[Music] what's up everybody and welcome to varant a couple of weeks ago Marvel and MCU fans finally got one of the biggest reveals we've been waiting years for and that is Dr Doom's entrance into the MCU and the announcement for who is going to be playing the character so today we are talking all things Dr Doom but first I want to congratulate variant's longtime host AIS and his wife Amber on the birth of their beautiful new baby girl thankfully everyone is happy and healthy and resting comfortably at home so we're obviously incredibly excited with and
for them and if you guys would also like to show them some love down in the comments I know they would appreciate it but that also means Aris will be out on paternity leave for the next two weeks doing his best impression of Mr Mom and getting acquainted with their new addition so you'll be seeing more of my mug than usual for the next few weeks but I'll also be using the next month and a half to catch up on some of the projects we're working on as we gear up to end the year strong
so overall you'll be seeing a bit less variant content than usual from now until the beginning of October when we kick off our coverage of DC's all an initiative to make up for it however we are collaborating with Comic-Con the cruise to bring you guys the coolest freaking giveaway we have ever done here at variant and we'll let you guys in on exactly what that is in just a little bit believe me when I tell you you do not want to miss this one anyway with all that covered let's talk some Doom Marvel's Big Hall
h announcement started with Marvel studios's Top Dog Kevin feige confirming that the Russo brothers are indeed returning to helm the next two Avengers movies starting with a shift from Avengers King Dynasty to Avengers doomsday in 2026 followed by Avengers Secret Wars to wrap up the the Multiverse Saga but after the Russo Brothers took the mic and revealed that Dr Doom would be entering the MCU in doomsday they shocked everyone when a mass Robert Downey Jr stepped out from the crowd of people dressed as Dr Doom to reveal that he would be returning to play a
version of Victor Von Doom or an alternate universe Tony Stark who became a version of Dr Doom the latter seems much more likely to me for a number of reasons but especially because the first thing RDJ said after removing the Doom mask was new mask same task implying that in this role he will have the same motivations as Tony Stark Iron Man but the character will take a much darker turn either way while many are excited about this overall this announcement has actually been pretty polarizing among fans with a lot of people upset that we
won't be getting the true 616 Victor Von Doom calling it lazy and a desperate cash grab by Marvel for us here at variant we fall into the excited Camp because there a significant comic book precedent for the move and sound MCU based reasoning for Marvel Studios to take this direction and I'm going to be detailing all of those throughout today's episode in fact a number of channels like new rock stars and Comics explained have already done a great job detailing many of them since the announcement but the one thing that is getting a bit lost
in all the speculation and theorizing about why Marvel has brought back RDJ to play Dr Doom is the simple and exciting fact that we are finally going to be getting Dr Doom in the broader MCU not to mention with the Russo Brothers back on board to steer the ship it has great potential to bring things to a much needed reset in a very cool way so Eris and I are going to tag team on this episode to Spotlight the overall history of Dr Doom including his Origins and some of the character's key story arcs with
a focus on the comics that are the most likely influences for the mcu's direction for the character and then I'll give you our take on why we think RDJ as Dr Doom has a chance to hit on multiple fronts so off we go Dr Doom one of Marvel Comics most iconic villains was created by the legendary Duo of writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby and his first appearance in the Fantastic 4 Issue 5 in 1962 introduced a character that would quickly become one of Marvel's most popular big bads and a Cornerstone of the Marvel
Universe the thing is the real world Inspirations behind Dr Doom's creation are as interesting as the character himself blending elements of literature and history to shape this complex villain to construct the character we now know as Victor Von Doom Stan Lee and Jack Kirby seemingly Drew inspiration from several places for instance it's been speculated that the tragic figure of Victor Frankenstein from Mary Shell's classic novel influenced Doom because while the connection has never been confirmed like Frankenstein Dr Doom is a brilliant but flawed scientist whose arrogance and ego leads to his death downfall you can
