FANTASTIC FOUR #17 (1963)
by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
And you thought you couldn’t make “The threat of the Swirling Cement!” and “The menace of the Moving Bars!” sound exciting.
Well, okay, they DON’T sound exciting, but the issue is pretty great… with a goofy start.
The Fantastic Four start the issue by telling each other what happened during their last adventure. Where they were all already present.
Apparently last time they forgot to mention that the Human Torch was knighted by the princess.
I’m less concerned by the fact that this was never mentioned again then by the fact that apparently ONLY the Human Torch was knighted. What about the other three!?
They haven’t forgotten that Doctor Doom got away last issue, so Reed has come up with his latest invention: a radar that is sensitive to human flesh covered by steel.
I’m not going to bother trying to come up with an explanation of how THAT’s supposed to work…
…since the Human Torch is using his powers in an even less scientifically believable way: “sonar heat waves”. Wait, what!?
So… his heat creates sound waves? And he’s able to detect the vibrations this causes?
At this point, are we SURE his power has anything to do with fire? Because I’m starting to believe his super-power is making up powers as he goes along!
The Thing isn’t having more luck finding Doom:
It’s a good thing that one day Doom will have his own country. Once Latveria is introduced, the Fantastic Four will know where to find him: based on this issue and issue 6, they SUCK at finding him anywhere else!!!
They decide to stop looking for him, reasoning he’ll come back eventually.
Which makes a certain amount of sense: he’s already their most recurring villain!
As they get out of the Baxter Building, a gentle janitor helps them.
But the janitor is secretly… DOCTOR DOOM!
Yes. That is Doctor Doom taking off a fake beard. I’ll give you a moment to appreciate it.
I know it sounds a little out of character for Doom to do this on his own, instead of sending out a minion or a robot, but I’m more weirded out by the fact that he was able to hide his armor underneath the janitor’s clothes!
The Doom unleashes his latest, vilest creation… floating lighter-than-air robots.
Yellow, red, green and PINK POLKA DOT robots.
DOCTOR DOOM BUILT A FLOATING PINK POLKA DOT ROBOT.
“Good heavens” indeed!!!
They don’t even DO anything! All they do is just follow the Fantastic Four, causing AT BEST a minor inconvenience!
Doctor Doom even admits that the robot’s purpose was to “embarrass and confuse” the Fantastic Four. He definitely confused them, alright, but I think HE should be embarassed!
The devices he put on their wrists were just tracking devices for the floating robots, which he used to spy on them. I mean… why not spy them using the tracking devices and skip the robots!? I know Doom is really, REALLY into robots, but come on, where they REALLY necessary!?
And all he discovered is that the easiest target is Alicia, the Thing’s girlfriend.
Did you really need to go through all this trouble to figure THAT out, Doom? It’s not like their relationship is a secret, and you already met Alicia in issue 10 !
We get a nice glipse of Doom’s characterization, and he gets a glimpse of his own face.
A couple of interesting things about these panels.
He calls himself the equal of Reed Richards, while typically he only goes as far as calling Reed “almost his equal”. Maybe this early in his career he had a slightly smaller ego? Or it’s okay to admit it because nobody is listening?
Second, the other panel seems to imply that he’s jealous of the Thing since he’s convinced that his disfigurement makes it impossible for anyone to love him. That’s an interesting part of his relationship with the Thing that unfortunately won’t be used much.
Doom then kidnaps Alicia with an anti-gravity ray and brings her to his floating fortress!
In a rather realistic way, kidnapping her in the middle of the street attracts so much attention that it’s on the front page.
Doom then warns the Fantastic Four that, if they try to rescue Alicia, he will terrorize the city with mass hallucinations. Or with giant vines.
I guess Doom likes to be flexible with him doomsday weapons.
Then we learn Doom’s motivation. He’s not in for the money: he just want power! The power of… a cabinet position in the US government!?
You might think it’s a little lacking in ambition. But if he doesn’t get the job he wants, he’s going to DECLARE WAR ON THE UNITED STATES ON HIS OWN.
No single man has ever declared war on the US before, so this warrants an appearance by JFK’s hair.
I didn’t cut anything in this panel: this is everything we see of him.
