Poll: Should Doctor Doom Be In The First MCU Fantastic Four film?

[Detective Conan]

If and when that Fox/Disney deal closes and the First Family finally return home with their first film set in the Marvel universe should they really retread old ground and have Doom be the villain yet again? or should they opt for another bad guy and not have Doom appear in it at all. I have little doubt that the next film will be a hard reboot with zero association with the films of yore.

If I were Marvel, I would want to give Doom some rest since they would presumably want to differentiate their film as much as possible from the previous Story/Trank disaster-pieces, and one one way to do that is not rehashing villains. I love Doom, in all his grandiloquent, megalomaniacal, self-aggrandizing glory but in my honest opinion let's not have him in the movie. Doom has already been the bad guy in all four(if you count the Roger Corman one) FF movies. Don't you think it's time they go with a fresh, new approach by having a lesser-known villain the next time around? FF has more villains other than Doctor Doom just like Batman and Spider-Man have villains other than the Joker and Green Goblin.

A good example to point to is what Chris Nolan did with Batman Begins. Nolan wanted Begins to differentiate itself from the Burton films so one way he did that is by not rehashing villains that had been done before. Nolan didn't use the arch-nemesis in Batman Begins but saved him for the sequel instead going for Ras-Al-Ghul and Scarecrow and worked it out just fine. In Homecoming they don't rehash Green Goblin instead they go with the Vulture who was an old-time comics Spider-Man baddie that we've never seen done on screen before and it worked out just fine. I think the same approach should be taken with the Fantastic Four once they get their own MCU reboot.

They say that "A hero is only as good as their villains but for Marvel Studios they've showed us the inversion of that saying: "A movie is only as good as their heroes." You don't need a villain as great as Doom to make a great Fantastic Four film. Make no mistake: I want Doom in the MCU but not in the first movie. Use someone like PuppetMaster or Moleman instead. Do you agree or disagree? Vote or voice your opinion or do both!

 

[ernesth100]

Noooooooooo. In their first film they should go all oput and have either Annihlus or Blastaar. Show the space age fun side of the F4 we haven't been getting to see.

 

[Chance Jackson]

By the time FF comes around the super hero movie formula will be due for a new angle. Maybe the first FF should be more exploration than super heroics

 

[Detective Conan]

Apologies if anyone is confused by the poll since I originally meant to phrase the Poll question as: "Should Doctor Doom not appear in the Next FF film?" so the poll choices originally were written to correspond with that question but I decided to stick close to the original thread title for consistency. Again apologies for the confusion. Would like to edit if feasible.

 

[Willie Lumpkin]

I wouldn't make him the primary antagonist, but his presence should be there in some form. Maybe just five minutes of screen time, but he and the FF need to be linked from the beginning.

Just like the FF, he needs to be rehabilitated, and that should start sooner rather than later so audiences can begin to see the real Doom and put that other crap behind them.

Also like with the FF, he has been so poorly done in the past a real representation of him won't be even remotely similar to what we've seen and he will feel fresh and new.

 

[fantastic fifth]

Even if there are other villians.....he should still be behind everything...always lurking, pilling the strings

 

[InCali]

Even if there are other villians.....he should still be behind everything...always lurking, pilling the strings

This is exactly what I was thinking when I went to this thread. I really like the way Marvel has built up Thanos and think something similar for Doom would be in order.

 

[parkerpete]

Doom should be meticulously set up as a major character in the MCU, and they should even consider giving him his own film. But he shouldn't be heavily featured in the first MCU FF film. I think he should absolutely appear, if only in flashback as Victor. But he shouldn't be the main antagonist. They should feature him as the Evil Coulson of Phase 4 until they're ready to really let loose with him.

 

[psylockolussus]

Doctor Doom for the fourth time again! Nope! Save him for the sequel or threequel!

 

[Detective Conan]

I wouldn't make him the primary antagonist, but his presence should be there in some form. Maybe just five minutes of screen time, but he and the FF need to be linked from the beginning.

Just like the FF, he needs to be rehabilitated, and that should start sooner rather than later so audiences can begin to see the real Doom and put that other crap behind them.

