FANTASTIC FOUR #259 (1983)
Writer, penciler & inker: John Byrne
Despite being on the cover (the black cape&cowl looks good on him!), Doom doesn’t do much in this issue: most of the story is dedicated to the fight against Tyros, who Doom unleashed last issue.
This is peak John Byrne, so needless to say the fight with the Thing is pretty awesome.
Of particular note is the double-page spread depicting the Thing being punched through a supermarket: the scene is inside a “WHAM” sound effect (!!!), plus it’s so detailed that you can actually see the labels of multiple products. Great stuff!
Before the Thing can ask for the rest of the team to help, Doom kidnaps the Invisible Girl with his weird ship.
Despite appearances he doesn’t attack her; a direct reference is made to their last encounter during Fantastic Four #247. This time he’s not going to use the Inhibitor Ray ™.
He has a more direct approach.
Presumably he doesn’t know the Invisible Girl is currently pregnant.
The following panel does a lot of legwork, informing us that:
A) he has the means to hit her THROUGH the force field
B) hitting a woman is typically against his code, but killing one isn’t
Turns out that this was a Doombot, and not a particularly good one.
Doom shows up to talk with the Invisible Girl through a weird projector; note that he’s calling her “Susan” but she sticks with “Von Doom”.
Up to this point in history, Doom has largely ignored her. But considering the HUGE amounts of character development under the Byrne run, now we have the kind of relationship that will become the standard between them.
Doom shows her the battle with Tyros, which the Thing and the Human Torch are losing.
So Doom gives her a choice: either fight with him one-on-one, or go help her family.
Which is pretty weird, because what did you expect!?!?
The fight continues and ends next issue.
Doom significance: 6/10
The storyline itself is pretty important and it’s a great way to change the way he will interact with Susan from now on… but it’s just a couple of pages.
Silver Age-ness: 4/10
Considering the entire idea of Tyros is to use it to attack the FF, singling out the Invisible Girl to give her the chance to fight Doom alone doesn’t really make that much sense to me.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
Great dialogue between Doom and the Invisible Girl, although Doom’s appearance here is largely to fill up some space. It’s pretty hard to believe he would program his Doombots to hit a woman if that’s really that much out of character for him, although to be fair this IS pretty early for the history of Doombots.
It was a Doombot all along
Obviously we have A Doombot, but not a very memorable one.
Destroy the FF! : 44
Once again, the entire point of the story.
Crazy tech
Whatever Doom uses to punch Susan THROUGH the force field is incredibly impressive: she’s a real powerhouse, but that trick is an instant kill.