In honor of his Master's return, Doom throws a grand parade. At the Baxter Building, Reed completes an autopsy on the corpse of a Watcher found on a beach in Thailand. He determines that the Watcher is in fact Uatu from another dimension. Coupled with the severe weather changes, Sue reasons that this must be tied to Doom's previous warning. In Latveria, Doom receives his master,
the Marquis of Death, humbly along with his companion, the New Apprentice. The Marquis demonstrates his displeasure with Doom's progress by destroying the structures surrounding them and engulfing him in flames.
Doom laughs off the Marquis' attack and responds in kind. The battle lasts for
6 weeks and ends with the Marquis defeat after Doom created the Omega Box. Five years later, Doom and his pregnant wife (the former Susan Richards) attend an unveiling of a statue commemorating Reed and the Fantastic Four. On the return voyage, Sue expresses concern that Johnny did not attend. Doom reminds her that it is he that Johnny resents, ever since Reed died. Back in Latveria, Doom ponders on the Omega Box. Sue comes up behind him and asks if he is content with the life he has made and the world which he has saved and made better. When he responds that it is the first time in his life he has been this content,
Sue rips her face off to reveal that it is in fact the New Apprentice. The doors to the Omega Box open and the Marquis emerges. He explains that the past 5 years were a a mirage. The Marquis then decimates Latveria, killing everyone. As he turns Doom's heart to stone and blood into acid, he then dumps Doom's body in the Pliocene Age for Megalodons to feed on. Picking up Doom's mask, the Marquis places it over his own face and decides that in order for his honor to be restored, he must rectify Doom's failures.
As the weather goes mad all across the world, the Marquis and the New Apprentice arrive at the Baxter Building. The team attempt to defeat him, but the Marquis forces them all to bow before him. He explains that Doom is dead, and for his failure to use the teachings he gave him, he has decided to punish them in atonement. All their friends and allies have been paralyzed. They face him alone. For starters, the Marquis kills Ben's Aunt Petunia.
a bunch of other stuff happens but it doens't really matter until the next issue...
.....Drained, the Marquis is finally defeated. Suddenly
the New Apprentice appears and surprises even the Marquis by revealing that he is in fact Doctor Doom. Doom explains that he was torn to pieces in the past, but using the black arts he has mastered, he survived and transformed his body down to the molecular level. Having remade his body, he approached the Marquis to complete his education, but under the guise of the New Apprentice.
He spent centuries under his tutelage waiting for the moment the Marquis would expend his powers. Finally Doom incinerates the Marquis and leaves the FF with a warning not to cross paths with him else they face death.