Where's Dr. Doom?

Rating: 8/10 (12 December 2005)

Well, while not truly great it wasn't a total washout either. The Fantastic Four were actually the "flagship" for the early Marvel Comics. As such the personalities of their leader, Reed Richards and their arch-nemesis, Dr. Doom, were vital. Unfortunately while Ben Grimm, Johnny and Sue Storm were brilliantly portrayed, Reed Richards ends up an unsympathetic, almost pathetically anemic character and the real Dr. Doom never even makes an appearance. Viktor von Doom was always my favorite Marvel character. Never simply just a villain, always more complex, even misunderstood and more tragic than truly evil. He never lived in the US, never had an American corporation, never employed the other four, never had a "thing" for Sue Storm and was NEVER truly defeated by the Four. Stymied, delayed, annoyed, sure but never defeated. Totally without super powers, he was yet Marvel's most intelligent, powerful and dangerous adversary (aside from the omnipotent alien, "Galacticus.") That is my one real complaint of the movie, the total absence of the real Viktor von Doom!