Doctor Doom vs. the Fantastic Four: the 10 fights that defined the rivalry

Doctor Doom and the Fantastic Four have been fighting since 1962, which makes theirs the longest-running feud in superhero comics. Most of their battles follow a pattern: Doom out-plans them, they out-fight him, and he gets away to try again. The ten below broke the pattern, and each one left a mark on the rivalry that is still there.

1. The pirate's treasure

   Fantastic Four #5 · 1962 · Doom wins the opening round

   In his first appearance, Doom takes Sue hostage and sends Reed, Ben and Johnny back in time to bring him a pirate's treasure. The Four get home and get Sue back, but the template is set: Doom does not fight fair, and he does not fight alone if he can make his enemies do the work.

2. The Battle of the Baxter Building

   Fantastic Four #39–40 · 1965 · The Four win

   Powerless after a battle with the Frightful Four, the team retakes their home from Doom with Daredevil's help. Johnny destroys Doom's freezing device, and the Thing crushes Doom's hands and strips his armor. They let him limp away, which he never forgives.

3. The Power Cosmic

   Fantastic Four #57–60 · 1966–67 · The Four win, barely

   Doom steals the Silver Surfer's power and has an answer for everything the team tries; he blows Johnny away in a whirlwind and takes his revenge on the Thing. Reed wins by luring him into the barrier Galactus placed around Earth, and the power is gone in an instant.

4. The hall of mirrors

   Fantastic Four #200 · 1978 · Reed wins

   One-on-one in Doom's crystal complex, Reed pulls off Doom's mask, and the crystals reflect his ruined face back at him millions of times. Doom collapses into catatonia. It is still the most personal defeat Reed has ever handed him.

5. Liddleville

   Fantastic Four #236 · 1981 · The Four escape

   Doom moves the team's minds into miniature bodies in a model small town, where they live as ordinary people without their powers. Sue goes after him alone and he traps her under a drinking glass; Reed finally electrocutes him through the town's own circuitry and sends everyone home.

6. Unthinkable

   Fantastic Four vol. 3 #67–70 and #500 · 2003 · Doom wins the fight, Reed wins the war

   Armed with demonic magic bought with his first love's life, Doom beats the whole team, scars half of Reed's face with a spell, and sends Franklin to Hell. Reed wins by tricking Doom into a confession his demon patrons can hear, and they drag him down instead. Johnny's nova blast barely slowed him.

7. The body thief

   Fantastic Four #508 · 2004 · Doom wins

   Doom escapes by jumping from body to body: Sue's, then Johnny's, then the Thing's. Trapped in Ben's body, with Ben begging him to end it, Reed kills his best friend to stop Doom. Ben was brought back, but it remains the darkest price the team has ever paid to beat him.

8. Before the Molecule Man

   Secret Wars #9 · 2015 · Reed wins

   On Battleworld, God Emperor Doom and Reed finally fight as equals, and the fight ends with words, not blows. Asked whether Reed would have done better with the power, Doom admits that he would. The power passes to Reed, and Reed heals Doom's face.

9. The execution broadcast

   Fantastic Four vol. 6 #8–9 · 2019 · The team wins

   Doom captures the Four and stages their execution for the world to watch. Reed signals Sue, Sue's invisibility trick turns the broadcast against him, and his scarred face is shown to everyone. Then Reed reverses Doom's cannons to free the imprisoned Galactus.

10. One World Under Doom

    One World Under Doom #7–9 · 2025 · Doom wins, then chooses to lose

    As emperor of the whole planet and Sorcerer Supreme, Doom overpowers Reed on the astral plane with ease. When his own armor kills Valeria Richards, he gives up everything, his power, his kingdom and his life, to bring her back, and names Reed the executor of his will.

Count the results and the Four come out ahead, but rarely by out-fighting Doom. They win by out-thinking him, by out-lasting him, or by using his own pride against him. That is what this site's numbers say too: classic Doom beats three of the four one-on-one (the Thing 60% of the time, Mister Fantastic 54%; only the Invisible Woman has the edge on him), but the four of them together win 81% of the time.

Every member's full fight history with Doom, issue by issue, is on their page: Mister Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, the Human Torch and the Thing.