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The Master Plan Of Doctor Doom
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If Stan Lee "only" wrote dialogue, as Jack Kirby would sometimes later claim, then he still more than earns his money in this issue, which is a cracking story full of character-based laughs. Kirby is operating at full throttle too, and it feels like their classic run is properly underway. Basically, this entire issue is ACE, and it kicks off in the best way possible, by having The Fantastic Four chase a dinosaur around the Baxter Building.
The dinosaur has escaped from Doctor Doom's time machine which the FF have sensibly, finally, brought over from his abandoned castle. The dinosaur escaped because Ben and Johnny weren't watching the machine properly, which earns them a good telling off from Reed Richards, and this leads to several pages of delightful bickering, culminating in the other three members having a vote to see who should replace him as leader... and all voting for themselves.
In the meantime we find out what Doctor Doom himself has been up to since he chucked himself out of a window at the end of Amazing Spider-Man #5. He's been putting together a new team to take down the Fantastic Four, selecting members by sending a robot (who possesses the power of thought, yet seems happy to consider itself disposable) down to the local court-house to find some suitably skilled crooks. Once he's got them assembled he uses his newly invented XZ-12 device to increase each crook's individual power (or "talent" really, as they're just Quite Good at things) twelve-fold.
He's also got a cunning plan to take down the FF one by one, which seems sensible, and to start with it seems to be work. Doom's first assistant, Yogi Damor, tricks Johnny Storm into a flashy new car, and when the Torch tries to... um... burn him to death, he's disappointed to discover that the Yogi is impervious to heat and flames. This is probably a good thing, as otherwise the Torch would have become a murderer!
The Thing is lured down to Yancy Street by some abusive letters, claiming to be from the Yancy Street Gang but actually from the second member of Doom's team, Bill Brogin. Bill's "power" is that he's quite strong, and he gets into a fight with the Thing that's full of sarcasm.
This snappy dialogue runs throughout the issue, coupled with super dynamic art which makes it whip along at high speed. I must admit that some of the comics so far have been a slog to get through, but this one was a delight!
Brogin shoots a "cosmic ray gun" at The Thing, which turns him back into plain Ben Grimm - no match for someone with twelve times the strength of A Quite Strong man! If we're counting off Doctor Doom Character Tropes (and we surely are), we can definitely tick off "Amazingly useful bits of kit that never seem to get used again."
At this point we head back to the Baxter Building, where Reed Richards is trying to apologise to Sue by sneaking up and attacking her.
He claims to be "just testing her reflexes", but this seems to be very much the actions of what modern science would call "a total prat". When Sue is unimpressed he confirms this diagnosis with some heinous sexism, to which she reacts rather excellently with "Go polish a test tube".
Unfortunately for all concerned this sexism infects the rest of the story, as Sue thinks "I know he's right, that's why I'm angry" as the third member of Doom's squad arrives. This is Handsome Harry whose power is Being Handsome... sorry, Having Good Hearing, so when Sue turns invisible he's able to spot where she is and blast her with some Ether Mist, then carry her away. Doom has been watching all these and responds in his usual way when things are going well - a good old laugh.
The final part of the plan kicks off with Ben Grimm apparently summoning Mr Fantastic with the FF Flare Gun. "Something must be wrong", he says when he sees it, "and it must be critical for him to use the flare signal!" Well, either that or he can't be bothered to use the phone. It is, of course, a trap, using yet another robot, which leads to Doom claiming victory. As usual he enjoys a good crow about it, and in doing so it's noticeable how his speech patterns have pretty much solidified into those of the Doctor Doom we will come to know later on. Any hint of slang or New Yorker-isms is gone, and instead he talks in a cool, calm manner without contractions. This refinement hasn't reached the artwork yet though, as Kirby depicts him sitting back in a distinctly relaxed fashion, feet up on the table.
Doom is celebrating the fact that he's sent his lackeys into another dimension, ready to be called back when he needs them. Personally, if my boss tricked me into imprisonment I doubt I'd feel particular loyal to him afterwards, but as we've seen before, Doom tends to inspire loyalty wherever he goes.
Once he's concluded his Human Resources issues Doom goes back to look at his prisoners, who are in the process of escaping. A big fight ensues, during which Doom uses all of his technical devices to force the four to a standstill, making, as he says, them all look daft.
Doom leaves the room and begins the final part of his plan. The story's been a huge amount of fun so far, and it climaxes with a fantastic bit of nuttiness that, in a less enjoyable comic, might seem shoehorned in, but here fits in with the general air of excitement. Doom has specifically brought the Fantastic Four to this warehouse because it's in the path of a Solar Wave which will react with Ionic Particles and thus be transferred to space "in some strange way."
It's completely crazy, but also enormous fun, especially with Kirby's version of space encroaching, crammed with stars and planets. All looks lost, until Sue has an idea. She uses her new invisible force field (which she's developed since they last met Doom) to trap their nemesis on the other side of the wall. This forces him to climb back in through a hatch, at which point he trips over and, once again, falls into space.
He really should be more careful. All that remains is for the FF to climb back through the hatch into safety, and then for the final caption to reassure readers that this is not the last they'll be seeing of Doom, and he'll be back once they've worked out how to do it!
Clearly they didn't want readers to worry, and though it would be a few months before they did figure out how to get him back, it would be worth the wait!
link to information about this issue
posted 28/2/2018 by Mark Hibbett
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