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doomfansThe FF attack Latveria, the adult members attacking directly while the kids remote control robots and hack computers from the Blue Area of the moon. The magician that Scott brought in neutralises Doom's magic from afar. (He claims that it's all flash and illusion and only looks powerful: "True magical power requires a piece of the user's soul each time he casts. This Doom is the sort who refuses to pay any price at all.")
Meanwhile, Alex tunnels in and frees his parents; Ravonna is also a prisoner, but since she was helping the bad guys they leave her behind to fend for herself. That suits her, since she has plans of her own to get on with. She intercepts Lockjaw, who is bringing Franklin and Valeria back home after the events of Fantastic Four #14, and pulls the kids into some kind of pocket dimension where Franklin's powers are blocked and Valeria is stays frozen. It turns out that Valeria is Ravonna's younger self: "The younger self I've waited half a lifetime to prevent." (So the "Ravonna is Cassie Lang" theory was actually surprisingly close!)
The Watcher and the Council of Dooms turn up to witness some kind of momentous event in Latveria. Kang is sure this means their merger into the Annihilating Conqueror, and when Doom refuses to go along with it, tries to forcibly start it himself. But instead of Kang merging Doom into himself like he planned, Doom takes control: "Did you think a nose-wet stripling like yourself could possibly subsume Doom's very concept of self?" He emerges from the battle of wills with the power of all three, Kang slumped at his feet.
Now possessed of near-omnipotence, his first act is to "forever rid myself of this yammering invisible Greek chorus of fraudulent Dooms". He zaps them all away, and then blasts Annihilus and Kang too. "Predictable," the Watcher says in apparent sadness, causing Doom to attack him too: "It is Doom against the universe itself and there are no neutrals!"
Then Jen, Medusa and Darla rush in with a device to drain Doom of his powers. The subsequent blast knocks all of them to the ground, but Doom alone manages to get up again, and if he can reach the power-drain device he can regain omnipotence. The issue closes with Scott Lang arriving on the scene to stop him.
Hmm. Mixed feelings on this issue. Mike Allred's art is good as ever, but once again, the humour has taken a dip too far into the zany wacky silliness for me, with some of the drama and characterisation sacrificed for gags. (That said, there is one moment that completely cracked me up, where John Storm flies in to face the bad guys dramatically crying, "Doooommmm!" and Doom says, "One moment," turns around and zaps him, then goes back to his conversation. Jen shouting "Avengers assemble!" by mistake make me smile as well. But overall I feel less would have been more, comedy-wise.)
Doom's characterisation is kind of all the map, too. Much of the time he comes off far more Silver Agey, ranty and cartoony than the AU Doom over in Fantastic Four. There's even a point where he proudly calls his own actions evil, which is much more of a cartoon supervillain than he ever acted even in Stan Lee's day. On the other hand, the pages where things move away from the comedy and he takes control of the trio's power are actually really excellent, with some fantastic dialogue and great characterisation. (Although it's then slightly tarnished with a few taunts to his enemies that don't really sound like him at all. "Children's hour is over for you, my dear Kiddy Kang", "Who's common dirt now, Watcher"?)
Overall, there's some great stuff in here, but I feel like the constant stream of gags undermines it in places. It would be different if the book had been this level of not-very-serious all along, but while it was always a light-hearted series it was definitely a bit more grounded in Marvel 'reality' back when Matt Fraction was writing. I always liked his work on FF much better than his Fantastic Four in any case, so I do kind of wish we'd had the chance to see him finish this story arc himself.
Meanwhile, Alex tunnels in and frees his parents; Ravonna is also a prisoner, but since she was helping the bad guys they leave her behind to fend for herself. That suits her, since she has plans of her own to get on with. She intercepts Lockjaw, who is bringing Franklin and Valeria back home after the events of Fantastic Four #14, and pulls the kids into some kind of pocket dimension where Franklin's powers are blocked and Valeria is stays frozen. It turns out that Valeria is Ravonna's younger self: "The younger self I've waited half a lifetime to prevent." (So the "Ravonna is Cassie Lang" theory was actually surprisingly close!)
The Watcher and the Council of Dooms turn up to witness some kind of momentous event in Latveria. Kang is sure this means their merger into the Annihilating Conqueror, and when Doom refuses to go along with it, tries to forcibly start it himself. But instead of Kang merging Doom into himself like he planned, Doom takes control: "Did you think a nose-wet stripling like yourself could possibly subsume Doom's very concept of self?" He emerges from the battle of wills with the power of all three, Kang slumped at his feet.
Now possessed of near-omnipotence, his first act is to "forever rid myself of this yammering invisible Greek chorus of fraudulent Dooms". He zaps them all away, and then blasts Annihilus and Kang too. "Predictable," the Watcher says in apparent sadness, causing Doom to attack him too: "It is Doom against the universe itself and there are no neutrals!"
Then Jen, Medusa and Darla rush in with a device to drain Doom of his powers. The subsequent blast knocks all of them to the ground, but Doom alone manages to get up again, and if he can reach the power-drain device he can regain omnipotence. The issue closes with Scott Lang arriving on the scene to stop him.
Hmm. Mixed feelings on this issue. Mike Allred's art is good as ever, but once again, the humour has taken a dip too far into the zany wacky silliness for me, with some of the drama and characterisation sacrificed for gags. (That said, there is one moment that completely cracked me up, where John Storm flies in to face the bad guys dramatically crying, "Doooommmm!" and Doom says, "One moment," turns around and zaps him, then goes back to his conversation. Jen shouting "Avengers assemble!" by mistake make me smile as well. But overall I feel less would have been more, comedy-wise.)
Doom's characterisation is kind of all the map, too. Much of the time he comes off far more Silver Agey, ranty and cartoony than the AU Doom over in Fantastic Four. There's even a point where he proudly calls his own actions evil, which is much more of a cartoon supervillain than he ever acted even in Stan Lee's day. On the other hand, the pages where things move away from the comedy and he takes control of the trio's power are actually really excellent, with some fantastic dialogue and great characterisation. (Although it's then slightly tarnished with a few taunts to his enemies that don't really sound like him at all. "Children's hour is over for you, my dear Kiddy Kang", "Who's common dirt now, Watcher"?)
Overall, there's some great stuff in here, but I feel like the constant stream of gags undermines it in places. It would be different if the book had been this level of not-very-serious all along, but while it was always a light-hearted series it was definitely a bit more grounded in Marvel 'reality' back when Matt Fraction was writing. I always liked his work on FF much better than his Fantastic Four in any case, so I do kind of wish we'd had the chance to see him finish this story arc himself.
