With the end of the Marvel Age brand, it was succeeded by Marvel Adventures for its all-ages books. The Fantastic Four have a surprisingly lengthy 50 issue series, but strangely Doctor Doom only makes a handful of appearances.
Which is for the best, as you’ll see.
Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #0 (2005)
by Marc Sumerak & Scot Eaton
cover by Michael Ryan
The book is HEAVILY inspired by the movie coming out the same year, although technically speaking this issue was published first.
The setup is that New York City is throwing a parade to honor the Fantastic Four. Considering this is ISSUE ZERO, they LITERALLY haven’t done anything yet!
This series is absolutely dreadful, but I did enjoy this moment.
Then the public turns into a bunch of robots.
Which is when you know we’re about to have a big Doctor Doom reveal…
…but all we get is THIS guy.
That is easily one of the most pathetic attempts at a Doctor Doom redesign I have EVER seen.
See what I meant about the movie? This is just the look from that… except I would argue the comic is even WORSE, because at least in the movie you couldn’t really see that this was just a coat worn over regular clothes.
After the FF smash a few robots, they ask Doom what he wants.
And holy crap is that a bad mask in the second panel!
Doom is after Reed’s latest invention. This the kind of thing that happens in adaptations from time to time, and it always bothers me to no end… Doom would NEVER just be after one of Reed’s toys, he always believes Reed’s tech is inferior!!!
Which doesn’t mean you can never have him be after something that belongs to Reed, but you have to come up with SOME context! Otherwise Doom ends up interchangeable with any other FF enemy.
Reed just asks Susan to hand the device…
…which is just what Doom wanted. There’s no nuance or anything, he was just after the thing (not THE Thing).
Then Doom’s robots open fire on the parade, needlessly endangering civilians.
Doom makes a run for it, but Reed isn’t worried about the stolen device… because they just gave him Invisible Woman’s phone.
And DOCTOR FREAKING DOOM doesn’t even notice until he powers his device!!!
Too bad that this was a 2005 comic. Because it if had been published just one year later, they could have gone with something way funnier.
Then again, this might have been a subtle inside joke: the song that plays is “Sugar Sugar” by The Archies… a fictional band what SOMEHOW had a real hit song, and as we all know Archie actually did meet Doctor Doom.
Does any of this show up in regular continuity?
IT BETTER NOT!!!
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but… this would have been too stupid FOR THE SILVER AGE.
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #4 (2005)
by Jeff Parker & Juan Santacruz
cover by Morry Hollowell, Mark Morales and Michael Ryan
This one is by Jeff Parker, who is typically a good writer… this one HAS to be better than that travesty.
As you saw from the cover, the FF are fighting a Sentinel. They believe it’s because it’s malfunctioning, but it’s actually because Johnny is dating a mutant.
(although he won’t learn she’s one until the end of the story)
Doctor Doom gets involved because he’s randomly watching the news, who are picking up that the Fantastic Four keep losing their powers at the worst possible moments.
Any chance of this being a decent version of Doctor Doom is thrown out of the window when we see that he CASUALLY drops the mask in front of other people.
(no, we don’t see his face)
After a fight with Dragon Man (that’s the android Doom was talking about), the Sentinel returns for Johnny’s girlfriend. And he learns she’s the reason why the FF keep losing powers, because she’s some kind of energy vampire.
I’m skipping a lot because Doom’s involvement is minimal, but this isn’t a bad story!
In the end, Professor X solves everything by introducing her with a guy with an opposite power.
Does any of this show up in regular continuity?
I’m not enough of an X-Men fan to be sure, but I feel like they’ve done SOMETHING similar at least once.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
It’s a very, VERY simple story, but it’s not a bad one. I wouldn’t mind seeing this in the proper continuity.
Doctor Doom is definitely the weakest part. He has no business being here and can EASILY be swapped with anyone else. And that maskless scene is an unforgivable sin!
Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #12 (2006)
by Jeff Parker & Juan Santacruz
cover by Raul Fernandez, Juan Santacruz and Chris Sotomayor
You might have laughed at the Spider-Mobile, but ladies and gentlemen: behold Doctor Doom’s Hot Rod.
10/10 premise, no notes.
I’m not kidding: this used to be Reed’s car from college, and Johnny falls in love with it.
Johnny has always been a car enthusiast since his very first appearance, but this is a nice bit of character work to tell us why.
Since it was Reed’s car, OF COURSE it can fly.
Yeah sorry Spider-Man, but his car is significantly cooler than yours. Even Superman likes it!