also easily see influences from Shakespearean characters like MC Beth and even tragic Heroes of Greek mythology mixed into Doom's persona but in addition to fictional influences Lee and Kirby were also clearly inspired by historical dictators when shaping Victor Von Doom as his authoritarian rule over the fictional nation of lataria driven by arrogance and vanity allowed them to explore themes of absolute power control and the corrupting influence of both Jack Kirby then took these Concepts and embedded them into the visual design for Dr Doom incorporating elements from medieval knights future fut istic armor and mysticism it
made for a very cool blend of futuristic and historical elements that gave Doom a distinctive and striking appearance keeping with some of those Concepts from a story perspective Stan ley's vision for Dr Doom included a grandiose and operatic quality he wanted Doom to be theatrical and memorable with elaborate speech patterns and dramatic gestures and this operatic flare made Doom a larger than life character who stood out in the Marvel Universe not to mention the intense personal rivalry between Dr Doom and Reed Richards Mr Fantastic which added another layer of complexity to the character this classic
Trope of personal vendettas driving conflict made their battles compelling and relatable as they emphasized the deep-seated conflict between the two characters add it all up and you have a villain who is not only formidable in his physical and intellectual capabilities but also deeply complex in his motivations and personality as a result Dr Doom has become one of the greatest villains in comic book history and another major Testament to the creative genius of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby but with his real world Origins covered Aris is going to break down Dr Doom's fictional origin and fill
you in on how you can win a cruise to KML Mexico on board ComicCon the cruise yeah I told you it was a dope giveaway so we are crazy excited to announce the inaugural Voyage of Comic-Con the cruise your ears did not deceive you Comic-Con the cruise is the only officially licensed cruise by ComiCon International an actual Comic-Con on the Open Seas and we're going and we want you to join us this 4-day luxury Cruise will Embark from Tampa Florida and make its way to kazumo Mexico and combines the iconic Comic-Con experience with a crazy
fan Focus cruise this will be an amazing setting to R shoulders with your favorite Stars artist writers and have a blast with a community of fellow fans I'm talking theme nights with costumes and cosplay and original nightly entertainment from the onboard Talent including Return of the Jedi and Willow star Warick Davis Star Trek's George deay Ghostbusters Ernie Hudson and many more this crazy cool event takes place from February 5th through February 9th 2025 on board Royal Caribbean serenade of the Seas I mean this is the ultimate fan adventure oh and did I mention Tim and
I are going cuz we are and two of you are going with us for free that's right as an exclusive just for our variant fam you can enter to win a free Cruise 4 two and this isn't one of those Lotto things where 7 billion other people enter and you have no chance this is purely for those who are watching variant and enter so that could be you answer to win just go to Comic conth cruise.com variant and you could also use the same link to reserve your cabins today as a bonus any member of
the variant Community who does will receive $250 onboard credit per cabin if you book using the promo code variant that onboard credit can be used during the cruise for excursions specialty restaurants spa treatments onboard shopping beverage packages and more and here is the best part you can book a cabin now and lock in a spot and if you win the giveaway you'll be refunded the cost of the cruise it's a win-win you only have until August 30th 2024 to enter the contest so don't procrastinate however if you do miss the deadline for the giveaway our
promo code will still be active until the crew sells out again to enter or book your cabin just go go to Comic onthec cruise.com variant or click the link below or scan the QR code or send us a smoke signal we don't care just join us on the high seas the best origin for Dr Doom is given to us in the Books of Doom six issue miniseries where we see that when Victor Von Doom was a boy he was the child of gypsies in Laria we learned that Victor's mother Cynthia delved into the Black Arts
which his father wner begged her to stop doing saying think of your family think of your son she replies to her husband that's what I'm thinking of Werner look at us our people are constantly in tatters barely one step ahead of The Baron's persecution but if we had some power Victor's life it could be better than this so of course she doesn't stop dabbling in the Black Arts and called upon the demon Mesto to use his power the summoning of him worked but not the way she thought misto manipulated her filling her with a thirst
