Doctor Doom Being Cool Is Bad For the Villain (& I Won't Stop Saying So)

Doctor Doom is Marvel’s greatest villain, and it isn’t even close. Sure, Magneto has had a more interesting journey as a character and Thanos has the power, but neither of them can hold a candle to Doom. Doctor Doom is a compelling monster, his hubris and style hiding a character that is much more deep than his third person histrionics let on. Doom tops everything single villain column; he has the best costume, he has his archenemies, he’s powerful and cunning, and he can work as a villain against basically any hero or hero team. Doom has even been Iron Man, and has helped save the universe several times. Right now, One World Under Doom is giving readers Doom as Emperor of the world, while the heroes scramble about to stop him, getting outsmarted at every turn by Doom. Doom is the best of the best, and that’s all there is to it.

Videos by ComicBook.com

Doom has always been a very popular villain, and he’s gotten even more popular in our new Internet age, with multiple Doctor Doom memes making the rounds of social media. The recent announcement that Robert Downey Jr. is going to play Doom in the MCU — as well as his Fortnite season and role in Marvel Rivals — has made Doom more of a focus for a lot of fans. Doom has become “cool”, which should be a good thing. Comics aren’t often cool, so anything that makes them popular is good, right? Wrong. In fact, I would go so far as to say the justified, cool Doom we’ve gotten for years now is a huge problem.

Doctor Doom Is No Longer Dangerous

Look, I’m not going to say that Doctor Doom doing cool stuff is terrible. Look at the picture of Doom riding a tyrannosaur Doom. That’s unequivocally awesome. The meme where Doom tells Reed Richards that all Latverian children are forced to get eight hours of sleep a night? Hilarious. Doom taking up the mantle of Iron Man, battling Mephisto, and going on a multiversal jaunt with the Thing and Human Torch in 2017’s Marvel-Two-In-One? A great evolution of the character. However, when was the last time Doom dangerous? Was it around Secret Wars (2015) when he was God Emperor Doom? Was it when he joined Norman Osborn’s Cabal? I can answer that question — it was the Fantastic Four story known as “Unthinkable”, where Doom sacrifices the woman he’s loved since childhood, Valeria, for more power, skins her, and makes her skin into armor. That is Doom at his best and it’s what the current “cool” Doom is missing. Doom is looked at as a mostly good person who hates Reed Richards, and that makes him evil. This attitude about Doom has done a huge amount of the damage to the character.

One World Under Doom is a perfect example of the problem with modern Doom. Now, One World Under Doom is a good comic. It’s a cool story and it’s fun to see Doom win. However, the biggest problem I have with the series is how it plays Doom as an altruist. Obviously, it’s almost certain that we’ll find out that Doom is doing something very evil beneath the surface, but the story plays Doom as a near-populist, using left wing ideas like government provided health care and education to make everyone like him. Doom is a manipulative character, so that isn’t surprising, but the way the book is playing Doom so straight takes the bite out of it. Secret Wars (2015) did something similar, but we knew from the beginning that something was wrong. We kept getting hints that something was rotten. So far, we’re just getting Doom as the hero and it doesn’t feel right. Even with this Doom beating the heroes in each of the last three issues, he’s never actually feels dangerous. Doom’s edge is gone, buried under years of everyone pointing out his tragic backstory and love of the Latverian people instead of the time he killed the woman he loved for power or all of the times he did monstrous things all in order to accomplish his goals. There’s nothing wrong with noble, tragic villains, but we’re getting to a point with Doom that it will be hard to even call him a villain.

Doctor Doom Needs His Edge Back

Look, I can’t tell the future. There’s every chance that One World Under Doom makes Doom into the dangerous monster he should be. However, with Robert Downey Jr. taking the role on, I have a hard time believing that Marvel is going to give us a Doom more like “Unthinkable” or Secret Wars (2015). Movie synergy is the order of the day and if things go like how I think they will in Avengers: Doomsday — that he’s a Tony Stark variant of some kind and not the actual Victor Von Doom — Marvel isn’t likely to change Doom into a more dangerous character. Doom is an amazing villain, but he’s become too, well, cuddly, for lack of a better word.

There are plenty of monstrous villains out there who are still popular — Sabretooth is a brutal killer and he gets his own miniseries every few years — so it’s not like the only way to make a villain popular is to tone them down. Doom is an amazing character, a multi-faceted villain who can be funny and poignant and then the next page tear someone’s heart. That’s what makes Doom so great. Doom needs that edge back more than he needs another memeable moment. Doom is the king of Marvel villains, and it’s about time he started acting like it again.

One World Under Doom is on sale now.