—DoomThe knowledge of reality's incompleteness... it is an awful burden. Gödel starved himself to death... he saw the world in a new way and couldn't stand it. It changes you... makes you into something you never imagined you could be.
Appearing in 1st story
Featured Characters:
- The Ultimates
- Doom (Reed Richards-6160) (Origin revealed)
- Iron Lad (Tony Stark)
- Sue Storm (Death) (Only in flashback)
- Johnny Storm (Death) (Only in flashback)
- Ben Grimm (Death) (Only in flashback)
Supporting Characters:
- Franklin Storm (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
Antagonists:
- The Maker (Reed Richards-1610) (Only in flashback)
Other Characters:
- Fantastic Four (Only on screen as a static image or video record)
- Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards-616) (Only on screen as a static image or video record)
- Invisible Girl (Sue Storm-616) (Only on screen as a static image or video record)
- Human Torch (Johnny Storm-616) (Only on screen as a static image or video record)
- The Thing (Ben Grimm-616) (Only on screen as a static image or video record)
- Giant-Man (Hank Pym) (Mentioned)
- America Chavez (Mentioned)
- Project 4 (First appearance)
- Dean (Mentioned) (Only in flashback)
- Yancy Street Gang (Mentioned) (Only in flashback)
- Kurt Gödel (Mentioned)
Races and Species:
- Humans (Main story and flashback)
- Post-Humans
- Cosmic Radiation-infused mice
Locations:
- Earth-6160 (Main story and flashback)
- North American Union (Main story and flashback)
- State University (Only in flashback)
- Military facility (Only in flashback)
- North American Union (Main story and flashback)
- Stane/Stark corporate spy satellite
Items:
Vehicles:
- Marvel-1 (Only in flashback) (Destruction)
Synopsis for 1st story
Reed Richards watches the Maker's files, specifically the Fantastic Four of Earth-616 and the events that led Reed to becoming Doom.
Years ago, gifted 13-year-old Reed Richards graduated to State University where he befriended his older fellow student Ben Grimm. By the time he is an adult, Reed became a scientist employed by the North American Union military in a classified research project investigating a cosmic radiation storm directed by Franklin Storm. He became acquainted with Storm's children Johnny and Susan, and started a relationship with the latter. Reed soon invited Ben to the project to serve as the rocket ship's pilot. But the NAU government decided to shut down the project as Reed went over budget and failed safety inspections. Reed, who had spent years on the project, refused to give up on it. He convinced Ben, Susan, and Johnny to secretly board the ship to observe the cosmic storm; the ship needed at least four to run its basic operations.
After arriving in space, Reed was surprised to find that they had missed the cosmic storm and that his calculations had been incorrect. Then suddenly, the ship's console equipment exploded, burning Johnny to death. The three returned to Earth and were then arrested. The authorities sentenced them to life imprisonment for destroying a ten-billion-dollar project and the death of a minor (Johnny). Following thereafter, Ben seemingly committed suicide out of shame after his body was found at the bottom of an abandoned quarry. Susan contracted cancer from trace exposure to the cosmic radiation while in space. Before she died, Susan made her last wish to say goodbye to Reed. With his children dead, Franklin Storm venomously cursed Reed that he wished he never saw his face.
Reed was soon abducted and taken to the City by the Maker, who was responsible for delaying the rocket's launch by changing Reed's calculations. Using the City's temporarily accelerated environment, the Maker relentlessly torture Reed, both mentally and physically, surgically disfiguring him and goading him into accepting that his name was Doom, claiming that all his actions doomed his loved ones and that he should just accept this, "and be free." Reed soon cracked under the Maker's torture, in which the latter melded a metal mask to his face.
Doom watches in rage at what the Maker had done to his life and his friends and loved ones. Unable to use the Immortus Engine to change the past ever since Iron Lad vowed to not use it, Doom resorts to Project 4: his attempt to use the cosmic radiation to recreate the Fantastic Four.
Iron Lad soon finds Doom and states that he missed another mission where the Ultimates needed him when Giant-Man was nearly killed but was saved by Captain America. Tony then notices the injuries on Doom’s hands in which Doom explains how he suffers from periods of extreme despair, which he calls his "negative zone". Tony expresses his sympathies to Doom and is surprised to learn from him that he is continuing Project 4. So far Doom has been exposing cosmic radiation on lab mice, but has trouble finding the correct composition and dose of cosmic radiation in which the mice keep dying from highly unstable radiation.
Tony then offers his help to Doom’s project, but Doom believes his project must be done by himself. Doom's rejection leads to an argument with Tony, who accuses him for being stubborn by his own ego. Doom lashes back at Tony for his refusal to use the Immortus Engine before ranting how Tony had never lost anything. After his rant, Doom calms down and agrees to follow Tony's way for now. Tony takes the moment to leave Doom, who then continues his work on Project 4, swearing that the Fantastic Four will return once the lab mice stop dying.
Fourteen months remaining...
Solicit Synopsis
THE FATE OF THE ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR!
Doom’s years of torture at the hands of the Maker finally catch up to him in this secret history of the real Reed Richards! And tensions rise among the Ultimates when Doom might be more fixated on re-creating the life he should have had than the life he’s got… Featuring art by guest artist Phil Noto!Trivia
- The deaths of Johnny, Ben, and Susan relates to their mainstream powers:
- Johnny is burned alive.
- Ben's corpse is found in a quarry in which the rocks are colored orange.
- A grieving Franklin Storm says that his daughter is "[fading] away".
