Why Doctor Doom Wears Tony Stark's Face: Steve Rogers Could Be the Real Target in Avengers: Doomsday

I think I have figured out why Victor von Doom chose Tony Stark's face in Avengers: Doomsday, and I don't believe the answer is Spider-Man. My theory is that Doom needs the Tony face to win over Steve Rogers, because bringing Steve to his side could set off a domino effect that makes Doom's influence absolute as he looks for followers on his conquest to build Battleworld.

When I put this theory together, Avengers: Doomsday had not yet been released. The Russos had promised that the film would deal with the wake of Tony Stark's death, and a lot of us took that to mean it would also address why Doom has the face of the 616's Tony Stark.

Tony Stark's face means little to the new generation of Multiverse Saga heroes

Something has always bothered me about this. Why would you want Tony Stark's face? A lot of the characters from the Infinity Saga had deep emotional ties to Tony, or history fighting alongside him as Iron Man. But in the Multiverse Saga, most of the characters are newly introduced and new to the Avengers party, so to speak. They have no history with Tony beyond knowing who he was and what he meant as a symbol of the Avengers.

The characters who have carried over and been influential in this part of the saga, like Doctor Strange, don't have as strong an emotional tie to Tony as someone like Spider-Man obviously does. So the question stands: why did Doom specifically choose the face of the 616's Tony Stark? I think there is one specific character he needs by his side, and I will get to who that is below.

A coincidence would be canon, but it would not be a compelling story

Two things first. We have seen in canon that variants across the multiverse sometimes happen to look like each other. Go back to Loki season 1, and some of the variants Loki was introduced to were mirror images of Tom Hiddleston. So it could be the case that Doom simply happens to look exactly like Tony Stark.

For a while there was an argument that we only saw doppelgangers when they were variants of the same entity. But Chris Evans is now both Steve Rogers and Johnny Storm depending on where you are in the multiverse. Those are not variants of the same character, and they look exactly the same. So that logic is out the window, and there is a canonical basis for a lookalike Doom.

Still, I think it is fair to say that is not a very compelling storyline. There has to be an obvious reason Doom is appearing as Tony, and I am working from the assumption that the Russos and everybody else don't want to just call it a coincidence. By the same logic, they could cover Robert Downey Jr.'s face in scars and disfigurement, as the comics have sometimes presented Doom, but you don't pay him that kind of money to come back and then hide his face. "It's very obvious that him looking like Tony Stark is part of the story."

Spider-Man, Pepper Potts and Rhodey are not the reason

If Doom needs Tony's face for a specific reason, that face has to carry influence over specific people. Looking at the 616, Peter Parker is the very obvious candidate. But Peter reset himself into being a complete unknown in the landscape of superheroes. Unless there is something we don't know about him, he doesn't have enough influence to merit Doom choosing Tony's face.

Even if Peter is the anchor being of the 616, it would surely be as easy as killing him. You wouldn't need to take on Tony's face to persuade him to fight on your side by presenting yourself as his friend and mentor. Outside of Spider-Man, the characters closest to Tony, like Rhodey and Pepper Potts, surely don't have much to do with the fate of the universe going into Avengers: Doomsday.

Neither Avengers team leader, Bucky or Sam Wilson, has a real bond with Tony

Then there are the two Avengers teams in the 616, the Avengers and the New Avengers. One is basically headed up by Yelena Belova, who has no history with Tony, alongside Bucky. Bucky was on the opposite side of Tony in Civil War, and unless they made up off screen, they fought side by side in many battles but never really reconciled in a way that we saw. Some characters in the MCU have shared the same place at the same time without sharing dialogue on screen, simply because there is not enough time for it.

The other team is led by Sam Wilson's Captain America, who was also on Team Cap in Civil War. If he and Tony had a big reconciliation, it wouldn't have been at the start of Avengers: Endgame. Sam and Bucky were both snapped, and Tony died right as they were brought back. It is unlikely anything happened off screen between Civil War and Infinity War, since Tony wouldn't even call Cap, let alone these two, so they probably weren't on the best of terms.

To be fair, we don't really know how Sam and Bucky felt, and they may have softened since. But they fought Tony in Civil War, were incarcerated with Tony basically part of that, went on the run as the Secret Avengers while Bucky was in Wakanda, and then came back when Tony died. There was no comeback and no discussion. If Doom showed up as Tony to sway either leader, I don't think it would be that great a presence.

Steve Rogers is the domino that hands Doom both Avengers teams

Surely there are other characters who mean more to both Bucky and Sam, like Steve Rogers. And that is why I believe Doom specifically needs Tony's face. He needs to sway Captain America, the Steve Rogers variant who went back in time to be alongside Peggy.

If Doom can convince Steve to fight alongside him and bring him to the 616, he instantly has both Avengers teams, because Bucky is on one and Sam is on the other. They would really be following Steve, and Steve would be following Doom, convinced that Doom is a hero because Doom is Tony Stark. Presumably, by extension, the Fantastic Four could end up siding with him too.

Loki could be the villain Doom paints for the heroes

So who would Doom be going up against that he needs all these heroes? Clearly, I think, the villain they would be sent after is our new hero, Loki. Loki has not had the chance to redeem himself in the eyes of most of the Avengers the way we saw in Loki seasons 1 and 2. What they will remember is that Loki invaded New York and was the villain in the first Avengers.

Imagine someone who looks like Tony showing up to Steve and saying: "Loki is the main villain. He's now controlling the multiverse. He's causing incursions, wiping out trillions of lives, and I need your help to defeat Loki in order to set the multiverse free." Steve, looking at a Tony doppelganger, fresh off a battle with Thanos, having returned the Infinity Stones but knowing Loki is still a threat, would be inclined to help. You can see why Doom would then take Steve to the two new Avengers teams.

The Fantastic Four could expose Doom as the villain

Where the rub comes is that as soon as the Fantastic Four make contact with our Avengers, it will be pretty clear that Doom is a villain and not a hero. We know that contact is happening 100%, because Kevin Feige has confirmed that some of our heroes are going back to the 828. I think it will just be a race to see who gets to whom first, and which side each hero takes.

Of course, it won't hurt Doom when the originals like Hawkeye, Thor and Hulk see Tony's face. But they don't have the influence Steve will have over the two current Avengers teams, which happen to be led by Bucky and Sam, his two closest friends. There's got to be a specific reason he wants Tony Stark's face, "and it's definitely not Spider-Man." To me, outside of Spider-Man, the only person left who matters right now is Steve Rogers.

Do you think Steve Rogers is the real reason Doom wears Tony Stark's face, or is there someone else he is trying to sway?