Fantastic Four #258

Fantastic Four #258- "Interlude"

Cover Date- Sept 1983 Price $ .60

Writer: John Byrne Aritst: John Byrne

(Editor's Note- The word "Doom" appears a lot in this post. I apologize for the redundancies)

Story: This issues opens with the evil dictator ,Dr. Doom, looking out over Latveria's Capitol City of Doomstadt. There is much hustle and bustle, and it's revealed by Doom's thoughts that the subjects are rebuilding the city after a would-be upstart named Sorba recently tried to take over. Doom ponders for abit, and then a local gypsy comes by and tells him that Dr. Strange is looking for a new apprentice. Doom is intrigued, but he doesn't want to be the learner, only the master.

Doom then goes into his castle and visits with his young ward Kristoff. Kristoff's mother died while under Doom's protection, so now he showers the lad with love and attention. It's quite touching and really messed up to see Doom act like a loving father. The two spend the day doing dictatorial things: checking on the Doombots, deciding between the matters of subjects a la King Solomon, etc. etc.

The next day, old Vic gets a bite to eat (somehow while still wearing his armored mask) from his personal chef, and is interrupted via communicator by his lackey Hauptmann. Hauptmann calls DD down to his lab and shows him an invention that will infuse anyone who steps into with a power that's not unlike the Silver Surfer's Power Cosmic. Hauptmann tells the good Doc that the machines all warmed up and ready to go, so Doom does just what you'd expect- he throws Hauptmann inside. The massive amount of power turns Hauptmann into chalk dust in a matter of seconds, and Doom's theory that a normal human body being too frail for the machine is proven correct.

DD then searches through his files for a suitable body to put into the machine. Young Kristoff returns and suggests that Doom ask Magneto, because Mags' powers almost rival Doom's. Doom lifts the child in the air and yells at him that "No one rivals Doom! NO ONE!"

Yes, threatening kids- the hallmark of a true supervillain. Kristoff scampers back to his room and Doom goes back to his task. He finds a suitable name, of a yet-to-be revealed character...

Later, in Manhattan, a pair of Doombots skulk through a hospital hallway. Looking for Doom's query, they find a room with a patient whose bones have all been broken from a great fall. The patients in total traction, and his eyes burn with rage as he gazes upon the D-Bots. They grab the patient, and cart him back to Latveria.

Over the course of 6 weeks, Doom nurses the mystery patient back to health. When finally rested, we find out the injured patient is none other than Tyros. Tyros used to be the intergalactic scourge known as Terrax the Destroyer, but lost his powers and fell off the top of the World Trade Center after a fight with the Fantastic Four. Doom uses this fact to entice Terrax into getting into the machine that the dear departed Hauptmann had created. Since Terrax is an alien, his physiology can handle the massive powers bestowed by the machine. Terrax gets in, powers up, and flies away on a Green Goblin like glider, intent on exacting his revenge on the Fantastic Four. Doom is happy, mostly because he knows that Terrax's body can only handle the power for about 5 hours before he becomes the next Hauptmann. Doom is going to let Terrax soften the FF a bit before he finishes the job. I guess that's why they call the issue "interlude"!

What I Thought: If you like Dr. Doom even a little bit, you need to read this comic. It's an entertaining spotlight on a much used villain whose characterizations have become rather stilted over the years. Sometimes the good doctor is a dictator who cares about maintaining his power over his nation and people, sometimes he's a cliched mindless supervillain type, sometimes he's just a bit player who really appears for no reason other than the fact that Dr. Doom is cool(see Mighty Avengers). I think this comic did a good job of portraying Doom as an evil, maniacal, egotist in any and all situations. And if you can't trust a megalomaniac to remain consistent, do you really want to read about him?

Until next time, vive la DOOM?

Fantastic Four #222

Fantastic Four#222- The Possession of Franklin Richards!

Cover Date: Sept. 1980 Price $.50

Writer: Doug Monech Artists: Bill Sienkiewicz and Joe Sinnott

Story: This issue opens with Reed inviting his young son Franklin to go to the library. Franklin says no thanks, and that he'd rather stay at the Baxter Building and play games with his mom, the Invisible Woman. The Thing enters and tells the gang that since Johnny is gone for the day, he is going to catch a movie. The stage is set, and everybody's got something to do, and it's all so productive.

Meanwhile, in quite a change of scenery, a demon named Nicholas Scratch is trapped in a dark dimension. Banished there by his mother Agatha Harkness, Scratch is pulled to a place where he feels energy escaping the dark place. He finds a small rift in the dark place that is connected to the Earth. The only catch? The rift is connected to the Earth through the Negative Zone, which is another dimension that the Fantastic Four discovered. They have the doorway to the Negative Zone in their house, can you all see where this is going?

Sue and Franklin are playing hide and seek in the Baxter Building, and Sue is actually setting a really bad example by cheating. She turns herself invisible and follows her son around, just to watch him and think.Sue reflects on the fact that because of her and Reed's irradiated blood, their son manifests powers in times of stress. That's why his babysitter, Agatha Harkness, has been taking care of him away from the Baxter building. As Franklin is looking for his cheater of a mother (I should get over that, but it's an official abuse of her fantastic powers....but I guess if I could turn invisible I would do a lot worse), he looks in the room with the Negative Zone portal, and is possessed by Scratch's mental powers, which are coming through the above mentioned rift.

Sue flips out and shoots the Fantastic Four flare (the FF's answer to a bat signal) out the window, and Reed, Ben, and Johnny all rush back to the scene. This was before cell phones and teleporters, so Ben takes a cab, Johnny flies away from his race car (subsequently forfeiting his race), and Reed creatively catches a ride with a news helicopter.

The team assembles and finds Frankie there possessed and destroying stuff. Reed sends Johnny to get Dr. Strange, and so he flies to the Doc's house. The Doc is out, but his assistant Wong is home and asks if he can help. Johnny brushes off Wong and readers everywhere are forced to have pity on the assistant for a number of reasons. Johnny comes back and tells Reed the Doctor's out, and they realize they can just take Frankie to see Agatha, because she's a witch and she can deal with crazy situations like this.

They take Frankie to see Agatha, and they all decide to have a seance (!!!????) to figure out the problem. A dude named Gabriel intervenes, having found out about the situation from an informant that was watching Dr. Strange's house. Gabriel recognizes the Demon, and Scratch identifies himself in a moment straight out of the Exorcist. The issue ends with Scratch telling the FF they can only get their son back if they take the body to the town of New Salem, so Scratch can escape. He has the team right where he wants them, because only he can re open the portal to the Negative Zone and free Frankie.

Thoughts: This story had everything going for it, until the seance part. Stuff like that creeps me out in comics. It's just not a very heroic course of action, in my opinion. I'd like to think the FF could do better than that. But overall, this story is tightly paced, and although many of the things that happen to move the story forward (such as Ben walking out on the movie early cause it was so bad just as the Fantastic Flare was in the air) were convenient, they were at least logical. The art in this book was really well done. Sienkiewicz and Sinnott are modern day legends of the comic book industry, so no surprise there.