What if … Robert Downey Jr. Didn’t Show His Face as Doctor Doom?

[This story contains spoilers from Deadpool & Wolverine.]

Marvel fans are still trying to wrap their heads around last Saturday’s Marvel Panel at San Diego Comic-Con, where it was revealed that Robert Downey Jr. will be taking up the mask of Victor von Doom. The reactions have vacillated between enthusiasm, disappointment and confusion over seeing Downey return, and I have my share of opinions about it. But whatever we may feel about the decision, Avengers: Doomsday is happening with Robert Downey Jr. We all have our theories about the why of it, but let’s look to the “how?” So, with the comic books as our map, how will Downey’s version of Doctor Doom work within the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Most Marvel Comics fans would agree that Dr. Doom reigns supreme when it comes to villains. Yes, Thanos got a massive boost in comic popularity thanks to the MCU’s Infinity Saga but before that, following his debut in the pages of the Invincible Iron Man No. 55 in 1973, he was most frequently utilized as a Silver Surfer and Adam Warlock villain whose big moment came in Jim Starlin, George Perez and Ron Lim’s The Infinity Gauntlet (1991). But Doom precedes the creation of Thanos by over a decade, and since his appearance in The Fantastic Four No. 5 in 1962, there has been no question that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s OG uber-villain is in a class of his own.

Victor von Doom, born of a Romani healer and a Romani sorceress, was raised in poverty in the fictional Eastern European nation of Latveria. When his mother was taken to hell by the demon Mephisto for her witchcraft, the young Doom sought to better himself to bring her back. Upon being awarded a college scholarship in America, where he met the future Fantastic Four members Reed Richards and Ben Grimm, he built a cross-dimensional machine that would theoretically allow him to commune with his dead mother. But despite Richards’ warnings of miscalculations, Doom forged ahead and his machine blew up in his face, scarring it.

Doom left college and traveled to the Tibetan mountains, where he learned the art of sorcery and black magic. Deciding to hide his face from the world, Doom had the monks build him a suit of armor that left him in near-constant pain, and a metal mask, which was still red hot when he put it on, destroying whatever was left of his face. From there, he took the name Doctor Doom and conquered Latveria, where he ruled as a generous dictator, while he sought to bring the world under his control and rescue his mother from hell.

Because Avengers directors the Russos brothers introduced Downey as Victor von Doom at Comic-Con and called him the only man who could play the character, it’s reasonable to assume Dr. Doom won’t be a Stark variant. It’s possible that Downey could be portraying a fairly accurate version of that character, complete with the mask that is rarely removed, and with a scarred face underneath. In this case, it would be preferable if he never looked like Downey at all, and that his healed visage, as seen in Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic’s Secret Wars (2015), utilizes prosthetics to alter the actor’s looks. But that begs the question: “Why hire Robert Downey Jr. and pay him a reported $80 million upfront for Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars if his face is going to be hidden?”

Logic points to Downey’s Doctor Doom being from the same world that is home to the upcoming Fantastic Four: First Steps, which takes place in an alternate version of Earth within the vast multiverse. It is possible, while feeling oddly implausible, for Victor von Doom to look like Tony Stark on that alternate Earth. Yes, Deadpool & Wolverine pulled a fun gag with Chris Evans reprising his role as the Human Torch aka Johnny Storm, while Deadpool (and audiences) expected him to be Captain America.

So, characters from different realities can look like entirely unrelated characters. But the reason it worked in Deadpool & Wolverine is because Evans played Johnny Storm long before Captain America, and for less time, and the film is a comedy. But there’s not a good in-universe, or in-multiverse, answer for why Victor von Doom would look like Tony Stark. And it wouldn’t have quite the same effect as Evans, given the Downey is so instantly recognizable and synonymous with Iron Man. Plus, given the recognizability, it runs counter to Doom being a frightening, imposing figure, and I’ve yet to see Downey in anything where he’s brought that kind of gravitas to the table.

