UPDATE: 2025-07-11 23:30 EST BY GLENN BUNN
Dr. Doom Is The MCU’s New Major Threat
Within a day of this being published, Marvel Studios announced that the next Avengers movie would no longer beThe Kang Dynastybut would beAvengers: Doomsday, with Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr. returning to the MCU, this time to portray the iconic villain, Dr. Doom.
Original story below.
Summary
Marvel Rivalshas revealed a new cinematic trailer at San Diego Comic-Con 2024, further exploring the main storyline of Marvel Games and NetEase Games' third-person hero shooter. It’s been known since the original announcement of the game thatMarvel Rivalswould essentially be a multiversal story, with new worlds and Spider-Variants such as Peter and Peni Parker fighting side-by-side in the game’s various arenas. However,the new trailer provided more context into why the heroes are at odds, providing a proper look at the game’s main villain, Dr. Doom, as well as Thor, a playable character who had been leaked before but wasn’t featured in the Closed Alpha playtest.
Thor will be joining theClosed Beta playtestalongside Jeff the Land Shark, as revealed in an additional, adorable reveal trailer at SDCC that’s currently on theMarvel RivalsYouTube channel.
I completely expected Thor to appear at some point as a playable hero regardless of the leaks, simply because Loki is already in the game, and the God of Thunder has been used in so much current Marvel media due to his increase in popularity with mainstream audiences over the years - most likely due to his portrayal by Chris Hemsworth in the Marvel Cinematic Universe - that his omission would feel jarring.The character I was more excited to see, however, was Dr. Doom. Doom was announced in the press release that accompaniedMarvel Rivals' first trailer, and it was clear he would play a major part in the story, but this is the first we have seen of the character and his future variant.
InMarvel Rivals' story,the central clash between Doctor Doom and his future counterpart from the year 2099 has forced countless universes to collide in the Timestream Entanglement, creating new worlds and crises. From a gameplay perspective, the universe continually evolving in-game in such a way offers the opportunity for regular seasonal updates and other post-launch content. From a story perspective, these new dimensions can show some of the Marvel universe’s greatest heroes and villains' alliances shifting as they have to band together to defeat both Dooms and save their respective realities.
Every Character Confirmed For Marvel Rivals (So Far)
Marvel Rivals features some of Marvel’s most popular characters from the Avengers, X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, and more!
Many Audiences May Not Be Familiar With Just How Powerful Dr. Doom Is
The Movies Have Botched The Character Twice Now
While I am fully aware that more general players will be diving into the online battles to see iconic Marvel characters fighting and won’t be as focused onMarvel Rivals' storyline, I am glad that the game does have a story and that Marvel and NetEase Games have opted to put Dr. Doom so prominently within it. Dr. Doom is an extremely popular villain in the comics - and potentially an ally should the heroes' goals align with his own or benefit him in some way - but he has not been fairly portrayed in some of the more mainstream media.
Both iterations of theFantastic Fourmovies - no, I am not including the 1994 Roger Corman one as itwasn’t officially released- have botched Dr. Doom in many ways over the years. Not only did both the 2005 film and its 2015 reboot tie Doom’s origins closely to the titular heroic team’s - he blamed his disfigurement on The Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards (aka. Mr Fantastic) in many iterations, but he wasn’t involved in the mission in which the heroes got their powers - but they also removed many key elements that made Doom such a threat in the comics.
In the comics,Dr. Doom is not only the monarch of Latveria, but he is also an extremely skilled sorcerer and an inventor with genius-level intellect, often being depicted as one of the most intelligent beings in the Marvel universe. As such, he is often equipped with next-level technology, such as his Doombots, and has wielded enough magical power and abilities to become the Sorcerer Supreme at one point after Doctor Strange relinquished the title. The movie versions, however, show him as either a businessman or a scientist who gets eitherlightning or telekinetic powersfrom the same experiments as The Fantastic Four and often portray his rivalry with Reed as rather one-note, usually involving fighting for the affections of Sue Storm (aka. The Invisible Woman).
From the looks of it, the newFantastic Fourmovie won’t feature Dr. Doom as the casting announcements have indicated that it will be focusing on Galactus and Silver Surfer, and honestly, while I would love to see a more comics-accurate version of Dr. Doom appearing in the MCU at some point, I think that it’s probably for the best that Marvel Studios hasn’t rebooted the series a third time with another “Fantastic Four vs. Dr. Doom” movie, so I am fine with him popping up later.
The Strongest Character In The Marvel’s Rivals Universe Is A Very Surprising Choice
One character’s comic-accurate abilities is making them extremely overpowered in Marvel Rivals, clearing out whole teams with one move.
Complete With His Comic-Accurate Abilities
In the meantime, however, I am hoping that with not one but two Dr. Dooms inMarvel Rivals, the game can show more mainstream audiences that may only be familiar with the movies and may still be discovering the wider Marvel Universe in other media can see just how impressive of a character he can be. The SDCC trailer already showed Doombots swarming the heroes, and the fact Doom is clashing with a future counterpart indicates thatthe character’s intellect and scientific nature is definitely going to feature in the game’s story, and he can be seen wielding magic atop his castle in Latveria in the trailer’s closing moments, suggesting that his sorcerer abilities and monarch status will be present as well.
Admittedly,Dr. Doom has had a better track record in his game appearances than his movie onesand has featured in theMarvel Ultimate Alliancegames, but barring the Nintendo Switch-exclusive third entry,Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order- where he appeared as the titular antagonist of the DLC epilogue depicted inShadow of Doom - the first two games aren’t accessible to many current players anymore where they were delisted from digital storefronts along with the other Activision Marvel games and aren’t available through backwards compatibility on modern platforms with a physical copy either. This is the case with somany past Marvel titles, and it’s a real shame as so many of them told great stories that weren’t influenced by the movie depictions - barring the movie tie-ins, obviously - and focused solely on how the characters appeared in their comic iterations.
Fortunately, it does look like while Marvel is focusing on characters that have proven to be popular throughout the MCU - such as Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and theever-popular Spider-Man- in their recent gaming ventures, these titles are open to experimenting with their portrayals while also bringing over other characters from the comics, so hopefully Dr. Doom’s major presence inMarvel Rivalsis a good sign of things to come, as the game could introduce so many more depictions of characters from other media who players may not be as familiar with. After all, they already have Luna Snow and Jeff the Land Shark confirmed as playable characters.
