X-Men/Fantastic Four vol2 #3 (2020)
by Chip Zdarsky & Terry Dodson
Time to finish the storyline. Who will be the actual villain of the story, Doctor Doom or the X-Men?
Both the X-Men and the Fantastic Four are trying to reach Doom Island first.
So this leads into, what else, a Big Dumb Hero Fight.
It is notable that the Fantastic Four had NO IDEA Doom was even involved in this, until they get to the island.
Classic Doom, boasting to Magneto that his armor is immune to magnetism (somehow) while simultaneously taking advantage of the animosity between Mags and Wolverine.
Doctor Doom would be the easiest babysitter to book for the Richards.
If it wasn’t for, you know, him being evil and stuff.
The X-Men reluctantly agree with the deal made by Kitty Pryde, while the FF certainly don’t.
And once again I’m siding with the FF here, given that Franklin is just a kid.
Despite what someone would say.
Valeria vouches that Doom’s technology is not going to kill Franklin.
That’s not as reassuring as she probably thinks it is.
Between the words of the X-Men, Doctor Doom and his sister, Franklin has decided to stand up to his father.
By the way, the series is not super clear on how old Franklin is at this moment, but AT BEST he’s fifteen.
At this point Reed has basically no other option than allow Franklin to undergo Doom’s procedure.
Oh so NOW you’re suddenly worried about Franklin?
We get another infographic, informing us that Doom Island has 2,500 mutants on it.
I would have been more comfortable with Krakoa if it had that many people… but wait, Latveria had 2,500 mutants!?
Obviously we have no idea of how many people live in Latveria, but let’s put this into some perspective by comparing it to real life countries.
Excluding Vatican City, because Latveria definitely has more than 800 citizens.
A) if Latveria has 34,000 people, the same as the least populated country in Europe (San Marino), that would mean that 7.4% of Latverians are mutants
B) Latveria has been consistently called out for being a particularly small country; let’s go to the extreme and say it has HALF the population of San Marino. With 17,000 people, it would mean Latveria has a 14.7% mutant population
C) going even more extreme: the world’s least populated country, excluding Vatican City, has 10,000 people. If Latveria is that small, it would mean A QUARTER OF ITS POPULATION is a mutant!
Even assuming this includes any mutant taken from Symkaria after it was annexed: 2,5000 Latverian mutants are just too many!!!
Writers, PLEASE stop putting numbers in comics if you don’t know what you’re doing!
Going back to the story: Doom hasn’t been studying just Franklin’s biology, he’s figured out something important about ALL humans with powers.
In fact, Doctor Doom has FIGURED OUT HOW ALL SUPERPOWERS WORK.
And he’s casually explaining this to one of the world’s greatest biologists and to Reed Richards!
This is fascinating to me. The idea that most, if not all, superhumans don’t actually generate power but draw it from other dimensions is nothing new… it’s been introduced in comics as far back as at least the 80s and cemented by the Handbooks… but this is the most cohesive attempt to tie them all together that I have seen.
The scientist that helped the Thing and the Torch during Marvel 2-in-One gets namechecked.
Doom gives a very interesting speech to Xavier while formally recognizing Krakoa as a country.
I’ve seen this characterized as Doom being racist towards mutants, but I disagree: in fact, isn’t this kind of the opposite?
Doom is arguing that being a mutant doesn’t make you inherently superior to humans.
That’s kind of the same thing of Xavier’s original vision, right? Of mutants not being inherently inferior to humans?
In other words… isn’t DOCTOR DOOM more aligned with Xavier’s dream THAN CHARLES XAVIER now???
And yes, Doom’s hypocrisy in complaining that SOMEONE ELSE insists on being superior is not lost on me.
Once everyone has looked over the data, Reed is the only one left with doubts.
Meanwhile Susan has agreed to help the X-Men investigate on whether the Latverian mutants are here against their will.
As it’s very often the case with Latverians… it’s complicated.
A Doombot shows up, with predictable results.
Except… that was no Doombot.
X-Men/Fantastic Four vol2 #4 (2020)
by Chip Zdarsky & Terry Dodson
Took me longer than it should have to notice Kitty Pryde is phasing through Doom instead of just peeking out from behind his shoulders.
In retaliation for the X-Men attacking Latverian citizens, Doom unleashes his Doom Sentinels.
And he has also initiated the procedure to cure Franklin.
Kitty is able to get past Doom’s measures that have been blocking her powers…
…but he’s somehow capable of making her power work backwards.
I don’t think her power has ever been described as being related to her density, so good luck figuring out how he did this. Probably by magic.
While we will later see that Doom has ulterior motives… shocking, I know… I think he’s being sincere that he does have Franklin’s interests at heart.
In his own twisted way.
Call me biased, but at this point I’m trusting Doom more than I trust Xavier.
Since Doom is using people wearing armor instead of Doombots, the heroes figure out a neat trick to separate them from their armors before attacking: have Invisible Woman take it apart first.
Kitty has a great moment when she regains control over her powers and phases through Doom.
Since her phasing disrupts electronics, this buys her a little bit of time.
While the way we arrived at this point was… questionable at best… Franklin decides to help the others after being inspired by her mother, AND we have a great callback to when he acted as Kitty’s anchor the first time they met.
Doom is not happy about this…
…but he had the good sense to leave, giving his final speech through a hologram.
I don’t think he was particularly scared at fighting the FF and the X-Men together… I bet his main worry was facing a fully powered Franklin.
I think the implication might be that Doom deliberately employed people dressed as him, instead of using Doombots, explicitly to cause a diplomatic incident. But weirdly enough it’s not brought up directly, which means that Wolverine might indeed have cause all this on his own.
