Alright folks, we've got another Road to. Now at first I was confused about what to do for this. Then it hit me. Since Avengers: Doomsday will have Doctor Doom as the main big bad, I thought it'd be a great idea to review some of Doctor Doom's best stories. So for the first time ever, this road will consist of nothing but comic book reviews. Now enough of this intro, let's get to it.
Prisoners of Doctor Doom is a 1962 story published in issue five of the 1961 edition of Fantastic Four. It was distributed by Marvel Comics with the late, great Stan "The Man" Lee writing the story and the late, great Jack "The King" Kirby drawing the comic.
The story is, it seems like it was gonna be a boring night in the Baxter Building. But that quickly changes when the Fantastic Four are taken captive by a new nemesis who calls himself, Doctor Doom. With the Invisible Girl being held hostage, Mister Fantastic, The Human Torch, and The Thing have no choice by to listen and follow Doom's demands.
- Negatives
I've got nothing.
- Mix
I'm giving it to the story. It's very corny and over the top in some places. And I know what some of you gonna say "Michael, it was the 60's. Things were expected to be corny and over the top". And you right. Some things were cheesy during that time. But the thing is Stan Lee wasn't ALWAYS cheesy and over the top with his writing. Back in 2024 I review his Spider-Man story of If This Be My Destiny. The tone in that story doesn't line up with this one. And last year I reviewed a Fantastic Four story that came much later after this one, that being The Galactus Trilogy. The tone for that didn't line up exactly like this one. So if anything this is one of those moments where Stan's writing was more entertaining than something far more serious.
Then there's the pacing. It really bounces. One moment things go by very easily and then the next moment things feel slower then they should be. Then there's moments where it's the opposite. One example of this is Ben aka The Thing goes a little bit crazy and it jeopardizes the mission. Now Ben would eventually snap out of it, but Reed (Mr. Fantastic) and Johnny (Human Torch) just quickly forgive him. Yeah that bit of the story went by pretty quickly when it probably should've been given more time.
- Positives
One praise I want to give is the introduction to Doctor Doom. Sure during this era he was a bit more hammy then the more cold and stoic Doctor Doom everybody's more use to. But this verison does have some of the more classic Doom traits. He's got a huge ego, he's an arrogant genius, but at the same time can be a man of his word. So it was fun to read the story of a character who would go on to be one of Marvel's best villains.
Then there's Jack Kirby's art. While I don't think this as one of Kirby's great illustrations he still put a tremendous amount of work in. It shows that even when handling a far more smaller story, even though time travel is involved in this, Kirby still wasn't gonna be lazy and just half ass his work load. All the more reasons why he was dubbed Jack "The King" Kirby.
So while I didn't find this comic to be mind blowing, It was still a good read just for the fact that this was Doctor Doom's first appearance.
My final rating is, Okay.
So that's all for now. Come back on Monday, Jan 26th, for a brand new Differences Between. For that one I'll tell you differences between the film Stand By Me and the book that inspired it, The Body. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.
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