Fantastic Four: The Master of Doom

Fantastic Four (1998) (Collected Editions) #18

by Mark Millar, Bryan Hitch (Illustrator)

Collects Fantastic Four #562-569. Who are the Masters of Doom? Millar and Hitch take a journey into a previously unexplored chapter in the life of Doctor Doom. Also, the story we had to call “A Fantastic Four Wedding And A Funeral.” Plus, Mister and Mrs. Thing!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Comic Book, Fiction, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics

198 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 29, 2009

About the author

Mark Millar is the New York Times best-selling writer of Wanted, the Kick-Ass series, The Secret Service, Jupiter’s Legacy, Jupiter’s Circle, Nemesis, Superior, Super Crooks, American Jesus, MPH, Starlight, and Chrononauts. Wanted, Kick-Ass, Kick-Ass 2, and The Secret Service (as Kingsman: The Secret Service) have been adapted into feature films, and Nemesis, Superior, Starlight, War Heroes, Jupiter’s Legacy and Chrononauts are in development at major studios.

His DC Comics work includes the seminal Superman: Red Son, and at Marvel Comics he created The Ultimates – selected by Time magazine as the comic book of the decade, Wolverine: Old Man Logan, and Civil War – the industry’s biggest-selling superhero series in almost two decades.

Mark has been an Executive Producer on all his movie adaptations and is currently creative consultant to Fox Studios on their Marvel slate of movies.

Reviews

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Another decent entry. Although Doom is captured he still spoke of something deadly on its way to our earth. Even with this warning, the FF take a much needed vacation to a family members house in Scotland. However, the BS that goes down there would had me jacking somebody up. That was just messed up. Then we get to the threat Doom spoke about. Yeah they were serious. There was a lot of mumbo jumbo on how that was handled that I struggled a bit to keep up with. Then we end on Ben’s wedding. This wouldn’t be a Fantastic Four book if that went smoothly right?

[Colm · Rating 1 out of 5]

562 - 565 - Opens with the funeral based on what happened in the previous collection. Again, the complete lack of consequences for the murderous time-travellers is completely unacceptable. Even at the funeral Johnny is totally okay with the fact that his sister and girlfriend tried to kill him. His conversation with his girlfriend boils down to "Sorry I tried to kill you... We cool?" "Of course. Makes sense." Yet, a couple of issues later, Reed is portrayed as noble for refusing to kill either his son, or a criminal, to save the population of the whole world. You can't play both sides of the fence like that in a single volume. It's just sloppy. After that there's some further development of Ben's relationship with Debbie, which I liked, and a Christmas special which is about as good as those things ever are.

566 - 569 - Here then we have the four part "Masters of Doom" which simply didn't hold the weight of its own overthinking. Way too many moving parts that don't make sense. Way too many poor attempts at misdirection. My pet hate is the Scooby Doo style reveals that occur once or twice over the course of the storyline. More than zero instances of someone pulling off their face/putting on a mask to reveal who they were all along is just completely unacceptable poverty of writing.
This story suffered from the same basic plot hole as Buffy the Vampire Slayer did in its final seasons "Oh shit. We've made a ridiculously overpowered monster to the point that nobody can beat it in a reasonable manner, now we have to come up with something equally ridiculous to defeat it... or we can just suddenly make our characters able to kill them." Millar went with the former, so they introduce a multiverses' worth of Fantastic Fours who are all trying to kill this universe's Fantastic Four, they then drain the power of a multiverse's worth of Fantastic Four teams, put it into the bodies of the normal Fantastic Four who use it on the Marquis of Death within a number of seconds before they would explode if they didn't get rid of it. Then the Marquis' assistant turns out to have been time-travelling Doctor Doom all along and kills the Marquis. When a solution to the problem you've invented is that difficult to explain you should know that what you've got isn't worth publishing. This whole storyline was a clusterfuck. Plain and simple.

