Fantastic Four #567
Doom's Master: Part Two
In Latveria, Doctor Doom is being punished by his master the Marquis of Death. However, Doctor Doom refuses to yield and fights back and charges at his foe. A battle soon breaks out that lasts for six weeks. Many other joined and many fell eventually, Doctor Doom was able to defeat the Marquis and defeat him with a new weapon, the Omega Box. Although Latveria did not suffer, the Fantastic Four were decimated bringing Doom great remorse. Rehabilitated and remarried, Doom began focusing on using his talents to benefit mankind.
Five years later at the Reed Richards Memorial Building, headquarters of the Fantastic Four, Doom reflects in front of a statue of the original team. He asks the Thing if Reed would be proud the fact that he used his talents to cure illness and bring utopia to Earth. Doom still thinks the statue is ostentatious. Doom laments how it took Reed's death to make him see the errors of his ways. They are soon joined by a very pregnant Susan von Doom who has come to tell them that the Fantasti-Car ahs been charged up and is ready to take them back home. Soon they are on their way back to Latveria. On the way, Doom confesses that he is upset that Johnny won't be joining them for the impending celebrations. After addressing the Latverian people, Doom and Sue retreat to his castle. There, Doom takes her to the Omega Box and remarks that this was the very invention that saved the world.
When Sue asks Doom if he is content, this ends the charade. "Sue" is actually the Apprentice and the Marquis of Death emerges from the Omega Box. Suddenly, Doom finds himself back at the original battle scene with only a moment’s time having passed, still burning before the Marquis. The Marquis explains there was no Omega Box, that the entire five-year victory that Doom experienced was all a manipulation. The Marquis did it all to take it away from Victor in a blink of an eye. He then tells him to weep for Latveria before unleashing his power and decimating the entire country. Having finished toying with Von Doom, the Marquis tortures him on an atomic level before teleporting him to the distant past and feeding him to a Megoladon, sending Doctor Doom seemingly to his death.
The Marquis and his Apprentice return to the present where the Marquis picks up Doctor Doom's ruined mask and vows to destroy the Fantastic Four then the world.
Recurring Characters
Doctor Doom, Marquis of Death
Continuity Notes
Although the Marquis seems to leave Doctor Doom to die in the distant path, he is rescued by the Dark Avengers in Dark Avengers #176-177. He then returns to the recent present to pose as the Marquis apprentice. In Fantastic Four #569 he leads everyone to believe he actually survived millions of years to get his revenge.
