The United Nations has threatened to expel Latveria unless they see some kind of political progress, namely, Doom must step down as ruler of Latveria. This prompts Doom to name his successor and give up his power to his son, Victor Von Doom II. Elsewhere, a powerless Reed Richards takes advantage of a mysterious benefactors finances to recreate the cosmic rays that gave him his power. Although dubious over his intentions, the man holds the other three members of the FF hostage. A journey into space results in a duel with the Red Ghost and puts his regained powers to the test. Barely managing to escape, Reed is rescued by Nick Fury. Fury offers Reed all the resources at his command but Reed only asks for one thing, his Pogo Plane. With it, Reed travels to the man he has deduced is holding his team, Doctor Doom. In Latveria, Reed Richards is introduced to Zorba and the resistance. Together they attack Castle Doom and uncover that Doom's son is in fact a clone of Doom himself. Doom captured the other members of the FF in order to imbue his son with their collective powers [Thing's strength, Sue's invisibility, Johnny's flame]. Reed causes the transference machine to malfunction and instead of just absorbing their powers he also takes on some physical attributes. Doom's clone becomes disfigured like the Thing. Instead of taking his anger on Reed for interfering with the transference process he attacks Doom whom he now realizes is insane. Doom battles and kills his clone and then escapes to carry out the other part of his plan. Doom delivers a statue of himself to the UN council chamber as they are about to vote on the issue of Latveria. The FF race to stop Doom from using a mind controlling device hidden within the statue. The story culminates with a one on one battle between Richards and Doom ending with Reed removing Doom's mask inside a crystal chamber. The crystals then reflect Doom's horrid face thousands upon thousands of times driving Doom insane. With Doom reduced to a vegetable Zorba, the true heir to the throne, takes his place as ruler of Latveria until a new leader can be democratically elected.

It is quite an epic tale. To modern readers it might seem like some parts of it are cheesy but I think it works. This issue being in the seventies means that Doom is characterized as insane. He has his own version of the events that led to his face being scarred and believes that it was all Richards' fault. The idea of cloning is ahead of its time I think. Reed makes use of a skill that you rarely see these days, he changes his appearance into that of the scientist Hauptman via his elastic skin. The arc is highlighted by the climatic battle between Reed and Doom, classic stuff. My only gripe is that Doom is ruthless. He kills his own clone and he treats his people like crap. A bit of continuity that never seems to get straightened out is whether or not Doom is a benevolent ruler. In the FF Annual #2 in which Doom's origin is revealed, it is firmly established that his people are grateful to him for keeping the peace in Latveria. But even Stan Lee would contradict himself later on in issues 84-87 where Doom can clearly be seen ordering his own robot creations to attack Latverian cities. This is clearly not someone that would be loved by his people. Nevertheless, considering the pivotal climax, Bottom Line: Buy It

 

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