Marvel Rant: Avengers Doomsday (Doctor Doom)

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

(Beforehand: I know I’m late to the party, I know that. They announced this back at Comic Con last summer in 2024. But I still need to talk about this.) Nearly every Marvel knows about Avengers: Kang Dynasty, the story scrapped by Marvel after the problematic legal trouble with the actor for Kang, Jonathan Majors. (You can go look up that on your own. Here’s the link to the website I used https://people.com/movies/jonathan-majors-controversy-timeline/) Basically, Marvel fired him after he was accused of harassment and assault. Additionally, they’re scrapping their original plans of having the three Spider-Men (Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire, and Andrew Garfield’s versions) team up with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, Nicholas Cage’s Ghost Rider, and some other legacy actors to battle the megalomaniacal multiversal madman. Now, instead, they’re bringing back Robert Downey Jr. (Portrayed Iron Man in the MCU until his character’s death in Endgame.) to pose as the big bad in their revised idea for Avengers: Doomsday.

Now, the reaction to his casting was VERY controversial. Some fans were stoked that he was returning, and others did not feel the same way. I’ve heard many opinions on the matter. Some believe it’s just to get some more hype building for the film, others think it’s an ingenious move, and others just don’t know what to think. And me? Well, I have mixed feelings.

Now, when I heard the news, I thought, “Oh, cool.” I’d didn’t initially care much. But as I mulled it over, I had a vast range of thoughts and opinions come to mind. “This could be good…” “They could really mess this up….” “That’s an interesting theory…” “This is pretty lazy of Marvel…”

Obviously there’s not much of a definitive ‘yes this is a good idea’ or ‘no this is a horrible idea’. Not on the character of Doctor Doom, of course. Many fans have been awaiting the arrivals of Marvel Comic’s biggest characters - The Fantastic Four, Galactus, the X-Men, Doctor Doom- for a LONG time. And now that all of those are indeed arriving within the next few years, it seems their wish has come true. But I mean the casting, of course. Was this the right move or was it not? Like I said, there’s not a clear ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. It all depends on how they plan to use RDJ’s (Robert Downey Jr,) Doctor Doom. There are many ways for it to go well. There are also an equal amount of ways it could go wrong. I’m going to go over some of my opinions on this bold casting decision.

Background Info (Comic Lore Galore)

Ok, so, I’m no Doctor Doom expert. I know he’s an evil mad scientist slash engineer slash sorcerer slash king of Latveria. (A fictional nation in Europe, I’m pretty sure. Don’t quote me on that.) Now, I’ve read some of the comics he appears in, such as The Children’s Crusade and Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur (Not great examples of his character, I know. I’m working on this, ok?) but there’s still more I want to read about this villain.

So, Avengers: Doomsday will be followed by Avengers: Secret Wars, a live-action adaptation of one of the biggest and most famous Marvel Comics storylines ever. Secret Wars, in the revised 2015 comic run, followed the survivors of the Final Incursion event. (Incursions are, essentially, two universes smashing into each other, destroying them both in the process. There had been MANY Incursions prior to Secret Wars) The comics begin with the main Marvel Universe (Earth-616) colliding with the Ultimate Universe (Earth-6160), resulting in the end of the multiverse as we know it (The multiverse has been destroyed on numerous occasions before this, though. If memory serves correct, this multiverse was the fourth.) Anyways, Secret Wars is set in Battleworld, a land created of chunks of dying universes, all combined into one realm. For instance, there’s New Mars, K’un Lun, plus like three Manhattans. With over thirty different lands in this giant world, the survivors of multiple Incursions live peacefully spread out amongst these regions.

Oh, and one more thing. You should probably know who it is who’s responsible for this mysterious dystopia: Doctor Doom. As in Doctor Doom, the megalomaniacal engineer-slash-sorcerer who tried taking over the world on multiple occasions. With the multiverse dying (Thanks to the scheming of a couple of cosmic-powerhouses called the Beyonders) Doom resolves to stop their plan of multiversal genocide by stripping their power. He succeeds, alongside Dr. Stephen Strange. However, Doom steps ahead and uses his new god-like power to save what remnants of the fated universe that he could. Ok, it seems like he’s kinda a hero, I’ll admit. I thought he was too. But all that changes when we learn that none of the survivors remember anything about their past lives. That’s right. Doctor Doom wiped their memories, as well as made a kingdom in his image, one where he is their ‘god’. Ok, yeah, now he doesn’t look like some saint anymore.

Throughout the rest of the comicbook storyline, the little superheroes who still have their memories fight to bring down Doom and restore the lives of the survivors. It was no easy fight, as their long trusted allies, brainwashed by their foe, now side with Doom, standing in the way of their quest to bring back what was lost. Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) must confront his… well, now Doom’s…. wife, Sue Storm (The Invisible Woman), as well as his two kids Valeria and Franklin Richards, who serve their father faithfully. (Family drama really stinks.) Persevering through these difficulties, our heroes succeed, overthrowing Doom, healing the multiverse, and reconnecting the relationships that had been lost.

