piece of memorabilia to the proceedings. It's a gift from the late Red Skull - Captain America's shield! Nearby, Cap, Thunderstrike and American Dream sneak in by wearing guard uniforms over their costumes, and the latter concludes that the shield on display must have belonged to Cap's local counterpart. Hold on, is that Reed Richards of the Fantastic Five up there? Cap tells her there are no FF in this world at all. They should keep cool now, they mustn't draw attention! Mainframe, Stinger and Freebooter travel closer by going through the sewers, while J2, Blue Streak, and Crimson Curse wait in the woods nearby, ready to strike.
Finally, after all this buildup, Victor von Doom finally approaches the dais. The guest of honor has finally arrived! 'Doom! Doom! Doom!' the people yell in appreciation as guards give him Hitler salutes as he passes by. Doom still wears most of his usual costume here - he's got the armor, a green tabard, a long green cape, even that random pistol belt he's always depicted with - but he's not wearing any sort of helmet or mask, showing his unscarred face to everyone, as well as the streaks of gray at his temples in some panels, making him look rather like his old rival... This version of Doom was never in his fateful accident. 'Loyal citizens,' he begins. 'Today marks the beginning of a new Age of Enlightenment!' As he takes his place at a lectern on an elevated stage, he explains to his people that they'll soon free their brother Earths from the terrible burden of individual thought - and grant them the rapture that can only come from blind obedience!
Cap calls out to Team 2 - they should initiate the distraction on his mark! J2 responds that they're good to go - just say the word and… There's a sudden explosion, and Cap asks if he's alright. Not quite, it turns out. Team 2 has been discovered, and almost immediately several members of the Thunder Guard arrive to face them, and it's some heavy hitters: Donar, Deadeye, and Overman! Down in the sewers, Team 3 is also cut off, and Cassie asks Mainframe how much longer his hacking will take since Team 2 needs an assist! Mainframe says it'll be another thirty seconds before he's tapped into the city's power grid. The three are then suddenly ambushed by several Thunder Guard members as well - Swordmaster, Pincer and Iron Cross burst through a wall and attack!
Up above, American Dream panics when she realizes both of the other teams are under assault, but Thunderstrike tells her they can't worry about that now - their job is to destroy that Cube! Quickly a fight breaks out with the nearby guards and Cap rushes up the stage, telling a remarkably calm Doom that he obviously knew they were coming. 'Of course,' Doom agrees immediately. 'Your very ideals make you easy to anticipate… and eliminate!' Eric Masterson and S.S. Agent then jump into the fray on Doom's side, taking on Kevin and American Dream respectively…
In the sewers, Swordmaster proclaims that Freebooter's death is a foregone conclusion - all he needs is an opening for a killing thrust, while Freebooter is hampered by a ridiculous reverence for human life! Freebooter argues he never considered it a weakness, since he's been trained in a thousand ways to disarm and disable opponents without killing them. Class dismissed! With that he easily knocks the other man out of the fight. Nearby, Pincer asks Stinger if she's going to beg for mercy - he loves it when she pleads and cries for her miserable life, just like his own sweet little Cassie did! Such a simpering and ungrateful child she was - always whining, always needing help, always resenting him for giving it! He's glad he killed her, she never would have amounted to anything on her own - and neither will Stinger! Cassie, furious, blasts him in the face with her powers. While he may be her dad's double, he's certainly not the same man, and she's nothing like his Cassie! She knocks Pincer out after that, and admits that while that felt great, she probably won't mention this part to her dad when she gets home…
Iron Cross takes on Mainframe again, and tells him he's impressed - he's given him a far better battle than he would have believed possible. But no machine, no matter how sophisticated its design or brilliant its designer, could ever equal a human being! Mainframe says it's a surprise to hear such sentiments from this world's version of Tony Stark - while he agrees in principle, his very humanity also means… that this next move will be quite painful! Manipulating a nearby powerline, Mainframe then electrocutes Iron Cross, sending him careening into the sewer waters below.
Topside, Cap takes on Doom in a straight-up fistfight, and Doom admits to the hero that he admires him - Cap, alone, managed to organize an almost viable underground against him! Quite an accomplishment for a stranger to this Earth! Unfortunately, for all the reasons Cap can guess, Doom must discourage such behavior - and cleanse his world of him and his degenerate followers! Doom uses his hand blasts against Cap, who simply tanks them with his shield. The hero then positions himself carefully and baits out another hit, before jumping aside at the last moment. He calls out that Doom shouldn't bet on 'cleansing' him and his people - he may be able to kill a dreamer, but he can never destroy the dream! It's revealed that he was standing right in front of the display with the other Captain America's shield, and Doom's blast ricochets off its Vibranium surface and hits him in the face on the way back, sending the dictator reeling. Cap announces that just as the old shield reflected his own blast back at him, Doom is destined to pay for every act of terrorism and brutality he ever committed! This world will eventually throw off his yoke of tyranny!
Cap picks up the second shield and tosses it towards American Dream, who's busy getting beaten up by S.S. Agent. 'Heads up, Avenger!' She lunges for the shield and gets her hands on it, but John Walker grabs her by the hair and knocks her into the ground before she can attack with it. He argues that the thing probably wouldn't stand up to his personal force-shield anyway! American Dream snarls that it may be useless against him, but she can still use it to free herself! She tosses the shield and bounces it off a few objects until it slices through her own hair on the way back, cutting off her long locks and freeing herself from her captor's grip (and a very impractical hairdo.) American Dream snarls that she's sick of being underestimated - she donned this costume to honor a man and an ideal! Ingenuity is the American way, as they can find a way to solve any problem! If being a soldier is the only way she can rid the universe of crumbs like him - then a soldier is what she'll be! With two savage punches she then manages to knock Walker away from her, and out of the fight entirely…
Elsewhere, Eric and Kevin Masterson - Stormtrooper and Thunderstrike - are having a good old fashioned beam-battle. Stormtrooper complains that fighting a doppelganger is the weirdest thing he's done all week. The two of them are evenly matched, except for one thing… Where is Thunderstrike? Where is the magical mace for which Thunderstrike was named? Eric is incredulous that even without the mace, Kevin is somehow slowly closing the gap between them. But he can't be stronger! Kevin explains that Eric may wield the power of Thunderstrike… but Kevin is Thunderstrike! He puts his hands on his enemy's mace and there's a violent and bright explosion - a backlash. The reaction reverts Eric to human form, and the man asks to be finished off - he's tired of this life, all the violence and killing. When he thinks of all the horrible things he's done in his Master name… He guesses he went mad with grief after he lost his son… his Kevin.
J2 takes on Donar, and the local Thor compliments the son of the Juggernaut for his great physical prowess and courage - but greater still is his hubris for thinking he could prevail! J2 figures it was worth a shot. Donar demands not to be mocked - though the Master of this world calls him Donar, he is still the thunder god immortal, he is still Power Incarnate! With that, he bowls over the helmeted Avenger. Crimson Curse challenges Overman, telling him to keep a safe distance from the trees! He doesn't care for her green-hugging garbage, only to realize belatedly that she can control plants, and her reverse psychology allowed one of the trees to curl its trunk around him! Overman snarls that these branches won't hold him for long, but she says it'll be long enough for her to get in tune with him. If he's anything like the Wonder Man from her own world, then he's composed of ionic energy - and all energy must obey the laws of nature - and be dispersed! Overman doesn't really die, but she reduces him to a cloud of purple rays…
Deadeye takes aim at Blue Streak, able to follow her due to bionic enhancements no matter how fast she is. She responds that it would really stink if running was her only talent, but you see - she considers herself multi-dimensional, and she has a fine sense of irony! She plucks two of the archer's explosive arrows out of the air after they're fired and quickly slips them back into his quiver, and they soon detonate and send him unconscious to the floor. Elsewhere, Eric demands for Kevin to finish it - what's he waiting for? They're just two different sides of the same coin, after all! Kevin agrees - but not in the way he thinks. With a very Shazam-like 'Thunderstrike!' he changes back into his real form, revealing that he's actually an alternate version of the son Eric lost. Seems poor Eric was under the impression he was just fighting his own clone this whole time. Eric bursts into tears and hugs Kevin for dear life, and even Kevin can't keep it dry…
Back with J2 and Donar, the former explains that in his own world, Thor is the greatest hero of all - but here, he's a big bully working for an even bigger one! Donar wonders if J2 is mad - the Master has erased crime, war, and pestilence! He's the word and the way of this world and Donar is proud to enforce his law, and lead his Thunder Guard! He strikes the boy down, only for Mainframe to erupt out of the earth and tell him to back away and leave him alone! Mainframe then punches Donar unconscious with an almighty heave, declaring that the one he's been beaten up is a friend of his - and Avengers watch out for each other! He then muses that his plan to take out Donar worked… but the additional power is overloading his internal circuitry, and that can't be -- Mid-sentence he violently explodes, scattering pieces of himself everywhere. Good that he made that backup, huh?
Doom hears the distant explosion, realizing that whatever caused it appears to have taken Donar out of the fight. Cap says that Doom's rule is over, because he can't maintain his reign of terror without his Thunder Guard! The populace will rise up against him! Doom responds by saying that Cap spoke of a dream earlier - and he too has a dream, one of universal peace and prosperity! Under his leadership, every parallel Earth can become a virtual paradise! Cap wonders what they'd pay in exchange - lives of servitude and blind obedience? Doom answers that free will is wasted on most people, as they simply cannot handle it. Doom then spreads his arms and takes off with his boot-jets, flying into the sky over Cap's head…
Crimson Curse, meanwhile, has gotten near the Universal Cube that they're supposed to get rid of - it's an abomination! It seeks to abrogate the natural order, and thus it must be destroyed! It seethes with powers and energies untold, so she must gather all her strength, all her will, to stand against it. 'And you will still fail!' Doom shouts as he fires a bolt into her back, before landing near her crumpled body. He announces that he has outlawed magic in this world, and purged all practitioners like her, for the supernatural and all its mysteries are the sole domain of Doom! He is the lawful and legitimate ruler of this world, and of the multiverse entire! He shall now employ the vast power of the Cube… to crush all his enemies!
Crimson Curse suddenly revives from apparent defeat, grabbing Doom's arms and telling him 'No, tyrant!' She's already sown the seeds of the Cube's destruction and Doom's ruination! Doom wonders if she's insane, yelling that Doom will triumph! Doommust triumph! 'Not this time!' Crimson Curse then drags Doom towards the Cube, and straight into it - the great unknown beckons, and fate decrees that they greet it together! With a kraka-Doom the Cube vanishes alongside the two who entered it, leaving only the empty dais upon which it stood. The device has imploded - and the Master is dead!
Chaos will reign, Zemo declares immediately, unless he takes the throne! Reed disagrees with that idea - he was the Chief Advisor, so naturally he must take Doom's place! The two immediately turn on each other, as do many of Doom's other subordinates who were suddenly freed by their Master's death…
In the aftermath of their victory, the heroes are able to slip away from the chaos - and each day the two former advisors of Doom continue to vie for control of the Thunder Guard and the government, only succeeding in driving more and more people into Cap's camp. Thanks to the Avengers, this world may yet be free. American Dream concludes that Cap intends to stay here and oversee that change, and he agrees that the work has only just begun - but staying will be easier now that he knows the Avengers are still assembling back home. He also tells her to keep the shield from this world - he thinks this world's Cap would have wanted her to have it!
J2 asks about Mainframe - is he going to be alright? He never did have the chance to thank that robot for the save! Stinger confirms that he'll be fine - once they get his backup module back to Earth to rebuild his body, of course. He can be remade - unlike Crimson Curse! American Dreams recalls that she warned them that they'd all be changed by this mission, and wonders if she already knew it would come to her final sacrifice. Cassie admits she never thought they'd actually lose an Avenger. 'More than one!' Kevin interjects, to the distress of everyone. Now's a good time to tell them of his decision to stay behind too. He originally joined the team to learn more about his father, and while the Eric Masterson of this world isn't really him, he can't pass on this opportunity! Stinger hesitantly agrees, and Kevin assures her it's only temporary - he'll be back soon. She says she intends to hold him to that promise. With that, they all say their teary-eyed goodbyes as they head to the portal home, while Blue Streak complains that they should just go already - the mush factor is totally getting out of hand. After the group leaves, Cap says they're fine Avengers, and fine people. Kevin argues they're much more than that - they're family!
Rating & Comments
It's kind of weird to look at a spinoff of a spinoff book, and then have an alternate version of an alternate version of Doctor Doom. We have to go deeper! In this case we're dealing with an AU version of Victor himself, at least, and not Kristoff - even if it's a fairly humdrum, unoriginal take. Honestly, we get a better general concept for this Doctor Doom from the set dressing, secondary characters and reactions of the people than Doom himself can really muster, even though he does get a scene in which he is ostensibly the main bad guy. Honestly, it feels like the writers forgot to give any of the villains the oomph they deserved given their alleged defeat of the original Avengers team. What, a bunch of newbies defeated a force that the entire original lineup failed to stop? Doom must've been slacking in his recruitment efforts…
The setup here is actually pretty cool - as a world essentially ruled by latter-day Nazis, the people react to superpowered people like they ran into the fascistic special police - since they're all in employ of Doom, that basically means you try not to draw their attention. The team had the unfortunate luck to bring a person along who is dressed entirely in the American flag, which naturally doesn't go over well, but I appreciate the gloomy, dour feeling of the world as the civilians see it. What makes less sense is how Doom is enforcing all this. Yes, we see a bunch of random guards… but the Thunder Guard is apparently down to fifty members. How is he maintaining an entire world with that few people? It's not like he appears to be using robots or anything in this world, so what gives…?
Playing around with alternate versions of characters is basically the main gimmick of this double-feature, and it starts early - a rebel version of Kevin's crush and a militant Edwin Jarvis first, but a slew of evil villain versions of heroes soon after. Unfortunately very few of these characters do anything interesting with the concept - the only stand-out roles are Pincer, the alternate Ant-Man, and the local Thunderstrike, the alternate version of Eric's father. Admittedly the confusion with Eric isn't helped by the fact that while transformed, they both look basically the same… and then 'Donar' shows up and adds to the mess. At least it makes sense for a Nazi Thor to go by his High German name! Captain America is pretty much stock Cap, but at least he gets a coherent explanation for why he's like that - he's from the OG universe! (Well, the MC2 one at least.)
It's a little boring that the first issue ends with various Avengers fighting specific enemy Thunder Guard members, only for the subsequent issue to pit each of them against the same ones again - not only does it feel like a weird coincidence, but it's not like a lot has changed in the interim. At least the rematches with Pincer and Stormtrooper have a narrative function, and I do like that Cassie basically bodies this creepy murderous version of her dad, while Eric actually reconciles with a contrite version of his own. Admittedly this version of his father is still basically a Nazi so I'm not sure 'he feels sad about all his murder' is really enough to start building a familial bond. The fight between Mainframe and Donar was also overly telegraphed, what with the earlier 'hey, have my backup' scene, so the outcome was super-predictable. That really goes for all the fights in the second issue, come to think of it...
The 'main event', such as it is, kind of makes me wonder how the original Avengers could possibly have lost. I guess they must have severely depleted Doom's forces! Not only does Doom leave himself entirely open with at most a duo of C-tier minions at his back, but Cap keeps Doom at bay by himself, and then American Dream, this rookie flag-cosplayer newbie hero, manages to take out one of his main underlings with a shield she's literally never used before. It was also a missed opportunity to have Doom's reflected blast scar his own face - that flourish seemed like it was right there, you know? Self-inflicted and all! Feh. What follows after that is... a mess. Doom goes on a bit about how free will is bad for people and how he's going to conquer the multiverse with his army of like a few dozen people, only for Crimson Curse to just suddenly show up and… kill Doom? It goes down rather suddenly - one moment they're struggling, then the witch just commits a mutual kill from out of nowhere and the whole conflict is resolved instantly because all the Nazis devolve into infighting mere seconds later. Maybe this sequence would have resonated more if Crimson Curse was ever, you know, a character that one could emotionally invest in? She was a bit of an unknown even if you read this entire series. If the one dying was Cassie I might care. This rando? Nope.
While these two comics were pretty dense with stuff happening, in the end I wasn't too impressed - not only are most of these characters I don't care all that much about, but Crimson Curse's demise was random (and with only one issue of A-Next, I don't think she'll be back) and Doom and his regime were taken down far too easily by a half-dozen newbies for an alleged threat to entire other worlds. Also, weren't there supposed to be fifty super-people left in Doom's army? What happened to the other forty-something? Wouldn't they be more likely to take over the place than the alternate Zemo or Reed? Why would Cap be fine with leaving Eric alone with this Nazi murderer version of his dad, anyway? How much danger was the MC2 Earth really in if this was the caliber of super-people its worst rival could produce? I guess if they only had a blind Hawkeye and an evil Hope Pym, they'd be in trouble… Bleh. I guess we can close the book on Nazi MC2 Earth, though. Two stars, but mostly because of boredom.
Next time we revisit this variant universe, we'll be checking in on Kristoff again - but don't worry, there will come a day when MC2's Victor von Doom brings closure on what happened to him. You know, eventually.
Most Dictatorial Doom Quotes
"Loyal citizens, today marks the beginning of a new Age of Enlightenment! We will soon free our brother Earths from the terrible burden of individual thought - and grant them the rapture that can only come from blind obedience!"
"You have my admiration, Captain. You, alone, managed to organize an almost viable underground against me. Quite an accomplishment for a stranger to this Earth! Unfortunately, for all the reasons you can guess, I must discourage such behavior… and cleanse my world of you and your degenerate followers!"
Doom: "I, too, have a dream… of universal peace and prosperity! Under my leadership, every parallel Earth can become a virtual paradise!"
Cap: "In exchange for what - lives of servitude and blind obedience?!"
"Free will is wasted on most people. They simply cannot handle it."
"I have outlawed magic on this world, witch. Purged all its practitioners! The supernatural and all its mysteries are the sole domain of Doom!"
"Doom will triumph! Doom MUST triumph!" (Final words.)
Doom-Tech of the Week
Well, obviously the Universal Cube is an interdimensional transportation device of Doom's manufacture which was clearly inspired by the Cosmic Cubes of the past.
If I am reading you right, when the OG Avengers took on the Thunder Guard, there were 500 of them, they had the element of surprise, and an army of normals backing them up, whilst the Avengers had no local knowledge or backup.
(I am presuming the Avengers beat back the initial invasion attempt, then followed back through the portal to destroy the Universal Cube, wading through hordes of enemies the whole time)
I am assuming that Cap's Resistance has been doing damage to Doom's regime as well, which is probably one of the reasons the Thunder Guard is so much smaller now. Anyways, presumably, unlike last time, Doom can't afford to bring all of the Thunder Guard to bear at once and needs them to put out brushfires around the world, so he's only got these guys, and the regular troops are being engaged by Cap's Resistance fighters.
It's interesting that this Doom is so similar to the mainstream Doom in personality and abilities, since his life diverged radically back when he was a child. I guess a lot of it was predetermined by genetics. I also think it's a little funny that Reed Richards is Doom's chief advisor in this reality. With none of their shared rivalry in college, and with Reed growing up as a fascist, he and Doom get along great instead of being enemies.
Doom seems even more arrogant than usual in the final battle. He does less, and also massively underestimates his opposition. I suspect that is because this Doom basically inherited the world from the Red Skull, and an army of 500 metahumans to enforce his rule. He hasn't spent years fighting for world domination and getting beaten by heroes. I doubt he even fights his own battles very often
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207: Fantastic Four v3 Annual 2000 & Fantastic Four v3 #32 - Betrayal! / Valeria von Doom / Abyss
Fantastic Four v3 Annual 2000 & Fantastic Four v3 #32 (August 2000)
Covers
Today I'll be covering some stray aftermath issues which tie up loose ends from the recent Reed & Doom-centric storyline - this includes an epilogue about Reed after he got released from Doom's armor in the last issue, as well as what happened to Doom's generals in the wake of their capture a few issues earlier. Given that Dorma seems to have beaten up most of the team on the Annual's cover, though, I assume it's not great news. Given that this is an Annual, there's also a secondary story about Valeria von Doom in there - it's more of a minor prequel, and technically the only glimpse we get of Valeria's original future before she popped up in the mainline universe - but it also has Lancer, so I'll take it! I'll also add in the next mainline Fantastic Four issue, since that follows on directly from the Annual (though you wouldn't think it!)
Story Overview
Fantastic Four v3 Annual 2000 - Betrayal!
The Fantastic Four are returning to New York City from Latveria after they freed their leader Mister Fantastic, who had been trapped inside the armor of Doctor Doom for a while - it's a bit unclear exactly how long it's supposed to have taken in-universe, but I assume it's not more than a couple weeks since that mess with the Dreaming Celestial happened. As they pass the Statue of Liberty on their way home the Pogo-Plane is suddenly blasted out of the sky by an explosion and they are forced to crash-land right outside of their Pier Four headquarters. Nobody really seems to care, though, since civilians are already there to ogle at the arrival of the superhero team.
Recovering from the crash, Sue and Reed are instantly confronted by that huge throng of people - it's the press, who are surprised to see Mister Fantastic alive and well. Sue quickly announces to them that their supposed 'alliance' with Doctor Doom was a ruse necessary in order to protect the world from a great danger, and explains that her husband will need a few days to recover from his injuries in the ordeal. Suddenly Reed screams in pain, and we see that his mind is overwhelmed by an image of Technarx, one of Doctor Doom's minions from Counter-Earth, sending him to his knees. When the press asks what is going on now, Ben quickly plays interference and keeps them distracted while Sue brings Reed into their headquarters.
Outside, Technarx suddenly shows up for real and attacks both Ben and Johnny. Johnny swiftly defeats the techno-organic being while avoiding touching him to make sure he's not infected by his nanites, while Ben gets the reporters to safety. After the technorganic creature breaks through the pier into the water below in order to get away, the two members of the Fantastic Four briefly chase after him, only to find that he has somehow escaped already…
Meanwhile, Reed's mind is mostly focused on the fact that Sue sided with Doctor Doom against him to stop him, seemingly confused about the details, and he also continues to hallucinate images of Doom's other generals assaulting him: Queen Dorma, Divinity, and Shakti. Reed spins a wild conspiracy theory that Doom took back his armor and returned to Planet Doom in order to dump all his major rivals back to Earth, but Sue points out that actually that doesn't make any sense, since those generals are currently in prison on Earth where Reed himself put them. Is he feeling alright? This is when Johnny and Ben return and warn Sue and Reed that Technarx, at the very least, is on the loose again. Perhaps Reed is not entirely wrong… How exactly did he know about the generals being free, anyway?
While Ben and Johnny bring the confused Reed to bed to sleep it off, Sue takes the opportunity to contact her son Franklin and reassure him that his father is okay. She reaches him, Valeria and Caledonia at the secret location where she sent them, but she keeps Reed's ordeals and the dangers from Counter-Earth a secret in order to prevent her young son from feeling like this entire scenario is his fault. After she ends the call, Sue breaks down in tears. Ben soon enters the room and asks her what is wrong, and she explains that she betrayed Reed and doesn't know how they can move forward with that looming over their marriage. The Thing assures her that Reed's current volatility and raving is only due to going through a withdrawal after the ordeal of being trapped in Doom's armor, and that he'll eventually come around.
When an alarm goes off shortly thereafter, the three healthy members of the Fantastic Four scramble out of their headquarters to witness the arrival of Queen Dorma and her Atlan soldiers. The four generals are apparently under the impression that Doctor Doom was the one who freed them from prison, probably in the hopes that this exact fight would break out. Dorma instead wants an alliance with the Fantastic Four to get revenge against Doctor Doom, the one who betrayed them all, offering the heroes the chance to conquer Counter-Earth alongside her. Naturally the Fantastic Four refuse such a deal, and they are promptly ambushed by Shakti, who uses her magic to bind both Johnny and Ben in ribbons. Dorma herself then lunges at Sue, mocking her for marrying Doom and questioning what her husband thinks of that arrangement, still unaware that the 'Doom' that she is referring to was actually Reed trapped in Doom's armor all along.
