And Reed (kind of) scolded Ben for trying, but as Ben said, "Wouldn't you if you had the chance?". Also, in a recent letters page in the FF comic, they mentioned that Ben might not of really tried afterall.
Meanwhile, the gov't has pretty much left it alone now an dos there are or were lines of people trying to pick it up, till "someone" cut ahead of the line and took the hammer. Hmm, wonder who that could be?

Also, we see the story of how Doom escaped from his POV, so, you just know he wasn't THAT well off in hell as he stated. In other words, his ego makes up some fine tales, ya know?