Doctor Doom in the MCU

Doctor Doom: An Introduction to the MCU

There has been a lot of hype around the Fantastic Four coming to the MCU which leaves some questions to be asked. The most important being: How do we introduce Doctor Doom, the Fantastic Four's greatest villain?

To answer this question, I'd like to touch on the three key components to making an MCU Doctor Doom work.

1. Where has the Doctor Been?
2. Where is Latveria?
3. Where is his Power Source?

Now that the MCU is a bona fide universe, we have some advantages in introducing new characters that utilize the shared history and context that viewers are familiar with. If you are not familiar with any of the below items you can click them to catch up.

• The Sanctum Sanctorum
• The Ultron Drones
• The Sokovia Accords

Now let's find out how Doctor Doom could fit into the current MCU.

The Man Behind the Mask

We will start by examining the history of Doctor Doom in the comics and discuss how these points in his backstory can be integrated with our modern MCU. By the end, I hope you will be convinced by how seamlessly the current state of events supports the origins of Doctor Doom.

In the comic book history Doctor Doom is the son of a Romani (gypsy)
witch and a nobleman known only as the Baron. His mother died and he
was drivin out of his clan by his father.

This origin can remain relatively unchanged. Though Viktor should grow up in what is now known as the Sokovian countryside.

But before he was driven away, he discovered the implements of his mother's mystic
arts and began to practice witchcraft himself.

In our story he discovers them and learns how to use them to great effect. It is clear that Viktor is good at whatever he puts his mind to.

He moved to the United States and became a distinguished scholar
before being expelled from the university for experiments gone awry.

This can also remain unchanged. But this event should occur concurrently with the events of Sokovia. Viktor feels like the worlds is crumbling apart around him. He has lost his family, his professional life, and now even his home has been destroyed. This is the period of time where his obsession and focus grows.

He would begin creating the movement that joins the surrounding nations affected by the Sokovia incident as one nation under one rule known as Latveria.

He then journeyed to Tibet and studied with monks, mastering their
disciplines and finally becoming what we know as Viktor von Doom
before he leads a revolution to take control of Latveria.

These events occur roughly after the snap. There is a 5 year gap that our Doctor Doom would view as a tactical opportunity to take advantage of.

It is in this window that Viktor von Doom would solidify his place as a world leader with diplomatic immunity and amass the assortment of powers that make him so dangerous (we will explore this more in the Power of Doom) .

After the events of End Game, Doom is torn. He feels that the earth needs to be better protected and that every nation should be under the control of Latveria. He also becomes obsessed with how the avengers were able to bring back the dead. In all the spells he's learned in the Sanctum Sanctorum (more on this in the Power of Doom), there is nothing this powerful. And Doom's unreasonable rivalry with the Avengers begins as he tries to uncover the secrets of the unsnapping to bring his mother back.

Latveria: The New Sokovia

Viktor von Doom would become the Philanthropist, humanist ruler who repairs the destruction left behind by the Avengers. He restores order, wealth and technology to Latveria. And his people love him. We have an opportunity here to leverage the specific events in the MCU to create a Pablo Escobar inspired villain. The de facto leader whose people love him and who makes the life of the common man better.

The more villainous aspect of Viktor's rule will have to do with a theme already established in the MCU from the events of Sokovia. The main weaknesses of Doctor Doom are his pride, his need for control, and his ends justify the means mentality. This allows for a central question surrounding Sokovia about what safety and prosperity are worth. We can explore how Latverians feel about trading civil liberties for the protection and genius Viktor von Doom offers.

This is a powerful way to introduce a villain into the MCU who is as resourceful and powerful as an established character would be. We are exploiting the incredible amount of development that Tony Stark has received throughout his MCU career and continuing on those themes with a version of his own shadow. We are able to essentially pit the avengers against the actual backbone of the MCU by proxy.

Sokovia, and by extension our Latveria, is without a doubt the best region to explore political themes. It is fictional yet plagued by relatively relatable events. We have already seen one film do something similar to great success. The Black Panther. The fact that Latveria and Wakanda are both fictional give us the ability to truly explore their political themes without becoming too preachy or grounded in real world events (a problem many modern stories have trouble overcoming).