As the battle rages outside, an ailing Reed is awoken by it. He thinks to himself that he's somehow had a premonition of Doom's generals - a vision of their freedom before they even arrived. How? Did contact with the armor leave him precognitive? He's sure there's something he's forgotten... Wanting to aid his teammates, he finds that he is still too weak to do anything and collapses on the floor. Outside, the three other members of the Fantastic Four manage to defeat their foes in a protracted all-out brawl, and force them into retreat. However, the villains all vow to get back to Counter-Earth and stop Doom from conquering their domains in their absence. Returning inside, the team finds Reed passed out on the floor and they revive him. Reed wakes, but quickly becomes critical of Sue for betraying him to Doctor Doom - he heard what Dorma claimed she felt for Doctor Doom! Reed is clearly still confused about what happened while he was wearing the armor, and Ben tries to get him to cut Sue some slack. Reed eventually admits to himself that he cannot remember some crucial point that continues to haunt him. Time to get back to bed…
Elsewhere in the city Doom's former generals have regrouped, and Dorma tells them that the reason the Fantastic Four keep defeating them is because their foes work as a team - something which they've thus far failed to manage themselves. When Technarx observes that the Fantastic Four are much more concerned about innocents than they are, the villains decide to go on a rampage across New York City to draw the team out.
As the news begins to cover the string of terrorist attacks across the city, Sue blames herself for this atrocity, wondering if she inadvertently released the quartet of villains by freeing Reed from Doom's armor. As three of the Fantastic Four rush off to tackle their foes once again, Reed wanders around Pier Four unsupervised. As he watches the news reports, he continues to struggle with a key piece of information that he is still trying to remember, and which all these hallucinations seem to be pointing him towards. What's he missing…?
Sue tackles Shakti on a construction site, while Ben confronts Divinity who has taken possession of a police officer's body and has been using him to gun people down in the streets. Johnny follows Technarx to Central Park where he is forced to rescue a bunch of children that the technorganic being is dropping into the lake. It's kind of hilarious how this is his choice of villainy - he didn't even infect them with his viruses either, he's just being a dick. While the rest of the team are distracted by these fights, and are eventually each captured because they were too busy saving people to protect themselves, Dorma and her minions attack Pier Four itself and easily subdue the weakened Reed. Their true fight is with Doom, Dorma explains, so she demands that Reed build them a transporter device in order to send Dorma and her minions back to Counter-Earth. She also explains that she overheard some of what his wife said, and she knows now that the Fantastic Four were in league with Doom against his generals, and that they spent time at his castle in Latveria. While there, Reed must surely have learned Doom's secrets…
Reed's memories return in a cascade of images - he remembers Doom ripping the armor from his body in pieces. At that very moment the screams in his mind, still clouded by sorcery, knew that he had been betrayed… and in that final instant of command his addled mind loosed a series of pre-set viruses to compromise the prison of the generals… he set them free, knowing they'd attack and distract his family so that he could go after Doom! It's madness - the memory is like a dream, a drug-induced nightmare, but Reed knows it's true. Reed betrayed, by his actions, those he loves!
Dorma asks after the device again, and Reed agrees to help, provided that they can show him that his wife is still alive. Sue, still bound up in Shakti's ribbons, is brought forth and she begs Reed not to do this, but Mister Fantastic tells her if he sends them back, this Earth will be safe - and they can take down his greatest enemy! It's a win-win situation! His vicious smirk suggests trickery…
Shakti is first to try the ominous black portal that Reed opens up - he explains that it's a parallel technology he'd been working on at the same time Doom was making his own version. Shakti goes first, refusing to admit she's afraid of not being able to see where she comes out, and this frees Sue, who asks Reed how he could send that villain ack to wreak havoc and maraud on the other Earth! Reed claims he did what he had to - she shouldn't try to stop him. She should trust him. Sue recalls that he asked her that before, while wearing Doom's armor, and she did trust him then… but how can she do so now, after everything that happened? Or… how can she not? Technarx goes next, and Divinity follows after releasing a possessed Ben from his control.
Dorma is last, and Reed tells her that she should give Doom his thanks for his… little gifts… which he now returns with interest. All debts are now repaid - beyond this, it's war between them! Queen Dorma correctly deduces from these veiled words that this portal is nothing more than a trap to capture her and her allies, and she quickly shatters the floor and escapes with her troops, vowing to conquer this Earth instead of the one left in the hands of Doctor Doom. Reed realizes that he accidentally tipped her off, then explains to his team that he transported the other three as prisoners for Doctor Doom on his own world, each caught in force bubbles they can't break from the inside. In the aftermath of the confrontation, the Fantastic Four finally explain to a more lucid Reed why Sue betrayed him to Doctor Doom - it was all in order to free him from Doom's armor, which was perverting his mind. Reed realizes now how foolish he has been acting, and he and his wife reconcile.
At least, until Reed points out that while he might have been influenced by Doom's armor, every decision he made was still a wrong one. Not only was he the one who freed those generals from prison, but the fate he planned for the world was abhorrent, and it's a plan he could still bring to fruition. He's not worthy to be a member of the Fantastic Four! …End?
Fantastic Four v3 Annual 2000 - Valeria von Doom
This short tale takes place in the alternate future where the Invisible Woman apparently married Doctor Doom (or Reed permanently took over as Doom) and stars their daughter Valeria von Doom - Aka Marvel Girl - before she ever shows up in mainline comics. Here, she is out hoverboarding past curfew on a school night. Her mom, the Baroness von Doom, is currently in Washington for a summit with the president, so she figures she probably won't learn about her little rebellion. She goes down into New York City to seek out her bodyguard Lancer, who occasionally goes 'off the grid' to venture into the city, turning off her communication so she can't be found. Valeria uses her hoverboard (and invisibility, though the art doesn't show it) to stay away from the crowds and searches the place until she spots a bunch of men being literally thrown out of a bar. She deduces that's where Lancer must be hanging out - she went out looking for trouble after all…
When these patrons get back up and prepare to re-enter the bar with weapons, Marvel Girl leaps in and easily defeats them herself. Five guys in eleven seconds - even Samantha Dunbar would be impressed! But that's why she's Lancer - mayhem is her vocation. Valeria muses that Sam was a lost soul, eaten away by despair, who believed her whole life to be ravaged beyond salvation - until the leader of the Fantastic Four gave her a new role and purpose, and hope. That great leader, none other than Victor von Doom himself, turned her into the most dangerous woman in the world, and the only one outside his family that he could trust unreservedly. Then he gave her a job to match her skills - to watch his back.
It's haunted Lancer, Valeria muses, that when the time came to die, when fate called upon him to make the ultimate sacrifice alongside Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm, he refused to have Lancer take his place. Instead, he gave her a different charge - to protect his family as she had done him, and to her he entrusted everything that was of value. In the years since, she's never let him down - but once a year, at roughly the same time, she would slip away from the Fantastic Four's headquarters for a day or so, occasionally longer, and return looking like she's been through a war. She never explained herself, and Valeria - who adored her - never dared to ask. Sue never seemed to mind. But Valeria always wondered what was up - and tonight she discovers the truth. Entering the bar, Valeria finds Lancer fighting off everyone in the bar all by herself, viciously beating her way through the entire clientele.
Valeria quickly uses her gauntlet to identify the people fighting, and realizes many of them are not just wanted felons, but murderers or worse - Lancer is taking on the mafia! When she spots the bartender pull out a gun, Valeria quickly blocks his shot with her force fields, but the overpowered blast still hurts and she slams to the ground. This is when Lancer first realizes that her ward is in the bar with her, and she hopes the young girl has a real good explanation! Valeria suggests she's upholding family tradition and doing the whole hero thing, saving her butt? Valeria suggests trying to feed that line to her mother, and Valeria admits she'd rather die. Lancer asks what gave her the right to poke into her private affairs, and Valeria admits she was just worried - what does she have to prove against this crew of decerebrate lames? Said goons are ready for another round, incidentally.
Realizing she has no other choice, Lancer agrees to let Valeria help her in the fight, and the two mop up the rest of the attackers and find a great deal of contraband to turn over to the authorities. Valeria also finds a picture of Lancer and her brother that fell out of her bodyguard's pocket while they were fighting. Lancer explains that her brother died years before Valeria was even born, and that his death still makes her angry sometimes - tomorrow's her wedding anniversary, so she spends the night before that purging her rage - being Lancer to the fullest - so come morning she can remember what it was like to be just Samantha and enjoy those old memories. Valeria reminds Sam that if it wasn't for her, when her father died, it's likely her mom wouldn't have made it - and Valeria certainly wouldn't have. Sam lost the heart of her family, and Valeria lost hers too… but together they've built something new. People may die, but with luck and a bit of love, families endure…
Fantastic Four v3 #32 - Abyss
Washed overboard while out sailing in the Pacific by herself, which is apparently the first thing Sue decided to do after getting her husband back, the Invisible Woman sinks to the bottom of the ocean. The following day a rescue chopper finds the remains of her boat, the Claudia, a thousand miles off the coast of Hawaii. On board are Johnny and Reed, and Johnny preempts professional divers and heads out himself to explore the wreck, but finds no trace of his missing sister. Fearing the worst, he hopes that Sue was able to create an invisible force field with enough air to help her survive in the ocean's depths. Reed is wracked with guilt, since his work kept him from being out sailing with his wife even though she asked him to come. The coast guard has less than optimistic news too, saying that the storm that passed through the region was incredibly powerful, and Sue was caught in the middle of it.
Meanwhile, somewhere deep below the ocean's surface, Sue recounts how she was washed overboard in the storm when something massive breached the surface like a mountain and the wave that it threw out blotted out the sky and yanked her ship under. Only her quick use of her force field saved her life. That should have been the end, but Sue suddenly comes to and realizes that she is still alive and can somehow breathe. She realizes that the necklace that Namor gave her bak in Fantastic Four v3 #27 has become visible, and that this Atlantean gift allows her to breathe underwater. She owes Namor her life! Sue strips down to her bathing suit to have less drag and so the artist can draw more fanservice, and she begins swimming up in the hopes of finding rescue.
While Ben drags the Claudia on board a large coast guard rescue ship, he's informed that they are calling off the search for Sue since there are many other ships in need - that was quick! Johnny decides to continue searching on his own, using his abilities to view traces of heat in the water, and he is able to determine the path the 'storm' took - whatever it was, it left a hell of a wake!
At that moment, in the depths far below, Sue has given up swimming because the distances are just too far for her and she is utterly exhausted. She is surprised when she is suddenly intercepted by Namor the Sub-Mariner, who is surprised to find her swimming more than eight miles deep! Not entirely sure how she avoided the fate of that Titanic submarine… Cutely, Namor refers to this location as the 'Cameron Abyss', probably a reference to James Cameron's deep sea diving. The happy reunion is cut short when Namor is suddenly shot in the back with a harpoon fired by a group of Atlantean soldiers. Confused as to why these warriors are attacking their king, Sue fights them off and swims away with Namor. She realizes that the people who attacked were actually a bunch of Atlans - they're from the other Earth! They were supposed to have all been sent home… She decides to sweat the details later and tracks down a sunken vessel to seek shelter.
Above the water's surface, the Fantastic Four track the trail of the storm in a brand new and redesigned Pogo Plane, probably inspired by various hypersonic airplane designs, in the hopes of finding Sue. While Reed is pessimistic about his wife's chances, both Johnny and Ben tell him to have a little faith. They soon determine that the object which disrupted the surface did so at the ideal distance to cause the maximum breaking wave to hit Sue's ship - it was done deliberately, probably by someone who majorly hates Sue!
Sue, meanwhile, informs Namor of the deception the Fantastic Four used to keep Doom's generals in line, including her phony wedding to Doctor Doom, though she leaves out the entire mess with the mind-controlling suit of armor. Namor can tell she's withholding things, but doesn't press. They seek cover behind a shipwreck where Sue binds Namor's wounds, but they are soon spotted by the Atlan warriors chasing them as well as their leader, Queen Dorma, the ruler of Atlantis on Counter-Earth, and the monster which breached the surface - it turns out to be an absolutely enormous Dunkleosteus-Coelacanth hybrid which dwarfs even the sunken ship.
As it goes around destroying everything around it, Sue fights off the enormous monster by summoning a huge force field in its way which impacts it with a loud 'Doom!' and the creature is scared off by experience. It throws off its rider, Dorma, who immediately goes to attack the closest target, Namor. When he spots Dorma he is shocked since the Dorma of this Earth, his late wife, has been dead for years! Namor is still weak from his earlier injury so Sue comes to his rescue and lays the smackdown on Dorma, but that leaves her open to Dorma's minions and she is subdued when they hit her in the back. Before Dorma can execute the Invisible Woman, however, Namor finds his strength again, and he uppercuts this copy of his wife declaring this is his ocean, and the power of life and death within these waters belongs to him alone!
After a flash of light blinds most of the Atlans, Sue and Namor are joined by the rest of the Fantastic Four, who have arrived in a bathysphere. That flash was Johnny setting off a Nova-level flare inside his pressure-suit! While Reed and the others subdue Dorma's warriors, Namor bests Dorma in single combat. He is about to execute Dorma with her own sword, in echo of her earlier actions, when his hand is staid by the Invisible Woman. She convinces him that there is a better way. Namor agrees to turn Dorma over to the Fantastic Four to face justice on the surface world, where she'd presumably be exiled to imprisonment on Planet Doom like her colleagues.
After bidding the Sub-Mariner farewell, an insecure Reed asks Sue if she still has feelings for the Sub-Mariner. When considering if they have second thoughts about their marriage, though, they finally decide they still love each other very much and that they will remain together as partners despite recent troubles, and stay on as members of a team and a family with the Fantastic Four.
Rating & Comments
Fantastic Four v3 Annual 2000 - Betrayal!
I wasn't a big fan of Doom's generals before, and at this point they're just… pathetic, really. Remember when these guys were supposed to be a sufficiently great threat to the world that Reed committed to a sham marriage while pretending to be Doctor Doom just to keep them under control? Here, we see Technarx lose to Ben and Johnny, before the entire team loses to three of the Fantastic Four. They then go on a rampage attacking random civilians and finally get a win when they separate the team and capture them by keeping random people hostage and baiting out the heroes' defensive impulses… all after arguing they should be using more teamwork earlier. And then they still walk into a transparent trap and get themselves captured (save Dorma.) It's probably a good thing this is the last appearance for most of them beyond a stray cameo.
The good part of this story, though, is more about Reed - though admittedly it's a bit forced and dragged out. He keeps having these flashbacks or visions to Doom's generals, but they start before any of them actually show themselves for real - but with Reed's mind addled, his theories are not the most reasonable. Going to precognition as your first option seems a bit… much. Honestly I quite like how unstable Reed comes across in this issue, snapping at Sue for entirely reasonable decisions she made and spinning wild conspiracy theories that he should know are wrong. It does seem telling that he assumes Doom must somehow be manipulating all this as they speak, even when he very explicitly departed from Earth. Doom is always up to something!
There's a few emotional beats in this story that I appreciated - Sue catching up with Franklin and Valeria was nice, and her decision to withhold some of the more damning details of what happened to spare Franklin from feeling like he was responsible makes sense. She feels bad about it, sure, but she's still his mother. It's also nice to see Ben reassure her that Reed's current state of mind is just a result of his recent ordeal, and that her fears of ruining her marriage are overblown. Reed might be lashing out, but he's ultimately more angry at himself than at them. The final sequence between Reed and her was also pretty nice - even if the promise that Reed is going to step back from the team or whatever is instantly forgotten and doesn't seem like it's a thing in the next issue. Meh.
The most interesting of the four generals, ostensibly the focus of this issue, is still Dorma - she's more or less their voice, and the only one who seems to have a brain in her head. While she's entirely wrong about exactly what's going on, still jealous of Sue's apparent relationship with Doom and resentful, she's also the one with an actual plan. It's a dumb plan, because Doom's already shown he's quite capable of nullifying all their powers via the creation of Lancer, but apparently the four generals want to teleport back to Counter-Earth to pick up their fight with Doom again instead of sticking around here. It's kind of funny to realize that due to Reed's trickery here, they all basically walked straight into one of the Doom's prisons and/or death traps. Good job, villains, sure pulled a coup there…
Speaking of Reed, the reveal that he set the four generals on the Fantastic Four as a sort of last-minute revenge plot while still under the influence of Doom's armor - he wanted to use them to distract the team while he personally went after Doom for revenge. A desperate, last-minute gambit… and one he'd forgotten due to the mind-scrambling after-effects of detoxing from his exposure to his worst enemy's mindstate. Reed also revealed, however, that he learned a fair amount about Reed's technology while in the armor - he's capable of recreating Doom's transporter technology (or at least he says he does.) Given that his own portals take a pretty different look and function from the one Doom used to return home, he might just be bullshitting to make the generals easier to convince. Reed, of course, puts his foot in his mouth and accidentally tips Dorma off that something's wrong here, and she's the only one to escape getting dumped on Doom's planet as a prisoner again.
The Annual has some questionable art choices, by the way - there's a page or two which are basically just vague outlines of people in white on black or vice versa with text bubbles - you can make out who is supposed to be who, but it's way too stylized and probably a cost-cutting thing or a last-minute replacement or something. There's actually a bunch of panels with just nondescript white backgrounds too, or vague blobs representing background people. I'm guessing most of this is just stylistic picks that I just don't care for, but that doesn't make them any nicer to look at…
Fantastic Four v3 Annual 2000 - Valeria von Doom
This little fill-in story is the future of a reality that never came to be - but there's still no clarification if Valeria's father was really a more heroic take on Doom, or if it was Reed Richards in the armor and he just never left it. Given that the armor turned Reed crazy, though, and it never did in Valeria's reality (or at least he never carried out his world-conquering plan) that seems unlikely. Also, Valeria explicitly calls him Victor von Doom in a textbox here, which seems to settle things. He either really was, or he never dropped the facade, even to his own family. Valeria herself is pretty uninteresting, pretty much doing her ditzy teenager thing from the comics we've seen her in before - it's really more of a Lancer story.
Given that this is an alternate reality, it's interesting that we get a separate origin story for her - here she was evidently still ravaged by loss and despair somehow, perhaps in the same catastrophic flood that took her family in canon, but here Doom approached her as the leader of the Fantastic Four and offered her a new role as his bodyguard, and eventually as the protector of his last remaining family. Doom still empowered her here by activating her latent mutant abilities, presumably the same process as in canon, but afterwards he went to sacrifice himself alongside Ben and Johnny to save the world, trusting her to protect what's important to him. Beyond that, this story has little to say - it's just a brief little action-piece.
Fantastic Four v3 #32 - Abyss
I don't understand the connective tissue between the last issue and this one - we ended with Reed uncertain about his role in the team, and Sue desperate to get her family back together… and apparently she decides to do that by going on a solo cruise on the Pacific ocean, a thousand miles from Hawaii? Apparently she thought a private voyage on the sea was the perfect answer to their recent troubles… and then Reed rejected going along because he had 'work.' He regrets being fearful of the whole thing now, but evidently Sue decided to go out on her own anyway. Before the storm hits, she even thinks that moments like these should be shared…
Sue's survival in this issue only makes sense thanks to her force fields - it's not explicitly mentioned that she's using them to keep herself from dying horribly, but I think it should be taken as implied. Given how deep she sank, she would've probably made a decent impression of that sub at the Titanic otherwise… It's a little odd that there's quite a lot of visibility for an enormously deep trench at the bottom of the ocean, by the way, but it's explained with magic from her necklace which gives her a tactile and aural awareness of her surroundings which is shown to the readers visually. Namor's necklace was given to her in Fantastic Four v3 #27, the same issue that she got fake-married to Doctor Doom while Reed was in the armor, as a minor plotpoint that had slipped my mind until it made a sudden return here. It's possible that beyond allowing her to breathe like an Atlantean, it also made Sue as tough as one of them - that'd explain her survival as well.
One very annoying aspect of this comic is that due to the underwater setting, everyone's speaking in text boxes which have a very bubbly aquatic theme… but it's also hard to distinguish from the bubbles representing thoughts, so it's sometimes a bit jarring when it switches over from one to the other between panels. Sometimes the text bubbles are a long way from the characters and you have to trace a trail of these little bubbles to see who is supposed to be talking which is just dumb.
I quite liked the giant monster fish's design, but Dorma really doesn't do much with it - it thrashes a bit, then Sue scares it off with a dramatic blast from her force field. The conflict with Dorma herself is cooler; Namor is shocked and caught off guard by Dorma's appearance, and she reveals that on Counter-Earth she killed his counterpart and stole his crown since he deemed him unfit to rule. Sue has to tag in because Namor isn't immediately ready to tear into his lost love, even if she's an evil duplicate, but after she gets subdued he pulls his whole Avenging Son business, Imperius Rex and all that, and finishes the fight. The rest is clean-up - the Fantastic Four arrive to take out the Atlan subordinates, and negotiate with Namor to have Dorma released into surface custody to have her shipped off to Doom-prison with the rest of her compatriots. I'm not sure that's actually better than getting her head chopped off…
The finale of the issue finally, sort of, ties up the recently rocky relationship between Reed and Sue - here Reed explains that he did have his doubts, at least temporarily, about their relationship, and he even questions her about whether Sue wants to rekindle her relationship with Namor. Sue seems understandably wary and asks if Reed is having second thoughts himself, but he admits that when she turned up missing he felt like his soul had been punched out of him, so he's got his answer. Sue tells him she never wavered, and they're a family - come what may, they stand together. Time to go home. This issue, on the whole, was one part decent, two parts thoroughly lame. Very predictable, minimal creative use of the setting, and Dorma just gets shuttled off almost immediately. Why did they decide to keep her around last issue if she'd just going to get immediately captured and deported the next week? Meh.
There's no Doom content in these three issues, but at least we're basically done with Doom's generals now - they make a brief appearance in an issue or two of Exiles a few years down the line, but beyond that they're history. Reed's time in the armor also gets a bit of a post-script, though I wish there was a little more attention to the political and social ramifications of this whole Doom-marriage plot - a lot of time was spent on showing how everyone reacted, and beyond a brief mention to the press that it was all a big trick, we see no consequences on the page. Like, didn't the FF get banned from like every government location and constantly surveilled because of Doom's involvement with them? They had to make the Pogo Plane go stealth just to go on missions! All that just gets shoved aside as dross because continuity must be reset? Bleh. Also, how is the team not worrying about Counter-Earth at the moment? They know Doom is conquering the place, right? What, the people there don't count as people again? Lancer was right…
I'll give the Annual 3 stars, mostly because of the team itself and Reed's material rather than the generals as such, and it's nice to see Lancer again. Beyond that, Sue's aquatic adventure gets a meager 2 stars. Nice to see that necklace get used for a reasonable purpose, but the conceit of this story is dumb, and Dorma is a lame villain that gets taken out by a single Namor punch and the entire issue is confusing due to these annoying dialogue bubbles, and Dorma's claim that she killed Namor on Counter-Earth makes no sense since Namor was one of the heroes that went back home on the spaceship so it's literally the guy she's facing right when she says that. Let's get back to something more interesting, shall we?
Best Panel(s) of the Issues
That monster is just pretty awesome-looking, y'know? I also like the sense of scale in these shots.
Reed's Bad Hair Day
Visually striking... or just cheap? I don't care for it.
