Avengers: Doomsday‘s New York Comic-Con booth hinted at Doctor Doom’s past encounters with characters like Thanos and Ultron. Back when Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror was introduced in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, the MCU made it clear that he had faced Variants of familiar Avengers before, and it seems his villainous replacement may be in the same boat.
Marvel Studios continued the countdown to Doomsdayat October‘s New York Comic-Con with a special interactive Doctor Doom booth that recreates the supervillain’s trophy room, filled with artifacts from the Marvel universe. These items’ place in Doom’s collection points to his history with eight major heroes and villains, who he may have defeated beforeAvengers 5‘s events…
Marvel Studios Officially Teases Doctor Doom’s History With 8 Supervillains
Thanos
One of the most iconic panels of 2015’s Secret Warsstoryline, which is inspiring the MCU’s Multiverse Saga finale, sees God Emperor Doom magically rip Thanos’ skeleton from within his body. Many are hopeful to see the moment adapted in Doomsdayor Secret Wars, solidifying Doom as above the MCU’s last big bad.
There have been reports that a Thanos Variant may appear in Secret Wars, perhaps to recreate this legendary Marvel Comics panel, but it seems Doom may already have defeated one Mad Titan, as his helmet exists in his collection.
Unless Thanos arrived several decades earlier on Earth-828, this likely represents a different version of the purple villain from across the Multiverse. Then again, perhaps the Mad Titan already tried to attack The Fantastic Four: First Stepsuniverse, but Doom stopped him before there was any issue.
Ultron
Doctor Doom is establishing himself from the get-go as one level above the MCU’s previous Avengersvillains, including the murderous robot Ultron. The villain’s decapitated vibranium head is on display as part of Doom’s trophy room, indicating that Victor vanquished an Ultron Variant at some point in the past.
Notably, the Fantastic Four are officially the only superheroes active on Earth-828, so, unless Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards cooked up his own Ultron, Doom must have traveled to another universe and conquered its Variant of the big bad.
Cyclops
One of the strangest artifacts on display is Cyclops’ visor, which Scott Summers wears to contain and control his powerful energy beams. Unlike most of the other objects on display, it’s tough to see what purpose Cyclops’ ruby visor could serve to Doom, beyond being a trophy from defeating the laser-blasting mutant.
Interestingly, this doesn’t seem to be the sunglasses-inspired visor that James Marsden’s Cyclops wears in Doomsday‘s recenttrailer. That may suggest that the events depicted in Avengers 5aren’t Doom’s first run-in with Cyclops and the X-Men, and one has to wonder whether he used the Sentinels last time around.
Victor von Doom is also housing a chunk of Mjolnir and the Uru metal it is made from, signaling that he has clashed with a Thor Variant in the past. Funnily enough, Marvel Studios gave Kang the same treatment in Ant-Man 3, in which he referenced crossing paths with “the one with the hammer.”
If Doctor Doom has taken down a version of Thor before to acquire a piece of Mjolnir’s Uru metal, that may explain how he takes on the God of Thunder with such ease in Doomsday. Fans have already seen Doom stop Stombreaker with just two fingers, so one has to imagine that he would make light work of Mjolnir.
Venom
Also tucked within Doom’s trophy cabinet is a Venom Bomb capable of turning the Avengers into symbiotes, presumably containing a sample of the black goo itself. In the comics, the Venom Bomb was created by Doom’s adopted son, Kristoff Vernard, who acquired the symbiote through time travel, but there’s every chance that the MCU’s version of the powerful bioweapon was crafted by Victor himself.
Venom: The Last Danceended with Venom separating from Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock and sacrificing himself to defeat Knull’s Xenophages. But perhaps Venom was actually acquired by Doctor Doom just in the nick of time, allowing him to develop the Venom Bomb as the latest weapon in his arsenal.
Doomsdaywill bring about the end of the Multiverse, including Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, which will presumably be wiped out off-screen by an Incursion. So, Venom could be the last surviving piece of Sony’s universe of box office flops.
Silver Surfer
The Fantastic Four: First Stepsintroduced Julia Garner as Shalla-Bal, aka Silver Surfer, the Herald of Galactus, who ultimately turned against the Devourer of Worlds, sending him through a portal across the universe. It’s unclear what happened to either after the credits rolled on their debut MCU blockbuster.
Interestingly, Doom has a cracked silver surfboard in his collection, possibly a sign that he has already defeated the cosmically powered herald. This is significant, as Doom hails from Earth-828, a universe where fans have already met the Silver Surfer, meaning it may be Garner’s Variant whom he killed for her board.
The board is nearly indestructible and able to move faster than light, making this a valuable artifact in Doom’s collection, if he can hold onto it. The potential death of Shalla-Bal opens up the Silver Surfer mantle, going into the rumored Fantastic Four 2, making way for Norrin Radd to replace her as a cosmic waverider.
Doctor Doom
The MCU’s short-lived Kang era revealed that Jonathan Majors’ Variants had entered a Multiversal War with one another. The presence of multiple Doctor Doom masks in what is mostly a trophy room could be spares of his own, or a sign that Earth-828’s Victor von Doom already wiped out some of his Variants.
Doom is famously proud, power-hungry, and arrogant, and that includes seeing himself above his Variants. That said, Victor likely views his alternate selves as close as it gets to his level of intellect and power, so it makes sense that he would be eager to wipe them out so they can’t interfere with his Multiversal plans.
Last November, there were rumors that Doomsdaywould steal a crucial Kang storyline by featuring multiple Doom Variants, including female ones. Granted, that may have simply been an on-setn that Avengers 5is hiding more versions of its villain
Galactus
The Ultimate Nullifier was also on display at the Doomsdaybooth, adding the most devastating weapon in the known Marvel universe to Doom’s collection. The metallic, retro-looking weapon was created by the Watchers and can erase any target, including whole universes and timelines, from existence.
That could be a powerful tool in Doom’s looming Multiversal crusade, but it is most famously associated with Galactus, as it is one of the only things he truly fears. The Ultimate Nullifier is one of the only weapons that can actually kill Galactus, effectively erasing him from existence across all of time.
Doom’s homeworld, Earth-828, was attacked by Ralph Ineson’s Galactus in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, but was defeated by Marvel’s First Family by banishing him through a portal across the universe. It stands to reason that Doom was working on his own means of defeating Galactus off-screen in First Steps, which he may have executed after the movie’s events, tracking down the planet-gobbler to put him down for good and secure his universe and Latveria’s future.
