Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: July 2, 1964
Cover: 1964
25 cents
A Stan Lee story spectacular!
A Jack Kirby illustrative idyll!
A Chic Stone delineation delight!
A Sam Rosen lettering landmark!
25 pages
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Never will this mass of teeming humanity ever forget that Doctor Doom once walked among them!
It’s interesting that this is the final story in this issue. It almost seems backwards. This is the full-length Fantastic Four story. That would usually go up front. The first story was a 12-page story which didn’t feature the Fantastic Four at all. That would usually be the back-up. But the 12 page story was better. So Stan put it first.
It’s still weird to me that this is the final thing in the comic, after the reprint and all the bonus material. This is the cover feature, after all.
How is it that we saw Dr. Doom alive in the previous story when clearly he was floating somewhere in space? Sure enough, a ship randomly rescued him… again. This time, it was Rama-Tut.
The story at least acknowledges that Fantastic Four #23 should have been the last we saw of Dr. Doom. It shows us what happened immediately afterwards. Dr. Doom was trapped in space, running out of oxygen reserves and falling toward Jupiter when his unlikely rescue occurred.
Rama-Tut notes this can’t have happened by chance. I’m inclined to agree.
Dr. Doom says his actual name is of no importance, then introduces himself as Doctor Doom. But… isn’t that his name? We just learned his origin story earlier in this issue. His name really is Victor Von Doom. Maybe he’s finally admitting he is not actually a Doctor, having been expelled from his Bachelors program. “You may call me Dr. Doom, instead of my actual name, Mr. Doom.”
It had been strongly hinted in Fantastic Four #19 that Dr. Doom was the ancestor of Rama-Tut. This fits all the evidence at hand. Dr. Doom and Rama-Tut then speculate they may actually be the same person. Now, I’m not the genius Dr. Doom is, and both these guys have more experience with time travel than I, but that doesn’t make much sense to me. It is in no way suggested by the evidence at hand and would require further explanation as to why the future version doesn’t remember his own past. Plus, we just saw Doom’s childhood. He had not been a time-traveling pharaoh.
Yet, they are serious enough about the theory to let it affect their plans. They dismiss the idea of a team-up simply because they cannot risk both dying at once if they are indeed the same man.
Doom describes himself as the greatest scientific brain, save one. This is uncharacteristically humble of him, to acknowledge Richards might be his superior. Just a few lines later, Rama-Tut points that that Richards may be Doom’s superior and Doom gets offended at the notion. Getting offended is more in line with my vision of Doom, but he had literally said the same thing a couple minutes earlier.
The Fantastic Four get invited to the Latverian embassy for a banquet.
It’s a trap!
We learn Latveria has a Prime Minister the world knows about, but there are rumors that he is but a servant of the true and mysterious ruler of Latveria.
As we learned earlier in the issue, the true ruler is Dr. Doom, and the dinner invitation was a trap involving a hallucinogenic berry juice.
Is this now the Dr. Doom I know and love? It’s at least much closer. His plan is still kind of lame, but he’s got the regal manner down. Plus the fact that he’s the actual monarch of a country is an essential ingredient in the Doom I know.
Doom’s reference to a “mass of teeming humanity” is peak Doom.
It’s his own ego that finally defeats him. For reasons I can’t fathom, he agrees to drink his own poisonous berry juice, then hallucinates a victory over the Fantastic Four. Hence, the title of the comic referring to the “final victory” of Dr. Doom. The Fantastic Four decide there’s no legal basis for arresting the monarch of a country in his own embassy, and take their leave.
That very same year, Andy Warhol debuted his celebrated work of art, the Brillo Box. At the same time, Lichtenstein was getting famous for reproducing panels of comic books (without any credit or payment to the creators he was copying). Those may have been the types of things on Lee and Kirby’s minds when they have an art dealer buy a car Thing smashed and declare it a work of art.
An almost identical gag would become the plot of a Simpsons episode just 40 years later, when an art dealer decides the thing Homer smashes in a rage is a work of art.
Johnny seems to be flirting with a Latverian Countess. Johnny was often this flirtatious in his early days, but he’s been going steady with Dorrie for a while. I wonder how she would feel if she could see him and the Countess.
The narrator describes this as the first time Doom has removed his mask in years. This is false. He removed it in Fantastic Four #10, which we know was still during Johnny’s senior year of high school. At least we get to see the concealed ring introduced in the issue’s first story in action.
Sue gets two very good scenes.
In one, we see the allegorical context for her powers, when Reed is too focused on other tasks and she says: “I might as well be the invisible girl all the time.” This will be a frequent theme of their relationship in the series, that Reed gets too consumed by his scientific work, to the neglect of Sue.
In an iconic moment for Miss Storm, Reed tries to insist the upcoming fight is too dangerous and she merely scoffs and joins along anyway. The scene includes a callback to the joining of hands in Fantastic Four #1. That’s an extremely iconic moment; moments become iconic because they get referenced a lot. I think this is the first ever homage to that scene. It will not be the last. In the original, Ben was the last to put his hand down, uncertain about his new monstrous form. Now, it’s Sue because Reed is getting set to marry her and has become more protective.
Unfortunately, we also get a more typical Susan scene, when her jealous response to hallucinating Reed with another woman leads Reed to remark: Not a fool, Sue… Merely a female!” Oh, Stan.
Thing makes a funny reference to Atlas ads. He describes the origin of his powers as a twerp kicking sand in his face.
These ads ran for decades in the pages of comic books, with this strip which encouraged kids to sign up for the Atlas body-building program.
Rating: ★★★½, 68/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
I read this story in Fantastic Four Epic Collection vol. 2: The Master Plan of Dr. Doom. You can also find this story in Marvel Masterworks: Fantastic Four vol. 3. Or on Kindle.
Characters:
- Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards
- Invisible Girl/Susan Storm
- Human Torch/Johnny Storm
- Thing/Benjamin “Ben” Grimm
- Dr. Doom
- Rama-Tut
- Ambassador Gorzenko
Story notes:
- Art dealer sells car Ben wrecks as pop art. An original “clobbering creation”.
- Rama-Tut claims Dr. Doom is his ancestor. Doom speculates if they might actually be the same person.
- Reference to Einstein’s theory of relativity.
- Rumors the Prime Minister of Latveria is not the real ruler of Latveria; Ambassador Gorzenko dismisses the idea of a mysterious masked tyrant as absurd.
- Mr. Fantastic testing new adhesive for NASA capsules.
- FF invited to official reception at Latverian embassy; they have been awarded scientific fellowship.
- Three members of FF drinks Doom’s berry juice. Johnny sees Thing turn on him. Sue sees Reed cheat on her.
| Previous | #234 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Fantastic Four Annual 2 | Reading order | Tales to Astonish #60 |
| Fantastic Four Annual 2 | Fantastic Four Annual | Fantastic Four Annual 3 |
#240 story in reading order
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