Fantastic Five #5

Issue - 5
Title - In Search of Doom!
Writer - Tom De Falco
Art - Paul Ryan

Summary:
The peace of the Fantastic Five headquarters is broken when the team seemingly receives a video transmission from Dr. Doom. Reed manages to trace the signal of the projection to South America, where the call came in via an old Fantastic Four emergency band. The team decide to go an investigate, and the Human Torch calls in Cassie Lang, now Stinger of the Avengers, to tag along. She reveals that on the Avengers' recent mission in Latveria, they discovered that Kristoff Vernard, Doom's former heir, was keeping guard of Doom's castle and secrets. The team arrive in the jungle and begin to search for the source of the signal when suddenly each of them is attacked by an elemental being. Their battle is overseen by Diablo, Master of Alchemy. He holds Kristoff captive with the intention of divulging all of Doom's secrets from him. Kristoff however escapes from his bonds and quickly manages to capture Diablo. The Fantastic Five meanwhile uses the elementals powers against each other until finally all of them are defeated. The team are delight to find Kristoff free and Diablo securely bound. Reed asks Kristoff how he will keep Doom's secrets safe when others like Diablo might discover he is alive. Kristoff's solution is to join up with the Fantastic Five.

Comments:
Standard Tom De Falco fare is the best way to describe this issue. The Fantastic Five reads as a continuation of his run on Fantastic Four, which I suppose is exactly what it is. If you like his F4 stuff, you'll like F5. This particular issue is nothing to write home about, however it is very nice to see Kristoff grown up. I'd say its the highlight of the story. Seeing one of Doom's few supporting cast given a chance to grow and develop is a welcome thing. The Cassie/Kristoff romance was something that was left unresolved because of the abrupt end of volume one of the Fantastic Four. Its also nice to see that subplot come to its forgone conclusion in at least this form. Bottom Line: ** out of 5

Notes:

The original Dr. Doom made his first appearance in Fantastic Four #5, this #5 marks "Doom's" first appearance in Fantastic Five.
Ironically the Fantastic Five was cancelled after only 5 issues.
As established in A-Next #5, in the MC2 (Marvel Comics 2) universe, Doom disappears after a savage battle against Namor and is believed to be dead. Dr. Doom's true fate was revealed in the sequel to this series, see Fantastic Five: The Final Doom.
Diablo states that the base and surrounding South American jungle where his working in was owned by the original Dr. Doom.
Collected in Spider-Girl Presents: Fantastic Five - In Search of Doom (pictured below)

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