Fantastic Four #504 (2003)
by Mark Waid & Howard Porter
cover by Tony Harris
So is every cover of this storyline going to be crap? Howard porter is a good artist! Why are we giving the covers to Tony Harris!?
Last issue the Fantastic Four took over Latveria, and Hungary goes to the United Nations to protest against the Secretary-General.
This is a 2003 story. At time of publishing, the Secretary-General of the United Nations was Kofi Annan. You can tell the amazing resemblance to the character here.
Since Mark Waid is one of the few writers who actually remembers that in this period SHIELD is a United Nations organization instead of a United States one (looking at you, Bendis!!!), this is where Nick Fury shows up. And he’s not a fan of the FF’s actions.
Wait… Latveria has a border with Hungary AND with Serbia, and we’ve also been told before it’s near Romania, so… holy crap, did we just figure out where Latveria is!?!?
Hungary and Nick Fury are not the only ones that don’t appreciate the Fantastic Four taking over Latveria.
Waid is doing a pretty good job at putting into perspective the reaction of the Latverians.
Reed is insisting on showing something to the Latverians that will make them understand just how evil Doom used to be.
And in my opinion, this is basically the only misstep Waid does in this storyline.
Yeah, uhm, this is easily the most controversial part of the storyline, so let’s talk about it.
Unlike some, I don’t have a problem against the idea that Doom executes dissidents: WE KNOW he murders everyone he deems a traitor, even if they’re Latverians. We’ve seen him murder assistants and rebels countless times.
I don’t even have a problem with him using a guillotine. It might be low tech for Doom, but the man sure loves his old-timey imagery.
But I do have problems with the idea that Doom would keep this a secret! You’re telling me Latverians don’t know that disobeying Doom is a capital offense!? That’s THE ENTIRE POINT of Latveria’s laws!!!
Even destroying the place isn’t enough to get the trust of the locals.
This is the last straw: Susan has had enough of Latveria. I guess she remembers how the last time she got to be Queen of Latveria, during the Claremont run, was a slog to get through!
As Reed leads the team towards the lowest level beneath the castle, Johnny provides his perspective on the situation. And as it’s typical under the Waid run, he’s a lot smarter than he likes to pretend.
Reed reassures the team the answer to all of their questions is at the most secured part of the castle. And while getting into the castle itself was ridiculously easy once they had Doom’s DNA, this is far more in line with what I expected from Doom’s internal defenses.
This leads into Doctor Doom’s armory. Or maybe I should say HIS STOCKPILE, which is awesome enough to warrant a two-page spread.
Yeah, Doctor Doom has enough weapons to blow up the planet several times over.
This is one of the best parts. Reed is genre savvy enough to know that Doom will eventually escape from Hell (spoiler alert: he will) AND recognizes that he always manages to reclaim all of his weapons and riches.
Reed (or rather Waid) is making a great point here. The heroes VERY rarely do a thorough job to prevent the villain from coming back where he left.
So this is Reed’s plan: get rid of EVERYTHING Doom owns. Permanently.
Fantastic Four #505 (2003)
by Mark Waid & Howard Porter
cover by Tony Harris
Is it really too much to ask for a cover that doesn’t suck and has SOMETHING to do with the story? The Fantastic Four are not even in New York in the story!!!
Reed decides (after one week!!!) to do some public relations with Latveria.
Reed informs the people that he’s dismantling Doom’s robots and his weapons, which checks out.
But he also has to plant crops!? We’ve been told countless times (by trustworthy sources, not just Doom) that Latveria was a prosperous nation where nobody suffers hunger… this is getting a bit out of control.
More believable is the enthusiasm with which the Latverians storm Castle Doom and trash the place to get his possessions.
This is a late 2003 story, so it’s impossible to ignore the parallelisms between Doom being deposed and the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq.
I have no doubt that this scene was directly inspired by the Iraqis looting Saddam Hussein’s palace.
The Latverians even deface a portrait of Doom’s mother!!! Or so they say… his mother never got to be so old before dying.
The fact that Reed encourages this is taken as a MASSIVE red flag from the FF.
