FF (Vol. 2) #16
For All We Have And Are
The forces of Doctor Doom have been destroyed, his allies defeated, his hostages freed. All that is left is the final clash between Doctor Doom and Ant-Man. When Doom threatens the female members of the Fantastic Four, Lang has Dragon Man teleport them back to the moon. Doom then tries to get the Cosmic Power Siphon to regain his powers but Scott counters this move. Doom tries to appeal to Ant-Man by offering to use his power to resurrect Cassie Lang, his daughter, but Lang refuses to see that Victor von Doom has no concept of sacrifice. He then challenges Doom to fight one-on-one, no weapons. Lang promises to rip Doom's armor apart and beat him within an inch of his life.
Doom refuses and tries to blast Ant-Man with his gauntlets, but the attack has no effect. This shocks Doctor Doom who is in for an even bigger surprise when Lang manages to crush Doom's gauntlets with his bare hands. Understanding what's happening, the Watcher manages to teleport away with Old John Storm back to the moon. There he explains to the inquisitive children of the Future Foundation as to how Ant-Man is pulling off these seemingly impossible feats. He explains that the nature of the Pym Particles that give Ant-Man his size-changing powers operates on three different axis: size, strength, and durability. He also explains the connection between Pym Particles and the powers used by the Vision, Wonder Man, and other Ionically powered super-humans. When Bentley and Onome begin postulating theories tying Pym Particles into everything from gamma rays, to the Destiny War, the Watcher stops them from learning anymore and convinces them to focus on the struggle happening on Earth.
By this point, Ant-Man is living up to his promise to rip apart Doom's armor with his bare hands. He eventually strips down Doom and removes his mask. Much to his surprise, Doom's face isn't scarred. However, this makes sense because every time Doom gains ultimate power he repairs his face and theorizes that Doom always scars his face afterward. Doom makes one last grab for the Cosmic Siphon, Lang kicks him aside. Giving him a sound beating, Scott explains how Doom is utterly flawed. Knowing that he is Doom's better, Lang he doesn't deserve to be a god either and destroys the Siphon. When Doom attempts to the Ovoid mind-swapping technique, Lang reveals that he had access to a copy of Doom's brain patterns and proliferated it all over the internet so that everyone could lock out his brain frequencies. With no other way for Doctor Doom to escape, Ant-Man grows to giant size, breaking his way to the surface, and taking his enemy with him.
Meanwhile, between realities, "Ravonna" (really a future version of Valeria Richards) is still keeping Franklin and Valeria prisoner. She explains that because of the Parliment of Doom knowing about the merger into Doom the Annihilating Conqueror, the Doom from her reality biologically engineered her to look like Ravonna and so that she can become loyal to Kang and suggest the idea. Knowing she had no means of controlling this, Valeria sought out a younger version of Kang -- Kid Immortus -- to try and foil this plot as a merger between younger versions of Kang and Annihilus could be stopped by. However, Franklin isn't entirely sold on her story and refuses to trust this woman.
Back on Earth, Lang completes his defeat of Doom by beating him before a Linden Tree, the very type of tree where his daughter died. Doom tries to mock this poetic victory, but Ant-Man isn't done yet. Suddenly a massive fireball comes out of the sky and crashes into Castle Doom, utterly destroying it. From the ruins emerges the Living Tribunal and the Watcher. The Tribunal decrees that Doom has violated the laws of omniscient beings when he had his power and as punishment, the Tribunal makes it so that Doom's face will always be scared no matter what. With this punishment doled out, Lang lives up to his other promise: beating Victor von Doom within an inch of his life. However, Lang stops short when Doctor Doom surrenders. Ant-Man warns Victor that if he ever goes after any of his family ever again, he will finish him.
As Lang walks away, Doctor Doom reforms his armor and tries to blast him from behind. However, the bolt seemingly strikes and kills Valeria Richards. This sudden death shocks Doom so much that it fractures his mind. However, this was all a ruse by Ravonna and she soon appears along with the real Valeria and Franklin alive and well. Ravonna explains that while this state of mind will not last long, Doctor Doom will always be haunted with this memory, and teleports away. With the battle over the rest of the Fantastic Four return to Earth.
Recurring Characters
Fantastic Four (Ant-Man, Medusa, She-Hulk, Miss Thing), Future Foundation (Alex Power, Dragon Man, Bentley-23, Leech, Artie Maddicks, Onome, Ahura, Luna, Turg, Tong, Korr, Mik, Vil, Wu, Adolf Impossible, Franklin Richards, Valeria Richards), Ravonna, Old John Storm, Doctor Doom, Annihilus, Kid Immortus, Watcher, Ulana, Living Tribunal, Lockjaw, James Power, Margaret Power
Continuity Notes
Mention is made of the then-recent death of Cassie Lang, Ant-Man's daughter. She had been murdered by Doctor Doom in Avengers: The Children's Crusade #8. However, she has since been resurrected in Avengers World #16.
The Watcher explains the connection between Pym Particles and the Vision, Wonder Man and Power Man. Here is what is referenced:
Henry Pym first discovered Pym Particles back in Tales to Astonish #27.
Wonder Man was empowered by Baron Zemo in Avengers #9, however with his impending death went to the Avengers to try and find a cure. Pym took a scan of Wonder Man's brain patterns.
Zemo's ally the Enchantress later used his technology to empower Power Man in Avengers #21.
Meanwhile, Pym created Ultron in Avengers #54, who later created the Vision in Avengers #57, using the brain patterns of Wonder Man to do so.
Power Man later developed size-changing powers in Iron Man Annual #7.
Bentley Wittman mentions a number of things that might be connected to Pym Particles:
The Nega-Man who was first seen in Fantastic Four #107
He also mentions the Destiny War having four Pym-Particle users. He is referring to the events of Avengers: Forever #1-12 where various time-displaced Avengers teamed up to stop Immortus from altering the course of history. The war involved Goliath (Barton), the Wasp, and two incarnations of Henry Pym (Giant-Man and Yellowjacket).
Ant-Man mentions the time Doom used "ultimate power" to heal his face: When he stole the power of the Beyonder in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #10 and the Life Force in Avengers: The Children's Crusade #7.
Doom attempts to use the mind-swapping technique he learned from the Ovoids in Fantastic Four #10.
Ant-Man mentions how Doom had his mind restored recently. His mind was scarred in Incredible Hulk #606 but it was later restored in FF #2.
Although the Living Tribunal decrees that Doctor Doom's face shall remain scarred forever, it has been repaired later in Secret Wars #9. Likely because the Tribunal was seemingly slain earlier in New Avengers Vol 3 #30.