for Vengeance on The Baron's men the soldiers who kept the gypsies On The Run who beat them and stole their money who have done worse to the women she killed several of The Baron's men but when the Demon's Powers left the survivors chased her down and killed her as we watched her die in her husband's arms her final words were begging her husband to keep Victor away from from dark places but as we all know that didn't turn out so well after this Victor's father Werner who was a doctor was called by King Vladimir to
treat his sick wife but when wner failed to save the king's wife as she was already riddled with cancer the baron blamed wner for it and sent his men to hunt Werner and Victor On The Run Werner would die freezing to death trying to keep his son safe that's right this is a scene Straight Out of The Shining a little while after this Victor would find his mom's artifacts in mystical books he would study them and teach himself sorcery trying to free his mother's soul from Mesto but was unsuccessful at some point Victor was held
at gunpoint by someone who was seeking an award to bring Victor into the baron but Victor was able to smack the gun away and choke the man to death as Victor grew he excelled in science and his achievements had become legendary so much so a US general tracked him down saying you're the famous Victor Von Doom I've heard about you are a hard man to find Von Doom Victor replies by Design what can I do for you doom explains to us that his achievements had become so legendary that this General had come all the way
from the United States to track him down apparently with some fear that his enemies would find him first there were offers of money and opportunity to study in the finest schools and Laboratories in the world Victor tells us on any other day I might have struck a harder bargain made them pay a higher price for my participation but on this day with my trembling hands all I wanted was to be away from Laria and asks when can we leave this leads us to issue two of the series where we see the general bring him to
New York and shows Doom the lab he'll be working in that's less than an hour from his State University the general says to him let's give you the grand tour and then we'll take you to the campus to fill out your enrollment forms there's another student we need you to meet there anyway the other student of course is Reed Richards the two were originally supposed to share a dorm room but General Masterson had already arranged a room for Doom with a secret soundproof lab attached Reed would quickly become Victor's academic rival as we see when
Victor is questioning Einstein's theory on time with his Professor Reed agrees and expands Victor's thoughts but Victor just gets up and walks out of class saying yes it is Richards but when I need your assistance on an argument I'll ask for it as the issue goes on we see Doom create the first versions of What would become known as the doombots as well as creating a machine that could transverse back through time Victor even created a machine to get his mother back Sayan I had finally found the synthesis between my mother's Magics and the science
that I dreamed of as a youth the machine worked and took him to hell where his mother was being held prisoner by misto when she sees her son she says not my beautiful boy not here why has Warner let this come to pass I begged him Victor tells her but I came to save you mother when misto sees him he asks who is this filthy little morsel Cynthia not the Beast that stewed in your black loins she begs for Mercy at which point an explosion happens that Victor doesn't remember as he wakes up back on
Earth in a hospital bed but he says he will never forget the screams of his mother this accident SL explosion is what scarred Victor's face the incident also led to him getting expelled from the University from here we would see Victor go to Tibet to train with monks mastering their ways so well he became their leader as seen in Issue four of the series in the same issue we see Victor have the monks help him make his iconic armor sane on my master stroke using what I learned in this Temple I would remove myself from
this world I would create a second skin adaptive technology would line the inner workings of the armor and an enchantment would seal it from the Demon's touch keep them from my dreams but the cold metal on my skin would remind me of his existence and that he held my mother's Soul captive in his realm for now once forged the monks put the armor on him and he tells them bring me my face they say it is ready master and when he looks at it he says it is perfect never again will mortal eyes gaze upon
Victor Von Doom from this moment on there is only what I've become there is only Dr Doom okay so we have Dr Doom's origin but what about those story arcs we talked about there are obviously quite a few Incredible Dr Doom story arcs that have hit the pages of Marvel Comics over the years including Triumph and torment black panther Doom War Doom 2099 Books of Doom and many others some of which we detailed in our original history of Dr Doom episode but as I mentioned at the open we are going to focus on the four