208: Before the Fantastic Four: Reed Richards #1-3 - The Riddle of Bast
Before the Fantastic Four: Reed Richards #1-3 (September-December 2000)
Cover
Welcome to Reed Richards as you've never seen him before… because he's cosplaying as Indiana Jones! I guess he's not literally swinging a whip and wearing the iconic hat here, but the inspiration for this trilogy of issues isn't hard to divine. This prequel story has a somewhat complicated state of canonicity too, as I'm sure I'll get into later, but it does contain the alleged earliest meeting between Doctor Doom and Reed Richards after their shared days in college - which I'm not sure makes total sense, but that's what we're going with for now. I mean, obviously Reed's first ever supervillain has to be his Fated Nemesis, right…?
Doom himself shows up on the second and third covers here, in attire which doesn't make total sense - he's clearly already wearing his iconic armor and cape, but he's missing his mask and instead he wears a bunch of bandages over his face like he did shortly after his accident. He received his armor and mask at the same time, though, so this is rather confusing. The third cover actually depicts him in a white-and-gold Arabian variant of his cloak draped over his armor, so it'll be interesting to figure how that plays into things. Hold on, is he covered in bandages so he can play the role of the mummy!?
Story Overview
Before the Fantastic Four: Reed Richards #1
We start this story with a framing narrative - perpetual problem child Franklin Richards is playing around with a baseball in the Fantastic Four's Pier Four headquarters, but the ball rolls into a closet that someone left open. While retrieving it Franklin finds a strange wooden box inside, and he immediately starts rummaging around inside, discovering some old photos, artifacts, and what the boy thinks is a Pokéball. Before the boy can throw it, however, he is caught by his father who stops him before it's too late.
Reed scolds the boy for going through someone else's things, and worries about what the kid will get up to when he's a teenager… Franklin asks what is in the box, and Reed waxes nostalgic, explaining that these are just a few mementos of his time just after he left the military. When Franklin asks whether his father used to go on adventures back then like he does now, Reed says that they weren't quite as grand as they are now, and begins recalling one such 'tame' expedition to the Himalayas.
While Reed tries to downplay the violence to his son in his descriptions, the art depicts Reed and his then-girlfriend Alyssa Moy fleeing from the military forces of General Lao-Tse after rescuing Prince Banyan, whom Lao-Tse was trying to force to open the so-called Lopnor Gateway. (Got all that…?) This sequence is complicated, but it's a clear reference to a panel from Fantastic Four v3 #18, in which Reed is reminiscing about his past and drops a reference to this same adventure. If anything, the reference in that issue is even more blatant, because Reed is full-on wearing the Indiana Jones costume complete with hat instead of a generic military outfit without one.
In order to get away from their pursuers, the trio of Reed, Alyssa and Prince Banyan cause an avalanche in a Tibetan mountain pass using Reed's specially constructed spheres that contain explosive gas - they look exactly like that Pokéball Franklin found. The three manage to get away, but Lao-Tse vows to get revenge on Reed. Safely away from their pursuers, Reed sees Prince Banyan back to his people, and as a gift for his help, Reed is gifted a grooved jewel-studded scepter and sent on his way with some cryptic hints that he'll have use of it later - there are no coincidences! Alyssa is impressed by the monetary value of the gemstones on the item, but Reed refuses to sell it as that would be disrespectful, and he hangs it from his neck like a gaudy necklace.
Reed quickly skips ahead in the story, past an encounter with the Giant Rat of Sumatra, and tells his son about what happened after he got back to Paris, where he had been working at the time. Reed is interrupted in his work, apparently some kind of in-depth study of apples which inspired him to start thinking about reaching subspace realms somehow. Doctor Lestrade has come to inform him that their mutual friend Professor van Nuys in the United States has fallen terribly ill. Reed books the next flight back to the United States to visit this old friend, and at the hospital he learns that Van Nuys is suffering from advanced 'Sebert Syndrome' and is confined to a wheelchair - he has very little time left. Reed tries to talk to his old friend, but all Van Nuys can say is the word: 'cat.' Assuming that the Professor was talking about the cats that he lives with, Reed goes to check on them to make sure they're fed in their owner's absence.
Arriving at the home Reed is surprised by the sheer number of cats that actually live there, and how much they have torn up the place. However, his concern for the felines quickly ends when he hears someone speaking Arabic in the back of the building - the unknown figure claims to have found something, and says that the Master will be pleased! It seems someone has taken advantage of Van Nuys' absence to rifle through his things! When Reed calls the intruder out, though, he is surprised by the sheer size of the man. The enormous fez-wearing thief attacks Reed, but he pauses when he recognizes the scepter which Reed is still wearing around his neck, recognizing it as the Scepter of Bast, and he demands to have it! Reed fights back by striking the intruder with the bag of cat food he'd grabbed earlier, and this causes the legion of cats to go into a feeding frenzy, swarming Reed's attacker in the process.
While his foe is distracted by the pets, Reed tries to escape out one of the windows but finds that they have security bars on them. He quickly pulls apart a lamp and uses it to electrify the door knob, so when the intruder tries to go after him he is stunned by a jolt of electricity. Reed then knocks him out with a single punch, before recovering the documents the thief took from Van Nuys office, which were apparently what he was after.
Reed studies the papers and determines they're some kind of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, so he takes them to Egyptology expert Francesca 'Frankie' Fisher - she is surprised to discover it's actually a piece of parchment written by the Pharaoh Khafre circa 2200 BCE. She is also shocked to spot the Scepter of Bast around Reed's neck. Fisher explains that the artifact in question is one part of the Claw of Bast, and was created by those sorcerers who once had a mystical duel against Moses (no shit!) Checking her historical texts, she explains how the last known user of the Claw, a Pharaoh Kahgre, hid it away. When Reed asks what it does, she explains that it 'makes the Holy Grail look like a Dixie cup' and insists that they should go looking for the other missing parts.
Soon the pair depart in a plane heading on the first leg of their quest. Along the way Fisher explains that the Claw of Bast has wish-granting abilities and that it had a limit of nine uses, but that it has already been used seven times prior to its hiding. Reed tells her he doesn't believe in any of that superstitious stuff, and that he is only going on the expedition to honor Professor van Nuys' apparent conviction that it might be the cure to his condition - it's worth a try. When Francesca asks Reed about the man who attacked him back at the Professor's home, he tells her that he watched as the man was being taken away by police, so they have nothing more to worry about him. While Reed says this, however, he is unaware that his attacker is secretly piloting their plane at that very moment...
Meanwhile, off in a castle in far away Romania, a servant talks to a heavily bandaged and bathrobe-wearing Victor von Doom who is warming his hands by the fireplace - you sure took your time to show up, Vic! Doom is informed that his minion Ko-Gar - the huge fez-wearing lug, of course - will soon be in possession of the parchment he was sent after, as well as the Scepter of Bast! Doom is quite pleased by this news, since he intends to use said Claw of Bast in order to first restore his ruined face, and then gain immortality, so that the newly perfect face of Victor von Doom will live forever! (Not to get your mom back, Vic? Priorities, I guess.)
Before the Fantastic Four: Reed Richards #2
After a brief reintroduction to the framing narrative - and admitting that his disbelief in magic in his youth was challenged by his experiences with the Claw of Bast, but he's getting ahead of himself - Reed decides to continue his story where he left off…
Reed and Fisher are still chatting while on their flight to Egypt when suddenly Ko-Gar, the minion of Doom that Reed had fought before, hijacks the plane by knocking out the pilot and then leaving to confront the passengers with a loaded gun. He demands that Reed and Fisher turn over the Scepter of Bast as well as the ancient parchment he'd previously attempted to steal from the Professor. While their foe has the upper hand here, Reed points out - apropos of nothing - that even though the plane is on autopilot now, it would not be able to take into account the migratory pattern of ducks. No sooner has Reed explained this nonsequitur than a flock of these birds spontaneously end up hitting the plane, causing it to violently shift in the air.
Reed yells 'duck!' to Ko-Gar, who doesn't buy this obvious ploy - only to be smacked by one of the birds smashing through the plane's windows and hitting him in the back. Reed and Fisher quickly take advantage of this distraction to grab Ko-Gar's gun and send him sprawling, though the firearm goes off in the confusion.
The hijacker goes to pull himself up again, but accidentally does so by yanking at a nearby door lever, promptly ejecting himself out of the plane through the cabin door. He's wearing a parachute, though, so he'll be fine… With the co-pilot unconscious or dead and the plane seriously damaged, Reed takes the controls and with some trouble he lands the plane at the nearest airport. Franklin wonders if Reed died there, and when his father points out that doesn't make any sense since he's still alive, Franklin quips that, according to his uncle Ben, heaven has a revolving door for superheroes. Hah!
Not long after the landing, Reed and Fisher are pulled into airport security where they are questioned about what happened on the flight, and their interrogation lasts for hours - since Ko-Gar fell out of the plane, there's some suspicion Reed and Fisher are communist sympathizers who hijacked the plane themselves. Suddenly the incessant badgering is interrupted by Reed's old flame Alyssa Moy, who manages to convince the officers to leave her alone with the prisoners. Just as Reed is explaining to Fisher who Alyssa is, she jumps onto Reed's lap and kisses him. She then informs them that she has already made arrangements to get the two of them out of police custody, and hopes that wherever they're taking her is more interesting than the three day old party she just left!
Fisher is unimpressed with Alyssa and even less enthused by this woman inviting herself on their epic quest. Going over the information that Reed and Fisher have already gathered, Alyssa points out that there is no point in going to Egypt until they make a stop in Romania first. Fisher is confused, but Alyssa explains that the picture on the parchment they retrieved is quite misleading - there are actually three parts to the Claw, not just two. The third is a large gem, the Eye of Bast, which is being kept in a Romanian museum. Although Reed agrees to take Alyssa along with them on the quest, Fisher clearly does not approve.
Meanwhile, back at the Romanian castle that serves as the home of Victor von Doom at this time, Doom is busy forming his own plans - he's wearing an elaborate brown fur-lined robe here over his armor. Franklin asks how Reed could possibly know about this when he wasn't present, and his father explains that Doom was already fully convinced of his inevitable greatness at this time, and thus had a chronicler take down notes on his every plan. (That actually checks out!) Narrating to his scribe, Doom explains that there are few who understand that destiny and mankind have a symbiotic relationship - that their fates shape them just as they shape their fates. It's an equal partnership, except for those few who gain the upper hand - world leaders, prophets, and of course Victor von Doom. Those such as him command their own destinies! Take, for example, the Claw of Bast…
The Claw is an ancient artifact that only functions at a time of syzygy, Doom notes - he has to actually spell it out and explain to his minion that it refers to a planetary alignment, when all the worlds are in a row. Apparently the Claw's previous owner intended to use it at such a time, but he hid it away until the time it could be used in order to keep it from his enemies. He died before he could use it, and so it remained where it was stored until some eighteen years ago, when amateur archeologists discovered two sections of the Claw alongside other artifacts, and divided them up because they were unaware of what they discovered. Of even greater interest, though, is the uncovering of a document which leads to the still-missing Claw section, a piece of parchment which was unearthed a century ago. Lesser minds gave it no credence and it sat in a university antiquities department until it was discovered by Professor Van Nuys, thus assuring Doom's eventual triumph.
'So certain about your triumph?' a robed man asks as he approaches. Doom starts lighting candles and says that he's certain enough to know he doesn't appreciate that tone of voice - the last person whose tone he disliked was the man who used to light candles here! The robed man, Radu, sarcastically comments that he's truly impressed - Doom dispensed with that man, so now he has to do it all himself! Radu snaps his fingers and magically lights all the candles at once, stating that Doom should learn the proper use of energies - in imparting his sorceries to Doom, he hopes he has come to some understanding of that. Doom wonders if Radu's chronicles will mention that it was Doom's magic which informed him of Van Nuys' acquisition, and Radu claims credit will be given where it is due. Curiously, Doom wonders if Radu fears him, but the sorcerer denies it… but says that he will. 'Well said,' Doom notes.
This confluence of events is not a coincidence, Doom decides then - the sorcerer who fashioned the Claw put a spell upon it… or a curse, if you will. With the initial pieces discovered, their power would grow and turn the wheels of destiny the closer they come to the time of planetary alignment. The Claw desires to be used, and calls out to he who will wield it for the eight time - and its ninth! For whoever uses it for the final time will rule over all! To Doom shall go the world! 'And to Victor the spoils?' Radu wonders. 'And again… well said!' Doom acknowledges.
Sometime later, on a train to Bucharest, Alyssa and Fisher are left alone in their quarters together. The two get into another argument over their true motivations for going on this trip, both implying their attraction to Reed Richards, but neither woman fully admitting it. They abruptly stop their squabble when Reed enters the room to see how things are going. It's at this point that Franklin interrupts his father's telling of the story again, pointing out how difficult it would be for him to know details about what the two women were saying when he wasn't around. Reed melodramatically pretends to be wounded by these accusations that he is making up his story, but when he suggests ending the story Franklin insists that he finishes it. Reed continues where he left off…
At the museum in Bucharest, Reed learns that Alyssa intends to steal the Eye of Bast from a private collection. When he is hesitant about this plan, she explains that she is putting a very accurate glass replica in its place - nobody will know! The trio bicker over the ethics of stealing the artifact while already on the mission, with Alyssa pointing out that the gem was stolen from its original owners in the first place and the museum has no more ownership of it than they would, Reed suddenly hears noises coming from outside. As it turns out, Ko-Gar and a few more of Doom's followers have stormed the museum, also seeking the Eye of Bast. Appraising the situation, Reed suggests they escape out the window and uses one of his chemical Pokéball spheres to eat through the bars with acid.
Reed and Alyssa climb out, but Fisher is grabbed by Ko-Gar before she can escape. Outside, Reed hears the gang of thugs order his capture for their Master 'von Doom' and realizes that his old rival Victor is also after the Claw of Bast. While Reed and Alyssa make a clean getaway using another one of those Pokéballs - this time filled with smoke - the latter suggests they should continue on without Fisher. Reed says that he can't leave her to suffer at the hands of Doom, and Alyssa is forced to agree with him to mount a rescue mission, especially when she realizes that Fisher has the scroll which describes how to find the third piece of the Claw of Bast.
Back at Doom's Romanian castle, Fisher is dragged along by Doom's men as she cries out that she's an American citizen. She's apparently been cooped up in the dungeon for a while, and demands to be taken to the nearest embassy at once! Ko-Gar tries to silence her, but Doom tells him to unhand her and then makes a dramatic pose, declaring that in his castle, deep in the heart of Romania, there will be courtesy extended to invited guests! Doom has put on his modern costume at this point, sans mask - which doesn't really make sense, as he should be wearing the costume from his debut at least, right? Anyway, Fisher has no idea who he is, and Doom notes he is the Master of this place - and soon… Fisher hopes he's not going to be corny enough to finish that with 'of the world' - right? That's too Hammer Films to believe!
Doom scoffs at this and tells Fisher that in some ways she's more impressive than Richards - she's clearly terrified of him, and yet maintains a front. Reed is too foolish to know his betters at all! When Fisher asks if Doom has some problem with Reed, Doom agrees that he does, and then points to a portrait on his wall which depicts a snarling Reed amid flames and lightning - it's all very melodramatic. He explains to her that Reed is the only individual who thinks he can match intellects with Doom, and that he was partly responsible for the accident that disfigured him!
Hiding behind the portrait and peeking out through conspicuous eye holes at this scene, Alyssa asks Reed if that's true - that's not how she remembers it! Reed argues that perhaps Doom's mind is warped enough by now that he believes Reed booby-trapped the machine he disfigured himself with! Reed suggests they need to be stealthy, but the sudden appearance of a rat in the passage frightens Alyssa enough that she screams and knocks the two of them through the painting and out into the hallway, landing right in front of Doom. 'Well, well, a college reunion…' Doom mocks, clearly already aware of their presence.
They are quickly taken prisoner, and Doom immediately identifies that Reed has brought along a fake Eye of Bast, and crushes it in his gauntlet - he really would have liked to believe that Reed thought more of him than that! He certainly thinks enough of Reed to know that he would not have brought the real Eye of Bast with him, he wouldn't be that foolish! Reed agrees, and argues that Doom should let the women go, and in exchange he'll lead his rival to the real artifact. Doom muses that he thought chivalry was dead - clearly it's not! The mortality rate among its practitioners, on the other hand, is alarmingly high… He assumes Reed does not wish to become a statistic, so he offers him an opportunity to avoid it...
Doom declares that Reed always thought he was more clever than him, not to mention more 'compassionate' - he endeavored to 'save' Doom from the supposedly incorrect equations which resulted in his… accident. He shall give Reed the opportunity to display his vaunted brilliance… and in so doing, an opportunity to win his freedom. Reed wonders if he'll die if he fails, but Doom says it's nothing so barbaric! No, if he fails… then the women die!
Before the Fantastic Four: Reed Richards #3
We get another brief scene-setting bit in which Reed is telling his eager (and possibly gullible) son about his adventures. He explains that Doom led him and the others towards some sort of trans-dimensional projection device, an exact working recreation of the machine which resulted in Doom's original accident which left him hideously disfigured (in his own words.) The accident which Reed claimed he found 'miscalculations' in - but Doom isn't so sure. Reed wonders if Doom really thinks he sabotaged his work, and Doom rhetorically wonders which is a more believable scenario - imperfection on his part, or jealousy on Reed's? In any event, they'll know soon enough! They'll have a nice little reunion - Reed, him, and Alyssa Moy, Reed's former college sweetheart and current companion…
Doom has already strapped both Alyssa and Fisher into two replicas of his college-era transdimensional machine, and says it'll soon be activated. If Doom is correct in his theory, nothing will go wrong and Reed will be revealed as the saboteur Doom suspects him to be. Reed again argues he didn't do anything, and Doom points out that if such is the case, the machine will explode just as it did before… and Reed will have the rare satisfaction of proving Victor von Doom wrong not just once, but twice! An impressive accomplishment for one lifetime! Fisher yells out that Reed should do something - talk it out, make Doom let them go! Ko-Gar tightens the bonds on Alyssay and observes that nobody 'makes' Victor von Doom do anything!
Doom then explains that when the original model of this device exploded several years ago, it did indeed destroy his face and get him expelled from College… but it also functioned perfectly for the first two minutes and thirty-seven seconds, so Reed has that long to fix the machine so that it operates properly… in which event Doom will release them all. Any attempt to shut the machine off will, of course, cause it to detonate. Doom then quickly departs, so that in the event it does blow up, no one else needs to be injured. Reed can also leave, of course, though the women would then be doomed... Good fortune, Doom says, for fortune favors the foolish!
Examining the device, Reed admits immediately that he can't stop this machine in time… but he has a thought. If he's correct, he should be able to disengage some particular conduits without causing a premature detonation. If he's wrong… they die! Climbing up onto the machine despite Fisher's frantic suggestion to try something else, Reed violently rips out a power cord. Doom, meanwhile, has retreated to his study and is playing his piano. Radu confesses that he doesn't understand him - if Richards and the two women die, they'll do so without having told him where the map or the Scepter and Eye of Bast are, and only the fully assembled Claw of Bast can restore his features! Doom dryly tells him to have patience - in good time, all will out!
Fisher again yells at Reed to get them out, while Allysa says that she has a good sense of time and she thinks they only have about forty-five seconds left! Forty-nine, Reed corrects - don't make it worse than it already is! Alright, now it's forty-five! Reed states that when he throws the next switch, that will reverse the polarity of the neutron flow (hah!) and send a surge into the bonds that should free the two women, which will leave them about thirty-three seconds to vacate the area. Reed throws the switch and the three rush out, escaping the castle through a hole blasted into the side of it by the explosion they just set off… Franklin cuts in to observe that neutrons are neutral so it doesn't make any sense for them to have a polarity that could be reversed, but Reed just tells him to quiet down - who's telling this story?
Watching on from a tower, Doom comments that Reed was very slow in his escape - he expected better. Richards did not manage to free the two women until forty seconds before the machine detonated - he would have thought he'd have them out a solid minute prior to the explosion! And he calls himself a genius? Pitiful, truly pitiful!
Reed and his companions get on a flight to Egypt and soon arrive in Giza, where Fisher explains that the Claw of Bast will only work once the proper syzygy is in alignment, but by some remarkable coincidence that planetary alignment is going to happen soon. They banter while they race towards the site where they need to utilize the Claw, which turns out to be the Sphinx! Not far away, Doom and his minions have followed Reed and his crew. Upon beholding the Sphinx, Doom recounts how there's a theory that Pharaoh Hahfre had the head recarved into his own features, and declares that he too wishes to display his visage to the world once more. He's put on desert gear for this adventure, as the cover suggests - he's a lot more fashion-conscious in these issues than he typically tends to be! He's also brought his scribe, presumably to explain how Reed knows any of this ever happened.
At the base of the Sphinx Reed finds a stele referencing the dream of Thutmosis IV, who imagined the Sphinx spoke to him and promised that if he freed it from the sand then Thutmosis would become King of Egypt. There's also spaces cut out for the Eye and Scepter of Bast. Placing these objects into the holes causes the door to fall open, nearly squishing a few of the adventurers before they get out of the way. Alyssa gleefully leads the way inside to the final piece they need to collect: The Paw of Bast. Fisher translates some of the hieroglyphics and calculates that they have about three minutes to get to the next chamber. The Paw is just sitting on a dais there, but Reed warns Fisher that it's too easy - they were nearly killed just opening the door in here, surely there's some sort of trap!
Doom suddenly reappears, presumably having followed them inside through some alternate entrance, and announces that Reed has an amazing knack for giving some things too much thought, and others not enough. He worries excessively about Ancient Egyptians making things 'too easy' and didn't consider that his escape from Doom's castle fits those same criteria! He had a subcutaneous tracker implanted in Professor Fisher so he could be less than an hour behind them at all times! Doom then demands to be given the Scepter and Eye of Bast - now, or from Reed's cold, dead hands. He doesn't care which. Reed warns Doom that he's rushing into things again, just like with his experiment, but Doom snarls that he believes he who has the superior weaponry is entitled to issue the warnings!
Reed again warns Doom that the Egyptians could have laid a hundred booby-traps to protect the Paw, but instead it's almost as if they wanted it to be found! Ko-Gar asks if he can dispose of Reed, and Doom answers that he can do so in a moment - after he's had a chance to see Doom's face, ruined by his tampering, restored by ancient secrets! Behold, the Claw of Bast is complete again! The moment he assembles the artifact, though, it shines with a blinding light. All around them the room and the entire Sphinx began trembling wildly. Doom clutches onto the Claw for all he's worth, but they all know they have to get out before the entire place collapses. As they dash like madmen for the exit, they hear something deep and fearsome, like the roar of a monster huge beyond imagining. Franklin, riveted, asks if they got out safely. Reed says they got out - but safely? Not exactly!
Outside, everyone discovers to their shock that the Sphinx itself has become animated by the spirit of Pharaoh Khafre, who thanks them for bringing his spirit back to life and vows to destroy them and reclaim the Claw of Bast for himself. They have accomplished what Thutmosis had not the courage to do - they shall not find him lacking in gratitude! As thanks he shall give them all a quick and easy death, so they shall not have to suffer along with the rest of the world from the vengeance of Pharaoh Khafre reborn, now in the body crafted for him centuries ago! Doom's lackeys start firing their guns at the stone lion-thing and get squashed for their trouble, while Reed calls out to Doom that the Claw is the only thing that can stop the Sphinx - whatever life it provided can also be taken away by it!
Doom refuses to give up the Claw, arguing that his face must be repaired so he can pursue his true destiny. Alyssa jumps Doom to try and force him to give up the artifact, and in response Doom calls for Radu to dispose of this baggage. Radu, however, is a ways away from the fight with the scribe and tells him to write down that it's one thing to be a friend and advisor, and quite another to be a fool! Doom decides to take down Allysa himself, which is when Reed uses one of his freezing Pokéballs to render Doom immobile. He pulls at the Claw in Doom's hand and tells him to let go - or he'll doom them all! Doom figures that it's a good way to live up to his name - he does not fear death, can Reed say the same? Just as the Sphinx goes to squish Reed and Doom, Fisher comes in clutch by reciting an incantation that was printed on the door to the secret chambers - which turns out to be a spell inscribed by rival priests to thwart Khakfre's plan.
