Marvel 1964 Week--Fantastic Four Annual #2 Part 2!!

Welcome back. If you haven't already, please check out part 1 of this examination of Fantastic Four Annual #2 (1964), as today we're all Doom, all the time!!

After Doom's origin, Marvel gave us a reprint of his original appearance in FF #5. Just 2 brief notes here. First, Ben Grimm as a pirate:

Secondly, even in his initial appearance, Doom was playing the Doombot game:

After some pin-ups, we then got a brand new 25-page story!! That's right...Jack Kirby cranked out 59 pages of new FF, plus pin-ups & covers...all in a one month period. And then there was his Avengers and X-Men and Thor...holy productivity, Batman!!

Of course, some corners had to be cut at that pace, and in this story in particular the artwork seems rushed and choppier, often with much less background work than we saw in Doom's origin. But dangit, Marvel was going to give us our quarter's worth, perfect art or not!!

And so:

We begin with some snide commentary on the 1964 art scene:


Meanwhile, when we last left Doom, he had been caught in one of his own traps and chucked into outer space! Fortunately for him:

And who saves him??

Ah, Rama-Tut, he who become Kang/Immortus/Rama-Tut II/Scarlet Centurion...Oh, Stan, if only you knew what a mess you were creating here.

Anyway, it turns out that both Doom and Tut are idiots!


Uh...that's not how time travel works, is it, guys??

Most of this has been retconned away by 2009. Tut is now known to be a descendant of Reed Richards, not Doctor Doom. And in Avengers Forever, we learned that Tut knew his whole "we're the same person" rap was BS, he was just trying to shine Doom on so he could get rid of him. Whatever...more about Rama-Tut/Kang when we get to the Avengers later this week.

So the rescued Doom goes strolling home to the Latverian embassy, and we find out that for once, we readers know more than everybody else in the Marvel Universe (because we read the first story in the Annual, true believers!!).

Really, it is kind of a cool idea, a country with a secret despot ruling things. Which explains why the FF accept an invitation to a reception at the Latverian Embassy without a second thought...

...and why the locals are so coy...

So the oversuspicious FF (except for Reed, because he's a genius) drink the wine, which Doom has doctored with his "special berry juice":

So Johnny thinks the Thing is attacking him (and vice versa)...

...while Sue Storm sees something far more frightening:

Which results in our heroes trying to kill each other for real...

But Doom, he can't just be happy. Nope, he's gotta check out his face:



PRO-TIP: Blowing up rooms with your blaster alerts your enemies to your presence. Don't do it if your plan involves remaining secret.

Which leads to 1960's Gratuitous Sexist Moment #1:

Oh, Reed, you smug bastard.

And after some pointless jousting that resolves nothing, we get 1960's Gratuitous Sexist Moment #2:

Go to hell, Reed.

Before their mental duel, Reed and Victor share a toast:

And of course you already know what's going to happen, don't you?

Reed and Doom have a mental battle that Doctor Who's The Brain Of Morbius would rip off a decade later:

And Doom kicks Reed's ass...err, brain, that is!!


But Reed's not really gone? Please, Professor Richards, explain.

Ahhh. Saw that one coming. Well, why don't you just arrest him or something?

D'oh. I wonder if this was the first use of the "criminal goes free because of diplomatic immunity" riff in popular culture? We see it often enough in modern day entertainment...

So there's FF Annual 1--25¢ for a bonanza of Doom. Truly, a golden age. But that's not the only reason this month was special, as we'll see on Monday...

ELSEWHERE IN THE MARVEL UNIVERSE:

There was still more FF action going on:

The Human Torch had a long-running solo series in Strange Tales. But in #124 Stan announced that henceforth it would be the Torch AND the Thing. In this issue, Stan and Dick Ayers give us half the FF versus Paste Pot Pete, in a costume almost as hideous as his debut. Despite being out on parole because he helped out the Avengers a couple of months ago, and despite having invented a "super dissolver" that could dissolve any adhesive, the schmuck returned immediately to a life of crime instead of cashing in on a billion dollar patent. Loser.

Oh, yeah, there was also a Lee/Ditko story where Doctor Strange rescues Cleopatra (yes, THE Cleopatra) from an evil wizard.

Golden age, I'm telling you...