Fantastic Four #583 (2010)
by Jonathan Hickman & Steve Epting
cover by Alan Davis
I skipped a crucial appearance by Doom: before he officially renounces the throne in #588, there’s an introduction in THIS issue.
Steve Epting is not particularly known for this run, but he’s as awesome as ever.
I want a poster with this particular panel.
More importantly, this issue has the direct follow-up from Doom losing most of his intelligence on the pages of Hulk.
Moments like this are the reason why you should never listen to any writer that says Doom doesn’t care about Latveria and is king only because of his ego.
Despite the fact that we BARELY ever see him actually govern, he really does take that responsibility seriously.
Then Valeria shows up unannounced.
Notice that Doom doesn’t comment on Valeria breaking into his castle without permission: after all, he does it ALL THE TIME in other people’s headquarters.
He’s criticizing her for not announcing her arrival, something we all know Doom absolutely loves to do. Preferably IN ALL CAPS.
The reason for Valeria contacting Doom has to do with her father coming into contact with the Council Of Reeds.
Specifically, the Council wanted Reed to abandon his family and focus entirely on the good of mankind. While Reed decided to stay with his family, it’s a bit worrying that Valeria is siding with the Council.
This is just fascinating. Valeria is showing that she takes more after her godfather than after her father in how ruthlessly pragmatic she can be, morals be damned.
Valeria also IMMEDIATELY figures out that Doom has suffered brain damage!!!
So she vows to restore Doom to his doomy self in exchange for helping Reed.
Nothing bad will come of this, of course. Who wouldn’t trust Doctor Doom?
Doom significance: 10/10
Yeah I have no clue how I managed to skip this one. Maybe Doom isn’t the only one who suffered brain damage.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.
Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
A brief but basically perfect interaction. That goes a long way establishing the kind of relationship between Doom and Valeria in the Hickman run.
I still think #588 could’ve done more with Doom’s abdication, though.
It was a Doombot all along
I wouldn’t put past Doom to build a robot that can fake having brain damage, but why would he?
“I wouldn’t put past Doom to build a robot that can fake having brain damage, but why would he?” The answer to that is the same as “Why climb Everest?” is: Because he could. But still, not likely to be a Doombot, if nothing else because I don’t think Valeria would be fooled by one for even that long or polite enough not to say so.