I had expected my moment of victory to be more...satisfying......but perhaps repaying you for years of treachery, for the ultimate cruelty of tampering with my laborious calculations upon our first meeting......will grant me peace of mind whereas merely defeating my most worthy of foes does not! 
Appearing in "Mayhem on the Moon!"
Featured Characters:
- Fantastic Four
- ⏴ Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards) ⏵ (Apparent death)
- ⏴ Invisible Girl (Sue Richards) ⏵ (Apparent death)
- ⏴ Human Torch (Johnny Storm) ⏵ (Apparent death)
- ⏴ Thing (Ben Grimm) ⏵ (Apparent death)
Supporting Characters:
- ⏴ Black Panther (T'Challa) ⏵ (Apparent death)
- ⏴ Uatu the Watcher ⏵
Antagonists:
- ⏴ Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom) ⏵
- Cosmic Cube created constructs of:
- Leader (Sam Sterns) (Only in recap)
Other Characters:
- ⏴ Bruce Banner ⏵ (Flashback as Hulk)
- S.H.I.E.L.D.
- ⏴ Colonel Nick Fury ⏵
- ⏴ Dum Dum Dugan ⏵ (Mind in LMD Body)
- ⏴ Jasper Sitwell ⏵
- ⏴ Silver Surfer (Norrin Radd) ⏵
- Aunt Petunia (Mentioned)
- Franklin Richards (Mentioned)
- Namor the Sub-Mariner (Mentioned)
- A.I.M. (Mentioned)
- Sentinels (Mentioned)
- Crystal (Mentioned)
- Lockjaw (Mentioned)
- Red Skull (Johann Shmidt) (Mentioned)
- Galactus (Mentioned)
Locations:
Items:
- Doctor Doom's Armor
- Cosmic Cube
- Ultimate Machine (Only in recap)
- Horn of Proteus (Mentioned)
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "Mayhem on the Moon!"
Sue Richards returns to the Baxter Building to see the rest of her team hard at work along with Bruce Banner in order to track down Doctor Doom. Reed goes over the recent events in an attempt to try and piece together what Doom might be up to. Johnny becomes upset because none of them are interested in trying to find out what happened to Crystal. While Sue goes to calm her brother; Reed, Bruce and Ben continue to pour over their work to find Doctor Doom. As their search continues, Doctor Doom pilots a ship containing the Cosmic Cube to the Blue Area of the Moon.
Back on Earth, Johnny is calmed by his sister Sue, who laments the constant danger of his life as a super-hero and its impact on his relationship with Crystal. Soon their talk is interrupted by the arrival of a ship carrying the Black Panther who has come to lend the Fantastic Four a hand in their search for Doctor Doom. With T'Challa's arrival, Bruce Banner bids the Fantastic Four farewell, having decided that the Hulk would prove too unstable for what happens next. They fly to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier where they meet with Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan, and the Silver Surfer. Having tracked Doom to the moon, the Silver Surfer uses his Power Cosmic to create a ship that will get the Fantastic Four there as quickly as possible.
While on the Moon, Doctor Doom uses the Cosmic Cube to force the Watcher to come out of hiding and demands that he turn over the Ultimate Machine. When the Watcher warns that when the Leader last attempted to use the device it seemingly slew him. Doom sees through this deception, revealing that he is aware that the Leader had survived and demands that Uatu turn the device over. Before Doom can take the Ultimate Machine by force, the Fantastic Four attack. In order to keep his foes at bay, Doom uses the Cosmic Cube to knock the Thing into space and then create various constructs of their foes including the Infant Terrible, Dragon Man, the Hate-Monger, the Awesome Android, the Hulk, Sandman, Klaw, and the Super-Skrull.
When the Watcher tries to reclaim the Cube, and uses it to banish the constructs. Doom quickly regains the Cube then uses it to banish the Watcher to another dimension. Seeing that the Black Panther had gone up in their ship to rescue the Thing, Doom teleports himself and the rest of the Fantastic Four aboard the vessel. There Doom reveals that he plans on utterly destroying Reed Richards, and after informing them that he has now secured the Ultimate Machine, Doctor Doom teleports away. Suddenly, the ship carrying the Fantastic Four suddenly explodes seemingly slaying all aboard.
