WHAT IF? vol.2 #18 (1990)
by Dwayne McDuffie & Luke McDonnell
An unusual premise: what if the Fantastic Four fought Doctor Doom before they were the Fantastic For and before he was Doctor Doom?
This is set during Reed’s college years. He wasn’t exactly dating Susan at the time, since the age difference would make things a little creepy.
The late Dwayne McDuffy is having fun with having the most fantastical aspects of the characters interact with the more mundane setting.
And of course, whenever he’s in a normal setting Victor stands out like a sore thumb.
An often forgotten thing about Reed Richards is that he was ridiculously wealthy before the spaceflight.
While Reed is out of the house with Ben, Doom sneaks into his room to steal his warp technology…
…in an effort to free his mother from Hell.
When Reed activates the device remotely to pinpoint its location, we have a very rare compliment from Doom himself.
When the Not Yet Fantastic Four track him, however, they fall into Doom’s trap: an awful background.
WTF is Doom’s cape doing!?
I’m with Doom on this one. Young Reed is hilarious!
It is kind of refreshing to see these characters fall for the dumbest tricks in the book, and Not Yet Doctor Doom is no exception!
As naïve as he is, Not Yet Doctor Doom manages to open a portal for his mother… and a horde of demons.
How the heck do you know THAT, Reed!?
As if the horde of demons wasn’t enough of a bad news, this device risks creating a freaking black hole. The device that Reed kept in his room… no wonder the FF will have such a hard time finding someone who could rent them!!!
Remember the flying toy? IT’S A PLOT POINT, because Susan figures out the reason they’re safe is because they’re inside a pentagram… and she uses the car to draw a new one!!!
Doom is understandably upset they closed the portal, but Ben convinces him to shut up.
I love McDuffie’s style of humor.
You would expect this to be the end of the story, but then REED RESCUES DOOM’S MOTHER!!!
You would think this would result in Victor never becoming Doctor Doom… but nope, the humiliation of being bested by Reed is STILL enough.
Doom’s gotta Doom, I guess.
Did any of this show up in continuity?
We don’t get to see the pre-FF interact much, other than Reed and Ben… the age gap with Susan tends to make things awkward.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
This is well written, well thought-out, engaging and funny… but man is the artwork rough.
I would have preferred SOME explanation on the differences about Doom’s incident… he’s clearly scarred, but he doesn’t seem to be blaming Reed for it this time.
Still, get someone else to draw and it holds up great. It even manages to avoid making preteen Johnny insufferable!