It was something of an eye-opener being witness to the reading of the last will and testament of Reed Richards--but what were the circumstances that led to such an extraordinary gathering?
Please take your seats, as we unlock the seal to yet another
Marvel Trivia Question
How did the leader of the Fantastic Four meet his end?
The answer leads to Latveria, where we find the populace scattering at the approach of a deadly alien who is bent on destroying all in his path--an alien lured to Earth by Doctor Doom, who is intent on siphoning the creature's incredible power for himself! But the Fantastic Four, following the Thing to Doom's country where he sought to take revenge on the despot for his role in the mutation of Sharon Ventura, stand ready to defend the innocents of Doomstadt.
Obviously the team (joined by Lyja and Psi-Lord (that is, the grown Franklin Richards)) has their hands full with this belligerent and malevolent alien. As for Doom, he has his own endgame in mind that will gain him not one but two of the goals he seeks--but it will require him to briefly maintain a facade of cooperation with his old rival.
But even for two men of such collective brilliance, things don't always go as planned--and the attack against the creature fails spectacularly.
That leaves the rest of the FF to carry the ball against this creature's assault. And while Doom considers withdrawing, he finds his backbone when he realizes that his subjects are depending on him. (Of course it doesn't hurt that he still believes he can pull off his plan against this alien--and all right under the noses of the FF.)
Doom's calculated risk has now put him at this creature's mercy, which we can likely assume won't be extended to the fallen ruler. (And if their positions were reversed, no doubt we could expect the same level of consideration from Doom.) Astonishingly, however, Doom still has a desperate card to play. And he might even have more than one.
I know what you must be thinking at this moment of crisis: "How is it that Doom can get away with having a nosepiece on his armor--but Iron Man got nothing but grief for it?" I share your outrage.
But we have a more pressing issue to concern us.
NEXT:
Come on--Reed will be back!
Won't he?
Doom's nosepiece is one thing Comicsfan, but what fer the luv a' Aunt Petunia is Sue wearing?
ReplyDelete-sean
Sean, with a nod of thanks to fellow comics blogger it's a Dan's world, here's what artist Paul Ryan had to say on the subject:
ReplyDelete"Oh yeah!! 'THAT' costume!! DeFalco's storyline dealt with Sue regressing to her Malice persona. Becoming more aggressive. He wanted a costume change to reflect this change in Sue's attitude. The costume I designed had many of the same features as the Malice costume, while retaining a semblance of a FF costume. We got a few negative comments from fans who felt that as Franklin's Mom, Sue would never wear such a revealing costume. There was another side to the argument from fans who still looked upon Sue as a babe. Eventually Tom allowed me to modify the costume so that both sides were appeased."
You can see Sue's introduction of the costume in a prior post.
Oh, comic book companies are so much worse than politicians for painting hogwash over every part of their history.
ReplyDelete"A few negative comments..." In the couple of decades since the time of "Sue the Stripper", I have honestly never heard or read one fan opinion go: "Wow. That was such a great costume design! Why did they ever get rid of that??"
"Malice persona"? So... let me guess, thats basically Dark Invisible Woman? (How do they come up with these ideas, eh?)
ReplyDeleteSorry if the costume was old news Comicsfan, but having given up on the FF when John Byrne lost it in the Negative Zone - and generally missing most of the bomber-jacket-and-pouches superhero era - it was a bit of a surprise.
And not in a good way.
I can just picture some editorial drone at Marvel looking at the basic design for that costume, and saying "yeah, thats it... but it needs a 4-shaped gap instead of a logo, so we can see her cleavage better".
And why has the Thing got a helmet?
It is a helmet, right? Please tell me its not a robot head (you never know with 90s comics)
-sean
Sean, I'm sprinkling PPC links like confetti, but happy to do so. :) You can get the scoop on the Thing's helmet from this post--and of course the Malice costume speaks for itself in her profile here.
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to fill me in Comicsfan, although I probably could have managed quite well living out the rest of my days not knowing much about the 90s FF (:
ReplyDeleteAmazing to see Marvel had the nerve to still put "the world's greatest comic magazine on the cover"...
-sean