Fantastic Four #5
Prisoners of Doctor Doom!
Johnny, while reading an issue of The Incredible Hulk, compares Ben to the monster. Ben grabs the comic, but Johnny sets it afire. Reed and Sue stop them before they come to blows. The lights go out, despite their emergency generator. Doctor Doom, in a helicopter, drops a net over the Baxter Building. When Doom calls out to them, Reed recognizes the voice: Victor von Doom, an old college classmate. After an experiment at university, during which Doom tried to communicate with the dead but instead caused an explosion, he was expelled. Doom demands Sue as a hostage, and she agrees, going to the roof.
Doom takes the Invisible Girl aboard his ship, binding and gagging her. He then demands the rest of the FF must enter his ship and pledge not to attack him. The Thing agrees to this by sending off a flare. Doom lowers a cage over Reed, Ben, and Johnny and takes them to his castle. Once there, he tells them that he has invented a time machine and that they must retrieve Blackbeard's treasure chest from the past. With Sue as Doom's hostage, they must agree. Doom presses a button, activating the time platform they were unwittingly standing on. They appear in a port, where they come across two brigands arguing over a stolen bundle of clothes. Ben scares them off. With the clothes, they disguise themselves, including a heavy black beard for Ben. Looking for someone in Blackbeard's crew, they go to a tavern. Two pirates tell the barmaid to serve the strangers drugged grog.
Reed, Ben, and Johnny wake up in the hold of a pirate ship. Ben bursts through the deck and subdues the entire crew with the help of Johnny and Reed. When another ship appears, Ben takes command and orders his crew to attack!
Johnny flames on, harasses the other ship, and raises a cloud of steam. Reed stretches to the other ship like a gangplank, over which their crew passes. A quick fight ensues. While Reed and Johnny haul a treasure chest out of the hold, the crew hails Ben as Blackbeard. Reed empties the chest, reminding Johnny that they only promised to bring back Blackbeard's chest, not the treasure itself, and he replaces the treasure with chains. On deck, they realize that Ben is the Blackbeard of legend. He refuses to return with them, ordering the crew to douse Johnny, wrap Reed in a sail, and set them adrift in a lifeboat. Before they can launch the boat, though, a huge waterspout strikes the ship and destroys it. Reed and Johnny make it to shore, where they find Ben and the chest.
The time platform appears above them and returns them to the present. Doom says that the treasure includes gems enchanted by Merlin and that they will make him "invincible." He opens the chest and discovers that he's been cheated, which gives Ben the opportunity to attack. A single punch shatters the armor—and the machinery inside. It's a robot! The real Doom, in another part of the castle, activates a screen and tells them he will draw the air from their chamber. Sue, still his hostage, sees her chance. She turns invisible and short-circuits his control panel, which explodes. Doom is caught in the blast. She runs to the chamber and opens the door. Rather than confront Doom, who Reed assumes has traps everywhere, they decide to escape. Reed stretches through a window across the moat, Ben pushes that section of wall open while Reed pulls, and Johnny uses "atomic heat" to make a path across the crocodile-infested moat. Johnny then sets fire to the castle, and Doom escapes with his Rocket-Powered Flying Harness. Before he can catch Doom, Johnny's flame runs out.
Recurring Characters
Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Girl, Human Torch, Thing), Doctor Doom
Continuity Notes
Johnny Storm is seen reading a copy of Incredible Hulk #1. The Hulk made his first guest appearance in Fantastic Four #12.
Doctor Doom’s origins are glossed over in this story, these origins were expanded upon in Fantastic Four Annual #2, Fantastic Four #278, and Books of Doom #1-6. It was revealed in Astonishing Tales #8 that Victor was attempting to contact the netherworld in order to search for the lost soul of his mother Cynthia.
The crew that Ben commanded as Blackbeard had previously served Red Lucy Keogh, a prior incarnation of the Scarlet Witch as shown in Marvel Comics Presents #60-63.
In the real world, Blackbeard was a documented person (real name Edward Teach) rather than a legend. He practiced piracy for 27 months, beginning in 1716. Thor #205 shows Blackbeard’s soul is a prisoner in Mephisto’s domain, confirming that he did exist on Earth-616.
Thing's time as Blackbeard was interrupted by a time travelling Doctor Doom and Iron Man in Iron Man (Vol. 2) #11.
Doom is seeking the Stones of Merlin in this story, while they are lost at sea in this issue they were eventually resurfaced in Dazzler #3-4.
The Fantastic Four's battle with Doctor Doom upon their return to the present was revisited and expanded upon in Hulk and Thing: Hard Knocks #1-2.
