Before Marvel Studios’ widely derided movie Eternals hit theaters, it faced a range of challenges. It came shortly after 2019’s massive Phase 3 climax Avengers: Endgame, and before the Marvel Cinematic Universe defined or built a meaningful hook into Phase 4. Eternals’ release was delayed by COVID, and affected by critically low post-COVID theater attendance. It centers on comparatively obscure characters who weren’t interacting with any previous MCU superheroes or plotlines. And it’s dour, self-important, and stiff compared to the best MCU movies. Still, once the Marvel faithful saw it, another concern trumped those previous ones, and came to define the Eternals conversation. Fans kept asking, “Where the hell were all of these supposed planetary-protectors during Endgame, or Avengers: Age of Ultron, or any of the other world-threatening crises that stood to interfere with their supposed core mission?”
The latest MCU movie, Fantastic Four: First Steps, has a much smaller version of the Eternals problem. It’s less cosmic and less crucial, but hopefully, it’s already on the minds of Marvel producers going into Avengers: Doomsday. It’s even a fairly obvious question. But it’s worth speculating about, because it may be more evidence for some fan theories about what’s going on with Doctor Doom leading up to Robert Downey Jr. playing the character in Avengers: Doomsday.
[Ed. note: Minor spoilers ahead about what doesn’t happen with Doctor Doom in First Steps.]
Where was Victor von Doom when Earth was about to get eaten by Galactus?
First Steps director Matt Shakman and the writers know full well that fans were drooling to get a first look at the MCU version of Doctor Doom, and they tease the possibility of a Doom cameo throughout the movie. There’s an empty ambassador seat in the United Nations, labeled “Latveria,” Victor von Doom’s home country/modern fiefdom. Latveria gets a quick mention in a TV news scroll, as well. Above all, when a crucial plan goes wrong, it briefly seems like the big reveal is coming… but the failure has another cause entirely.
None of this should be a surprise to folks who follow movie news closely. Shakman said in early June that Doctor Doom would not be in his movie. (Which isn’t quite true, but covers the broad basics — and given past reports that Marvel directors don’t necessarily direct the post-credit scenes for their movies, or possibly even have input into them, it may even be true as far as “his movie” goes.)
But still. In Marvel Comics continuity, Victor von Doom is a scientific genius who takes pleasure in outsmarting his enemies. He may not relish cooperating with heroes, but he does when he deems it necessary. For instance, when his own planet’s survival is on the line. We don’t know whether he was too busy to make it to those U.N. meetings, just doesn’t care to be in the same space as the heroes lauded as Earth’s protectors, or simply doesn’t think it’s worth attending any U.N. event. (The fact that he didn’t even bother to send a proxy might be a hint.) But everything we know about Doctor Doom says he would have been aware of a planet-wide threat, and would have had some response to it that wasn’t helplessness, apathy, and invisibility during a crisis.
There are any number of ways for Marvel Studios to address this question: Maybe the Victor von Doom of Earth-828 (the alternate-universe setting of Fantastic Four: First Steps) is already dead, incapacitated, or off-world. Maybe he was recovering from whatever version of his origin-story has him wearing that mask. Maybe this universe doesn’t have a Victor von Doom; maybe it does, he just isn’t a power worth reckoning with, and Latveria is ruled by someone else entirely. Maybe he missed the entire emergency because he’s traveling someplace else in the multiverse, setting up the Battleworld plotline that some fans are already theorizing will be the core of the Russo brothers’ Avengers: Doomsday in 2026 and Avengers: Secret Wars in 2027. The MCU’s multiverse setting now means there’s always a different version of a beloved character somewhere.
But one way or another, Marvel is eventually going to have to explain where ol’ Vic was during First Steps. Eternals director Chloé Zhao did say the reason the Eternals didn’t interfere in the Avengers-movies events that wiped out half of life in the galaxy (or in Ultron, nearly wiped out all humanity) is because they were told not to interfere with “any human conflict unless Deviants are involved.”
But that explanation never really held water with fans. In part, that’s because an eradication of half the life in the universe is hardly “a human conflict.” (What if the unborn Celestial they were guarding was one of the lives that Thanos snapped away?) In part, it’s because a couple of the Eternals knew their real purpose on Earth — to keep humanity alive and well to fuel the hatching of that new Celestial. And letting Ultron destroy humankind, or Thanos destroy half of it (along with possibly half the Eternals and Celestials as well!) isn’t compatible with that mission.
But mostly, it’s because fans tend to be a heavily invested bunch who like their stories airtight — convincing, engaging, and free of “Hey, wait, but…” questions. So here’s hoping Marvel takes the time to address this particular question as the Doom story rolls out, both because it’ll be interesting to know how Earth-828’s Doom fits into the larger MCU narrative, and so we can all move on and focus on what Victor’s going to get up to next.
