Fantastic Four #373-374

Fantastic Four #373 (1993)
by Tom DeFalco & Paul Ryan

This begins a long stretch of Fantastic Four issues: Doom shows up in all issues up to #382, skipping only one issue.
That’s a record, as this is the longest-running Doctor Doom subplot on the title… unfortunately it’s during the infamous DeFalco run, and during one of its worse parts yet, so buckle up.

As it’s the case from the DeFalco run, and as you can imagine from the cover having nothing to do with Doctor Doom there are A LOT of subplots running at the same time… but I’ll stick to Doom.

And we begin with the good^{(citation needed)} doctor right away, as he’s informed by his minions that the agent he infiltrated into the Fantastic Four has been captured. We don’t learn who the agent is yet.

While I’m going to say a lot of things about Tom DeFalco during this run… most of them not very good… I have to give praise to the late Paul Ryan. While he doesn’t show up a lot in lists of great Fantastic Four artists, I think he’s a bit underrated because he happened to draw a run which had mostly poor writing. But I rarely have to say anything bad about the artwork in the DeFalco run!

Back to the story: you might expect Doom to let others deal with the agent, but it seems there’s an opportunity gain cosmic power there.

And for good reason, since both Molecule Man and a rogue Watcher are involved in this!
This is not a great period if you’re a fan of Molecule Man. First of all, that is one of the worst costumes he’s ever worn, WHICH IS SAYING SOMETHING.

Second, his character has SERIOUSLY regressed, to the point that he’s being controlled by the Puppet Master. You would think Molecule Man would be able to resist that, considering his extensive experience in possessing other people’s bodies.

Then again, he has regressed in everything he was before Secret Wars: not only in terms of personality, but of powers and limitations as well.

That’s one of the most annoying things about DeFalco’s run. When he sets his mind on a characterization or a status quo that he likes about a character, he forgets or retcons everything that’s happened in previous stories in order to have what he wants.

And so the Molecule Man, who used to be the second most powerful being in the multiverse, is easily defeated by the rogue Watcher.

While this was going on, the Thing and Mister Fantastic were stuck in a simulated reality together with Alicia (the Puppet Master’s stepdaughter), but now they break free.
You probably don’t recognize the woman with them: that’s Sharon Ventura, a.k.a. the second Miss Marvel, a.k.a. She-Thing. You might remember Doom turned her back to human in Fantastic Four #350, but she’s recovered her super-strength.
I mention this because it’ll be very important in the next issues.

Long story short: the rogue Watcher was the one who kidnapped Alicia; the Puppet Master had summoned Molecule Man to rescue her.
And when the heroes escape from the simulation, Doctor Doom takes the opportunity to steal the power of the Watcher!!!

You might expect Doom to immediately absorb the power and go on a rampage… but he seems to have learned his lesson, and he’s going to be a lot more cautious than usual.

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Fantastic Four #374 (1993)
by Tom DeFalco & Paul Ryan

Another weird thing about this being Doom’s longest stretch of FF issues? He doesn’t show up on the cover until #380.

Once again I’m skipping a loooooot of FF plots to focus only on Doom.
And to highlight how old school DeFalco gets with Doom, we have Latverians being deathly afraid of his experiments.

Instead of absorbing the power, Doom is using it as a battery for a brand-new armor…

…which I have to admit doesn’t look half bad! Kind of a mix between the armor designed by Walt Simonson and the blue-caped one from Doom 2099.
Both of these are FAR superior, but still, as soon as he puts a cape on this thing it’s an acceptable armor.

Yet another old school scene, with Doom being dressed by his robots into his new armor. And of course not shutting up for a moment because he’s Doom.

Instead of attacking the Fantastic Four with his newfound power, he’s going after the Watcher… the usual one, Uatu, not the rogue one he defeated.
Because if you’re Doctor Doom, defeating only one all-powerful being is old news.

That’s where we’re going to leave things now, because next issue is a double-length feature where the fight against Doctor Doom is the main focus.
And yet he STILL doesn’t show up on the cover… see why he hates the Fantastic Four?

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Doom significance: 4/10
Other than adding the Watcher to the list of cosmic beings he’s defeated, this is pretty uneventful for Doom. There’s PLENTY of significance to the Fantastic Four… this is the issue where Wolverine injures the Thing and forces him to wear a helmet for years… but that doesn’t reflect on Doom.

Silver Age-ness: 6/10
Even just counting the scenes I’ve covered, DeFalco is definitely going for the retro style. Too bad he’s just copying the surface stuff.

 90-ness: RADICAL!!!/10
Not particularly apparent from the scenes I’ve covered, but you might have noticed Reed’s high-tech jacket and more obviously the stripperific Invisible Woman. I’ll talk more about it next issue.

 Does it stand the test of time? 6/10
It’s the DeFalco run. There are parts of it that I’ll defend and that get lumped together with the worst parts of the run… but while we’re far from reaching the worst of it, these stories aren’t very good. DeFalco throws A LOT around, but most of it either fizzles out or is disappointing.

For what it’s worth, though, this is not a BAD Doctor Doom. It’s very retro, but it still kind of works. Kind of.

It was a Doombot all along
Honestly it might explain why he didn’t just absorb the energy. Maybe this is a Doombot that couldn’t quite work with that much energy?

Destroy the FF! : 49
The whole reason Doom had REDACTED infiltrate the Fantastic Four. We’ll learn who the spy is next issue, thought it’s not hard to figure out.

Times Doctor Doom has gained ultimate power: 6
He doesn’t really show off what he can do until next issue, but still, it definitely counts.

Crazy tech
Considering he’s already absorbed the powers of the Beyonder and Galactus (twice!), the fact that his tech can absorb the power of a Watcher is not that impressive.