FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #20 (1987)
by Steve Englehart & Paul Neary
cover by Ron Frenz
Behold Doctor Doom, the world’s greatest ventriloquist! Seriously, couldn’t they get Franklin to look more like a puppet if they tried.
Doom has showed up at the Four Freedoms Plaza (the new FF headquarters after Kristoff blew up the original Baxter Building) to ask the help of Franklin Richards in saving his mother from Hell.
Everyone else is concerned about Franklin fighting the Devil since, you know, HE’S FOUR, but Reed has another question:
Doom has been keeping tabs on the kid: he knows that he recently defeated Mephisto in a FF story, and knows about his adventures with the Power Pack as well.
Jumping ahead a little bit, this will lead to what is possibly my favorite moment in the Englehart run: Reed realizing that DOOM knows more about his son than he does. That’s got to hurt!
Back to chronological order, Doom dismisses Kristoff in a brutally cold way and even promises that he would sacrifice himself rather than harm Franklin. Remember that point for later.
Being politely asked to leave, Doom… just politely leaves!
Well, you asked him to leave. You didn’t ask him not to SEND AN ARMY OF ROBOTS!!!
Rookie mistake, Reed.
But, as the narration explains, Doom wasn’t expecting the robots to give the FF too much trouble. They’re just a distraction, allowing one of the smashed robots to re-assemble itself and kidnap Franklin.
I told you to remember Doom’s promise. Apparently it had an expiration date!
The scenes with Doom interacting with Franklin are interesting. No only Doom seems to done down his doom-ness a little, but the kid doesn’t seem scared by him: he’s not even worried by the fact that Doom is using power dampeners.
I would criticize Franklin for falling into Doom’s trap, but, y’know, HE’S FOUR.
The soap opera is beginning to get in the way of the story: Reed and Sue are obviously worried about their worst enemy kidnapping their son, but Johnny and Crystal don’t seem to mind at all.
We saw last issue that Kristoff is still prisoner at the FF headquarters. Now he manages to escape by sending orders to one of the robots Doom left behind (by whistling!!!).
Turns out that Reed SOMEHOW anticipated he would do this, and the FF follow Kristoff to Latveria (he flies there with the robot).
Not only that’s a pretty cold tactic from Reed, it seems unnecessary… it’s by no means the first time FF sneak into Latveria!!!
Back to the Doom And Kid show:
It’s weird to praise the way Doom is tricking Franklin since, you know, HE’S FOUR, but still this is masterfully done.
It helps that Doom hasn’t interacted with Franklin much up to this point. They’ve basically never met, with the exception of Fantastic Four #236 which has its own sets of problems.
Kristoff has also reached Latveria, and he slips back into his version of the Doom armor.
We never get an explanation for WHY he changed his look… the memory implants already reached a point where the original Doom already had his classic cape and cowl, so it’s kind of weird.
I get that they wanted to differentiate Kristoff and Doom visually, but if so why not give Kristoff the original armor from Fantastic Four #5 ?
All the parties converge on the main event: Doom beginning the ritual fight from Mephisto that we saw in Astonishing Tales #8.
Franklin having different priorities got a chuckle out of me.
It’s only now that he gives hints of finding the situation scary.
Doom calls forth Mephisto in a very Doom way: by boasting about his accomplishments.
Pointing out that he has defeated Silver Surfer makes sense, since Mephisto started out as a Silver Surfer villain… but Namor, of all people? Not even bringing up the freaking BEYONDER, Doom!?
And now we have reached the most controversial moment of the story: Doctor Doom offering to the Devil the soul of a child in exchange for the soul of his mother.
In my experience Doom fans are split over this twist. Is this in character?
I’m on the side that doesn’t mind it… with a caveat. I like the fact that Doom doesn’t TECHNICALLY lie to Franklin: he repeatedly tells him that he needs his help but omits what exactly he wants him to do. The question is if it’s in character for Doom to kill a child.
Normally I would say no, but the circumstances are quite extraordinary here… it’s to save his mother, it’s the son of his nemesis, plus Franklin is not exactly a powerless civilian… so in this particular case I don’t mind it much. There’s also an additional detail that I’ll discuss later that makes me consider this a credible Doom.
I mentioned a caveat, though. Remember this?
Yeah… I’m calling bulls##t on THAT.
Doom not following his word based on a technicality is classic Doom, but this is him making an oath and then revealing it was contingent on stuff he didn’t explicitly say… that’s not Doom.
Back to the story, Kristoff interrupts the ritual by attacking Doom. This is all very confusing to the Doombots.
And Mephisto is like “I don’t care about this, I just want to murder a child”, which… well okay that IS 100% Mephisto.
He takes Franklin to Hell (!!!), but Reed sabotages Doom’s dampeners to unlock his son’s powers.
Mephisto is no match for a fully powered Franklin, so he sends him back after a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo of Doom’s mother.
Franklin has seen some s#it: this is a four year old who is fully aware he’s about to murder someone.
But just in case I forgot to mention it, HE’S FOUR.
You have to love Doom and Kristoff monologuing together.
Remember I mentioned there was another reason I consider this a valid Doom? It’s the reason he gives for not trusting Franklin to defeat Mephisto: he couldn’t accept that someone else could succeed where Doom failed.
That’s another divisive moment, but I love it: I call that character development for Doom.
Too bad the Doombots are of another opinion!
So Doom has to fight HIS ENTIRE DOOMBOT ARMY. The artwork so far has been serviceable but not that great… but this panel is gorgeous!
Doom survives but there are far too many robots for him to take alone, so he leaves Latveria… which has the practical effect of putting Kristoff on the throne.
But surely the Fantastic Four won’t just leave the child who thinks he’s Doctor Doom continue being the ruler of Latveria like nothing happened, right?
Or they could just ignore the kid (who is just a few years older than Franklin) and just leave, sure, why not.
Doom significance: 10/10
Not only the feud with Kristoff be the moving force of several stories, but Doom won’t take back Latveria for another 2 years, until Fantastic Four #350.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
Doom just happens to have a device that stops a kid powerful enough to threaten Mephisto, plus whistle-activated robots!
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
I have fond memories of this one, but it’s a bit of a mess. While it might be an unpopular opinion I stand by most of Doom’s characterization, and his scenes with Franklin are great… it’s the FF that are a problem. They don’t come off in a particularly good light from this. Only Reed and Susan seem to care about Franklin and NOBODY cares about Kristoff… not only Reed’s plan basically means he’s using him as a child soldier, but they abandon him in Latveria!
But on a conceptual level, there’s also the decision to have Doom lose Latveria AGAIN. We’ve already seen that! And we have already seen Doom needing to trick his own systems to get back to power again. This whole thing feels like a retread.
You might think a 7/10 is too high, and an argument could be made for a 6/10.
On the other hand… this is the GOOD Doctor Doom story of the Englehart run. It’s all downhill from here.
It was a Doombot all along
A future Walt Simonson story implies VERY strongly that this is a Doombot. It’s a bit hard to believe, considering Mephisto’s involvement.
Times Doom has tried to save his mother from Hell: 6
Times Latveria has been conquered: 7
It’s been a while since Doom lost Latveria.
Crazy tech
It’s hard to overstate just how impossibly powerful Franklin is, even at this young age. Doom having power dampeners to keep him in check is quite impressive!