One of the stories that fans have pointed to over the past week is 2010’s single-issue comic, What If? Iron Man: Demon in Armor by David Michelinie, Bob Layton and Graham Nolan. In that story, it is Tony Stark who meets Victor von Doom at college, instead of Reed Richards. Seeing Stark’s wealth and family legacy, Doom builds a device to switch minds with Tony Stark. So Tony Stark is trapped in Doom’s body with no memory of his past and Doom’s mind resides in Stark’s body. Stark, in the body of Victor, still becomes a great scientist, but he lends his work, and suit of armor, to healing people and providing rescue services. Meanwhile, Doom, in the body of Stark, becomes a ruthless inventor and businessman, though he still cannot beat the success of his counterpart, who builds an arc reactor. When given the chance to restore their minds to their original bodies, Stark in Doom’s body refuses, saying he’s made the name Doom mean something good, while the name Stark has been sullied. It’s essentially a Prince and the Pauper meets Freaky Friday scenario and one that seems far too complicated and messy for a movie.

But since last Saturday’s announcement, there has been a growing fascination with the relationship between Doctor Doom and Iron Man. While Doom is most often utilized as a counterpart to Reed Richards, he’s made both an enemy and ally of Iron Man, too. But this relationship wasn’t established until the early ’80s, in David Michelinie, Bob Layton and John Romita Jr.’s Doomquest, which took place in Iron Man No. 149 and 150 (1981). Tony Stark’s mission to prevent Stark Tech from reaching Latveria results in both Iron Man and Doom landing on his time pad and being thrown back in time to the age of Camelot and King Arthur. To get back to their time, Stark and Doom must begrudgingly put their wits together to build a time machine. Though at this point in history, Doom did not know Iron Man was Tony Stark, only that Iron Man was his bodyguard. The two men return home, departing as enemies, but with respect in each other’s technical know-how.

What’s interesting about the parallels between the two during this and the following decades is that Tony Stark, predating Iron Man (2008) was a much more serious character, lacking the kind of sarcasm, salesmanship, ego and manic energy that Downey brought to the role. Simply put, Stark wasn’t interesting enough to supplant Reed Richards as Doom’s true foil. And while the two had many encounters over the years, heroes and villains like Doctor Strange, Black Panther and Kang all felt like more enticing adversaries.

But naturally, the success of the MCU led to significant changes in the writing of Tony’s characterization. While never able to quite match the tone of Downey’s Stark, the comic book Stark did take on a flashier personality. This cast him in opposition to Doctor Doom, who served as the straight man seeking the shadows rather than the limelight, as explored in Brian Michael Bendis’ Invincible Iron Man (2015), which served as the prelude to Bendis and Alex Maleev’s Infamous Iron Man (2016). That series saw Victor von Doom break good and attempt redemption as Iron Man for a year, following the temporary death of Tony Stark. Some fans have suggested that the MCU may attempt an inversion of this, with the real Doom dead and a variant of Tony Stark picking up his mantle and name. It’s a possibility, but given this is Doctor Doom’s first appearance in the MCU, that would be akin to having Victor von Doom serving as Iron Man in the 2008 film. The two examples of Iron Man and Doctor Doom’s roles intermingling both amount to a blip in comic book history, and both characters have proven to be far more interesting outside of those rare moniker-swapping narratives.

Perhaps when we all eventually see the movie in 2026, we’ll discover the Russos were misleading us, and an evil variant of Stark will first appear as Doctor Doom, before the real Doctor Doom, portrayed by a different actor, shows up and deals with his imposter. That scenario could be fun, though it echoes the Mandarin reveal in Iron Man III (2013). But comic books are known to repeat story beats. Why should comic book movies be any different?

Ultimately, however Doomsday and Secret Wars manage to explain Robert Downey Jr.’s appearance as Doctor Doom, the comics suggest that Doom is a complicated and complex enough character on his own, without the additional exposition needed to justify why he looks like Tony Stark. So yeah, some fans may miss their fan-fiction moments of a beaten and bruised Peter Parker looking up at an unmasked Doom and whimpering, “Mr. Stark?” or of Thor saying, “Tony?” and Doom responding, “Who the hell is Tony?”, exchanges that sound absolutely dire, by the way. But given how complicated the Multiverse Saga already is for audiences, with its newly introduced characters, variants, anchor points, beacons and incursions, the simplest route, a Doom who looks nothing like Tony Stark, would be the most efficient and effective way to honor both characters, even if they do share an actor.