Dr. K's Waiting Room

---

In November 1961, four intrepid explorers were forever changed by mysterious cosmic rays. Marvel’s “First Family” of superheroes were the first of their many colourful superheroes and are more than deserving of some attention today.

---

Quick Facts:
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s dysfunctional Fantastic Four popularised the “Marvel Method” of writer/artist collaboration and brought readers two of the most compelling and iconic villainous characters in Marvel history: Doctor Victor Von Doom and Galactus. Both have menaced the wider Marvel universe in various cosmic events, though Galactus came alongside numerous “heralds” like Norrin Radd/The Silver Surfer. The Silver Surfer crossed paths with Dr. Doom for the first time in this seminal classic tale, which directly inspired a similar plot in the notorious Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (Story, 2007).

The Review:
One of the Fantastic Four’s most memorable adventures begins with three of them walking into a trap so obvious that Benjamin “Ben” Grimm/The Thing claims even his “Aunt Petunia” would’ve seen it a mile off. Called to the state prison on an urgent matter, Doctor Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, Susan Storm/The Invisible Girl, and the Thing are ambushed by Flint Marko/The Sandman from their would-be evil counterparts, the Frightful Four. The Sandman disperses Sue’s force field and easily withstands a blow from the enraged Thing by softening his molecules, then wallops Ben by making his fist rock hard. Rather than using his amazing powers of elasticity, Mr. Fantastic uses his genius intellect to dispose of the Sandman, activating an air duct control panel to vacuum Marko up, only to find Sue unable to contain the Sandman as he planned since she’s suddenly grabbed by Bentley Wittman/The Wizard, another founder of the Frightful Four. While Sue’s immediately rescued and the Wizard is quickly jumped by guards, Wittman’s plot to facilitate the Sandman’s escape works, leading Sue to lament that their woes are quickly mounting up despite intergalactic threats like Galactus being long gone. Later, while the Thing scours New York City for signs of the Sandman, Marko ensnares the Invisible Girl after getting the drop on her and her husband at the Baxter Building. Surprisingly fearless, Sue demands Reed disregard her safety and attack and her outraged husband willingly obliges, severing the Sandman’s arm and easily dodging his counterattack. Protected by Sue’s force field, Reed snags his “electro-gun” and holds Marko off with blasts of “high-powered electro-charges”. However, Reed underestimates the Sandman’s desperation and intelligence as Marko electrically charges the gun’s rays with a burst of sand particles and slips away, stealing equipment from the Fantastic Four’s storage unit as he goes.

Meanwhile, the enigmatic and Earth-bound Silver Surfer is cordially invited to met with Dr. Doom, supreme monarch and overlord of Latveria. Unaware of Dr. Doom’s threat, the Silver Surfer obliges, intrigued to meet Earthly royalty, and is quickly disarmed by Dr. Doom’s claims to be an emissary for his people and his interest in the Silver Surfer’s world-renowned cosmic powers. Specifically, Dr. Doom asks about the Silver Surfer’s surfboard-like contraption, which he reveals is comprised of cosmic energy, a power so great that it has “no equal in the galaxy”. Though impressed, Dr. Doom challenges the Silver Surfer to craft a weapon of equal power and is presented with a near-weightless, gear-like hammer. Though sceptical, Dr. Doom is astounded when the lightest tap destroys his tower and giddy at the thought of conquering the world with the weapon, only for the Silver Surfer to evaporate the weapon as easily as he created it to keep its destructive power out of the hands of humankind, whom he has observed to be “truly mad”. Rather than be enraged, Dr. Doom shows the Silver Surfer some of his colourful and complex scientific projects, which the Silver Surfer suspects are geared towards world conquest. Dr. Doom claims otherwise and insists that he plans to use obvious weapons like his “mobile, all-powerful Pacifier” to instigate world peace. Though placated by Dr. Doom’s loquacious claims, the Silver Surfer cannot shake his suspicions, which he almost witnesses when Dr. Doom briefly drops his façade to threaten an underling. Still, Dr. Doom’s deception works and, enraptured by sights of the cosmos, the Silver Surfer is too distracted and naïve to defend himself when Dr. Doom straps a clunky, Kirby-esque apparatus to himself and uses it to steal the power cosmic, leaving the Silver Surfer in a crumpled heap and making Dr. Doom functionally invincible!

