Fantastic Four v6 #25 (2020)
by Dan Slott & R.B.Silva
cover by Mark Brooks
Let’s start looking at one of the last two storylines involving Doctor Doom during the Slott run.
There’s a bunch of FF subplot we don’t need to worry about, but we see Invisible Woman infiltrating the Latverian Embassy.
Well we DON’T see her, but you know what I mean.
Surprising exactly nobody, Doom is up to something.
Specifically he was waiting for this alien, who fought the FF earlier.
At this point Susan should really stop going invisible around Doom.
Specifically the alien is from a higher dimension, and he’s been looking for one of Doom’s toys.
A chase that doesn’t convince whoever is controlling this alien. I’m not talking about them much because Doom will get REALLY involved in this plot much later.
*narrator voice*
And that is when they messed up.
Unfortunately for Susan, he’s an avid Fantastic Four reader so he knows all about their subplots.
Long story short, the alien is looking for a piece of technology that Reed has gone out of his way to keep hidden from everyone.
Those aliens are A BIG DEAL, considering that Franklin has to deplete his entire power reserves just to hold back their champion.
Don’t worry, he’ll get them back with the next writer.
Too bad the alien actually manages to open the box where Reed was keeping… basically the origin of the universe.
It’s basically the fuel that powers the destruction of a universe and the creation of a new one.
Always great whenever we see Reed and Doom being forced to science together.
Since the energy can’t be dissipated without destroying the entire universe, it’s restrained into the Forever Gate: a portal to anywhere in creation.
That is awesome for the Fantastic Four, since now it makes exploring easier.
It’s also horrible for the Fantastic Four, because now they have a gigantic target on their backs.
And you get one guess for who is the first one to draw that target.
And that is the last time Reed Richards will ever keep a secret to his family.
Well, for the next two or three issues at least.
And that’s the part of the family that is doing fine!
Fantastic Four v6 #32 (2021)
by Dan Slott & R.B.Silva
cover by Mark Brooks
You better believe the Forever Gate will matter in a future Doom storyline, but now there are different priorities.
We begin with the Fantastic Four being invited at a Latverian museum.
Why would they agree??? I get that some of Alicia’s works are there, but come on, how many times does a guy need to shoot you before you stop answering his social calls???
Victorious is a huge fan of the subject matter.
The Human Torch, not so much.
Much to the annoyance of Johnny’s “soulmate”, the alien Sky, introduced in this run.
Sky is… kind of a long story, but I’ll keep it brief.
She’s from the planet that the Fantastic Four were ORIGINALLY supposed to visit in their first spaceflight; the eventually made the actual journey in this run.
Her people bond for life with a single soul, and her soulmate just happened to be Johnny.
Who didn’t mind it because A) she’s a hot alien lady B) he’s Johnny.
But that wasn’t Sky with Johnny: she was just replaced by Lyja, who you might remember is the Skrull who took Alicia’s place to marry him (after the massive character development in the Byrne run that was eventually rolled back in the DeFalco run).
This conflict erupts at the worst possible time, when the museum is attacked by terrorists or freedom fighters (depending on who you ask).
Lyja’s opinion of Johnny has soured quite a bit since she quit the Fantastic Four.
To be fair, Johnny isn’t doing himself any favors.
Lyja has an even lower opinion of Sky, mostly because one of the big things about her is that she’s the first from her people to actually leave their planet.
Victorious manages to save a precious Latverian artifact…
…at the cost of everything else.
Honestly? Kind of hard to argue with Victorious: she’s the only one who did some heroics here.
(the Thing had left the museum before the terrorists / freedom fighters attacked)
Sky leaves, angry at Johnny, as does Lyja after confessing she doesn’t want to pursue him anymore.
But not of her own accord: Alicia took it upon herself to use the magic clay taken from her father (the Puppet Master) to mind-control Lyja into leaving.
All while Johnny dealt his frustration in a night of wild sex…
…just not with his soulmate.
Nope: he just slept WITH VICTORIOUS.
This never happened when all of Doom’s second-in-command were middle-aged Nazis.
Victorious then received a very important call from Doom…
…who is planning to guest-star in a few Guardians Of The Galaxy comics, and doesn’t want to leave Latverian in the hands of yet another Doombot.
So he asks Victorios to marry him!!!
Soooo… you just learned you slept with Doctor Doom’s fiancée.
What kind of face would you make?
Yeah that’s about right.
At least Doom will me SO mad at Johnny that he won’t be bothered by me pointing out that as recently as Doctor Doom #8 he considered Victorious like a daughter.
Doom significance: 1/10
You’d expect Doom getting married would be higher, but honestly in the long run this doesn’t seem to have had a huge impact. The Forever Gate is VERY important for a year or so of Fantastic Four issues, but it seems to be mostly forgotten.
Silver Age-ness
#25: 8/10
#32: 2/10
Reed keeping basically the spark of universal creation hidden beneath his basement FOR THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF THE FANTASTIC FOUR strains credulity juuuuust a bit.
Obviously very low score for the sexcapades of Johnny, but the coincidences are a bit Silver Age.
Will it stand the test of time?
#25: 8/10
#32: 4/10
I’m doing a disservice to #25 to include just this issue and not the whole storyline, because I’m sure it comes off as very disjointed and pointless. When taken as a whole within the storyline, however, it’s pretty solid. Doom and Reed working together, congratulating and snarking each other, is great; as is the contrast between how Valeria and Franklin react to the new status quo.
#32 is a mixed bag. The whole soulmate storyline was good, but it hinges way too much on Johnny being kind of an insensitive idiot at various points… and I thought we were past that characterization.
To be clear, he’s not EXACTLY cheating on Sky in the sense that they’re not officially married… but he knows PERFECTLY WELL that Sky considers this “soulmate” thing as being a marriage, and he just goes along for the ride without caring about anyone’s feelings.
It would be a negative score if the storyline as a whole didn’t treat this as Johnny maturing, although it’s frustrating since he’s had this kind of character growth like six or seven times at this point, only to be forgotten by the next writer!
However, it’s bumped a couple of points for Alicia. This isn’t the first time during this run that she has used the Puppet Master powers behind the Thing’s back; I like giving her some edge.
It’s not like she ever uses it for evil or anything: the first time she controlled her father to ensure he wouldn’t object to her wedding, and now she’s using it to dispose of Lyja.
While I hated the original Lyja retcon, I grew to liking her quite a bit during the DeFalco run (despite not liking the vast majority of the run, go figure)… but it does make perfect sense for Alicia to still resent her.