Yeah but Doom is linked to the FF already with Victor being a peer of Reed in college and Victor blaming Reed for the accident that scarred him. I really don't feel need to link Doom's origin to the FF anymore than that. I really dislike it when they try to tie the origin of superheroes to their villains. I find that to be super-lazy and too convenient. Like they did with Batman 89' when they made Joker the killer of Batman's parents instead of Joe Chill. I wouldn't be opposed to hinting at Doom for later entries like they did with the Joker at the end of Batman Begins with that playing card found at a crime scene but an actual full-on appearance of Doom in the first film just feels redundant and premature. Lay your eggs for him in the first film, but don't hatch them until the next one IMO.

Also like with the FF, he has been so poorly done in the past a real representation of him won't be even remotely similar to what we've seen and he will feel fresh and new.

This is gonna be controversial to say but I thought Doom had a faithful representation in the Corman one. Corman's Doom was pretty accurate to the original Lee/Ditko Doom(lengthy egotistical monologuing/boasting about his superior intellect, him being the dictator of Latveria, him speaking in third person; his entire origin being spot-on) but ...it just didn't work and came across as campy and parodic instead of menacing. They were slavishly loyal to the point of it feeling hollow so I’d rather they do some reinvention or at least take cues from the modern, more frightening portrayals from the comics(Books Of Doom comes to mind) for the MCU Doom.

 

[NHawk19]

Why not leave him for the after credits? Set him up like Thanos though not for 10 years.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

I think with how the MCU is so interconnected, Doom would be better served being saved as a main Phase villain as opposed to just showing up in a Fantastic Four solo.

 

[Willie Lumpkin]

Yeah but Doom already is linked to the FF already with Victor being a peer of Reed in college and Victor blaming Reed for the accident that scarred him.

Reed and Doom are linked in our minds because we all know the story, but I feel some reference has to be made to that in the FF film even if Doom is barely acknowledged or seen otherwise.

We need to establish that connection so that when Doom is brought in, he's not coming out of nowhere.

But as I said, I don't want him to be the primary antagonist. I just want him to be present in some form.

Maybe that's an answer to a question you didn't intend to ask, but based on the simple question posed in the thread title, yes, Doom should be in the film.

 

[Zarex]

It may be a good idea to have Victor bail out the team in the first film, putting them in his debt. Perhaps he funds the team's first mission or pays off past due rent on the Baxter Building. Set it up for Doom to require his debt be repaid in the sequel.

 

[Detective Conan]

We need to establish that connection so that when Doom is brought in, he's not coming out of nowhere.

Well, I don't really see what's wrong with that. Joker in TDK essentially came out of nowhere. Sure, there was that playing card at the end of Begins but no real connection was established between Joker and Batman in 'Begins.' Just a hint of The Joker's existence in that universe. There's been great FF stories without Doom.

I feel you can make an FF film without Doom at all.

But as I said, I don't want him to be the primary antagonist. I just want him to be present in some form.

I would want a post-credit sequence with Doctor Doom but that's about it. Don't make the same mistake that the previous movies made by tying Doom too much to the Four's origin. It's rather limiting and just truncates things for convenience's sake.

 

[The Overlord]

If and when that Fox/Disney deal closes and the First Family finally return home with their first film set in the Marvel universe should they really retread old ground and have Doom be the villain yet again? or should they opt for another bad guy and not have Doom appear in it at all. I have little doubt that the next film will be a hard reboot with zero association with the films of yore.

If I were Marvel, I would want to give Doom some rest since they would presumably want to differentiate their film as much as possible from the previous Story/Trank disaster-pieces, and one one way to do that is not rehashing villains. I love Doom, in all his grandiloquent, megalomaniacal, self-aggrandizing glory but in my honest opinion let's not have him in the movie. Doom has already been the bad guy in all four(if you count the Roger Corman one) FF movies. Don't you think it's time they go with a fresh, new approach by having a lesser-known villain the next time around? FF has more villains other than Doctor Doom just like Batman and Spider-Man have villains other than the Joker and Green Goblin.

A good example to point to is what Chris Nolan did with Batman Begins. Nolan wanted Begins to differentiate itself from the Burton films so one way he did that is by not rehashing villains that had been done before. Nolan didn't use the arch-nemesis in Batman Begins but saved him for the sequel instead going for Ras-Al-Ghul and Scarecrow and worked it out just fine. In Homecoming they don't rehash Green Goblin instead they go with the Vulture who was an old-time comics Spider-Man baddie that we've never seen done on screen before and it worked out just fine. I think the same approach should be taken with the Fantastic Four once they get their own MCU reboot.