Dr. Doom immediately uses his awesome new cosmic powers to appear before his hated enemies as an intangible apparition and sparking a brief, but violet thunderstorm. Though Mr. Fantastic and (eventually) the Thing try to calm Sue’s fears about this, Dr. Doom revels in his newfound power and, after being mocked by the weakened Silver Surfer, bursts from Castle Doom on the stolen surfboard to confront his adversaries in person. Already jumpy from reading ghost stories, the Thing is blindsided by Dr. Doom, who blasts Ben through the wall and attacks with a strength that rivals Ben’s own. Though confused, the nevertheless undeterred Thing rips apart a billboard and briefly stuns Dr. Doom with a projectile, allowing Ben to leap aboard the surfboard and pummel his empowered foe. Disgusted by the indignity, Dr. Doom blasts the Thing with his “vibration rays” and transforms the Thing into a living statue! Dr. Doom then neutralises Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl with some adhesive cables and a miniature tornado, respectively. Thinking fast, Reed uses a nearby heat induction unit to melt his bindings and attack, briefly throwing Dr. Doom off-guard before the fledgling demigod conjures a mace and brings it down on Reed’s arm. Luckily, Reed and Sue are spared from death by Dr. Doom getting distracted with his gloating and the timely arrival of Johnny Storm/The Human Torch, freshly returned from his search to free the Inhumans. Though battered by Dr. Doom’s surfboard, Johnny bravely fights on, willing to sacrifice himself as he’s “more expendable”, only for Dr. Doom to laugh when the Human Torch engulfs him in flames and destroys the cottage they’re fighting in. Dr. Doom then turns the Human Torch into an iceman and prepares to finish him, only for the youngster to unleash a desperate flare-up that gives him a chance to recuperate (though even he hesitates to employ his “super-nova blast” for fear of killing “half the population of [the] hemisphere”).

Thanks to Johnny’s university roommate, star athlete Wyatt Wingfoot, the Thing is restored and rejoins the fray. Wyatt even brings Reed’s experimental “anti-grav disruptor”, though it proves ineffectual against Dr. Doom, reducing Mr. Fantastic to despair. Dr. Doom’s so pleased by this that he decides to let his foes live with the hopelessness of their defeat, leading him to fly away gloating and unaware that Reed has preyed upon his vanity to spare their lives. To try and counter Dr. Doom’s peerless power, Mr. Fantastic convinces the world’s militaries to go on high alert, leading the Soviet Union to suffer a spectacular failure when they try to challenge Dr. Doom. While Dr. Doom gloats of his superiority to the captive Silver Surfer, dismissing his captive’s vain attempts to defy him and preparing to subjugate the world, Reed laments their defeat, leading to the Thing purposely instigating a fight to snap him out of it. Mr. Fantastic works tirelessly, driving himself to exhaustion trying to figure out a solution, and is horrified to learn from Wyatt that Johnny is practising with his powers, convinced that only he can stand against Dr. Doom. Despite Reed’s warnings, Johnny trains himself to be faster then ever, fuelling his obsession, all while Blackagar Boltagon/Black Bolt finally frees his fellow Inhumans from their prison by unleashing his devastating voice. Simultaneously, Dr. Doom proves his miraculous powers by enveloping a remote European city in total darkness, freezing the Aegean Islands, and transforming a gorilla into a mindless monster. Unwilling to sanction a nuclear counterattack, Mr. Fantastic constructs a prototype weapon that he tests against the Thing. The bat-like drone knocks the Thing on his ass and temporarily weakens him on contact, eventually convincing the hot-headed Ben to lend his awesome strength in constructing the “Anti-Cosmic Flying Wing” to do the same to Dr. Doom, who continues to cause havoc around the globe in a showcase of strength.

Dr. Doom then decides to head to the capital of each nation and seize power over each, only to be blindsided by the vengeful Human Torch. Despite the youngster’s passion, Dr. Doom easily conjures water, steam, and even turns himself to diamond to weather Johnny’s flames. Undeterred, the Human Torch follows Dr. Doom into a storm cloud and flies straight into a trap and is caught in a cyclone, as helpless against Dr. Doom’s power as the weakened Silver Surfer. Thanks to a loan from T’Challa/The Black Panther, the Fantastic Four speed to Latveria, where Dr. Doom destroys their craft by animating the nearby trees, leading to a furious fist fight between the Thing and Dr. Doom. Despite Ben’s rage, he’s no match for Dr. Doom, who easily employs the power cosmic to overpower the Thing. Though in agony and driven to his knees, the Thing refuses to give in and sends Dr. Doom flying with a punch, their battle so furious that even Uatu the Watcher cannot bear to watch. After Reed and Sue regroup with Johnny, the trio find Ben helplessly suspended in Dr. Doom’s anti-gravity field and protected by an “impenetrable cosmic current”. Under Mr. Fantastic’s direction, Sue protects Johnny from Dr. Doom’s extinguishant and bombards the despot with force field spheres, driving Dr, Doom back to his surfboard. Surprisingly (again), Sue throws herself in Dr. Doom’s path, deceiving him into flying head-first into a cliffside. The victory is short-lived, however, as Dr. Doom quickly recovers, winds Johnny with his surfboard, and prepares to employ his full power to obliterate his enemies only to be caught off-guard by the completed Anti-Cosmic Flying Wing. Though momentarily weakened, Dr. Doom sets out to prove himself Reed’s superior once more by destroying the craft, pursuing it into the upper atmosphere and undoing himself. As a stunned Ben, Johnny, and Sue look on, the surfboard returns from orbit to reunite with its rightful owner, Dr. Doom’s fate unknown, since the power cosmic cannot leave the planet due to Galactus’s order, ending Cosmic Doom’s threat in surprisingly anti-climactic fashion.

