FANTASTIC FOUR #116 (1971)
by Archie Goodwin & John Buscema
After 29 issues and 2 years, Doctor Doom returns to the Fantastic Four book, in the first story of the series NOT written or plotted by Stan Lee.
This is the conclusion of a rather long storyline involving the Over-Mind, a not terribly interesting villain with an awesome name.
He has extremely powerful mental abilities, and he has brainwashed Mister Fantastic to aid him.
They figure out a way to find Reed, but as they try to leave their headquarters they bump into a mob lead by their landlord.
Diplomacy, thy name is Human Torch.
Meanwhile, how’s Reed doing?
Eh, I’m sure he’s fine.
Reed tries his best to resist the telepathic torture, but it’s not easy since the Over-Mind has the power of a billion minds.
The good news: the Human Torch and the Thing have managed to find the Over-Mind.
The bad news… they found the Over-Mind.
Yeah. The Over-Mind is more than a little overpowered: they don’t stand a chance here.
He’s also able to complete his control over Mr. Fantastic, who the Invisible Girl refuses to fight.
Fortunately, New York City doesn’t seem to be affected by the Over-Mind: things are perfectly business as usual.
Since going back to the Baxter Building is not an option, the Invisible Girl tries to ask for help at the Avengers mansion.
Except… in Marvel Comics, if you need the Avengers they’re never home.
It’s poetic justice, though, since the Fantastic Four ALSO are never home when other heroes need them.
Well, if the Avengers aren’t home, there’s really one option left, right?
Turns out that Doctor Doom has been watching the fight with the Over-Mind… while smoking.
I guess eating popcorn wouldn’t have looked as cool.
He doesn’t see the downside of his worst enemies dying.
But she knows PERFECTLY how to manipulate him, playing up his ego.
“Many demons rule Victor Von Doom, but not those of pettiness and fear” is one of my favorite Dr. Doom quotes.
It’s immediately clear that Doom is a better strategist than the Invisible Girl.
Getting the rest of the team to trust Doom will take a little more effort.
They coordinate an attack against the Over-Mind, and that’s when Doom makes his AWESOME entrance in the battlefield.
The Over-Mind attacks Doom with his mental powers, but he didn’t account for the Psionic Refractor ™…
…which turns his powers against him.
Sorry, apparently it’s Psionic Refractor ©, my bad.
Doom even saves the Thing from a second blast, but good luck getting Doom to admit that.
The Over-Mind may be a clichéd villain, but he’s not stupid: he recognizes that Doom is the greatest threat, and concentrates his attack on him.
With the Invisible Girl busy fighting the mind-controlled Mr. Fantastic, Doom is alone against the Over-Mind.
Despite Doom’s efforts, the Over-Mind proves too much for him.
And I guess Archie Goodwin wrote himself into a corner because it’s now that the Stranger shows up, absolutely out of freakin’ NOWHERE.
You see, the Over-Mind is the sum of all the mental powers of the aliens called Eternals (no not THOSE Eternals), and the Stranger is the sum of all the mental powers of aliens from planet Gigantus, so that means that the Stranger wins. Somehow.
I’m not even going to try to make sense of the Stranger, who has a VERY messy continuity full of retcons and nonsense.
Long story short: a Deus Ex Machina showed up to defeat the Over-Mind.
Oh, and Mr. Fantastic breaks the Over-Mind’s control thanks to the power of love or something.
So everything turned out okay, including Doctor Doom.
The Human Torch is really upset about this ending, and really, can you blame him?
Then the Watcher shows up (???) to reassure that it wasn’t a pointless last minute fix, guys, you really did help defeat the Over-Mind! Honest!
Historical significance: 4/10
The Over-Mind has several other appearances, being extremely important for the Squadron Supreme and even joining the Defenders after reforming… kind of. Despite this, he remains a rather minor character.
Doom significance: 6/10
The story itself has little impact on Doom, but it is significant since it’s the first time he’s recruited by the heroes to deal with a bigger threat.
Silver Age-ness: 3/10
The Human Torch dispersing the crowd like that should have worse consequences and the ending would be absolutely unacceptable today, but even on the Marvel scale that’s pretty low.
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
Oh boy. I admit I’m biased, but Doctor Doom has all the best scenes in this issue. Susan convincing him to aid the Fantastic Four is easily the highlight.
The Fantastic Four are a mess in this period… Johnny has his own subplot, Susan and Reed are having trouble… the team is constantly on the verge of breaking up, which it will eventually do.
Having Reed under mind control for most of the time and separating Susan from the others doesn’t help. While the Over-Mind is as stereotypical as they come, he’s played as a legitimate threat and the action holds up rather well.
But that ending… I mean, when you need to have a stand-in for the writer show up and reassure the reader that the heroes didn’t REALLY waste their time… yeesh.
It was a Doombot all along
Doom will later reveal that some of his Doombots can fool telepaths, but I think it’d be a stretch to say that they can fool the Over-Mind, at least this early in his career. So I’m 99% sure this is Doom.
Take over the world & Destroy the FF!
Kind of the opposite. In fact…
Times Doctor Doom has saved the world: 1
New category! Hey, if we believe the Watcher it wasn’t a pointless battle, so Doom actually helped saving the world.
Crazy tech
The Psionic Refractor ©, while apparently based on Reed’s tech, has a rather impressive showing.