The second episode of the new Fantastic 4 animated series introduced the team’s greatest foe in Dr. Doom, only it wasn’t really Dr. Doom for most of the episode.
In the series’ second episode entitled “Doomed,” Dr. Doom swaps bodies with Reed Richards and poses as him in a plot to destroy everything Richards and the Fantastic 4 have worked for. Now in Doom’s body, Richards must overcome a series of traps the real Doom set for him, make his way to the Baxter Building and face his most challenging task yet, getting the team to believe it’s really him trapped in Doom’s body.
I found this episode to be interesting because since it was the first episode featuring Dr. Doom I assumed it would be more character driven, in that it would delve deeper into the history between Richards and Doom. This was not the case however seeing as how for most of the episode Doom was really Richards, and Richards was really Doom.
I am a sucker for origin stories, so I guess I had just hoped they would give us an updated version of the origin of the Fantastic 4 and Dr. Doom. During the episode they did touch on the fact that Doom not only hates Richards for “taking his face,” but also believes that he, not Richards is in fact the World’s smartest man.
While the episode was a bit on the odd side, it wasn’t without its strong points. The 2 aspects I enjoyed the most came from Doom himself. Once Richards was stuck in his body he had to surpass a series of traps that Doom had intentionally laid for him before attempting his plan. One of these involved surrounding his own body in an energy shield. Being the World’s smartest man definitely has it’s upside as Richards was able to guess the password that unlocked Doom’s mask (which is made out of adamantium BTW) and use it as a deflector for the energy shield.
I really liked the fact that Doom’s vanity runs so deep that his armor is password protected so that not just anyone could remove it and gaze upon his deformed face. Another aspect I enjoyed was Doom’s voice which is provided by Paul Dobson, brother of Brian Dobson who brilliantly voices The Thing in the series.
One of my biggest disappointments with the film version of the “F4” was that Dr. Doom was totally Americanized, and had almost no ties to Latveria. In this series they correct that mistake with Paul Dobson giving Doom a voice that sounds like a cross between Dracula and Darth Vader (because of his face mask).
Despite not getting the origin story I had hoped for, I did enjoy this episode nonetheless. The fight sequence between Doom (in Richards body) and The Thing really showed that Richards is no pushover in the super power department. I’m also noticing that the new character designs are really starting to grow on me. Doom’s new look is fantastic (no pun intended) and the new costumes of the team are a much welcomed change to the same “blue look” we’ve seen for over 30 years.