Fantastic Four #588

Fantastic Four #588 (2011)
written by Jonathan Hickman
pencils by Nick Dragotta (Part 1) and Mark Brooks (Part 2)
cover by Alan Davis & Mark Farmer

This is the first issue after the death of the Human Torch at the hands of Annihilus.
Which only lasts slightly less than a year, but it does have a huge impact on the series for a while.

Nearly the entire issue is without a single word, and it’s VERY effective at showing the Fantastic Four grieving. It’s highly recommended, but most of it has nothing to do with Doctor Doom so I’m skipping a lot.

Something very important is that Doom abdicates to the throne of Latveria (!!!) and Kristoff officially ascends!!!
While it’s not spelled out HERE, mostly due to the silent nature of this part of the story, it will be soon be clarified that Doom is doing this to go on his own journey to recover his full intelligence.

We haven’t seen Kristoff in a long time. Specifically, in a Spider-Man team-up that you might remember I covered way back in the Silver Age continuity inserts.
Considering the large amount of time travel in that story, I’m not surprised Kristoff is an adult now.
And considering the closeup, he probably has cybernetic implants now. I would normally wonder if this is a robot copy, but later stories make it very clear it’s the real deal.

Since this is part of the silent portion of the issue, Doom doesn’t utter a single word.
So you KNOW things are not as clear-cut as they may seem.

A couple of days later, Doom even pays his respects at the Human Torch’s resting place.
Only Valeria seems to care about his presence.

Speaking of Valeria: at this time, the Fantastic Four have gathered a bunch of other young super-geniuses and are acting at teachers.
More about those students next time.

And she’s already planning to take on Annihilus to avenge the Human Torch.
Awww, she’s taking after her Uncle Doom! They grow up so fast these days; you wouldn’t expect her to go in a self-destructive journey of revenge until she’s at least ten.

And that’s all related to Doctor Doom for now. But I just couldn’t talk about this period without mentioning one of the best sequences Hickman writes for the Fantastic Four: Spider-Man talking with Franklin about the death of Johnny Storm.

Hickman writes a fantastic Franklin. Which is a new thing that writers needs to do from this period onwards: he’s old enough to have his own characterization.

Unfortunately Hickman doesn’t write a ton of Spider-Man, but he REALLY gets the character.

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Doom significance: 6/10
Doom’s interaction with the Fantastic Four… or rather the team replacing it soon… will have an impact lasting all the way up to Secret Wars and beyond. But most of that will happen next time.

Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Nope.

Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
This kind of story really challenges what I can explain with my type of reviews. I guess you’ll just have to take my word for it, but the entire silent sequence is awesome.
It’s also one of those rare times when I’m not even mad that the superhero will eventually be resurrected, because the circumstances of Johnny’s resurrection are very unpredictable and the character development for both him and everyone else is that great.
My only real complain is that Doom stepping down from the throne deserved to be addressed more directly and acknowledged by other characters.
It will only last a couple of issues, making it one of Doom’s shortest absences from the throne, so I didn’t expect a full crossover… but I expected something.
Still, Doctor Doom is not the point of the story, so I’m giving it a slight pass.

It was a Doombot all along
I’m more inclined to believe the Doctor Doom attending the crowning ceremony is a Doombot rather than the one paying his respects to an old enemy.