Doctor Doom.

….That’s all I have to say really.

Seriously though, when you see Doctor Doom is going to be in a comic you should wet your pants in glee. Doctor Doom may be, and it’s all subjective really but, the greatest villain Marvel ever created. Here’s a guy who just doesn’t give a fuck about anything. Sure he loves his Mother but he has no problem making a costume out of her own blood! Plus he’s arrogant, powerful, and wears a cool costume. Sure the costume is more for his horrible burns but it’s still cool none the less. When Jonathan Hickman had a chance to write Doom in Fantastic Four, it’s everything I could love about the character and then some. So imagine how my pants were that Hickman may give Doom a lot of screentime in FF?

If the first issue didn’t get me excited for the new run, this issue certainly did. Jonathan Hickman just gets ‘it’. By ‘it’ I mean Doctor Doom and also all the other characters. Everything that he made Doom say in this issue was fun to read and it’s perfect Doom. He makes wise of Ben’s choices after Johnny dies, he has no problem to cripple his son, and he also has a weird ‘Uncle’ love for Valeria. In fact this has my favorite sequence of the week with Valeria constantly annoying Doom on finding a solution to his brain damage. It might feel like a waste of two pages but I thought it was great comedic timing. Also, this book will hopefully give us a lot of Spider-Man/Doom banter. It’s a small taste but Spidey failing to make a quip with Doom in the room made me excited.

Then you have the glorious Steve Epting art. When he’s not doing amazing Jack Kirby references, he’s doing a great job with the tone and mood of the book. I feel that Ben is getting frustrated with his family, and I can feel the smugness of Doom coming off the pages. He handles all the action pretty well but also subtly. Reed stretching a lot just seems like everyday occurance and the art feels like it too. Again I like how he does Jack Kirby in some of his pages. The one towards the end involving Doom feels like a Kirby panel that could’ve been done today.

The last issue of FF made me feel like that the title/numbering change was pointless. Well it still is, but this issue makes me more excited for the future then anything else. Doom is back at full power and I can’t wait to see where Hickman and Epting takes it. This really is a great time for the Fantastic Four and I hope more people are getting this series then in the past.