Fantastic Four: House of M #2 (2005)
by John Layman & Scot Eaton
After an issue of mostly setup, let’s see how much this version of Doctor Doom can accomplish.
We begin with a flashback that, honestly, should’ve been at the beginning of issue 1: the death of the Fantastic Four of this reality, before they even became a team.
In this reality, however, Reed Richards didn’t take Johnny Storm with him: his place was taken by John Jameson, better known as the son of J. Jonah Jameson.
That makes sense, since John Jameson is an astronaut in the main timeline as well, and it’s always awkward for retellings of the Fantastic Four origin to justify Johnny being there.
But it’s still weird because A) Reed STILL took his girlfriend B) Johnny doesn’t even appear in this miniseries! Instead he’s a minor character in “House of M: Iron Man”, of all places.
Ben Grimm is the only one to survive the origin story, and just like in the first issue… the way Doom treats him is one of the scummiest things he’s ever done in ANY reality.
Doom then narrates how he later decided to give powers to the rest of his family: his wife Valeria and his “ward” Kristoff. That’s all well and good, but… Kristoff keeps giving me headaches.
There’s a picture with Doom and Valeria holding a baby: is that supposed to be Kristoff? But since he’s not Doom’s biological child… what, in this reality he adopted him as a baby?
I suppose it COULD work… the way Doom ended up adopting Kristoff in the main timeline would make absolutely no sense in a world where he was never chased out of Latveria.
Perhaps because in this reality he doesn’t have to compete with Reed, Doom only uses magic to give them powers.
As for the reason why both his wife and his teenage son have to be naked during the ritual… I prefer not knowing.
In this reality, Magneto is basically the King of Earth. Technically speaking Doom is an ally, but Magsy isn’t doing a good job at pretending he’s not just a vassal.
Weirdly enough, Magneto decides he needs Doom’s help to find an extradimensional prison for his enemies. Shouldn’t he first try to imprison them in something like Asteroid M? Then again, there are many mutants and super-humans that could easily escape from orbit.
Also, if you DO have a mad scientist working for you, why not use him?
Notice that Magneto is doing a classic Doctor Doom mistake here: feeling so untouchable that he flat out tells his enemies exactly how he’s been fooling them and how to defeat his plans.
Also, if you think Doom is a piece of s#it for how he treats Ben… it’s going to get even worse.
So Doom decides to take the Frightful Four through the Stargate.
The Doomgate brings the Frightful Four to another dimension…
…for some light murder and genocide.
So what’s Doom’s plan? He selected this dimension because, here, his magic is much more powerful than on Earth.
But more importantly: magnetism is WAY weaker here!
But he also reveals to the rest of the team… who had no idea up to this point… that he’s been focusing on ways to become powerful enough to defeat Magneto.
All that talk about wanting to cure Ben Grimm? Doom had no intention of doing that.
In addition to his own army of mutants, in this reality Magneto is in charge of the Sentinels.
Which funnily enough leads to Doom complaining that having a robot army is an unfair advantage!
Valeria and Kristoff are fully behind this plan. Ben Grim… not so much, but he’s too broken to complain.
As we’ve seen this version of Doom is more of a monster than the regular one, but he’s STILL a complex character: before leaving to fight Magneto, he’s starting to have doubts.
Probably the only thing we will never hear the regular Doctor Doom ask.
And if he was talking to the version of his mother from the main timeline, MAYBE she could’ve knocked some sense into it. But THIS version of her is even worse than he is.
Magneto being a bit of a ladies’ man carried over into this reality. And possibly also the distaste between Quicksilver and Kristoff that goes aaaaall the way back to the Englehart FF run.
Magneto and Quicksilver agree to follow Doom into the new dimension he found for them. But they’re leaving behind Polaris (who was recently confirmed to be Magneto’s daughter in the main timeline, and who is serving him in this one).
She’s going to be important next issue, but she quickly establishes herself as not being better than Magneto in this reality.
You’d think Doom would have to trick Magneto into falling into this trap, but nope!
Quicksilver demonstrates that he’s the only member of the “House of M” to still have a brain, but Magneto is even more overconfident than Doom here.
Did any of this show up in continuity?
Nope! I guess we’re lucky he never found that magic-enhancing dimension in the main timeline.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Definitely not.
Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
Doom is at his best as a character here, and at his worst as a person. He’s utterly devoid of compassion and motivated entirely by jealousy… but he truly DOES seem to care for Valeria and Kristoff.
My favorite Doom stories tie his defeat to his character flaws, and while you can probably see from a mile away what will ultimately cause his failure, it’s still enjoyable.
Magneto is a bit more cocky than usual, but in these circumstances I buy it: he’s been the uncontested ruler of Earth for what, ten to twenty years at this point? Plus the man he’s facing is made of metal, which definitely helps him underestimating Doom.
My only real complain is the flashback showing the fate of the Fantastic Four and the origins of the Frightful Four… why wasn’t it on the first issue?