FANTASTIC FOUR #200 (1978)
by Marv Wolfman & Keith Pollard
cover by Jack Kirby
This is the big one. The last Doctor Doom story of the Silver Age and a historical fight with Mr. Fantastic. Not that you would tell from the cover… it’s classic Kirby, but rather generic.
We begin with Doom asking why he had to kill his own clone. Melodramatically as always.
Doom is really, really, REALLY angry this time. This is a cool panel!
Doom doesn’t fight the FF immediately, though, because first he has to take care of his clone.
The Fantastic Four are trapped. Even a chair, once Doom’s greatest adversary, isn’t enough to escape.
Meanwhile Doom has to deal with the rebellion, who didn’t appreciate the fact that the coronation of his son didn’t go through.
What the ####### does it mean that the “ancient laws” demand that Doom must abdicate!? What kind of monarchy has EVER worked like that!?!?
Doom’s reply is to send a hurricane on the mob!!!!
First of all, last time we saw Doom create an artificial tornado it was with one of Reed’s machines.
Second… I’m sorry, but this is too much. Doom can be VERY cruel to those he believes have betrayed him, but this is just absurd!
I do like the henchman following Doom’s order even when he hears the cries of his wife and child, though. Suitably chilling stuff.
There’s a noticeable error in the story. At page 9 Doom tells his pilots to fly to New York because he wants to address the United Nations, and at page 15 we do see him in his castle in upstate New York, but later at page 38 the castle is in Latveria.
Meanwhile, Reed manages to escape by stretching like never before. It seems we’re still going with the idea that his powers are greater than ever.
They free Alicia, and Susan gets to tell Reed a classic “Will you just shut up and kiss me already?”.
You’ve got to love Johnny Storm.
The team flies to the US and they split: Reed confronts Doom in his New York castle, while the others will go to the United Nations.
We get an extremely brief retelling of Doom’s origin. We don’t get new details…
…except a noticeable emphasis on Doom blaming Reed for the failure of the experiment that disfigured him. It’s FAR more pronounced than ever before.
They fight for several pages. Reed manages to keep up, even if Doom is now invulnerable to chairs.
Some highlights include the first and only mention of Victorium ™…
…and the first use of the word “Doom-bot”, even if it’s applied to a generic robot and not to what we call a Doombot today.
Doom is just relentless, throwing Reed one trap after another after another after another.
He only manages to escape by doing whatever this is:
Meanwhile, Doom’s minions… or his robots, it’s not clear… deliver his ugly statue to the United Nations.
We finally find out what the statue is supposed to do: it hypnotizes the United Nations.
Oh no, now instead of doing nothing they will make weird faces while they do nothing!
While Reed finishes his escape, Doom reaches the Solartron Complex © that we saw in Fantastic Four #196.
Reed takes this opportunity to sneak up on him and disrupts his armor with a convenient gizmo he’s kept with himself this whole time.
This disables the armor’s “offensive capabilities”, allowing this to turn into a fistfight.
During this entire fight his hood is down; we rarely see him without it.
Reed is psychoanalyzing Doom insisting that he’s doing this because he wants vengeance, but Doom has another viewpoing.
This is a good fight, but a bit long. Where are the Fantastic Four? Surely they must be doing something interesting?
Nevermind.
Here’s the Page 38 caption that screws up the continuity: “meanwhile in Latveria”, while Doom and Reed are supposed to be in upstate New York.
Reed breaks free of the ice prison and the fight continues, with Doom almost slipping up and admitting that Reed MIGHT ALMOST be Doom’s superior.
This is where Doom finally accuses Reed of being directly responsible for the accident that disfigured him.
It’s a cool moment, made somewhat ridiculous by Reed sticking out his tongue.
Reed manages to take off Doom’s mask, because when he short circuited the armor he disabled the mask’s safety lock… causing Doom to see his reflection into the thousands of mirrors.
This is THE moment of this story. It’s a cool visual, with nice artwork, and it works really really well. My only problem is that future mentions will say that this caused Doom to go insane because he saw his disfigured face… except the first time we saw these mirrors we were explicitly told that they would drive ANYONE insane.
Reed disables the mind control device, so the United Nations representatives are now free.
And we’re already at the epilogue, with Zorba promising to turn Latveria into a democracy.
That’s not going to turn up so well for Latveria. Or for Zorba.
Or for anyone except Doom, but it’ll be one of my favorite Doom stories.
And so the Silver Age sets on Doctor Doom, now insane inside a padded cell.
While his statue crumbles for… reasons, I guess.
What materials did he use to build the statue!?
Doom significance: 10/10
There’s a reason why I put this one as the very last Silver Age story for Doom. It’s the first time he loses Latveria for more than a couple of issues and it was supposed to be the last Doom story for the time. Some readers thought it should’ve been the last one, but… more on that in a bit.
Silver Age-ness: 7/10
The way Doom is defeated and the idea that the UN representative are trouble for the three FF. Or the idea that Doom can conquer the world just by hypnotizing some diplomats, really.
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
This is a tough one. It starts pretty bad… Doom’s WAY out of character to deal with the Latverians with a tornado (!!!), but the fight with Reed is on a whole other level.
It’s a bit long… I didn’t show everything because it goes on and on and on… but it’s really good, showcasing the quick thinking of both Reed and Doom. It even goes more visceral than most typical superhero fights.
On the other hand… the ending is a bit of a letdown, and you also have the problem of the other three FF. This is entirely a Reed Richards story, with the others barely visible at all.
Overall, it’s still a good comic and MILES away from the previous issues… honestly you can pretty much skip everything and read issue 200 directly, you won’t miss much!
So… should this really have been Doom’s last fight, as you see some Silver Age fans say sometimes? I wouldn’t mind having Doom go down in a final blaze of glory and be retired as a villain, but not the Doom of the 70s… there’s almost nothing of Doom’s complexity and grandeur at display here.
This is one of the hardest calls, but there’s more good than bad even if parts of this are really really dated.
It was a Doombot all along
This is one of the very, very few cases where it HAS to be the real Doom. Funny that’s in the first story when the term “Doom-bot” is used!
Destroy the FF!
Mostly Reed, but one of the most important times he tries this.
Take over the world
And he would’ve gotten away with it if it wasn’t for those pesky mirrors!
Crazy tech
We’ve already seen the solar plant and the statue is nothing new when it comes to hypnotizing people, so I’m going with Victorium ™.
Times Latveria has been conquered: 4
Doom has already lost Latveria to the Red Skull (twice!) and to Rudolfo, but it’s Zorba who will keep him out of power for a while.
This might’ve been Doom’s last Silver Age story, but this retrospective is FAR from over!!!
Next we will have a look at:
1) all Silver Age cameos
2) the various continuity inserts set in this time period
3) the stories that piece together Doom’s origins without featuring Doom from the present day, including the excellent “Books of Doom” miniseries
Only after that we will continue with Doom in the 80s, which will be a PHENOMENAL decade for him!