Doom first confronted the Fantastic Four by holding Sue Storm hostage. Doom forced the other members of the team to travel back in time using his time platform to retrieve the mystical Stones of Merlin. Later, he duped Namor into teaming up with him to destroy the team. During the team-up, he was shrunk to sub-atomic size, and ended up in the world of Sub-Atomica, where he quickly took control using his scientific knowledge and began plaguing the Fantastic Four with shrink rays. He was again defeated by the Fantastic Four with the aid of Ant-Man. His next attempt at defeating the Fantastic Four involved using the Terrible Trio, a group of thugs who had been given powers by Doom. This venture ended with him being transported into outer space by a solar wave. He was later found floating in space by Rama-Tut, who revealed to Doom that he was one of his ancestors. Believing that they might in fact be the same person, they decided that Rama-Tut would return to the future after sending Doom back to Earth. Back on Earth, Doom again clashed with the Fantastic Four. This time, they defeated him by hypnotizing him into believing he had destroyed the group.