Fantastic Four Annual 2
“The Fantastic Origin of Dr. Doom” and “The Final Victory of Dr. Doom”
Published: July 7, 1964
Stories: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Scripts: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Chic Stone
Letters: Sam Rosen
Cover: Kirby and Sol Brodsky


This is a big one! Strap yourselves in, because a giant-size comic book means a giant-size blog post.

The Fantastic Four’s second annual contains three stories. One is a reprint of Fantastic Four 5, the first appearance of Dr. Doom. The other two are new, and both contain major contributions to the story of Dr. Doom, the Fantastic Four’s (and arguably the Marvel Universe’s) most significant antagonist.

First up is Doom’s origin story in a 12-page retelling that expands greatly on this brief, five-panel origin in FF 5:

In Annual 2, we learn that Doom was a gypsy, the son of a sorceress and and healer. As a child, the cruel local Baron demands Doom’s father heal his ailing wife. When he can’t save her, the Baron vows revenge, and Werner Von Doom flees with young Victor, eventually dying of exposure while saving his son. Now an orphan, Victor discovers his mother’s magical artifacts and devotes himself to learning her secrets.

As a young man, Doom becomes a sort of con-man Robin Hood, selling inventions like a self-playing violin to the wealthy before they fell apart. He (somehow) attracts the attention of the dean of Empire State University, who offers him a scholarship. At ESU, Doom meets Reed Richards, and haughtily rebuffs his offer to be roommates. Doom spends his free time working on a device designed to “contact the nether world” and arrogantly dismisses Reed when he warns Doom about his miscalculations. The device explodes, scarring Doom’s face, and he is expelled from ESU.

Still seeking occult knowledge, he travels to the Himalayas and joins a hidden order of monks, eventually becoming their master. He commands them to build him a suit of armor, and he leaves as Dr. Doom.

The story wraps up with Doom striding through Latveria, where his subjects seem to both love and fear him.

What’s going on here?

A lot. For the first time we learn about Doom’s sorceress mother, the tragic death of his father, and the origin of his armor. Notably, FF Annual 2 also introduces Doom as monarch of Latveria, one of Marvel’s most important fictional nations (Wakanda, Atlantis, and Genosha are the others). Remember, up to this point, Doom’s castle was in the Adirondack mountains in upstate New York. Making Doom a sovereign—giving him both diplomatic immunity and threats from coups and insurgencies—opened up dozens of story angles for FF writers over the years.

While Annual 2 expands Doom’s origins, it’s hardly the last word on the subject. Given Doom’s centrality in the Marvel universe, it’s not surprising his story has been continually revisited, tweaked, and retconned. While the same basic elements are always in place, over the decades writers have played with the specifics.

For example, here’s the scene where Reed tries to alert Doom to his miscalculations. First, in Annual 2:

Here’s how John Byrne depicted the same scene 20 years later, in a flashback in FF 278 (inks by Jerry Ordway):

And here’s how Ed Brubaker treated the same scene in 2006’s Books of Doom, a six-part series that expanded Doom’s origin at even greater length (art by Pablo Raimoni and Mark Farmer):

And finally, in 2013’s Fantastic Four, vol. 4, issue 9, Matt Fraction has a host of interdimensional Dooms visit what Doom here calls his “nativity” (art by Mark Bagley and Mark Farmer):

Interestingly, “dimensional warps” appear in all four tellings.

Here’s the various tellings of another critical scene, when Doom first puts on his mask.

First, in Annual 2:

Then, in FF 278:

Books of Doom:

And FF Vol. 4, No. 9 (Ben and Reed are also revisiting Doom’s origin):

The second new in Annual 2 story is a more straight forward FF adventure, with Doom as the villain.

Synopsis

The story opens with the Fantastic Four barely managing to land a balky Fantasticar on a New York City street. After some hijinks with the locals, we turn to outer space, where Doom, last seen drifting in the void in FF 23, is rescued by Rama-Tut. There, they discuss how they may in fact be the same person in different times, and they agree they must defeat the Fantastic Four.

In a spacecraft borrowed from Rama-Tut, Doom returns to Earth and Latveria’s embassy in New York (technically, it should be a consulate since the embassy would be in Washington, but we’ll let it slide) to launch his plan. Meanwhile, the Fantastic Four are back in the Baxter Building, clowning around, when they are invited to a state dinner at the Latverian embassy. There, they are served a berry juice which causes hallucinations, leading the FF to fight with each other. Doom, however, attracts their attention when he breaks a glass mirror (after looking at his unmasked face), and the team pursues him to the Baxter Building. There, after a scuffle with the rest of the FF, Doom is challenged to a duel by Reed. After drinking a toast, they square off using the “encephalo-gun,” a device that will send the one with the lesser brain power “to a timeless limbo.”

Doom appears to win as Reed disappears, and walks off in triumph, only for Reed to reveal he tricked Doom into drinking the Latverian berry juice, and Doom only hallucinated defeating Reed.

What’s going on here?

The whole business with the berry juice and encephalo-gun make this one of the sillier FF stories in a while, but there some interesting nuggets are revealed along the way. One detail is that while the earlier story established Doom is ruler of Latveria, it’s apparently not common knowledge outside the country, which is why the FF wouldn’t be suspicious of an invitation to the embassy. Stan and Jack have a bit of fun with this idea here:

The story also helps establish the weird relationship between Doom and Reed, where they are enemies but have a grudging respect for one another that at times get very close to a friendship. We see that in the toast scene (which also suggests Doom is far stupider then we think if he falls for that trick):

FF Annual 2 also gives us an early glimpse into the time-twisting storylines featuring Rama-Tut/Kang/Immortus so beloved of later Marvel writers like Steve Englehart, Roger Stern and Kurt Busiek. Like most of those stories, I found this exchange between Rama-Tut and Doom completely baffling. Maybe in a future blog post I’ll try and unravel it all.

We also get a bit of drama about Doom’s face. We are told this is the first time in years he has taken off his mask.

But his discomfort with his unmasked face seems to fade over the years, since he removes his mask to play the piano in FF 236 (by Byrne):

Krazy Kredits

Two stories means two opportunities for goofiness:

and

The sexist sixties

After a few issues where Sue was coming into her own as an effective member of the team, this story seriously back-slid into embarrassing sexism. First, there’s a return to Sue’s obsession with clothes:

Then this painful dialogue:

After Sue has proven her worth in about a dozen issue, Reed still wants to shunt her aside. Johnny, of all people, comes to her defense.

Then, after Sue battles Doom to a standstill, Reed intervenes to say:

It’s clobberin’ time!

I believe this is only the second time we hear Ben use his signature phrase:

Weird science

Not the Encephalo-Gun!! Not that!!

They’re fighting again

The juice made them do it.

Mid-Century Modern

Doom also has a creative decorator.

Speaking of art

A bystander pays Ben to destroy a car to create a piece of modern art:

This would be just another example of Stan and Jack making fun of the excesses of 60s culture, expect artist John Chamberlain had a successful career making sculpture out of demolished cars:

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Pin-ups!

FF Annual 2 has a collection of run-of-the mill pin-ups of villains, and some exquisite pin-ups of the FF (and Alicia). Kirby put a lot of attention to detail in these, particularly Reed’s and Johnny’s (and despite Ben only saying “it’s clobbering time” once before this issue, it’s already identified as a catch-phrase in is pinup).

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Dig that Kirby Krackle

Check out this panel, of the party at the Latverian embassy:

And this is a great sequence:

For sale

A mint (9.8) copy of FF Annual 2 could cost you $50,000. An issue in Fine (6.0) condition is about $800.

Next issue: The return of the Mole Man!