Fantastic Four v3 #25

Fantastic Four vol.3 #25 (2000)
by Chris Claremont & Salvador Larroca

Now THAT is a Doctor Doom cover.

Last time the Fantastic Four prepared for an extremely vague apocalypse, which manifests as a gigantic tidal wave hitting New York City.
We begin this issue with a huge spaceship appearing out the wave.

Valeria recognizes this as Doom’s ship, and Reed recognizes it as the ship Doom used to bring them out of the Heroes Reborn reality.

So Valeria uses some of her tech to teleport everyone on the ship, or at least she tries.

The rest of the team is hit by the tidal wave, and naturally they’re protected by Invisible Woman’s force field… but it turns out this apocalypse is even more badly defined.
New York is both underwater and NOT underwater at the same time. SOMEHOW.

While Reed tries to understand WTF is going on, Susan decides to angst for basically no reason.
If she’s so attached to Valeria and so angry at Doom, wouldn’t her first instinct be trying to board Doom’s ship instead of complaining? What is this, 1960s Susan!?

I enjoy technobabble as much as any comic book and science fiction fan, but I have to draw the line at utter nonsense. WTF does any of this mean!?
“This is happening in space but not in time” would made sense if Reed meant they are seeing the future (even if that’s a very clunky way to say it), but nope!

Okay, I’m calling it now. Claremont DOESN’T KNOW WHAT SCIENCE IS.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but… I’m glad we go back to Valeria after that nonsense.

Mostly because this means more Doctor Doom.

I do find it funny that Doom considers someone trying to hug him a personal attack.

I’ve said it before but sometimes, SOMETIMES, Valeria can ALMOST pull off being Doom’s daughter.

And here we are: after what felt like an eternity, we have the payoff of Valeria being Doom’s daughter… and it’s HILARIOUS.

This is when the Fantastic Four arrive on the ship, and there’s a back-and-forth discussion with Doom that is annoyingly accompanied by a “tzang” sound effect whenever the panel switches back to Doom.
I’m only posting two panels of this, but it goes on for an entire page and it’s wholly unnecessary.

Doom takes this opportunity to present the “generals” he gathered in the Franklin-verse.
Considering how much I’m criticizing Claremont, I think it’s fair to highlight what he actually does right: Doom’s dialogue is just excellent.
“Spoken as always with that infernally quite assurance which borders on arrogance” is a FANTASTIC way to condense Doom’s thoughts about Reed in a single sentence.

Also Doom’s response to the Torch is just perfect Doom.

Despite laughing her off, Doom has a great moment with Valeria.

I love how cold and direct Doom is here.

Too bad Claremont put all of his writing into Doom, because his Generals are just utterly forgettable.

And then a Celestial shows up to destroy Doom’s ship!

And I’m very confused about what Celestial this is supposed to be, because I don’t think it’s the Dreaming Celestial, it’s not Ashema, and at this time there are not supposed to be any other Celestials on Earth. I’m a HUGE fan of the entire Celestial mythos and I’m fairly confident Claremont doesn’t have a firm grasp on them.

Doom RIGHTFULLY calls out Reed’s decision of leaving the universe Franklin created in the hands of a Celestial they BARELY knew.
Now we learn a little of what actually happened: since the pocket universe was “something of a dream”, that allowed the Dreaming Celestial to take it over.

Please note that he’s called “Dreaming Celestial” because he was knocked out and exiled by the other Celestials, but HE DOESN’T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH DREAMS.
Seems to me that Claremont read the name “Dreaming Celestial” and decided he was all about dreams. Ugh.

Also it’s a bad sign when DOCTOR DOOM is doing more to save Earth than the superheroes!!!

Guys, there’s supposed to be a planetary catastrophe going on! Don’t you have anything better to do!?

I just can’t understand how Claremont manages to write great Doom dialogue and utterly butcher Reed’s. Does this REALLY feel like Reed dialogue!?

Everyone is attacked by minions of the Dreaming Celestial, and when Reed tries to help the Torch escape from some shadow tentacles Doom blasts him, but figuratively and literally.

Again, DOCTOR DOOM is doing all the work here!!!

Doom, Reed and Valeria infiltrate the prison where the Dreaming Celestial is being kept.
It’s suitable spectacular, but the logistics of this are very unclear… I’m not sure exactly WHERE we are supposed to be.
If that’s supposed to be the same place where the Celestials originally exiled the Dreaming Celestial… we’d already seen in the Eternals series he was under the Diablo Mountains in California.

Doom’s reaction to everyone else being captured by the tentacle shadows is peak Doctor Doom.

Reed has SOME intel on the prison, thanks to an encounter with a hidden society calling themselves “the Ruined” at the start of the series. That’s a reference to the very brief Lobdell run, which is one of the rare occasions when Claremont refences something that isn’t from the X-Men.

I share Doom’s sentiment about the Ruined: could we possibly care less?

The Dreaming Celestial attacks by transforming the trio into various things, which is mostly shown as a bunch of text. I didn’t think I’d have have to call out “show, don’t tell!!!” to A COMIC BOOK, but that’s Claremont for you.

Despite having absolutely no reason to, the Dreaming Celestial then offers to share his power.

But it’s just a trick on Doom’s part, because after yet another badass boast from Doom…

…Reed carries out the rest of the plan. Because apparently a prison holding a super-god has a security system operated by playing a “connect the dots” game.

Yes Reed, you’re CLEARLY “doing all the work” when Doom is STANDING UP TO AN UBER-GOD.

How did Doom put it at the beginning of the story?

Reed and Doom’s plan got the attention of the other Celestials (or possibly only from the re-awakened Ashema?), who take down the Dreaming Celestial.

But before being taken down, the Dreaming Celestial decides to “grant nightmares” to the two mortals who foiled his plan…

…and we end with the cliffhanger of Doctor Doom being the one to emerge from the ensuing explosion, with Reed being dead.

Spoiler alert: that’s not actually Doom.
Because once we return to the Fantastic Four series, Claremont will deliver one of the dumbest plots I’ve ever read.

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Doom significance: 7/10
Doctor Doom is exiled AGAIN, but mercifully this time he won’t take long to come back.

Silver Age-ness: SCIENCE!!!/10

Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
I’m a bit conflicted here. This is a GREAT Doctor Doom, from his superb dialogue to the way he acts. But other than that…
Valeria continues to be useless despite the amount of time we spent with her, Reed just spouts nonsense, Susan angsts, the both the Torch and the Thing are just… there. The Generals are still boring, and Claremont doesn’t really do anything interesting with the Celestials.

It was a Doombot all along
If it wasn’t for future stories making it abundantly clear this HAS to be the real Doom, I would’ve been tempted to call this a Doombot because his eyes switch between green and blue throughout the story for no reason.

Times Doom has saved the world: 12
Technically he saved TWO worlds, but I’m still only counting one.

Crazy tech
It’s not entirely clear how much it’s tech and how much is magic, but Doom just held his own against a freaking Celestial!!!