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Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. In vol. 3 issue #29, we’re deep into the Reed-pretending-to-be-Dr.-Doom storyline, but how does that affect the usual superhero crimefighting?

Recap: Thanks to some cosmic weirdness, Reed is now trapped inside Dr. Doom’s armor while Doom was sent off to another universe. Reed is now forced to pretend to be Doom in some attempt to prevent an international war (or worse), and he has married Sue, naming her Baroness Von Doom. This issue begins with Sue out in the desert somewhere on her morning jog, with her pushing herself as hard as she can. Then, at Pier 4, mailwoman Willie Lumpkin is shocked to see Dr. Doom (really Reed) picking up the mail in person. Ben reveals he is reworking the FF’s Pogo Plane to give it stealth technology, because NYC officials are shutting down the FF’s flight privileges now that they’re aligned with Doom.

Then we see Johnny with his new girlfriend, Namorita of the New Warriors. Reed seems concerned about this, noting that Namorita is cousin to Namor the Submariner, adding that “Fire and water can be a volatile combination.” Sue joins Reed for breakfast, saying she has to “negotiate” with NYC officials following the disappearance of her husband and son. (Franklin was sent off to yet another alternate universe to keep him safe during all this.) Johnny gets a new CD-ROM video game from his old pal Wyatt Wingfoot, only to decrypt a hidden S.O.S. in it. Sue and Reed bicker about the FF’s chain of command while the others prepare for action.

Cut to Silver Springs, Oklahoma, home of the Keewazi tribe, which appears humble on the outside but hides a high-tech infrastructure. We’re in the middle of the action, where Wyatt and his sister Wynona have been captured by a brand-new Frightful Four. The Wizard is still leader, and Paste-Pot Pete, um, I mean the Trapster is also still with the group. The Wizard says he’s in search of a mythical storehouse located on Keewazi land, heightened by a mysterious spacecraft recently reported in the area.

Sue, Ben and Johnny burst into the place and fight the Wizard and the Trapster. Then Ben meets the third member of the new Frightful Four, the Punisher robot that once worked for Galactus. (This is the green and purple robot, not the guy with the skull T-shirt.) The Wizard then activates a device that shuts off the biological mechanisms that protect the FF from their own powers. Johnny is burned by his own flame, Ben can’t move under the weight of his own rockiness, and Sue can’t breathe because she draws oxygen out of the air to form her force fields. The Wizard says Reed’s heart will soon fail to pump blood through his own elastic body. Then Sue reminds the Wizard that there’s been a few changes.

Reed, pretending to be Doom, joins the fight. But he’s attacked by the fourth member of the new Frightful Four – Sharon Ventura! For those just catching up, Sharon was the second Ms. Marvel, who transformed into a She-Thing, romanced Ben, broke up with Ben, and then swore allegiance to Dr. Doom. Her mutating body went out of control, so Doom put her in suspended animation, and the Frightful Four rescued her back in the Fantastic Four Unlimited spinoff series, which was seven years earlier in real time. She’s currently mutated into a half-human, half-Thing musclebound form. Sharon is mad at Doom for betraying her, and she attacks Reed.

Reed-as-Doom fights the Frightful Four, using the Trapster’s glue traps to stop Sharon, and then going toe-to-toe with the Punisher. The Wizard electrocutes Reed. Sharon breaks free, wanting a second shot. Reed deduces that the Wizard’s biological blocks are only an illusion, and he gets Johnny to flame on and join him. The Punisher tosses Reed into a nearby factory, while Sue uses the Trapster’s glue to defeat the Punisher.

Sharon and Ben confront one another. She says the FF forgot about her once she was in suspended animation. Ben says that’s not true, and that sometimes, cures don’t come easy. Meanwhile, Reed-as-Doom and Wynona free the rest of the Keewazi, who were being held hostage inside the factory. Knowing he’s been beaten, the Wizard attempts to flee, but he’s stopped by Reed and surrenders.

Sharon and Ben continue to fight, as she says she’ll never stop because she has too much hate in her to be defeated. Wyatt steps between them, attempting to appeal to Sharon. He reminds her that she was once one of the FF, a bona fide hero, and that hate is not in her makeup. Wyatt says that if she wants to destroy the FF, she’ll have to kill him first. It works, and Sharon breaks down and embraces Wyatt.

After the battle three of the Frightful Four are apprehended, while Sharon is given refugee status among the Keewazi. Wyatt says that Sharon is a good person at heart, and hopefully her new life at the reservation will help her learn the truth of it. Sue, in turn, asks Wyatt to trust her with the whole “Baroness Von Doom” thing.

