Marvel Age Spider-Man #4 (2004)
by Daniel Quantz & Mark Brooks
Let’s begin our Doctor Doom journey though the Marvel Age imprint.
Intended for younger audiences than the mainstream Marvel Universe, it started by re-telling a simplified and standalone version of older stories.
This is in fact a retelling of Amazing Spider-Man #5, the first time the wallcrawler fought Doctor Doom. And like in that story, Doom is a regular follower of J. Jonah Jameson.
Doom is also contacting Spider-Man by using a huge spider to transmit on the Spider-Sense frequency, SOMEHOW. 
The main difference is that here Doom’s pitch actually works!!!
Compare to the original.
I actually prefer the retold version where Spider-Man is just trolling Doctor Doom, it feels more in-character for him.
Doom seems to be unprepared for Spider-Man’s agility in both versions, but I’m glad the Finger Lasers Of Doom are still there.
Spidey then escapes, with Doom still having plans for how to exploit him.
It’s remarkable just how much this tracks the original.
Stan Lee and Steve Ditko are explicitly credited for the plot, and Daniel Quantz for the script.
Considering there is dialogue lifted straight from the original, though, shouldn’t Stan Lee still be credited for the dialogue?
This version not only still includes the silliness of Doctor Doom capturing Flash Thompson dressed as Spider-Man because the real deal just happens to be literally around the corner, but ALSO the fact that Spidey doesn’t notice! At least this time he has the excuse of being listening to music.
Doctor Doom then uses “Spider-Man” as bait for the Fantastic Four.
Say what you want about the various DC reboots, but at least they try to add something new. What’s the point of re-telling exactly the same story like this?
The original story wasn’t Ditko at his best, but there is one part where Amazing Spider-Man #5 blows the new version out of the water: it included a great sequence with Spider-Man really having to think to figure out the location of Doom’s hideout.
But in the retelling, he just finds the hideout without any sort of explanation how. All we get from his interaction with Aunt May into the Doom encounter is THIS panel.
Also the original had Doom unleash all kinds of weird weapons against Spider-Man!!!
The retelling has some generic Doombots and a laser. That’s it.
Once the real Doctor Doom gets into the fight, it’s clear he might win this one.
The only reason why Doom doesn’t win is that he’s not prepared for the Fantastic Four to show up. Which is really dumb: he kidnapped “Spider-Man” to ask them to surrender, and he didn’t even consider that they might want to fight???
There’s being Doctor Doom arrogant and there’s being dumb!!!
The retelling also introduces a potential problem, introducing the idea that Spider-Man personally knows Flash Thompson. That wasn’t there in the original.
Does any of this show up in regular continuity?
Well this IS the same story.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
Same as the original, mostly thanks to the silliness of Doctor Doom mistaking Flash Thompson for Spider-Man just because the real deal is right there.
Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
For comparison, I gave the original a 8/10. This one started out as exactly the same story up until we get to the actual fight… and there’s absolutely no comparison there.
Even if, like I said, it’s far from being the best Steve Ditko story, the fight was WAY more entertaining, varied and creative. As it is here, it’s a very run-of-the-mill adventure where you can swap Doctor Doom with nearly anyone.
Number of superheroes who have fought THIS Dr. Doom: 5
-the Fantastic Four
-Spider-Man
Amusingly this is fewer heroes than when Doom fought Spider-Man in the main continuity, since by the time Amazing Spider-Man #5 happened he had already met Ant-Man in Fantastic Four #16.