Notes
Continuity Notes[]
- In this story, Reed references their last trip to Latveria where the village around Doom's castle was destroyed. This was depicted in Fantastic Four #84–87.
- Following his appearance here, Bruce Banner is seen next in Incredible Hulk #130 where Banner succeeds to separate himself from the Hulk for the first time. This separation lasts until Incredible Hulk Annual #10.
- Chronologically, the Black Panther last encountered the Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four Annual #5 wherein they battled the Psycho-Man together. He last appeared in Ka-Zar #1 when he and his fellow Avengers battled the Huntsman.
- Doctor Doom references the Red Skull's last two failed attempts to use the Cosmic Cube in Tales of Suspense #81 and Captain America #119. In that latter story the Cosmic Cube was seemingly destroyed by AIM. As revealed last issue, Doom recovered the Cube just after the Skull lost it in Tales of Suspense Vol 1 81.
- The Watcher appears here after a series of viewings of alternate realities and alien worlds in the back-up stories printed in Silver Surfer #2–7.
- Doctor Doom and the Watcher discuss the last known use of the Ultimate Machine. The device was sought after by the Leader who sent the Hulk to retrieve it. When the Leader placed the device on his head, it seemingly killed him, as seen in Tales to Astonish #73–Tales to Astonish #74. As Doom later pointed out, the Leader actually survived to terrorize the Hulk again as seen in Incredible Hulk #115.
- Nick Fury and Dum Dum Dugan's appearances here follow their appearances in Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man #4–Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man #5 when S.H.I.E.L.D. was investigating the Silver Surfer's rampage which started in Silver Surfer #18. Jasper Sitwell's occurs chronologically between his appearance in Iron Man #24 where he fought the Menotaur and Iron Man #28 when S.H.I.E.L.D. attempted to apprehend the Controller.
- Dum Dum Dugan's appearance here is a complicated one. As revealed in Original Sins #5 Dugan was seemingly killed in action back in 1966 and it was suggested that he was replaced by a complex LMD that thought it was Dugan. However as revealed in New Avengers (Vol. 4) #17, Dugan's body was kept alive and his mind was transmitted into LMDs.
- Doctor Doom uses the Cosmic Cube to create various constructs based on Fantastic Four foes. Those that are depicted here are. All of these foes had previously had impostors made by the Mad Thinker and the Puppet Master in Fantastic Four #100, with the exception of the Infant Terrible and Klaw:
- The Infant Terrible, who clashed with the Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four #24. Prior to this story, the real Infant Terrible appeared in Special-Zembla Vol 1 152 & 153. His next chronological appearance is in Power Pack #59.
- Dragon Man last clashed with the Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four #44–47. At the time of this story, the Dragon Man was put into suspended animation by the Sub-Mariner in Sub-Mariner #15. There he remained until he was revived by Gregory Gideon in Fantastic Four #134–136.
- The Sandman last clashed with the Fantastic Four with his teammates in the Frightful Four in Fantastic Four #94. The real Sandman is seen next in Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Comics Magazine #9.
- The Awesome Android last clashed with the Fantastic Four and the X-Men in X-Men First Class (Vol. 2) #1. The real Android was last seen being defeated by Iron Man in Tales of Suspense #72. It was last seen escaping the Vault during a flashback in X-Club #2.
- The Hate-Monger clashed with the Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four #21 during a failed coup of San Gusto. Around the time of this story the Hate-Monger was last seen in space during the events of Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #11 where the Hate-Monger seemingly perished at the hands of Nick Fury.
- The real Hulk last clashed with the Fantastic Four last issue.
- The Super-Skrull first clashed with the Fantastic Four back in Fantastic Four #18. He last faced off against them when he attacked the Baxter Building on Christmas Eve in Marvel Comics Presents #18. Prior to this story he was defeated by Captain Marvel in Captain Marvel #1–2.
- Klaw last clashed with the Fantastic Four after getting his powers in Fantastic Four #56. Recently he was a member of the new Masters of Evil clashing with both the Avengers and Lady Liberators in Avengers #83.