Could Doctor Doom Use the Runes of Kof-Kol on a Multiversal Scale to End Avengers: Doomsday?

Does Doctor Doom use the Runes of Kof-Kol at the end of Avengers: Doomsday, but on a multiversal scale? With all of the recent reports about Wanda and Doctor Strange and their secret roles in Avengers: Doomsday, including recent reports of reshoots and the filming of post credits scenes that would set up Secret Wars, I started wondering what role Wanda and/or Doctor Strange could play in helping Doom cast his final spell.

Could Doom use the same memory wiping spell Doctor Strange cast at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home to erase everyone's minds and essentially brainwash them into forgetting their past lives, so that they only know their life in this new kingdom in the void at the end of time under their omnipotent God Emperor Doom? Later in this piece I'll also get into how that same spell might be the thing that brings Doom down.

The 2015 Secret Wars comics and the Doomsday leaks point to heroes who have forgotten their pasts

In the 2015 Secret Wars comics, after the multiverse collapses, all that remains is Battleworld and Doom's kingdom. Inside that kingdom are all of our heroes, living under a false understanding of their own history. They don't remember the events before Doom took over.

In the comics, Battleworld is a patchwork collection of pieces of worlds left over from the old multiverse. That's basically what the void is too: a patchwork collection of worlds that would remain if the multiverse collapsed, and we would likely see pieces of the dead multiverse land there. According to some leaks, this is how Doomsday will end to set up Secret Wars. The multiverse will collapse and Doom will recreate his own existence, one where a lot of our heroes are living in Battleworld or his kingdom and have forgotten everything that came before.

Doom needs the heroes to believe in their new lives, not just forget their old ones

Doom doesn't just need these people to forget their old lives. He needs them to believe in their new ones. If Doom really does create this kingdom out of the remnants of the multiverse, he's going to have a pretty big problem on his hands. He'll have a kingdom full of superheroes, people who have spent their entire lives fighting tyrants, dictators and cosmic beings who want to rule over everyone. The Avengers have fought Thanos. The X-Men have fought Apocalypse. The Fantastic Four fought Galactus.

These are people who aren't going to be willing to just kneel before Victor von Doom and accept him as their new god, even if they don't remember how they got there. Despite losing their memories, it's just in their nature to have a problem with Doom ruling as a monarch. So Doom not only needs them to forget their past lives, he needs to plant new memories in their minds and change the way they think.

Doom doesn't want to merely rule over Battleworld. He wants to be worshiped as its god. He wants everyone to believe that everything they have and everything they are exists because of him. You can't really pull that off if everyone remembers that just a few days ago they were fighting this Doctor Doom guy to save the multiverse. Nor can you pull it off if everyone behaves like their old selves despite not remembering what Doom has done. So Doom will not only need the Runes of Kof-Kol spell, he will also need Wanda's spell from WandaVision.

Wanda's Westview hex could shape the look of Doom's kingdom

Inside the walls of Doom's kingdom, which I believe will be in the void at the end of time, I've speculated that we could see Doom either using the same hex magic as Wanda, or having a Wanda, such as the Universe 838 Wanda, cast a hex for him around the kingdom, just like we saw with Westview in WandaVision. Within the hex, they would be able to build whatever they want, transform the surrounding structures to look the way they want, and change what the residents are wearing and the way they behave.

Since we know Secret Wars will be inspired by the 2015 Secret Wars comics, I think we're going to see a lot of medieval structures and medieval attire within that hex, like the leaked concept art we got a few years back. In Westview, Wanda was able to change her residents' clothing and make them follow a storyline.

But there's one element of Wanda's hex that didn't accomplish everything Doom would need, and that's where Doctor Strange's memory altering spell could come in handy. In WandaVision, the people of Westview still remembered their lives. Their memories were just beneath the surface of the role Wanda was making them play, and they were suffering because they knew what was happening. They remembered everything and were living in fear. That's not what Doom wants. He doesn't want people fearing him and just playing a role to appease him. He wants the worship to be genuine, so he wouldn't just need to change the world around these people. He would need to change their memories of the world itself.

Strange's No Way Home spell seemed to alter physical records, not just memories

What's really interesting about the Runes of Kof-Kol is that it didn't just manipulate people's memories. There appears to have been at least some manipulation of physical reality as well. In the extended cut of No Way Home, there's a new post credits scene with Betty Brant doing a retrospective of their time at Midtown High. As she goes through old photos and clips from Homecoming and Far From Home, Peter's face is conveniently obscured.

Strange's spell didn't simply erase Peter from people's minds. It also somehow accounted for the physical evidence of his existence. Otherwise, what would happen when someone looks through their old high school yearbook and sees Peter Parker, or finds a picture of themselves standing next to him, or if MJ has a picture of Peter on her phone? So the spell was doing more than changing memories. It was also affecting reality, or at the very least the physical records of the past, so that the altered memories make sense.