Doctor Doom Thoughts (Pros, Cons, Ideas)

Now, we may be getting our first look at RDJ’s Doctor Doom before the next Avengers film, [SPOILER] seeing as it is rumored that he will debut in the post-credits scene of The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Coming to theatres July 25th, 2025) Now, the MCU’s Fantastic Four are said to come form an alternate universe separate from the main timeline where nearly all of the MCU’s films and movies are set inside. This way, they are able to establish them as the ‘main heroes’ of that standalone universe. Marvel can do whatever they want with them, not needing to worry about contradicting their past projects. But this would ALSO be a good way to bring in Latveria and, more importantly, Doctor Doom. I mean, they can’t say, ‘Oh, now there’s suddenly a new country in Europe run by an evil mad scientist with a metal face and anger issues who wants to rule the world’. I mean, it is possible Latveria will be revealed to the in-universe world in the film, they have done that before. Just look at Wakanda. But I think the alternate universe route is the better way to go, mainly for these three reasons:

1. To show Doom’s power

Now, as I mentioned earlier, Marvel has set up Kang‘s multiversal dominance scheme for quite a while now. He served as an antagonist in both seasons of Loki, as well as in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Now, that last one is big, because as anyone who watched the film remembers, in the post-credits, they showcased the Council of Kangs, an assembly of thousands, if not millions, of Kang variants from across an abundance of universes. Now, Marvel REALLY needs to address their presence in the MCU in Doomsday or Secret Wars, or they’re gonna have a mob of angry fans coming at them demanding answers as to what happened to them. I mean, if they’re not going to continue with the Council of Kang’s role as the titular antagonists of the next film, then they need to explain some sort of in-universe reason as to why they suddenly disappeared. And I heard this brilliant suggestion somewhere. (I believe it was the YouTube channel The Cosmic Wonder. Fellow Marvel nerds should check that out. https://www.youtube.com/@TheCosmicWonder) One of the ideas was for, in Doomsday’s opening scene, for Doctor Doom to kill off the entire Council of Kangs. Now, not only would this solve the whole “What happened to the Kangs?” issue, but it can also serve as a way to show off how much of a threat Doom really is.

Now, another benefit from setting him up in an alternate universe is how you could have Doom either take over or destroy the universe he is originally from. This would show why he’d:

1. Be able to travel across dimensions
2. How he is so powerful (since he’s supposed to be too powerful for any of the Avengers to take on alone)

Now, I know these might be a little bit of a stretch, but this is just another possibility for how Marvel will answer some of the fans’ questions.

2. Much easier than making an excuse as to why it wasn’t there before

Now, secondly, by having Doom be from a separate world, they wouldn’t need to slide some sort of imperfect explanation as to why his country, Latevria, suddenly appeared out of the blue. In the MCU, no country such as Latveria exists. If it did, I am SURE that they would have mentioned it or even give a little nod to the European region’s existence. Of course, all of the difficulties and questions that would come with squeezing Latveria into their world would disappear if it was from an alternate timeline. In fact, they’d have a lot of more creative freedom to do Latveria anyway they wished. They could make it a small, independent nation hidden in Europe, or a massive empire largely known by the outside world.

3. Alternate version of Tony Stark?!?

Ok, now, Marvel can REALLY pull something off if they do Doctor Doom right. I mean, there’s no way they cast RDJ, the actor for Iron Man, the hero of the entire MCU, and didn’t plan to use the fact that he looks exactly like Tony Stark. Say the Avengers are fighting Doom, and then someone knocks off his faceplate, showing a face that looks IDENTICAL to Tony Stark, known and respected by all the people on Earth. Imagine how much of an emotional punch that could do to them, knowing they were fighting someone who looks exactly like their previous friend and leader? Think of how much that would do to Peter. Tony was his mentor and guide, who he looked up to and followed after as he grew more and more as a superhero. If Marvel does nothing with this, then they wasted the entirety of RDJ’s casting as the villain.

Now, while they could simple have a variant of Victor Von Doom who simply LOOKS like Tony Stark, they could do something much more interesting. I read this theory on the website ScreenRant (Link right here: https://screenrant.com/doctor-doom-iron-man-twist-mcu-theory-robert-downey-jr/) where one of the writers theorized that Robert Downey Jr’s Doctor Doom could be a Victor Von Doom who was adopted by Howard and Maria Stark, opposed to the Tony Stark we know who is their biological son. Now, this way, he is both Tony Stark AND Victor Von Doom. He is both Iron Man AND Doctor Doom. I mean, this way is much more compelling than simply having him look like Iron Man.

Now, there are some pros and some cons to Robert Downey Jr. returning. I’m going to list my general ideas and concerns, and explain a little about my thoughts for each.

PROS

• RDJ’s return gives the film a little ‘star power’ with the legacy actor return
• It helps them to build up some hype for the movie
• If pulled off right, they can make him one of the most compelling villains
• Doctor Doom is one of Marvel’s most iconic characters
• RDJ is an excellent actor, and seeing him interact with some of the Avengers could be quite interesting (But there is a problem about this. Stay tuned for more. COMING SOON: Marvel Rant: Avengers Doomsday (The Avengers Team))

CONS

• All of the Kang buildup was for nothing
• Marvel hasn’t built up excitement for Doctor Doom at all (yet), unlike the pervious big bad, Thanos
• If they do nothing with the fact that he looks like Tony Stark, then his casting is ruined

Anyways, those are my general thoughts on the whole RDJ returning as Doctor Doom shindig. Let me know your thoughts down in the comments, if you are so inclined. I hope you enjoyed listening to me rant about Marvel, because I kinda need to let out some of my thoughts.