All Roads Lead to Doom in New Marvel Trailer

You know, it’s funny: I always had the feeling that one day, the MCU would lead us to Doom. Marvel has no shortage of incredible villains, and the movies have done a great job of bringing them to life. But Doom? He always felt like the ultimate end goal. He may not be Marvel’s original bad boy, but he is THE bad boy. His mastery of science and magic is so great that he is capable of threatening gods, demons, and cosmic entities. And in the special look at Avengers: Doomsday that dropped at D23 (it was shown at SDCC first) he is absolutely terrifying!

Dunesday is going to be awesome!

Doom Used to be Different

The special look trailer begins with a monologue from Susan Storm, intercut with images of the man himself and the other heroes of the Marvel Multiverse. Through it, we learn about how Victor Von Doom wasn’t always the menace that we know today. According to Susan, he was always the smartest person in any room he stood in, but he handled it differently. He was this bright, kind, and caring person. And if he had stayed that way, he could have made the world a better place. But then, he lost everything that he loved.

Note how the trailer centers on this mural of a child and his mother as this line drops. This is a direct reference to the event that led to Doom. In the comics, the king of their nation, Latveria, was a tyrant who made lives miserable. So his mother made a deal with the demon Mephisto for the power to destroy the king in exchange for her soul. But she couldn’t control the power, and when she tried renouncing it, a guard fatally stabbed her. As a result, she ended up dying in her husband’s arms as her son looked on.

We Did not Realize…He was Broken.

This moment shattered Doom’s innocence. It taught him just how dark and cruel the world could be, leading him to become the egotistical villain we know today. But he wasn’t just lost, as Susan notes. She didn’t realize that he was broken.

That ‘broken’ line really got to me. One thing that I’ve noticed in fiction is that some of the best villains aren’t always born evil. They don’t just decide to be evil. The world breaks them in the cruelest way possible. It makes them hate the world for taking what they love from them. I know this because I’ve seen it before in some of who I regard as incredible villains: Darth Vader, Pain, Injustice Superman. They were all good people broken by the world and their mistakes, and so chose to lash out at the world. And that is exactly what Doom seems to be doing in this trailer.

This makes Thanos look like Child’s Play

As Mister Fantastic asks Victor if he did something, we are then shown scenes of death. Entire cities are in ruins. The heroes who we know to be parents are looking at their kids protectively. And Doom says how they’ve all lived storied lives that they must now give back. And then we see Mister Fantastic angrily ask Doom again if he did something. Let that sink in. Reed Richards is someone who runs on logic and reason, not emotion. If he’s getting angry and yelling, then that means something is really wrong.

Then we get that scene where Doom catches Stormbreaker with a pair of fingers. Thor is saying how he will make him beg for Hell and charges at him like the god he is. And Doom blocks his attack like it’s nothing and throws Thor into a wall. Then he tells Thor that Hell answers to him before bringing a group of Sentinels to life, proclaiming that he is Doom!

This is incredible! In the span of little over two minutes, Marvel manages to firmly establish what kind of villain Doom is. He’s a man who was broken by the world, is now lashing out at it, and is powerful enough to back up his threats. This is exactly why he’s considered the big bad of Marvel. And to sweeten the deal, we have Robert Downey Jr playing him. That fact alone has been enough to get people pumped. There are only four months left until Doomsday, but if this is what we have to look forward to, then I think that we are in good hands.