With “Avengers: Doomsday,” set to release in theaters this December, the Russo brothers are gearing up for what is shaping up to be the biggest Marvel movie event since “Avengers: Endgame.” After all, they’re not only bringing back every MCU hero up until this point, but they’re also bringing in the Fantastic Four of Earth-828 and even the X-Men from the original movies. However, even with such a roster of characters, fans remain skeptical about their chances against Dr. Doom. From Doom’s level of power to his rumored evil team (more on that in a bit), and to our current lineup of heroes, it all makes me doubt the writers thought this finale through. 

Dr. Doom’s Evil Team

Before we get into Doom himself (and why he doesn’t even need a team), we seriously need to address the rumors of Doom assembling his own team of villains. If said rumors are proven true, Doom won’t just be making your typical “Legion of Doom,” because these guys COMPLETELY SURPASS that! In this roster, we have Maestro, Knull, Mephisto, King Thanos, The Maker, Captain Hydra, and Evil Black Widow. Without going too deep into powers or feats (as they need their own article), let’s just say these guys are complete overkill! 

For starters, Maestro is essentially a future version of the Hulk who becomes the dictator of a nuclear, apocalyptic Earth. The Hulk is already terrifying enough, as he has an unlimited source of strength, is nearly impossible to kill (much less keep up with in a fight), and can resurrect himself through the Green Door in the comics. Now, take all of that, and add it to a Hulk who is smarter, more ruthless, and with little to no heroes in this apocalypse who could stand up to him. You don’t just have a Hulk at that point, you have something worse. Next on the list is King Thanos, and much like Maestro, he also hails from the future with little to no heroes to stand in his way. Unlike Maestro, though, King Thanos literally holds the Hulk’s leash as he’s made the green beast his literal dog. If that doesn’t say enough about his threat level, he’s been able to defeat pretty much everyone from the Avengers to Galactus or Ego the Living Planet WITHOUT the Infinity Gauntlet! It was so bad that when the Cosmic Ghost Rider (Frank Castle with the Power Cosmic and Spirit of Vengeance) came to kill him, Thanos instead manipulated him into becoming his servant! You know someone’s a true threat when they’ve got two of the most powerful beings in Marvel comics on leashes, while the rest of said powerful beings are destroyed. 

However, Doom doesn’t only look to the future for members of his team, but he also searches alternate timelines to find the right people. In this case, he enlists the services of The Maker (an evil version of Mr. Fantastic), Captain Hydra (an evil version of Captain America), and Evil Black Widow (there’s no fancy title or supervillain name for this one). But what makes each of these guys dangerous enough to be part of Doom’s team? Well, for starters, let’s examine The Maker. Hailing from the original Ultimate universe, Reed basically went insane and is now motivated purely by logic and the obsession to make the perfect universe. To do this, he went to another universe and altered many events in that world’s history: he kept the radioactive spider from biting Peter Parker, tortured that world’s version of himself until he became Dr. Doom, put Loki on the throne of Asgard, and made many other changes (most of which we’re not even aware of)! The Maker is a true multiversal threat, and while Captain Hydra isn’t explicitly on the same level as the Maker, he has just as much terrifying potential to rise to it. Unlike the Maker, Captain Hydra isn’t from an alternate universe, but basically, Red Skull manipulated a sentient piece of the Cosmic Cube to alter Steve’s history so that he was a sleeper agent of Hydra this whole time. Of course, the real Steve would be restored, but the damage Captain Hydra did was catastrophic: he brought the government to its knees, trapped most of the Marvel heroes either in a shadowy dome in New York or outside the planet itself, and was even able to lift Thor’s hammer! If the real Steve hadn’t been brought back to fight against his evil counterpart, Captain Hydra would’ve taken over the whole world. Finally, while nothing is confirmed or revealed about Evil Black Widow, her threat shouldn’t be underestimated simply because she has no superpowers. Remember, Black Widow was trained from childhood to be one of the world’s deadliest assassins and spies. In the “Black Widow” prequel, Dreykov’s Red Room was efficient enough to infiltrate governments and carry out missions undetected and unchallenged for years until Nat brought the whole operation down. In “Captain America: Civil War,” Bucky once said that Hydra’s elite Winter Soldier group could take down a country in one night undetected, and I believe that Nat could exceed that kind of potential if she wanted. 