[Mike Reiff · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a thundering disappointment - after a remarkable first two storylines in the previous hardcover, here we have a meandering first story, clearly it seems Millar buying himself some time to figure out where his ultimate story is going - and then a complete artistic collapse. As the table of contents notes - missed this too late - Millar AND Hitch don’t even finish their work. After such a stunning build up, the final chapters are lazy and confusing, tonally weird, and if what we get was at least Millar’s story outline, he just couldn’t land this plane. Very strange, overall.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shorts (562-565). The first four issues do a great job of focusing on family: not just the Richards, but also Ben and his girl, and even Reed's only cousin. This is what the FF is all about; I'm glad that Millar got to write a bit of downtime amidst his big stories (and also that he got to offer a bit of a coda for the previous volume's big events). Mind you, he manages to finish it off with a great bit of action that once more interrelates with the people. Though a smaller story that the last volume, it's still a great one. [8/10]

Doom's Master (566-569). Millar's final story has a lot more big-picture goodness, particularly in its first couple of issues. However the Marquis of Doom plot starts to waver in the last couple of issues as the whole who-is-the-Marquis question comes out of nowhere and the battle largely ends on deus ex machina. Fortunately that disappointment is offset by the terrific ending of Ben's emotional arc [7/10].

Not quite as strong as his debut, but this is still strong FF writing.

[José · Rating 2 out of 5]

40/100.

Este volumen ha sido... malo. Imagino que las historias que la componen han envejecido mal. Toma el nombre de la única historia larga que cuenta el volumen. Quizás este es el problema por el contraste con su primera parte, formado por dos historias largas que sí permitían el desarrollo de personaje. Aun así, el arte me sigue gustando en estos numerillos.

Comenzamos con un primer número (el 563), llamado "Sr. y Sra. Cosa", en la que se cuenta la relación de Ben con Debbie. A decir verdad, es una pareja que a mí no me gusta del todo, sobre todo, teniendo en cuenta que he leído la relación de Ben con Alicia Masters y me gusta mucho más. No me gusta tampoco cómo escribe a Ben ni aquí ni en el resto de las historias Millar. Hay algo que me parece que está un poco off.

La segunda trama argumental no tiene demasiado... sentido. Está formada por los números 564 ("El monstruo de la Navidad") y 565 ("No te comas a Valeria"), en los que la Familia se dirige a visitar a una prima de Sue que vive, al parecer, en un pueblo irlandés paradisiaco. Veremos que, debajo de todo esto, se esconde una aterradora verdad. Esto parece más un telefilm que otra cosa. No me ha gustado demasiado. Se me hizo demasiado pesada, aunque, dentro de lo que cabe, es salvable.

Por último, la historia que da nombre al volumen ocupa del número 566 al 569 y se titula "El maestro de la Muerte". ¿Cuál es el problema? No reconozco al Doctor Muerte inteligente que me encanta leer, el que siempre tiene un plan en Latveria que los demás deben temer. El origen del maestro de Muerte, el Marqués, no me ha gustado demasiado. Me parece demasiado material desaprovechado. Un blockbuster, pero de mucha peor calidad que los del volumen anterior.

[Emmett Spain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Millar knows how to go big. His work is not overly wordy, allows for plenty of splash pages, and always makes time for huge double splash pages for giant, cinematic moments. When it comes to character work, he can be a bit hit & miss, particularly in the later parts of his career to-date, but here you can tell that he's into the characters and wants them to shine. He goes a bit over-the-top with it at times, using huge numbers to try and emphasise how great characters are--"he survived one million years in servitude before taking his revenge!" etc--which tends to make his work as silly as it is exciting. But he can be a lot of fun, and this trade was wild enough that I enjoyed it for what it was.

The only part that stuck with me in a bad way was the Johnny Storm plotline. Johnny has spent Millar's run generally running late for everything, having random threesomes with hot girls, having lots of sex with a villain, and just generally being someone who probably has crabs. The whole thing feels like Millar is living out a rockstar fantasy here, and some of the minor touches felt a bit misogynistic, to tell the truth. Nothing wrong with characters embracing their wild side, but the execution here just felt a bit off the mark to this reader. YMMV and that's okay.

Hitch's art was lovely. I really enjoy what he does, how he embraces shadow, how he can deliver on the huge splash pages that Millar often calls for. They're a really solid pairing.

A fun volume, for the most part, even if it's occasionally so over-the-top that it gets oh so very silly.

3.5 Stars.

[Roberto Diaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Millar, Hitch e Imonen cierran un ciclo

El segundo volumen Marvel Essentials de los 4 fantásticos por Mark Millar, es una rareza, tanto por ser uno de los pocos escritores con contar con arcos continuos publicados en este formato, así por las historias que cuenta.

Tenemos a los Fantásticos enfrentando una deidad pagana antigua en una historia con un toque de terror y luego el final del arvo del Maestro de Muerte, en la cual el mundo se encuentra en grave peligro, visualizado magnificamento por Hitch y un Imonen bateando de emergente de la mejor manera posible.