Dr Doom stories that seem to be the primary Inspirations for casting Robert Downey Jr as Doom in the next two Avengers films I'll also note that we really thought there was a chance they were going to pull from the Doom War Arc and tie Dr Doom to the vibranium storyline in wakanda forever and while that didn't happen I still wonder if that could play a role in some way anyway the four stories that seem most likely to be the prime Inspirations for RDJ as Dr Doom are Infamous Iron Man what if Iron Man demon in
an armor Exiles with an Iron Fist and of course the secret War story line and while some fans are expecting them to pull from one of these stories we think Marvel will likely pull elements from most if not all of them that when mixed with certain pieces from the current MCU Cannon will create an entirely new story and for our purposes today I'm just going to give you a summary of the relevant aspects from each of the story arcs that I mentioned and we'll start with Infamous Iron Man which is a 12 isue series by
Brian Michael Bendis in Infamous iron man we find ourselves after the events of Civil War II where Victor Von Doom has decided to turn over a new leaf and atone for his past actions particularly those during the secret War Story by stepping into the role of Iron Man after Tony Stark's apparent death but while Doom is trying to redeem himself by becoming a hero his darker nature always seems to emerge this storyline is potentially a key because it introduces the concept of Victor Von Doom adopting the Iron Man identity in order to act as a
hero in his own way which could be exactly where Marvel is headed with rdj's character just imagine a Thanos like version of Victor Von Doom who maybe after his own world is destroyed by the Thanos of his Universe somehow crosses into the 616 sacred timeline learns about Tony Stark's goal to put a suit of armor around the world and steps into the role of Iron Man to fulfill it but this is Dr Doom and while he tries to be the nice guy at first with a desire to protect the world his darker Tendencies cause him
to turn into a tyrant to carry out his vision after the people of this Earth disagree with his plan always for the greater good of course but that's just one possibility the next comes from what if Iron Man demon in armor this story is kind of a reversal of the characters we now know essentially in an alternate timeline Victor Von Doom and Tony Stark are college roommates and after Doom discovers that Stark has a sharper mind than his own he tricks Tony into helping him build a machine that would swap their minds once complete he
lures Tony into the machine and transfers his mind into Tony Stark's body and Tony's mind into his he then completely wipes Tony's memory so he has no recollection of who he actually is creating a situation where Stark now in lvia and stripped of his identity is forced to live as a commoner while Doom enjoys the wealth and status of being a stark now if Marvel draws from this story it would be an interesting way to give us RDJ as an alternate version of Tony Stark who has had his mind swapped with Victor Von Doom this
would not only create the immediately compelling element of the heroes of the MCU having to fight a villain that bears the face of their greatest hero especially for Peter Parker as Tony was a father figure and a mentor but it would also pave the way for the true Dr Doom to be revealed after the events of Avengers Secret Wars where maybe Doom's mind or Consciousness returns to his own body regardless you can absolutely see important pieces throughout the demon in an armor story that Marvel could incorporate into the MCU then we have Exiles with an
Iron Fist from Exiles 23- 25 this story is set in an alternate universe Earth 42777 to be specific where Tony Stark has become a full on authoritarian to sum it up Stark doesn't merge with doom or anything like that in this story Instead This Tony Stark has declared himself president of the United States for life and the Undisputed monarch of Earth and the craziest part about this is to assume this role Tony Stark effectively uses his wealth power and Technology to form secret alliances with Magneto and Dr Doom to induce a series of false flag
events that wreak Chaos on the world leading to a mutant war that decimates the Superhuman population and wipes out the elected officials of the United States but after the plan was carried out Stark kills both Magneto and Dr Doom to eliminate his only Rivals and consolidate all power to himself and that leaves us with this completely Savage version of Iron Man who wears Dr tattered and torn cloak it's pretty freaking wild and if Marvel incorporates this version of Iron Man RDJ could portray a version of Stark who is a complete an utter Tyrant a figure
who has crossed every moral line to achieve ultimate control and an Iron Man you could easily see becoming God Emperor Doom just before the secret Wars movie setting up a confrontation with the Avengers where they face off against a Tony Stark who embodies the worst traits of both himself and Dr Doom but again to pull this off in a way that works it will likely require pulling aspects from several of these stories and combining them and that leads us to the secret War Story itself where Dr Doom becomes the god emperor of battle World wielding
