Fantastic Four #40
The Battle of the Baxter Building
Doctor Doom has taken over the Baxter Building in an attempt to get revenge on the now powerless Fantastic Four who are rushing the building along with their ally Daredevil. Doom launches a mobile "TV Eye" device to try and locate the members of the Fantastic Four among the crowd of New Yorkers below. Quick thinking, Daredevil converts his billy-club into a one bullet shotgun and blasts the TV Eye out of the sky before leaping onward. By this point, Johnny and Sue have commandeered a taxi cab and picked up Reed. When they arrive at the Baxter Building they find the police have cordoned off the area. They are allowed access to the lobby but are instantly attacked by the various defences in place that are now under Doom's control. However, while Doctor Doom is distracted with the Fantastic Four in the lobby, he is unprepared when Daredevil sneaks in through one of the windows.
While Doom is distracted with Daredevil, the Fantastic Four are reunited with Ben and they take the elevator up to their headquarters. Doom tries to stop them, but the FF manage to escape the trap thanks to Daredevil's continued interruptions of Doom's attempt to kill them. Needing to get something from his lab, he sends Sue, Johnny and Ben to help Daredevil distract Doom. Reed recovers the Stimulator he used on the Skrull homeworld and uses it on himself to restore his powers. He then uses it on Sue and Johnny who use their newly returned powers to keep Doom at bay. Doom tries to incapacitate the group with a freezing device, but the Torch uses his flame powers to cause the machine to explode. As Doom flees into the next room, Reed has no choice but to use the Energizer device on Ben, despite his protests. Transformed into the Thing once again, Ben follows after Doctor Doom and stops him before he can activate a powerful weapon that will decimate the entire block.
Furious over his recent transformation, the Thing pushes through various traps and weapons at Doom's disposal. When Ben finally gets his hands on his foe's hands, he crushes them and then disables all the devices on his armor with his bare hands. With Doom humiliated and defeated, the Fantastic Four allow him to limp away. With the battle over Ben shocks the whole team by informing them that he is quitting the Fantastic Four, having finally become fed up with always getting the raw deal in the group.
Recurring Characters
Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Girl, Human Torch, Thing), Daredevil, Doctor Doom
Continuity Notes
During the early issues of Daredevil, Daredevil concealed devices in his Billy Club making it adaptable for various uses. These adaptable features were eventually phased out around Daredevil #15.
The device that Reed uses to restore their powers is called a Stimulator in this issue, it was last used to restore the Fantastic Four's powers while on the Skrull home world of Tarnax IV in Fantastic Four #37. The reason Reed did not use it last issue was because it had been recharging since it was last used as explained in this issue.
Doom limps away in defeat, this defeat leads to Doctor Doom’s to attack Reed and Sue’s wedding in Fantastic Four Annual #3.
In Fantastic Four #350, Doctor Doom states that this was the last time he personally fought the Fantastic Four and that all subsequent Doom appearances (and defeats) were not him, but Doombots. In reality, as explained in Fantastic Four #358, Doom was merely creating propaganda to convince his people that he was not responsible for his own failures.
