Fantastic Four #569

Doom's Master: Part Four

The Marquis of Death has brought an infinite number of Fantastic Fours to this universe to attack Reed and his family. Ben goes to Area 87 to kill Clyde Wyncham in the past before he becomes the Marquis. Reed and Valeria are working on the Cosmic Draining Device that Reed used against Doom in the past, while the Thing battles the Apprentice. Valeria activates the device, draining all the powers from the multiple FF's. The Thing arrives with Clyde to help battle his future self. The battle across multiple dimensions, but ultimately the Marquis stands victorious. But he's been weakened, and now the Fantastic Four attack him with the powers of thousands of their multidimensional duplicates stored within themselves.

They have 23.4 seconds to defeat the Marquis before they die from trying to contain the energy. Reed tells Johnny to go beyond supernova to the Planck Temperature, ultimately putting down the Marquis. Just then, the Marquis' Apprentice appears, revealing his true identity as that of Doctor Doom. Doom tells them that he was indeed transported to the dawn of time and torn limb from limb by megalodons, but his hate kept him alive. He then spent the next millions of years mastering black arts he had never even conceived before. Transforming his body until not even a molecule could betray his identity, he sought out the Marquis to become his apprentice. To protect his secret from prying eyes, he apparently killed a Watcher. Doom tells them that they are beneath him, and he no longer of consequence to them and transports himself away.

Later, Ben is listening to voicemail messages of several villains threatening to kill his bride to be Deborah and begins to have second thoughts. At the wedding, Ben doesn't show up, and Deborah goes to find him and locates him at his favorite bar. She tells him that it's her choice to join her life with his, but he tells her that it really it him when he saw them together, Daredevil, Spider-Man, and Namor - their loved ones were killed and never came back. And he couldn't go on if anything happened to her. She goes, and Reed tells Ben he'll buy him a drink.

Continuity Notes

• The Thing reflects on how many of his allies have lost a loved one due to their relationship with said her. They are as follows:

  • With Daredevil, it was his long time lover Karen Page, who was murdered by Bullseye in Daredevil Vol 2 #5.

  • Spider-Man lost his first true love, Gwen Stacy in a battle against the Green Goblin circa Amazing Spider-Man #121

  • At the time it was believed that Bruce Banner's wife Betty Ross had died of radiation poisoning, as seen in Incredible Hulk #466. It's later revealed that she was kept alive and later becomes the Red She-Hulk as revealed in Incredible Hulk #609.

  • Lastly, Namor's first wife Lady Dorma was murdered at the hands of his foe Llyra in Sub-Mariner #37.

• Doom’s statement that he survived millions of years to get revenge is a deception. As revealed in Dark Avengers #176-177 reveals, he was actually rescued by the Dark Avengers and brought back to the recent present. Given Doom’s ego, he intentionally omitted this fact.