Later that night, Sue wakes up to find Reed trying to hack into the Pier 4 computer, which has rejected him as Dr. Doom this whole time. Sue turns invisible and spies on Reed. He successfully removes the Doom mask and gets the computer to accept Victor Von Doom as an authorized user to the FF’s computers. He then orders the computer to delete all records of this from his teammates. He then willingly puts the mask back on. Then we learn that the opening jogging scene was a flash-forward, where Sue suspects something is horribly wrong with Reed, but now she has to act like nothing is wrong.

Unstable molecule: Early on, Reed mentions that he’s close to deciphering the codes that keep him trapped in the armor, and that the Pier 4 computers will only recognize him as Dr. Doom as not as Reed. This foreshadows the issue’s cliffhanger.

Fade out: Since when does Sue create her force field from oxygen around her? In the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Deluxe Edition, it’s established that her force fields are made of psionic force generated from within Sue’s brain. Since the Wizard’s defeat of Sue is based on illusion, I guess we can say these “oxygen force fields” are part of that illusion.

Clobberin’ time: Ben again acts as the team’s pilot in this issue. And just like last issue, he’s shown walking around with a bunch of gadgets attached to him, which a guess is a look for him during this era. (era)

Flame on: What’s going on with Johnny and Namorita? Johnny guest-starred in New Warriors vol 2 #3, where he and Namorita accidentally almost crash into each other while flying around NYC. He suggests they meet later, in private. The rest of their relationship between that issue and this one happened off-panel.

Fantastic fifth wheel: Round of applause to Chris Claremont for giving Sharon Ventura’s character arc some proper closure after all the hell she went through during her almost 100 issues with Fantastic Four. I guess she made a home for herself living on the reservation, because she won’t be seen again until the Secret Invasion crossover. She’s one of few Marvel characters who didn’t cameo in Civil War, so we’ll never know if Sharon was on Cap’s side or Iron Man’s side.  

Commercial break: You have to read the itty-bitty type at the bottom of the page to learn this is an ad for Bionic Commando.

Trivia time: This is the last of only two appearances of Wyatt Wingfoot’s sister Wynona. There’s a weird bit of continuity where she says her father is a man named Black Eagle, whereas back in vol. 1 issue #51 Wyatt said his father was dead. Most fans hand-wave this by saying that Wynona is actually Wyatt’s stepsister, but this isn’t explicitly stated in the comic.

What’s Galactus’ Punisher robot doing here? The last time we saw the robot was in Silver Surfer vol 3 #17, where it was destroyed after learning to talk (!). The Marvel Wiki says the Wizard “presumably” recovered the robot and rebuilt it. An alternate explanation is that we’ve seen a whole bunch of these robots running around the Marvel Universe, some of which are employed by Galactus and some employed by the alien Rigellians. (Tana Nile from the Daydreamers spinoff miniseries was a Rigellian.)

Fantastic or frightful? After so many overstuffed-plot issues, Chris Claremont writes an old-fashioned good guys versus bad guys superhero romp. It’s a breath of fresh air. And while I respect that a lot of readers dislike Sharon Ventura, I appreciate that Claremont gave the character her moment.

Next: Castle freak.

****

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Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Vol. 3 issue #28 finds us still in the “Reed pretending to be Dr. Doom” plot, just in time for Dr. Doom’s followers to start World War III. Great timing.

Following some cosmic craziness, Reed’s body is now trapped in Dr. Doom’s armor. Further, Dr. Doom has a warship and a group of superhuman generals and a fleet of troops parked just outside NYC. Reed has chosen to impersonate Doom to keep the generals pacified while looking for a way out of this situation. He married (remarried?) Sue, naming her the Baroness Von Doom. This issue begins with Reed-as-Doom launching a full-scale attack on strategic targets all over the world, fighting the world’s armies as well as the Avengers and the X-Men. In seven days’ time, he successfully conquers every nation in the planet.

Turn the page and we see that this is merely a simulation being run by the Pentagon and the Avengers. Reed-as-Doom and Doom’s generals are running a similar simulation. The general Technarx says he can anticipate and out-think any opposition they come across. Reed fears a war is inevitable, but Sue says she believes Reed can think of a way out of it. Ben is more pragmatic, saying it’s a classic standoff between Doom’s forces versus Earth’s forces. Johnny asks why Reed can’t just order the generals to stand down, and Reed says Doom promised the generals they would have a world to rule.

Elsewhere, Dorma, another of Doom’s generals, addresses Doom’s troops, saying that Sue must not survive the upcoming so that Dorma can become Doom’s bride instead. General Shak’ti criticizes Dorma for proceeding with battle plans without Doom’s orders, but Dorma argues that the battle plan has already been made. Technarx then says that without Shak’ti’s magical support, victory is less likely.

