Avengers Doomsday Concept Art Reveals Loki, X-Men and a Massive Hero Lineup

Marvel showed off new concept art for Avengers Doomsday at a presentation in China on Bilibili, and the piece is packed with detail worth breaking down panel by panel. I wasn't planning on making anything today, but I saw on social media that the Doomsday presentation in China was happening and had to pause what I was doing to look at it.

The art itself feels reminiscent of the concept art Marvel put out for Avengers: Infinity War, which was more of an official marketing piece. This new image looks the same way. It is hand painted but so lifelike it almost reads like a photograph rather than a rendering.

The Poster Breakdown Starts With the Thunderbolts and a Confirmed Black Shirt for Captain America

Working through the image, the new Avengers grouping built around the Thunderbolts is front and center: Bob, US Agent (John Walker), Ghost, Red Guardian, Bucky as the Winter Soldier, and Yelena Belova. Scott Lang's Ant-Man is also in that cluster.

Steve Rogers appears in his black T-shirt holding Mjolnir. As I put it, "this is the first official piece of marketing that we are seeing" showing him in that outfit, since it had previously only been confirmed through a trailer shown at CinemaCon. That once again makes the leaked images and the leaked incomplete footage that had circulated appear to be real.

Right above Steve is Thor, holding Stormbreaker. Then comes Doctor Doom, whose eyes are glowing green in the artwork. I covered this in a video the day before, tied to leaked concept art for Secret Wars that also showed Doom's eyes glowing green, which may imply that he did indeed steal Loki's powers.

The X-Men Lineup Puts Cyclops Front and Center Alongside Magneto and Xavier

Below that section sits the X-Men, with James Marsden's Cyclops front and center. On one side are Mystique, Nightcrawler and Gambit; on the other are Beast, Magneto with his long hair spilling out from under his helmet, and Professor Charles Xavier.

As a big X-Men fan, seeing Xavier, Magneto and Beast standing together stood out to me, since those characters go back and have history. I also noted that Mystique now appears to be on Team X-Men, and I would assume Magneto brought her along. I said I wonder if they're going to reference the sister-brother type bond between Mystique and Xavier from the Jennifer Lawrence version of the character, since that's where the actual character development happened.

Channing Tatum playing Gambit here also got a shoutout from me, since he previously played the character as a joke cameo in Deadpool and Wolverine before landing the real role in Doomsday.

Wakandans, Fantastic Four and a Hidden Loki Towering Behind Doctor Doom

Elsewhere on the poster are the Wakandans, including Shuri, Black Panther, King M'Baku, and Shang-Chi with his Ten Rings. The Fantastic Four are also present: Johnny, Ben, Sue and Reed Richards.

I liked that Reed flanks one side of Doom while Steve Rogers flanks the other, reasoning that in the comics the Reed and Doom rivalry is central, and with Pedro Pascal cast as Reed it seemed like Marvel was setting up the Fantastic Four as a new face of the MCU filling the shoes left by Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans. I think they are still going that direction, but also made the right call keeping Steve Rogers in the mix, since Doom is probably going to have even more of a rivalry with him. Sam Wilson's Captain America is shown flying, with Falcon walking behind him. And then there's Loki, something I did not notice on my first look through the image. God Loki is positioned right under Doom, lurking behind him but towering over him despite being so much smaller in stature within the frame. "Oh my God," was about all I could get out looking at that detail.

Florence Pugh herself does not appear to be part of the presentation footage. Instead, someone appeared in costume as her character rather than the actual actor, and Doom was shown standing there as well in that live segment.

Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Hemsworth Send a Message From the Set, and Feige Confirms Yelena Comes First

Alongside the poster reveal, a video message played from Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Hemsworth taking a break from the set of Avengers Doomsday to greet the audience in China. In the clip, one of them says, "Doomsday is coming and the stakes have never been higher," while another adds that witnessing how much people love the universe and the characters keeps them going, and that "like our collective boss and friend Kevin will soon tell you, we're working hard to make this the most epic movie yet." They closed by saying, "We love you, Bilibili. We love you, China. Stay awesome and we'll see you soon."

Kevin Feige also confirmed that audiences will see Yelena again sooner than Doomsday, which points to her appearing in Spider-Man: Brand New Day first.

Conflicting Reports Surface Over Whether the Doomsday Edit Is Coming Together

I mentioned a recent report from John Campea, who said he heard from someone claiming to be in the know that the edit on Doomsday wasn't coming together. As I explained it, that would mean filming and dailies went well, but once the footage started getting pieced together it wasn't flowing right, something I called perfectly normal since movies are effectively made three times: when they're written, when they're filmed, and when they're edited. Campea reportedly then reached out to another source who told him, "That's not what I'm hearing." As I put it, that's all subjective: some people are feeling like it's not coming together, and some are feeling like it is.

I said I still have faith that Marvel is determined to make this movie perfect, and that while any studio and any set of directors would want that for any film, Doomsday's importance is on a different level because the movie carries Marvel's reputation, not just for its own sake but for the entire brand's sake. I said I think they are dialing the effort up as high as it can go to make sure the edit is as close to perfect as possible.

My one worry is that they might over edit it, pointing to what I felt happened with Superman, a film I said I loved despite that, and what I felt happened with Supergirl as well, where I said it got lost in the edit.

What do you think of everything shown in this new Doomsday concept art?