Fantastic Four #404-409

Guess who’s back.

This is going to take a while, so… buckle up.

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Fantastic Four #404 (1995)
by Tom DeFalco & Paul Ryan

 First we’re going to have to deal with the subplot of Boris. He came back with Kristoff and stuck around for… basically no reason. He’s also given full access to the Fantastic Four headquarters because the entire team is made of idiots in this period.
The readers have known this isn’t the real Boris for a while, and we learn that A) he’s a time traveler B) he’s constantly thinking about food.

However once Cassie Lang, daughter of Scott “Ant-Man” Lang (who is basically a full member at this point) spots him talking to his yet unnamed master.
So Fake Boris… or Foris for short… blows his cover for basically no reason.

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Fantastic Four #405 (1995)
by Tom DeFalco & Paul Ryan

To defend himself against Foris, Scott Lang uses the new Ant-Man armor that Kristoff has been building for him in the previous issues. It’s actually not that bad as a design, but it’s basically abandoned after this FF run.

Foris informs his yet unnamed boss about all this. I guess we’re supposed to think the boss is Doctor Doom himself.

To deal with Ant-Man, Foris unleashes some time-displaced heroes. Including Legally-Distinct-From-Conan here…

…and Iron Man 2020.
Not the Iron Man that was being published in 2020, but Arno Stark, the one who was wearing the Iron Man suit in the alternate future of 2020.
Who is not the same Arko Stark that WAS wearing the armor in the Iron Man series that was wearing in 2020.
Comics, everybody!

And so Foris is revealed to be… drum roll please… Zarrko, the Tomorrow Man!

Which… look, I like Zarrko, but I’m with Ant-Man on this one.

His role in this storyline doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. I’ll explain why later, but still, this is all kinds of clunky.

Long story short, Zarrko is defeated without much difficulty once the rest of the team shows up.

Being a sniveling coward, Zarrko immediately starts spilling the beans. I was highly critical of the fact that Invisible Woman was the only one that didn’t believe Reed and Doom were really dead, but I’m with the Thing on this one: why believe Zarrko? His reasons are ridiculous, sure, but still!

Zarrko seems to explode in the same exact way Reed and Doom disintegrated back in Fantastic Four #381… except this time they have Kristoff.

While this was going on, Nathaniel Richards is still squatting at Castle Doom. He’s been impersonating Doom for more than a year at this point, and in typical Nathaniel fashion this has accomplished nothing.

He freaks out because someone is using time travel technology in the FF headquarters.
Dude, it’s the Fantastic Four, aren’t you jumping to conclusions!? They deal with time travel every other Thursday!

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Fantastic Four #406 (1995)
by Tom DeFalco & Paul Ryan

While the Fantastic Four prepare to follow the trail left by Zarrko, we discover that he’s been rescued by his still unnamed boss.

We also discover that Doom isn’t really dead: he’s been kept as a prisoner by Zarrko’s boss all this time. I have to give him credit, a device that makes it impossible to think is probably the only realistic way anyone could keep Doctor Doom prisoner for long.

Now that Fantastic Four are ready to begin the mission, Nathaniel shows up AGAIN to warn them AGAIN about their future.

He tells them that he knows Zarrko’s boss and nothing more. And finally, after over thirty issues of everyone going along with his bulls##t, someone FINALLY tells him they don’t believe his crap!!!

The FF leave, and when Nathaniel tries to do the same he’s easily captured by Zarrko’s boss.

Speaking of the FF’s journey, they reach their destination: an alternate future when someone is blatantly copying Fantastic Four #84 for basically no reason.

This leads to a big dumb fight and the FF are captured. But they’re freed with a passage I really liked: turns out that Invisible Woman wasn’t wearing a jacket just because everybody was doing that in the 90s… it’s the shapeshifter Lyja in disguise!

It’s still stupid that nobody found out, or that they bothered to take off the jacket instead of imprisoning Invisible Woman wearing the jacket, but still: nice subversion!
And the Thing DOES highlight this was highly improbable.

