Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. We’re still getting used to the new status quo in FF #2, only for Dr. Doom to show up and complicate things already.

Recap: Following the death of the Human Torch, the Fantastic Four have now officially been rebranded as the Future Foundation, with our heroes and their new crop of young genius students all acting as one team. Also, Spider-Man has joined the group as Johnny’s replacement. After losing part of his intellect, and after meeting secretly with young Valeria, Dr. Doom has shown up on the FF’s doorstep to become the Foundation’s newest member.

This issue begins with Ben threatening Doom as Doom taunts him. They’re about to fight before Sue breaks them up with a force field. Ben refuses an explanation as to why Doom is joining the team, and he runs off. Sue admits she agrees with Ben, and questions whether inviting Doom into their home is a good idea. While Spider-Man makes some jokes about all this, Reed gathers everyone into the classroom and asks for suggestions about restoring Doom’s intellect to its previous state.

As the Future Foundation kids debate solutions and/or ethics for Doom, Valeria suggests “standard data retrieval,” saying that all they need is a backup of Doom’s original brain. There’s two pages of Doom considering this, before he concludes, “Kristoff.”

Ben, Sue, and Dragon Man commiserate at a nearby bar. Dragon Man makes a point that he’s sworn off violence, as it never the practical solution to a problem. Ben says he feels like he’s playing second fiddle to all the Foundation’s geniuses, while Sue argues that their world is changing, and they simply have to figure out their places in it.

A day later, Reed, Spider-Man, Valeria, Nathaniel Richards, and Dr. Doom arrive in Latveria and meet with Kristoff. We get a whole page of Reed narrating Kristoff’s bizarre origin story, including uploading a recreation of his own mind into young Kristoff’s brain. Kristoff admits that he has not been perfect, and that he is a poor replacement for Doom. Valeria explains that they will only take the parts of Doom’s mind that are missing, with Reed adding that includes Doom’s knowledge of dark magic, but not Doom’s personality.

Everyone hooks up Doom and Kristoff to some kind of mind-switching device, and the computer gives Reed the options of “transfer” or “purge.” His hand hovers over “Purge,” but he finally presses “Transfer.” There’s an explosion of energy, and Doom emerges with his hand glowing with magic. He announces, “Doom is… reborn!” Kristoff offers Doom the Latverian throne, but Doom refuses. He says he and Valeria had a deal, and he plans on keeping it. He says, “I agreed to help your daughter defeat you, Richards.”

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: While Reed has his moment of temptation to press the purge button instead of the transfer one, he shares a look with Nathaniel. Nathaniel can obviously tell what Reed is thinking at that moment. If Nathaniel wasn’t there, would Reed have gone through with it?

Fade out: To keep Dr. Doom in line, Sue threatens to place invisible force field air bubbles inside his brain to reduce his intellect even further. Would she have gone through with such a thing?

Clobberin’ time: Dr. Doom taunts Ben by saying Ben merely stood by and watched while Johnny died. This of course angers Ben. But… if Doom is there for help and to join the team, what purpose does this serve for him?

Fantastic fifth wheel: Spider-Man is mostly comic relief in this issue, although he does surprise the Foundation kids with his science expertise.

Our gal Val: The fact that Valeria joins everyone on the mission to Latveria illustrates how what we think of as the team is no longer the main four heroes, but a more expansive team of (as of this issue) nineteen members.

Foundational: How big is Dragon Man again? He’s normally drawn like he’s the size of a dinosaur, twice as big as the other characters, but in this issue he sits at a table in the pub like a normal bloke. Our old friend The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Deluxe Edition states that Dragon Man is 15 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 3 tons. I guess we’ll have to suspend our disbelief for this pub hang.

While the other kids of the Future Foundation question whether restoring Doom’s genius is safe or ethical, Bently-23 likes the idea of seeing Doom back at full power.

Trivia time: Ben’s pub is named Muk’s Bar. This bar has no entry in the Marvel Wiki, so it’s safe to assume it’ll never appear again. As for who Muk could possibly be, there’s a rarely-seen X-Men character named Mukus, and then there’s Muktong Mollie, a villain from the ‘50s comic Combat Kelly. I’d love it if she was revealed as the secret owner of Muk’s Bar, but that’s probably not the case.

Fantastic or frightful? This is another example of so-called “decompressed storytelling” in comics. This is where something that used to be covered in one panel is now stretched out to multiple panels or even pages for dramatic intent. Whether it works is up to you, but there’s little story. We just move from one plot point to the next. It probably reads better as part of the trade paperback collection, but feels slim as a stand-alone.

Next: Oops all villains.

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Want more? Check out my novel MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF. It’s a comedic/romantic/dramatic superhero epic! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XPXBK14.