As the Sphinx goes to attack her instead, Reed finally manages to wiggle the Claw loose from Doom's hand. At that very moment the planets align properly - those were a long three minutes - and Reed holds up the artifact and uses its power to banish the spirit of Khafre, rendering the Sphinx inert once again. With his quest over, Reed and his companions leave Doom behind to thaw out on his own.
When they return to the United States and pay a visit to Professor Van Nuys, they discover that he has made a full recovery from his illness. Energy cannot be destroyed, only changed or transferred… which, as it turns out, was the purpose of the incantation that Fisher found. The Claw drew energy out of the Sphinx, and since Reed's hand was on the artifact, it bowed to his desires and restored Van Nuys to full health. Reed explains that the man is still alive to this day, in fact! Reed told him the whole story, but he was skeptical - and the Claw was unfortunately destroyed…
With the story finished, Franklin begins doubting the validity of the entire tale, pointing out a number of inconsistencies in the tale, and he gets upset that his father would make up such an elaborate story. Reed insists that the tale is mostly true - and almost as if on cue, Reed is then suddenly attacked by General Lao-Tse, who has evidently given up his military role and become a powerful mystic to get revenge against Reed for his previous defeat. Lao-Tse demands to know the location of Prince Banyan so that he can gain access to the Lopnor Gateway again.
Although Reed is incapacitated, Franklin quickly grabs one of his father's old chemical Pokéballs and tosses it at Lao-Tse, and the gas causes the attacker to be frozen in a block of ice just like Doom was. Quicky recovering from the sneak attack, Reed carries off his foe to turn over to the authorities. As he leaves, he tells his son that he will tell him the tale of the Giant Rat of Sumatra when he gets back, and a now-believing Franklin can hardly wait to hear the tale…
Rating & Comments
So… Reed had to be making most of this up, right? This trilogy of issues purports to be a story from before the Fantastic Four was a thing - a prequel filling in a chapter of Reed's life that we've never seen before. While it's true that canon skips from his school years straight to adulthood, only spending a few moments mentioning his military career and how he ended up working on rockets, I don't think this particular story really fits within his timeline. Leaving aside the fact that this entire thing is a thinly-veiled Indiana Jones reference, the story is also riddled with inconsistencies, some of which are pretty explicitly called out by an in-universe child. It's pretty clear that we're dealing with an unreliable narrator here, and Reed is pretty bad at pretending that he's being honest.
Reed pretends that his early adventures weren't that exciting, but quickly gets into the spirit of things and tells an elaborate tale involving his ex-girlfriend Alyssay Moy, a frequent guest star in this era of the Fantastic Four. The initial adventure in the Himalayas, it seems to me, is the only part of this entire story which might actually have happened for real, because Reed also references it in another issue, even though the details are a little different. Notably the person who shows up at the end of the third issue here to allegedly 'verify' that everything really happened is actually from this separate mini-adventure, and has no connection to the entire Scepter of Bast narrative whatsoever. Lao-Tse is just some guy that Reed once managed to trip up with one of those exploding Pokéballs which are apparently all the rage for these three issues. His return proves absolutely nothing about the rest of what Reed is claiming (although it does seem awfully convenient in its timing.)
The dubious truthfulness of Reed's recollections is further exemplified by him blatantly embellishing and making up stuff to pad out the adventure, adding details more for the purposes of drama and excitement than anything else. Not only does he find a way to pull his ex-girlfriend back into the plot, complete with a romantic tryst, but he also introduces a second female character that's transparently jealous of her and who immediately starts fighting with Alyssa over which of them can have Reed, to the point that he starts describing conversations they were having with each other while he wasn't even present. Franklin calls this one out, but it's pretty obvious this part is Reed lying his ass off for… I dunno, clout? Gotta look like a manly man to your young son, I guess? I also imagine that Reed encountering a magical wish-granting staff and a giant animated Sphinx before he got powers might have affected his skepticism of the supernatural a little…
Besides those things, of course, there's one other major element of the plot which I can comment on here… and that's the villain! Reed recounts several scenes of Doom having private conversations with his allies, though Reed's excuse to Franklin for how he knows what happened there (Victor von Doom had someone note down his every word for posterity) is both funny and surprisingly accurate, as noted in Secret Wars and Fantastic Four #358. Still, that alone doesn't resolve the other contradictions inherent in his appearance. Firstly, Reed did not seem to be aware of Doom's foray into supervillainy when they reunited in Fantastic Four v1 #5, nor did the issue of Doom blaming Reed for some part of his experiment come up until a good while later. I imagine if Reed had already escaped from a death trap by a full-on maniacal world-threatening supervillain Doom, this would have come up.
Secondly, the events of this trilogy don't fit within Doom's timeline either. Several previous comics have shown the moment when Doom first gained his armor and the accompanying mask, with a band of monks in Tibet… Suffice to say he didn't wear the armor or his robes up until that point, and afterwards he always wore his mask, having renounced his scarred face entirely. There was no period that I'm aware of in which Doom was back in Europe while wearing part of his armor and learning magic from random wizards to fill his time… but when didn't have his mask yet. The implication is, I suppose, that this story takes place after Doom was hurt in his accident but before he went to the far east, but that doesn't explain the armor. Reed has also had enough time to finish college and have a military career, so years have probably passed. The implication, I thought, was that Doom went on his quest for power immediately after getting expelled…
Anyway, the actual adventure is decently entertaining, even if it's a bit marred by the repeated emphasis that it's all probably malarkey. There's some humor here, and the entire misadventure with Doom is still a highlight, particularly the part where Doom is berating a fleeing Reed for being disappointingly slow in escaping his death trap. Like, I know it's probably just Reed trying to characterize Doom, but it still works! I'm not sure the real Doom would have used such a personal event from his own history to use against Reed, though - the experiment tends to be a bit of a sore spot, so using it as part of a ruse seems unlikely. Incidentally, if the original experiment was sending Doom's mind to another dimension or something, shouldn't the two trapped women be seeing visions of Mephisto while they're still strapped in? I suppose such details are irrelevant to the story that's being told, though. Maybe the machine was just fake, since I doubt Doom would actually risk being proven wrong, plus the intent was for the prisoners to escape anyway.
Due to the questionable canonicity of the events, I have no idea whether people like Fransesca Fisher, Ko-Gar, or Radu actually exist - they don't appear outside these three issues, which makes that tough to determine. Granted, Radu abandons Doom towards the end of the adventure, so I don't imagine that one would have lasted very long anyway - just ask the Hauptmanns! Similarly, I don't know whether or not the castle in Romania is real, or whether Doom really has a scowling fire-ringed portrait of Reed on his wall - although that would be funny. I suppose this runs into my longstanding disinterest in stories which are 'all just a dream' or equivalent, where everyone forgets about what happened at the end and the slate is wiped clean. This story pretends to be a prequel, but it's honestly closer to just being a filler comic, where nothing that happened apparently impacted Reed in any way, despite the outlandish scope of those events…
The entire story surrounding the Sphinx is a bit messy - the parts of the Sceptre are apparently trying to get together again, so there's no traps or anything… but then there are traps like the giant falling stele? The implication is, I suppose, that some later sorcerers basically put their own defenses around the parts of the Sceptre of Bast to prevent it from being reassembled, but the ravages of time ruined most of those plans in the long run. Given the astonishing coincidence of the alignment of planets happening right then, I don't think any of this happened at all - the entire final confrontation seems to me like it was just Reed going full-tilt into fantasy to give a spectacular finish to his story. I think the miraculous recovery of the sick doctor who set off this whole affair also smacks of him quickly plugging a few potholes. Which makes sense, really, but it also further shifts this into 'just a dream' territory.
Despite its somewhat dodgy nature, this three-parter is still pretty good - the writing is consistent and leaves enough wiggle-room to excuse any continuity mismatches, both Reed and Doom are pretty on-point as far as their characterization goes even if Reed is making it all up, and the whole thing neatly ties itself up at the end, even if the sudden sorcerer attack comes right out of nowhere. With some decent if unexciting art and several funny moments, this ends up being fun enough to get away with being a 'didn't really matter in continuity' story. For my money that puts it at a comfortable 3 stars, maybe on the high end of that.
Best Panel(s) of the Issues
I think the Sphinx introduction above is my favorite - the tilt-shiftish out of focus smoke to try and depict some sense of scale is interesting. Most of Doom's own pictures are unfortunately affected by his choice to walk around looking like he's the Thing wrapped in bandages, heh.
Most Gloriously Villainous Doom Quotes
"The pieces are coming together exactly as I desired them... and soon... I will use the Claw's eight charm to heal my ruined face... and the ninth... to give me immortality... So that the newly perfect face of Victor von Doom... will live forever."
"There are few who understand that destiny and mankind have a symbiotic relationship. That our fate shapes us just as we shape our fates. It is equal partnership... except for those few who gain the upper hand. World leaders, prophets... and, of course, Victor von Doom. Those such as I... command our destinies."
Doom: "To Doom shall go the world." Radu: "And to Victor... the spoils?" Doom: "And again... well said."
"'Let the women go?' And they claim chivalry is dead, when in fact it most clearly is not. The mortality rate among practitioners of chivalry, on the other hand, is alarmingly high."
"Which is the more believable scenario, [Reed]? Imperfection my part? Or jealousy on yours?"
"Very slow, Richards. Very slow. I expected better. You did not manage to free the women until forty seconds before the machine detonated. I would have thought you would have them out a solid minute prior to the explosion. And you call yourself a genius. Pitifiul. Truly pitiful."
"I believe, Richards, that he who has the superior weaponry is entitled to issue the warnings."
Reed: "Let go, Victor! Or you'll doom us all!" Doom: "What better way to live up to my name, Richards, than that? I do not fear death! Can you say the same?"
Doom's Bad Hair Day
Look, the guy spends the entire trilogy running around like a mummy, give him a break...
Doom-Tech of the Week
Technically I guess the College Machine Replica is new - though I'm not sure if it's supposed to be functional or just a fancy time-bomb.
You'll find Doom in the strangest places, huh? Today's two-parter hails from the pages of the Thunderbolts, and it includes several characters from Counter-Earth, so it's no big surprise Doom gets himself involved. One of those characters is the modern-day (and female) Bucky Barnes who got left behind in the wake of Heroes Reborn - The Return, while the other is… Rebel O'Reilly!? Yup, that weirdo. I'm pretty sure he's supposed to be quite thoroughly dead, but apparently the guy who died in Iron Man's armor is back wearing it again, somehow… and now he's a cowboy too? Comics are freaking weird.
Actually, in looking up exactly how that resurrection happened, the wiki really only tells me this: "During the upheaval of the Dreaming Celestial's machinations on Counter-Earth, Rebel was somehow resurrected and obtained a copy of Tony's Promethean Armor, grew his hair long and adopted a drawl reminiscent of cowboys of the wild west." This tells me absolutely nothing about how any of that makes sense, but I have no desire to try and find out how on earth they justify this ass-pull by reading comics with Rebel in them. I expect they don't make it any more logical anyway. Let's ascribe it to the wibbly-wobbly nature of spacetime and move on?
Story Overview
Thunderbolts #51 - New Beginnings
We open up with several panels of a red-haired woman, Dallas Riordan, kissing a guy seemingly made entirely of blood - she calls him Erik. She suddenly jolts awake though, revealing this to have been a dream, and an older bearded fellow mentions to her that she was groaning in her sleep - and she should get dressed! The Master has learned of her presence here! It's revealed that Dallas Riordan is currently in the small Balkan nation of Latveria, which can only mean that the 'Master' mentioned there is Doctor Victor von Doom himself! Dallas wonders if Doom is aware she didn't plan to come here? She washed up on a riverbank, paralyzed… She gets into a wheelchair while the old man says that he has already contacted 'Project: Earth' to smuggle her back into Symkaria.
At that moment a voice from off-panel states that he doesn't think so, and the man presses a gun to the old doctor's head. He is quickly revealed to be Rebel, who's talking with a truly awful and overdone cowboy accent now, and he tells the old guy he won't tell the Big Man of his treacherous intentions, since he can admire his gumption. Dallas, apparently a cop, recognizes Rebel's accent as a forced drawl, and his unshaven and unwashed face as a conscious choice. He's been living outdoors judging by his weathered clothes and skin, but he's wearing power armor that looks a lot like Iron Man's, and he's apparently acting as a courier for Doom - which probably means he was either hired or blackmailed. Dallas, apparently also a politician, knows how to play the hand she's dealt, and states that she'll get a jacket so they can go.
Over in the US, in Los Angeles, we see that Dr. Karla Sofen - formerly the villainous Moonstone - has trouble getting a job. Apparently she keeps getting rejected for being overqualified, or because people feel threatened by her… she hates being normal! Did she make a mistake accepting a pardon, she wonders? Was Hawkeye right to surrender himself in exchange for the exoneration of the other members of the Thunderbolts? She's not sure if their freedom was worth the price of being… so very bored. She keeps thinking that the Thunderbolts are still a group, too - but they're not! She feels that as Moonstone she was respected, feared, but who in this smog-choked city needs what a psychiatrist like Karl Sofen has to offer? As she makes her way across the street, a figure in an orange cloak keeps an eye on her from afar…
Elsewhere, Abe Jenkins and Mel Gold are getting groceries, enjoying the fresh air - though the latter says it doesn't actually smell any cleaner than before they were pardoned. Abe is quite pleased with that word - pardoned - while Mel argues it's just another word for unemployed, but Abe says this is glass-half-empty talk. Their banter follows them through the streets of Burton Canyon, Colorado, but never once do they feel the need to look over their shoulders. Nobody is hunting escaped felons Mach-2 and Songbird anymore! Abe recalls that just a few weeks earlier they were fighting in front of the bank they're passing by… Abe wonders if Mel misses that, and they both admit they sort of do.
Their peace is rudely interrupted when a pair of super-beings suddenly show up. They are the Beetle and the sonic entity called Scream - Abe wore the Beetle's armor once, and Mel feels an odd connection to the mysterious sound-form. They feel very strange seeing their former secret identities staring them in the face - sort of. It's the first time since they've been back home that anything remotely confrontational has happened, so how should they react…? Abe is worried that these beings might hurt someone, but Mel tells him not to do anything - they're not allowed to use their powers anymore! It turns out that the two strange supers are actually helping out at a construction site, to put it back together after Atlas squashed it. The two of them watch the strange supers leave again, with Mel especially focusing on that sound-creature…
Over at Mt. Charteris, the former headquarters of the Thunderbolts and now home to a task force composed of SHIELD technicians and the Commission on Supernatural Activities, we see Beetle and Scream arrive back and report for training. Beetle grumbles that with all the combat work they're doing, you'd think 'cleaning up the Thunderbolts' messes' included fighting World War Two! Suddenly a familiar shield comes flying out of nowhere and knocks him over - it's Captain America! The living legend who threw the shield says nothing, as actions speak louder than words. The Redeemers, basically the Thunderbolts' replacements, have quickly learned that Cap is all business, and he hasn't been particularly friendly towards them - perhaps wary of the things they'd done to warrant inclusion in a 'redeemer' program to begin with. Even as a temporary assignment, he doesn't want to be here…
Cap is just present because he feels an obligation to tie up loose ends left by the actions of his friend and fellow Avenger, Hawkeye. Cap sizes up the Redeemers - there's Meteorite, who projects a hard-air force field which he deflects into Beetle, a slow walking armored tank. Jolt is faster than thought, but not faster than reflexes, and Cap holds her off, only for Smuggler to melt out of the shadows while Charcoal extends his stony grip and grabs the Avenger tight. The others have to convince the latter to let Cap go, just as Fixer arrives and mentions that there's a call from Director Carter. He didn't even participate in the training, arguing he doesn't need it. These people are not his team, Cap muses, and they lack his commitment - even Jolt is embittered by her circumstances. Cap asks what Sharon Carter needs, and she manifests in front of the whole team as a hologram, explaining that a situation has come up and the Avengers can't get involved - and since it's a mess filed under 'dangling Thunderbolts business…' Cap realizes the implications immediately and while he thinks the team's not ready for this, he tells them to prepare the ship anyway and to move out…
There's then a brief interlude in which Roger Aubrey of V-Battalion calls up the information-handling mutant Bashur to mention that they need help. They fronted a 'Project: Earth' rescue operation into Latveria, but the acquisition never showed up! Bashur concludes that Roger wants Commcast to filter through the myriad signal transmissions dashing about the Balkans and find the status of his quarry - he knows who Roger is after, and what she means to him. Roger says he intended no disrespect, and that Bashur should relay what he learns to a SHIELD convoy currently en route to the scene - for that, Roger will owe him one. Bashur promises to help, but asks why the V-Battalion doesn't just head over themselves and blow up Latveria? Roger admits they're a little busy blowing up something else, and we're referred to 'Citizen V and the V-Battalion #1' for details - which was a very short-lived series of comics that I'm not going to dive into here.
The Redeemers, meanwhile, have piled into their ship, the Dove, and made their way towards eastern Europe. They receive an incoming call from an unidentified source which is providing information about their target's current position, presumably at Bashur's behest - and these signals indicate Dallas is in the heart of Doomstadt, Latveria's capital!
Fixer thinks this is a lot of trouble to go through for her - how did she even end up in this mess? Cap doesn't know, and unimportant for the moment. Jolt and Charcoal exchange a glance at that - they know that Dallas revealed herself as Citizen V, and was then snatched away by the Crimson Cowl - they thought maybe Dallas was the Cowl herself, but now things have been thrown into question, and she might have been framed… (This comic has a lot of convoluted lore simmering in the background, huh?)
Cap tells Fixer that he knows he has a past history with Dallas, since she was the New York City liaison to the Thunderbolts, but she's an innocent pawn in this situation! Fixer's not convinced, but Smuggler says that this rescue sounds good to most of them - they signed up to make good on the sins of their namesakes, so… Fixer argues Smuggler only signed up because his big brother Erik was a lummox and a thug - but Fixes himself was drafted, so he can take his sunshine attitude and shove it up his…! These remarks are cut short when the Dove suddenly runs headlong into an EMP blast, and as Captain America rushes to the pilot's side to help right the aircraft, the plane burrows itself into the earth. Seems the crash was pretty mild, though, as everyone survived and they're quickly sent out to recon to block potential follow-up attacks. Nearby, we see that Rebel has spotted the crash as well...
Back in Colorado, Abe and Mel are still looking for work, and the former decides to head into an electronics store where a guy previously insulted him, and he repairs some circuit boards to demonstrate his abilities. The owner explains that he needs on-site help since he runs a repair service, and with half the town getting stepped on by Atlas his men can't handle the load. He also apologizes for insulting Abe weeks ago - that was a dumb, rude thing to do. He regretted that ever since it happened. He then offers a pay of twenty-five bucks an hour plus overtime and freelance opportunities, and Abe readily accepts - see, Mel, the glass is half-full after all!
In LA, Karla Sofen is having an espresso and wonders how the others are doing - did Abe and Mel stay together? And how is… Clint… doing? Should she be calling him in prison? Writing to him? Would he even be allowed to have any sort of contact with her? It's then revealed that she's already noticed the orange-cloaked figure nearby and she quickly flips him off his feet, demanding to know if there's a reason he's been following her…? Under the cloak is an odd, pink alien who introduces himself as M'Reel, and he says he represents someone who can offer her a very important role - counseling a very important man! Karla is listening…
In Latveria, Charcoal takes two gunshots to the chest - apparently Rebel's firearm is heavily augmented, since it does a lot more than a regular six-shooter might. Smuggler tries to sneak up on a confused Rebel, who has just recognized Captain America among the invaders, but he gets blasted aside by the cowboy, only for Charcoal to blast him with heat in a rather confusing panel. The rest of the Redeemers team up against Rebel, with Scream screwing up his balance while Meteorite clobbers him out of the air. Rebel muses that he didn't sign up for this - he doesn't even want to be here, much less fighting Captain America and some junior-Avengers team!
Rebel's armor suddenly goes wild, growing spurs and weird growths - it turns out to be Fixer's doing, who noticed that the telemetry of his armor was very similar to Iron Man's but with much less shielding… Cap smashes into Rebel after that and demands to know how he gained access to Iron Man's equipment… which is when a voice from off-panel declares that Rebel was following his orders. 'Oh shit!' goes Meteorite in response, as the group turns to see who's there…
You know who it is. Doctor Doom finally arrives, three-quarters through the issue, to declare that to reclaim his lost love, Rebel has agreed to help him save the people of Latveria and to serve… DOOM! He dramatically reveals himself while balancing on a nearby tree-stump, so he can properly pull off a JoJo pose in the rain. Cap muses to himself that he had hoped to avoid a confrontation with the undisputed ruler of Latveria, as his squad is ill-prepared to confront such a threat… Charcoal just opens fire immediately, much to Cap's dismay, as he figured it was about time they hit the Big Time. His firebeam just passes straight through Doom, however, revealing him to just be a hologram. Fixer quickly determines it's being transmitted from beyond Earth's atmosphere!
Cap asks Doom what his game is, and Doom says this is no game - no, he's here because an eco-terrorist escaped from Planet Doom! When Cap wonders if he means Counter-Earth, Doom furiously insists on his own terminology - it's Planet Doom. Anyway, this eco-terrorist demands that he abdicate as ruler of his world, threatening to unleash a biological weapon and decimate life here in Latveria if he doesn't! Rebel was recruited to track down that terrorist, but he's been unable to do so. That's why Doom decided to make this matter a concern for Planet Earth! Jolt concludes that his solution was to blackmail the Avengers, or in this case the Redeemers, to help him out in return for releasing a certain Dallas Riordan. Isn't that right?
Doom, evidently rather surprised by Jolt's accurate conclusion, carefully states that blackmail is far beneath him… but politics is not.
He then gleefully mentions that the fact that Captain America is involved merely makes it more ironic… and more likely to be resolved in Doom's favor! Cap wonders why that would be, which is when an amused Doom notes that the terrorist should be familiar to him - as if recalling a long-forgotten dream. The insurgent terrorist band threatening them call themselves the Young Allies… and they're led by Cap's own former partner on Counter-Earth, a girl by the name of Bucky!
Meanwhile, thirty miles north of LA, Karla and M'Reel arrive at a large house on a cliff, the home of the 'First One'. Karla wonders if that's another extraterrestrial, but M'Reel states that he's not - and neither is M'Reel himself, really, since he's actually extradimensional. The First One, it turns out, is another name for the villain Graviton. He concludes Karla is surprised, curious, and afraid - and all three are appropriate reactions to this revelation. No, he tells her, she can't escape before he kills her… but really she should be asking what'd be in it for her if Graviton ruled the world? And the answer, of course, is easy - what does she want?
Thunderbolts #52 - The Pursuit of Justice
We open up about three seconds after Rebel, Cap, and a few of the Redeemers are surprised by an assault team of robot-drones… it's expected, the narrator notes, that Latveria's sovereign would protect his land… except these heroes are currently allied with Doctor Doom! Why would his robots be attacking them? Cap notes that either Doom betrayed them, which he doubts, or these machines were reprogrammed by someone! Beetle wonders if the 'kid', Bucky, is good enough to crack Doom's security net, just as she takes down a robot, and Rebel complains mid-battle that this 'kid' has become the biggest burr in Doom's butt! Meteorite muses that she's still weirded out by this 'Counter-Earth' place, and Rebel mutters that he feels the same about this Earth spinning on the opposite side of the sun. Cap just says that in this business, you get used to the weird stuff…
As the last of the robots go down, Cap tries to maintain a balanced calm, and starts recounting the storyline to himself - that the Redeemers' first mission was a search and rescue operation to locate former New York City political liaison Dallas Riordan - who was found on Latverian soil while wearing the costume of Citizen V! She served as point man for covert paramilitary operatives, the V-Battalion, who were fighting the Thunderbolts… but then she disappeared. Somehow she wound up in Latveria, in a wheelchair, a hostage in Doom's political machinations. When the Redeemers came looking, they were attacked by the armored cowboy Rebel who was reluctantly working for Doom. And now a simple mission has turned into a chess match, and the heroes are the pawns!