This leads to the FF discovering Doom. Nice bit of continuity there: Namor has never seen Doom’s face, so there’s no reason he should recognize him without the armor.
We don’t get any reaction from the Thing; he hasn’t seen Doom’s face after he got his scars either.
Susan, on the other hand, DID see his face in Fantastic Four #236.

Kristoff is already quite different from Doom at this point, but he’s still Doom enough to have a device that can unscramble the real Doom’s brain… despite the fact he didn’t even know the technology being used against him existed.

They are caught by the actual bad guy behind all this: Hyperstorm, who was Zarrko’s boss all along. His costume is… quite busy… but it’s not all that bad.
I’d lose the skull on the belt if I were him, though.

And he’s quite a powerhouse. He will spend like 90% of his panels boasting about being invincible.

He ends the fight by sending the FF to the same place where he exiled Reed Richards.

He completely neglects to notice that Doom now can THINK, which is the worst thing that could possibly happen to him.

Paul Ryan must be among those who believes Doom only has minor scars, judging by what little we see on his face. I don’t buy it for a variety of reasons.

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Fantastic Four #407 (1995)
by Tom DeFalco & Paul Ryan

Hyperstorm has now replaced Nathaniel as the character who has been behind everything and was fully aware of everything despite innumerable retcons.

Also, did you know Zarrko is fat? Quickly, let’s have him eat!

Zarrko then makes the colossally stupid move of going to taunt Doom… who switches bodies with him thanks to his Ovoid mind-swapping power! It goes back aaaaaall the way to Fantastic Four #10, but it’s been used VERY sparingly so far.

Doom is also smart enough to gain Nathaniel’s trust. Wait until he finds out he drank all the brandy in his castle.

Hyperstorm knows about the switch between Zarrko and Doom, but he does nothing about it because ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

While I don’t much care for the Fantastic Four’s mission to rescue Reed from the legally-distinct-from Hyborian Age where he’s been exiled, the reunion between Reed and Susan is well done.

I also liked the idea that even Reed Richards can’t build a time machine without SOME level of existing technology.

Definitely more realistic than Lex Luthor building a time machine with orange juice, tin cans and a flashlight!!!

But Kristoff is the MVP of this mission. Not only he’s the only reason the team managed to find Doom AND Reed, he’s also the only reason they’re not imprisoned here as well!

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Fantastic Four Unlimited #12 (1995)
by Roy Thomas (writer), Herb Trimpe & Joe St.Pierre (pencils)

This issue has the explanation of Hyperstorm’s plan, so let’s go over why it makes no sense.
After Reed and Doom were seemingly disintegrated in Fantastic Four #381, they’re pulled into the timestream…

…and they’re tortured by Hyperstorm. Doctor Doom is so revolted by this whole plot that he basically begs to let him die.

And Doom blames all of this on Reed, because Doom’s gotta Doom.

So Hyperstorm tortures Doom some more, and I have to admit this part isn’t all that bad (aside from the artwork) because Hyperstorm goes all psychological.

This flashback is kind of important because this is basically the first acknowledgment that Triumph and Torment is both canon and aligned with the current timeline (you might remember that graphic novel had some issues about its chronological placement).

Hyperstorm then exiles Reed into the distant past. And yet another good moment with Doom giving him the ORDER to survive.

The rest of the story follows only Reed, with a coda showing us Hyperstorm learning about Doom switching minds with Zarrko.

We won’t learn until later why Hyperstorm hates Reed and Doom, but let’s have a look of his plan so far:
1) kidnap Reed and Doom
2) tortured them and either exile or imprison them
3) send Zarrko back in time disguised as Boris
4) place the fake Boris in the same stasis chamber of Kristoff
5) once Kristoff is freed, have Zarrko spy on the Fantastic Four

This raises so many questions, but chief among them:
A) why exactly kidnap Reed and Doom in the moment they were believed dead? He could pick them from any point in history
B) why send Zarrko to spy on the FF if Hyperstorm already has the technology to do so himself!?
C) once Zarrko sells him out to the FF, why keep him around instead of killing him? If he wanted to lead the FF to his timeline, he could’ve kidnapped them like he did with Reed and Doom !!!