As for Knull and Mephisto, I have absolutely no clue how Doom could’ve recruited these guys if these rumors are proven to be true. These two aren’t some typical mortal supervillains or alien warlords that you might have the chance to convince to be on your side; these are literal cosmic deities! Knull, for example, is the creator of the symbiote race (like Venom or Carnage) as well as the forger of the All-Black Necrosword (which can actually kill gods). Knull is so powerful that he was able to decapitate a literal Celestial with that sword, which is obviously no small thing! Among his other feats, he can manipulate darkness itself, destroy stars, and take full control of his symbiotes and monsters from across the whole universe if he were at full strength. On top of that, Knull is nearly impossible to kill, much less hurt, in battle. Even guys like Thor, Hulk, and Sentry couldn’t do anything to him. It had to take Venom bonding with the Enigma Force and throwing Knull into the sun to ultimately destroy him, and without either of those factors, Knull would’ve dominated the whole Earth and universe without batting an eye. Mephisto, on the other hand, is equally dangerous but not exactly on the same level as Knull. While Knull is essentially a blood-lusted warrior and conqueror, Mephisto is more subtle and doesn’t really care about universal domination. Instead, his main goal is to obtain as many souls as possible, and he does so by taking advantage of easy targets, casting powerful illusions, and exploiting weaknesses to trap his victims in binding contracts. He once tricked Peter into a deal where he saved Aunt May’s life in exchange for the erasure of Pete and MJ’s marriage, so their child would no longer be a threat to him. Inside his own realm, though, Mephisto is near unstoppable. Not only are his powers amped up to the max, but he can also control all space and time within it. He is also known to have imprisoned or overpowered beings like Dr. Strange, Thor, and even the Silver Surfer whenever they step inside his world. If Doom really did recruit him, then either Doom is an amazing negotiator ahead of the curve, or Mephisto is playing the long game with Doom. Knull, on the other hand, wouldn’t even think to ally himself with a mortal like Doom, no matter how powerful he is. How Doom got either of these guys onto his team is beyond my guess, and we’ll simply have to see if these rumors will be proven true by the end of the year. 

Doom Himself

Honestly, this whole team is overkill because Dr. Doom could just defeat all of the current MCU heroes by himself. And this isn’t just an exaggeration to hype y’all up for the upcoming movie; he could actually do it because he has already proven it countless times in comics. A huge factor is his unbelievably high intelligence, pinning him as one of—if not the—smartest being in Marvel (often causing debates whether he’s greater than or equal to Reed Richards)! In fact, it’s thanks to this level of intellect that he has mastered both science AND magic to the point where he reached an unstoppable level of power. Aside from being able to create a massive army of Doombots and advanced weapons, Doom’s armor allows him to fire intense energy blasts and tank the most devastating of attacks. This gives him the ability to go toe-to-toe with all of the Fantastic Four combined, or even heavy hitters like the Hulk or Thor. Additionally, in terms of magic, he has studied and mastered nearly every kind of mystic art, enabling him to conjure complex mystical defenses and calculate the most powerful attacks. His magic is so powerful that he rivals even sorcerers like Dr. Strange and can also challenge beings like Mephisto. One such moment is when Doom convinced Strange to accompany him to Mephisto’s realm to free his mother’s soul, and he was actually able to outsmart the ultimate trickster and escape unscathed, which is obviously no small thing. 

However, that is just the tip of the iceberg of what Doom is capable of. After all, it’s one thing to hear the basics, but we need to see some true examples of Doom’s feats to get the full picture. One such moment occurred way back in 1966, when Doom stole the Power Cosmic directly from the Silver Surfer! Thanks to a special machine that he made, he was able to siphon all that power into himself and even challenged Galactus after soloing the Fantastic Four. Galactus would easily beat him and take the power back, but even so, stealing the powers of a cosmic-level being like the Silver Surfer is largely unheard of. Doom’s trend of stealing powers would continue, however, as he would absorb the energy of the Beyonders in 2016’s “Secret Wars.” To make a long story short, the Beyonders are a race of INSANELY powerful cosmic beings that exist outside of the multiverse, and they were destroying all realities. Faced with no other choice, Dr. Strange helped Doom and Molecule Man to engineer a convoluted plot for Doom to absorb the insane levels of power. After becoming what is now known as God Emperor Doom, the Beyonders were either dead or helpless due to the act, and Doom created his own version of Battleworld by stitching together pieces of different worlds. Also, when Thanos came to challenge him, Doom responded by reaching into Thanos and literally ripping out his skeleton! Doom was so powerful that the only way he was actually “defeated” was when he voluntarily gave up the power after he began to doubt himself, and allowed Reed and his son Franklin to rebuild the multiverse. As a final example, let’s look at the most recent events of the “One World Under Doom” storyline. After convincing Dr. Strange to give Doom the title and power of “Sorcerer Supreme” to save the world from a global vampire invasion, Doom would take advantage of their agreement and keep Strange’s powers. He would then use them to essentially take over the world, but not in the way you’d expect. Unlike Doom’s previous attempt, where he used the Purple Man’s powers to take over everyone’s minds and engineer peace, Doom didn’t use any mind control or intimidation. Instead, he provided free healthcare, free education, stopped wars, and essentially made things better. Of course, with this being Doom, it would eventually be revealed that he was draining the life energy from Latverian citizens to power his magic. But until then, all the heroes couldn’t even find one thing to prove that Doom was guilty of any crime. And even when they exposed him, not even the combined might of the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and X-Men could stand up to Doom. There were even moments where Doom was able to neutralize the mutants and make them human, turn the Thing back into a human, and even scatter the F4 across different time periods. If he didn’t give up his power to save his goddaughter, Valaria Richards (who was mortally wounded in the climactic fight in the finale), Doom would’ve ruled the world unchallenged. 