Not done with narrating the past, Cap then goes on to recap the creation of Counter-Earth, how he spent months there alongside the Avengers and Fantastic Four, and how when they returned home this Earth was placed into an opposite orbit to Earth, and Doom named himself its ruler! Many on the ravaged planet opposed Doom's rule, including a group of insurgents calling themselves the Young Allies, led by Cap's former partner, Bucky. One of the members, Kid Colt, used his Kymellian alien hybrid powers to open a portal and Bucky came to Earth alongside Toro the Man-Bull (seriously?) to threaten Latveria and force Doom's abdication with a biochemical gas weapon. Meteorite asks Cap whether he taught his sidekick this ecoterrorism stuff, and he admits he doesn't remember her… and he definitely doesn't condone her actions! Whether or not he blames himself is left a question…
On the other side of the mountain, Jolt, Fixer, Charcoal and Smuggler continue their search for Bucky after splitting off in between issues. Jolt thinks to herself that she got herself into a whole mess here - why couldn't she have been pardoned along with the rest of the Thunderbolts? She's an orphaned minor, so she ended up a ward of the state… and stuck on a team of misfits! She notes that Fixer is a jerk who would turn tail and run right now if he could, while Smuggler seems like a nice guy, but he's inexperienced and bitter, which is a bad combo. As for Charcoal…? She previously compared him to Oz from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but lately he's been acting more like the werewolf than Mr. Even Keel… why is she here? This team doesn't feel like the Thunderbolts did, like a family…
Jolt instructs Fixer and Smuggler to go downslope, and the former immediately complains about the bossy brat - Smuggler muses that she's good at it. Fixes replies that this might be true, but he's good at what he does too! He's got his scanners locked on a Kymellian energy residue! Fixer doesn't mention that it was Doom's technology which allowed him to trace the alien transport signature - his cocky arrogance is a facade, and he knows it. But does everyone else? How confident can you be after getting killed? He recalls how he woke up later in a bionutrient gel tank - his preprogrammed survival protocols alongside Baron Zemo's help allowed his body to regenerate until his brain functions could be reintegrated into a cybernetic wetware relay. And now…? Now he has to play 'hero', or his own tech-harness will shut down his neural net! He can fake it… maybe even learn to like it. His conscience ran the robot which saved Jolt's life, so somewhere inside him is the potential for fixing… his soul!
Jolt spots a fancy house on the Symkarian side of the river, and wonders if it's one of Silver Sable's bases. Charcoal tells her that Fixer is waving at them, and they quickly group up. Fixer explains that something is weird - he just picked up a second warp-saturated human signature. Jolt observes that Doom did mention Bucky didn't come alone. Smuggler decides they need to figure out the odds here, so he melts into the nearby shadows to get a better view. The moment he gets up into the trees, though, a gigantic landslide suddenly bears down on the team and threatens to bury them in an avalanche…
A world away, back in Burton Canyon, Colorado, in the shadow of the current HQ of the Redeemers, Abe and Mel are just getting started with the day - it's Abe's first day of work at the electronics store. Mel laments that they don't have much choice, now - they're not superheroes anymore, or even villains. They're just nothing. Abe tells her they're free - that's worth any tough times. He's sure she'll find a job today! Mel isn't so sure, but he gives her a kiss and tells her they'll meet back at her apartment around six. Mel, left by herself, wonders what she's going to do with the next nine hours? Apartment's a mess, so she could clean up, or she could sit on her butt eating Ben & Jerry's and watching soaps. She spots that a nearby department store is hiring, and wonders what she could do there? She walks past a jewelry display and muses that there's only one thing she's good at. As she walks away, a golden necklace is conspicuously absent from the display…
In Latveria, we see Rikki Barnes - Bucky - mention to her ally Benito Cerando - Toro - that he doesn't kid around! Toro hopes he didn't kill them with that landslide, and Bucky agrees that they're probably not dead. If they're any good, then a little avalanche isn't going to do them in! But Toro had no choice, since they needed to buy more time. Toro agrees with the necessity of the attack, but that doesn't mean he has to like it. Bucky hugs the huge man-bull and tells him he's like China in a bull shop! She notices that this whole mission is clearly really bugging Toro, and when she mentions this he wonders if it's the same for her. Bucky admits they're treading a moral quagmire here, but they discussed the ends justifying the means… but it still sucks they have to do this kind of stuff!
As Toro punches down a tree in anger, while a huge transparent floating brain wearing a gas-mask watches from above… That brain, it turns out, belongs to Ishmael Questor, the telepath known as IQ, who floats placidly in a tank somewhere in a warehouse in Planet Doom's Germany - he says nothing in response. He is a coldly logical tactician, but not very adept at handling true emotions. All he knows is that the plan, as morally conflicting as it might be, is a strategically sound one. He hopes that Rikki Barnes will break the uneasy silence. Bucky does, by stating that they'll do what they have to do. She then glances up and warns Toro to duck and throws herself to the ground just as a huge explosion goes off nearby.
It turns out Fixer, Charcoal, Jolt and Smuggler have arrived! Jolt tells the others to focus on keeping the enemy away from their equipment. Charcoal immediately calls dibs on Toro but Smuggler tells him that they're supposed to be a team as he tries to snag the big ox's legs. Charcoal says that he gets it already, then thanks Smuggler for his great set-up and punches the immobilized Toro in the face. Bucky, meanwhile, is aghast at realizing these heroes are working for Doom! Smuggler denies this - they're just trying to stop her from making a huge mistake. He then pauses mid-fight to compliment her on her vibranium soles, and Rikki wonders if these heroes are the Teen Titans or something. Jolt answers that they wish! She points out they're dragging an old bald guy around, they're not all teens! Fixer yells from off-panel that he heard that! Bucky immediately punts Fixer off a ravine, and he curses all the way down, or at least until Meteorite catches him.
The rest of the Redeemers have shown up, and Toro complains that this place just went Philly on them! Smuggler doesn't get it, and Bucky explains that it's slang from his Earth, you see - with the East Coast flooded, Philadelphia is a pretty crowded city now! She's saying all that while smashing into Rebel with her force-field shield, sending him into the rock-encrusted Charcoal. Beetle fires finger-lasers at Bucky, yelling they should just get her already - she's just a kid! She and Scream focus their beams on Toro who covers Bucky, and he yells at her to hurry up. Bucky agrees and thanks him for the assist - the missile-fire is nothing, but the sound from that pink thing really hurts! She quickly reaches her equipment and starts to assemble some device - this will only take a minute! Jolt tries to stop it, even as Scream shoots beams, and she says she can tell Bucky's not a bad person… Bucky just yells back that this isn't about bad or good!
Which is, of course, when Captain America's shield smacks her in the back, and her breath hitches in her throat. 'This is about right and wrong!' he adds. His mask is different than Bucky remembers, and he almost seems more in command if that's possible, but it's definitely him! She wants to hug him! Except - he's working for Doom? She wants to smack him! And the troubled girl with the weight of two worlds on her shoulders wonders if this world is just as screwed up as her own…
Over in Castle Doom, meanwhile, we see Dallas Riordan sitting in her wheelchair and looking out one of the windows on the people in Doomstadt below. She tells Doom, who's naturally fetched a throne so he can sit on a dais nearby, that he could be evacuating them. Doom agrees, but says that doing so would send the wrong message. His people should know that their liege has matters well in hand! 'Even though he doesn't?' Doom states that his people are safe. To what purpose should he alarm them over a threat that will never come to pass? Dallas wonders why, if he's so confident about stopping these terrorists, he would kidnap her to blackmail the Redeemers? Doom dismisses such harsh terms as 'kidnap' and 'blackmail' - he prefers politics, as he said before. Dallas concludes that if the Redeemers fail, and Doom's people die, then he'll have someone to blame - outsiders. And an excuse… to start a war between worlds! Doom admires Dallas' deductions, except that he will not allow his people to be harmed. An escalation of the threat alone will suffice to suit his needs…
Off the coast of Georgia, meanwhile, lies Seagate Prison - a special cellblock which houses superhuman prisoners. And one new prisoner in particular - Clint Barton, or Hawkeye! He's got a visitor, and other cellmates wonder if the Avengers have come to spring him. Nah, they're too embarrassed by him! They'll be waiting when he comes back… Clint muses to himself that his arrest wasn't public knowledge, so who could be here for him? It turns out to be Dum Dum Dugan, Agent of SHIELD, but right now he's on very unofficial business…
Back in Latveria, Toro and Bucky find themselves facing off against the entire roster of the Redeemers, and Cap tells them they should surrender their biochemical weapon. Bucky tells Toro that it's time to quit, and he agrees - then she does an acrobatic jump which neatly avoids all the various attacks thrown at her. It seems she's upgraded her outfit since the last time they met - her vibranium-photonic shield can dull the momentum of Cap's own shield, but since it doesn't have a cutting edge, he hopes she doesn't mind if she uses his! Sure enough she stops his shield dead in his tracks and then uses it to smash the gas canister, breaking the seals on it so it can easily be opened.
Rebel points his gun at her and yells at her to secure the lid, and Bucky wonders how Doom even got to him - word was that he was a solo outlaw! Rebel says everyone has a prince. Toro mutters that it was probably just a buck fifty, and in return Rebel shifts his aim towards Toro and figures that Bucky's price is probably just him. Toro looks over his shoulder at Bucky, and they both start laughing hysterically at this. Rebel opens fire, even as Cap yells in dismay… the bullet flattens itself against Toro's skull - that tickled! Charcoal mentions that he likes the style of these Young Allies, and Jolt agrees. So, time to switch sides? At the question, Jolt points out they're terrorists. Charcoal knows - still, wanna switch sides? Heh.
Cap yells at everyone to calm down for a minute. She tells Bucky that he can't pretend he remembers their time together - but he knows one thing. If they were partners, if she was his friend, then this is not what he would have taught her to do! Bucky snarls that he shouldn't dare to play 'holier than thou' with her! He abandoned her world - all the heroes did - without so much as one word telling them why! And what do you know, that's when the entire planet became a punching bag for cosmic forces! Earthquakes, floods, comet collisions, cities disappearing, cosmic houseguests… you freaking name it… everything's gone to hell in a handbasket… and only people like the Young Allies have tried to make things sane, while Doom's got the jones to keep it messed up, cause the only way for him to maintain control is to keep everyone desperate! They've tried to do things the way Cap taught her… but words don't inoculate or feed a starving child, actions do!
Bucky tosses Cap's shield back at him, then removes the cap from her gas canister, suffusing the air with green toxic fumes. After a few moments, though, the horrified heroes are a little confused - they don't feel dead. Cap concludes that the gas is inert. But that means...
Bucky snarls that she would never kill thousands of innocent people - she only wanted to make Doom think she would. By forcing her hand, Cap called her bluff - and Doom wins. Let freedom ring, right? Next time he wants to talk about fighting the good fight, Cap should take a lookin the mirror and ask himself when the last time he really had to make a hard choice was? While he's trying to remember one, the Young Allies have already made ten more! With that, both Toro and her disappear into a portal made by their ally on Counter-Earth and vanish. Charcoal mentions that he wants to go with them - would give them something cool to do! Jolt says that they won't right now…but maybe someday…? Fixer tells Cap that he played that one out real well, huh? They get Riordan back, Rebel gets whatever Doom promised him, but his little teen dream loses. Cap, grim-faced, picks up the discarded gas canister and says 'maybe not…'
In Doomstadt, an hour later, the Redeemers meet up with a hologram of Doom. The Latverian dictator compliments Cap on a job well done! Captain America corrects him, stating that it's a job half-done, since they only retrieved one canister of poison gas. Before she fled back to Counter-Earth - and here Doom once again insists on his own preferred name - Bucky claimed she had others buried throughout Latveria. She also said that if Doom doesn't make changes on her world, they would start detonating the hidden canisters. 'Changes?' Doom wonders. Cap says they include no longer withholding basic necessities such as food, shelter, or medicine as blackmail for civil obedience.
Doom scoffs at this obvious bluff on Bucky's part, and Cap agrees that it might have been such - he knows her better than Cap does… Question is, now that Doom has lost the ability to blame anyone but himself if Latveria is gassed, can he really afford calling that bluff? Doom muses to himself that she wouldn't. Rebel observes that it's not his country at risk, so it's no skin off his back - but looking around at how nice this place is shows him that Doom can take care of his people… so the question is, does he care about his power base more…?
As the Redeemers leave in a UN helicopter with Dallas Riordan on board, Charcoal wonders if Cap works by the adage of 'Do as I say, not as I do.' When he asks what he means, Jolt points out that he lied to Doom there, a tactic he generally disapproves of. Cap corrects him, saying he did something even worse than lying - he was playing politics, and making hard choices. As the helicopter flies off, the scowling face of Bucky is visible in the clouds behind them…
Rating & Comments
This is, at times, a headache to follow. Besides the somewhat confusing realization that the Thunderbolts comic book is not actually about the team in question, because they got themselves canceled shortly before this storyline, the two-parter I'm covering here is several different storylines loosely tied together by their vague association to the original team concept and filled with a lot of continuity references to events and characters that I'm pretty unfamiliar with. Rebel is not remotely the most confusing element here, as nonsensical as his appearance might be - there's entire narratives just taken for granted here like the backstory of several of the main characters. I never thought I'd appreciate a 'let's rehash everything in the first two pages' comic intro, but this feels like it could have used some more elaboration!
While this two-parter can barely be called a Doctor Doom story, since he doesn't physically show up at all, it does have a meaningful relation to his ongoing plot, his country, and several of the characters here are directly hired by him, most notably Rebel - plus he does call in on Skype. That said, Rebel doesn't actually do anything meaningful in this story - he's basically playing Doom's bounty hunter, but he seems pretty shitty at his job and ultimately gets his ass kicked by the heroes that he inexplicably decides to attack for no apparent reason. Seriously, I have no clue why he opens fire on the crashed plane full of heroes - it's not like he's on team Doom here, he's just being pressured to go along with things for… reasons. 'Reclaiming his lost love.' The comic never really explains what exactly Doom has over the cowboy, but I guess he did previously resurrect Rebel on the other Earth, so he might just have done that again (but with a wild west twist.)
Besides the central narrative following Cap and the Redeemers, there's several cutaways to stories that never get a resolution in these two issues - they're the various members of the former Thunderbolts trying to regain a normal life after their superpowered existence is cut off by court order, while their former mentor Hawkeye goes to jail. While Abe seems like he's doing alright, even getting himself a respectable job at a hardware store, Mel quickly slips into old thieving habits, and Karla straight up gets recruited by another supervillain… I did actually like these segments, so I suspect the actual Thunderbolts team is one I could appreciate, but they're not really the focus of this two-parter… we're stuck with the B-team. There's also a brief mention of the V-Battalion, but that doesn't really go anywhere.
The Redeemers are… a quarrelsome bunch, and a bit generic. We get some basics of characterization for them in this story, but without context behind each of them (outside their power sets) it's a bit hard to get a grip on their whole deal. I know that there's a whole strange resurrection story behind Fixer, for example, but the details escape me, and Jolt seems to have something similar going on - they're former Thunderbolts from what I understand, so that might be why they seem to have more depth than the others. Captain America is playing leader here, but he comes off as less than impressive - he doesn't really care for the team, it seems like, and he only becomes actually relevant when Bucky comes into play and there's something personal at stake for him. Sort of. At least they're pretty funny on occasion, which is appreciated. I especially like Fixer, the foulmouthed old guy who keeps getting his ass kicked for all his bravado.
I appreciate that Doctor Doom's arrival is treated with a certain dramatic gravitas here - he gets to do a pose, and the more excitable Redeemers basically see fighting Doom as their ticket to stardom, since he's in the big leagues of villainy. Cap immediately judges that his team of supers isn't up to the challenge, and it's fun to see the two of them face off again - Cap and Doom have a certain rapport compared to many other heroes, after all. The funniest element of this conversation, of course, is Doom's dogged insistence to name Counter-Earth after himself - every time Cap or someone else uses the old name, he immediately corrects them. Planet Doom! Also fun is that Doom corrects people who tell him they don't approve of him blackmailing folks to work for him - Doom just considers it a matter of politics instead. It seems both Cap and Dallas Riordan grasp that what Doom really wants here is plausible deniability - by having someone else do the job of protecting Latveria for him he can blame any failures on them instead of being personally responsible.
We get some actual plot updates too, as far as Doom is concerned - after returning to Planet Doom, he evidently got in a spot of trouble with the homegrown Young Allies superhero team… They have fallen on hard times, and are now using some terrible tactics to combat their nemesis, including biological weapons. Bucky Barnes, the Heroes Reborn version, is the face of this organization - and naturally she encounters her old ally Captain America, a version of her former mentor and friend who just suddenly departed the planet. Annoyingly, Cap contradicts Heroes Reborn: The Return and claims that he just straight up forgot everything that happened in Heroes Reborn, which hasn't previously been established - we know that Thor and Doom returned with their memories intact. This whole story would have been more impactful if Cap actually remembered everything, but instead we get Rikki ranting an entirely justifiable rebuke at a guy who really doesn't have any connection to the events she's talking about, not beyond that the two men involved wore the same costume. Really feels like they screwed themselves here when it comes to emotional resolutions…
A lot of these two issues are just dumb punch-punch fights, as usual, but I still appreciated Rikki's final speech because it taps into the same outrage that Lancer expressed when she first met Doom. She describes how the abandonment of Counter-Earth by the heroes was shortly followed by a series of disasters which ruined the planet, and people like Doom swept in to take advantage. From Bucky's perspective, at least, Doom has been keeping things desperate to maintain control - he's withholding necessities to coerce the locals into playing along with his regime, which naturally is a state of affairs she wants to fix. We'll see how accurate this is when we get to Doom: The Emperor Returns in the next publication year, which is where we'll next see the 'canon' Doom. In the end her threat of deploying a bioweapon was empty all along, and her attempt to corner Doom into a compromise fails, and she shames Cap for going along with Doom instead of making the hard choices.
The final twist, of course, is that Cap blatantly lies to Doom's holographic face and claims that the weapon was real, and more are buried around Latveria. He also delivers a fake threat on behalf of Bucky, and reminds Doom that he can't really blame someone else anymore if one of those goes off. It's a clever ploy, though I don't think Doom is convinced by the bluff, and it wouldn't take long for him to figure out that Bucky has no idea about any of this. I have no idea if Doom actually does anything about this in a later story, or if it's just entirely forgotten after this moment, but I'll keep an eye out. I'm also not sure how this was a 'hard choice' to make - Captain America does occasionally lie, so that's not that dramatic an event, is it? Even Cap seems to have converted to Doom's inclination to switch out blackmail with politics at the end there...
On the whole this two-parter was convoluted in its continuity connections, but mostly self-contained in its main plot. It contains more characters than it really knows how to handle and doesn't bother giving half of them anything to do, and kind of wastes the Cap and Bucky reunion before quickly moving on, but it's occasionally amusing and makes sense. Doom's segments are entertaining - naturally even holographic Doom had to give himself a holographic throne to sit on - but woefully brief, and I have no idea why Rebel was even here. Maybe if I was well-versed in Thunderbolts lore this would be more interesting, but this didn't really entice me to seek out more Redeemers. How long did they last, anyway? Four more issues? Yeah, that checks out… I'll give these issues an anemic three stars… it's middle-of-the-road stuff, even if it's with characters I don't really care about, and I did appreciate some more instances of people dressing down the heroes for the Counter-Earth crap.
Best Panel(s) of the Issues
Dramatic poses for the win!
Most Gloriously Villainous Doom Quotes
"I mean Planet Doom."
"Blackmail is beneath me, child. Politics is not."
Dallas: "You could be evacuating them."
Doom: "I could, but that would send the wrong message. My people should know their liege has matters well in hand."
Dallas: "Even though he doesn't?"
Doom: "My people are safe. To what purpose alarm them over a threat that will never come to pass?"
"Kidnap? Blackmail? Harsh terms. I prefer... politics."
Doom-Tech of the Week
Doom transmits a hologram from Counter-Earth which shows up on the regular version in real-time, which implies some kind of Superluminal Hologram technology at work or the delay would have been very noticeable...
A/N:
In case you're wondering - no, this isn't actually the first issue with Doom of 2001. It is, however, the only 'true' chapter of Doom's story of this publication year which continues his timeline, so I figured handling this early makes sense. You'd think that means 2001 was a calm year for the character, but that's hardly the case - this is the year when two separate Fantastic Four-centric mini/maxi-series came out featuring Doom as their central villain, but neither of them fit neatly within the timeline. One of those is a four-parter in the Marvel Knights imprint which is confusing and dark and gorgeous, while the other is a solid twelve issues long meandering clusterfuck of a continuity insert, which essentially retcons into existence a major Secret Wars-style event into the 1970s... with Doom as the main bad guy!
I like how planet Doom isn't just forgotten about, and Doom is clearly depicted as ruling on both worlds, though I'm sure it's not easy for him to be away from either Latveria for such a long time
Counter-Earth is such a mess though. I really don't think the writers had a clear vision of what it should be like or the full picture of what was happening there. Also, it's so out of character that the heroes never once looked back on the world they abandonded
210: Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Comics Magazine #1-2 - The Baxter Building Besieged / The Sinister Secret of the Sentry!
Fantastic Four - World's Greatest Comics #1-2 (February-March 2001)
Introduction
We're covering the year 2001 - and that means it's anniversary time. The first issue of Fantastic Four was printed with a cover date of November 1961, which means that in 2001 their debut was exactly 40 years in the past! (Give or take a few months.) Technically Doom debuted in 1962, but we'll ignore that and just shove him in here too! In honor of this anniversary, Marvel decided on something a little more elaborate than a super-sized issue or a big two-parter… instead they published a maxi-series like Secret Wars! Twelve whole issues of the Fantastic Four which take place in the past! To accompany its nature as a retconned tale, the entire series is drawn in the style of the classic comics as well - everything here is clearly inspired by (and often copied from) Jack Kirby during his original tenure on the Fantastic Four.
Given that Doctor Doom is one of the team's first and most enduring nemeses, he's featured prominently throughout this series, which is a bit of a 'greatest hits of the Fantastic Four' parade with lots of other Silver Age characters making appearances, both famed and not so much. Notably, in terms of timeline, this entire series takes place directly after the events of Fantastic Four v1 #100, another anniversary issue in which the team combats a vast number of android versions of their foes (including a robot Doom who makes a cameo) sent by the Puppet Master and the Mad Thinker. For the purposes of this thread, it takes place a little while after the FF clashed with Doom in #84-87, that time he forced them to be prisoners in Latveria for a while. That's the story with the Invincible Robots where the original Hauptmann met his unfortunate end after he endangered Doom's cultural treasures with fire, if you recall. That story ended with a bit of a stalemate, and Doom let the FF leave…
Cover
They're not being subtle with their branding here, are they? 'World's Greatest Comics Magazine' has been a header that the Fantastic Four comics proudly display above the actual title of the book, but here it takes center stage - which makes it a little annoying to search for, but whatever. Actually, curiously enough, the original headline is just singular 'comic' magazine, but they added an s here for some reason? At any rate, the covers are in the traditional style (or an approximation of it) but they're otherwise unexciting - generic shots of the team rushing off to a battle, one of which contains a big robot grabbing Namor for some reason. Curiously there is no sign of Crystal, the Inhuman who was on the team during this period...
