Synopsis / Summary / Plot
This issue really stars Victor von Doom with the Thing as his sidekick.
It begins with a memory of Victor's youth. His father Werner von Doom hits him with his staff for losing concentration, and easily dodges when Victor strikes back with his own staff. The Zeferi are persecuted in Latveria and they must always be on their guard. They pass a bearded beggar but Werner tells his son they don't have anything to spare to give him - they need what they've got to reach the place where they will meet the rest of their group. Besides the beggar isn't a Zeferi. Victor still wants to give him something but Werner says a few pennies won't really help. Instead they need to change the society that created beggars, and to do that they need power. Victor remembers his witch mother Cynthia who had power, but not enough, and he dreams of having more.
Now Victor is travelling the multiverse with Human Torch, Thing and Rachna Koul. They are searching alternate realities for the missing Mr Fantastic and Invisible Woman and their children using the Multisect left behind by Reed Richards. Rachna gets reading from the Multisect directing them to likely timelines, but she claims to get 2 hits on each timeline - 1 weaker than the other. She opts to check the weaker leaving the better choice for the other 3, which does lead them to whatever exists of the reality's Fantastic Four.
However this time von Doom's alone with Ben Grimm as Johnny Storm has elected to accompany Ms Koul. And the strong reading has brought them to this timeline's Castle Doom. This reality is similar enough to the main Marvel 1 that Victor is able to direct Thing to move a large rock to uncover a secret tunnel to the castle.
Victor opines that Torch was wise to go with Koul. Doom knows that Rachna has her own agenda and is deceiving them. And Grimm should know it too. Johnny Storm may think they're looking for his sister Sue Richards and her family but Ben knows he made that up to comfort his friend. Victor and Ben know that the Richards family are dead, so Koul can't be 'finding' their specific energy signatures (as an alternate Reed Richards told Ben in #6). She's really taking them to timelines *she* wants to visit.
Ben asks why is Victor along for the ride then? Doom just says he has his reasons. (#6 said he wanted to study the Multisect in action.)
Now if Rachna wasn't lying more than usual this strong reading should bring them to this world's FF. And if they're in Castle Doom Victor suggests they're probably in danger. So presumably Grimm wants to save them? Doom tracks the signal and they come across Mr Fantastic's flexibly-extended arm. Following that brings them to a room containing Reed's skeleton and this world's Dr Doom.
Thing attacks without thought. Dr Doom easily blasts him backwards saying he just *killed* him, and he wonders where they got this weaker version from. (Our Thing and Torch are losing their powers, ostensibly because of their separation from the teammates who share their origin.)
Our Doom stops Dr Doom from firing again. Dr Doom can tell this is a real Victor and deduces they are from an alternate reality. And from an insult Ben Grimm utters he realises they have seen multiple Doom's in multiple timelines.
Dr Doom has Thing at his mercy but Victor says he must realise the uselessness of killing another Grimm. He's already killed his mortal enemies the Fantastic Four, but what has it gained him? DrD admits that the momentary satisfaction quickly faded. Victor posits that Doom has achieved so many things that killing another Grimm would be beneath him. What is left for him to do? And Victor answers his own question by saying the only challenge left is to be human.
But Doom just thinks that Victor has experienced something that has broken his spirit. However he concedes a modicum of truth in the idea. Not as a moral choice but to prove that he can win without the trappings of his power. And who better to prove himself against than another Doom? Dr Doom removes his armour, exposing his scarred face. He suggests they fight with the staffs of their childhood. Victor agrees, despite Ben urging him to just blast the vulnerable foe, and removes his Iron Man armour (exposing his *not*-scarred face).
Thus commences a quarterstaff bout in which Dr Doom roundly beats Victor. Doom accuses his foe of losing the fire which drives him on - helping Thing and dressing like Iron Man. His last blow sends Victor sprawling across the body of Reed Richards. But Vic pulls a strange device from Richards' belt - a device which now has Doom rattled and which suggests to Victor that switching it on might be a good idea.
Suddenly Victor finds himself in a black and white space with steps leading up to a door. Through that door he meets 3 versions of Mr Fantastic in different blue uniforms - 1 of which is identical to that of the dead MrF he's just left. 1 of the Reed's assures the others that this Doom isn't a threat, but Victor is concerned that they've rebuilt the multiversal Council of Reeds (invented by Jonathan Hickman in FF#570).
They agree that it all went wrong last time (FF#572) but they know how to do better now. The previous Reeds abandoned their lives in order to join the Council, and thus lost touch with their humanity. This time when they come to the Council chamber it is as a *copy*, and the original remains with their family and friends. When the copy returns home it merges with its original which then has both sets of memories.
They show Victor that he's also still back in Castle Doom fighting Dr Doom. The Reed copy from that universe is still here, and the Reeds are trying to make it so he can go home in a new body instead of merging with his dead original. Victor suggests a more immediate priority is for the other Reeds to go to that timeline and save him and Grimm from Doom. But they say that this Dr Doom is aware of the Council and has prevented access to the reality by other Reeds.
A bearded Reed says he's been watching Victor's life with interest - a Doom who gave up his lust for power and turned to helping his fellow men, and who now has a family (Amara Perera pregnant with his child). This prompts von Doom to continue remembering the event in his early life. Young Victor returns from some errand to see his father being beaten up by 3 anti-Zeferi bigots. He sees them off with his staff and then turns to the bearded beggar who had done nothing to help.
Victor now jumps to the conclusion (maybe) that the beggar was bearded Reed, and (definitely) that bearded Reed is the 1 they are searching for. The 1 who survived the death of the multiverse and then Secret Wars III. The 1 who took away Doom's god-power at the end of SWIII and returned him to Earth with a healed face. He accuses Reed of tampering with his mind to make him want to be good.
Beardie Reed doesn't deny it but instead takes a device called the Telelacus which is used during the merging of the minds of a Reed and his copy. In this case he's going to repair a dislocation in Vic's memory. The 2 experience a recreation from Doom's fractured memory of his last moments on Battleworld.
The (different) bearded Reed of that event has just kicked off the recreation of the multiverse. He and his family are going off to explore it, but he doesn't know what to do with captive Dr Doom. Doom says he's been a god and no longer desires such ultimate power. But he'll never give up being Reed's mortal enemy. Reed decides to solve the problem by making Victor believe he is dead. Without those 2 goals to strive for Vic might have a chance to be a better person.
In this scenario Reed is on Battleworld with Sue, Johnny, Ben and the kids Franklin and Valeria. He decides that Thing and Torch would be better employed on Earth to keep Doom in check. So that's how all 3 wound up home believing that the Richards family were dead.
Now they continue to watch the Victor/Doom match. And Vic flashbacks again to his father and the beggar who did nothing to help. As Victor struggles and succeeds in his fight we see young Vic takes out his anger against the beggar. It ends with parallel images of Victor/young Vic killing Doom/the beggar with his staff.
The Victor copy rejects the Council Reeds' implied criticism of his brutality. He strikes back by accusing Reed Richards (as represented by them) of messing with his memory and of abandoning his 2 teammates. As he rants Beardie Reed sends Vic back to merge with his original.
Victor frees Ben Grimm and tells him the dead Reed Richards is *not* the 1 they seek. Meanwhile an expanded Council console bearded Reed that Victor von Doom is obviously too scarred by his childhood to ever be rehabilitated. They remind him that their goal is to make sure no more children suffer as Vic did. And we see Doom and Thing reunited with Torch and Rachna ready to move on.