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Fantastic Four Unplugged #3 (1996)
by Mike Lackey & Adriana Melo

This throwaway story mostly details what Reed has been doing during his exile. It does feature one appearance of Doom with Zarrko’s body… and it seems to contradict both the main series and Fantastic Four Unlimited, because here we have “Zarrko” after the mind switch interacting with Hyperstorm. It’s basically impossible to place this cameo within the rest of the storyline… whoops.

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Fantastic Four #408 (1996)
by Tom DeFalco & Paul Ryan

Reed is utterly terrified by the idea of fighting Hyperstorm, even when the events of Fantastic Four Unlimited showed us they BARELY interacted.

As a villain, Hyperstorm has very little redeeming qualities. But I have to give it to him, his evil lair has a killer design!

His tendency to go on and on about he’s absolutely invincible without barely doing anything has already gotten old. Also, for all his supposed power, he rules his space empire thanks to his Destructoid™ robots, not because he actually does anything.

Despite the hype, the Destructoids™ are lame and forgettable. Just like Hyperstorm.

The robots are easily defeated once the Human Torch shows up; he was busy with the Fantastic Force book. But now the Fantastic Four are officially reunited after what feels like an eternity.

Completely ignoring the Fantastic Four Unlimited appearance… as he should… Doom is leading the charge to raid Hyperstorm’s laboratory.

At this point it’s no surprise, but Nathaniel is full of crap. This is exactly why he’s so frustrating as a character: he inserts himself into every plot claiming to be vitally important, but when it’s time to play an active role he doesn’t actually do anything.

So we have Doctor Doom completely unsupervised in a laboratory full of future technology. This can’t possibly end well.

In fact he builds himself a new armor (or repairs the old one, it’s not clear), switches back to his own body, and he’s ready to kick ass once again.

Hyperstorm finally decides to do SOMETHING, giving an explanation for his badly defined powers.

And obviously you can’t namedrop cosmic powers without Doom salivating at the idea to steal them for himself.

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Fantastic Four #409 (1996)
by Tom DeFalco & Paul Ryan

As if Doctor Doom would let himself lose to this idiot.

One of the things that I really liked about the DeFalco run… yes there were a couple… was how Susan developed into an effective leader.
She’s arguably a better leader than Reed! I like the dude, but he tends to be in his own headspace.

Speaking of character development, over the past several issues Kristoff developed into his own person. And now that he interacts with Doom again… especially the way DeFalco writes a very stereotypical Doom… he’s appalled by his utter lack of gratitude.

The most damning part is his accusation that Doom is being dishonorable.
Which is 100% correct and yet another indication that DeFalco fundamentally does not understand Doom’s character.
A well-written Doom would help the FF get home safely and THEN try to murder them, not stab them in the back immediately!!!

Remember how, during the Byrne run, Doom was showing genuine affection towards Kristoff.
He wasn’t a perfect father by any stretch of the term… he DID terrorize him for the slightest offense… but he sincerely cared for Kristoff.
But this is DeFalco’s Doom, so he can’t be anything but rotten to the core.

Kind of impressive that Doom did all of this in an empty stomach.

If anything, Kristoff is acting more Doctor Doom than the real one.

Doom does what he does best (besides monologuing in the third person) and steals Hyperstom’s power.

Or not! Because despite the fact that Doom’s tech has previously absorbed the power of the freaking Beyonder in very little time, apparently it’s going to take more to fully steal Hyperstorm’s powers.

Hyperstorm is SO overhyped dangerous that Reed believes Doctor Doom would be lesser threat with his powers.
We’ve seen how his captivity has given Reed PTSD, but I didn’t know he suffered brain damage.

Doom’s gotta Doom.