They say that "A hero is only as good as their villains but for Marvel Studios they've showed us the inversion of that saying: "A movie is only as good as their heroes." You don't need a villain as great as Doom to make a great Fantastic Four film. Make no mistake: I want Doom in the MCU but not in the first movie. Use someone like PuppetMaster or Moleman instead. Do you agree or disagree? Vote or voice your opinion or do both!

I would agree that Doom should not be used right away and build him up over a couple of movies, but I feel like a lot of the non Doom/Galactus/Annihilus villains the FF face have gotten stale over the decades.

What makes Mole Man himself compelling, it often seems like his monsters are interesting then he is, what would prevent him from being another disposable MCU villain?

And what makes Puppet Master compelling? His gimmick is not bad, but too often he just seems like satellite character who is emotionally compelling due to who his step daughter is, rather any characterization or pathos he brings to the table. I think the writers have no idea what to do the character, when they move him away from his step daughter, they do weird things with him, like using mind control to turn women into sex slaves and have gladiator games, where mind controlled pawns kill each other. That was an attempt to make him more relevant, that did not work.

 

[Batmannerism]

Yes And No. He should be set up as a compelling character who befriends Reed but slowly grows into his greatest rival and then arch enemy via a believable and well written storyline.

At the start of the film we should be cheering for him, a gypsy orphan from a poor family who rises up on the strength of his character and genius (a bit like a certain orphaned jewish mutant holocaust survivor).

He becomes Reed's friend and ally, but ends up losing it all, and by the end of the movie is set up to be the villain of the sequel.

So yes to Victor, Reed's friend, but not Dr Doom until the post credit scene.

 

[UltimatePyro9]

The wording in the poll is weird, but I'm gonna say no. The audience has had enough of Doom for now (especially with Blogger Domashev from Fant4stic). Personally, I'd go with Mole Man and the Deviant Mutates. In the film, the Fantastic Four explore Subterranea and find the Mole Man who wants to use the Mutates to take over the world (of course). There's a bit of exploration ala Indiana Jones, there can be cool visuals with the Four fighting the Mutates, having cool visuals in the process, have good character development and family dynamics etc. Good stuff. Just a personal idea of mine. But importantly: NO DOOM.

 

[Mike Murdock]

At this point, the poll is probably worthless since it's so confusingly worded. That being said, I don't think Doom should be the villain of the first movie (whether he appears depends specifically on the movie). They just need to try something else. The Fantastic Four are so tainted that mirroring the last movie is unhelpful. It's not like he was the first comics villain (although he was probably the first great one).

 

[LaughterLives]

I'd rather see Doom in Doctor Strange movie.

 

[Spider-Fan]

I'd rather see Doom in Doctor Strange movie.

I don't see why. He's not like a classic Dr. Stange rogue, and while he knows sorcery, Doom was always a scientist. The best Doom stories for the most part involved Reed Richards and the FF. I would rather see Dr. Strange fight people like Nightmare or Mephisto (magic based characters)

 

[Editorguy91]

Yes, he needs to. Dark Doom is their only worth villain. A good supervillain makes for a good hero. If we being honest Fantastic four are not the most popular superhero team... Don't think they can afford to lose Dr Doom.

 

[Detective Conan]

I don't see why. He's not like a classic Dr. Stange rogue, and while he knows sorcery, Doom was always a scientist. The best Doom stories for the most part involved Reed Richards and the FF. I would rather see Dr. Strange fight people like Nightmare or Mephisto (magic based characters)

This doesn't have much to do with your point but I want to point out: Someone had an idea on how to introduce Doom in the MCU by having him be a former apprentice of the Ancient One gone rogue and he basically wants to use some forbidden sorcerer to try and see if he can save his mother's soul which I think could pretty interesting.

Yes, he needs to. Dark Doom is their only worth villain. A good supervillain makes for a good hero. If we being honest Fantastic four are not the most popular superhero team... Don't think they can afford to lose Dr Doom.

Marvel Studios kind of proved the bolded part null and void.
That's also faulty logic on your point about FF's popularity precluding them from using any villian other than Doom. Guardians are a less popular superhero team than FF are and Ronan is hardly what you call a memorable antagonist but that movie still worked because the heroes resonated enough.

 

[superhero]

how about different fantastic four villain? then save doom for the squeal thats what they did with joker with the dark night squeal!

 

[Silvermoth]

I voted no. He's too big for first cab off the rank. Give it to a villain we haven't seen yet like Annihilius so you can develop the characters of the fantastic four, then have doom as an MCU villain