Joe Russo's Doctor Doom Quote Explains Where He's Been Before Avengers: Doomsday

Joe Russo has offered what is probably the best explanation yet for where Doctor Doom has been during the Multiverse Saga. Doom has been studying his opponents. Normally I'd complain about this sort of thing, but I'm all in on this one.

There has always been a line in the Marvel Cinematic Universe between what happens inside the story because of plot lines and writers, and what happens at Marvel Studios because of changes. The Multiverse Saga started with Kang the Conqueror as the big bad and then, for multiple reasons, pivoted to Doctor Doom. In retrospect, Marvel can say there were Easter eggs for Doom all along, but we all know that wasn't the original plan. The anvils at the end of Avengers: Endgame being turned into Doom's anvil strikes is one example. They can say that was the plan all along. Wink wink, Agatha, we know it wasn't.

Joe Russo says Doctor Doom's magic is ancient and that he studies his foes

Joe Russo, one of the directors on Avengers: Doomsday, described Doom this way: "Doom's magic is ancient. He is a very powerful character, as you can see in the trailer, and he's a genius. He studies his foes. He understands them." He added that Doom is well planned and "not somebody who just does something off the cuff," that everything is meticulous with him, and that Doom knows he needs the tactical advantage or the power advantage before he steps onto a battlefield. "So, he's very difficult to beat."

There's a lot to unpack here, but I'm surprised to hear Joe Russo say outright that Doom's magic is ancient. I've always said that as press junkets go on, and actors and directors get asked the same questions over and over, they go a little further each time until they start revealing new details. That's what happened here.

Doctor Doom has been studying the Avengers, X-Men and Fantastic Four

So where has Doom been? He's been studying his opponents. When we see him facing off against the Avengers and the X-Men, it's because he already knows he has the advantage on the battlefield. He knows their strengths and their weaknesses, and he's been planning this for quite some time.

I've been saying for the last two years, since Robert Downey Jr. was announced as Doom and Doom was installed as the main villain, that Avengers: Doomsday isn't the beginning of Doom's plan. It's the end of it. We're only getting to see it in motion at the very end, before we get to Battleworld.

We know incursions have already impacted Doom by taking his family. So while trying to solve that exact problem, why not make a new reality where he can have his family back at the same time? While doing that, he's been planning to stand against these exact heroes: the X-Men from their universe, the Avengers from the 616 and the Fantastic Four from the 828. There's probably a good chance that's why he left them for last. This may end up being one of the strongest groups of heroes he has to face before he completes his plan.

That's also why I think he's been clearing pieces off the chessboard, like Hulk and Spider-Man, two of the strongest heroes in the 616, at least currently. There are still others like Sentry and Thor, but removing those two diminishes the strength of that team. Who knows who else he's already moved, collected for Battleworld or cleared out of the way? That's the tactical advantage Joe Russo is referring to.

The rune and the Word of God may be Doom's power advantage

On the other side of the coin is the power advantage, which ties into Russo's line about Doom's magic being ancient. I believe he's referring to the rune we've already seen prominently on Doom's glove, and on the floor at a laser show last year. That rune has something to do with the origin of his power.

Light spoiler warning here. What I think may be Doom's secret weapon has been revealed by both the Hot Toys and the Hasbro leaks for the Doctor Doom action figure: something called the Word of God. In the comics, it's an ancient text so powerful it's called the Word of God, but it's a reality altering artifact made from an extradimensional being known as the Author.

Much like another magical book already established in the MCU, it comes with detrimental side effects. In the comics, speaking the words engraves symbols directly onto your bones, slowly driving you mad, physically decaying you and binding your soul to the Author. I doubt they'll establish any of that in Avengers: Doomsday, much like the Beyonders or Molecule Man. There are too many things from the comics to introduce and explain in one film.

But the symbol it drives into your bones may have been adapted in the MCU as the rune on Doom's glove. And you can follow a line from him using something called the Word of God to his title becoming God Emperor Doom.

I'd rather have this explanation than a ridiculous retcon

That's all surface stuff, but it's exciting, and it goes a long way toward explaining why Doom is so powerful and where he's been during the Multiverse Saga. We all know it was originally supposed to be Kang. I appreciate them not trying to come up with some ridiculous retcon for where Doom has been the whole time, because he hasn't been the plan the whole time. It's fine to say he's been planning and studying his opponents. I like that as an explainer.

The Avengers, X-Men and Fantastic Four may have no shot against Doom

Reading between the lines, the Avengers, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four have no shot. Doom is already 10 steps ahead of them and far more powerful than they can imagine. Given Russo's quote that he's well planned, whatever weaknesses he may have had going into this fight, he's already shored up. We may feel the heroes are fighting the good fight in Avengers: Doomsday, but it's already too far into the plan for them to win. Hence the name of the film.

This hearkens back to the test screening reactions I've heard about, which asked why everybody is getting executed during the film. Someone high up at Disney reportedly said, "It feels like an execution of the franchise." My read is that it's because Doom is too powerful at this point.

Maybe that makes for a boring movie. I don't think it does, because from the heroes' point of view, they won't see that all is lost. They'll be fighting against exactly that. They don't want to lose everything, and they don't want the multiverse to collapse. But from our outside perspective, it's hard to believe they could come away with a victory in any respect. Doom may be wielding the Word of God, he's as powerful as he appears in the trailers, and he's already studied these specific heroes and planned for whatever weaknesses he has against them. That's why I think he's taken Hulk and Spider-Man off the board. All of that will come to pass when we finally see the film.