How serious is Doom’s threat? He STARTS by disrupting America’s missile defenses, effectively halting the nation’s industrial complex.
This is FIVE PAGES after the polka dot robot. Talk about escalation!!!
To put this in perspective: this was published during the Cold War, a year after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Doom is being presented as a threat on the level of the Soviet Union.
Speaking of which:
Yes, that is Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
The Fantastic Four are brought in to attack Doom’s fortress, but there’s a problem: it’s equipped with disintegrator rays that will kill them if they get inside, thanks to the floating robots.
Wait a minute: Doom said the robots were only supposed to “embarrass and confuse” the Fantastic Four. Which part of that includes disintegration!?
Reed comes up with an interesting plan: since the disintegrator rays are programmed with their atomic structures, he creates a serum that temporarily returns the Thing to his human form, which is different enough to allow him to get past the rays.
But the serum is only temporary, so the Thing has to hold back his transformation long enough to get inside the ship.
That’s interesting. We will eventually be told that the Thing’s inability to turn back into Ben Grimm is mostly a psychological issue, so him being able to do this makes more sense in retrospective.
The Fantastic Four following him in a silly looking ship with a giant magnet.
Complete with a “BONNNG” sound effect.
Once inside, the Fantastic Four are caught in the traps shown in the cover:
From which they escape rather easily:
Doom doesn’t care: he’s busy monologuing about the awesomeness of his next weapon, which will exile them into another dimension.
The Invisible Girl is nowhere to be seen (pun intended), but as you see Doom doesn’t really care about her. I’m willing to cut him SOME slack… the first time he kidnapped he just needed some rope. How hard will it be to capture her again? He’s already captured the other three!
By the way, they escaped his “power spheres” thanks to some flame body doubles created by the Human Torch:
Okay, this is slighly closer to his actual powers than using sonar: creating fire images of HIMSELF is something he does all the time, but how did he manage to create fully colored images of the Thing and Mister Fantastic that didn’t look like they were made of fire!?
Doom then retreats to, rather uncharacteristically for him, take Alicia as a hostage.
But the Invisible Girl has taken her place.
But come on, how hard is it going to be to defeat the Invisible Girl?
PRETTY FREAKIN’ HARD!!!
She backs Doom into a corner, to the point that he even pulls a raygun!
How is the Invisible Girl going to get out of this? We never find out, because when the other three show up Doom decides to escape…
…by jumping out of his ship.
And that’s it. The Fantastic Four just assume he just plummets to his death, despite the fact that they should know from their first encounter that he has a jetpack.
Historical significance: 5/10
There isn’t much impact on the Fantastic Four, and this issue will be reference exactly once in a homage many, many years later.
Doom significance: 7/10
Doom is slowly growing into his classic persona, from his thirst for power to his obsession about Reed’s scientific prowess. While there are still many bumps on the road, considering the scene with the mirror and the fact that he’s being considered a major world threat, this is probably the first time when he does read like Doctor Doom.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
A little goofy in places, especially with the Human Torch’s very weird use of his powers, but overall about what you’d expect from Marvel in this time period.
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
The first part of the story hasn’t aged very well. The entire part about looking for Doom is mostly a retread of issue 6, and Doom’s floating robots are too silly. Once they’re out of the way and Doom takes out his flying fortress, though, there’s a real sense of threat and urgency.
Using real leaders (or their hair) during the height of the Cold War definitely escalates things, although thanks to comic book time these aren’t JFK and Khrushchev anymore.
It was a Doombot all along
There is no definitive proof whether this is a Doombot or the real Doom.
He could’ve used a robot instead of ridiculously impersonating the janitor.
Take over the world
Surprisingly enough, no! He just wants a cabinet position in the US government!
Destroy the FF!
Not initially, but several of his weapons were designed to outright kill the Fantastic Four and it’s implied that he would’ve murdered the Invisible Girl, so it still counts.
Mirror smash!
He doesn’t literally smash the mirror, but once again it’s a closer look than usual.
Crazy tech
There are some very impressive inventions here… the flying fortress, the disintegrator ray, the power spheres, and whatever he used to wreck the US missile defense… but Floating Pink Polka Dot Robot is the real winner.