Our Current Heroes

With ALL of this information from the past two sections in mind, let’s take another look at the current heroes we have in the MCU. Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, Black Panther, and Black Widow are all dead. Hulk is a shadow of what he used to be, Hawkeye and Steve Rogers are retired but passed their mantles on, Shuri takes on her own mantle of Black Panther, and Vision is seemingly restored but MIA after the events of “WandaVision.” Thor is a single dad, but appears to finally be shaping up. Bucky is alive and is part of the New Avengers, alongside former villains or anti-heroes like Yelena, U.S. Agent, and Red Guardian. Ant-Man and the Wasp are still alive, but shaken after their encounter with Kang in the Quantum Realm. Spider-Man is also alive, but nobody remembers who he is. Finally, Dr. Strange is still alive, but he’s off with Clea in the Dark Dimension, and it’s still unknown what they’re up to. However, can ANY of them beat Doom (much less his evil team)?

Even if you subtract the evil team from this equation, the heroes we’ve got left still don’t stand much of a chance against Doom. Without heavy hitters like Tony, Wanda, or the savage version of Hulk, we’ve mainly got regular guys with little to no powers. Sam doesn’t have the super soldier serum, Shuri doesn’t have anything aside from the artificial heart-shaped herb, Ant-Man and Wasp’s shrinking powers won’t do much, and the only people on the New Avengers with actual powers are Ghost and Sentry (if he ever uses his powers again). Even before Doom obtained godlike power in the comics, he was still able to wipe the floor with large groups of heroes and get back to Latveria in time for lunch. So, how on earth are a bunch of regular guys who can only, as Yelena once put it, “punch and shoot,” defeat someone like Doom? Let’s be real, the only heroes who actually have a chance are Strange and Thor, but even then, Doom can absolutely demolish them. Even if the Sentry regained and was able to control his powers, Doom could defeat Hulk and Thor in the comics, so the Sentry would make little difference. And, if Doom’s evil team is confirmed, Knull could literally rip Sentry in half as he did in the “King in Black” storyline. The worst part is that many of the new characters introduced until now have either been forgotten or won’t fare any better against Doom than anyone else. Shang-Chi is a formidable fighter (especially with his rings), but can’t measure up to Doom. The Eternals haven’t been seen since 2021, so it’s doubtful they’ll reappear anytime soon. The Young Avengers idea was scrapped, so it’s doubtful any of them will return either. Werewolf by Night, Echo, and Ironheart have never been brought back after their shows ended, and there hasn’t been anything that confirmed their returns in Doomsday. As for She-Hulk and Moon Knight, their actors are very hesitant to keep working for Disney, so we might not be seeing either of them. The only ones who might return are The Marvels, but despite their combined cosmic powers giving them a little bit of a chance, Doom is simply superior if he can take on beings a hundred times more powerful than they are. With the X-Men set to return in Doomsday, the mutants could definitely give our heroes some VERY MUCH NEEDED muscle, but as mentioned in “One World Under Doom,” Doom was able to beat them easily and even make them human for a while. Even if you brought in the Fantastic Four from the recent movie, their comic counterparts always struggle to defeat Doom on their best day, so imagine that same conclusion unfolding on the big screen. Reed may know Doom, but that never stopped Doom from staying one step ahead of Reed. 

Conclusion

NONE of the heroes we’ve got are ready for Dr. Doom, as many of them are simply ill-equipped to handle such raw power and immense intellect. And if the rumors behind Doom’s evil team are proven true, it’s a wonder why the movie is roughly four hours long instead of five minutes. Even if you bring in Franklin Richards or God of Stories Loki, it’s unlikely they’ll make either of them fight right off the bat, so they might only serve the purpose of rebooting the MCU after “Secret Wars.” I truly don’t think the writers thought this through, and the failed setup of the villain and the scattered plot of the saga don’t help either. But the Russo Brothers haven’t failed us with their “Avengers” titles yet, so we’ll just have to wait to see how this goes (and hope it won’t be another cinematic failure).