I Called Marvel Second Rate, Then the Doomsday Trailer Made Me Feel at Home

I have called everything Marvel made after Endgame second rate, and plenty of people gave me a hard time for it. Then Marvel dropped the Doomsday trailer, and for the first time in 7 years I felt like I was home.

I'm not taken aback. The TV has mostly been really rough. Shang-Chi was amazing, I like Thunderbolts a lot, and I enjoyed Fantastic Four even when it was a little lackluster. But "a good movie here and there don't make an era." So this is not a deep dive. It is a riff on some stills and a trailer that half the internet was picking apart frame by frame while I sat there genuinely overwhelmed. I will separate what is confirmed from what is theory, and at the end I am taking one big swing at something I think the trailer is hiding in plain sight.

Doctor Doom's accent is regional, and the real test is whether Robert Downey Jr. holds it

The trailer opens on Doom, and the moment Doom opens his mouth, you have the loudest argument on the internet. Robert Downey Jr. narrates in his Latverian accent: "Something is coming, something we may not be able to deter." People lost their minds because he does not sound like Tony Stark. Anyone who thought we were getting Tony Stark in a green metal Iron Man suit pretending to be a bad guy was kidding themselves. Of course they changed his voice.

We forgave Wanda's accent, and we forgave it appearing and disappearing like the tide. Downey is more dialed in than that. As a guy who does accents, my actual read is that it is a take on an Eastern European accent, which is where Latveria allegedly sits on the map. It is not random, it is regional, and I think it is pretty cool. My honest test, and I want this on the record, is consistency. Whatever that accent is, hold it for two movies, every scene, no drift. The voice isn't the risk, the commitment is.

Doom stopping Thor's Stormbreaker with two fingers tells you what this villain is

Then there is the shot. You know the shot. Thor does the same leap he did at Thanos, Stormbreaker up, and this time you can feel him thinking about going for the head. Doom just raises a hand and stops it. Not a struggle, not a brace, two fingers.

Thanos took Stormbreaker in the chest while wearing a full Infinity Gauntlet. Doom catches it like a screen door closing. Anime does not power scale better than that single image, and it tells you everything about what the movie thinks this villain is. My genuine hope is that they keep Doom that consistent, or we are in trouble. It is the same bet I made on the voice: commit.

Thor carries the Doomsday trailer as the last original Avenger on the field

Notice who is carrying this trailer. After Doom's opening, it is Thor's speech running under everything. He tells them he has fought warriors who were far stronger than all of them put together, and those warriors died. That is our point of view character.

He is the last original Avenger still standing on the field, the one who remembers what winning cost, telling a room full of new faces to button it up because what is coming scared people who were better than them. He sets the standard for the whole trailer, and the trailer knows it. Doom opens it, Thor carries it, and Steve detonates it, but I will get to Steve.

Mystique, Gambit and Reed Richards show these teams do not trust each other yet

In between, the trailer keeps showing you that these teams do not know each other. Mystique catches Yelena's baton and turns into her, and the two Yelena chokehold is pulled straight from her fight choreography in the 2000 X-Men film. That is classic Mystique, with Rebecca Romijn quoting her own movie.

Gambit squares up against Shang-Chi, which apparently Simu Liu said he wanted: if he wanted the smoke, he would get the smoke. With the staff and the glowing ace of hearts, I will be honest, as a lifelong comic fan I never once thought about Gambit fighting Shang-Chi. In the comics, Shang-Chi is the guy who trains everybody, including Cap, Daredevil, Wolverine and Spider-Man heading into the original Secret Wars and other big events. He is the sensei of half the Marvel Universe, and Gambit holds his own while wearing the X-Men '97 outfit. Remember that outfit, because it matters later in this piece.

The quietest shot does the loudest work. Reed Richards stretches an arm across Sam Wilson's chest to hold him back in Sam's own tower, or what should be his tower. That is not a gag. That is blocking a story. Nobody in that room trusts anybody yet.

