Fantastic Four #568

This is the penultimate chapter to the "Master's of Doom" storyline. Anybody who has read my reviews on FF #'s 566 & 567 should know that I really don't like this storyline at all. Will this issue change my mind? Probably not, but who knows! This issue is written by Mark Millar.

-Due to the arrival of the Marquis of Death, the Earth's weather has gone crazy. After destroying Latveria(GRRR...)the Marquis and his Apprentice arrive at the Baxter Building and humble the Fantastic Four with ease.

-After tormenting Ben and Johnny, the Marquis offers Reed the chance to save his world from utter destruction if he agrees to allow the Marquis to alter history so that Reed's son Franklin was never born. Reed turns that offer down, and the Marquis asks if Reed would trade Ben for the world. Once again, Reed says no, so the Marquis takes Reed to the holding cell of Clyde Wyncham(the guy from Mark's 1985 mini-series). The Marquis reveals that he and Wyncham are one and the same, and that eventually Clyde is destined to become the Marquis. After informing Reed of this, he tells Reed his world will be spared if he kills Wyncham. Reed refuses the offer, and the Marquis returns him to the Baxter Building, where he is immediately attacked by the other members of the Fantastic Four. They disable Reed, and this issue ends with the bizarre scene of millions of members of the Fantastic Four attacking the Baxter Building... WTF???

-Other Developments: Ben and Debbie(Ben's fiance)have a heart to heart talk, where she asks him to try to control his temper, especially when it comes to normal un-powered folks. Ben agrees because he's in love. Awww...

Like I stated in the open, I really just don't like this storyline. Actually, after reading this issue, I'm a little annoyed with Mark Millar himself. It was bad enough Mark completely trashed Dr. Doom the past two issues, now we find out it was a character from a little known Mark Millar mini-series who squashed Doom? That kind of bugs me. I like Mark and I think he's a brilliant writer(95% of the time), but his inclusion of Wyncham just irks me. I didn't particularly like the "1985" mini, and I really don't understand why characters from that series are making appearances in the main Marvel Universe.

With that said, I did like the way the Marquis of Death went about torturing the members of the FF. To be honest, if Mark would have introduced the Marquis in any other way than he did, I probably would really like the character. He's got a great look, I like his attitude and he has the potential to be a great villain for Marvel's First Family. If only Mark didn't mess with Dr. Doom and his origin to introduce the Marquis... Everything would have been perfect then. Oh well, for a score, I'll go with a 7 out of 10. This issue was definitely an improvement over the last two, but the revelation that the Marquis and Wyncham are one and the same just failed to positively impact me. I'll be quite happy when this storyline finally ends next issue.