At this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel fans were left reeling after Kevin Feige and the Russo Brothers revealed that Robert Downey, Jr. will be returning to the MCU to play the villainous Victor von Doom, a.k.a. Doctor Doom. Questions were immediately raised about how Downey could possibly play Marvel’s next big baddie when he already played its top hero, the dearly departed Tony Stark/Iron Man. This chatter led to theories about multiverse variants.

Not long after, Marvel Comics writer Deniz Camp posted a cryptic tease about his upcoming comic series on X/Twitter, writing, “If you want to understand Robert Downey Jr. as Doom, you MUST read Ultimates 4 on sept 4th.” Now that Ultimates #4 is out in the wild, let’s dig into the issue and see what it reveals about the man in the iron mask who will terrorize Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in the upcoming films Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.

Tony Stark at the moment of the Snap and a comic version of doctor doom in ultimates marvel comics run
Dike Ruan/Deniz Camp/Phil Noto/Marvel Studios

Ultimates Is About a Twisted Version of the Marvel Universe

Ultimates is a new comic book series about Marvel’s rebooted Ultimate Universe. The Ultimate Universe was restored by a villain known as the Maker. This character is an evil version of Reed Richards from the original Ultimate Universe. In order to ensure his rule of this new world, the Maker used time travel to make it so Marvel’s greatest saviors never became superheroes.

Despite the Maker’s best efforts, some heroes slipped through the cracks. Howard Stark became Iron Man and passed on the mantle to his son, Tony Stark. Tony took on the name Iron Lad and scraped together a team of Avengers to oppose the Maker. One of Tony’s allies is Reed Richards, who in this twisted world became Doom instead of Mister Fantastic. Ultimates #4 pulls back the curtain to reveal how a hero like Reed Richards could wind up like his classic nemesis, Doctor Doom.

The Maker Corrupted the Ultimate Doom

Ultimates #4 unveils Ultimate Doom’s backstory and shows how one small change completely altered the fate of the Fantastic Four. As we watch Reed Richards preparing for the team’s first mission to space, the Maker uses time travel to pop into Reed’s lab and sneakily ruin one of his calculations on a whiteboard. The small sabotage has big consequences as it causes the space mission to end in tragedy. Instead of the group gaining wondrous super powers, they each meet a horrific end that aligns with their would-be powers.

Dike Ruan/Deniz Camp/Phil Noto

The cosmic rays bombarding the space shuttle set Johnny Storm on fire, which kills him. Ben is later found at the bottom of a rock quarry, seemingly dying by suicide. Sue’s health slowly “fades away” in the hospital as she succumbs to radiation poisoning. Reed is the lone survivor but the Maker kidnaps him. The Maker brings Reed to the Dome, his technologically advanced base of operations where he can manipulate the flow of time.

“I can squeeze centuries of pain into just a few thin moments,” he says. The Maker physically tortures Reed with electrocution, melting his face Palpatine-style. He then covers Reed’s face with a burning-hot metal mask. He also psychologically tortures Reed with his perceived failure that brought about the “doom” of his loved ones. Reed eventually snaps mentally and accepts the name Doom to complete the transformation.

How Ultimate Doom Could Explain RDJ Becoming Doctor Doom

The story of Ultimates #4 does indeed appear to offer valuable insight on Downey’s Doom. Even though the comic shows how Reed, not Tony, became Doom, it still demonstrates how a key change in a character’s origin story can drastically alter their life and send them down the path of doom. Perhaps the new character Downey is playing is from a different universe where Tony Stark’s origin story played out differently and he emerged from the cave as an armor-clad villain instead of a hero. Who’s to say he couldn’t reinvent himself by buying a castle in Eastern Europe and taking on the name Victor von Doom? 

Dike Ruan/Deniz Camp/Phil Noto

Most interestingly, the story of Ultimates #4 asks us to consider the idea that Downey’s character wasn’t supposed to become Doom. Instead, a nefarious force made him Doom. We could see the same thing happen in the MCU. It could be that an evil mastermind saw how Tony Stark became Marvel’s greatest hero in one universe, so they set out to make him its greatest villain in another. If Marvel does go this route for the story, it would mean there’s a secret villain above Doom who orchestrated his creation.

If Marvel wants to wrap up the unresolved Kang the Conqueror storyline, then Kang could take the role of the Maker in this story. He is known for time travel, after all. If Kang does create MCU Doom, then it wouldn’t surprise anybody for Doom to betray Kang and replace him as the next big threat the Avengers must face. Then again, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that Marvel introduces the Maker himself who is an evil version of Pedro Pascal’s Mister Fantastic. This could make sense, considering we will meet Mister Fantastic in next year’s Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Will the MCU Really Get Robert Downey, Jr.’s Doctor Doom Origin Story From the Ultimates Comic?

It is tantalizing to think that the secrets of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s next big bad Doctor Doom are within the comics pages of Ultimates #4. However, it’s hard to believe that Feige would allow his master plan for Downey’s Doom to be in a comic book before the next Avengers movies have even started production. With that in mind, Deniz Camp may have been implying that his story in Ultimates #4 is more of a thematic preview of Downey’s Doom rather than a literal one. The issue speaks to how the theme of loss is core to Doom’s character.

Ultimate Reed became Doom after losing his friends and family. The classic version of Victor von Doom became Doctor Doom after losing his parents. If there’s one thing Camp wants us to understand about Downey’s Doom, it appears to be that loss will be a key element of his character. One can imagine how Tony Stark would have been a very different person if the likes of Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan met a tragic demise. If they weren’t around to help him become the hero who would go on to form the Avengers and ultimately sacrifice himself to save the Marvel Universe from certain doom, then he could have certainly become Doctor Doom. We will see what actually happens in the future.