Story Overview
WGCM #1 - The Baxter Building Besieged!
We open with the Fantastic Four returning to the United States following their time in the Inhumans' home of the Hidden Land - at this time Johnny's then-girlfriend Crystal was still on the team alongside the usual cast. When they arrive they are greeted by members of the military and the press, and Johnny tells the others to smile for the camera, even as Sue concludes someone must have alerted the press of their arrival. Ben tries to keep the paparazzis back, telling them to get out of the way before he bounces them clean back to Yancy Street! Johnny wonders if the pressures of fame are too much for the ever-lovin' blue-eyed idol of millions?
Although it is a warm welcome, a gunshot suddenly rings out and impacts the plane they just left - everyone scatters in a panic while the heroes look for the culprit - there's nobody in sight, so the shooter must have blended in with the crowd! Ben declares that he'll blend in with the pavement once he's through with him! Sue creates a force-field to cover the group in case of more shots while Ben literally picks up some of the military vehicles to see if anyone's hiding underneath, much to the consternation of the soldiers driving them. Johnny lights up and flies overhead, but he can't make out anything in the commotion. Even as they continue in their search, though, a hidden device observes the heroes' every action - and if you had any question who sent it, it's hot-pink!
According to plan, another miniature mechanical menace buzzes through the darkening sky towards the Fantastic Four's current home and base - the Baxter Building! Within instants the drone darts through an air vent and into the headquarters of the superteam, and its tiny circuits whir and click as every inch of the base is researched and recorded by the strange device and automatically transmitted to its secret point of origin. As it passes through, we see an array of rocket-planes and other vehicles and strange machines pass by. Suddenly computerized anti-espionage mechanisms activate and isolate the small-scale spy - a laser-gun unfolds from the wall and fires once, disintegrating the drone entirely. Only time will tell, however, if the automated defenses have acted in time…
A short time later Reed returns to his lab to focus his attention on weeks of neglected research and analysis, casually flicking buttons behind him on the wall with his super-stretchy arms. He thinks to himself that he doesn't dare upset the others with this, but he fears that all the time they spent away from the Baxter Building recently have made them more vulnerable to attack. These next few tests will confirm his suspicions, or…! He's interrupted by the arrival of his wife Sue, who's come to bring him dinner. She cautions Reed that he's been working non-stop since they return, and he should take a break and eat something. Reed acknowledges her but says he can't slow down now - this shouldn't take long, but he has to finish his work before he'll even consider anything else! He then gasps, declaring that 'It's gone! But that's impossible!' Turns out that Sue used her powers to surreptitiously turn his computer invisible! Is it really impossible, she asks, or did Reed's involvement with his gadgets somehow make him forget his wife is the Invisible Girl? Reed says that of course he didn't forget - but he always does routine checks on all their instruments and weapons, and he guesses… he just got carried away!
That's the moment Johnny and Ben arrive, with the former yelling to his sister that an irascible orange-skinned orangutan is coming through! Ben tries to smack Johnny out of the air with a bent lamp he got from somewhere, but Sue intervenes with her force-field and tosses both onto the floor, calling them out with their full names. He really thought they'd grown out of this behavior, can't they see Reed is in the middle of something important? Ben complains that Johnny asked for it - that flame-brained brother of hers was blaming him for letting the sniper at the airport get away!
Reed tells Ben to calm down already - he understands that he and Johnny need to blow off steam once in a while, but Sue's right - he can't work with these continued distractions! Ben wonders if he's afraid they'll work up whatever new device he cooked up to help change little Franklin's diapers? Sue gets fed up and tosses the both of them out of the room with her force-fields while Reed returns to his work - to try and figure out who sent this surveillance drone that he found strews across his labs…
Even as Reed ponders this perilous puzzle, we turn our attention to a secluded location in upstate New York, where a team of technicians work feverishly to prepare for a fearful new mission… We see a red-clad man ordering several classic purple-pink Servo-Guards around, telling them to hurry and refuel several advanced airplanes - everything has to be as the Master instructed, there's not a moment to spare!
The next panel has one of the robots state that they should take place on board the planes, as the time has come to report to the Master! I suspect that was intended as more dialogue from Red Guy, who is the one to actually report. He salutes 'His Excellency' and says all is in readiness.
'Of course it is!' states the man of the hour. 'For such is the will of his mighty sovereign! Such is the will of Doctor Doom!' It turns out we're just outside Doom's original New York castle in the Adirondack Mountains. Now, after months of careful preparation, it is time for him to claim the victory denied to him so often in the past! The triumph he should have tasted when last he held the accursed Fantastic Four in his grasp! And lesser powers though they may be, only a fool would fail to heed the lessons wrought from even the narrowest of defeats! Only the most misguided miscreants would deny the potential for shaping future glories from past mistakes!
He states that his minions have their orders - see to it that they are met! They should leave Doom to further ponder what lies ahead… Doom then strides off, leaving the Servo-Guards to their assigned tasks. As Doom enters his castle and traverses its many staircases towards his labs, he monologues to himself that it's been a long time since he's made his home on foreign soil - but this old base has served him well during past endeavors. After that last unholy conflagration, he refuses to see his beloved Latveria scarred anew by those he hates most, for only out of his regard for the welfare of his loyal subjects did he spare the Fantastic Four when they last met. This time, he shall harbor no such concerns! The time has come for Reed Richards to suffer for the multitude of indignities he has inflicted upon Doom, for plundering a plenitude of his incomparable scientific creations! The time has come for the Fantastic Four to pay!
Meanwhile, back in New York, the whole team gathers in the garage - apparently Reed called everyone there, but he's the one that's last to arrive! Reed apologizes but says he had something to attend to. Now, though, they're off to visit Franklin upstate! Sue thinks that's wonderful, but wonders why he didn't say anything - she could have called ahead to let Agatha Harkness know they're coming! Reed claims that it would be a better surprise this way, and they all pile into the Fantasticar. Next stop: Whisper Hill! Once the ship is safely in the air, however, it almost immediately attracts attention of the most unwanted and hot-pink kind!
Crystal compliments the team on their airship - even after traveling in inhuman-made crafts, she can't get over how amazing the Fantasticar is! It only took a few seconds before they put the city behind them! Johnny tells her that as the fifth team member, she should know that everything from amazing to unusual is their speciality! Speaking of which, wait 'til she gets a load of Whisper Hill! He thinks bashful Benjy, to name but one, would attest that unusual doesn't even begin to describe the place! Suddenly the Fantasticar gets smashed by an energy blast, and it's promptly ripped in half, sending everyone flying - Reed yells as much, and Ben wonders if he thought everyone else would have missed that!?
Even as the confounded heroes plummet towards the ground below, however, another fateful incident is transpiring back in New York City - a strange cylindrical aircraft descends upon the Baxter Building and from within the mysterious vessel legions of savage Servo-Guards emerge onto the roof! In a matter of moments they start wreaking havoc, and the home of the Fantastic Four is thrown into chaos as they rip into the place. As though possessed of a single mind these unfeeling robots lunge forth and unleash brutal destruction in their wake, viciously destroying all they come across. Shortly after that a second ship descends onto the skyscraper, and this one carries with it a quarter of Doom's most loyal emissaries, who are characters from the Enclave, a fairly obscure group of renegade scientists who made their debut in Fantastic Four v1 #66. Naturally, they're all clad in light pink pants and purple-pink vests with blue outlines, because Doom's got a theme going. They have their orders, and they're here to carry them out - all of Richards' hardware must be accounted for!
Meanwhile, in the air above a wooden glen several miles outside the city, Sue uses Reed's stretchy body as a parachute to descend slowly, while Johnny catches Crystal in mid-air. Ben has no such help and plummets like the proverbial rock, declaring this is all a revoltin' development, and in another couple seconds his whole hide is going to be covering the countryside! At the last moment, however, he is caught by one of Sue's force-fields which acts like a cushion and keeps him from becoming an orange omelet.
As everyone gathers together on the ground, thankfully in one piece after their harrowing fall, Reed tells Johnny to scout ahead to see what they're up against. Ben complains that Johnny gets to fly out of earshot, while he's stuck here listening to Reed! Crystal asks how he can talk like that - there's something terrible behind this, and Reed is just trying to get to the bottom of it! Ben thinks it's no big deal - they're in danger again? They should just point him at the jokers trying something this time, and he'll blast them back where they came from! Reed says it's not that easy - whoever is behind this is actively toying with them from afar, and they probably haven't heard the last of them.
Reed then confesses he's not all that surprised by this - see, he was analyzing some debris caught in their security systems earlier and noticed that a highly advanced spy device was among the refuse! Reed concludes that Reed's saying someone was watching them - so what gives? Reed's usually not the type to hold out on them when someone's looking to clobber them… Reed again says it's not that simple, since he wasn't certain they were under threat of attack until now! Ben wonders what gave it away, and Reed tells him this is serious - if Reed is correct in assuming who's behind this, they need to return to the Baxter Building immediately!
Speaking of the Fantastic Four's HQ, we see the emissaries of Doom order around a legion of Servo-Guards packing away every advanced piece of equipment in the building into a fleet of airships. The Master should be pleased - they've retrieved all of his stolen inventions, even his Time Machine! If the Fantastic Four survived the earlier attack they'll return to their fabled headquarters to find a smoldering disaster area instead! They must leave at once, but… One of the emissaries, the one with a beard, turns to another with glasses and asks if the last of the Master's instructions were carried out. Glasses agrees that all was done as ordered - the Fantastic Four will find more than a charred wreck when they return! He's arranged a special surprise for them, one that will demand their immediate attention! WIth that they get on their ships and depart…
At that same instant, many miles away, the Fantastic Four are taking the train back to the city after their ride was destroyed. Crystal is distraught, wondering if this is the way things will always be? Separated one moment, and then plunged into one danger after another the next? Sue agrees that she wonders when this will ever stop - will they ever be able to simply relax and spend time with their son? Reed assures her everything will be alright, they just need to get through this together! Ben thinks to himself that the others all long for a normal life, but how normal can things ever be for someone who looks like him? Bah, he complains, they should hurry up and show him who to clobber. After all, he's not good for anything else! He snarls at some of the civilians staring at the superheroes on their daily commute, asking if they never saw anyone this blasted ugly before?!
Johnny wonders what got into Ben, and Reed's not sure, but his mood is deteriorating fairly rapidly. To himself, he muses that they've been so busy averting one crisis after another that he's been too distracted to look for a cure for Ben's condition. Once they deal with this new danger, he must once again dedicate himself to fulfilling his promise to Ben, to find a way to change him back to normal! Ben yells out in surprise when he sees the Baxter Building - it's smoking! It's as Reed feared - their home has fallen prey to an attack in their absence! Johnny flies up and agrees that he's not wrong, as the place has practically been demolished! As they all arrive on the roof (somehow) Reed is horrified - it's worse than he could have imagined! He's speechless! ('Well, there's a first!' opines Ben.)
As the team makes their way through their ransacked base, Sue wonders who could have done this? Reed admits it's hard to say, since they have so many foes… Ben figures maybe old Willie Lumpkin got tired of hauling all his fan mail around and decided to finally get even. Johnny is not so sure. Suddenly spots something in the ruins. There, a human figure emerges carrying an enormous chunk of destroyed technology over his head. He announces that he was programmed to await the team's arrival - now that they're here, the time has come to do what he was created for! Ben recognizes the robot as the Super-Android which he encountered back in Fantastic Four v1 #79, one of the Mad Thinker's creations known as Android-Man! Hell of a deep cut there… Reed brought its lifeless form back to the laboratory for analysis, but it seems someone brought him back online…
Quite out of nowhere Reed tells Crystal that she's done good work, but she'd better let him take over from here! I'm not sure what she even did, but whatever. Presumably she dealt with the huge machine somehow, as it's gone in the next panel. As Reed stretches towards the foe, Android-Man declares that he's a fool, for his pathetic pliable form forms no defense against the Thinker's greatest creation! The robot spins his arms around very quickly and manages to knock Ben back, while Reed tells him that he's a challenge, that's for sure… but he's no deadlier than the dozens of foes they've faced in the past! Reed flings the robot at Johnny who comes in firing on all cylinders and declares that this crummy android will be burnt to a crisp when he's through with him! Unfortunately his skin is fireproof, but the attack is stil weakening him, so he keeps going.
Reed says Johnny did well, they've got him on the ropes now! It's up to Sue now to try and contain him with her force-field! Sue says she can do better than that - she can create a force-field inside him, and let it gradually expand until… an explosion from the pressure! Sure enough the android's neck and head start swelling grotesquely before he violently bursts into a ball of fire. Reed compliments his wife on her excellent control over her abilities - they get more impressive all the time!
Nearby Ben gets up from getting knocked over, and he wonders what happened to the baddie he was tangling with. Did Stretcho yak him to death or something? Johnny tells him not to worry about him anymore! Still, what if the Thinker has more androids waiting in the wings? Crystal doesn't even want to think about that… Reed admits that it would be logical to assume that the Thinker is the one responsible for all this. In fact, had someone been watching them for a protracted length of time, that's exactly what they would have wanted them to think! Ben wonders why anyone would go through all this trouble, and Reed thinks it's to keep them off guard, so they don't suspect what's really going on until it's too late.
Sue begs Reed not to say it - for if what he fears is true, they'll never see Franklin! He assures her they will see their son again, but visiting Whisper Hill is too great a risk right now. Every move they make is clearly being observed with the utmost scrutiny… Ben wonders if Reed thinks someone else besides the Mad Thinker is behind this, and a furious panel-filling fat head of Reed says that it's just a guess… but if he's right, then they could be up against the greatest threat they've ever faced!
Next… the Sub-Mariner!
WGCM #2 - The Sinister Secret of the Sentry!
Despite the ominous ending of the last issue, we start… aisle seven in a grocery store? Johnny, Crystal and Ben have gone out to stock up on food and other essentials because that Android-Man from last issue wrecked the entire place, including the kitchen! What does it even take to feed a guy the size of the Thing? Johnny recounts that according to Reed someone let the Tinker's android loose to ambush the team when they got back, and that he suspects some of their equipment was actually stolen rather than destroyed. Ben isn't interested in that - Reed always has things to say! He's just hungry. He goes to a huge pile of red apples nearby and while the others tell him they can just get a whole bag, he wants a specific one from the pile. When he successfully removes it without going Jenga on the stack the others are surprised… upon which the entire pyramid immediately collapses on the big lug. Cue laugh track.
Johnny and Crystal laugh at poor Ben for his predicament, poking fun at his antics, but they're interrupted by the arrival of a store employee - rather than complain about the damage they're doing to the store, though, he's there to point out that a Fantasti-Flare has appeared in the sky outside - the classic '4' to call them to gather. Ben concludes Reed must be calling them and tells the employee to put their purchases on their tab, since they've got to save the world again! 'The apples as well…?' he asks, and Johnny quickly agrees that he should add them too - Ben already made most of them into pie filling! Crystal is more worried about the signal - could the threat that Reed's been anticipating have arrived? Johnny hopes that he just needs help opening a ketchup bottle, but they're never that lucky…
The Fantastic Four (five?) quickly gather in the Baxter Building, in a laboratory that seems to have survived the looting relatively well. Ben asks what's up - did he get a line on the creep who busted his Sinatra records? Reed says that he believes so, as he cobbled together a device from the scant materials left intact by the mysterious vandals - he's been working non-stop since time was a factor here. The android doppelgangers they encountered in Fantastic Four v1 #100 (which chronologically takes place just before this series) were made from the Puppet Master's radioactive clay, and he can trace their unique energy signature. Using that he pinpointed the location of the Mad Thinker's lair, his current main suspect, to a location in the New Jersey pine barrens. They'll leave immediately, but Crystal should remain behind to monitor things from here, since there might be more going on than he expects. Ben figures she can unpack the groceries too, and make sure his Nutty Buddies get in the freezer right away…
The core Fantastic Four set out, with Reed warning the others that they should be careful - he's not one for unfounded theories, but his intuition tells him this mission is far from a simple reconnaissance job! Ben figures Reed's got the 'wim-wams' but Johnny and Sue point out that even if nobody's home the Thinker's pad could still be dangerous, and there's always the possibility that the latest attack was not his work at all… 'Boy, ain't we the sunshiney bunch this mornin'!' Ben complains.
Meanwhile, at a remote castle in upstate New York, several of Doom's minions - regretfully in red instead of hot pink - move some of the looted machines from the Baxter Building through the halls and wonder at the purpose of the mechanisms. It's not their place to wonder, though, only to serve! Doom wishes the devices in place as soon as possible, secured solidly and connected to an adequate power source. Many of the materials are unstable, so one mistake could mean disaster! Should they survive all that, the slightest error might bring upon them the wrath of the Master… Another man wonders how they can work efficiently under such pressure? Under the shadow of death? The Master expects too much of them!
'Is that so, lackey?' Doom asks as he suddenly appears from out of nowhere, much to the consternation of his underlings. Flanked by a Servo-Guard, Doom snarls that someone as insignificant as this lackey could not possibly offer Victor von Doom offense - his words are less to him than the chirrupting of insects! But if he fails to ready the machines stolen from him by that preening Richards, he will envy those same insects! However, if there were one misstep, one single miscalculation, all his dark designs for the accursed Fantastic Four could fall asunder! And then his scorn would fall upon their heads like a steel rain!
Leaving his quivering minions behind, Doom makes his way to another chamber in his vast laboratory, where a technician is looking over a large prone robot. He inquires how far along the restoration of the Sentry is, and he's informed they're exceeding his expectations - a few minor adjustments were all that was needed to allow the robotic terror to repair itself! By his projections it is nearly one hundred percent operational - it's an amazing creation obviously built by intellects far greater than their own! Doom scoffs and tells his thrall to speak for himself - Doom bows to no intellect, alien or otherwise! This Sentry is actually a pretty niche reference - it's a creation of the alien Kree race and previously appeared in Fantastic Four v1 #98, so I think it's mostly here to keep the sense of continuity with that era of comics going.
The Fantastic Four, meanwhile, have taken one of their flying motorcycles to the location of the Thinker's lair in New Jersey, with Johnny scouting ahead by flying on his own. As they arrive, however, they're stunned to realize that the entire base lies in ruins - looks like some of his kooky gizmos went boom! As they look around, Reed decides that this only serves to convince him that the attack on the Baxter Building had nothing to do with the Mad Thinker's plans - there's another mind at work here! Sue asks that if it's not the Puppet Master or the Mad Thinker who destroyed their home, who else could it be? Ben points out that if she's got a free month, he could write her a list of all their favorite enemies…
The truth is far more sinister than any of the fabulous foursome can suspect, of course! We cut back to Doom's castle, to see some of his minions operate an elaborate control center for the Sentry android. A large monitor displays the robot as it marches… underwater? Sure enough, in the span of less than an hour Doom has deployed the machine to the crushing depths of the ocean, where it operates superbly anyway because of its rugged extraterrestrial systems. He's sent it towards Atlantis, the home of his one-time ally Namor the Sub-Mariner, which shall prove a worthy test of this alien war machine!
Several Atlanteans see the machine coming and run off, scared of what new enemy strikes at them now? Who will protect them when Atlantis's mightiest warriors fall before this monster like children? Doom, overhearing this from afar, muses that Atlantis's mightiest warrior hasn't even shown up yet… Sure enough, some guards rush off to warn Namor of the attack, and he's quick to blame the surface dwellers for the assault, for who else possesses such gall? They shall pay for this treachery at the hands of the Avenging Son! Too many times has he raised his people's hopes only to see them dashed by air-breathers - Namor says no more!
Namor rushes out to meet the Sentry but it starts blasting apart whole buildings and knocking Namor back, proving itself to be a formidable foe. But none may stand before Namor's power - he throws himself with full force against the robot, shouting that the witless being now treads where he rules supreme, and where his power is unmatched! The boasting proves premature, as his attacks barely even scratch the surface of the Sentry, and it just wanders away from the fight. Namor decides to follow it to learn who its master is, unaware that he himself is being followed in turn… Namor chases the robot until it makes landfall and crawls out of the sea, which Namor takes as confirmation that land-dwellers made it, and once again Atlantis became victim of the broken promises of those who live above the waves!
The robot tosses a large rock from the waterside at Namor, who easily dodges it while declaring that even above his beloved ocean waters he is unvanquished, and hie foe will be destroyed! A nearby cruise ship, the Ocean Queen, nearly gets hit by the boulder that Namor avoided and the people on board recognize in shock that 'that Sub-Mareener guy' is having a fight nearby. They quickly send out a distress call asking for assistance due to the super-powered brawl putting them in danger…
The Fantastic Four, having finished their unsuccessful hunt for their enemy at the Thinker's former lair, are headed back home when they're contacted by Crystal. She explains that there's an urgent situation they should know about - the Sub-Mariner has been spotted battling a giant robot on the shores of Bermuda and there are innocent people in danger! Sue worries about what Namor is facing, and Reed decides this calls for a change in plans. They're going to Bermuda, and without their swim shorts! Reed calls out directions to change course while Ben wonders what old fishface is up to now…
Namor, meanwhile, is still fighting for his life, and he demands that the robot yield - yield he says! Unfortunately his punches don't seem too effective here, and the Sentry grabs him by a leg and tosses him skywards with its incredible strength until he smashes with thunderous force into a nearby mountainside, triggering an avalanche which buries the Avenging Son beneath tons of rock. The Sentry then just moves on, but finds itself suddenly surrounded by flames - Johnny has arrived, and the other three members of the Fantastic Four are close behind him on their flying bike. Johnny recognizes the Sentry as a Kree creation they've faced before, which makes Ben worry that the aliens in question are back.
The hothead rushes in a little too eagerly to do battle and the robot raises its hand and lets loose a hurricane blast of air which snuffs out his flames and sends him hurtling to the ground. Ben, furious at Johnny getting hurt, rushes over to declare that's his job! He smashes into the Sentry but it manages to absorb the impact of his blows and grabs Ben in turn, punching him right back. Reed calls out that the Kree designed the Sentry to withstand greater force than they can bring to bear, but if he can restrain it… Suddenly he realizes that Namor hasn't been seen anywhere, despite the claim that he was fighting this robot, and he spots one of the Atlantean's winged feet sticking out from a pile of rocks and realizes what happened.
Reed calls on Sue to free Namor while he tries to entangle the robot with his stretchy body. Unfortunately the strain is too great and Reed begins to lose his resiliency as it tries to rip itself free. Sue runs over to the rockslide and concludes that this much weight piled on top of him could crush the life out of even someone of Namor's strength - she has to release him! But even if she does, will he be in any condition to aid them? And can she stand alone against the Sentry if it so easily defeated Reed and the others…?
Meanwhile, back in Atlantis, Lord Vashti commands some of his soldiers to clear the rubble from the earlier attack so he can get to the royal chambers. The palace was only slightly damaged by the Sentry's assault, but the fact that it happened at all is still a concern - this attack was so sudden! The perpetrator departed suspiciously swiftly too with Namor in pursuit, so perhaps this was a diversion, or a trap? Vashti enters the palace and beholds a distinctly empty dais there… He realizes that it's just as he feared - this act of aggression was carried out to conceal a greater evil! While everyone was focused on the assault, something entrusted to the palace's protection was stolen! Woe be to Atlantis!
Sue uses her invisible force-fields to reach underneath the rockslide to expand the space there and remove the burden from Namor. She manages to do so, and Namor himself quickly starts helping by violently punching the rocks above him to pieces and shouting: 'I live!' What's more, he's free! No force on earth or beneath the waters may long confine him, he declares - his thirst for vengeance is too great! This day will be the last for this cursed mechanism which presumed to vanquish him, this he swears! Sue, meanwhile, muses that she was worried for Namor, but she'd almost forgotten he's one of the few beings on the planet who could battle the Thing to a standstill… She asks him if he's alright, and Namor answers that she should save her concern for her husband and comrades! Namor enters the fray again, and this madness ends now!
