Summary
Now that Robert Downey Jr. has been confirmed as the actor who will play one of the biggest and most popular villains in theMCU, it should surprise no one at all that the biggest question is just how will this work? There are two basic ways in which Doctor Doom could be credibly played by the same man who so famously played Tony Stark and Iron Man. The first is that Tony Stark is somehow back (or more likely coming over from another universe) or the character is not Tony Stark at all. Perhaps Victor Von Doom just looks like Tony Stark. Though that theory seems less likely.
The prevailing theory is that this version of Doctor Doom is, absolutely Tony Stark. Fans don’t believe Kevin Feige would ask audiences to suspend disbelief to the degree where he’d ask people to see and hear and know it’s Tony Stark and then be told it’s not. On the other hand, it’s hard to imagineTony Stark would ever bethe kind of evil that Doom has been throughout comics. And considering he’s apparently preparing to be the big bad for this version of theMCU, he’s going to be plenty evil.
Comics Have Offered More Than One Explanation
Thanks to many runsof many different comic stories, the MCU doesn’t have to worry about “consistency” with its characters. Especially since Feige and company introduced the multiverse into their films. There have been several versions of Tony Stark andseveral versions of Doctor Doomover the years, and it’s not hard to find versions that fit the desires of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
It’s not hard to find versions that fit the desires of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
One theory that’s out there came directly from astoryline in What If…? This story had Victor Von Doom and Tony Stark essentially switch bodies. Both men were roommates of Reed Richard of Fantastic Four fame, but this time, Stark was the one who was close to Richards, who was disfigured and donned the Doctor Doom mask. That theory is certainly a decent one but there is another Marvel Comics story that involves Reed Richards that the MCU could lean on if it wants to explain a version of Tony Stark becoming the big bad.
The Ultimates Is The Key To Tony Stark As Doctor Doom
There is currently an ongoing comic series known asThe Ultimatesthat takes several of Marvel’s most iconic heroes and villains and plops them down in the middle of the 21st century. The stories behave as if there haven’t been decades of backstory, and by doing this the writers can rebuild characters like Spider-Man, the X-Men, and, yes,Doctor Doom however they want.
The MCU has already borrowed from this approach as it was here that the movie version starringSamuel L. Jackson of Nick Furywas based on. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that Kevin Feige and company will lean on this again. And the fact that Marvel has once again hit the reset button with a new round ofTheUltimatesis where Tony Stark could end up being Doctor Doom and it wouldn’t be all that surprising, at least for comic book readers.
The new run of TheUltimatesgoes a bit further than the original one did in that it shifts around several comic book characters starts,abilities and even what side they took. In this run, a villain known as the Maker used time travel and various other means to stop the origin story of several heroes, such as Peter Parker never getting bit by a radioactive spider and the Fantastic Four never going on the fated voyage that gives them their various powers.
InThe Ultimates #4, without their powers, Johnny and Sue Storm, as well as Ben Grimm all die in various ways, leaving Reed Richards alone and distraught. Eventually, the Maker does a great deal of brainwashing until he convinces Richardsto become Doctor Doom. Richards dons the armor and the faceplate and all the works. And it’s here where the MCU might decide to go in the same direction.
There’s really no point in having a plot point like the multiverse unless the people writing these stories can dip into them to retcon the backstory of characterslike Tony Stark and Doctor Doom. It may not be an identical story to the way that Reed Richards became Doom, but it offers up a way for theMCUto pull this off in a believable way. It shows that the backstory of one of the greatest villains known to comic book readers doesn’t have to come from Latvia and have a European accent. While Robert Downey Jr. could pull that off, it would almost certainly be that much more jarring to see an actor that Marvel fans know behaving that differently. How they pull it off will certainly be interesting to watch.
MCU
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is a sprawling movie and television franchise that weaves together individual stories of superheroes including Captain America, Thor, Spider-Man, Hulk, Black Widow, and many more. The first film in the franchise, Iron Man, was released in 2008. The MCU has garnered critical praise and financial success, earning billions at the box office and becoming a cultural phenomenon.