Events escalate quickly. Inside the ship, Sue, Ben and Johnny fight with some of the generals, while others are outside the ship Doom’s soldiers launch a sneak attack on Dorma’s orders. The Avengers are first to get word of the attack, and they jump into action. There’s several pages of fighting as the Avengers fight their way around the ship’s defenses. Captain America makes it up to a platform where Reed-as-Doom and Lancer are standing.

Inside the ship, Sue and Johnny combine their powers to short out Technarx, and then Johnny’s flame dehydrates Dorma (who is an Atlantean). Back outside, Reed-as-Doom breaks up the Dorma vs. Captain America fight, and then he is confronted by the Avengers. Captain America says Doom’s battleship and his troops are a clear and present danger. Reed-as-Doom offers a compromise.

Reed then has a heart-to-heart chat with Lancer, who reveals she knows he’s not the real Dr. Doom. Reed wants Lancer to return to the alternate timeline she came from, find Doom, and bring him back. Iron Man, meanwhile, also suspects that this might not be the real Dr. Doom. Reed-as-Doom reprimands the rest of the generals, turning them over to the Avengers to be put into custody.

Lancer flies Doom’s battleship into the other universe and away from Earth. The people of New York celebrate not being blown up. Reed says they shouldn’t join the celebration because, as far as the outside world knows, they’re now the bad guys. Instead, he suggests a second honeymoon for him and Sue.

Unstable molecule: Again, Reed’s reasons for pretending to be Dr. Doom remain unclear. He keeps saying it’s to avoid trouble with Doom’s generals, but here’s this issue where the generals cause havoc anyway. He’s going to continue acting the part for a few more issues.

Fade out: OK, get this. Sue and Johnny defeat Technarx by having him ignite his all-powerful nova flame inside a sphere of one of her force fields. This creates a singularity, like at the center of a black hole (!) and this is what takes out Technarx. This seems like a real world-ending superpower, and I wonder if it’ll ever come up again.

Clobberin’ time: Ben is shown walking around inside Doom’s ship wearing a bunch of sci-fi gadgets, with no explanation of what they are. One device kind of looks like a camera. Are we meant to think that Ben is the one projecting the hologram simulation?

Flame on: Johnny seems to speak on the readers’ behalf about concerns of Reed’s disguise as Doom. He says, “Reed takes on this idiot masquerade to save the world. Only now, because of the masquerade, he can’t!”

Commercial break: This is part of another “the Cap’n is missing” promotion for Cap’n Crunch. Or was that all one big promotion. Seems like that went on for years.  

Trivia time: The mutant nation of Genosha is included among Doom’s strategic targets, now led by Magneto. Magneto took command of Genosha in the recent Magneto War crossover event.

Fantastic or frightful? Again, they’re packing a ton of story into one issue, trying to do a major global conflict and a huge battle between three groups of superheroes. It’s a multi-issue arc crammed into one issue.

Next: Masquerade ball.

****

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Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Vol. 3 issue #27 is a wedding issue! But it’s a phony wedding, because Sue isn’t marrying Dr. Doom, she’s marrying Reed pretending to be Dr. Doom. It’s what was happening at this time.

Recap: After a cosmic conflict with a Celestial, Reed’s body is now permanently trapped inside Dr. Doom’s armor. For reasons not fully disclosed, Reed has decided to keep appearances by pretending to be Doom. The FF are now in on the secret, and Reed-as-Doom has agreed to marry the Invisible Woman. This issue begins with news of that spread all over the world. The first four pages of the comic are short interviews with various Marvel characters reacting to the news. Most superheroes disapprove and think Doom is up to something, while other characters take a wait-and-see-where-this-is-going approach.

As paparazzi try to get a look inside Pier 4, Reed contemplates his situation. There’s a weird bit where Reed enters a virtual reality simulation of Doom’s castle to try to find an escape, only to be rejected and forced back into the armor. Outside Pier 4, Spider-Man catches up with Johnny and tries to get answers about the Doom/Sue thing. Johnny insists it’s “family business.” Spidey offers to help Johnny stop the ceremony, but Johnny says the fate of the world rests on the wedding going forward.

At the White House, we catch up with Dr. Valerie Cooper of the Committee on Superhuman Affairs, whom we first met back in vol. 3 #11. She too is concerned about how Dr. Doom appears to have taken Reed’s place in the FF. There’s a debate about whether Doom and his future “wife” Sue has diplomatic immunity. Cooper is also concerned about Doom’s fortress-like spaceship and his four superhuman generals on board. She says the generals represent a clear and present danger not just to the US, but to the world.

