Fantastic Four #566 (Marvel – Millar / Hitch)
THE MASTERS OF DOOM Part one of four. It begins here! The final storyline of the Millar/Hitch run on FANTASTIC FOUR, culminating all of the plot threads they’ve set up so far! From across the universe they come, returning to the Earth after a twenty year journey of genocide and sadism. They’re the men who tutored Doctor Doom in the ways of villainy—and their
re-emergence signals the greatest conflict the Fantastic Four have ever been party to!
Maybe next to Geoff Johns, Mark Millar is the only other modern writer to consistantly live up to his own hype. He is able to tell a story that keeps you in the here and now, while planting seeds of what is to come and not lose site of who the characters ate or where the book has come from. Bryan Hitch’s art has been more than the perfect accomplice to Millar’s well-told yarns. In short, the Millar / Hitch run on FF has been phenominal. Joe Quesada got it right when he put this team together.
This issue has a ton going on… a watcher lying dead and dismembered on the beach – for seeing too much, Ben having a very soap-opera moment with his fiance on a live talk show (this was the moment in the whole run where I haven’t quite bought what Millar is selling) and Dr. Doom is setting up a celebration as his Master, the Marquis of Death and his new apprentice, the reality-bending Clyde Wyncham (from the 1985 series) arrive.
We have seen the Marquis and Clyde (so funny to say out loud) kill off heroes like insects in alternate worlds, destroy planets and even extinguish suns. And now we see that the Marquis is not pleased with Doom’s progress. Doom’s enemies are still alive and Doom has been defeated over and over… unacceptable! The Marquis ends the issue with blwong up Victor and stating that the enemies of Doom need a better nemesis. This really is classic and will be talked about by generations of geeks to come!
Issue grade: A (not A+ simply for making Ben out to be a douche)
