Finally found my copy of Back Issue magazine that has the Fantastic Four roundtable. Since this interview was conducted both Stan Lee (2018) and Len Wein (2017) have passed away So without further adieu......
Fantastic Four Roundtable - Back Issue #7 December 2004
"For this roundtable discussion we have submitted 12 questions about this landmark series to it's co-creator, Stan Lee and 20 other comics professionals. Most of them have written, drawn, or edited The Fantastic Four over its long history; all have been influenced by it. Most people responded to the questionnaire via email; Gerry Conway and Alex Ross instead asked to be interviewed by phone. " - Peter Sanderson
Scanning through the article, here are some of the contributors:
Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Len Wein, John Byrne, Tom Brevoort, Tom DeFalco, Alex Ross, Mark Evanier ( colleague & friend of Jack Kirby), Chris Claremont, Mark Waid, Rich Buckler, Marv Wolfman, Gerry Conway, Paul Ryan, Kurt Busiek, Jerry Ordway, Steve Rude, Walt Simonson, Roger Stern and Karl Kesel.
The first time Doom comes up is with the question about favorite character. In fact he is mentioned more in this section than the question about Fantastic Four villains (which I will do later)
SANDERSON: Who is your favorite character in Fantastic Four other than Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben, and why?
LEE: Doctor Doom. Because, to me, he’s the most unique of villains.
BREVOORT: Doctor Doom, the first of the stylish, sophisticated villains of the comics, so original, so trendsetting at the time of his conception and development that the specialness has almost been lost over the years, as so many other characters have played riffs off of the elements that originally made Doom unique.
ENGLEHART: Doctor Doom, because he’s a first-class villain who helped make the FF a first-class storyline.
WOLFMAN: Doctor Doom, arguably the best villain ever created in comics,with the richest and most textured origin and characterization.
CONWAY: Willie Lumpkin . I ’m kidding! Stan and Jack in issue #10? Doctor Doom, because he’s the dark side of the Fantastic Four, of adolescent angst. And he has a sense of honor and the potential for redemption.
BUCKLER: Doctor Doom.
BUSIEK: Um . . . either Franklin for fleshing out the family that much more, or Doom for being such a terrifically majestic, compelling villain.
ROSS: Doctor Doom, the tragic figure creating a very exciting villain. The relationship between Doom and Reed is spun from the same source from the Luthor-Superman relationship: The accident that scarred one of them that leads to resentment. The interesting thing about [Doom and Reed] is they’re two geniuses driven by creativity, unlike Luthor, who was science-based, and Superman, who wasn’t creating things. It’s like Doom comes up with c creative schemes jus t to impress Reed: Look upon my works and be impressed. Reed is in this ego conflict with Doom, like the competingegos of anybody in a creative industry, especially when it comes to creating art. Reed and Doom are the yin and yang of comic-book artists! There’s a Reed and a Doom in all of us. My second choice would be the Black Panther, the first black super-hero in [mainstream] comics, or Black Bolt, because of the Inhumans as a group, not him as an individual.
WEIN: Well, I’d love to give a shout out to my main man, Willie Lumpkin, but to be serious, it has to be Victor Von Doom. There is a breadth and depth to that character that
still hasn’t fully been explored, and we’ve been working on it for over 40 years. Right
after Vic, however, I would have to add the Impossible Man. God, there’s something
about writing that pointy-headed foul-up that I absolutely adore.
CLAREMONT: Doom is one, the Impossible Man, another (and, I confess, Valeria is third). [Chris Claremont introduced Reed and Sue’s daughter, Valeria, as a teenager from an alternate future. She was later born in the FF’s present-day timeline.] Doom, basically because he’s Reed’s primal opposite. He presents the opportunity to present a character who can be as close to three-dimensional, and yet remain majestically larger than life, as any in comics. Impy is the exact opposite, one sight gag after another, the perfect opportunity to puncture any and all hope of pretentiousness with giggles and a visual aesthetic derived from Will Elder and Wally Wood. Valeria: sorry, but she’s my (small) contribution to the canon and I felt like I’d only scratched the surface of her stories when I had to leave the book. And also, Salva [Salvador Larroca] drew her so beautifully. Also, there’s Namor, for many of the reasons that apply to Doom, except that he’s essentially a good guy and he carries a blazing torch for Sue. If that isn’t food for conflict and heartbreak, what is?
THOMAS: None of the others really ever mattered to me, unless you count Sub-Mariner and Dr. Doom, in that order
SIMONSON: Too many to choose from because the book has had such an impressive roster of guests and villains. Black Panther and Galactus are two that instantly spring to mind. But there are a lot of choices. And of course, I loved Weezie’s [Louise Simonson’s] version of Franklin over in Power Pack. ;-)
DeFALCO: I certainly had a lot of fun with Franklin because I got to see the man he would become and Reed and Sue should be proud. [Tom DeFalco introduced an older version of Franklin from an alternate future.] BYRNE: Alicia Masters. She was a dream to write. It seemed like every time I approached her I found new layers, new
nuances.
STERN: I’d have to say Alicia Masters. She’s been part of the “family” since issue #8, she’s been a big part of the Thing’s life, and the Surfer’s, and the Torch’s, though the last was later explained away.
EVANIER: I liked the Silver Surfer in his earliest, purest form. There was something very fresh about the character, the way he reacted to people around him, and the way they reacted to him. I’m one of those folks who never cared for him after he started to figure out the human race, perhaps because I haven’t.
KESEL: Dragon Man. Like a million other Lee/Kirby concepts, he’s brilliantly realized—capable of raging like a wild animal one instant, as innocent as a puppy the next. More than any other FF character, Dragon Man touches the 12-year-old fan in me—probably because he’s the kind of “dog” I would have killed to have had as a kid. In fact, I once heard that Roy Thomas (I believe) was going to have the FF take in Dragon Man as their pet—which the 12-year-old in me would have loved to see!
ORDWAY: I am a big fan of Wyatt Wingfoot. Again, the book was so good during that time. And if you reread the issue where the Torch goes off to college [#50], you can see how brilliant the creators were to keep changing the status quo—virtually rebooting the storylines every year or so. Wyatt was such a strong character, yet he needed no powers.
RYAN: Willie Lumpkin. You just gotta love those ears. Reminds me of myself when I was younger
The article also included a Steve Rude sketch