Este libro completa el corto año que Millar tocó a los Fantásticos fuera del universo Ultimate, antes de la saga de Jonatjan Hickman se volviera la tabla de piedra sobre la cual muchos lectores modernos refieren a estos personajes. Me parece muy bueno que rescatasen esta obra en este formato accesible económicamente.

[Raymond Paquette · Rating 2 out of 5]

Liked Ben's story even if they changed it in recent issues. And bringing in more of their real lives was good. Everything else was a waste of time. Doom was the least Doom like ever. First he was a sniveling wimp then Uber man and didn't even try to kill the four. Holy plot armour. In addition why would you introduce a cousin of Reed, who tries to kill their daughter, the ultimate bad guy who kills Aunt Petunia, Doom killing Sue and then have a party?
The worst I actually hate Johnny, while under Waid I grew to respect him. Thank god I never read this story when it first came out. It would have turned me off the Fantastic Four.

[Timo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really sad to see Mark Millar run with Fantastic Four end. This was really good fun.
Massive plots, classic enemies being more dangerous than ever, big action and not forgetting mushy mushy muu family stuff. This one also shows that characters does not need to be made talk endlesly to make story go forward.
Great art with good amount of gorgeous pin-up pages.
Really sad to see Mark Millar run end.

[Chris Tower · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had all but forgotten this storyline that I read so many years ago (24??), and so I am pleased to re-discover it with this gorgeous graphic novel. Great work! Millar should return to some work for hire stuff at Marvel or DC. And of course, Hitch, who is currently doing work for Marvel, is amazing.

I am biased. The FF are my favorite Marvel heroes. But still, this is GREAT stuff.

Also, it's a tradition to read a bunch o' comics on Christmas Eve, so, mission accomplished.

[Manuel Ruiz · Rating 3 out of 5]

La historia es mas o menos entretenida pero la solución, como suele ocurrir con los superheroes, no tiene por dónde cogerse.
Por otro lado, ¿cuántos reboots y cambios en la historia de un personaje se pueden soportar?
Dentro de poco Doom será un extraterrestre hermafrodita con casco de Star Wars...

[RND · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice end to a fun run, with a "smaller" story set in the Scottish countryside, before ending with another bananas loud epic. Really appreciated Hitch's dutch angles and foreshortening here, and his use of double-page layouts.

[Shawn Deal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this. I loved all the interaction and how rich the character of Doctor Doom felt to me in this one.

[Chad Cunningham · Rating 1 out of 5]

Plodding, meandering bs.

[Matt Bouchard · Rating 1 out of 5]

Probably the worst doctor doom writing I’ve ever read.

[Kevin Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

a good ending but the first was better

[Justin Biondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the most fun I’ve had with Millar and the FF as a whole. Feels like that’s saying a lot

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

There’s good components and I want to love it for Hitch’s art…. But…

[Pranav · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5
So aggressively mid

[Kurt Rocourt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better then the first

It’s better then the first part of Millar’s run but barely. The whole Marquis thing was over the top but at least Dr. Doom did something kind of interesting.

[Sam Ang · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an adapted review. The full review is available in the following website:
http://bookunderthesun.blogspot.sg/20...

>>---------------------------------------------------------------<<

Doctor Doom had been the antagonist of the Fantastic Four for as far back as I had read Marvel Comics. You wouldn’t get one without getting the other, and you wouldn’t get a good Fantastic Four story without exploring how the villain plotted against the family or how he was involved even though the situation didn’t involve Doom directly. As cruel as he gets, even Doom has a master. So who would be powerful enough to make even the evil doctor bow to and call him master?

This arc is one of my personal all time favorite in the Fantastic Four stories. With brilliantly and deceptively twisting plots which turns you around at the end of each comic book, “Master of Doom” offered hope only to grind it with the show of power by the Marquis of Death.

With each part of the arc revealing more twists than a pretzel has, it really is a captivating read. Once again, my disappointment comes in the form of how the arc ended. Although another surprise is shared in the end, it is not true any brilliant stroke that the Fantastic Four defeated Doom’s master, merely another “fist to the face” episode that sees the family beating the villain to a pulp. A stunning ending stroke by an unforeseen character helped saved my faith in Millar’s story, securing my undying loyalty to his other works.