That's what makes me think this could be the perfect spell for Doom. Imagine combining that kind of magic with Wanda's hex. Wanda's magic changes the physical world, transforming it into whatever reality Doom wants to create, while Strange's magic changes people's memories, making them believe the new reality is the only one they've ever known. Theoretically, it could go further and make people remember things that didn't actually happen. The two spells are also similar in that Wanda's hex in WandaVision had runes in the sky, just like Strange's spell in No Way Home, so we could see them combined into one.

Combining the two spells would tie the Multiverse Saga together and leave a resistance outside the walls

I think it would make a lot of sense to incorporate both Wanda's hex magic and Strange's Runes of Kof-Kol spell into Doomsday. First, it just makes sense. But it also gives us a connection to the Multiverse Saga projects that have come before, like WandaVision and No Way Home, and it gives this saga some connective tissue.

Then outside the walls, just like outside of Wanda's hex, there could be other variants from across the multiverse out in the void, like Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man, Hugh Jackman's Wolverine and maybe the Young Avengers. They would all remember the truth of what happened because they aren't under the spell.

If the rumors are true that Tom Holland's Spider-Man will be part of that resistance on the outside in Secret Wars, his Peter Parker has already experienced firsthand what it's like to have everyone you love forget who you are. He has already lived through this exact kind of spell.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day suggests Strange's spell might not be permanent

After the events of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, we have some pretty interesting evidence that Strange's spell might not be quite as permanent as we originally thought. MJ still has the necklace Peter gave her in Far From Home. She doesn't remember Peter giving it to her, and she doesn't remember their relationship, but she still has this physical reminder of their life together. In Brand New Day, we see her holding that necklace, seemingly feeling some kind of emotional connection to a past she can't actually remember. It's almost like something is buried deep in her subconscious that the spell hasn't been able to completely erase.

Then there's Ned at the end of Brand New Day. When Peter approaches him and introduces himself, they do their old secret handshake and Ned just instinctively knows what to do. It's muscle memory. His mind might not remember Peter Parker, but his body remembers a handshake they've done countless times. And when Ned looks at Peter and says his name, that's confirmation that the spell has been broken and Ned remembers him.

With Jean Grey's psychic abilities also playing a role in Brand New Day, there's the possibility that she helped loosen Strange's spell, which could be another setup for her role in Secret Wars, since Sadie Sink's Jean Grey will be in Avengers: Secret Wars. Regardless, I think the important takeaway is that Brand New Day made clear those old memories, or at least those connections, still exist somewhere beneath the surface. That could become incredibly important in Secret Wars. What if the same thing is happening to everyone inside Doom's kingdom? What if these heroes have no memory of their old lives, but there are still things buried deep inside them that they can't quite explain?

When we see Ned and maybe even MJ begin to break through the spell in Brand New Day, maybe Peter will think there's hope they can do the same for those inside Doom's kingdom. We could even see Peter and Jean Grey as part of that resistance team, working together to take down Doom. It also occurred to me that this would put Sadie Sink's Jean Grey and Hugh Jackman's Wolverine on the same team. Maybe there will be multiple resistance teams.

WandaVision could be the blueprint for breaking into Doom's kingdom, possibly with Loki's help

When it comes to the kingdom and getting inside the walls, I think WandaVision could give us a pretty good blueprint for how this might play out. Wanda's hex wasn't completely impenetrable. You were able to get inside, and even Vision started noticing from inside the walls that something wasn't right. We saw him begin to question the reality around him. Then there was Agatha, who was able to operate independently inside the hex without being controlled by Wanda's storyline.

So we already know from WandaVision that even extremely powerful reality warping magic can have its weaknesses, and Brand New Day showed the Runes of Kof-Kol having weaknesses as well. If Doom is using some combination of Wanda's hex and Strange's memory spell, maybe those weaknesses would theoretically carry over. Maybe some of the heroes inside Battleworld will begin to notice inconsistencies in their lives and even hold secret meetings about something not being quite right. Maybe they'll start having dreams about people they never met, places they've never been and events that supposedly never happened.

I think Loki could be an interesting character to use here because of his connection to the multiverse and his unique relationship to time. If Loki is one of the characters who remembers the truth, he could be instrumental in helping the others understand that the world they're living in is a lie. There's something poetic about the god of mischief being the one trying to do away with said mischief.

Imagine having Wolverine and Spider-Man, especially Tobey's, on the outside, with Loki either inside, outside as part of the resistance, or maybe both, projecting himself outside to talk to them. Then you've got the Young Avengers or the Champions, or whoever else, making their way into the hex disguised in medieval garb that could perhaps be provided by Loki's magic, trying to take down Doom, free everyone and make people remember. That would be cool. Maybe their goal isn't even to immediately take down Doom in some massive battle. Maybe their first objective is simply to get inside the kingdom and start waking people up, because once enough people remember who they really are, Doom could have a full blown rebellion on his hands.

