The Bride of Doom
Eric S Brown
The eighth trade paperback in the current run of the Fantastic Four collects issues 31-35 featuring a storyline called The Bride of Doom. The latest adventure of the team begins with Dr. Doom challenging Reed Richards to a contest of skill and intellect with the winner being able to ask a boon of the loser. Doom wins and asks Richards to be the best man at his wedding. Richards agrees seeing a chance to make peace with Doom and gathers the rest of the Fantastic Four to travel to Latveria with him but things, as usual, do not go as planned.
This particular volume of the Fantastic Four, while a fun read in some ways, really demonstrates the lack of new, original ideas in terms of the bulk of modern, Marvel Comics. As Doom is about to be married and honestly make peace with the F.F., it’s revealed that the Human Torch has slept with his future wife. This sends Doom into a furious killing spree and even the combined might of the F.F., Black Panther, and Namor the Sub-mariner fail to be enough to stop him without a high price being paid. The battle is well done but the rest of this story feels more like watching a soap opera or reading an issue of DC’s Legion of Superheroes than a Fantastic Four comic.
The artwork within the pages of The Bride of Doom isn’t horrid but it’s much below par for what one would expect from such a 1st tier Marvel title. There is often a great lack of detail in how the characters are drawn that hurts the storyline.
The Bride of Doom is still a must read for diehard Fantastic Four fans but for anyone else, it will likely come across as lacking and rather cliché’.
