"Fool! You think you can defeat Doctor Doom so easily?"
We begin at the FF's headquarters, on the top floor of a skyscraper in what is now explicitly New York, and... the Human Torch is reading The Incredible Hulk in a subtle plug! There's still been no hint as yet of a shared universe- is this inclusion of the comic a suggestion that perhaps that wasn't yet envisaged at this point?
But soon, Doom attacks the FF and Reed gives us the potted origin story of this master of both magic and science, hungry for knowledge and power. And, yeah... he's expelled from uni while literally in a hospital bed, his now-disfigured face bandaged. Bit harsh?
Doom takes them all to a castle in an undisclosed location which is "minutes" from New York, albeit in a super-fast helicopter thingy. Is this within the United States? At no point in this issue is there any mention of Latveria. Is Doom not yet its ruler? Of course, at this point I assume it had not yet been dreamt of.
We then come to the main plot. What does Doom want? Well, to use his Time Platform (a first appearance!) to travel back in time and steal Blackbeard's treasure, which contains items made by Merlin (who thus existed in the Marvel Universe) which Doom can use to rule the world. Ummm...
Oh, and the Thing IS Blackbeard and, if not for circumstances, would have happily stayed in a world where he was somebody, even if it meant doing without twentieth century comforts, medicine etc. And, if all that wasn't enough bonkersness, there's more- the Torch gives his flame "the intensity of atomic heat", which somehow turns some of the water in the crocodile infested (because of course it is, although no visible laser beams are strapped to their replilian heads) moat.
Bonkers. Utter bonkers. I love it. Oh, and Doom escapes, just as Namor did last issue. And Torch juuuust so happens to hope aloud that said Atlantean never finds Merlin's jewellery. Mmm hmm...
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