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There is only one Doom. That statement remains true, despite the fact that Victor von Doom often employs Doombots as his decoys. And it remains true, despite the fact that several actors have portrayed him on screen.
The number of Doom actors increased by one this weekend, when a masked figure dressed in green revealed himself as Robert Downey Jr., returning to the MCU after playing Iron Man for several years. RDJ’s casting might make for a rich story about the fundamental similarities between men who use their genius to protect the world, one a hero and the other a villain. Or it might be a desperate grasp at relevance, more crass and cloying than anything in Deadpool & Wolverine. Either way, the casting is unbecoming of Doctor Doom, the greatest villain in the history of fiction.
The Dawn of Doom
“I was a god, Valeria,” Doctor Doom tells the daughter of his mortal enemy, a girl who helped save from a stillborn birth. “I found it… beneath me.”
This simple line from 2012’s Fantastic Four #611, written by Jonathan Hickman and illustrated by Ryan Stegman, captures everything wonderful about Doctor Doom. He’s a character with a ridiculous name who wears a green tunic over his metal armor. And yet, his emotional truth and grounding comes not in making him like a normal guy (a mistake made by every theatrical Fantastic Four adaptations). Rather it comes from high drama and operatic stakes on the level of myths and legends.
Jack Kirby and Stan Lee first introduced Doctor Doom in 1962’s Fantastic Four #5 as a wonderful, but generic villain. Doom arrived at the Baxter Building to kidnap Sue Storm and force the FF men to go back in time and steal the treasure of the pirate Blackbeard. Yet even within that lovably goofy Silver Age tale, Kirby and Lee included hints of the rich character he would become. Reed recalls studying alongside Victor von Doom at Empire State University where the Latverian student combined science and magic to reach the netherworld.
Fantastic Four #5 doesn’t expound on the reason for Doom’s netherworld obsession, letting readers just associate the new baddie with the signifiers of Satan and Hell. But in Doom’s first full origin story in Fantastic Four Annual #2 from 1962, we learn that he seeks the Underworld not for power or to commune with like-minded monsters. Rather he’s searching for the soul of his beloved mother, murdered by the aristocratic rulers of Latveria when he was just a boy.
Doom the Good, Doom the Terrible
Doom’s search for his mother can’t be separated from his other prime motivations, including his love for the people of Latveria and his obsession with Reed Richards. Most of Marvel’s heroes describe Doom as a despotic ruler over his small European country Latveria. And in nearly every other case, unquestioned dominion over a country would be another aspect of a character’s villainy, but not Doom. As seen time and again, the Latverians love Doom. In the “Authoritative Action” storyline from Fantastic Four #503 – 508 (2003), part of the great Mark Waid run, the FF occupy Castle Doom in Victor’s absence and find the people of Latveria revolting against them, longing for their beloved leader.
The story doesn’t show the people of Latveria as backward yokels who don’t understand what’s good for them. Rather it shows that Doctor Doom actually took good care of them. Doctor Doom, for all of his bluster and self-importance, is right in a certain sense. Based purely on the living standards of his subjects, he is a good ruler.
At the same time, Doom’s arrogance cannot be understated, especially in relation to Reed Richards. Doom blames Richards for the failure of the machine he built in college, the machine to contact his mother in the underworld. Thus whatever good Doom could do is constantly undermined by his endless jealousy of Richards. Sometimes, that can result in works of remarkable kindness, as when he helped save Sue Richards during her difficult pregnancy. He used his brilliance to help Sue deliver her daughter, if only because he could succeed where Reed failed. That decision led to a strong bond between Doom and that girl, who was named Valeria in honor of Doom’s lost love.
In short, Doom is at once diabolical and noble, tragic and evil. He’s also so much more. He’s a rich character, encompassing everything great about supervillains. Doom demonstrates the amazing possibilities of telling stories through an outrageous superhero lens. Which means that he needs to be treated with more care than the average baddie.
The Doom of Downey Jr.
When Joe and Anthony Russo stood on the stage at Hall H and introduced Robert Downey Jr. as Victor von Doom, the audience erupted with applause. Even outside of the overheated confines of Comic-Con, it’s easy to understand the response. Deadpool & Wolverine’s success notwithstanding, the MCU has been struggling since Downey (along with the Russos and Chris Evans) left the franchise with Avengers: Endgame. The homecoming of three-quarters of that foursome might feel to some like a righting of the ship, a sign that the MCU is ready to return to its former glory.
That excitement makes sense. Any of us who love superhero movies long to see the MCU get back to producing the interesting and daring films it made during its first three phases. Furthermore, Tony Stark and Doctor Doom have a long relationship in the comics, given their equal arrogance and technological skill. Comic book creators have told compelling stories based on the relationship between the two characters, and there’s no reason that the films could do the same.
Avengers: Doomsday might end up being a big sloppy mess. However, Avengers: Doomsday could also be a towering success. It could be a rich, emotional superhero movie, anchored by Robert Downey Jr. at his best. But even if it was, Avengers: Doomsday would be about Tony Stark in some way; how Doom represents the choices Tony could have made; and how he’s a much better hero because he didn’t. Or it would be about Downey as an actor: how he can return to the franchise that featured his iconic character and play someone totally different, showing off his range as a performer.
Whatever Avengers: Doomsday ends up being, placing Downey in the role of Doctor Doom means that it isn’t fundamentally about Doom.
Waiting on the Right Doom
Cliché as it might sound, most FF fans say that there’s only been one good movie version of Doctor Doom, and that’s the cheapo Roger Corman production from 1994. The movie had flat acting, poor effects, and a haphazard plot. But it also had Doom being Doom, a larger than life villain with more gravitas than the whiny edgelords portrayed by Julian McMahon and Toby Kebbell. Avengers: Doomsday will have much better effects, plotting, and acting than any of the Doom stories we’ve seen on screen before. But anyone watching the movie will see just Downey or Tony Stark. That’s fine for a standard multiverse story, but not for Doctor Doom. Especially if this ends up being the only time we see Doom in the MCU. A character of Doom’s potential and moral shadings should span phases, not two-parters.
Doom deserves better. Doom is second to no man, not even Tony Stark, not even Robert Downey Jr.
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