[Beaugard Stevens · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was shockingly bad. Ever since Magneto became Marvel's greatest villain, Dr. Doom has suffered badly. There have been several attempts to thrust him back into the limelight, but the stories always tend to be 2nd rate. This isn't even that good. It appears Dr. Doom has been an apprentice to a creature called "The Marquis of Death." This Marquis of Death is so over-powered, it is ridiculous. A God-like being, you wonder why he is there at all and his exploits seem petty and useless compared to his power level. Nothing works in this story- nothing. The Fantastic Four no longer work. They have not had a good writer since the 80's and it doesn't look that will change anytime soon. Mark Millar is a good writer but he struck out here, you can barely get through it and it doesn't make much sense half the time and it's so uninteresting, you don't even care.

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well alrighty then. I think probably 3.5 stars but that's not really an option
So what Dr. Doom is immortal now? Drop back in time 2.6 to 5.3 million years ago have a megaladon rip him limb from limb and he just gets up brushes himself off and starts learning 'black arts that he could not hitherto conceive" lives through however many million years until he finds his master, then spends who knows how long traveling with him waiting for the right moment to kill his master. Then he just settles back down in Latvaria content to go back to ruling his little kingdom. Hopefully nobody ever has any beef with him again since apparently he was already the most powerful supervillain on the planet and now he is significantly stronger and more dangerous.
Was that a T-Rex Captain America?

[Marco · Rating 1 out of 5]

Small surprise that I hated this book as much as I did, considering I usually tend to not like Millar's work. And while I used to like Hitch's art back when he was something of an Alan Davis clone, these days I find his work less hit than miss.
The whole "master of Doom" business disregards the character and history of Doctor Doom AND, to add insult to injury, simply is not a good story. The big reveal of who the Marquis/master is isn't such a big deal (and feels a bit masturbatory in build-up and execution), someone travelling the multiverse and killing very incarnation of a character except the one that counts is a cliché that no longer holds any dramatic impact. The whole thing should not be too difficult to retcon out of continuity if anyone even cares enough to bother.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have usually enjoyed Mark Millar's comics work but here, his last FF tale left a lot to be desired. This trade contained a few storylines and none were very good. The main, Doom-centric plot was over the top and not in a good way with a bunch of plot holes. The rest were pretty cliched. The art was also surprisingly bad at times. Bryan Hitch seems to excel at splash pages and phone it in on single panels. Its disappointing. Overall, this wasn't what I was hoping for and both these creators have done much better in the past.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book collects the end of Mark Miilar and Bryan Hitch's run on Fantastic Four. I think this run was pretty good, though with a few rough spots. It's hard to do anything original with the FF, and Millar is definitely aware of that, and working hard to keep things fresh and interesting.

Hitch's artwork is great, as usual, but it's obvious that there was some deadline pressure here, as there are two other pencillers credited on the last two issues in the run, and there are quite a few inkers in the credits. So the art is great in places but a little inconsistent in others.

[Talk Comix · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a 3/4 star boarderline. The strengths are mark millars approch to doctor dooms origin. Although saying that it felt quite rushed and it seemed as if it was there just to create the big action scene then part of a story. The problem with this book is the weak scottish holiday story (which was just pants) and the huge gaping plot holes. The thing is mark millar has a good action style which keeps you entertained. I found Bryans art to be inconsistent in this book. I have definetly seen him do better. Either way excusing its bad bits it was still an entertaining read.

[Travis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible grand final to Millar's pretty to look at, painful to read run on the FF.
The evil demon lords that taught Doctor Doom return to earth, beat the crap out of their pupil, and then it gets even worse.

A story point that pretty much undermines DR. Doom entirely as a character and a lot of funky 'I want to be Grant Morrison when I grow up' science and some new bad guys that come across more as annoying than menacing.
An all around mess.

[William Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, Mark Millar has brought the FF back from their place of purgatory and no man's land, and resurrected them in the image of Jack Kirby, with huge story lines and fabulous artwork. Although I will always say that time travel is a lazy and weak plot device, there is no denying how awesome (in the exact definittion of the word) Millar has made this book from page to page, and has outdone himself sculpting this storyline.

[Noah Soudrette · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume collects the second half of Millar and Hitch's run on FF. The main draw here is the "Master of Doom" storyline, which has some pretty cool stuff in it to be sure, but is somewhat let down by the reveal of who The Marquis of Death really is. Since I'm not familiar with this other guys appearances, I was a little lost. Still, it's not a bad volume, and I really liked the evil scottish christmas village story.