So not only Hyperstorm was fully aware of what was going on in the present, he ALSO knew everything about Doom’s plan AND he was the one guiding him?!
COME ON!!!

The final showdown between Doctor Doom and Hyperstorm, the man who tortured him and kept him locked out of continuity for two years… doesn’t actually happen, because Kristoff sends Doom back to his time.

And that’s it for Doom! TWO YEARS of absence and he COMPLETELY skips the finale!!!

In fact… EVERYONE skips the finale, because Hyperstorm is just bored of the whole thing (I SYMPATHIZE) and sends everyone home.

The only saving grace of the finale is when Kristoff is seen for the first time in his armor by Ant-Man’s daughter Cassie, as the two kids had a crush on each other. Cute scene.

Nathaniel, will you please shut up!?!?!

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Hyperstorm has only 1 cameo and 1 full appearance after this. While Doom doesn’t appear in his last story, it’s appropriate to give this whole saga SOME resemblance to an actual finale.

So who IS Hyperstorm anyway? The son of the Franklin Richards and Rachel Summers from the Days Of Future Past dystopic timeline.

Which explains… absolutely nothing, really.

Hyperstorm was born AFTER the Fantastic Four and presumably Doctor Doom had already been dead for a while. Why does he hate them!? Why would he go back in time to kill people were already dead!?!?

Granted this explains why Hyperstorm is a bad guy and a tyrant, but his actions towards the FF and Doom MAKE NO SENSE.

Long story short, Reed tricks Hyperstorm into fighting Galactus… who had been exiled in another dimension in the pages of Silver Surfer.

It’s a neat idea: Hyperstorm’s powers are due to his connection to the ill-defined hyperspace, which as a source of infinite energy could supposedly feed Galactus for eternity.

Galactus will eventually return to his old status quo without mention of Hyperstorm. So either he eventually died in the process or just returned to his boring future.

What a waste of a villain. You’d think the heir to both the Fantastic Four AND the X-Men legacies, in addition to being linked to one of the most famous X-Men storylines, would mean Hyperstorm has the chance to return.
But his whole storyline was so completely botched that I seriously doubt anyone cares.

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Doom significance: 2/10
Despite the sheer length, what are the actual consequences for Doom?
A) he’s absent for a couple of years, but there’s plenty of Doombots to fill the gaps
B) he has a falling out with Kristoff, but that won’t amount to much because Kristoff basically disappears for over ten years and once he returns he’s loyal again
C) Doom doesn’t even get revenge for what happened

Silver Age-ness: 4/10
This version of Doom is straight out of the worst 70s appearances.

 90-ness: VCR/10

Does it stand the test of time? 2/10
What a mess. There are good concepts here and there… Reed’s exile and Doom’s imprisonment are a good idea, Doom’s mental torture was interesting, and the interaction between the FFs feels like a return to form. But everything hinges on Hyperstorm, and that’s where everything crashed down.
He’s an interesting concept, but the execution is just horrible. He goes on and on and on about how awesome and smart he is, how he’s behind everything and knows everything… but at the end of the day he’s all talk and no action.
Not to mention this is a TERRIBLE Doctor Doom. Outside of him ordering Reed to survive and managing to escape the moment he can think again… he doesn’t really act like Doom most of the time. Characterization is a big problem across this whole saga: DeFalco has his grand plot that seems to be changing on a whim, and the characters are forced into whatever role is needed regardless of whether it makes sense or not.

It was a Doombot all along
Between the mental torture, the Ovoid transfer and being the explanation for his absence… yeah this is definitely (and unfortunately) the real Doom.

Destroy the FF! : 52
Doom doesn’t get to do much to implement his plan, but it’s there.

Times Latveria has been conquered: 10
Quetly between the scenes before his next appearance, Doom returns to power.

Times Doctor Doom has gained ultimate power: 6
Doom doesn’t actually USE any of Hyperstorm’s power, so I’m not adding it to the count.

Crazy tech
Even Doom’s technology is underwhelming this time. He doesn’t even manage to absorb Hyperstorm powers!