At the pier, Reed and Sue have a heart-to-heart, with him upset about being outsmarted by Doom’s tech and her being stressed about being a tabloid scandal. Reed suggests cancelling the wedding, but Sue says it’s necessary to earn the loyalty of Doom’s powerful generals.

At Avengers Mansion, Ben meets with the Avengers about their worries. Like Johnny did with Spider-Man, Ben says the wedding is “family business,” and that he can handle it. When Ben tries to leave, the Avengers try to stop him and he fights back. The Avengers pull their punches, which Ben uses to advantage to escape them. Outside the mansion, Captain America confronts Ben. Ben asks Cap for a leap of faith, and Cap accepts, letting Ben go on his way.

Sue goes shopping for wedding dresses with She-Hulk and the Wasp, only to get chased by more paparazzi. She-Hulk and Wasp fight off the photographers while Sue turns invisible and gets away. Namor finds Sue in the wedding shop. He offers to rescue her from Doom, but she asks him to trust her. Instead, he offers her a wedding gift. It’s an Atlantean necklace that is able to turn invisible. He says that if she’s ever in trouble, she can call him.

On the day of the wedding, Reed tells the FF that dark times might be ahead, and that those who were once their friends may be their friends no longer. The wedding goes off without a hitch, with both Doom’s generals and the Avengers in attendance. Sue is officially named the Baroness von Doom. There’s one panel of a bunch of Marvel comics staffers watching the wedding on TV, after which Reed-as-Doom declares that he, Sue, Ben, and Johnny are the all-new Fantastic Four!

Unstable molecule: Reed says Doom’s armor changes his voice and his retina scans, and its built-in A.I. keeps foiling his every attempt to get out of it.

Fade out: Sue compares the pretending-to-be-Doom thing to the FF’s first spaceflight, about venturing into the unknown despite the danger.

Clobberin’ time: Ben is able to out-fight the combined might of the Avengers because they’re going easy on him. When he confronts Captain America, however, Ben backs down. He says that Cap, of all people, would find a way to defeat him.

Flame on: While hanging out with Spider-Man, Johnny uses a controlled flame to melt the engine of an out-of-control car just enough to stop it, saving the lives of everyone inside. He says this is his equivalent of Spidey’s webs.

Fantastic fifth wheel: She-Hulk is interviewed, saying she is appalled by the Sue/Doom wedding. She later questions Sue about it, but the paparazzi show up before Sue can answer.

Namor (who got his official FF membership at the end of the first volume) is interviewed by the press, with a message telling Sue to walk away. He’s a lot less harsh and when dealing with Sue in person.

SUE-per spy: In the 2019 Invisible Woman miniseries, it’s revealed that Sue has been a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent all this time. Given that the FF aren’t telling the Avengers or Spider-Man what’s really happening, it’s likely Sue’s not telling S.H.I.E.L.D. either. Nick Fury gets an interview segment, though, and he says, “We’re looking into it.”

Commercial break: The whole galaxy!

Trivia time: During Spider-Man’s scene, a caption tells us that Mary Jane Watson is dead. This is in reference to a controversial story in which a stalker blew up a plane Mary Jane was on. It was later revealed she survived the crash.

Sue gets her wedding dress from NYC fashionista Key Cera, who Marvel experts will recall is secretly a member of super-team Clan Destine.

The Marvel staffers watching the wedding are Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, along with this issue’s creators, Chris Claremont, Salvador Larroca, Art Thibert, Bobbie Chase, and Bob Harras. Of particular note is another woman in the scene, Maria Pilar. The Marvel Wiki names her as a former Marvel employee but has no other information. There’s got to be more to it than that, though, because on the cover we see Larroca has dedicated this issue to her.

Fantastic or frightful? The reasons given for Reed to keep pretending to be Dr. Doom are pretty slim, making the tension over the situation feel not genuine. I’ve done a little reading ahead, and I’ll tell you that the Reed-as-Doom storyline doesn’t go on for very long, making all this issue’s drama even more hollow. The Thing vs. Avengers fight is pretty cool, though.

Next: Generally speaking.

****

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Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Vol. 3 issue #26 pays off a lot of the Reed/Sue/Dr. Doom/Valeria foreshadowing that the series has spent a lot of time doing. But is this payoff worth it?