As the Sub-Mariner heads back to the fight, the rest of the Fantastic Four rally. Johnny melts the ground beneath the robot's feet to try and topple it while Reed tries to keep hold of it - it's taking all of his will! Only a few more seconds and… right then Namor flies in and declares he's at their side, bashing into the Sentry's back and successfully sending it sprawling. 'Well, look what the tide washed up!' Ben observes. Reed sees that the machine is wavering now - Namor must have damaged it! The Sub-Mariner promises he'll do far more than that, just as Ben comes running in, announcing that Namor should save a little for him, as he's been saving up his best wallop! Ben knocks the robot off its feet again and towards Reed, who uses his stretchy body to slingshot it back towards Namor and Ben, who are both ready and waiting with double knockout blows. With cries of 'Imperius Rex!' and 'It's Clobberin' Time' synchronized, the two finish the robot once and for all.
With a blast that makes the earth shudder, the Sentry is driven into the ground. Reed quickly rushes over to make sure it's down for the count, though Ben thinks he just wants first dibs on the souvenirs. The robot's circuitry is ruined by the attacks, Reed determines, and its memory cells fused. He's not happy about that - they'll never learn who sent the thing now! To clarify things, Namor describes how it suddenly appeared and attacked Atlantis with no cause, then just as abruptly came to this island! It's a mystery…
Lord Vashti and a bunch of other Atlanteans in reverse diving suits suddenly pop out of the ocean to bring dire news to their liege. While all this was going on, Namor's trumpet was stolen! It's the most precious of all Atlantean relics, and it's now in unknown hands! Namor wonders if he's been played like a fool, and Reed suspects they've all been - this is no isolated event. Whoever sacked the Baxter Building and made off with Reed's inventions, and the person who stole the Atlantean trumpet, they may be one and the same! And unless they discover who that is, he's afraid the worst still lies ahead!
Next… the thrills continue! Enter the X-Men!
Rating & Comments
This is a real blast from the past, in both positive and negative ways - it sets out to be a 'lost' story from the early days of the silver age of comics - portrayed as a sort of 'what if' story where Stan Lee and Jack Kirby didn't suddenly part ways and instead wrote one more epic. As a result, the writing sensibilities and the art are both very much old-school, with the characterizations of the various characters much more in line with their earlier portrayals than anything more recent. While the art is a bit inconsistent, the writing does get pretty close, even if it sometimes feels like the writers were trying a little too hard on fitting more and more Johnny and Ben squabbling in there. Which, to be fair, was a constant nuisance back in the day too…
While most of the throwbacks are obvious - the art style, the verbosity of the characters, the hot pink Doomtech - there's some self-awareness scattered in there too; while Crystal gets summarily ditched from the story at one point with a 'you go unpack our groceries' excuse straight out of the most sexist days of the 60's, Sue gets to do more with her powers than she tended to at the time, and delivers more straight-up backtalk to Reed than she'd probably have gotten away with. For the most part, though, these are obvious nostalgia-bait issues stuffed to the gill with obvious and obscure references, and honestly an admirable degree of attention to detail - the base of the Mad Thinker is in ruins, for example, because that was shown happening off-panel in Fantastic Four v1 #100, the supposed previous issue to this one.
As far as Doctor Doom goes, this is honestly one of his more competent and large-scale plots from his early days - he tended to be more of a solo threat while outside his nation of Latveria back then, so having him show up with a fleet of airships to basically raid the Baxter Building and steal everything is pretty unusual. The implication from his dialogue is that he's actually stealing his stuff back - and we know that Reed did make a habit of stealing Doom's stuff when things got started, since that's how he first got his hands on Doom's original time machine, the one from his debut. The castle from that debut also features prominently here as his temporary American base, which is honestly pretty neat. Pay homage to the original comics without disavowing all the Latveria stuff that came later. I suspect Doom packed up more than just the things he lost to Reed over time, though, given the sheer volume his minions took and how indiscriminate they were about it…
This is not the first time that Doom has played the hidden hand behind the scenes manipulating events, but it is a little unbelievable that Reed Richards wouldn't conclude, from the fact that someone stole all his tech and left an android around, that Doom is maybe a good suspect here. The comic keeps harping on 'facing the greatest threat they've ever known' or some variant of that, but it feels like Reed is just artificially dumbed down here compared to his actual character from this era, who tended to come to correct conclusions from basically no facts. I guess the justification is that this series is twelve issues long, so they can't have the mastermind be found out in the first couple comics - we first have to justify including a whole lot more ancillary villains! I do like how competent Doom comes across, though, in manipulating the FF and Namor so easily and getting his hands on not just Reed's tech, but also the legendary horn of Atlantis! (Doom toots as he pleases!)
The constant distractions are honestly the main downside of these issues, too - these issues feel very much like they're just there to pad out plot beats, including events because they fill pages rather than because they go anywhere. There's several multi-page scenes which are basically just Johnny and Ben making pratfalls, plus the villains of both issues are forgettable one-off androids making a brief comeback because of nostalgia and no other reason. The Namor-centric issue just spends most of its runtime covering a fight against said unimportant bad guy who turns out to be an obvious distraction anyway. I feel like without the context of this being an intentionally nostalgic anniversary event, it's actually fairly boring material - the comics take way too long to get to a point to really be from the early 1970s, which tended to be a lot more frenetic and less coherent.
Due to its nature as an anniversary special, the comics also weren't created by just a single artist - the credits list no less than six different pencillers and inkers each taking several pages, which explains why the art is inconsistent (even if it all stays relatively close to the classic style.) Some pages are a lot closer than others - Doom generally looks fine, but Reed has some unfortunate depictions here and there, and Sue sometimes has an almost exaggerated hourglass figure going on. Given that all of the artists are mimicking Kirby's style, though, it's hard to criticize them for not getting it quite right - I doubt they'd be doing that very often anyway, given that this came out in the early 2000's.
I'm giving this duo of issues three stars… but only because they're just pretty inoffensively okay for the kind of story they are. Without the intentional retro style or the implication that Doom is working on some greater plan in the background, these could be generic issues that'd be forgotten instantly…
Best Panel(s) of the Issue
I appreciated this take on the classic Kirby Doom, complete with a Servo-Guard in the background!
Most Gloriously Villainous Doom Quotes
"Such is the will of your mighty sovereign! Such is the will of… DOCTOR DOOM!"
"After that last unholy conflagration I refuse to see my beloved Latveria scarred anew by those I hate most! Only out of my regard for the welfare of my loyal subjects did I spare the Fantastic Four when last we met! This time, I shall harbor no such concerns! The time has come for Reed Richards to suffer for the multitude of indignities he has inflicted upon me…! For plundering a plenitude of my incomparable scientific creations! The time has come for the Fantastic Four to pay!"
"As though one so insignificant as you could offer Victor von Doom offense. Your words are less to me than the chirruping of insects."
"Doom bows to no intellect, alien or otherwise!"
Doom-Tech of the Week
The Pink Spy-Drone is nothing new, really, but I felt like I should enjoy it while it's here! Beyond that, I suppose Doom hacked and controlled both the Android-Man and Kree Sentry from these issues, which is presumably just chalked up to his mastery of robotics. At least these are legitimate feats to add to his capabilities, though!
Would've been interesting, but apparently 'the team punches various robots' is what they went for instead. Seriously though, there's the android-man, the Kree sentry, some Sentinels in the next issue... it'll probably turn out this was all orchestrated by a Doombot just to keep that theme going!
211: Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Comics Magazine #3-4 - When Strike These Sentinels! / The Merciless Menace of MODOK!
Fantastic Four - World's Greatest Comics #3-4 (April-May 2001)
Cover
Two more covers for the retro collection - which means two more generic fighty fight scenes against villains. At least they both contain guest stars, this time - the original X-Men for the first cover, and Captain America and Falcon for the second! If this wasn't a novelty retcon series but actually came out in the 70's, I imagine it would have been quite a landmark series for tying together so much of the Marvel universe in a time before crossover events were a common thing yet… Given the modern tendency to stuff every year full of several such events, it kind of loses its splendor.
Story Overview
WGCM #3 - When Strike These Sentinels!
We return to the Baxter Building to find that Crystal is giving Johnny a back massage to try and get him to relax - seems like the recent ransacking of their base and the subsequent theft of Namor's sacred tooting horn has everyone in a tizzy, as they don't know who did it! Ben's not sure what's worse, sitting around while Reed tries to unravel the mystery, or knowing they're in for a long-winded speech when he finally does! Johnny argues that there's no reason all of them need to wait around, and suggests he go out for a while to visit Alicia, promising that they'll call him if something develops. Ben isn't having it though, stating that his day is already ruined, so why spoil hers too? He doubts she's pining for a visit from the orange-skinned Prince Charming anyway!
Johnny, annoyed, spells it out for Ben: he wants to be alone with Crystal! It's bad enough that someone's trying to kill them, but they haven't had a moment of privacy since she rejoined the team! Ben wonders why he didn't just say this in the first place, and is about to head off when a sad Sue enters the room. Johnny asks if Reed finally got a line on the mysterious foe yet, but Sue admits he was still tinkering in his lab the last time she saw him. No, she just got off a phone call with Agatha Harkness, the woman who's looking after little Franklin, and with all these recent attacks she knows her son is much safer with her… but Sue just misses him so much! Crystal sympathizes with her, while Johnny thinks to himself that he suddenly feels like a first-class heel… but at least he and Crys are together!
An unshaven Reed then joins the group and mentions that they can spare Sue for the next few hours, so he suggests that she should grab a Fantasticar and visit Whisper Hill. (Wait, didn't they agree not to do this after their plane got shot down on the way there in the first issue…?) Sue's not sure he's serious, and Ben wonders what to do about this bum that's been hassling them - come on, does Reed know his identity yet? Reed says he has his suspicions, but nothing conclusive. Ben sighs but figures they don't need proof - why don't they just clobber all the usual suspects? Reed informs the others that he's already arranged to borrow a weapon that may lure the assailant out into the open, but it'll take hours to set everything up. Sue realizes that means he's not coming with her to see Franklin, so Crystal offers to go along if she wants company.
Ben, furious about the whole situation, declares that he just wishes he could flatten the miserable creep that's been bugging them - he doesn't see why they have to borrow some fancy gizmos when a good old fashioned right cross ought to do the job! Reed warns that this is no time for tantrums - if what he suspects is true, even Ben's incredible strength may not be enough. They could be facing the deadliest menace of their lives! (Yeah, yeah…)
Even as those words leave Reed's mouths, we turn our attention back to a heavily fortified castle in upstate New York, nestled on a small estate in the Adirondack mountains… 'Fascinating!' Doom declares as he looks over the horn that was stolen from Namor's palace last issue. He doubts even the Sub-Mariner knew what he possessed in this ancient artifact! It's only a matter of time before he unlocks its precious secrets! One of Doom's minions points out that Doom's genius to create weapons of mass destruction is truly unrivaled, so he doesn't really understand why he needed to steal this Atlantean relic? Doom backhands the man so hard that he flips ass over teakettle, and snarls that he did not give the dolt leave to speak! Who is he to question the will of Doctor Doom!?
Doom snarls that the man should remove himself from sight and go to the Master of Arms to request a hundred lashes for his impudence! Yes, a hundred! He's feeling particularly merciful today, for he will soon enact his ultimate revenge upon his most hated enemies!
As the minion scurries off Doom looks over several live feeds of the Fantastic Four, and concludes that his enemies are fools - it's almost a pity that they do not even suspect that their every move is being observed and all their conversations recorded! He's almost surprised Reed Richards has not yet stumbled upon the truth, but even if he did deduce Doom's role in his current miseries, he lacks the necessary intellect to surmise his true goal! Only Doom's own vastly superior mind could even conceive of such an ambitious objective! In the meantime, Doom is free to toy with him and his hapless comrades as he chooses… Since he overheard the earlier phone conversation he's already aware of this 'secret weapon' Reed intends to borrow, and he's taken the appropriate steps to frustrate him in that endeavor. (Some of those, it seems, are steps from the Ministry of Funny Walks.) Doom swears that instead of the aid he seeks, Reed's only reward will be chaos and destruction!
While the good Doctor continues to spew his verbal venom, the Fantasticar speeds off towards Westchester - its destination is the little known but highly prestigious school for gifted youngsters run by Professor Xavier! Ben isn't pleased by this since he already had his heart set on Atlantic City when Reed mentions going on a road trip, but instead of scoring a new supply of saltwater taffy he's gotta settle for a bunch of nutty X-Men! They're met in the air by the mutant Angel who points out where they can park their vehicle, while Reed stretches down the ground to exchange greetings with the greeting party of Xavier, Cyclops, and Marvel Girl. This isn't exactly a social call, though - Xavier assumes the situation is as dire as Reed described, since the X-Men had an incident of their own shortly after he called!
Reed wonders if this incident involved the materials he requested, and Xavier tells him they should get inside and discuss this on the way to the basement. Johnny asks Cyclops after his old buddy Iceman, and he's told he can be found in the Danger Room alongside Havok and Polaris. (This is weird, since Polaris wasn't actually a thing yet.) Ben mentions that 'the danger room' is what they call the kitchen back home whenever Johnny tries to cook dinner… Angel explains to the group that it's the local training room, state-of-the-art - Ben might want one of his own once he's seen it! Cyclops offers to give him and Johnny a tour. Reed, meanwhile, interrogates Xavier further about this 'incident', and the wheelchair-bound psychic explains that the security systems reported a breach, but his telepathic powers didn't sense anyone…
Johnny and Ben head over to the Danger Room, where Angel explains that Xavier equipped the place to challenge their individual mutant abilities, and even built a super-robot named Colosso to sharpen their combat instincts. Ben isn't impressed at all, wondering what good all these goofy gizmos will do for them - if they want to play like the big boys, they should try going a few rounds with a real bruiser like Galactus!
Angel, offended by the easy dismissal, declares that the Danger Room is a lot tougher than it looks, and bets Ben wouldn't even last ten minutes! Ben muses that he'd take that bet… if he wasn't afraid of breaking all of their pretty toys! Angel argues they can be easily replaced, so… care to wager an evening worth of pizza and beer? Ben agrees after he tosses in pretzels. Anything's gotta be better than listening to Reed and the Professor compare vocabularies!
Johnny notices that Beast isn't around anywhere, and figures he's probably hanging out with Marvel Girl and the bigwigs. Eh, if the rest don't mind, he'd like to join the fun and games and give this Danger Room a try too. Angel quickly programs the room and tells the two to head downstairs - this should prove interesting! At the bottom of the stairs, Ben quickly tells the three mutants training in there to grab a seat - the first string is about to take the field! Havok figures those are bold words for a man about to be humiliated… Johnny's not worried, and Ben hopes they have cameras rolling since he might want a few tapes for his panting public! Iceman admits that he'll say one thing for them - they don't lack confidence. Let's get this show on the road!
At that same moment, somewhere in a basement floor within Xavier's sprawling mansion, we catch up with Reed, Beast, Xavier, and Marvel Girl. They've arrived at a room containing two enormous yellow robots that barely fit inside. They're deactivated mutant-hunting Sentinel robots! (Never mind that they were all destroyed by flying them into the sun.) Apparently Reed requested to use these ones, though Beast says he can't just hand them over without a caveat. Reed guesses this concerns the earlier break-in, and Beast agrees with him, explaining that they immediately presumed one of their old antagonists was responsible for the incursion, so they activated their mutant detection device, Cerebro. When that turned up nothing they came up with a different theory - that someone learned of Reed's intention to borrow these two Sentinels and employ them as high-tech watchdogs!
Beast climbs on top of a Sentinel and opens a hatch, stating that a close inspection illuminates the truth… there's strangely shaped nodes on the robot's motherboard which aren't listed in the inventory which Beast made when they first captured these machines. Reed wonders if there's any chance Beast might have missed them before, but Beast states that he's very meticulous, so he doubts it. Reed figures there is one easy way to learn of the true function of these additions, and Beast warily observes that he was afraid Reed would say that. He quickly tells Marvel Girl to move the Professor back, then hits the big red 'on' button. Experimentation is not without risk, he says, but this could be downright crazy…!
Meanwhile, back in the Danger Room, Ben and Johnny are easily steamrolling the Danger Zone's challenges, with the former wondering if someone could turn on the radio - the Rangers are playing, and even those bums are more exciting than this! Johnny hates to agree with Ben, but he's had more fun watching clothes spin in the dryer! Is this the best they can do? Iceman yells at Angel to turn up the heat, and while Cyclops is wary since he doesn't want to hurt anyone, Angel tells him not to be such a Nervous Nellie and plans a big surprise!
Suddenly, quite unexpectedly, the entire Danger Room begins to quiver and shake as if caught within the crushing grip of a deadly earthquake, and then a huge (and now inexplicably green) Sentinel rips its way through the floor and lunges at Ben and Johnny, who are glad things have finally gotten interesting. Wait till Ben gets his mitts on this tin-plated hunk of junk!
Johnny warns Ben that there's two of them - one for each of them! Now this is what he calls a workout! Inside the control room an incredulous Cyclops asks what the hell Angel did, and the latter sheepishly admits that he's glad they're in combat gear, because those Sentinels are the real McCoy! Johnny and Ben are a bit confused when the two Sentinels seem less than interested in attacking them - they just seem to be trying to escape, and they won't stand still long enough for Ben to clobber them! Iceman then closes in on a path of ice and yells at the pair that this isn't part of the training session - these are real Sentinels, and they're getting away! Johnny announces that they won't get away if he can help it, while Ben complains that this is truly a revoltin' development! He then quickly grabs a big chunk of equipment and prepares to throw it at the robot which just shrugged him off its shoulder, hoping to 'moideruze the bum!'
We switch over to an unusual aircraft that's heading towards Whisper Hill - Sue and Crystal are heading over to visit Franklin like Reed suggested. Crystal admits she doesn't recognize the vehicle they're in, and Sue explains it was actually a gift from their good friend the Black Panther! Anyway, she already called ahead to Agatha Harkness and asked her to keep this visit a secret so they can surprise Franklin when they arrive! To break the awkward silence Crystal tries to ask about Johnny's interest in her, emphasizing that she doesn't want Sue to betray anything her brother has told her in confidence, and Sue admits that she's not sure how he feels about her - but she's never seen him so happy! Crystal figures that'll have to do. Their friendly banter is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Lockjaw, the Inhuman dog, when he teleports into the backseat from out of nowhere. A shocked Sue wonders what he might want, but the dog just teleports out again moments later, taking Crystal with him. But why? And where has he taken her?!
Sue's questions will have to remain unanswered for now, as we switch back to the big fight. Reed wraps his arm around Ben's and tells him to hold his attack, much to the bruiser's annoyance. What's the big idea? He had that Sentinel lined up for a big kaboom! Reed doubts it, stating that his improvised missile would never have penetrated its steel hull. Now listen up! Ben warily realizes Reed has that 'lecture look' in his eyes. Reed explains that he believes the unknown attacker they've been dealing with recently is somehow controlling those robots. Reed intended to reprogram these Sentinels to guard the Baxter Building in the team's absence, but their enemy beat them to the punch! This villain may have made a fatal mistake, however, since he's probably still in contact with the robots, which means Reed can use the equipment in the Fantasticar to trace his signal and learn his location! Beast runs up to the pair and quickly explains that the Sentinels just kicked into high gear and they're speeding towards the center of New York City…!
That doesn't sound good, as a certain friendly neighborhood Spider-Man can attest! We see the wall-crawler in question clinging to a building in the city, his spider-sense going wild and warning him of imminent danger - whatever's causing the sensation is approaching fast! He barely had time to switch into his costume… and it's already here! Spidey recognizes the Sentinels on sight as they arrive, recalling that they were designed to hunt mutants! They seem to be ignoring Spidey, and he's not complaining about that - they're way out of his league! But he can't ignore the fact that someone's probably in danger, so he goes after them…
Moments later, another costumed adventurer reaches the same conclusion - Daredevil's radar sense detects huge figures soaring above him, and since he can hear the wind striking metal, he can only conclude they're giant robots! The comic helpfully explains that though he's blind, Daredevil's other senses more than make up for his loss. (Thanks?) Also hot on the tail of the Sentinels are the Fantastic Four and several members of the X-Men. Ben complains about the speed of their vehicle - can't the Fantasticar go any faster? Reed just tells him to simmer down. Soon enough, though, they fly into a situation - the Sentinels have started fighting the locals, which includes the previously seen Spider-Man and Daredevil as well as a recently arrived Doctor Strange. No threat to mankind ever escapes the notice of the Master of Magic! (GIven that this took place during a time when Strange was ostensibly retired, it's probably Mordo impersonating him under the mask he was wearing around this time, as revealed in a story in Marvel Feature #1 from 1971. Again, nice continuity!)
Ben enthusiastically announces that it's beginning to look like every long underwear wingding in town is trying to muscle in on the action! Reed tells him to be serious, and states that while the Sentinels are a real menace to the inhabitants of the city, they can't defeat them until he gets a fix on their elusive leader. Cyclops offers his help in that endeavor - he believes he can slow the robots down by setting his eye beam to maximum power! Ben figures he's got his own way of slowing down overgrown tinker toys and jumps out of the car to deliver a dropkick into the head of one of the Sentinels while crying his iconic: 'It's Clobberin' Time!'
While Cyclops fires off his eye-beams, Reed admits something is wrong here - he can't seem to get a lock on the remote control signal, and the Sentinels seem to be moving in circles ever since they reached the city. Almost like it's - of course, he should have realized this sooner! His unknown opponent outmaneuvered him once again! Johnny and Iceman, meanwhile, team up to blast one of the robots, making a literary allusion as they do: 'Some say the world will end in fire, others say in ice…' Beast appreciates the reference, and if it weren't such a rash impetuous thing to do, he'd jump for joy! Come to think of it… what the heck, why not? Beast jumps and smashes into the back of one of the Sentinels' knees, lining it up for a huge haymaker from Ben. That's when Reed suddenly calls out to him and yells that he should back off right now - this is a trap!
Ben feels he's a little busy at the moment, but Spider-Man supports Reed by yelling that the orange-skinned ignoramus should get back right now - those Sentinels are growing more dangerous by the second, and he thinks they're about to explode! Doctor Strange tells everyone to gather together - they've only got a slim chance of survival! Reacting almost instinctively, everyone heeds the warning - barely a moment later an enormous purple explosion lights up the sky. Strange used his magic to create a powerful shield at the last moment to preserve everyone, though calling on the Vishanti confuses Ben, who wonders who 'Vinnie and Sam' are. Iceman is confused by something else - if the Sentinels were booby-trapped all along, they could have just totaled the X-Mansion, so why would they lead everyone on a wild goose chase into the city?
The answer to that question is even now being answered, since Professor Xavier and Marvel Girl are shocked to discover a third gigantic robot tearing through the walls of the mansion - it's Colosso, their own training robot! Whoever seized control of the Sentinels must also have taken control of this machine! Xavier notes that the robot doesn't seem interested in them personally, treating them like they're not even there. He can guess the thing's true goal, however, and declares that they must do everything in their power to prevent it from achieving it. Xavier asks Marvel Girl to link her mind to his so they can combine their powers, and while this is clearly painful for her, together the two of them focus their mind powers on the approaching robot and manage to telekinetically detonate it from the inside. Marvel Girl, looking over the wreckage, wonders if this was why Reed asked the two of them to stay behind. Did he suspect treachery from the start? Xavier agrees that Reed must know a lot more than he's chosen to share…
Back in his upstate castle Doom snarls an emphatic 'Bah!' The Sentinels failed to destroy the hated foursome, as he knew they would, but Xavier and Marvel Girl managed to conquer his unwitting pawn without them - but such minor inconveniences are of no importance, he immediately decides. For a brief time he toyed with the idea of appropriating the good Professor's Cerebro machine, as such a device could certainly be employed to his advantage. Anything that benefits Doom serves to enrich mankind as well, after all! But there's no need for haste, he can acquire it as his leisure. For now he has more pressing concerns! Reaching out to some of his action figures of the Fantastic Four, Doom announces that his plan is flawless, and the execution will be a symphony of perfection. This game shall soon reach its inevitable conclusion - and the final triumph shall belong to Doctor Doom!