Now we reconnect to the beginning of the story, and SOMEHOW nobody believe Johnny that Doctor Doom stole his car.
Johnny decides to leave for Latveria… and he’s SO lost he ends up at the North Pole!
You’re thinking of SOMEONE ELSE, Johnny.
Turns out that this is Doctor Doom’s birthday.
You know, this was actually pretty good up to this point! But then the story turns into a full farce.
Look, I’m not saying you can’t make fun of Doom… he has a more ridiculous side that has always been part of the character… but this is going a little too hard.
Thankfully we recover sanity a little, because it turns out that the car was actually one of Doom’s earliest creations!
Also, the Doombot that stole it wasn’t even sent by Doom.
The Fantastic Four blow their cover… well technically Johnny blows it, because of course he does… and Reed reveals he actually BOUGHT the car from Doom!
As profoundly unfunny as this Doctor Doom has been… I have to admit, having him go “that sounds like something I’d say” did get a chuckle out of me.
Doctor Doom, master of rationalizing anything into getting what he wants since 1962.
The Thing ends up destroying the car, so neither Doom nor Johnny can have it.
Does any of this show up in regular continuity?
If it does, I’m going to make Susan’s expression.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10 
Does it stand the test of time? 6/10
The first half of the comic isn’t bad, if more than a little tongue-in-cheek. Too bad it devolves into a farce.
Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #42 (2009)
by Paul Tobin & David Hahn
cover by Clayton Henry
Believe it or not, but it takes Doom THIRTY ISSUES before he shows up again.
It’s election time in Latveria. Because in this continuity I guess Doom is an elected official?
Doctor Doom actually loses the election, in the most unexpected electoral surprise since 
At least the Fantastic Four figure out that Doom is not going to just become a regular citizen.
The artwork was one of the saving graces of the early issues, but as you can see it has degraded SIGNIFICANTLY.
At least we get SOME explanation for why Doom even needed to hold elections in the first place.
It’s not a GOOD explanation, mind you.
Although, honestly… the world WOULD be dumb enough to believe Doom would hold democratic elections just because he said it.
Don’t expect too much thought being given to this. There’s even talks about the new government needing to build more schools, when the fact that Latverians are highly educated is such an important point that it’s THE ONLY REASON THEY WON THE ELECTION.
The attempt to discredit the new “Supreme President” doesn’t take much.
You might say that trying to judge this as a normal comic isn’t fair, since it’s meant for a younger audience. HOWEVER, if you’re brining up complex topics, you’re asking for it.
I mean, if this is meant to be “just for kids”… would they care to discuss the Latverian energy crisis?
The new Supreme President is EXPLICITLY elected 5 days after the election, and the energy crisis is explicitly discussed 4 days later. So you mean to tell me that once the Latverians are free to travel… the country runs out of gas IN NINE DAYS?
Also, where the heck are all these people going!? If they are fleeing the country en masse, wouldn’t THAT be the bigger problem?
Did ANYONE think this through!?
Things are even MORE ridiculous when, in order to solve the crisis, the new Supreme President calls Doctor Doom for advice.
Wait so Doctor Doom was deposed but he kept both his money AND his army!?
Leave it to Doctor Doom to say the first smart thing in the entire comic.
The next ridiculous crisis is a dam about collapse. Which for some reason requires the combined efforts of both Doom and the Fantastic Four to fix.
Doom even has to sacrifice his life to save the dam, chewing so much scenery he might damage the comic’s paper.
HOW DOES ANYONE BELIEVE THIS FOR A SINGLE SECOND???
The new Supreme President really is the most spineless politician since
But Doctor Doom turns out to still be alive, and everybody forgets every bad thing he has ever done while in power in the most frustrating example of an electorate losing its mind since
Turns out that the Fantastic Four weren’t so dumb after all, and they’ve been on Doom the entire time.
The Fantastic Four quickly defeat Doom, who is revealed to have sabotaged everything.
There is something DEEPLY DISTURBING in a Thing with lips.
This is the last time Doctor Doom shows up in this book. The other Marvel Adventures titles ignore this, but it’s not clear whether they’re in the same continuity.
Does any of this show up in regular continuity?
Doctor Doom has never run an election. Even when he became President of the United States in 2099, he did so with a coup.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
Even Doom at his most melodramatic in the late Silver Age wasn’t THIS stereotypical!
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
Unlike all the other stories I covered… yes, even the one with the cellphone… I can’t find any redeeming qualities in this one.
If even a single reader was tricked by the links, it will make my day.