Fantastic Four #505

Writer: Mark Waid
Art: Howard Porter
published by Marvel Comics

Mark Waid started off his run on FF in a somewhat uneven manner, with a goofy sense of high adventure and a wee bit of potty humor thrown in.
Then, it got dark. Real dark. Real quick. Waid made Dr. Doom more of a menace than he's been in years, highlighting the villain's ruthlessness and obsession like no other writer before him. Doom kidnapped Reed and Sue Richards' son Franklin and sent him to a hell dimension. He confronted Reed with the one weapon in his arsenal that Mr Fantastic didn't have: magic.
It ended badly, of course, with Doom sent once again to his final reward (as if that's gonna happen) and Reed horribly scarred. The nations bordering Doom's kingdom of Latveria, knowing that Doom was gone, attempted to march on the tiny country. Then Reed did something else unexpected. He declared himself king.
For the past couple of issues, the FF have been forced to deal with internal and international politics in a country that they don't understand. They've been hated. They've been hounded. They've had to fight off invasion.
Things aren't really going well, and after this issue, I can see them getting MUCH WORSE. I just can't believe that something this smart, bleak and dark is an all-ages book. Maybe Marvel's finally letting the FF grow up.