Has the MCU ‘Earned’ AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY and SECRET WARS?

This post contains spoilers for Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps. If you want to avoid them, keep this tab open so you can read this post after you see the movie.

Marvel Studios fired Jonathan Majors in late 2023 after his conviction for domestic violence. A few months later, the studio announced which villain would replace Kang as the franchise’s new big bad. During the MCU’s Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Robert Downey Jr. unmasked himself as Victor von Doom. One year later, his character made his franchise debut in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. That end-credits scene was an exciting moment, even though many expected it. It’s also going to have an immediate payoff. Only one more movie stands between the arrival of Robert Downey Jr.’s Doom and Avengers: Doomsday. And that’s exactly why, despite all the hype, an iconic star, and the promise of two truly epic MCU films, the next Avengers movie doesn’t yet feel earned.

[image error]Marvel Studios

When Loki tried to conquer Earth in The Avengers, he’d already established himself in Thor as a foe worthy of an even bigger spotlight. But that movie was also far more about bringing Earth’s mightiest heroes together than it was about stopping a super villain. The fact that it featured a great bad guy just made it that much better.

The Avengers was also only the MCU’s sixth film. Expectations and anticipation were very, very different back then. Smart movie-knowers weren’t even sure a superhero team-up on that scale could work. It featured characters introduced in their own films, and audiences would need to be familiar with all of them. This wasn’t like the first X-Men, where no one needed to know or see anything before its release.

Those worries about Marvel’s big gamble were :checks notes and box office records: unfounded. But even if The Avengers wasn’t a guaranteed success, it was easy to see the MCU had smartly put the pieces in place to give it the best chance at victory.

Marvel Studios

That blockbuster also put a new piece in place for the franchise’s future. The Avengers marked the onscreen debut of Thanos in the MCU. The Mad Titan appeared unnamed, as a tantalizing, terrifying, powerful figure in an end-credits scene. He then played a prominent, ominous role in Guardians of the Galaxy, which also featured his daughters. The movie, another entry considered a big risk before its release, also established the importance of the Infinity Stones. Thanos then also appeared in an Age of Ultron end credits scene, teasing his grand plan. All of which led to the culmination of the plan in Infinity War and Endgame.

The MCU slowly built Thanos as the franchise’s true final boss for years after his first appearance in The Avengers. Infinity War was the 19th film in the franchise. The result was a truly seminal movie villain who helped deliver a satisfying ending to the Infinity Saga. A decade of story got an ending that felt wholly earned because the Avengers defeated someone worthy of all that effort. Thanos’ arrival and defeat felt earned both as a narrative and as an experience for those who’d invested in the MCU. We waited a long time for Thanos, and when he showed up, he was everything we’d hoped for.

Marvel Studios

The MCU’s careful reveal of Thanos is the complete opposite of what Marvel has done with Doctor Doom. The Fantastic Four: First Steps wasn’t just the first time we saw the character in any way. It also marks the first time the MCU ever referenced his existence in any way. That empty chair for Latveria, the small nation Doom rules, marked the first acknowledgement of Doom in any capacity. And now, just like that, he’s going to take on a Thanos-like position in the franchise.

It didn’t have to be this way. It shouldn’t be this way. Victor von Doom is on the short list for greatest Marvel villains of all time. He might be the single greatest. Disney has owned the rights to the character since its Fox merger in 2019. Yet, despite releasing (way too) many movies and TV shows since 2020, the MCU never laid a single stone on the path to Doom.

Of course—of course—part of the reason for the lack of build for Doctor Doom is related to offscreen issues. Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror was supposed to be the final baddie for the MCU’s Multiverse Saga. The Kang Dynasty was originally announced as the fifth Avengers movie. Marvel knows how to tell a good story over many years, and it was putting in time and effort to establish Kang and his Variants as a Thanos-level threat. Majors made his debut in Loki season one, returned in season two, and was the villain of Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania. Had Disney not fired him, it’s almost certain that he would have made more appearances before his first Avengers film. But Major’s conviction doesn’t excuse the MCU’s narrative mistakes with Doom.

Marvel Studios

Majors’ arrest came in March 2023. Until his conviction and firing in December that year, it was very obvious to everyone he might be on his way out at Marvel. At any point from March on, an MCU show or movie could, and should, have made reference to Latveria just in case the MCU decided to pivot rather than recast the character.

From a narrative sense, recasting would have also made infinitely more sense. It would have been easy to explain why Kang looked different after his defeat in Quantumania. But it’s reasonable why family-friendly Disney made a business decision to completely abandon the character. Yet that’s more reason why Marvel should have at least been preparing for a potential change.

Someone could have mentioned visiting The State University in Hegeman, New York, the type of Easter eggs site like us would have jumped all over explaining. At the very least, something related to Doom should have come up before The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Either that or Marvel Studios should have delayed Avengers 5 (even more) so it could give Doctor Doom the type of build the character and the franchise deserve. The fact that it hasn’t is Marvel’s fault, too.

The MCU has been totally adrift since Avengers: Endgame. The franchise, in large part to serve Disney+’s content needs, abandoned the successful and important serialized storytelling that the franchise was built upon. Phases 4 and 5 had no focus or payoff. They were meandering. Whole movies and shows came and went without feeling like they mattered. End-credits scenes, which once heralded the next installment with promise and hype, simply disappeared into the ether. Shang-Chi, the type of character who would have anchored an Avengers movie during the MCU’s early days, hasn’t returned in any way since his movie came out in 2021.

The result is that MCU hasn’t felt like the MCU for a long time. It hasn’t had the same “juice” either as a cultural force or a money-making machine. Movies are no longer guaranteed blockbusters, and TV shows are no longer guaranteed events. It’s not dead or even dying, it’s just not what it was. The casting of Robert Downey Jr. and the rush to Doctor Doom’s appearance is about fixing that. Marvel Studios is run by very smart people. Those people both built and sustained a cinematic universe that once seemed impossible. They want to return the MCU back to what it once was and see Downey Doom as the way to make that happen. But they’re not doing it the right way, the way they know they should. We’re getting a Victor von Doom with a build closer to the MCU’s Ultron rather than the MCU’s Thanos.

Robert Downey Jr.

The Thanos experience was a full feast served over many courses. It left us fully satiated. Ultron got thrown on the table after Tony Stark and Bruce Banner cooked him in the microwave. That’s how Doctor Doom’s arrival feels, as though Marvel is so desperate to deliver us what we want, it doesn’t care how they cooked up the meal.

Will Marvel’s big Doom dinner still taste good? Almost certainly. Will it be as good and as satisfying as it could have been had Marvel taken its time prepping this epic meal? Almost certainly not. Because while Doctor Doom is here and it’s exciting, his arrival simply wasn’t earned.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. He would wait for the second marshmallow. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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