And last but not least, the Sokovia Accords gives Viktor von Doom a foothold to begin legitimately working his way into world politics and slowly (perhaps secretly) growing his personal power and control over susceptible nations.

This also gives Doom a political platform for pursuing the technology of the unsnap to bring his mother back. He would appeal to all those who lost people in the Sokovia Incident and vow that he would not rest until he makes Latveria whole again.

The Power of Doom

Finally, we can explore the question of how Viktor von Doom gets his powers in the MCU. This is the perfect way to showcase Doom's resourcefulness, drive, and genius.

It is in the 5 year window after the snap that he would use the lack of a guardian in the Santum Sanctorum and his knowledge from the monks to track it down and study the tomes within, becoming a true master of magic and rival to Dr. Strange.

Viktor would gather and purchase the companies that cleaned up the discarded Ultron Drones from the Sokovia incident and use his technological skills to reverse engineer his own version of the iron man technology. This allows him to create his doombots, the “protectors” of Latveria.

He also would take advantage of Wakanda's lack of a leader to obtain enough vibranium to construct his own indestructable vibranium Iron Man suit. A prototype for his version of Legion, a system to protect the earth from its impending doom.

Now, at the beginning of phase 4, Doctor Doom has the Magic of Dr. Strange, the technology of Iron Man, the Vibranium of Wakanda and the resources and political power of a coalition of nations.

Doctor Doom has modeled Latveria after Wakanda and he has modeled himself after not one, but many of earth's mightiest heroes.

The Fantastic Four: The First Family

How the Fantastic Four should be introduced into the MCU is another topic entirely. But I feel it is important to talk about what makes them so unique in Marvel and why they are such a strong thematic opponent to Doctor Doom.

We discussed some of the primary weaknesses of Doom being his need for control and his pride. Because of this, Doom will attempt to do everything alone and refuse the help of others. He will even refuse to ask for help when he needs it. He is the pinnacle of what man can build himself into, but in the end, he is alone.

The Fantastic Four are more than just a team, they are a family. They understand the importance of working together and demonstrate that the sum is greater than the parts. When they work together they can support and enable each other to overcome any obstacle.

That is the great tragedy of Doom. Were he able to ask for help or work with a team, he would be unstoppable. But the Fantastic Four represent the quality of his shadow that he will never overcome. And so, he shall never overcome the Fantastic Four.

References

The Sanctum Sanctorum

We were introduced to the Sanctum Sanctorum in Dr. Strange. It is three residences housing countless mystical paraphenalia residing in London, Hong Kong, and New York. They all link together through portals and are connected to Kamar-Taj in Nepal. The network of the Santum acts as a defense to mystical attacks against the earth. This is where Stephen Strange studies the mystic arts and becomes sorcerer supreme.

The Ultron Drones

In the Age of Ultron Baron von Strucker has been using the Scepter to experiment on humans to grant them powers. He casts aside his allegience to Hydra and focuses all his attention on the Maximoff twins.

He performs his experiments at a base in Sokovia. Ultron uses the resources at this base to create his upgraded body and build an army of robot drones after murdering Baron von Strucker.

This leaves the base and the research that was done here available for Doctor Doom to pick up where Baron Strucker and Ultron left off.

The Sokovia Accords

The First Avengers movie was ground breaking. No one questions that. It has its legacy in making the MCU possible.

The Second Avengers movie culminated into another earth changing event. A city was dropped from the sky and resulted in absolute catastrophe. This event served as the catalyst for much of Phase 3 of the MCU and much of the events that led to Infinity Wars.

The Sokovia Incident resulted in the world's nations creating the Sokovia Accords, which combined with Zeemo's revenge kicked off the events of Civil War.

The Accords are essentially a world-wide agreement that allows for the oversight and regulation of super-powered individuals.

This is the document that will serve as a precedent and springboard for Viktor von Doom, the political leader.