In the previous issue, Reed and Dr. Doom ventured into the sarcophagus of the Dreaming Celestial. After a lot of cosmic action, we’re told that only one of them survived. Then Dr. Doom, not Reed, crawled from the wreckage. He proclaims, “I am Dr. Doom!” Valeria (note this is teen Valeria who has time-traveled here from a dystopian future) runs to Doom, who in her timeline is her father. The FF accuse Doom of stabbing Reed in the back, but Doom swears he did nothing. Fellow Celestial Ashema wraps up the previous issue by saying that the chaos storm has passed and Earth is now back to normal.

Doom gets a message from his ship that someone is approaching, so he and he generals teleport back to his ship, taking the FF with them as prisoners. Remember that he has a huge spaceship he’s flying around in now, and that the Celestial had an underground complex in American Southwest. The approaching figures are the FF’s old pal Wyatt Wingfoot and his sister Wynona. Doom’s ship flies off. At Avengers mansion, the Avengers monitor the situation, announcing that Doom has returned to Earth.

Aboard his ship, Doom asks to be alone. Then we finally get the big reveal: This isn’t Dr. Doom, it’s Reed trapped in Doom’s armor! This was the final cruel act of the Dreaming Celestial before being defeated. The armor is sealed around Reed, so he cannot remove it or stretch out of it. He’s playing the part of Doom until he can figure a way out of the situation. Lancer, one of Doom’s generals, eavesdrops on him and then attacks, but Valeria stops her.

Elsewhere in the ship, the FF and Doom’s other three generals – Technarx, Dorma, Shak’ti, and Divinity. Dorma succeeds in decapitating Sue (!), only to reveal that this is all a hologram simulation for the generals’ training. The real FF are inside a cell inside the ship, wearing inhibitor collars that depowers them. Valeria and Lancer sneak in to free them, with Reed-as-Doom following them. Still impersonating Doom, Reed says he intends to send Valeria away to join Franklin, who was put on a record and sent off to safety two issues back. There’s a lengthy goodbye scene as Valeria says farewell to each of the FF. She hugs Reed, thinking he’s Doom, saying “You’ve always been, you’ll always remain… my father!”

Using the coordinates Sue has memorized, Valeria travels through a portal to join Franklin. Then Sue and Ben demand the truth from Reed/Doom. They’ve already figured out that “Doom” is Reed. Dorma and the other generals show up, and criticize Doom for freeing the FF. Doom tells Lancer and the FF to stand down, saying he will meet Dorma’s challenge alone. Using all the gadgets built into the armor, Reed manages to defeat the generals. He proclaims, “I am Doom!”

Dorma agrees to serve Doom once more, but Dorma insists that if “Doom” is to ally with the FF, then there must be a more tangible bond. Doom (Reed) agrees, and announces that Sue will become his new consort, and he proclaims her “the Baroness Von Doom!”

To be continued!

 

Unstable molecule: It’s stated over and over that Dr. Doom’s armor has so many defenses and failsafes that any attempt to get it off Reed will likely kill him. Reed’s reasons for not telling his family what’s happened are more ambiguous.

Fade out: Sue is quick to point out that Reed and Doom have switched places before. This is a reference to one of the classics, way way back in issue #10.

Clobberin’ time: The inhibitor collars don’t turn Ben back into a human. Instead they have his wrists bound to his neck, which I guess constricts his movements enough for him not to use his strength. I don’t know, they don’t really dwell on it.

Flame on: Johnny spends the issue wanting to fight, but never getting to. He references himself as the “hothead” of the team.

Our gal Val: Reed and Sue use the word “Heaven” to describe where Valeria has been sent to join Franklin. Their actual location will be revealed in the Fantastic 4th Voyage of Sinbad miniseries.

SUE-per spy: In the 2019 Invisible Woman miniseries, it’s revealed that Sue has been a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent all this time. This issue has Sue able to tell when someone else near her is invisible, even when she has the inhibitor collar on. Could this be spy training in use?

Commercial break: This looks like some action-packed gaming:

Trivia time: Doom’s fate was later revealed in the Doom miniseries, in which he ended up back in the Heroes Reborn universe again. Note that is a different from the Heroes Reborn: Doom miniseries, which took place just before this issue.

This is the first appearance (and first mention!) of Wyatt Wingfoot’s sister Wynona. She will be back in a few issues for her second and, it turns out, final appearance.

Fantastic or frightful? The big problem with this issue is a lack of geography. We jump from Celestial’s underground place to the desert to Doom’s ship, without any of these areas feeling like a place. The interior of Doom’s ship is big, cavernous rooms, leaving us with “empty room” syndrome. Other than that, the issue only exists to set up the new Reed-pretending-to-be-Doom status quo. This is a somewhat notorious era (era) for Fantastic Four, but it won’t last that long.

Next: Do you take this Latverian…

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Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.