Final Thoughts: 
It’s kind of funny to me that the Fantastic Four struggled more against the cosmically empowered Dr. Doom than they did against Galactus, especially considering Dr. Doom really didn’t do as much as he could’ve with the Silver Surfer’s incredible power cosmic. Still, Dr. Doom did hand the Fantastic Four a decisive defeat, said to be the first time they’ve ever tasted defeat (which I think is debatable…) and this has quite an impact on the team. Mr. Fantastic especially struggles with the loss, falling into despair and questioning his intellect and his powers, to the point where the Thing has to antagonise him to get his head in the game. I quite enjoyed seeing Reed and Ben bickering and coming to blows throughout this story. Tensions were high and the team are always just as likely to fight amongst themselves as they are their enemies, but the Thing is just as humiliated by their loss as Reed, mortified to find his fantastic strength is nothing compared to Dr. Doom’s cosmic powers. Johnny also takes the loss to heart and uses it as motivation to get better, becoming obsessed with the idea that he’s the only one who stands a chance against Dr. Doom. This is admirable, but incredibly foolish as Dr. Doom barely breaks a sweat negating the Human Torch’s flames and outsmarting him, but it as nice to see Johnny take the situation seriously and work to improve himself to better his chances. The Thing doesn’t really do that, but he does prove his tenacity when he refuses to bow down to Dr. Doom’s superior power, while Reed is at his most aggressive through this story, throwing his body and his mind at every obstacle and driving himself to exhaustion to outwit his foe. Although Sue gets shafted a bit considering how little her powers are employed, I was surprised by how brave she was. She basically laughs off the Sandman’s threat and orders Reed to attack despite the risk to her, she constantly throws up force fields against Dr. Doom’s attacks, and she even outfoxes Dr. Doom by rendering an entire cliffside invisible to briefly dethrone him. I also really liked that the team came together against Dr. Doom in the finale, following Reed’s directions and throwing Dr. Doom off balance to set him up for his defeat.

While this isn’t a great story for the Silver Surfer, who’s easily deceived and left powerless for most of it, it’s a fantastic showcase for Dr. Doom. Dr. Doom easily manipulates the Silver Surfer and steals his power cosmic with his ridiculous apparatus, commandeering his surfboard and causing havoc with his incredible powers. Cosmic Doom can manipulate the weather and elements, conjure weapons out of nothing, transform himself, and create or obliterate with a mere thought. However, Dr. Doom’s biggest enemy remains his ego. He could destroy his enemies at any time and conquer the Earth in mere moments if he so wished, but chooses not to, instead preferring to bask in his superiority over his hated foe and terrorise the world’s nations. Indeed, at times I had to wonder if Dr. Doom knew the full extent of the power cosmic as he never employed it to its full potential. He could’ve reshaped the world, or even reality, to his whim, ruled over everyone as a God-like tyrant, and kept his enemies as depowered, broken prisoners. That might’ve made for a fun two-issue change of status quo and perhaps could’ve even tied into the liberation of the Inhumans (who I also would’ve liked to see play a role in the finale). Instead, Dr. Doom toys with his prey, constantly monologues, and easily falls for Reed’s deception. As much as I enjoyed this story, I was pretty disappointed by the ending. I liked that Dr. Doom’s fate was left ambiguous, but it was weird to see him simply fly off and then be left with Reed explaining how and why the despot was defeated. Perhaps if the story had spent less time including Wyatt (seriously, everything he does could’ve been done by Johnny…) and cutting away to the Inhumans, there would’ve been some panels left over to deliver a better finale. Still, I really enjoyed the visual of Dr. Doom flying around on the Silver Surfer’s surfboard and crackling with power cosmic, the epic clash between him and the Thing, and the grandiose presentation of Cosmic Doom.

My Rating:

Great Stuff

Did you enjoy seeing Dr. Doom steal the Silver Surfer’s powers? Do you agree that Cosmic Doom could’ve done a little more with his newfound powers? Were you surprised to see the Fantastic Four defeated and struggling with that defeat? Do you agree that the ending was a bit anti-climactic? Can you name some of your favourite Dr. Doom stories and moments? Whatever you think about Dr. Doom or the Fantastic Four, go ahead and leave a comment below and donate to my Ko-Fi to support my website,