The MCU’s Fantastic Four movie will almost certainly be here soon. While no release date has been announced, Disney recently updated its release schedule with five movies in 2023. After Ant-Man 3 and Guardians 3 in February and May respectively, there are open slots in July, October, and November for unannounced projects. The FF logo could be seen in the most recent MCU trailer, and the film already has a director - the Holland Spider-Man trilogy’s Jon Watts - so it seems likely Marvel’s first family will be joining the MCU by the end of 2023. The Fantastic Four are beloved characters, and after three big-screen duds, they’re long overdue for a quality movie that honors their legacy. I’ll be first in line to see the next Fantastic Four movie, but if it were up to me, Doctor Doom would be getting his own movie before they got a fantastic fourth chance.

The classic Fantastic Four villain has been more mistreated than anyone by the previous FF movies. In fact, Doom would have brought down his full wrath upon 20th Century Fox if he could have seen the way his story has been adapted so far. Doctor Doom is without a doubt the most compelling and intimidating force in the Marvel universe. His long, heartbreaking history deserves time and focus, and I’m not confident that a Fantastic Four movie will ever be able to tell his tale effectively.

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For the uninitiated, Victor von Doom was born in a Romani camp in the fictional European country of Latveria. His family was pursued relentlessly by the king until, out of desperation, his mother turned to the dark arts. She foolishly made a deal with the devil for the power to kill the king’s men, and her soul was taken to hell where she faced an eternity of torture at Mephisto’s hands.

After losing his father to a harsh winter soon after, Doom dedicated his life to rescuing his mother’s soul. He combined his genius-level intellect with his mother’s magic to master both science and mysticism at an early age. Doom continued his studies at the State University in New York where he first met Reed Richards. There, Doom invented a machine that would allow him to astral project into the underworld so that he could save his mother, but he made a miscalculation — which Richards identified — causing the machine to explode and scar his face.

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Doom traveled the world studying with spiritualists and mystics for many years, increasing his power and knowledge. He eventually crafted his magical armor with the help of Tibetan monks and returned to Latveria to overthrow the king and seize power. Every move he made was a step down the path towards rescuing his mother from Hell, and once he became the undisputed ruler of Latveria, he dedicated the nation’s vast resources to achieving that goal.

Doom’s backstory could never be properly explored in a movie about the Fantastic Four. It’s no surprise that the three previous FF movies have represented Doom as nothing more than a power-hungry villain. A Fantastic Four movie needs to be about the relationship between the Fantastic Four first and foremost. If you want to do Doom right, you have to give him his own movie. Luckily, there’s a Doom story that would fit perfectly into the MCU: 1990’s Doctor Doom and Doctor Strange team-up, Triumph and Torment.

Years after seizing Latveria, Doom, Strange, and several other magicians are summoned to the Himalayas by an ancient mystic known as the Aged Genghis. The magicians are invited to compete in a contest of sorcery to determine the Sorcerer Supreme. Doctor Strange wins, of course, and as a symbol of his new responsibility, he is required to grant a boon to one other survivor or the contest. Doctor Doom is the only one still standing, so Strange agrees to accompany him on a journey into Hell to rescue his mother.

The two fight their way through the gates of Hell, but are quickly separated by Mephisto’s forces. Impressed by his tenacity, Mephisto offers Doom a bargain: bring him Strange, and he’ll let his mother go. Doom agrees, and leads Strange into a trap. Mephisto frees Doom’s mother, but once she discovers what Doom has done to rescue her, she refuses to leave with him. With this act, she redeems her soul and is able to escape Hell into the afterlife, just as Strange discovers that Doom had left him with a weapon that would allow him to escape Mephistos clutches. Doom’s plan comes together exactly as he anticipated, and with his mother’s soul finally at rest, he returns to his castle in Latveria without so much as a thank you for Doctor Strange.

doctor doom doctor strange mephisto

Triumph and Torment is the perfect story to introduce Doom into the MCU. It dives deeper into the mystical and macabre side of Marvel that the MCU has barely touched, and it brings both fan-favorite Doctor Strange and the ever-present-but-never-acknowledged Mephisto in for some of that inter-franchise connectivity that Marvel loves so much. Most importantly, it introduces Doom as the imposing and unassailable figure that he truly is. Doom’s mind is so dangerous that even the devil himself is scared of him. Before offering him his mother in exchange for Strange, Mephisto had another bargain for Doom. He promised to give Doom the knowledge and power to rule the entire world if he would only agree to work with Mephisto. Doom’s response? “The world is mine for the taking if I so desire. I need no such gifts from you.”

Doom is the kind of villain that tells the devil he doesn’t need any help conquering the world. He’s also noble and unfailingly loyal to his own personal code. He did not need to save Doctor Strange from Mephisto, but betraying him with a lie would have been a dishonorable thing to do. His character is more layered and complex than any MCU villain has ever been, and it would be a shame to position him once again as simply the Fantastic Four’s foil when he could be so, so much more.

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