Fantastic Four: The World's Greatest Comics Magazine #6

Mar 9

Mar 9 Fantastic Four: The World's Greatest Comics Magazine #6

Mayhem on the Moon!

Sue Richards returns to the Baxter Building to see the rest of her team hard at work along with Bruce Banner in order to track down Doctor Doom. Reed goes over the recent events in an attempt to try and piece together what Doom might be up to. Johnny becomes upset because none of them are interested in trying to find out what happened to Crystal. While Sue goes to calm her brother; Reed, Bruce and Ben continue to pour over their work to find Doctor Doom. As their search continues, Doctor Doom pilots a ship containing the Cosmic Cube to the Blue Area of the Moon.

Back on Earth, Johnny is calmed by his sister Sue, who laments the constant danger of his life as a super-hero and its impact on his relationship with Crystal. Soon their talk is interrupted by the arrival of a ship carrying the Black Panther who has come to lend the Fantastic Four a hand in their search for Doctor Doom. With T'Challa's arrival, Bruce Banner bids the Fantastic Four farewell, having decided that the Hulk would prove too unstable for what happens next. They fly to the SHIELD Hellicarrier where they meet with Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan, and the Silver Surfer. Having tracked Doom to the moon, the Silver Surfer uses his Power Cosmic to create a ship that will get the Fantastic Four there as quickly as possible.

While on the Moon, Doctor Doom uses the Cosmic Cube to force the Watcher to come out of hiding and demands that he turn over the Ultimate Machine. When the Watcher warns that when the Leader last attempted to use the device it seemingly slew him. Doom sees through this deception, revealing that he is aware that the Leader had survived and demands that Uatu turn the device over. Before Doom can take the Ultimate Machine by force, the Fantastic Four attack. In order to keep his foes at bay, Doom uses the Cosmic Cube to knock the Thing into space and then create various constructs of their foes including the Infant Terrible, Dragon Man, the Hate-Monger, the Awesome Android, the Hulk, Sandman, Klaw, and the Super-Skrull.

When the Watcher tries to reclaim the Cube, and uses it to banish the constructs. Doom quickly regains the Cube then uses it to banish the Watcher to another dimension. Seeing that the Black Panther had gone up in their ship to rescue the Thing, Doom teleports himself and the rest of the Fantastic Four aboard the vessel. There Doom reveals that he plans on utterly destroying Reed Richards, and after informing them that he has now secured the Ultimate Machine, Doctor Doom teleports away. Suddenly, the ship carrying the Fantastic Four suddenly explodes seemingly slaying all aboard.

Recurring Characters

Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Girl, Human Torch, Thing), Black Panther, Watcher, Doctor Doom, Bruce Banner, SHIELD (Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan, Jasper Sitwell), Silver Surfer

Continuity Notes

In this story, Reed references their last trip to Latveria where the village around Doom's castle was destroyed. This was depicted in Fantastic Four #84-87.

Doctor Doom references the Red Skull's last two failed attempts to use the Cosmic Cube in Tales of Suspense #81 and Captain America #119. In that latter story, the Cosmic Cube was seemingly destroyed by AIM. As revealed last issue, Doom recovered the Cube just after the Skull lost it in Tales of Suspense #81.

Doctor Doom and the Watcher discuss the last known use of the Ultimate Machine. The device was sought after by the Leader who sent the Hulk to retrieve it. When the Leader placed the device on his head, it seemingly killed him, as seen in Tales to Astonish #73-Tales to Astonish #74. As Doom later pointed out, the Leader actually survived to terrorize the Hulk again as seen in Incredible Hulk #115.

Dum Dum Dugan's appearance here is a complicated one. As revealed in Original Sins #5 Dugan was seemingly killed in action back in 1966 and it was suggested that he was replaced by a complex LMD that thought it was Dugan. However as revealed in New Avengers Vol 4 #17, Dugan's body was kept alive and his mind was transmitted into LMDs.