Fantastic Four 23
“The Master Plan of Dr. Doom”
Published: November 1963
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Pencils: Kirby
Script: Lee
Inks: George Roussos
Letters: Sam Rosen
Cover: Kirby and Roussos

Synopsis

A small dinosaur escapes into the Baxter Building from Dr. Doom’s time machine, leading Mr Fantastic to berate the rest of the team for their inattentiveness. Frustrated with Reed’s brusque leadership, the Human Torch, the Thing, and the Invisible Girl decide to vote on a new leader, and when all three vote for themselves, a fight breaks out which ends only when Reed asserts his command over the team.

Meanwhile, three criminals are bailed out of jail by a bald man revealed to be a robot controlled by Dr. Doom. The three have been assembled because of their special talents—strength, superior hearing, and resistance to flame—which are augmented by Doom, and they become the Terrible Trio. The trio use their new powers to capture the Human Torch, Thing, and Invisible Girl, while Doom uses a Thing robot to lure and attract Reed.

The four heroes free themselves from their shackles, then battle Doom only to find he has imprisoned them in a warehouse coated in ionic dust particles, making it vulnerable to a “solar wave” that is transporting the room into outer space. The team is able to escape the room, but Doom plunges into the void.

What’s going on here?

Honestly? Not much, particularly after all the big developments in the last issue. This is fairly inconsequential issue, both for having very little impact on future stories, and for a fairly banal plot, even one involving Doom. If anything, while FF 23 further cements Doom as the team’s primary antagonist, it weakens his impact by dragging him into such an uneventful story. There is a some character building, mostly involving Reed being a jerk and then getting a bit of comeuppance, but it’s not a subplot that is really developed. We do get almost two full pages of Ben and Johnny fighting, though.

The Terrible Trio

The only new characters introduced are the Terrible Trio, a bunch of D-listers who make a handful of appearances over the years. Here they are in Marvel Two-in-One 60, where they crash Alicia’s art opening:

They don’t appear again for almost 40 years, when they show up in Fantastic Four: 4 Yancy Street

Reed Richards is a jerk

He is extra-unpleasant in this issue

He kinda, sorta apologizes after Johnny rescues him after Doom’s freezes him solid.

They’re fighting again

Are they ever

The sexist sixties

Weird science

The ionic dust/ solar wave business is completely perplexing. I have no idea what Stan and Jack were doing here

The incredible Mr. Fantastic

Some cool stretching action.

• 

• 

You call that a trap?

After several issues where Doom builds individual cells to counter the FF’s powers, here he just chains them to a wall (and puts Reed in a box, which Ben smashes. Not even Doom can bother to try very hard in this issue.

He’s a bad man

Doom flexes his bad-guy muscles in disposing of his henchmen

Dig that Kirby Krackle

Jack does get to draw some outer space stuff, so that’s a plus.

For sale

A mint issue (9.8) of FF 23 will run you about $21,000. At least that’s what it says here.

Next issue: The FF confront the Infant Terrible!