Fantastic Four 1234 #1-4

Before starting the 2010s of the Doom retrospective, there’s a couple of appearances from the 2000s that I plain forgot to cover.
This one MIGHT not be fully in continuity, though.

---

Fantastic Four 1234 #1 (2001)
by Grant Morrison & Jae Lee

This weirdly titled miniseries is the only time Grant Morrison writes the Fantastic Four.
A pity that he doesn’t more often: while his more esoteric stories can be hit-or-miss, if given the chance I think he could really nail the Fantastic Four’s interdimensional travels.
That won’t happen in THIS miniseries, however.

The Fantastic Four are acting weirdly at the start of the issue. There WILL be an explanation for it, but Johnny seems to be acting a little too aggressively towards the Thing, even knowing what’s behind it. This miniseries leaves me with the impression that while Morrison “gets” the themes of the Fantastic Four, he doesn’t really get the Human Torch.

I mean this would be WAY too much even for the earliest Fantastic Four stories, but here it’s incredible nobody calls out Johnny for not acting like himself.

Reed is currently isolated in his own lab, so the Thing vents near one of the Doombots they captured and that Reed has been dissecting.

Naturally, the Doombot is still fully functional.

The Thing beheads the Doombot, but even that is not enough. Makes sense: it’s made in the image of Doom, and NOTHING can stop Doom from monologuing.

I really like the idea that ALL of Doom’s technology can speak for him.

The robot convinces the Thing to wear its gauntlet…

…and this teleports the Thing to Latveria.

I love this scene for two reasons. The minor one is that someone FINALLY remembers that Latveria and New York are on two different time zones… seriously, when was the last time this was acknowledged?… but the most important one is Doom musing about watching the dawn.
It’s subtle, but since they are in his “Time Research” laboratories, it could be argued that he’s LITERALLY watching the dawn on repeat.

Another reason for which I’d love to see Morrison write the FF again is that his Doom monologues are fantastic. Doom’s romantic side (in the literary sense) is in full display.
Bonus: first mention in AGES of the ring that unlocks his mask!

It should be note that the Thing doesn’t trust Doom yet.
Jae Lee does an amazing job with Doom in the shadows.

Doom then unmasks in front of the Thing: even though we don’t see it yet, it’s NOT what the Thing expected.

Whatever he saw REALLY shakes the Thing. You can probably guess something is up because Doom is calling him “Ben” instead of “Grimm” like he ALWAYS does.

And finally, Doom offers to restore him to his human form.

Shaken by what he saw beneath the mask, the Thing agrees to walk through some kind of time portal.

I’m sure he’ll be fine.

---

Fantastic Four 1234 #2 (2001)
by Grant Morrison & Jae Lee

Guess who is the focus of the second issue.

Susan spends most of her time in the issue talking with Alicia. It’s stylistically remarkable for how she keeps herself fully invisible the entire time, but it’s not very important for Doom’s involvement.

It is an interesting discussion about what Susan sees in Namor, besides the obvious.

And this is ALSO part of Doom’s plan.

As for the Thing, Doom’s portal really DID make him human… and put him right in front of a speeding car, leading to him losing an arm.

Even worse, he can barely remember who he is.

At least Johnny recognizes he was out of line in the first issue.

Just in time to fight some monsters.

Still according to plan.

---

Fantastic Four 1234 #3 (2001)
by Grant Morrison & Jae Lee

Guess who’s also going to show up.

But more importantly, this is when we discover how Doom has been manipulating everyone…

…with a new version of the Prime Mover!!!

That’s a deep cut. The Prime Mover comes from the Steranko run on Nick Fury: you might remember I touched on it in the Silver Age cameos.

The last time we saw the Prime Mover was in 1974’s Giant-Size Defenders #3, where the robot graduated to playing games with the Grandmaster.
Considering THAT guy typically plays games with cosmic beings, that’s a HUGE accomplishment for a robot that Doom abandoned out of boredom!!!

But back to the story: Doom has convinced Namor to help him destroy the Fantastic Four in exchange for… what do you think?