the powers of the beyonders to reshape reality and force many of Marvel's heroes into subservient positions this story line is pivotal to understanding where it's all going for the Multiverse Saga and what pieces will likely be needed to make it all fit as a coherent story it shows Doom at his most powerful literally remaking the Universe In His Image so whether RDJ plays a tyrannical version of Tony Stark who has taken up the Dr Doom mantle or one of the other iterations will absolutely become a multiversal threat by the time Avengers Secret Wars hits and
this won't just be a villain this will be a character who has the power to control and reshape reality itself forcing The Avengers to face a version of Tony Stark who has transcended into something far more dangerous and Godlike which is exactly the setup Marvel needs to create a soft reboot of the entire MCU ushering in the mutant Saga and era for the franchise but here's the big takeaway Marvel never really fully adapts a comic story line into the MCU they take themes and pieces across Marvel's history for both character and major story arcs like
the infinity War Story and create their own version of it and the Russo brothers are going to do exactly that to clean up and wrap up the Multiverse Saga weaving together elements from these four iconic stories and possibly others to create a new alternate version of Iron Man Dr Doom that's unique to the Marvel Universe I know a lot of fans are unhappy about this decision but I really think this could be a very fun way to bring everything back to a solid reset Point while telling a very compelling story and I also think it's
interesting that they could use this story to follow a path for Tony star AR that is similar to what they did with Loki but in reverse and what I mean by that is after Loki's death in Avengers Infinity War they use the endgame story and Loki series to extract Loki's past self out of the Sacred timeline and bring him into the TVA where we see him face off with Kang and complete his story not just as a hero but as the savior of the entire Multiverse literally holding and binding the timelines together and with Tony
Stark it looks like they could be taking the mcu's greatest hero who sacrificed himself to save the entire world and bring him back in a way that has him consolidating power to the extent that he threatens the safety of the entire Multiverse effectively becoming the very thing the original Tony Stark Iron Man Died to destroy now you may not like that angle but you have to admit it's pretty clever they'd effectively be taking the mcu's first hero and the first major villain and closing out this entire era for the MCU with stories that place them
in opposite roles it's an ambitious move that could pay off while simultaneously redefining what we know about the MCU and giving us a villain who's as complex as he is powerful now that wraps up the story arcs that could shape the rest of the Multiverse Saga for the MCU and I highly recommend you guys grab those titles and read them before the Fantastic 4 hits next summer but before we wrap up let's take a look at Dr Doom's Baseline powers and abilities first and foremost Dr Doom is one of the most powerful Sorcerers in all
of complex he is such a skilled Sorcerer And Master of the Mystic Arts that doctor strange himself said he has the potential to become the sorcerer Supreme which funny enough a future version of Dr Doom actually did become the sorcerer Supreme strange has even said that Doom knows things about the dark arts that have long been forgotten that even he doesn't know about as for a quick rundown he's a master of mystical blasts Mystical Force Fields spellcasting summoning teleportation dimensional travel mystical portals and even mind transference he once trained with an alien race called the
ooids giving him the ability to switch his mind with another person nearby just by making eye contact then obviously doct Doom has a genius level intellect his mind is quite literally what makes him such a dangerous villain he is without question one of the top human Minds in all of the Marvel Universe easily top three his suit of armor also gives him superhuman strength allowing him to lift up to two tons incredible dur AB ility sensory systems solar energy absorption video Communicator concussive blast and infrared vision all those things combined make him one of the
most formidable characters in not just marvel but all of comics all right my people that does it for this episode let us know what you think about all this and the direction things are headed with RDJ as the first MCU Dr Doom and for God's sakes go get signed up for the ComiCon the cruise giveaway because we'd love to see you there other than that we'll see you next time when we talk some Punisher d [Music]
