Title – Prisoner of the Flesh

Issue – 287

Writer – John Byrne

Art – John Byrne

Summary:

The Wasp and She-Hulk invite Susan Richards, the Invisible Woman, to get a new hairstyle. The Wasp’s hairstylist is the personal stylist to the French Ambassador and works out of the French embassy. Their session is interrupted when the embassy across the street comes under attack. To their surprise, it is the Invincible Man and he is attacking the Latverian embassy. While their first instinct is to stop him, he quickly convinces them that Dr. Doom is alive inside the building and is holding his wife and child hostage. The three agree to help him rescue them. Elsewhere, Peggy McArthur urgently interrupts her neighbor’s soap opera to tell her that she has just escaped her own home and that she has been held captive by her own husband. As she relates her tale, she sees a news bulletin on the TV showing the Invincible Man’s attack. Peggy instantly recognizes the costume as the one her husband has been working on since he began to keep her in the house. Peggy and her friend leave for the embassy at once. Back at the embassy, the Wasp and She-Hulk battle droves of Doombots while the Invisible Woman follows their mysterious ally who flees the battle. In one of the rooms, Susan discovers a Doombot impersonating Doom. When she turns to leave, the Invincible Man attacks but she overpowers her. Peggy arrives at the embassy and see the Invisible Woman beating her husband and strikes her unconscious form behind. Peggy runs to her husband’s side but he reveals that he is in fact the real Dr. Doom. Doom explains that he has been trapped inside her husband’s body since he was forced to escape his own body when he was about to perish at the hands of Terrax. His plan now is to release himself from Norm MacArthur’s body and destroy the Fantastic Four.

Notes:

• Despite the fact that Doom has been publicly declared dead, a Doombot impersonating him still mans the Latverian Embassy. 
• Doom used the Ovoid mind transfer technique to escape his body’s demise. See Fantastic Four #10
• It’s unclear where and with whom Peggy McArthur left her baby with (Am I the only one asking themselves this?).
• Collected in Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Volume 8 (see below)

Title – Full Circle

Issue – 288

Writer – John Byrne

Art – John Byrne

Summary:

Reed and Johnny join the battle that has begun inside the Latverian Embassy. Doom however quickly overpowers all of them with a concussion ray. When they all awaken, Doom has imprisoned them in specialized cells. He reveals to them that he plans on using his knowledge of black magic to reconstitute his atomized body and return to it. However in summoning up this dark power, he attracts a greater power, the Beyonder. Doom attempts to submit the Beyonder but finds him too powerful. The Beyonder is ready to destroy Doom, but Mr. Fantastic halts him when he realizes that neither one has recognize the other. He concludes that the Beyonder does not recognize him because Doom is not in his true body, meaning that the Doom who fought in the Secret Wars had to have been from the future. Since Doom is in another body and does not know of the Secret Wars, the Beyonder would alter history if he killed him. Convinced that killing Doom would have repercussions, even for him, the Beyonder recreates and returns Doom to his true body and restores Norm’s mind. He then flings Doom into the past where the Secret Wars await him and leaves. Mr. Fantastic quickly releases his friends and urges them to hurry out of the embassy because the Doom who survives the end of the Secret Wars will surely appear to fill in the space left by the restored Doom.

Comments:

In one fine stroke, John Byrne manages to explain away a glitch in continuity and bring back Doom. Not an easy task. This come back is certainly memorable and unique. In two issues Byrne manages to tout some of Doom’s lesser-known abilities. First his Ovoid mind technique, second his use of sorcery. A minor quibble, Doom says it would be undignified for Doom to remain in Norm’s body because he is a ‘commoner.’ Although he doesn’t explicitly state that he sees himself as royalty, I felt the implication was there. Somehow I always find it wrong when Doom claims he’s royal, when he isn’t. He is a monarch, not by birthright but by right of conquest. Like I said, a minor quibble. Bottom Line: **** out of 5

Notes:

• Collected in Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Volume 8 (see below)
  
  

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