Hilariously, he’s offended by the comparison with the Sentinels.
I still think that “Doom Sentinels” would have been a better name than the awkward “Latviathans”, but maybe it sounds better in Latverian.
The closest thing to the confirmation that Doom planned to have those people killed is the accusation by Xavier.
I don’t doubt that the Latverian mutants were brought to the island without their consent… it’s Latveria, of course their voices go unheard.
But is it really THAT different from the X-Men barging into the FF’s home to take Frankling without asking him?
Doom has had enough about this whole thing that he allows the Latverian mutants to be transferred to Krakoa. I would argue that:
A) this is a TERRIBLE idea because you potentially allowed A LOT of spies access to Krakoa
B) it’s still not that different from what Doom did because NOBODY ASKS THESE PEOPLE IF THEY WANT TO MOVE TO A NEW ISLAND
The whole mission was also kind of a bummer because Franklin is still powerless.
However this DOES result into a bit of growth for both him and his parents.
Okay, fine, the X-Men DID act as heroes when saving Doom’s mutants.
After causing the death of one of them.
In my eyes it STILL doesn’t redeem all the crap they pulled before.
Xavier does acknowledge that he has been A LITTLE too harsh in his attitude, and opens the doors to Krakoa to Franklin.
Remember this moment for later.
Reed doesn’t get as much panels as Susan, but those three more than make up for it.
Franklin hasn’t lost his powers ENTIRELY, but they are vastly diminished… when he’s not in Krakoa.
In the first epilogue, Valeria reveals that Doom was indeed messing with Franklin’s powers.
Surprisingly it wasn’t JUST to steal them: he was also exploring the cause of all superpowers.
Doctor Doom has an… interesting view on evolution. Which revolves around him, because of course it does.
In the second epilogue, Xavier and Magneto pay a visit to Reed to discuss the device he used to mask Franklin’s powers…
…and REMOVE IT FROM REED’S MIND.
Our heroes, ladies and gentlemen!
Did Reed overstep by creating the device and downplay its consequences?
Probably.
Does ending the miniseries like this really, really, REALLY make me dislike Xavier?
ABSOLUTELY.
And that’s not even the thing that angers me the most… but more on that after wrapping up.
Doom significance: 3/10
Doom has more interactions with the X-Men during the Krakoa era, but I don’t think they ever do anything with the concept of there being 2,500 Latverians there.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really
Will it stand the test of time?
If you like the Krakoan era: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If you dislike the Krakoan era or know nothing about it: 7/10
These two issues are arguably more controversial then the previous ones, but regardless of what you think about the X-Men the finale is unsatisfying.
Despite the pleasantries, the Fantastic Four and ESPECIALLY the X-Men don’t really learn much of anything about each other.
The Latverian mutants are incredibly underplayed, as is the potential political intrigue.
In the most charitable interpretation, Doom got away with killing his own people.
In the most uncharitable interpretation, the X-Men don’t face ANY consequences killing people brainwashed by Doom AND carry on the same kind of forced relocation for which they criticized Doom.
I really liked Doctor Doom in this… he’s always stirring dissent between the heroes, he runs circles around the technical stuff around both Reed and Beast, and in my opinion he even has a potential claim for having better morality than Xavier. Which he completely squanders by being his old self at the end, but it’s AMAZING he got that far.
I liked the Fantastic Four to a lesser extent. Susan and Reed are under the spotlight the most, and they do get to understand Franklin better. Ben had absolutely nothing to do in 3 issues out of 4, and you could cut Johnny from the entire miniseries and lose nothing.
And in case it wasn’t abundantly clear I really, really, REALLY didn’t like the X-Men in this.
Number of superheroes who have fought Dr. Doom: 147
I’m adding only Bishop: every other X-Man participating in the fight was already in the list.
Crazy tech
The “Latviathans” are not as impressive as Dooms think they are. But what IS impressive is how Doom seems to be THIS close to figuring out the true origin of all superpowers! Not to mention that he was able to completely hide the true nature of the procedure to Reed.
Interestingly, not to Valeria… maybe there IS credit to her boast of being smarter than her father.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the review of this miniseries to criticize the X-Men, and it’s not even CLOSE to how angry they made me when the Franklin situation is resolved in the main Fantastic Four book.
Specifically in Fantastic Four v6 #26, when Franklin attempts to go back to Krakoa for another attempt to restore his powers (he burned through his reserves saving the world).
This is when we learn a retcon for which the Slott run has been harshly criticised for.
The revelation that Franklin is not a mutant: back when he was a baby, he used his reality-warping powers to make it look like he WAS a mutant.
And just like that, Xavier shuts the doors to Krakoa for him.
I found the criticisim of Slott’s retcon to be REALLY overblown.
I actually rather liked the idea for two reasons.
The most important one is that the angle of him unwillingly using his powers to make himself similar enough to people who could accept him is a novel one worth exploring.
The second is that I never really found that Franklin being a mutant worked all that well… unlike the VAST majority of mutants he developed powers as a baby instead of as an adult, which already made him an exception from the start.
But also there is the problem that at full power Franklin is WAAAAAY more powerful than ANY other mutant, which always made it difficult to integrate him with their adventures.
Most of the criticism I’ve seen compared Franklin making himself a mutant to cultural appropriation, which I found to be a stupid criticism considered HE DID IT AS A BABY.
What I am VERY angry about, however, is Charles Freaking Xavier using this as an excuse to stop trying to help Franklin.
Silly me, I thought the X-Men were all about helping people who are treated different.
But no, unless you have the X-Gene specifically, they just don’t care about you at all.
THIS IS WHY PEOPLE HATE YOU GUYS.
