Marvel Age Fantastic Four, Vol. 3: The Return of Doom (2025 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Before the advent of Marvel's all-ages Marvel Adventures imprint, the House of Ideas introduced young readers to their most popular characters with Marvel Age. Along with incorporating a handful of Manga inspired titles from Marvel's failed Tsunami line, Marvel Age retold the earliest adventures of Spider-Man, the Hulk and the Fantastic Four. Updated with modern twists, writer Marc Sumerak and artists Alitha Martinez and Joe Dodd followed the original plots of Marvel's First Family created by legends Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. 

Volume 3 of Marvel Age Fantastic Four, 'The Return of Doom' reprinted the last 4 issues of the all-ages series. 

Issue #9 sees Mr. Fantastic dogged by creditors in 'The End of the Fantastic Four.' Recent bad investments lead Reed Richards to accept an offer from Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner to star in a reality series starring the FF. In a challenge show similar to Survivor, it's a battle for survival as all of Namor 's challenges are secretly rigged as fights to the death!

Issue #10, the title story, ushers in 'The Return of Doctor Doom!' Victor Von Doom has escaped from am orbital prison constructed by Mr. Fantastic thanks to a pair of aliens called Ovoids. From the creatures' space ship, Doctor Doom discovers a way to switch bodies with Reed. Now Doom's mind is in Richards' body and the leader of the Fantastic Four is trapped inside the iron armor of Doom.

After escaping from the clutches of their arch-enemy, the Fantastic Four meet 'The Impossible Man!' In this retelling of the classic second story of issue #11, the are plagued by the madcap antics of the shape-changing visitor from the planet Poppup.

Issue #12 retells the team's epic first encounter with the green colossus, The Incredible Hulk. After another top secret project is destroyed, the United States Army calls upon the FF to investigate. General Thunderbolt Ross is convinced that the sabotage is the result of another Hulk rampage. Dr. Bruce Banner is convinced it's something else and he should know since he's secretly the Hulk!

Featuring modernized versions of some of the greatest Marvel stories ever written, the Marvel Age imprint only lasted from 2004-05. It's predecessor, Marvel Adventures vastly outlived Marvel Age, running from 2005-2012. The success was large part to the addition of Darwyn Cooke who crafted a story Bible that set Marvel's best and brightest into new adventures that were nostalgic without relying completely on the scripts of Lee and Kirby. The artwork was less manga heavy as the Marvel Age books were and reflected a more sleeker style that was more commercial. As with all good things, the imprint was dismantled in order to usher in books based on the Disney XD animated lineup that were set in the Marvel cinematic universe. Being that the Fantastic Four were the property of Fox Studios, young readers were no longer able to find new comic book exploits of Mr. Fantastic, The Thing, The Invisible Woman and The Human Torch by 2013.

Completing this review completes Task #8 (Starring the Human Torch) of the 2025 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

The Impossible Man Summer Vacation Spectacular

Way back in issue #175 of the Fantastic Four (October, 1976, to be exact), Galactus devoured Poppup, the home planet of that interplanetary pest, the Impossible Man. As a result, after a really bad case of indigestion, the life essence of Galactus was transferred to the Impossible Man who cloned himself a wife and a whole slew of kids. They then choose to wander the stars as refugees about the world devourer's ship.

In this summer special from 1990, the Impossible Man and the fam are rather bored. So they take leave of Galactus' spacecraft to have a fun-filled vacation on planet Earth! That means none of the superheroes OR super-villains of the Marvel Universe are safe from inter-dimensional hijinks, pranks and overall tomfoolery. Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Quasar and even Doctor Doom will rue the day they meet the first (and only) family of Poppup. 

