Fantastic Four #237

FANTASTIC FOUR #237 (1981)
Writer, penciler & inker: John Byrne

Just a bit of housecleaning, since the issue doesn’t have anything else to do with the Doctor Doom retrospective.

But this ties up what happened to Doom after his mind was locked in Liddleville in the previous issue.

The Thing doesn’t really seem to mind keeping Doom’s comatose body hostage.

Mr. Fantastic, on the other hand, correctly points out that it’s only a matter of time before Doom returns to his body… and it’s better to be prepared about it.

There’s also the fact that it’s not exactly legal for a private citizen to keep someone imprisoned.

So for the moment, we’re just going to shove Doctor Doom into a high-tech suspended animation stasis that looks like a black coffin.

And that’s about it for Doctor Doom! None of the usual categories since it’s barely a cameo.

But I will mention that this is, as far as I know, the FIRST story to officially acknowledge that the Fantastic Four have a Universal Translator ™.

It took the Fantastic Four’s twentieth anniversary to explain that!