Welcome to the main discussion thread for the Marvel Cinematic Universe! This pinned post is here to establish some basic guidelines. All of the Media Forum rules
still apply.
- This thread is for talking about the live-action films, TV shows, animated works, and related content that use the Marvel brand, currently owned by Disney.
- While mild digressions are okay, discussion of the comic books should go in this thread
. Extended digressions may be thumped as off-topic.
- Spoilers for new releases should not be discussed without spoiler tagging for at least two weeks. Rather, each title should have a dedicated thread where that sort of conversation is held. We can mention new releases in a general sense, but please be courteous to people who don't want to be spoiled.
If you're posting tagged spoilers, make sure that the film or series is clearly identified outside the spoiler tagging. People need to know what will be spoiled before they choose to read the post.
Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
So I’ve been thinking about the introduction of several new villains and one comes to mind for me a decent amount - Doctor Doom. Specifically, none of the previous film versions of DOOM have showed him as the leader of Latveria, which is one of the most fascinating aspects of the character, and a part of what makes him so complex. So I came up with an idea, and let me know if it makes sense as an introduction -
The idea is that Doom has opened Latveria to a press tour to show the people of the world what he’s done to Latveria, particularly noting the upheaval in the region after AOU, and according to him, what he’s done is massively improve the quality of life. Latveria puts its money where its mouth is quite literally given the government budget, and is leading the developing world in affordability of healthcare, reducing pollution, ensuring its people have access to plentiful food and clean water, etc. For how can Doom be as good a leader as he claims if his people suffer? Everyone, from the lowest custodian to the greatest scientist, has access to things that they need to survive, food, water, and shelter.
However the happy little press tour through a public park (with a statue of Doom of course) is interrupted by a band of rebels, led by a woman calling herself Miss America. The press are running for cover as the bodyguards get gunned down, but Doom will not cower before these terrorists. Doom is.
And what follows is Doom kicking ass, using his armor and tactical genius to kill the rebels, finishing by blowing away Miss America. Doom then turns to the shocked press corps.
“But for those who don’t appreciate what I have done, I have no mercy. Now come, it’s almost time for lunch.”
“Any probability to see the enchantress? I mean Hela was kinda good as hammy villian but I will prefer something more serious.”
Enchantress isn’t really a serious villain
For much of her published life she’s been mostly upset that Thor wouldn’t bone her
With a brief hypocritical stop in telling her younger sister to stop screwing over Asgard in her quest to get Thor to bone her
Forever liveblogging the AvengersOne idea I'm fond of for Doctor Doom is to make Latveria and Sokovia the same country.
Here's how it would work, at some point after the events of Age of Ultron, the already-fragile government of Sokovia collapsed and Doctor Doom rose to power in the wake of it (the Snap could of been the final straw for the old government). He renamed the country to Latveria, which will be revealed to be a historical name for the region.
He's stayed off of the Avengers radar since by NOT acting like a supervillian. Sure he's wasn't exactly democratically elected and has implimented a lot of isolationist policies, but as far as dictators go he seems to be highly competent at running the country, enjoys a lot of popular support (to the point where he'd probably win an election if one were held), and within just a few years manages to not only rebuild the nation's capital but turn it into a technological utopia second only to Wakanda.
Basically if he was content with running his own little country in Eastern Europe, the world would mostly be content with letting him. Sure there would nominally be protests against the lack of democracy and isolationism of Latveria, but no one would of actually done anything substantial about it and if anything they'd be more interested in trying to copy how he rebuilt the country so quickly.
But Doctor Doom is well, Doctor Doom, so his plans go far beyond running Latveria.
I've read at least one fanfic that ran with that idea, with the plan of having Doom be the Big Bad of their Phase Four.
It had him teaming up with Ultron to explain his Doombots though...
I dunno...Doctor Doom just doesn't feel right without the Fantastic Four. He's their Big Bad.
Disgusted, but not surprisedHe's really not, though.
He's the Fantastic Four's villain in the same sense that Galactus is the Fantastic Four's villain. He shows up as a bad guy in their comics, he started out as a bad guy in their comics, but he also shows up in a lot of other places too. The Fantastic Four don't own him.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.More like how quite a few of Spidey's bad guys branched out into fighting other heroes:
Kingpin, Sandman, Rhino, and Arcade have all fought other heroes (I think Arcade is slightly better known for fighting the X-men than Spiderman, but he still deals with the latter on occasion).
It's the same with Doom, only he's damn near everyone's villain.
One Strip! One Strip!Except Doom's more or less defined by his rivalry with Richards. It's a very personal beef on his end.
Sure, he's fought against other heroes before, but it just isn't the same.
It's like Norman Osborne. Sure, he's made a play at being a more general Big Bad for the Marvel verse (which didn't pan out in the end) but at the end of the day, he's a Spidey foe.
Edited by M84 on Sep 9th 2019 at 10:26:51 PM
Disgusted, but not surprisedAnd they all introduced him as the F4's Big Bad Arch-Nemesis, yet another reason to make his rivalry with Richards be established after his introduction.
I do expect Doctor Doom to have a confrontation with the Fantastic Four at some stage, but he can also be an Avengers-level threat if that's the route they choose to go for him.
They are planning to make a Fantastic Four movie, so there's no reason he can't be a villain in both those and an Avengers film.
Doom's origin gets left out because from a writing standpoint, it's easier to have the villain be more directly tied to the hero. It's a major reason for the oft-commented on habit of Marvel movies having the hero fight a character who is essentially their Evil Counterpart. It keeps the story streamlined and compact.
Doom, meanwhile, is weird in that while he has a preexisting rivalry with and hatred for Reed Richards, pretty much everything else revolving his rise to villainy doesn't really involve the Fantastic Four at all, and he doesn't encounter them until many years later. Him learning sorcery, building a suit of Powered Armor and performing a coup in his home country is all stuff that could be a movie in itself.
And it should be. Doom is a fascinating character because he’s doing the wrong things for what he thinks is the right reasons. He’s not some one dimensional cackling madman like Fan4stick made him out to be.
It kind of misses something that's essential to the character from the comics though. The origin illustrates that Doom is an incredibly petty man who cannot admit he made a mistake.
"My machine blew up in my face after Reed Richards warned me this might happen? It's all his fault! He must have sabotaged me! Welp, I better go build a suit of armor, take over a country, and devote the rest of my life to making his life hell. Then he'll admit he was wrong and I was right."
Edited by M84 on Sep 9th 2019 at 10:50:17 PM
Disgusted, but not surprised
Does Doom’s pettiness come from his desire to do good, or does his desire to do good come from just how petty he is as a human being? Both are plausible.
Keep in mind what Doom perceives as the greater good and what others consider good tends to vary.
Edited by Beatman1 on Sep 9th 2019 at 10:56:49 AM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Ray_Bill
Wake me up at your own risk.