FF vol.1 #3 (2011)
by Jonathan Hickman & Steve Epting
cover by Daniel Acuna
Doctor Doom is right in the middle of a very complex storyline, but I’ll try to focus on him.
The Future Foundation has left the Baxter Building to call upon a few new allies, and Doctor Doom is not really helping.
I said it’s a complex story, Mad Thinker, but it’s not THAT complex.
Although I can understand why the invitation might just be a little suspicious.
The meeting includes various super-geniuses. Left to right we have:
-Valeria Richards
-Nathanial Richards (Reed’s father)
-the High Evolutionary
-the Mad Thinker
-two A.I.M. representatives
-Wizard
-Diablo (the only one among these who is not a scientist)
Valeria narrates how she met the Council Of Reeds: an inter-dimensional gathering of alternate versions of Reed Richards.
Right when they were getting their butts kicked by some angry Celestials, Valeria screwed things up by letting them get to HER universe.
The rest of the story is about how the Reeds have been behind the scenes of several recent events.
FF vol.1 #4 (2011)
by Jonathan Hickman & Barry Kitson
cover by Daniel Acuna
I imagine Doom is contemplating whether to shoot the Thing, just for old time’s sake.
Considering there’s A LOT going on in this series, Spider-Man doesn’t get too much interaction with the team. But the ones he gets are great.
Susan is also fantastic (pun intended). Just see her reaction to having the team’s worst enemies take a meeting in the next room.
Back to the meeting: the discussion is how to deal with the Council of Reeds.
However Reed explains why the classic plots are not going to work with his variants, because they’re fundamentally different persons.
This genuinely got a chuckle out of me.
But the Council of Reeds is no laughing matter: they’re ruthless.
Plus Diablo and Doom are not exactly on the best terms, not since Marvel Super-Heroes #20.
Doom is SO upset about that snide remark that he manages to make his mask frown.
(the artwork is great in this issue, but that panel… yeesh)
Reed deduces that his counterparts are busy building something. An unnecessary deduction since Valeria already discovered what it is.
Although she doesn’t know what it DOES yet.
And we won’t either for a while.
FF vol.1 #5 (2011)
by Jonathan Hickman & Barry Kitson
cover by Mark Bagley
Most of this part of the storyline is about the Future Foundation facing the Reeds that are taking possessions of various pieces of technology.
More importantly, this is when the rest of the team learns the Council EXISTS: their Reed never told them anything.
She’s NOT happy about this, to say the least. Kitson’s art has improved significantly; everything from Susan’s facial expression to her body language practically screams “you’re in trouble now”.
But Hickman doesn’t have her go hysterical. Mostly because she’s already dealt with alternate evil versions of Reed (she namedrops a couple, the Dark Raider from DeFalco’s run and the Brute from the 70s)…
…but also because of how much this is affecting Reed.
Doom’s involvement in this issue is minimal, but I had to bring up this hilarious interaction.
Doctor Doom doesn’t appear in issues 6 and 7, which are about the Inhumans having retuned to Earth after their space adventures.
They’re not even really Future Foundation stories, they’re basically issues of a new Inhumans series that does not exist. Weird decision.
FF vol.1 #8 (2011)
by Jonathan Hickman & Steve Epting
cover by Daniel Acuna
After all that setup, it’s time to let the villains cook.
If you’re wondering what Reed blames himself for: after the first time he met the Council of Reeds, he destroyed the Stargate portal to reach their base after realizing that they were too dangerous.
But his curiosity got the better of him and he rebuilt the Stargate portal.
Susan is going to sit this mission out because the alternate Reed injured her in the previous issues.
(“Alex” is Alex Powers from the Power Pack, another Future Foundation member who was also injured)
The Human Torch is currently dead, and the Thing has taken time off to mourn.
Told you the Spider-Man interactions are great.
Just in case you were wondering how much time Doom would need to take a leadership role once joining the Future Foundation… eight issues.
The team then goes to the Forever City, a place built by the High Evolutionary that has been taken over by the Reeds.
You wouldn’t expect Doom to be the one to protect everyone else.
Doom is also very pragmatic on how to treat any Reed they manage to capture.
As they fight their way through a few evolutionarily modified henchmen, Spider-Man has quite a few doubts working with a team that is 90% villains.
One of the VERY rare occasions where Doom fights very physically.
Possibly because this is one of those rare occasions where he gets to slap around Reed without anyone caring.
But quite predictably, Diablo ends up backstabbing Doom.
FF vol.1 #9 (2011)
by Jonathan Hickman & Steve Epting
cover by Daniel Acuna
Doom demands more covers!!!
Doom wastes no time having a badass answer to Diablo’s attack.
The Mad Thinker has an idea: the one thing the Council of Reeds cannot predict is Doom being merciful, so he suggests to keep Diablo alive.
If he seriously thought that was going to work, we might need to reconsider the Mad Thinker’s fame as a genius.
Or is it? A few pages later we see that Diablo IS still alive after all.
Meanwhile Reed has been teleported back to Attilan to meet the Inhumans, where Black Bolt has now settled with the OTHER four Queens of the Inhumans that were introduced by Hickman.
See, THIS is how you have Spider-Man embarrass himself in front of other heroes without coming off as pathetic… you do it in quiet moments, not during a fight.
The Inhumans have joined the fight against the Council of Reeds, and they’re quite the asset.
They capture one of the evil Reeds, but Doom is more interested in the second one.
This one is particularly nasty.
FF vol.1 #10 (2011)
by Jonathan Hickman & Barry Kitson
cover by Steve Epting
The Future Foundation is busy in this issue, but we’re not focusing on them…
…because Evil Reed has brought Doom back to Latveria.
Nathaniel Richards is also here, and we learn that in any universe he’s just. The. Worst.
A rare moment of Doctor Doom sympathizing with any version of Reed Richards.
And that’s where we’re stopping today. Spoiler alert: taking Doom prisoner will turn out to be a terrible idea!
Doom significance: 5/10
The storyline itself is quite important, but Doom doesn’t get to do much for now.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.
Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
I couldn’t go into the specifics of the stuff that doesn’t involve Doom, but trust me this is an excellent run. But what the heck was the point of dedicating two entire issues to the Inhumans while pausing literally every other single plot???
Also, while it’s an excellent mystery the secrecy behind the Council’s plan has been going on for far too long.
It was a Doombot all along
Basically impossible.
Crazy tech
With so many super-scientists around, surprisingly Doom doesn’t take the opportunity to brag about his technology and mostly uses magic.