Marvel Compass #7

Fantastic Four #5

 “One flip of a switch and they will be mine!" -Doctor Doom 

Prisoners of Doctor Doom 

by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Inks by Joe Sinnott, Colors by Stan Goldberg, Letters by Artie Simek
                         
Inside his fortress, a man encased in metal with a green robe around him places figurines of the Fantastic Four on a board. Next to him are books on demons and sorcery. The man’s name is Doctor Doom, and he claims that the Fantastic Four are nothing more than his pawns. He leaves his castle and flies off in a helicopter.

In the Fantastic Four’s skyscraper headquarters, Johnny is reading The Incredible Hulk comic book. He proclaims that the Hulk reminds him of the Thing, who is sitting right next to him. Thing snatches the comic, and Johnny responds by igniting his hand and burning the comic while Thing is holding it. They start rough housing, until Reed and Sue stop them. All of the lights suddenly go out in the building.

Above their building, Doctor Doom’s helicopter drops a giant net over the entire skyscraper. Johnny tries to burn out of it, surmising that it must be made of asbestos after he fails. Doctor Doom calls out from his shark-faced helicopter, “Fantastic Four!! Heed my words! This is Doctor Doom!!” Reed recognizes the voice as a student he went to college with named Victor Von Doom. He was into magic and tried to contact the nether world using a machine he had made, but it blew up in his face. The last Reed had heard, he was in Tibet. Doctor Doom wants to take Susan as a hostage, so the the rest of the Fantastic Four will do as he says. Sue complies, and joins Doom in his cockpit.

The rest of the Four are gathered up in a cell and pulled up into the back of Doom’s helicopter. Doctor Doom flies them all over to his castle, and releases the Four except for Sue, who he leaves bound. Placing Reed, Johnny and Thing on a metal platform in the middle of his throne room, Doom tells them he has created a time machine. He wants them to go back in time to retrieve Blackbeard’s treasure. He presses a button, sending Reed, Johnny and Thing back in time, before telling Sue that with the gems of Blackbeard’s treasure, he plans to rule the world.

“It worked!! Look! Look where we are!” shouts Johnny as they gather their surroundings. Worried about blending in, Reed spies two pirates arguing over a bundle of clothing they've stolen. The Thing bursts out, making the pirates run in fear of him being a demon. Fitted in the stolen garb, including a fake beard the the Thing wears, the team go to a nearby tavern where they are spotted by some other pirates. The pirates drug the three of them, knocking them all out.

Waking up, Reed, Johnny and the Thing find themselves on a ship. The pirates above plan to make them swab the decks. The Thing break up out of the hull of the ship and starts fighting the men. Johnny and Reed quickly join in, when suddenly their ship is attacked by another. Johnny leaps off of the ship with a shout “Flame on!”

The Human Torch attacks the second ship, burning it’s sails and creating much chaos among its denizens. He flies down into the sea, creating a large smoke screen of steam like he did when they were battling Namor. Mr. Fantastic stretches himself from ship to ship, creating a bridge out of his body for the Thing and the pirates of their ship to run across. The successfully beat the other pirates, and proclaim the Thing as Blackbeard, due to his (fake) beard. The three realize that the legend of Blackbeard must be about him.

Believing Doctor Doom’s intentions for the gems to be dangerous, Reed dumps the gems out and replaces them with chains from the ship. The Thing decides he will remain here in the past where pirates revere him, instead of coming back to the present where he is seen as nothing but a monster “In the twentieth century I’m nothin’ but a monster... a freak!” Suddenly, the Thing gets the pirates, now under his command, to tie up Johnny and Reed into a boat where they can’t interfere with him staying. Just then a twister approaches the ship, destroying the vessel, and sending the group spilling into the sea. After the ensuing chaos subsides, Reed, Johnny and the Thing gather one an island, chest intact, as in the present Doctor Doom presses a button.

An intangible square of light falls over the FF, minus Sue, sending them to the present. After revealing that the gems once belonged to Merlin and have magic properties to them, Doctor Doom opens Blackbeard’s chest to find the waiting chains. While enraged at the group’s con, the Thing rushes and clobbers him sending Doom’s body to split apart. It turns out he’s a robot. From the ceiling, a globe with Doom’s face descends telling them “I am in a hidden room above you!” He locks them in the room that the group is in and starts to drain out all of the oxygen.

As Doom is too busy watching three of the Fantastic Four suffer, he’s forgotten all about Sue. She turns invisible, and finds a switch to short-circuit the machine Doom is using. This opens the room to where the others are, and the Invisible Girl rushes in to rescue them. In order to avoid any booby traps, Mr. Fantastic stretches himself out a barred window to a nearby rock. The Thing uses the leverage to pull the wall out of the side of the building. The come across a moat full of crocodiles. The Human Torch does a trick, by burning to the intensity of atomic heat, to solidify the water so they can all get across. He then surrounds the entire castle in flame, trying to smoke Doom out of his castle. Doctor Doom uses a jet pack to fly out of his castle, with Johnny in pursuit. The Human Torch nearly catches him, but his flame starts to grow too weak making him fall. With Doctor Doom escaped, the rest of the FF race over to find Johnny hanging from a tree branch. Reed promises of both Doom and Namor, “We’ll devote our lives to tracking them down!”

Bearings

• The Fantastic Four will appear again next issue in Fantastic Four #6

• As will Doctor Doom appear again in Fantastic Four #6

Notes/Observations/Thoughts

• First appearance of Doctor Doom, the Fantastic Four’s archenemy.

• Second meta reference in the Marvel Universe, Johnny is reading Incredible Hulk #1.

• Reed plays leader here well, knowing how to tick Doom off in just the right way by giving him false hope in the form of a treasure chest full of chains.

• Each member of the Fantastic Four all get their own moments in this story. Mr. Fantastic cons Doom with the chains, The Human Torch leads the through the moat by using his powers (I don’t know how what he did worked, but if you start trying to bring logic and our reality into the Marvel Universe it starts becoming a much less fun place.) The Invisible Girl rescued them from Doom’s prison, and the Thing clobbered that robot, and smashed their way out of the prison.

• Still much tension between Human Torch and the Thing. It starts getting less serious in a few issues between them. Especially once Alicia shows up.

• Doctor Doom’s plan seems a bit odd, since the Blackbeard’s Merlin’s gems thing doesn't turn into a plot later, despite how much Johnny wants it to when he mentions Namor possibly getting ahold of them. My theory is that Doom just wanted to try out his time machine, and wanted to use somebody else to test it. 

• Next we'll check back in with the Incredible Hulk!

Quotes

“For of all the humans on earth, only I have the power to defeat them!" -Doctor Doom

“I’ll teach ya to compare me to a comic book monster!" -Thing

“Bah!" -Doctor Doom

The images, story, and all character names on this page are trademarked Marvel Characters, and used without permission. No infringement is intended.