Doom recruiting Namor like that is one of the reasons why a chronological placement is difficult, because there are VERY few periods when Namor would act like that.
The Mole Man helping isn’t as problematic, but even he had moved away from acting like this by the 2000s.

The only way the miniseries can fit into continuity is the same reason why people are acting out of character: Doom’s Prime Mover can now alter minds and reality.

While this is going on, a GIANT DOOMBOT attacks the Baxter Building.

Doom is absolutely sure he has triumphed…

…but Reed shares his most dangerous words.

---

Fantastic Four 1234 #4 (2001)
by Grant Morrison & Jae Lee

Namor didn’t even fight the Human Torch in the previous issue, so using the GIANT DOOMBOT there would’ve made more sense.

The issue begins with Reed sharing the memory of using science and magic to create a physical manifestation of his own evil: Doctor Doom.
Wait, what?

These are the same memories that Doom showed the Thing earlier, but Reed is able to recognize someone has been tampering with his mind.

So Reed has built his own version of a Prime Mover (!!!) and has been counteracting Doom’s moves.

This sends Doom over the edge. He mentions that he found the Prime Mover “from a drowned spaceship”, which I think means he recovered it after he returned to Earth following its match with the Grandmaster.
Sure would have been nice to have a footnote for it.

This is when the Thing… still human and without an arm… shows up.
The fact that Doom thought this would lead him to suicide is a sign he really, REALLY doesn’t get Ben Grimm.

In fact, as it’s often the case, Doom failing to understand what makes the Fantastic Four tick is the only reason he loses.

Reed directs the Torch and Namor to destroy the GIANT DOOMBOT, and it’s a checkmate.

Reed might not be on drugs, and I’m positive Morrison isn’t either.
Drugs take Morrison when they want to get weird, not the other way around.

It could get lost in Morrison-speak, but the basic idea that the Fantastic Four are so integral to each other that you simply cannot alter them is perfect.

Doom WOULD make one last play, but Susan has used the gauntlet taken by the Thing in the first issue to sneak up on him in Latveria.

Susan’s dressing down of Doom is probably the most famous moment of the issue.

And in case you missed how things played out, Reed has a SLIGHTLY more concise explanation.

And that’s how we end things.

---

Doom significance: 0/10
It’s not even entirely clear exactly WHAT happened and what was a manipulation of the Prime Mover.

Silver Age-ness: ???/10
Way too confusingly esoteric.

Does it stand the test of time? 5/10
Let’s start with the positives. Morrison has a good grasp on the Fantastic Four as a whole, his Ben and Susan are fine, his use of Reed at the end is great, and his Doom monologues are sublime.
The basic idea behind the story is good… except we’ve already seen a MUCH better way of doing “the FF are tricked by Doom into believing Reed is secretly the bad guy”: Fantastic Four vs X-Men.
I typically prefer Morrison’s writing to Claremont’s, but not this time. There are too many inconsistencies in characterization that are covered up by reality warping, and that’s just lazy.
As mentioned, I don’t think he really gets Johnny’s character. And while Doom DEFINITELY deserves to be taken down his pedestal every once in a while, the final Susan scene feels like it’s too much.
It also begs the question: if the FF can take down Doom so easily, why is he still left free to harass them another time? Yeah he has diplomatic immunity, but bringing up reality warping in the mix SHOULD drive the FF to take more decisive action.
Considering Morrison has been firmly linked to DC for years I don’t think we’ll see him tackle the Fantastic Four soon, but I still hope he gets the chance to write a better story.
On the artwork side, while I’m not the biggest fan of Jae Lee, he does deliver some memorable scenes. Especially whenever Doom is in the shadows.

It was a Doombot all along
The Doom that meets the Thing is either a Doombot, or the Thing is seeing a hallucination from the Prime Mover. The main Doom might also be one, but it’s less likely.

Destroy the FF! : 58

Crazy tech
The Prime Mover can alter minds and possibly reality itself, but considering how much emphasis Doom puts into retrieving the robot, it might be its evolution after dealing with the Grandmaster.
The time mirror that regresses the Thing to his human form, however, seems to be 100% Doom’s design.