I’m fully prepared to admit that I am wrong when the time comes, but right now count me among the naysayers of this idea of Robert Downey Jr. coming back to the MCU as Dr. Doom.
Yes, I cried when Tony Stark bit the big one at the end of Avengers: Endgame. It was 2019 and we had to say goodbye to an old friend. The world hadn’t yet descended into the 
madness that was and is COVID times, and it was the end of the MCU we’d all come to know and love. I let Tony Stark go, I let RDJ go, I let forever bae Christopher Robert Jamal Irving Evans III go (kind of …). I was ready to move forward and embrace whatever Lord Kevin Feige had cooking. So, count me as one of the shocked when RDJ was unveiled as Doom at the most recent Avengers: Doomsday event. I was absolutely shook at the announcement, but with some time and thought, I ultimately was not surprised.
For context, I’m a Marvel Puzzle Quest enthusiast, a massive one with both feet firmly planted in what is referred to as 5-Star land in the MPQ community. This means that my roster is nice and well put together. And a part of that nice roster is a character known as Doctor Doom (Infamous Iron Man). This variant of Doom is Iron Man in his timeline, and this is where I think this storyline could be going. Now, given that this is the MCU and is its own designated timeline (Earth-199999), the reverse could happen and instead of Doom becoming Iron Man, Iron Man becomes Doom. It would explain why the Doom of that timeline looks a lot like Tony Stark. Also, lost in all this sauce of the RDJ return announcement is the note that Chris Evans is tied to it. This could be easily explained that he’s showing up as a different character in this universe – Hydra Supreme Cap anyone? Because that’s a thing also.
I’m joyful to see RDJ, no doubt, but I have some hesitation in my joy. There’s no easy way to say this delicately: This was shock value. Marvel knows this is what folks have been waiting for since 2019 when the credits rolled and the mysterious iron tolling rang in the ending that we never thought would come. And let’s be honest: Marvel has not enjoyed the success that it once had in the previous phases. It might be business as usual, but this ploy is indicative of the panic setting in. The Russo Bros. and one of the writers of Endgame have been brought in to right the flagging ship and RDJ casted as Doom screams “We need help.”
As a massive Marvel head, I want to enjoy the excess of those heady times when we got Marvel movies that made history, told a good story to the cheap seats and the elites and everyone was happy watching RDJ be RDJ and Christopher Robert Jamal Irving Evans III be, well, Mr. Marvel. But I don’t know if RDJ as Doom is the halcyon we’re hoping it will be. Maybe the time has come to admit that the old winning formula is gone. I hope I’m proven wrong and this column ages like spoiled milk on a hot July day in Columbia, S.C. Let’s hope that this girl F.R.I.D.A.Y works out and isn’t a further slide into Dirty D territory. And “that’s on Chawls.”
Lyndsey Beatty is editor-in-chief of Gaming Insurrection. She can be reached by email at lyndseyb@gaminginsurrection.com
