Fantastic Four by Dan Slott vol. 3: Herald of Doom

In case you were thinking that the appearance of Galactus on Earth, and Doom’s proclamation that he would be the one to save Earth from the Devourer this time, was some kind of cute interruption for the Thing’s wedding that would be quickly handwaved away, you were wrong.  “Herald of Doom” indeed has two of the Fantastic Four’s biggest antagonists facing off against each other in Latveria. It’s all by the good Doctor’s design, however, as he has plans for Galactus that will finally turn the tables on him and his world-eating ways. He’s even got a new cosmic-powered sidekick, Victorious, to provide an assist in both dealing with this cosmic threat and when the FF show up to predictably meddle in his plans.

Given that Doom and Galactus are arguably the most famous faces in the FF’s rogues gallery, you’d think a storyline that pits them against each other would be pretty epic.  That’s not the case as Slot manages to make the scale of this encounter feel small and mundane as it basically boils down to the Doctor putting everyone opposed to him in boxes.  As Reed Richards points out in this story, that’s always a mistake. While there’s some pleasure to be had from seeing the heroes escape and turn the tables on their captor, none of it messes with convention or surprises in the way the volume’s best moment does:  Sue Storm using her powers on Doom in a most humiliating way for the man.

Vol. 3 is rounded out by two single issues:  One is a “War of the Realms” tie-in that’s really about Franklin adjusting to life on Yancy street and his now finite powers.  The other is about Franklin and Valeria getting busted by the Department of Extranormal Motor Vehicles and having to take a superpowered driver’s test.  They’re both good fun, with the latter topping the former mainly due to how Franklin uses his new “angsty teenager” powers to save the day. All of this amounts to a decent bit of superhero fluff that still manages to look good even with NINE artists handling the issues in this collection.  Still, after all those years of expertly subverting convention on “Amazing Spider-Man,” I’m still waiting for Slott to bring some of that magic to this series.