Doom Loves To Surf...

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's run on the Fantastic Four is legendary and with good reason. It is a run full of high points from the Galactus Trilogy to the introduction of the Inhumans it's packed wall to wall with greatness. One of the highest of those high points in my opinion is Fantastic Four #60.

Straight out the gate we know this issue will be good before we even open it. Why? Two words - Doctor.Doom. This issue jumps the border from good into great in the first few pages though because it doesn't just have Doctor Doom. It's got a Doctor Doom who's brimming with cosmic power (he suckered the Silver Surfer and stole his powers a few issues earlier). As if you're not already drooling let me also point out, this is not just any old cosmically powered Doctor Doom - it's a cosmically powered Doctor Doom gloriously drawn by Jack Kirby. Doom + cosmic power + Jack Kirby = awesome!

Hail to the king baby:

Everybody's going surfing....

My favorite part of this issue is the resolution. Throughout the two FF powerhouses the Human Torch and the Thing have been taking turns trying to take Doom out. When the Thing isn't pounding the shit out him the Torch is trying to turn him into a crispy critter. Every time Doom shrugs them off with his pilfered cosmic power.

With their two heavy hitters out of the game it all comes down to Reed 'the rubber ball' Richards and Sue 'invisible wife' Richards alone against a Doom who can level mountains with a raise of his eyebrow. Things do not look good.

Don't underestimate those sneaky Richards's though. Those two are full of surprises.

They take out Doom with one of the most fiendish and enjoyable double teams in comic book history. Reed needs time for his Doom-beating gadget to arrive so Sue runs interference. Of course Sue's interference involves pelting Doom with little invisible ping pong balls. Unsurprisingly Doom laughs off the ping-pong offensive and thunders down out of the sky to destroy her.

He's laughing on the other side of his face when he hits the invisible mountain she was hiding from him:Hitting a mountain doesn't slow him down for long. Luckily Reed's funky, flying, Cosmic-Doom zapping gadget arrives and well..zaps Cosmic-Doom I guess. We're all a little let down when the fancy-smancy thing he's been building for the last few issues does bugger all.

Getting zapped by Reed Richards gadgets is bound to be annoying. You can't really blame ol' Doomy for losing his temper and chasing after the little doohickie when it zaps him and runs away.

Little did we know that this what sneaky Pete Reed wanted him to do. He chases up into the stratosphere then...That's a Mr. Fantastic I can get on board with. Outwitting the villains using his superior brain not his stretchy long-johns.

Like I said people - awesome. Nobody could ever write a Doom/FF battle quite like Stan and Jack could.