Avengers: Doomsday Poster May Have Given Us Our First Look at Battle World

The official Avengers: Doomsday poster that Marvel Studios released hid two Easter eggs, and I think together they may have revealed our first look at Battle World. A ring of magic runes and a circular stained glass window, both far easier to see on the poster than in the trailer, point to what I believe is Doctor Doom's controlled reality.

Out of nowhere that morning, Marvel Studios posted the very first teaser trailer, which was officially running in theaters. Because it had leaked out the week before, it had already been covered multiple times. Shortly after the official trailer went up, though, we also got the official poster, which believe it or not had two Easter eggs there within.

The Doomsday poster brightened an image the trailer kept in the dark

Alongside the trailer, we got our first official look at what was going on with the Doomsday countdown, and it is this exact image that Marvel used on the poster. Admittedly, a lot of Marvel movies are shot rather dark. When the poster arrived, the image was not only enlarged but also lightened, and suddenly we could clearly see two things going on in the photo.

The first is the runes around the circle, which are a lot more visible in the poster version. The second is that the image is very clearly focusing on what looks like green stained glass. Quickly, I don't think the stained glass is green at all. I actually think it's clear, and that the green comes from plants sitting behind it. I will come back to the glass, but the runes come first.

Doom's circle of runes may leave him the only magic wielder inside

These are not just magic runes there to reflect the fact that Doctor Doom has a mastery over magic. That had already been indicated by Marvel's marketing and by the synopsis for the film. What matters more specifically is that the runes are arranged in a circle.

A very famous scene in the Marvel canon between Agatha Harkness and Scarlet Witch taught us what runes in a circle mean: controlling another witch's power, or rather dampening a magic wielder's power when they are contained within the runes of another. Here, Doctor Doom is using his runes in a circle to encapsulate this window. I think whoever is contained within may be in the same predicament, where Doom may be the only magic wielder, because every other magic wielder inside is completely dampened and can't use their magic at all.

The stained glass matches the tower Marvel briefly teased at a convention, which I believe is Battle World

So what is this stained glass window? We have actually seen it before. At the most recent international convention, where Marvel Studios put on a light show, they very briefly presented a tower of what appeared to be bunches of broken triangular stained glass. That was an exact representation of how we had seen the multiverse before in the animated What If series.

What's more, that tower appeared to have a very prominent keyhole that matched the key Doctor Doom wears as part of his belt buckle on the new version of his costume. It's my belief that the key on Doom's belt is the key to Battle World, and that the stained glass represented here in the Avengers A is the stained glass of Battle World. That is what he has built within the circle of these runes.

I have seen it pointed out that in the recent Fortnite collaboration with Doctor Doom, there is a lot of stained glass in the throne room, including a huge circular green stained glass window hanging over it. But I think this goes one step further. That is why the tower was presented the way it was, with broken pieces of stained glass, pieces of the multiverse, now encapsulated in runes. "That is literally the window to battle world."

Keep in mind that before the Citadel was reduced to ruins by Loki, it had an enormous circular window that looked out upon the Sacred Timeline, and we saw Kang with that same sort of device. I only point this out because my contention is that this circular stained glass window looks into Doom's controlled Battle World in the same way.

The Sacred Timeline may have been Doom's arc reactor all along

About a month before the poster arrived, I went in depth on how the timeline logically works out for Doctor Doom: where he has been, what his origin story looks like, and what he has been up to over the last half decade. My argument is that Doom won't have enough time in Avengers: Doomsday to start building Battle World and then complete it by the time we get to Secret Wars. I argue he has been working on this for quite some time.

In what I will admit is a crazy theory, I suggested that the Sacred Timeline, as a loom, was really just an enormous arc reactor built in the image of Tony Stark to power Battle World. Controlling a whole fractional reality would presumably take an immense power source. To reference WandaVision once again, we saw Scarlet Witch manufacture just a fraction of that for the Hex. Battle World would need power beyond what one power wielder may be able to accomplish.

Harnessing the powers of other realities themselves into one Sacred Timeline, in a blue circle that looks exactly like what could be an arc reactor, would be the perfect way to power it. In my view, Battle World has already existed and was probably going to plan until Loki broke the loom. That was the power source Doom was using.

Why Doom may have a vendetta against the heroes of the 616

If that is right, it has created a major rift between Doctor Doom and a lot of our main heroes from the 616, and a villain as well. It is not only Loki breaking his power source. Steve Rogers reportedly caused an incursion by deciding to live his life out with Peggy Carter. And I think it is all motivated by the fact that these incursions killed Doctor Doom's family.

As for who that family is, the Russos already sort of revealed it by displaying Sue Storm, Franklin Richards and Doctor Doom costumes together as a trio in their office. That draws directly from Jonathan Hickman's 2015 Secret Wars, where Doom created Battle World in a new reality and wiped everyone's memory. Sue Storm was his wife, and both Valeria and Franklin Richards were his kids.

I argue it goes a little deeper in the MCU. In Doom's original reality, the one ruined by incursions caused by 616 heroes and villains, he was with Sue Storm and Franklin would have been his son. That adds serious extra weight to the Fantastic Four post credit scene. One of my first theories when it dropped was that Doom was kneeling down and letting what was an image of his son touch his face, not simply absconding with Franklin Richards because he needs his power to build Battle World.

A Scarlet Witch retread, or something much bigger for Victor von Doom?

Every time I have gone down this road, I have been quick to point out that it is a slight retread of the storyline we already saw for Scarlet Witch early in the Multiverse Saga, where she wanted to be with her kids no matter what it meant. It could be exactly the same here, with Doom wanting to be with his family no matter the cost.

But Doctor Doom and Scarlet Witch, even in her villain form, have never been the same character. There is a totally different level of narcissism when it comes to Victor von Doom. With the added twist that he looks like Tony Stark, "this is going to be brilliant if they pull it off." With every new reveal, I am only getting more and more excited.

Do you think that circular stained glass window really is our first look at Battle World, or is Doom's family story too close to Scarlet Witch's?