Editor's Note: Fantastic Four #567 arrives in stores tomorrow, June 10.

"Doom's Master: Part Two of Four"

Fantastic Four #567 sees Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch continue to tell the story of Doctor Doom's masters, whose return has been teased for several issues in the lead-up to the creators' final arc on the book, and who finally made an incendiary appearance in Latveria at the end of the previous issue.

All of those readers who cringed at Doctor Doom's kowtowing to his former masters at the end of the last issue (only to be burned alive by them in disgust) can rejoice, as this issue's opening sequence shows him to be the focused, peerless, hugely enjoyable villain that we always knew he was. Millar justifies the character's deference in the previous issue with the simple line "I bowed before you as a mark of respect, but I am no longer your novice, old man", before proceeding to show Victor quickly begin to fight back against the "Masters of Doom".

In fact, he doesn't just fight back against them, he turns the tables on them completely, in a wonderfully condensed sequence that manages to capture an epic quality despite the fact that it only plays out over a few pages. This is due in no small part to Bryan Hitch's art, which manages to create a sense of scale and grandeur in a very limited space, implying a planet-spanning, month-and-a-half-long conflict in just a few small panels. There are equally impressive pages later in the story, too, whether it's the stunningly detailed double-page spread of Doom alone in his study, or the page that shows the destruction of much of Latveria as a result of Doom's clashes with his old masters.

Since so much of the action happens in the first few pages (which you can read in the preview below), it's not too much of a spoiler to say that, after an extended battle, Doom actually manages to see off his former teachers, establishing a peaceful new world order in the wake of the death and destruction caused by their attack. It's a surprising twist that feels like a bit of a left-turn for the book: Millar had been setting up the Masters of Doom as the big villains of this final arc, but it seems as though this issue has more to do with the writer's understanding of the sheer strength and resilience of Doctor Doom as anything else. Also, the sudden leap forwards in the timeline is slightly disorienting, and might be off-putting to those readers who were expecting the threat of the Masters of Doom to play out in a more conventional manner.

Having said that, Millar is obviously having fun re-imagining the MU in the wake of Doom's battle with his masters, peppering the issue with fun ideas -- such as the mysterious "Omega Box" -- and showing the ways in which Victor might grow as a character if he became Earth's saviour.

My one major criticism is that, for two issues in a row, the FF themselves have been relegated to the status of supporting characters in their own book. Two team members don't even appear at all in this issue -- and the implied deaths of the book’s early pages might lead readers to wonder whether we'll ever see them again in Millar and Hitch's run. However, the final pages suggest that Millar might have more tricks up his sleeve yet, and I can't wait to see where the closing developments of the issue lead.

The knowledge that we now only have one more issue of Millar and Hitch left gives this issue a bittersweet feeling (the final issue of their originally planned run, #569, is being co-written by Joe Ahearne and illustrated in its entirety by Stuart Immonen), and I can't help but wonder if the creators have left themselves enough time to come up with a finale that will do the story justice. However, on its own terms this is a very enjoyable issue that will confound most readers' expectations of where the story was headed, with Millar making this as much a Doctor Doom story as a Fantastic Four comic. Happily, for fans of the character, it's a very good one.

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