"The Final Victory Of Dr. Doom!"

With the successful launch of the first Fantastic Four annual in 1963, FF readers were no doubt looking forward to seeing Marvel deliver on another annual the following year. Needless to say, the company did just that, this time featuring a foe that had become one of the book's most popular characters--Dr. Doom, having appeared in six out of thirty issues thus far (as well as an issue of Amazing Spider-Man) and who had informally been elevated to the status of the FF's de facto arch-nemesis.

The '64 annual has a number of things going for it in terms of content (which includes additions to the Fantastic Four rogues gallery), not the least of which is significantly expanding on Doom's character and providing him with more depth than that of the standard two-dimensional villain we'd seen thus far whose main draw was as a rival to the brilliance of Reed Richards. In fact, readers had the opportunity in this issue to observe the contrast in Doom's evolution for themselves, since for the annual to reach its advertised length of 72 pages it was necessary to supplement its 48 pages of new material with filler--in this case, a reprint of Fantastic Four #5, "Prisoners of Doctor Doom!", a story that introduced Doom to the title as little more than a "sinister genius," and villainy and only villainy appears to compel him. Leading off the annual, however, is a prelude to the main FF tale in the form of Doom's origin story, where Doom is given a rich history full of tragedy, mystery, royal bearing, and ominous foreshadowing (as opposed to the abridged version of his origin appearing in the aforementioned issue #5). Add to that his continued dealings with the Fantastic Four and his drive to achieve world domination, and this armored "menace" transforms before our eyes into a complicated figure whose madness and cruelty are always on a hair trigger.

There are a number of takeaways from Doom's origin which will be familiar sights to a number of you and which serve to encompass the new "Victor Von Doom" we meet here. A boy shaped by the hardships of himself and his people and the tragic loss of his parents... the young man who met Reed Richards as a fellow student at State University... the broken man created from an experiment gone wrong... a journey to the mountains of Tibet where he would meet his destiny... the observance of a lonely, solemn ritual to his mother's grave.

As we've seen, the backdrop of the story also contains an intriguing addition to Doom's profile: the fact that he rules the small kingdom of Latveria nestled in the Bavarian alps in Germany, information that the FF remain unaware of but which they'll discover in the annual's main story.

But while this annual's cover adds to the "Doom looms" series of issue covers and focuses the spotlight on their armored foe, it wouldn't be an FF annual without the Fantastic Four taking front and center on their own splash page (albeit in an embarrassing situation)--yet even so, you'd almost expect Dr. Doom to insinuate himself onto page one, wouldn't you?

As in other instances where the team's Fantasti-Car has demonstrated a knack for suddenly finding itself in a crash scenario, the FF somehow make it out of this situation intact (though we'd see that the Thing isn't exactly the most ideal member to placate their fellow New Yorkers). But once the four have extricated themselves from the regrettable situation and made tracks for their headquarters, the story refocuses our attention once more on Doom, who finds himself being rescued from almost certain death following his last encounter with the team and compelled to take part in a momentous meeting.

And so, returning to Earth, and making his way to the Latverian embassy in New York, Doom begins a covert scheme which he believes will secure him the victory he craves--which may well succeed, as it depends on continuing to keep the FF in the dark as to his status as a monarch. Curiously, however, his plan involves drugging his foes and having them attack each other, based on hallucinations that have them thinking the worst of one another--not the approach you'd expect from a man you'd think would want to crush the FF personally, but perhaps a plan he can rationalize by chalking its success up to his genius.

Granted, it's a flimsy plan for someone of Doom's caliber to conceive--banking so much on the assumption that the members of the FF will destroy each other because of little more than bruised feelings (with Reed not even under the drug's influence).

Yet on the verge of Doom's "triumph" here, he unknowingly sabotages his own plan by obsessing once more with memories he's struggled to keep buried, and which give him a sense of futility in pursuing plans of conquest when his iron mask must remain in place forever in order to conceal his disfigurement. But even Dr. Doom can find himself vulnerable to hope, much to his regret.

His plan undone, and getting a grip on himself, Doom withdraws and turns to a more aggressive posture in battling his enemies--arrogantly challenging them in their own headquarters, and a fight to the finish!

The battle goes poorly for the FF at first, as Doom's force field presents a formidable defense against whatever the team can throw at him--and in disabling it, half of the FF are taken out of the fight because the Torch wasn't provided with crucial information. (Which doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Given that Reed is wearing a headset and a mic, how can he claim that the Torch wasn't able to hear his caveat about releasing the rod? We could cut Reed some slack, and assume the mic's range falls short of nova altitude, eh?)

With Reed and the Torch temporarily sidelined, it falls to the Thing and the Invisible Girl to carry the fight, the latter match raising one or two questions about Sue's invisibility power. (Both of which are trivial, but can you guess where I might have been headed here?) Once Doom compensates for their respective attacks, things appear to be at a standoff, with only Sue still able to carry the battle against him.

On the other hand, we shouldn't discount alkali solution #16T*, which has treated Reed's burned hands in record time--and consequently serving to heighten the story's tension level by setting up a dramatic confrontation between Doom and Reed that will not only settle the matter of which man has the greater mentality, but, more importantly, which of them will survive the encounter!

Though not to alarm any Reed fans, but... you did note this story's title, didn't you?

*Reed obviously has enough problems right now without having one of his chemical solutions being called out by the PPC's Weird Science alert--but from what I understand, alkali-based chemicals actually penetrate underlying tissue and cause flesh burns even worse than acid, making such a chemical the last thing you'd use to treat severe burns. We can only assume that solution 16T took that into account.

A mind-gun? Aren't we all wondering why Reed would design and build this thing?

Regardless, the survivor of this duel is elated with the outcome.

Well, we can believe one of two things at this point: Marvel is banking on the fact that this book's readers won't blink an eye at forking over their change for stories that will now feature the Fantastic Three...

OR...

Doom has fallen for the old berry-juice-in-the-whiskey-glass ploy.

In spite of Reed's resolve, the Thing would prove to be correct in assuming that Doom would discover Reed's ruse in time, a situation already recounted in a separate post. As for Doom not having done anything he can be arrested for--well, there's breaking and entering, for starters, Mr. Fantastic. (If only for the amusement value at seeing Dr. Doom being hauled off in the paddy wagon.)

BONUS!

If you're curious, have a look at Jack Kirby's updated cover for this annual.