Another Latverian freedom fighter with advanced technology? After Amazing Spider-Man #50, I’m beginning to wonder where they get this stuff from.
Wakanda. That’s where they’re getting it.
Remember when I said Reed is showing some red flags? More like CRIMSON.
Back to the United Nations: it might be shocking to you, but they consider four people owning countless world-ending superweapons A BAD IDEA.
The fact they are American citizens is not in their favor. This might surprise some of my US readers, but believe me: the rest of the world does not like when it acts independently in someone else’s backyard.
ESPECIALLY in 2003.
It’s abundantly clear at this point that while Reed might not be depressed anymore, he’s still FAR from okay.
The Thing acts as the team’s conscience, something that will weigh heavily on the latter issues.
It would be easy to have Reed against the rest of the team, but Waid doesn’t take the easy way out: Susan is also approving his methods.
And Susan, uhm, doesn’t choose her words carefully enough.
To blow off some steam, the Thing joins Johnny into finding the rebels who were behind the assault on the castle.
This turns into a fight with some of Doom’s robots…
…that are being controlled by Reed to hunt down the dissidents.
Forget red. Forget crimson. The flags are ULTRAVIOLET now.
Fantastic Four #506 (2004)
by Mark Waid & Howard Porter
cover by Tony Harris
Seriously, give me ONE cover that doesn’t suck! I’m not asking much!!!
The thesis behind Waid’s storyline seems to be the opposite of Byrne’s run: that if you remove Doom, the result is not anarchy but a better society thanks to foreign intervention.
I guess that theory is going the be put to the test quite soon.
Even the United States are invading!
Yeah maybe, just maybe, ignoring Nick Fury… and the President of the United States… and BASICALLY EVERY NATION ON EARTH… was not a smart move from the supposedly smartest man in the world.
Also, if you thought I was the one making this story political… did you seriously think that was possible when making a story about deposing a dictator in 2003!?!?
Aaaand now I’m kind of depressed because this is STILL topical twenty years later.
So far Reed has taken over Latveria, is picking up a fight with most of the planet, and he’s used Doom’s robots to capture dissidents.
What’s left, trap the Fantastic Four and speaking in third person?
Well… ONE of those has yet to happen.
All so that the FF could be seen by the general population DEFENDING THEM FROM DOOM’S ROBOTS. Reed may act like his head is in the clouds, but Doom would be proud of his ruthless calculations.
Reed has the trust of Latveria now, but he completely lost his family’s.
And I thought Doom could be cold. This is absolute zero!!!
However Reed didn’t really mean what he said: he just wanted to push away Susan and the rest of the team before the last part of his plan.
And this is where we stop for now, because next issue we’ll see Doom face Reed again.
If Reed hasn’t already defeated himself.
Doom significance: 7/10
While quite important for the rest of the Fantastic Four’s run… spoiler alert: Doom will eventually regain everything he lost.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
DEFINITELY NOT.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
Talk about an emotional rollercoaster! This is a very effective gut punch. Reed is clearly going through a massive trauma and he’s not dealing with it in a healthy way; his family is so used to trusting him that they take a very long time before they object to his actions.
It’s not the first time the parallels between Reed and Doom are explored and it certainly won’t be the last. However, when Reed is pushed to the edge and slowly turns into Doom, most of the time I find it very forced.
Not here: Reed’s actions make perfect sense from his perspective, and he really does take multiple little steps that, on their own, don’t immediately transition into full Doom-ness.
It does help that his most heinous actions are done with the explicit goal of alienating his family for what’s coming next.
So everyone is great on the FF side, with the Thing in particular being a fantastic use of the character. Then why not a higher score?
Because while Waid nails the Fantastic Four, I don’t think he fully delivers on the complex relationship between Doctor Doom and Latveria.
Waid seems to believe that Doom’s talk about loving Latveria is just a façade. But while Doom can be EXTREMELY cruel and petty, to say that he doesn’t care for the well-being of his subjects is a profound misunderstanding of the character.
Yes the two aspects should not be compatible. But that’s the beauty of Doctor Doom!
The doomy land of Doom
At least according to Hungary, the modern Latveria is in territory that was “stolen” from them.