New Avengers: Doomsday Photos Reportedly Show Doctor Doom's Witch Followers, and I Think I Know Who They Are

New photos for Avengers: Doomsday are showing off Doctor Doom's Latverian army, and while that is what everybody is calling them, it is pretty accurate for the most part. We have heard for a while now that Doctor Doom is going to have a coven of witches following him, and a lot of insiders have reported that. Now we have even further proof on top of what Marvel actually showed at San Diego Comic-Con, where they displayed some of the witches and their costumes. It does seem like we know who some of these heroes joining Doctor Doom might be. The big question is why, and I think it comes down to something Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige recently said.

Is the helmet with the circle actually Doctor Strange, not Boris?

Some people are calling one of the new figures Boris, Doctor Doom's right hand man in the comics, but I do not think that is the case. If you take a close look at the helmet, it has a circle in the middle, one large and one small, and I think this is Doctor Strange, especially because of that circle resembling Strange's eye.

In the Secret Wars comic, Doctor Strange joins Doctor Doom. There are two parts to this, the Time Runs Out story that leads directly into Secret Wars. Originally nobody knows that the character going around under a different identity is actually Doctor Doom, but eventually they find out. At first they think he is trying to destroy the multiverse, but when Strange realizes it is Doctor Doom and unmasks him, Doom explains everything: "I've been trying to save the multiverse. Unfortunately, we can't. It's too late. So, I'm going to save something. Just one universe, one world. I'm going to create it. Don't you think that's better than everything being destroyed?" Strange replies, "Yeah, I do." Later, when Strange meets heroes who still remember their lives before, he says Doctor Doom is really good at playing God.

Why would Doctor Strange join Doctor Doom after Multiverse of Madness?

I think we have to go back to Multiverse of Madness for this. Doctor Strange caused a lot of problems in that movie. The main theme was that Stephen Strange variants throughout the multiverse cause incursions and are the biggest threat to the multiverse, something Mr. Fantastic made a point of saying before he was destroyed. We already saw variants of Strange cause incursions, and we know he caused at least one himself, and given how much multiversal jumping happened in that film, it would not be a surprise if he caused more than one.

I also believe Clea, who comes to get Strange in the post credit scene, is one of these witches, and if I had to guess she is the purplish one shown in the new photos, since those are her colors. The three witches besides Strange do look female, and the one that looks male would be Strange. Clea is the one who tells him at the end of Multiverse of Madness that he caused an incursion and needs to help her fix it. I think she is working with Doctor Doom, though originally it might have been Kang, or maybe a resistance against Kang. It is hard to tell what got switched up, but I now think she is working for Doctor Doom, especially since these figures are confirmed to be Doom's followers, shown on display at San Diego Comic-Con.

I think Clea tricks Doctor Strange, because Doctor Doom can apparently see into different universes, whether through some place outside space and time where he can look into whatever universe he wants, or some other method. I think he has his own version of the Black Swans, a multiversal organization that in the comics originally tries to stop the multiverse from being destroyed but ends up with some members going astray and joining the villains. I think that is what is happening here, even if they are not called the Black Swans in this story. They are different from another multiversal group I originally thought Clea might belong to, who also try, and I stress try, to save the multiverse.

What is Doctor Doom's actual motivation for recruiting these heroes?

I think Doctor Doom wants to talk to Strange to show him what he has done, in order to get him on his side. A big part of Avengers: Doomsday, I think, is Doom telling a lot of heroes that they are actually the villains, and I think we get maybe halfway into the movie before everyone realizes Doom himself is the villain. Specifically, I think Reed Richards and Sue Storm will confront Doom about why he is doing this. We already heard part of the answer in the leaked San Diego Comic-Con trailer monologue, where Sue says Victor used to be kind and caring, that he had a wife and a child, and that they died.

So part of this is Doom mourning and wanting revenge, but on top of that he has tried and failed to save the multiverse, and now believes there is only one thing left to do: save it himself. That is what he fully believes, and I think his followers will come to see him as the hero, believing that heroes like Spider-Man, Steve Rogers, Doctor Strange, and perhaps America Chavez caused the incursions destroying the multiverse. Doom is effectively telling Strange, you were called the biggest threat to the multiverse in Multiverse of Madness, and now I can show you that you have caused a ripple effect that will destroy it, and Strange, wanting to make it right, joins him.

Could the reddish witch be the Scarlet Witch, and why would she follow Doom?

The last figure is a reddish, orange-ish colored witch, and most people think this is the Scarlet Witch, which makes sense to me too. Wanda caused a lot of destruction herself while wielding the Darkhold, and we already know Doctor Strange will have the Darkhold in Avengers: Doomsday. We have seen leaked toy images of Doctor Strange and Magneto, and also leaked toy images of Doctor Doom holding the Darkhold, alongside other artifacts and powers that make him incredibly powerful. Sorcery is one of those powers, and I think, speaking specifically about the MCU version of the character and going off what Kevin Feige has said about Doom, that he might be able to control the Darkhold maybe just a little bit more than Wanda, since he has been more trained in sorcery than she has.

Feige described Doom this way: "He's the proto-villain for all supervillains. You know, it's not just the great iconic look and mask, but it's who he is inside. His flaws, his hubris, his genius, and his warmth, and his true belief that he is the hero, and he will save us all." I think that quote reveals a lot about his character. When you have people like Strange and Wanda who caused real problems, Doom will likely tell them they are the main cause of the multiverse's destruction, along with other heroes, and that they can make it right by following him. When you have already seen a Professor X variant destroy a universe, jumped into a destroyed universe yourself, and caused damage across realities, it becomes believable that you would want to make it right.

The same reasoning applies to Scarlet Witch, since her arc has put her on a villainous path for a while. If she comes back wanting to be good and to save things, and it looks like she really does, then what Doctor Doom would say to her makes a lot of sense: you messed up, so did Strange, so did other heroes, but I can fix it if you give me some of your power and follow me. I believe that is why she would follow Doctor Doom, as a way to atone for what happened throughout WandaVision and Multiverse of Madness.

Could the green witch be Sylvie instead, and how many followers does Doom really have?

Some people are saying the green witch could be Sylvie. A long time ago we heard that Sylvie might make a sacrificial play to save Loki, and maybe that ties to going with Doctor Doom, since she has some issues with the TVA and Doom might speak to her differently than to anyone else about the multiverse. But Loki basically sacrificed himself for everything, so I am not sure Sylvie would betray him at this point. That one will have to wait and see.

One thing is for sure, Doctor Doom has some incredibly powerful people behind him, between Scarlet Witch, Doctor Strange, and Clea, who we can imagine is pretty powerful herself, and this probably is not even all of it. He already has Latverian followers, though it is unclear if they have any powers or tech, and he could also have variants from other universes following him, potentially including figures like Thanos or Captain America that the Avengers might have to fight in what we are hearing will be the final battle in Latveria.

Do you think these characters will actually join Doctor Doom, and do you think they are the ones hiding behind these masks?