Next: More X-Men! The Falcon! Captain America! The Inhumans! And More! Hoo-hah!
WGCM #4 - The Merciless Menace of MODOK!
Following up from last issue, we watch the Fantastic Four saying their goodbyes to the X-Men - Ben hopes that to make their visit to Westchester something other than a total waste of time, they should hit up a nearby White Castle for some food. Reed tells Xavier that while his original purpose was to stop the threat of the Sentinels (which it really wasn't) they may have accomplished something far greater. Xavier agrees, for some reason, and the comic helpfully announces that while things might seem a little quiet right now, we'll be rocking and rolling in the mighty Marvel manner in mere moments! The entire next page is dedicated to Iceman and Johnny playing a prank on Ben and making him trip, but soon enough the Fantastic Four pile into their vehicle and set off. In their wake, Angel figures the FF don't have a care in the world, but Xavier muses that if Reed and he are correct, they face a greater threat than the world has ever known… (This is getting real repetitive, isn't it?)
We turn from the green grass of Westchester to the urban concrete sidewalks of Harlem, where a trio of random thugs make their way through an alleyway. One of them is clueless about what they're doing there, so their leader Lou explains that their boss wants them to paint stuff like 'we hate whitey' on the buildings around here. The other reasonably points out that would probably just stir up any black guys that live around here, but it turns out that's exactly the point! Looking on from on high, the Falcon thinks to himself that such a hate-minded scheme might just work if these streets weren't under his watchful eye! He'd better hold back for right now, though, to see if he can learn more about this 'boss'. The thug from before mentions that while the locals are starting a race riot, the boss can come in and buy up these buildings for cheap. Pretty sweet deal!
Falcon thinks to himself that ever since he first put on his mask, he can't believe how it has opened his eyes. America may look like one big melting pot, but it only takes a few bad apples to tear it all down. If these people really succeed in starting a race riot, he's going to need some help! He wonders if Captain America would help, but he's interrupted when the air is suddenly filled with heavily armed operatives in white with jetpacks and purple beekeeper helmets - they're A.I.M. minions, Advanced Idea Mechanics! These minions have been ordered to shoot down any witnesses in the area by their Master, and while Falcon bravely declares he has something to say about that, he admits to himself that there's too many enemies for him to deal with alone…
Meanwhile, off in Doom's upstate castle, a very different kind of hate-monger ponders his next move. As Doom stands in front of a familiar square on the floor, he declares that at last the preparations are complete - he has been without his time machine for far too long! He knew that one as close-minded as Reed Richards would never discover the endless possibilities a device such as this would uncover, and now he has it back! Only something like the legendary Cosmic Cube, where mere thought can be turned into reality, rivals his time-displacement invention! The original time machine from Doom's debut was never actually removed from this castle (since Doom used it to exile Diablo that one time) but the concept here is, presumably, that he stole it back from the Baxter Building and put it back where it came from…
One of Doom's minions points out that the Cosmic Cube he mentioned was destroyed in a battle between Captain America and the Red Skull. Doom responds by smashing the man in the face with his gauntleted fist and wondering if the dolt in question thought the Lord of Latveria was not aware of this inconvenience? The only real mystery to be solved today is why one who is as brilliant as him continues to surround himself with sniveling simpletons! Doom then steps onto the time machine and decides giving thought to such matters is a waste of time. Now that he's once again in possession of his time machine, time is not a commodity he will use capriciously!
Doom tells another minion he didn't punch in the face to activate the time platform with the exact coordinates he preprogrammed, threatening that if he should make even the slightest error he will pay in ways he cannot even begin to imagine! The nervous lackey quickly does what's asked, assuring his liege that he has nothing to fear! Doom agrees that Doom fears nothing, but his minions had better pray that he returns unharmed! The square of his time device rises up and engulfs Doom, and after he's away the underlings let out a sigh of relief. He's gone, and not a moment too soon…
While one mystery deepens, another begins to unfold over at Whisper Hill, in the home of Agatha Harkness where Sue Richards is visiting her son Franklin. Sue explains to the old lady that Crystal was sitting right next to her when the Inhuman dog Lockjaw appeared and spirited her away. Agatha figures life is filled with mysteries and that's what makes it worth living! Franklin, housed in a little playpen, reaches out to Sue, who tells him she's busy talking to Aunt Agatha. As Sue wonders why the Inhumans would need Agatha so suddenly, the teddy bear she's holding suddenly disappears. It reappears in Franklin's hands - but how is that possible? Sue decides this is probably something she should report to Reed, but he's so consumed with finding the identity of their current enemy that she doesn't want to burden him with some new problem…
Speaking of Reed, he just returned to the Baxter Building alongside Johnny and Ben and expects to find Sue there. Johnny is looking forward to talking to Crystal too, and Ben hopes she can cook him some Belgian waffles. They soon realize neither of the women are around - this could be an unnecessary complication! He doesn't want either girl to be in danger, so he asks Ben to head over to Whisper Hill and escort them back. (Make up your mind, Reed!) Johnny argues that he should be the one to go since Crystal is his responsibility, and the two of them quickly leave to race each other there, with Ben taking a flying motorcycle. Winner buys dinner, and none of that fast food stuff! Reed thinks to himself that with everyone gone, he can begin to work on the one thing that may save them all!
Back in Harlem the Falcon keeps punching out beekeeper-guys until one of them summons up a purple robot minion, the Mechanoid, which looks rather imposing compared to the others. (What is with big dumb robots in this miniseries, sheesh.)
Falcon worries that he's done for, but suddenly a familiar round shield comes flying into frame and smashes into the machine. Here comes the cavalry! Captain America swings into the scene and asks when they're all going to learn - as long as the Falcon fights, he will never fight alone! Falcon wonders what he's doing here in Harlem, and Cap explains that the Avengers have been monitoring this situation, and he couldn't stand idly by and not help out a friend! Falcon agrees that they work well together, so maybe they should do it more often!
One of the A.I.M. operatives spots the Thing cruising by in the distance on his flying bike and curses the arrival of more enemies, evidently unaware Ben is not even a part of the fight. One rocket-blast later Ben is suddenly blown off his ride and he lands heavily on the ground in a crater.
The minions briefly celebrate their victory… only for Ben to just stand up and tell them they shouldn't count their chickens before they're hatched! All they did was make him mad! Ben tosses some rubble at the idiots, then starts swinging around by their legs, declaring that he's not even going to waste a good 'It's clobberin' time!' on these dopes…
Watching on from around a shadowed corner, the complete freakshow MODOK curses the incompetence of his subordinates - he'd hoped to accomplish his goals without having to reveal himself! But it seems that it will take the blind fury of the world's greatest mind to win this day! MODOK fires a beam from his headgear and wonders what boasts Ben will have after being bested by him? The mind blast manages to knock out not just Ben but Cap and Falcon as well, and MODOK quickly tells his minions to get them off the street before more costumed buffoons arrive! Ben, groggy and barely coherent, thinks to himself that he's only got one shot and he'd better make it count… he pulls out the signal pistol from his belt and fires into the sky, setting off the iconic '4' signal flare to call for help. In response, an angry MODOK snarls that he'll pay for such brazenness with his life and blasts him unconscious again…
Ben's fate will have to wait, since we turn our attention to the fabled Hidden Land, home of the mysterious and powerful Inhumans. We see Crystal arrive alongside Lockjaw and face the entire royal family - Medusa, Triton, Gorgon, Karnak and Black Bolt. Crystal asks what's wrong, quite certain they wouldn't have dragged her back here without a good reason - is it Maximus the Mad, is he threatening the homeland again? Medusa says she wishes it were that simple - no, Black Bolt fears that a darkness will set upon this land and they'll need every Inhuman to fight it…!
In New York, the Human Torch was already halfway to Whisper Hill when he turned back to see how far along Ben was, and he saw the signal in the sky. He figures this had better not be some practical joke Ben's playing or he'll roast the guy's tootsies but good! As he arrives, though, he sees the A.I.M. goons drag Ben, Captain America and Falcon along to a vehicle. He quickly intervenes, flying alongside the mooks and asking if they need a hand with that…
He then punches the minions in the face to free his allies. One of the goons crawls over to MODOK and begs for help, and MODOK just wonders if he must do everything himself! He starts firing at the flying target, but Johnny proves a little too mobile in comparison to his other victims.
Ben, meanwhile, regains consciousness and complains that he was only out for two seconds and Johnny is already having all the fun! Okay, he wasn't going to say it, but now these jerks are asking for it… it's clobberin' time! Punching the ground so hard he causes a minor earthquake, Ben bowls over the A.I.M. taskforce who desperately start shooting everyone in the hopes of downing at least one hero. Cap and Falcon also recover and they join the fight again, with the former comparing these idiots to the Gestapo, while the latter… seems to be admiring Cap's behind while declaring he is an inspiration to us all? I mean, that is America's ass…
While the heroes fight on for today, at that same moment (but months in the past) Doctor Doom searches for something that may end all our tomorrows! Balancing weirdly on a flying pink platform with handlebars and some kind of electromagnetic propulsion, Doom cruises over the surface of the ocean and says to himself that it must be here - his calculations are flawless! S
omewhere beneath these Mediterranean waters lies the trump card for all his plans! Closing in on a rocky collection of small islands, Doom says he's found it… the site of that climactic battle between Captain America and the Red Skull! Someday soon the Red Skull will retrieve what he lost that day, but with the aid of his time machine Doom will beat him to it! Doom dives into the harsh surf, unyielding to the awesome power of nature as he makes his way towards the ocean floor. In the distance he can see a faint glow… an object of power that he desires. He reaches out and snarls that the world - no, the universe itself - should know and tremble that Doctor Doom now has the Cosmic Cube!
Back in New York (and the present) the heroes are still embroiled in battle, and Cap yells at Ben that if they're going to end this, they'll have to take out MODOK! 'Like, on a date?' Ben wonders. Alright, bozos, if the good Captain says that playtime is over, then it's time for all the bad guys to go to bed! Ben lunges and knocks out several of the A.I.M. goons, and they inexplicably change their garb to be classic yellow instead of their white-and-purple attire for about three panels. Falcon worries that the more of these guys they mow down, the more they keep coming back, and Johnny agrees that unless something drastic happens this could go on all night! Even as he says this there's a sudden huge blast of energy all around them… and then all the MODOK mooks fall down as one, unconscious… Falcon guesses Johnny did something, but he's as confused as the rest of them. Oy, who hit the bad guy off-switch?
Cap notices that MODOK has vanished, and Ben figures that's good riddance - that guy's uglier than him, and that's saying something! The person who took out the A.I.M. goons turns out to be Reed, who had arrived just in time to set off a particle stun blast, but MODOK appeared unaffected by it and quickly disappeared. The good news, though, is that his attack was still able to stem the tide of battle. Cap compliments Reed's brilliant intellect for once again making the difference! Reed admits he's not been so confident about his intellect of late, which gets him a curious look from his teammates.
Cap goes into full Captain America mode and says that he wishes he could say that they won the war, but as long as there is fear and ignorance, despots like MODOK and his like will be able to bring out the worst in mankind… He channels his PSA voice and declares that it is up to each and every one of us to remind ourselves, and anyone who will listen, that all men and women are created equal! Falcon is inspired and says he likes the sound of that, and he and Cap head back to Avengers mansion together to discuss working with each other more often, while Reed calls in SHIELD to take in all these goons they knocked out.
Later, back at the Baxter Building, Ben asks Reed about that earlier comment where he admitted being unsure about his smarts. They don't call him 'Big Brain' for nothing, you know! Johnny tells Ben to back off - he just thinks his brother-in-law was really doubting himself. Reed admits that he was doubting himself with good reason… He's been making mistakes recently, important ones which cost them dearly! Ben figures anyone can make a few boo-boos, but Reed points out that Professor X confirmed what he already suspected. They weren't just simple mistakes! No, he's been the victim of a series of mental inhibitors! Someone's been messing with his head, since microbiotic machines were implanted into his brain somehow! Johnny wonders how that was done, and who would be responsible? Reed admits that he's still working on the 'how', but he's certain he's figured out the 'who' - though he doesn't say it in this issue.
Next: Hulk vs. Thing! 'Nuff said!
Rating & Comments
So, we're now four issues into this series… and the Fantastic Four still haven't figured out the name of their prime suspect? Look, these issues are a fun take on retro stories, and they definitely appreciate the classics in how often they reference obscure details, but I can't help but notice that all four are basically doing the same exact general plot except with a different bad guy subbed in. It's not like they're interesting bad guys, either - both of the first two issues had generic robots as the baddies, and here we get one issue in which there's a couple more robot bad guys… and then a third robot shows up! I thought the MODOK issue would be different, but what do these numpties decide to do? Send out another goddamn robot! Even when Doom isn't directly involved, everyone still sends out their mecha-mooks! All four of these events also end up just being distractions for the team, who evidently have a really hard time getting their shit together.
I am rather confused about the start of the third issue, since it includes Sue's decision to go visit Franklin… but that's explicitly something they decided not to do just two issues ago for reasons that are not at all resolved. Indeed, the implication at the time seemed to be that the team should stick together until they figure things out, but here the team voluntarily splits up again! They don't even seem to keep tabs on each other because Reed expects Sue to remain at the base despite the fact that they discussed her excursion to Whisper Hill that same day! Rehashing the same plot point about the 'greatest threat they ever faced' over and over again doesn't really explain these weird inconsistencies (though a later plot beat might.) Outside the context of the comics, I wonder if these issues were written concurrently by different authors? That could explain why internal continuity is a bit wonky. (This goes double for art - plenty of off-model panels and inconsistent coloration here.)
The premise of the third issue is also utterly stupid - Reed apparently decides he needs a couple of deactivated Sentinel robots, the kind known to hunt down and murder mutants, for the purposes of… house defense? I mean, sure, beef up your security after you got robbed, that makes sense… but why would you come up with this kooky plan? What, you forgot how to make dangerous weird robots of your own? That's leaving aside, of course, that when Reed learns that there's been a mysterious break-in at the X-Mansion and everyone suspects that it's related to the robots, and after Beast literally notices the changes made to the circuitry of the things, Reed's solution to figuring out what was done is to turn them on. What the hell? Beast just goes along with that, and the other X-Men too? This really feels like everyone's just holding the idiot-ball in not stopping this comedy of errors before the obvious happens.
After the Sentinels inevitably smash their way through the mansion and fly into the city, we get to a couple weird guest stars - Spider-Man, Daredevil and Doctor Strange have essentially nothing to do in this book beyond just sort of existing. The only people who do damage to the robots are the Thing and the X-Men, for crying out loud! You could argue that Spidey and Doctor Strange did team up to protect everyone from getting blown up in the end, but that leaves ol' Matt Murdock as the useless random addition. Colosso can be shoved into this category as well, since he shows up to attack the mansion but literally only gets two panels of screentime before Professor X and Marvel Girl detonate him with their 'telepathy.' I assume they meant telekinesis since it's literally a robot they're trying to mind-crush here… This all felt rather rushed, and most of this stuff is so anticlimactic it's honestly kind of funny.
While the actual plot was barely coherent, I did like the full-on early 70's Doom on display here - there's no nuance, he's just violently abusive to his underlings like in the old days, bitch-slapping the hell out of them for daring to even question him, then assigning them some ridiculous punishment and considering it a mercy because he didn't, y'know, literally murder them on the spot. It's also revealed that Doom is keeping the Fantastic Four under surveillance at all times, which means all their plans to find out his identity are immediately compromised. Doom seems surprised Reed hasn't figured out his involvement yet, but figures it doesn't really matter if he eventually does, since he thinks Reed is not smart enough to surmise Doom's true goals anyway. Doom is more interested in just toying with the team some more than anything else, and it's implied that the entire Sentinel misadventure is more of a lark than a serious plot. He just wants to frustrate Reed some more!
The final scene of the book emphasizes this point as well, since Doom acknowledges that the Sentinels were just a distraction, presumably so Colosso would have easy access to the Cerebro machine… but he easily dismisses the latter plan when it doesn't work out, tabling retrieving that device for some other time. Doom has more pressing concerns on his mind, it seems - and that would be his grand plan… Final triumph shall belong to him! It's neat that we get a reprise of Doom's model figurine collection from back in his debut and a few later issues, apparently included just so Doom could theatrically crush Reed's doll and snarl about his impending victory. Cute.
The first issue contained some padding (like an irrelevant but amusing scene of an experienced Johnny and Ben humiliating the newbie X-Men in the Danger Room) but it's got nothing on the second - not only is there an extended scene of Johnny and Iceman pissing off Ben, an Inhumans-related teaser, and a scene of Sue worrying about Franklin, but the entire Falcon/Captain America storyline is entirely unrelated to the main narrative too! It only really becomes relevant because the villains snipe Ben out of the air as he's flying past and piss him off. The Falcon storyline is also wildly different in tone compared to the last few Fantastic Four stories - apparently MODOK wants to exploit racism to start a riot and then buy up the devalued properties in the area? Weirdly low-key Kingpin shit for a giant head with lasers. It's weirder still that the trio of thugs assigned to spray-paint slurs on the walls brought along a protection detail consisting of an unending stream of laser-wielding jetpack minions in beekeeper suits. Okay then!
While overwhelming to the relative newbie hero Falcon, those beekeeper-minions prove pretty useless when more heroes show up, as does their robot enforcer Mechanoid - but MODOK himself manages to knock people out a few times. And then he just leaves. No, seriously, MODOK never actually fights anyone beyond blasting out some broad stun-beams while his minions just take a bunch of punches from Ben and Captain America. Then Reed swings by with a Deus Ex Machina and ends the fight, with MODOK leaving off-panel. The subsequent moralizing PSA speech from Cap seemed a little over the top, but that and his promise to start working more with the Falcon are obvious retro fanservice. Since this is supposedly an early 70's issue, taking place shortly after Falcon was introduced and before his original sidekick role in Captain America's book, this could be seen as a sort of retroactive teaser prequel to their long-standing association.
More interesting than the fighty-fighty A-plot, at least as far as this thread is concerned, is what Doctor Doom gets up to in this issue. Since he's (for once) not directly involved in the supervillain conflict of the week, we instead see him working on realizing the grand plan he mentioned in the last issue - and it turns out to be a lot more ambitious than I think most people would have expected! It turns out that all those machines he stole back from Reed were taken back for a reason - and that's to rebuild his famed time machine, Doom's most famous invention introduced way back during his debut in Fantastic Four v1 #5. While it's implied here that he didn't have access to it anymore, I think that's just a continuity snafu, given that we've seen time machines not just in Latveria, but also in New York's castle after that adventure. (Notably he used it to banish Diablo in Marvel Super-Heroes #20.)
There's a reason Doom wanted access to the time machine again - and it's to solve an 'inconvenience', namely the fact that a powerful object he desires has been destroyed! Which would be a huge problem for anyone who can't just go back in time and pick it up before it got annihilated. Genius! While prepping his machine, Doom keeps treating his employees terribly, by the way - he punches and threatens them enough that they're actively relieved when he vanishes. Curiously, this is one of the first times we've actually seen Doom use his own time machine in the mainline universe!
Doom heads back in time only a few months to visit the aftermath of Tales of Suspense #81 where the Cosmic Cube was lost in a fight, but before Captain America #119 in which Red Skull retrieves his Cosmic Cube and gets it destroyed. Preempting the nazi, Doom grabs that legendary reality-manipulating Tesseract doohickey out of the timestream for his own weird random stuff collection! I guess he can put it next to the stuff he stole from Reed and Namor's tooting horn, and probably something he yoinked from the Inhumans? Doom is being a bit of a Trazyn in this miniseries, isn't he…?
In this issue, there's finally a glimpse of what is to come… there are familiar shades of those previous times Doom got himself incredible power, like when he stole the powers of the Silver Surfer or the Beyonder. Here, the Cosmic Cube's wish-granting powers are his to command… Now what will he use them for…? Also revealed, in a rather offhand manner, is a key factor to explain some of my gripes with Reed's behavior, and probably just the writers covering their ass… Reed had been infected with intelligence-dampening nanites of some kind, so all his lapses in intelligence from the last few issues are probably related to that - he was somehow forcibly prevented from connecting the dots! The implication is that Doom was responsible, but I'm not sure that makes total sense - if this was the case, why would Doom be disappointed that Reed hasn't figured him out yet? Maybe he's just embarrassed that Reed is taking so long to figure out that part of the plot when there's several more layers he could be getting stuck on instead? I like that interpretation, and it'd make the 'Before the Fantastic Four' Doom more plausible!
Are these bad issues? No, not at all… but they're basically entirely coasting on the Silver Age nostalgia factor. They're pretty glacial as far as actual meaningful plot progression goes, some of the story premises are pretty dodgy (which isn't unusual for the Silver Age), and most of the pages are just dedicated to meaningless fights, which also isn't that unusual. The main reason to read them is for the admittingly entertaining banter between various characters (especially Ben) and the cute nods to the past. The art is (mostly) fine as imitation Jack Kirby goes, and I can't complain about the depiction of Doom at all - it's pretty on-brand for his early years, and even if I'm definitely in the camp who prefers the more nuanced and 'political' Doom, it's fun to have the full-on megalomaniacal madman pop up every so often. Those poor henchmen getting wrecked for even the most minor of infractions! Sticking with three stars for these, so far… but they'd better introduce something more engaging than random robot foes!
Most Gloriously Villainous Doom Quotes
"I did not give you leave to speak, dolt. Who are you to question the will of DOCTOR DOOM?"
"I am almost surprised Reed Richards has not yet stumbled upon the truth. However, even if he did deduce my role in his current miseries, he lacks the necessary intellect to surmise my true goal. Only my vastly superior intellect could even conceive of such an ambitious objective."
"Anything that benefits Doom serves to enrich mankind as well."
"My plan is flawless. My execution will be a symphony of perfection. This game shall soon reach its inevitable conclusion - and the final triumph shall belong to DOCTOR DOOM!"
"DOLT! Do you presume that the Lord of Latveria is not aware of this - inconvenience?! The only real mystery to be solved this day is why one who is as brilliant as I am - continues to surround himself with sniveling simpletons!"
"Giving thought to such matters is a waste of time. And now that I am once again in possession of my time machine, time is not a commodity I will use capriciously."
"If you should make even the slightest error, you will pay for it in ways you cannot even begin to imagine."
"Doom fears nothing. You, on the other hand, had better pray that I return unharmed."
"Let the world - no - let the universe itself know and tremble! Doctor Doom has the Cosmic Cube!"
Doom's Bad Hair Day
Since there's a bunch of different artists it's a bit dumb to point out art inconsistency - but the random change to yellow AIM grunts for three panels did seem a little weird. Also Doom has some funny poses, though I think most of them are traced from old comics or from the animated shows since they're oddly familiar.
Doom-Tech of the Week
Well, there's the Mental Inhibitor Microbots which are implied (if not stated) to be the work of Doom - they managed to dumb down Reed enough that he somehow got even more absent-minded and confused than usual, and entirely missed the super-obvious Doctor Doom connection. To be fair, I think the other three members of his team could have made that particular leap themselves if they ever bothered to engage their own brains instead of letting their leader do all the heavy lifting…
Doom also managed to hijack several Sentinels and Colosso here, casually demonstrating that he could have single-handedly stopped entire X-Men arcs but just didn't really feel the need to. What a boss. Suprisingly, there's still been no Doombots!
