Today on the 5: As almost everyone on the planet who accesses the internet knows by now, Robert Downey Jr. is returning to the MCU as Doctor Doom. After reading a Verge article talking about the character, I had a though about how the character is uniquely suited for an ongoing series.
Ozone Nightmare
Doctor Doom: The Series
Welcome to your daily five for Monday, August 5th, 2024. We talked Lando and I, meaning we talked on the last Friday's show about the idea of Dr. Doom and Robert Downey Jr. returning to the MCU as being an interesting move. And, you know, we discussed it for a little bit, but we didn't get too far, I think, into it because really, this is just essentially an announcement, a movie title, and we don't really know what the plans are yet and probably won't for a while. And of course, there have been numerous articles all over the place about this and, you know, trying to speculate where are they going, what are they gonna do, how is this gonna work, how is Iron Man gonna now suddenly be Dr. Doom? And is this a multiverse thing? And, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. And something occurred to me over the weekend and it was just kind of an errant thought because Dr. Doom is a unique character in Marvel's whole canon of villains. He is definitely, if not the best, among the best villains that Marvel has ever come up with and managed to maintain. In terms of, I'm not gonna say there's no bad Dr. Doom stories, of course, in the amount of years and any of these characters exist, there are going to be bad stories. But overall, Dr. Doom has been maintained exceptionally well as a character that has depth and complexity and that you can't just throw into a, he's a bad guy container. From the very beginning, they have managed to put more into that character to make him interesting than most other Marvel villains. And that's what I think has, not to mention that striking design. I mean, they nailed that design so perfectly that that's why they've really never altered it in any major way. So combination of great character development and creation along with a devastatingly timeless look. I mean, they really nailed it with Dr. Doom, plus the name. I mean, really, this is such a perfect character that it's stunning they haven't managed to screw it up by now. But I had this thought that came into my head. I have lots of thoughts and they generally kind of vaporize and float away or they're just terrible. But this one stuck with me because it was so contrary to what I normally think about in terms of how Marvel and DC are doing things lately. But I thought to myself, Dr. Doom of all the Marvel characters might be the one best suited to have a streaming series dedicated to his background. Because, and if you don't know anything about Dr. Doom and I'm not going to go with the whole thing there's no way I could do it in five minutes and I don't even have five minutes left. Dr. Doom has a really rich and interesting backstory. And you should go read about it. Go look at the history of this character. And of course, some things have been retconned, but he is different than most other Marvel characters. That's all I can really say about it without going into a really wide ranging explanation. But he is so interesting. And like I said, narratively rich that you could do a whole series. And the thing is, you really wouldn't need to have any other Marvel characters in it. Of course they would, they would be able to resist the urge. But you don't need them. And one of the reasons is, Dr. Doom, unlike most other big Marvel villains, runs his own country. He has a country that he's been in charge of for a very long time. Now of course they may have changed things in the recent comics. I haven't read everything within the last five to 10 years. But for a long time, he ran a country as a tyrant that the people liked. A strong man that did, he was tough but fair. And so people liked having him in charge. And just that by itself, is a series about the everyday interactions and how this person, who is simultaneously a huge global villain for the planet, also just has meetings with his people that come to him with problems and he makes decisions in a Solomon-like manner. All of his Doombots, all the people that he's tried to train to be a successor in case he dies or is killed by one of these superheroes. It's a fascinating template to attach a series to. Now I don't think they have any interest in that. I really feel like this is a desperation play because they lost Kang because the actor got convicted of whatever he got convicted of and Marvel freaked out and decided we have to sub in somebody that has a name presence that we can and bring back an actor that we're not worried about, although you never know these days. And just get it back to get this thing back on track because they've been kind of flailing. So I don't think there is any plan for this. But honestly, if they were to say that after the doomsday movie, which I cannot believe they named that, DC must be very, very upset. If they were to then say, okay, we're gonna follow this up with a series that tells the backstory of this villain before this film, I would not mind that because there's so much there. Of course it would have to be done properly. But if done properly, there's a ton to mind out of that character. It really is, once I had that thought, it's made so much sense to me that that's why I know they'll never do it. But Dr. Doom is unique in that way. And if there was one character from Marvel, honestly, did I wanna see a series about? I gotta tell you, Dr. Doom would be it later.