I think having Steve Rogers give Sam Wilson the shield back again would be a mistake

That brings me to the thing I am worried about most, and it is sort of a prediction. Steve Rogers is back, and I would bet money there is going to be a scene where Sam tries to hand him the shield and Steve refuses, telling Sam he is Captain America. Quite frankly, I think that is a mistake.

The show validated Sam. Then the movie validated him again. If Doomsday wants to do it a third time, the franchise is telling on itself. You do not need to recertify a guy you actually believe in. Just let Sam be who he is supposed to be. If I am wrong, I will say so, but that is my flag in the ground.

Family moments make it feel like Endgame, but the Wakandans did not land for me

Feeling like home is not just a vibe. Scott Lang kisses Cassie on the forehead. Johnny hugs Sue. Ben Grimm shakes Bucky's hand like they are at a cookout. Endgame worked because it remembered these people are a family before it blew anything up, and this trailer remembers that too.

The one beat that really did not land for me was the Wakandans, and I know exactly why. It is not the trailer's fault. Wakanda Forever was a movie rebuilt in real time under the shadow of losing Chadwick Boseman, and with total respect for an impossible situation, that recontextualization came out messy. You can see the seams of the movie it was supposed to be. So Shuri and Namor carry that weight in with them here. That is the whole note.

Steve Rogers' return points to two opposite theories: Hydra Cap or a relocated real Steve

Then the ending. Fury says, "It's not possible." A bearded Steve Rogers says, "Hey, pal." Mjolnir tears out of Thor's grip mid scene and flies to Steve's hand. Chills. And also questions, because the trailer is begging you to be suspicious of this man.

Some people are already saying this is Hydra Cap, and I think there is real validity to that potential. The Reddit plot leak crowd, and this is unverified, grain of salt territory, says the opposite: that this is the real Steve, relocated by Loki after Endgame to live out his life in the Fantastic Four universe. That would explain the beard, and it would really explain a shot I almost missed, Loki in a TVA suit inside Steve and Peggy's house.

Two theories pointing in opposite directions, both fed by the same trailer. What that even means opens a door I am not walking through here. The point is that I do not know which Steve that is. The trailer wants it that way, and that is the twists and turns energy this saga has been starving for.

My big swing: the live action X-Men '97 universe dies in Doomsday

Now the theory I promised. Xavier and Magneto stand at a window watching what sure looks like an incursion, the sky on fire. That scene plays like a funeral, and I believe I know whose funeral it is. I think we are looking at the live action X-Men '97 universe, and I think it dies in this movie.

Confirmed stuff first. This is not the Fox X-Men presentation. Cyclops is in a blue and yellow suit, and one breakdown flat out says it closely resembles the X-Men '97 design. Xavier is in the X insignia jumpsuit, not a Fox costume, and this is not the gold hoverchair variant Wanda took out in Multiverse of Madness. Different guy, different presentation. Magneto has long hair and plays chess with Charles like the war is already over. One outlet literally ran a piece saying X-Men '97 has made the jump to live action, and that Doomsday is chasing the '90s comic and animated series rather than the Fox movies. This thread goes back to 2023, when Kelsey Grammer's Beast appeared in The Marvels post credits scene and MovieWeb described him as a live action interpretation of the X-Men '97 look. Photon is stranded in that universe. And Gambit's outfit, as I said above, is in the same register.

Now the unverified layer, and I want to be careful here. The leaks claim this X universe has survived incursion after incursion, that its people are exhausted and broken, and that they attack the Avengers on sight because they assume anyone crossing over is coming to end them. There is your AvX. The leaks then claim their universe is the epicenter of the next collapse, and if that is true, Doom takes what he needs and leaves. The leaks also say the Sentinels in this movie answer to Doom.

Here is the part that is not a leak. Go back to the official Marvel teaser from January: Cyclops on his knees screaming through a full optic blast, with a Sentinel looming behind him. You know what a Sentinel standing over the X-Men means. "That's not fan service. That's a tombstone."

I am not giving this a score. A trailer is a promise, and the number stays in its holster until Marvel puts a movie in front of it. This trailer proved Marvel still remembers what home feels like. On December 18, the movie has to prove Marvel can live there.

So which Steve is that: Hydra Cap, the real deal relocated, or something worse than both?