Issue 381 is going to be one of the most significant stories for Doom through the 90s, but he does show up in every issue between #375 and #380 (with one exception).
Fantastic Four #376 (1993)
by Tom DeFalco & Paul Ryan
One of the most frustrating aspects of the DeFalco run is that you can’t trust anyone and anything. Characters will make massive revelations and then two issues later we learn they have been lying, or a change in the status quo is reversed with a similar speed.
Now we can’t even trust the cover, because this scene does not happen in the comic itself… Invisible Woman IS blasted, but she’s shielded by her force field and is completely unharmed.
Also: “the most unexpected shock issue” undoubtedly refers to the twist ending which… yeah you would be shocked if you didn’t know Cable exists.
You might remember that last issue we discovered Ms. Marvel was acting as a spy for Doctor Doom, paying her debt for when he cured her from being She-Thing way back in issue 350.
And once again DeFalco completely ignores years of characterization by making her dumb enough to trust Doom. I know she looks COMPLETELY different from when she was She-Thing, but that’s supposed to be the same character! And yet she forgot years of character development. Ugh.
Doom himself shows up for only 1 page, to deal with a scientist with a German last name that doesn’t seem to know when to keep his mouth shut.
Yeah… that’s basically the same scene of Fantastic Four #258 where Doom disintegrated Hauptmann, down to both scientists being disintegrated by a portion of cosmic power that Doom stole. Well, at least DeFalco is ripping off good stories.
I’m skipping the drama of the issue since it has nothing to do with Doom, but remember when I talked about the ending?
Well, the twist is that Franklin Richards gets sent into the future and returns as an older version of himself with cybernetic implants, having grown in an apocalyptic future.
So DeFalco is ALSO ripping off Cable’s origin now?
At least THAT is going to stick for a while, because the original Franklin is not coming back until the very end of the DeFalco run.
Fantastic Four #377 (1993)
by Tom DeFalco & Paul Ryan
Doom only shows up for a single page, again, but I have to mention the cover…
…because the Thing has THE best reaction to the whole DeFalco run.
Doom’s plan is actually kind of dumb. He still has a fraction of the Watcher’s power, and what does he do with it? Shoot it into space as a beacon to attract any being of cosmic power, with the intention of stealing energy from whatever arrives.
Considering there’s, you know, ANOTHER WATCHER on the Moon, why bother!?
Fantastic Four #378 (1993)
by Tom DeFalco & Paul Ryan
Doctor Doom doesn’t appear in this one. His henchmen do, however, and they expose Ms. Marvel to some kind of gas that transforms her into… well…
Fantastic Four #379 (1993)
by Tom DeFalco & Paul Ryan
I’m not exactly a fan of Sharon Ventura… but she deserved a lot better treatment than this.
Yeah this story is basically the last time she’s treated as an important part of Fantastic Four history. She will appear again after this story, but mostly as either a cameo or an afterthought.
In addition to her body continuously mutating, whatever Doom did to her is also making her lose her mind (according to her, she doesn’t act more irrationally than any other DeFalco character)… and she decides to attempt suicide.
It’s supposed to be tragic and stuff, but I can’t help noticing that DeFalco is ALSO ripping off how Englehart wrote her once she became She-Thing. Now he’s ripping off badly aged stories too!
Doom appears for a little more than two pages this time.
He also discusses something interesting: the Legacy Virus, which was a very big deal in the X-Men titles in this era. Apparently Doom was looking for a cure!
Also the caption mentions Latveria being “within the Bavarian Alps”. I’ve said many times DeFalco keeps regressing everything, and Latveria hasn’t been described being there since the 60s!
Either that’s yet another attempt to return to an earlier status quo, or DeFalco forgot, or he’s bad at geography.
Also the plan to lure a cosmic alien to Earth has succeeded, as Dr. Gittelsohn informs Doom.
I look forward to a future scene where Doom disintegrates him.
Oh. Nevermind!
There’s no time to dwell on that plan, however, because the Thing is so enraged by how Doom transformed Ms. Marvel that he pilots a plane straight into Latveria.
Aaaand the plane blows up the second it gets into Latverian space. What did you expect, Thing!?
Fantastic Four #380 (1993)
by Tom DeFalco & Paul Ryan
As I’ve noted before, this is so far the longest stretch of Doctor Doom appearances in the Fantastic Four series… and yet he gets to show up on only 1 cover.
Admittedly it’s a rather good cover.
Also, that is 1,000% the same logo from Doom 2099. The series launched the previous year; while I absolutely love that series to death, sadly it falls outside of the retrospective.
The Thing survived the explosion because, well he’s the Thing, and he gets transported to Castle Doom by the Latverian forces.
It’s rare to hear those guys talk; often we’re not even sure if they are humans or robots!
And for once DeFalco shows both reactions from the Latverians; it’s surprisingly realistic.
The alien reaches Earth like Doom wanted, but he disappears… and Doom doesn’t learn about it because his scientists are TOO terrified to tell him he might have failed.
Yeah maybe keeping your scientists in a constant state of abject terror wasn’t a smart move, Vic.
Although the Thing won’t be OFFICIALLY confirmed to be Jewish until much later, I have to wonder… is Doom purposefully torturing him by serving pork?
Doom’s way to restrain the Thing is a classic, though.
Doom goes on and on and on about how he’s going to turn Earth into paradise as soon as he takes over, until the Thing finally collapsed. Either from the strain of trying to overcome the neural shock, or because he’s sick and tired of Doom’s voice, or both.
Probably both.
Doom does show more than a little sympathy for the Thing, who has been recently disfigured by Wolverine.
He also offers to turn him back into a human, although he has ulterior motives.
Meanwhile the Latveria army is scouting the countryside to find the alien. Which turns out to be an energy zombie.
With the alien getting closer, Doom leaves the Thing behind. And while I was pleased with their interactions before… DeFalco blows any goodwill by revealing Doom didn’t really intend to cure the Thing. Even worse, he doesn’t think he CAN cure him.
Which is crap because:
1) we know he CAN turn him human: he did it with Ms. Marvel!!!
2) he straight up lied to the Thing. And not one of his classic “I technically told the truth” lies… he straight up lied!!!
Eventually Doom uses on the alien the same exact device that absorbed the Watcher’s power…
…aaaand he fails. So this guy is supposed to be a tougher opponent than a freaking Watcher!? Get outta here!!!!
Much to Doom’s disappointment… and mine… he has to be saved by the Thing, who conveniently escaped from his restrains.
And that’s were we’re going to stop today. Because #381 deserves its own review, and because this was entirely too much DeFalco.
Doom significance: 0/10
Do yourself a favor and skip this one.
Silver Age-ness: 5/10
If it wasn’t for the constant screaming and the costumes, you could mistake this from being the 60s… if Fantastic Four was written terribly.
90-ness:
Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
This was rough, as the DeFalco run is entering its worst phase. Not much more to say without going into the specifics of scenes I haven’t reviewed, but… man is this a chore to sit through.
It was a Doombot all along
Still would explain how Doom gets jerked around by this lame alien energy zombie.
Crazy tech
Doom HAS created more impressive ways to keep the FF restrained before, so I’m going with the gas that makes Ms. Marvel’s mutation wildly unstable. Does he have something like that for the Thing that he doesn’t use because it would be fun?