The Villainy Of Doctor Doom!

Here's a gem I discovered at my new favorite store Half-Price Books. This reprint volume showcasing this absolutely awesome cover image of Doc Doom by Jack "King" Kirby has long been on my want list, but somehow I missed it and never chanced across another. But yesterday I found it for good dough and snagged it up.

It begins with Victor Von Doom's origin tale by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Chic Stone. This is a masterful tale, elegantly and efficiently told in the second Fantastic Four Annual.

Then we have the famous two-part tale by Lee, Kirby and Vince Colletta co-starring "The Man Without Fear". Daredevil hooks up with the Fab Four to fend off one of Doom's most insidious plots.

But the story I really bought the collection for was the epic four-part tale which takes the gang to Latveria, Doom's very lair. This Lee and Kirby story, clearly inspired by The Prisoner, is a whopper of a story featuring great great artwork by Kirby and Joe Sinnott.  Kirby's hand in the plotting of the books is clearly evident in this grand story, long one of my favorite FF yarns. I see many elements of this story in Kirby's later Fourth World work.

The collection  closes out with John Byrne's worthy rendition of the bad Doctor, when he lures them into one of his most fiendish traps. Great period for the team and a top story from that run.

Doctor Doom is perhaps Marvel's greatest villains, despite the fact his big-screen appearances were rather bland. (He did get better in the second FF movie, I'll give them that.) It's neat to see this vintage trade dedicated to the darker aspects of the Marvel Universe.

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