Fantastic Four v6 #8 (2019)
written by Dan Slott
pencils by Aaron Kuder, Stefano Caselli, David Marquez, Reilly Brown
cover by Esad Ribić
That is a lot pencilers for a non-anniversary story.
We left Galactus as being the new power source for Latveria.
I wonder if he’s carbon neutral.
Doom has kept himself busy with a little passion project…
…torturing the Fantastic Four.
Starting with Reed of course, who has been stretched while under extremely low temperature.
Doom is not here to gloat, just to remind Reed of his superiority and ultimate triumph for entirely altruistic reasons.
Sounds legit.
You would expect the trap for the Thing to be to inflict pain if he tries to break his chains…
…but it’s actually that if he tries to break free, the trap will kill the rest of the FF.
I love how Doom frames this to twist the Thing’s loyalty as a weakness.
The trap for the Human Torch is an old one: put him in a tank of breathable liquid, something that Doom already did way back in Fantastic Four #288.
It’s VERY rare for Doom to recycle a trap, so he must be fond of that one.
I’m surprised Doom hasn’t used this trap for Susan before: disabling the part of her brain that handles force fields.
Keep in in mind that phrasing.
Doom is not heartless: he’s going to take care of your kids after you die.
Even when he’s the one killing you.
After some unrelated subplots, Doom broadcasts to the whole planet AND BEYOND that he’s captured Galactus.
This goes on for 3 pages. Doom is a master at many things, but being concise is not one of them.
But his selling point is showcasing that he has captured the Fantastic Four, who he’s going to kill on live TV.
Note Doom casually dropping that he occasionally considers them family.
Turns out there’s a tiny design flaw in Doom’s plan. I’m sure that’s not a big deal.
That’s going to wait a while though…
…because remember how Doom’s trap only target Susan’s force fields SPECIFICALLY?
She uses her power to have Doctor Doom flash the entire universe.
Joke’s on her, the king can’t be convicted for indecent exposure.
Fantastic Four v6 #9 (2019)
written by Dan Slott
pencils by Aaron Kuder, Stefano Caselli, David Marquez, Reilly Brown
cover by Esad Ribić
Nice of Doom to dress up again for the cover.
Just joking, Susan just made Doom’s armor invisible from the waist up.
But that allows us to see that his entire body is covered in scars… I’m getting increasingly upset that we were never given a proper explanation about what happened with his fight with Dormammu that restored his scars, because before only his face was disfigured!
Now I’m thinking what would have happened if Johnny had her powers.
See Doom, this is why your habit of NOT re-using traps was the better choice!
Even Reed escapes his trap, simply by pushing through the pain.
The Fantastic Four take the opportunity to escape, since there’s still the detail of Galactus about to break free as well.
To get into the castle, Reed gets some tech from a damaged Doombot.
This is a cute dialogue, but I’m disappointed we were THIS close to learning the maiden name of Doom’s mother… can you believe we have no idea whatsoever about that?
At this point in his life, I believe that having the universe see his facial scars is not what enrages Doom the most. It’s not even being outsmarted in live TV.
No, it’s being PITIED.
Victorious tries to intercept the FF, but Reed deduces that her lance is not a weapon: it’s a control rod for her cosmic powers.
So Reed syphons some of her energy into Doom’s Big Bang Cannons™ to fix Galactus.
How could we TELL, Doom!?
You’d expect Galactus to eat the planet, but that plot has been run into the ground decades ago.
Despite the fact that Doom’s plan came dangerously close to destroying the planet, Victorious is still loyal.
Remember how I said that I skipped some subplots? One of them includes Franklin becoming friends with Wendy, the girl from way back in Fantastic Four #239 who controlled a legion of demons.
And NOW she sends them to help his family.
Of course Doom thinks this is all Reed’s fault, while in reality he had no idea whatsoever that Wendy was still around and in control of those demons.
Fantastic Four v6 #11 (2019)
written by Dan Slottpen
cils by Paco Medina, Kevin Libranda, Paolo Villanelli, Juanan Ramírez
While that storyline is over, it has a follow-up a couple of issues later.
It wasn’t entirely clear before, but Victorious has maintained her powers.
As far as I know, this is the last time we will see a formal acknowledgment that people already saw Doom’s face.
It is interesting to see that over the years, especially after the new Secret Wars, Doom doesn’t make a big deal about his face as he used to.
He discovers that the battle left some Power Cosmic residue in the soil…
…which he gifts the Puppet Master.
That’s not part of a specific Doom plot, he just feels like doing something nice.
Doom significance: 2/10
According to this story, the entire planet and several other civilizations know exactly how Doom looks under the mask. As mentioned, it’s completely dropped.
In my headcanon, there’s an untold story of Doom mindwiping the universe.
Some significance for further establishing Victorious as a stable presence, plus the unexpected development of the broadcast will inspire Doom in a later story in this run.
Silver Age-ness: 3/10
Not matter how many times he does it, Doom having every possible chance to kill the Fantastic Four and waiting too long because he wants to make a spectacle is STILL Silver Age.
Does it stand the test of time: 8/10
A mostly satisfying conclusion to the storyline, harmed by inconsistent artwork (inevitable with so many pencilers) and by the fact that Galactus is completely wasted here.
Doom is great here, and the way he’s defeated is quintessentially Doom: he had the upper hand the entire time and only failed because he underestimated his enemies.
It’s hard to write a believable scenario where he STILL underestimates the Fantastic Four, but admit it: you also didn’t think Susan’s invisibily would save the day.
However, there are other two strikes against the story. One is that resolving the plot by having Wendy’s demons show up at Latveria is incredibly anticlimactic, even if you read her subplot.
The other is the idea of Doom broadcasting his face to the universe. While it’s not technically the fault of THIS storyline that it’s not picked up later… that’s a tall order, because how COULD you keep this in regular continuity without ruining the mystique of Doom’s hidden face?
Destroy the FF! : 63
It’s been a while, isn’t it?