This overall Summer special was a fun read crafted by a number of talents such as Roy Thomas, Jackson 'Bruce' Guice and Ron Marz. The Doctor Strange segment, which co-starring one of my favorite characters from that part of the Marvel Universe, Rintrah, was probably my favorite section of the book. Though the extremely unexpected pairing of the Impossible Man with the Punisher, complete with an entry from his war journal was a hoot. It was written and illustrated by Jim Valentino, who is such a master at skewering the superhero dynamic. I would pay good money if Marvel ever came up with an Impossible Man/Punisher special. Especially would love it in Valentino crafted that one-shot as well.

The Impossible Man Summer Vacation Spectacular might be almost 35-years old. But it's not something that will break the bank either. I got it a couple of years ago out of a bargain bin and I'm seeing it for less than $12 bucks online at several online retailers. Lots of laughs and a very fun way to beat the summer heat.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Marvel Comics Presents #91

The main highlight of this series is a team-up between Daredevil and the Impossible Man! It's an 8-page single issue romp. But 8 pages is enough for once. 

The Impossible Man has been either forbidden from or gotten bored with his interactions with the Fantastic Four. That's not really made clear. In search of a new superhero to pal around, Impossible Man pals around Daredevil. Yes, he helps Daredevil fend off an assault from his old enemy, Kingpin. But since Daredevil is blind, he can't be impressed by Impossible Man's shape-shifting talents, it's back to the FF for the lone survivor of Poppup! Lucky them!

As for the other 3 stories, there's nothing really memorable. In the Wolverine story, Tyger Tiger enters negotiations with a rival crime lord. It's about as interesting as the trade embargo segments from that Republic Senate scene in The Phantom Menace. More of Hank McCoy's past is revealed. We know that Professor X erased the memory of an old girlfriend of The Beast's. We still don't find out the how and why. Then in the Ghost Rider/Cable story, the pair of unlikely allies join forces to save a young girl from a cult of undead killers. Mostly just action and adventure. But nothing really in terms of why this cult wants the girl yet.

An insane tale mixed into the middle of 3 stories that basically put the major players into place for what will hopefully be an action packed issue #92.

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.

Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four: Silver Rage

Upon a chance encounter with the Impossible Man, Spider-Man runs afoul a mysterious alien scientist who sets up residence in Central Park. Resulting in the seemingly thought impossible death of the Impossible Man, the alien menace establishes protocols that begin fusing the people of Earth with a never before encountered race of cosmic parasites. 

Needing help, Spider-Man seeks out the Fantastic Four. Having defeated cosmic threat like Galactus and Blastaar, The First Family of the Marvel Universe have experience with this sort of thing. But as the fusion of humans and parasites seem permanent, Mr. Fantastic decides to go on a search of the universe for answers on how to defeat this joining. 

As the FF are now three, Spider-Man finally gets his dream chance of becoming the team's fourth. But something seems to be wrong with the wall-crawler. Is he succumbing to these parasitic beings? Or is there something a little more sinister behind his malady? Help might only be forthcoming in the one person least expected- Doctor Doom!

A chance find on the new shelf at my local library, I had no prior knowledge of this 2007 story. Written by Jeff Parker (Batman '66), this story is rated all-ages. But I didn't feel that the action and adventure was watered down in any way. I never even saw what the rating of this book was until after I finished this book. What I am saying is that Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four: Silver Rage doesn't feel like an all-ages tale. 

Around this time of this limited series original publication, Marvel was publishing a series of all-ages comics under the banner of Marvel Adventures. While I am a huge fan of these books, you can tell that they are written for both young and older readers to enjoy without anything offensive. There's nothing tell-tell about the universal age recommendation to this four chapter book! 

I also adored the artwork. Penciled by the late Mike Wieringo, there's a quirky appeal to this book. 'Ringo, as he liked to refer to himself when signing autographs, had a timeless style that was super-fluid. It works amazingly well as Mr. Fantastic, Spidey and the Impossible Man are all characters that seem the be triple-jointed. A national art treasure, Wieringo is yet another artist who left us too soon!

An exciting Fantastic Four and Spider-Man team-up filled with tons of cameos and levels of drama, excitement and physics! This is an underrated read that needs a second look.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.