Fantastic Four #507 (2004)
by Mark Waid & Howard Porter
cover by Tony Harris
I swear this storyline has some of the ugliest Fantastic Four covers I’ve ever seen.
When we last left the FF, Latveria was about to be invaded by the UN forces lead by Nick Fury.
Meanwhile Reed Richards is about to complete his suicide mission. In a genuinely heartwarming scene, he thinks back at his best memories of the rest of the team.
He then teleports somewhere before Doom’s laboratory explodes.
Speaking of Doom, this is our first chance to see him since he’s gone to Hell.
And he’s being Doctor Doom about it.
Reed then teleports Doom out of Hell (!!!) into the Collage Dimension.
This is a pocket dimension that cannot be escaped: the only way out leads back into it.
This is a change for some banter between the two…
Reed somehow notices that Doom is about to use the Ovoid Mind Transfer (from aaaaaaall the way back from Fantastic Four #10),
This is Reed’s ultimate plan: he trapped Doom AND HIMSELF in an inescapable prison, because that’s the only way to keep Doom from hurting his family.
That’s why Reed treated his family like crap in the past few issues: he wanted them to abandon him.
Considering these two are left alone, obviously the conversation goes back to Doom’s accusing Reed of tampering with the experiment that scarred him.
Reed is still taking part of the blame, but he’s come to accept that Doom is just irredeemable.
Doom is surprisingly less verbose than usual, but he’s still playing mind games.
Unfortunately for Reed, he didn’t account for one thing: his family doesn’t always listen to him.
Meanwhile, the UN forces are sweeping through Latveria… and the locals are not exactly happy about it.
Yeah it’s hard not to see the Latverian point of view. It’s abundantly clear that the REAL reason why the rest of the world didn’t really try to remove Doom from power is because they were afraid of him, and for no other concrete reason.
Fury will have bigger problems to handle, because now the soldiers have found the Fantastic Four have returned from the Collage Dimension.
Said soldiers are immediately slaughtered…
…by an Invisible Woman possessed by Doctor Doom!!!
Fantastic Four #508 (2004)
by Mark Waid & Howard Porter
cover by Tony Harris
This is one of the most important issues of the entire Waid run. So of course we’re giving this a generic cover that has nothing to do with the story! We’re not even in New York!!!
So, uhm, Doom taking control of the team’s most powerful member is TERRIFYING.
Doom is brutally efficient in using Susan’s powers: he takes out Reed’s portal before he’s even had the chance to understand what’s happening.
Doom makes a run for it, and the Fantastic Four are lucky that Nick Fury is in charge because he doesn’t believe for one second that Susan murdered those soldiers.
I just love how Doom wastes precisely zero time going back to Dooming.
Porter is doing a great job with the artwork. Even without the glowing eyes, you would immediately be able to tell this is not Susan Richards.
Doom is glad to be back in Latveria, but he’s not exactly happy with what Reed has done with the place.
He’s also learning that, while Susan definitely IS the most powerful member, she’s far from invincible.
However… remember when I said Reed’s family doesn’t always listen to him?
When it comes to his brother-in-law, he NEVER listens.
Doom makes a run for it… again… and Reed is so fed up with him that he asks Fury to bring out the big guns.
Reed at least gets to gloat a little about getting rid of Doom’s stuff.
Leaving around the torn portrait of Doom’s mother was definitely a deliberate choice from Reed.
That drives Doom over the edge, making him possess the Thing.
In a nice touch, the reason why Susan can’t help her brother with a force field is because Reed’s gizmo from earlier scrambled her powers.
Fury has his Thing-killing gun ready, so Doom is playing his cruelest game so far: he knows he can’t get away this time, so he’s going to force Reed into killing his best friend.
To make things even more gut-wrenching, the Thing’s willpower is strong enough to fight Doom’s possession enough to plead for Reed to just kill him.
And that’s exactly what Reed does. The Thing is dead.
We’re not told explicitly in THIS story, but this causes Doom’s soul to go back to Hell.
Trivia: the “Mobius Dimension” shows panels from old issues. Sort of a Doom Greatest Hits.
(credit to marvel.fandom.com for looking through all the panels)
Fantastic Four #5 (Doom’s first story)
Fantastic Four #6 (Doom’s first Namor team-up)
Fantastic Four #10 (the Ovoid mind transfer)
Fantastic Four #16-17 (with Doom’s micro-world)
Fantastic Four #22 (so it’s not QUITE a Greatest Hits)
Fantastic Four Annual #2 (Latveria’s first issue)
Fantastic Four #39-40 (the legendary “Battle of the Baxter Building”)
Fantastic Four Annual #3 (Reed and Sue’s wedding)
Fantastic Four #57-60 (when he stole Silver Surfer’s powers)
Fantastic Four #84-87 (the FF trapped in Latveria)
That’s it for Doom himself in this storyline. But I have to mention the connection with the NEXT storyline, where Reed decides to resurrect Ben… by recreating the machine that Doom built back in college to contact his mother.
Reed’s reasoning is that Doom didn’t want the machine to contact his mother in Hell, but in Heaven.
Which is a neat idea in a great story… but I’m not entirely sure it works.
It depends on WHEN Doom learned that his mother made a deal with the Devil. If he only learned this after the experiment then Reed’s theory works. But from most retellings, it seems to me that Doom already knew it for a fact that his mother’s soul was in Hell.
This storyline quite famously ends with the Fantastic Four meeting their God… or perhaps I should say the King.
While this is a heartfelt homage to Jack Kirby, I do like how Waid managed to also give Stan Lee his credit.
In the end, “God” agrees to resurrect the Thing and even cures Reed’s scars.
Doom significance: 3/10
Doctor Doom is still dead. You’d think that would mean more, but he’ll get back everything he lost.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.
Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
Fantastic. Every member of the team is written perfectly, the various pieces fit together without clashing, and Doom is his usual force of nature. Even if I do have my problems with Waid’s conception of Doom (more on that soon), none of the stuff I disagree with shows up here.
It has clever dialogue, great action and is an emotional powerhouse.
It was a Doombot all along
For obvious reasons, this has to be the real Doom.
Destroy the FF! : 57
It literally took divine intervention to heal the damage he cause here!
Crazy tech
Not from Doctor Doom this time, but that pocket dimension Reed created is quite something. Why didn’t he ever use it again against a different foe? Sure it probably won’t hold Galactus, but at least try that against Annihilus or something!
Bonus: since this is the last issue of Waid’s run to be featured in the retrospective, it’s a good moment to address the Doom parts of his manifesto for the series.
He get some stuff right. I do agree that Doom is extremely insecure and that deep down he DOES know that his scars are his own fault.
And I also agree that Doom’s quest for power is a reflection of this.
But having said that, I think Waid fundamentally does not really understand Doctor Doom’s character. For starters, I don’t agree that he doesn’t truly believe he’s the right person to rule the planet (and future stories will provide actual evidence he’s sincere).
I may have defended Waid’s choice to have Doom murder his long-lost love for power, but I VEHEMENTLY disagree with his complete dismissal of Doom’s nobility.
If this was JUST the Lee&Kirby run then MAYBE, but there are THIRTY-FOUR YEARS between the end of that run and Waid’s handing of Doom!!!
This characterization of Doctor Doom ignores EVERYTHING that was done afterwards!!!
I expected better from a comic book scholar like Mark Waid. I’m deeply disappointed.
Also: the suggestion that Doom’s quest for power is related to his ethnicity is… more than a little problematic.
So… yeah. Mark Waid was able to write a near-perfect Fantastic Four run, nailing every single one of them but SOMEHOW he completely misses the mark with Doctor Doom.