FANTASTIC FOUR #143 (1974)
by Gerry Conway & Rich Buckler
Cover by Gil Kane
Part 2 of the latest Doom/FF fight. Nice cover, even if the perspective on the Thing is a little wonky.
Mister Fantastic and Medusa are ready to fight Doctor Doom… or at least they think they’re ready.
Having Reed’s friend present during the fight wasn’t exactly a great idea.
And I keep thinking that they were hinting at a possible relationship with Medusa, since they really insist on the fact that she stayed at his side when the rest of the team quit.
Then the guy who can stretch for miles and the woman who can climb buildings with her prehensile hair are defeated by falling into the floor.
Interestingly, Reed Richards and Ben Grimm are not the only college friends that Doom hates.
He’s a bit more successful at dealing with this one, though.
Is it just me, or is Doom making moves on Thorne’s wife?
Major “So, come here often?” vibes here.
If Doom wanted to impress her, though, the double page might do the trick.
Doom isn’t exactly great in this issue, but this panel is pretty good.
Doom is more interested in showing off his latest inventions: the Vibration Bomb ™…
…which I guess is a scaled-up version of the Vibration Device that he uses against a couple of henchmen who tried to double-cross him.
So it has absolutely nothing to do with vibrations. Gotcha.
Hmm, I don’t know, this looks more like a Red Skull thing to me.
Not the whole mind-controlling the planet, though. That definitely sounds like Doom.
Interestingly, we get a cutout of Doom’s base. We typically get these only for the Baxter Building.
Everything is going great for Doom, except Darkoth is rebelling.
Apparently he didn’t realize he wasn’t a real demon until Doom summoned him here.
Doom then goes to kidnap the Human Torch, who has the second best reaction to Doctor Doom (after “where’s my money, honey”, of course!)
While Doom is busy capturing the Human Torch, Darkoth rebels for real this time and frees the rest of the team.
Concludes next issue!
Fantastic Four significance: 0/10
It’s in the middle of a very significant part of their history, but you can easily skip it.
Doom significance: 1/10
Darkoth does have an extremely minor impact.
Silver Age-ness: 2/10
Doom acting as stereotypically as possible is the only real Silver Age-ness here.
Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
Meh. I don’t like it when Doom is mostly treated like any other villain, and he’ll get this treatment a lot in the 70s. There’s definitely enough personal drama in the series at this point; I would argue that it’s a little too much… everyone is constantly fighting and bickering, and while it’s in the Marvel tradition, it can make some of these stories a chore to sit through.
It was a Doombot all along
No real indication, but I would really prefer if this was a Doombot considering how dull he can be.
Take over the world & Destroy the FF!
It’s been a while since Doom has tried to do either of those, but he’s coming back with both goals this time!
Crazy tech
The Vibration Bomb ™, of course. A worldwide mind control device that has nothing to do with vibration.
Number of superheroes who have fought Dr. Doom: 20
Adding Medusa to the list.
“I have neither the time nor the desire for gaming!” And then Johnny refused to go anywhere until Doom had beaten him in a game of Magic the Gathering. Turns out Victor’s a total scrub and the whole scheme just grinds to a halt as he keeps trying for best two out of three, three out of five, five out of seven, ad infinitum. Torch finally gives him a pity win just to advance the plot.