Fantastic Four 84 | Percival Henry: The Fantastic Four and more

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1968, Dr. Doom, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 84, jack Kirby, Stan Lee

Fantastic Four 84
“The Name is Doom!”
Published Dec. 1968
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Sam Rosen
Cover: Kirby and Sinnott

Synopsis

After their adventure with the Inhumans last issue, the Fantastic Four—Mr. Fantastic, the Thing, the Human Torch and Crystal filling in for the Invisible Girl—are flying back home through the Himalayas in a “gyro-ship,” a gift from Inhuman king Black Bolt. They are intercepted by Nick Fury and Dum Dum Dugan of Shield, who need the FF’s help with a secret army amassing in Europe. As Fury shows the FF a robot arm sent by a Shield agent, the arm takes on a life of its own, grabbing a gun and blasting the FF before Johnny destroys it.

Reed suspects the robot is the handiwork of Dr. Doom, and the team travels incognito from a neighboring Communist country to Latveria, where their car is quickly destroyed and they are surrounded by Doom’s robots. While Reed urges the team not to fight back—his plan is for them to be captured to learn Doom’s secrets—Johnny attacks when they seize Crystal, and the rest of the team battles back before they are subdued. The team awakens in a comfortable inn, and are greeted warmly by Latverians. Doom, monitoring them, reveals they have been hypnotized into not using their powers

Eventually they are reunited with Crystal in a town square, and only when Reed attempts to escape does Doom warn the FF that they must remain in Latveria as his prisoners, where they must be happy or die.

What’s going on here?

This is a promising set-up for a Doom story, with Doom engaged in his typically sinister machinations, this time with Latveria as the backdrop. While we’ve seen Latveria before, this is the first time the FF (or readers) have spent much time with Latverians, and it adds to the more nuanced view of Doom and Latveria that Marvel writers have developed over the years. Yes, Doom is an absolute monarch and a dictator, but he ensures his people are cared for and happy, provoking questions about security vs. freedom. It’s a bit of a simple construct for political analysis, but hey, it’s a comic book.

There have been too many depictions of Latveria and Doomstadt to count, but they generally use the template established here by Stan and Jack, of a kind of story-book, fairy-tale European kingdom. John Byrne took the ball and ran with it here in FF 258 (from 1983). In Latveria, the men are all strong, the women are all pretty and the children are all above average. Just don’t ask too many questions.

Where are we?

Geographically, we are told in this issue Latveria lies “deep in the heart of the Balkans,” which is more or less consistent with how it’s described over the years and where it’s depicted in a Marvel Universe map from 1987.

Yet here in FF 84 a dissident tries to escape via the sea. At least it looks like the sea. Maybe it’s a big lake.

The sexist sixties

The comic again pays short shrift to Sue and her (still) unnamed baby. Reed at one point mentions he’d like to go home and see his baby, but he is overruled by Nick Fury, who seems to command anyone at will. Well, at least he tried.

Deus Ex Fury

Fury’s appearance here is typical of how he’s used in many Fantastic Four (and Avenger) comics over the years: He shows up briefly, asks he super-team to investigate someting, then vanishes. It’s an effective way to getting the plot rolling, even if it becomes a bit of a cliche.