I think the 616 Wanda is in the void and could join the resistance

As I've said before, I think the 616 Wanda, who is presumed dead, is actually in the void. I think she basically pruned herself from existence and landed in the void when she did so in Multiverse of Madness. That was even teased in Deadpool & Wolverine, when the same relief of the Scarlet Witch that was on Mount Wundagore, the mountain Wanda collapsed when I think she pruned herself, shows up in the void at the end of time. It could have been sucked into the void with her.

So I think Wanda will be part of the resistance on the outside, and she could be alongside her sons. Come the end of Vision Quest, they could perhaps join up with the Young Avengers, and maybe with Vision, and travel into the quantum realm once the multiverse begins to collapse at the end of Doomsday. They would come out the other end in the void, because that's the only place to go once the multiverse ceases to exist, putting them outside of Doom's hex. There in the void, they could go on a mission to find their mother.

They would be able to do that because of Cassie Lang, who we know is in Doomsday. In the ScreenX versions of the trailers, where there's a wider shot on those exterior screens, it looks like Cassie is actually in the apartment of Kate Bishop, who was with Ms. Marvel in the post credits scene of The Marvels talking about Ant-Man having a daughter. So it looks like those three are together, and Cassie Lang has both an interest in and a vast amount of knowledge about the quantum realm. She's become a bit of an expert, so it would make sense that they were able to escape into it. If they find Wanda in the void and she's on their team, we could perhaps see her cast some kind of counterhex magic to protect the resistance from being detected when they enter the kingdom. I think putting the Young Avengers alongside Spider-Man, Wolverine, Wanda and Loki would do a lot to bolster these characters for future projects and give them a lot of validity.

Without going too deep into it again, I think we could have the main Wanda, who I think is in the void, and then the 838 Wanda, whose life was wrecked by the 616 Wanda in Multiverse of Madness and whose universe is now likely destroyed by the very incursion Clea was likely referring to at the end of that film when she says, "You caused an incursion and we're going to fix it." That Wanda could be without a universe and without her children, and she could be on Team Doom. We could see some Wanda versus Wanda.

The spell's instability could be how Doom is defeated

There's one other thing worth considering. If Doom really is using the Runes of Kof-Kol on a multiversal scale, then we already know this spell can be incredibly dangerous and unstable. In No Way Home, Strange was originally trying to use it to make the world forget that Peter Parker was Spider-Man. But Peter kept interrupting, asking Strange for little exceptions, additions and subtractions. Those few changes caused the spell to become very unstable and break, and that instability is ultimately what led to people from other universes bleeding into the MCU. By the end of the movie, the boundaries between universes were beginning to break. And that was just one little spell involving one person.

Now imagine Doom trying to do something exponentially more ambitious. Instead of making one world forget one person, he would be trying to make the survivors of countless universes forget their entire histories. Every relationship they've ever had, every world they've lived in, every battle they've fought and every person they've lost would have had to be erased or written over to fit Doom's new reality. That's an enormous amount of magic that I would assume would require constant maintaining. If Strange's original spell was destabilized by something as simple as Peter asking for a few modifications, what happens when you have an entire kingdom full of people whose memories might start breaking through? What happens when someone like Wanda begins actively trying to undo that spell, or when Peter and the resistance start reminding people who they really are?

I would think Doom's entire kingdom, this whole Battleworld he has formed, is essentially being held together by an incredibly powerful but equally fragile magical illusion. The more people who begin remembering their old lives, the more unstable that illusion becomes and the harder it is to hold. I really do think we could see a scenario where, just like Strange had trouble holding the spell together in No Way Home, Strange, who I believe is going to be Sheriff Strange like in Secret Wars and a servant of Doom, struggles to hold Doom's illusion together.

What if that's ultimately how Doom is defeated? Not simply by the Avengers punching him enough times, but by exposing the truth and undoing the magic holding this fake reality together, allowing everyone to remember who they really are so the facade he created begins to crumble. Imagine that moment: Doom has spent the movie ruling over a kingdom of people who worship him as their god, and suddenly the spell begins to break. People remember their families, their friends and their universes, and most importantly, they remember that Doom is not their god. He's just the man who took their lives away from them. From what we understand about Doom's ambitions in Doomsday, he feels that they are the ones living stolen lives, and he feels, perhaps rightfully so, like he is the one who has lost something: his family. But here he would be, a hypocrite doing the same thing to other people. I think Doom will realize that, and I think he could relinquish his control like he does in the comics, when he hands his power over to Reed once he's convinced he was wrong. But hey, what do I know?

Do you think Doom could combine Wanda's hex with Strange's memory spell in Avengers: Doomsday?