This is "I Remember Well," a brand-new feature spotlighting instances in which writers pull out long-forgotten plots or attributes of comic book characters. I have a similar bit called "I've Been Here Before" when writers pull out their own old plots/characters, but this is when different writers do it. I also have a bit called "Provide Some Answers," when writers resolve long-forgotten plots, but this is when writers don't resolve anything, they just bring back something that hadn't been used in a long time.
Today, based on a suggestion from readers Stephen M. and Freedy J., we look at Doctor Doom's superpower that he not only didn't use for more than 200 issues of The Fantastic Four, but he even used another device to do the same basic thing that he could already do with this power.
It all started in Fantastic Four #6, when Doctor Doom betrayed his erstwhile ally, Namor the Sub-Mariner, by shooting Namor and the Fantastic Four (and their entire building) into outer space. Namor caught up with Doom, and it appeared as though Doom was just sucked into the vacuum of space, never to be seen again. This was early enough in the Marvel Universe's history that we actually didn't know for sure that Doom WOULD actually be coming back to life! For all we knew, he was seriously dead!
Well, four issues later, Doom showed up alive. First, he gave Jack Kirby and Stan Lee (the creators on that issue, along with inker Dick Ayers) some guff at Marvel's offices before then knocking out Reed Richards (as I wrote about recently, this was the first time that Doom actually noted having any particular enmity for Reed. In Doom's first two appearances, he just hated the Fantastic Four as a whole).
Doom then reveals that he was rescued by some aliens known as Ovoids. Doom then learned from the Ovoids how to swap minds with somebody and Doom proceeds to swap minds with Reed Richards.
Of course, Doom's plan fails fairly easily because he is, you know, Doom. It is very difficult for him to hide who he and soon the rest of the Fantastic Four figure out that Reed didn't suddenly turn into a homicidal lunatic, but he had instead seen his mind swapped with Doom. The shock of the Fantastic Four figuring out his scheme caused Doom to lose control and he and Reed swapped back to their own bodies. Doom then seemingly was killed again, but we were now on to Kirby and Lee and knew that Doom wouldn't stay dead this time (and sure enough, he had just been shrunken down to a sub-atomic world).
A few years later, Doom actually swapped minds with Daredevil, but he did so using a body transferal ray. So even then, Doom had forgotten about his Ovoid-inspired power!
Fast forward to Fantastic Four #260 (by John Byrne). Doom had manipulated Tyros the Terrible (who would be Galactus' herald as Terrax) into attacking the Fantastic Four. Doom needed them to last long enough for Reed Richards to show up, so Doom could see them all die. However, his calculations were slightly off and it seemed like Tyros might take out the other three members of the team too quickly. So Doom attempted to slow him down. Tyros then blasted Doom with enough energy that it locked Doom's armor into place. He was stuck in the middle of a very dangerous situation. We then see Aunt May as an innocent bystander and the guy next to her acts like a jerk out of nowhere.
Later in the issue, Silver Surfer had showed up, alerted by the power energies given off by Tyros. The two beings, both powered by Galactus' Power Cosmic, had one heck of a battle and in the midst of it, everything beneath them was liquefied in a gigantic energy blast. That included Doctor Doom!
The Fantastic Four came across Doom's mask, which was blown off of him when his body was destroyed. They all knew full well just how much of a blast you would need to get Doom's mask off of his body, so they assumed that Doom was dead. And really, it seemed clear that he WAS dead.
However, in Fantastic Four #268, Doom's mask suddenly seemed to come to life and try to escape its place in the Fantastic Four's headquarters. They corralled it in the end, but Reed Richards assumed that someone had to have been behind the mask activating. It could be a case of someone getting access to Doom's technology, but it could also be that Doom was somehow still out there!
The answer was revealed nearly two years later, in Fantastic Four #287 (by Byrne and Joe Sinnott), where a woman was complaining about her husband acting awfully strange. The Fantastic Four were attacked by a man dressed as The Invincible Man (who originally was a Skrull pretending to be Sue and Johnny's late father...the Fantastic Four sure lead interesting lives, huh?). The Invisible Woman used her powers to look at who was under the Invincible Man's mask and it was just some guy that she didn't recognize. The man turned out to be the guy, Norman McCarthur, who wife insisted that he was acting so strange.
Of course, that means that Doom switched minds with Norman before his body was destroyed!
At the end of the story, luckily, Norman regained control of his body and Doom was given a new body by the Beyonder (this was a crossover with Secret Wars II). It all tied in with a plotline from the original Secret Wars, where Doom was a part of that event while still being dead in the pages of the Fantastic Four. I covered that part of it here.
Doom has used his Ovoid powers a few times since this Byrne story, but when Byrne used it, it had been a LONG time since those powers had ever been used.
Thanks to Stephen and Freedy for the suggestion!
I'm sure you folks have other ideas for examples for this column, so send them my way at brianc@cbr.com! I'd love to get a month's worth of them up!