Avengers: Doomsday: Doctor Doom's motive and Battleworld

A report from Alex Perez at the Cosmic Circus offered new details about Doctor Doom's motivation in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. According to that report, Doom follows the classic Russo brothers pattern of giving the villain a valid reason for what he does. Alongside it, we were also hearing that Doom has a personal vendetta against the multiverse.

At the time, the Russo brothers were directing both films, with Stephen McFeely writing. I think sticking to that formula is a good thing, and the reasoning behind that comes at the end of this piece.

Doctor Doom sees himself as the hero of Avengers: Doomsday

We'd been hearing for a while that Doom views himself as the hero in Avengers: Doomsday. That mirrors the comics. In the Time Runs Out story, which leads directly into Secret Wars, Doom does see himself as the hero, and in a sense he is. He's the one traveling the multiverse, going universe to universe trying to save it.

In the MCU, it's not going to be exactly like that. It sounds a bit more evil, which I think is a good thing, since he is the villain of both films. Still, it seems like his backstory is going to make you feel sympathetic toward him.

Alex Perez reports Doom gets the same treatment as Pierce, Zemo and Thanos

The Russo brothers, together with writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, made Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. All of them except Christopher Markus were back to write and direct Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, so following the same pattern as those earlier films makes sense.

Perez wrote: "The Russos have always had one common pattern in most of their MCU films." That pattern is giving the antagonist a valid motivation to justify their actions. In The Winter Soldier, Alexander Pierce believed that if humanity were left unchecked, without oversight, chaos would follow because of free will. That's why he set up Project Insight with Hydra. Pierce was played by Robert Redford, who had passed away the day before I first wrote about this. He was an incredible classic actor who appeared in many films, and it was very sad news.

In Civil War, Baron Zemo's family died in Sokovia during Avengers: Age of Ultron as a result of the Avengers' battle with Ultron, so he tried to destroy the Avengers from within by making them fight each other. Thanos saw overpopulation as the ultimate threat to existence and sought to wipe out half of all life at random to restore balance. According to Perez, Doom will be similar: "a man scorned by the incursions that are happening across the multiverse dooming countless realities," who wants to end that by any means necessary.

Why "by any means necessary" points to Doom wanting control

I think that last phrase, by any means necessary, is the line that hints at Doom's big villainous side. It means he wants to do it his way. With Doom, it isn't only about revenge, even though we've heard he has a vendetta against the multiverse. It's more about control. That's why in the comics he creates Battleworld and becomes a god over it.

One of the big plot points of the Secret Wars comic is when Reed Richards and Doom finally meet on Battleworld and Reed criticizes how Doom went about everything. Even Spider-Man points out that of course Doom made himself ruler over it all. When the heroes ask Doctor Strange why he went along with it and didn't try to stop Doom, Strange's answer is that Doom is quite good at playing God. What Doom did worked. He saved something of the multiverse rather than letting everything be destroyed.

In the end, though, Doom loses because of this. Molecule Man is the one who transferred the Beyonders' powers to Doom, so he could take them away. When Doom and Reed fight at the end, it comes down to ego. Doom tells Reed to admit he believes he would have done a better job with that power. Reed agrees, and Molecule Man takes the power from Doom and gives it to Reed. I don't think that's going to happen in the movie, but I do think Doom doing things his own way will play a major part. Just as audiences criticized Thanos for killing half the universe instead of doubling the resources, I'm sure fans and the characters in the MCU will criticize the way Doom goes about so-called saving everything.

An incursion reportedly killed Doom's family

Ultimately, I think this comes down to Doom becoming god emperor of Battleworld, and it all starts with his vendetta against the multiverse. A recent report had said that Doom's family was killed by an incursion. That would be the backbone of why Doom sets out to fix the universe while also killing people, and why you might feel sympathetic toward him in Avengers: Doomsday. Many might even view him as the hero.

Based on everything we'd heard, by any means necessary means he's going to go around killing people who have caused incursions. That's reportedly why he visits Captain America and Peggy Carter, because they, or Captain America himself, did something to cause an incursion. It would also explain why he visits other universes, to kill people who caused these collisions or who are going to cause them.

Why Doom might go after Monica Rambeau at the X-Mansion

A good example is Monica Rambeau. She comes from the Earth 616 universe, but she ended up in the X-Men universe, as shown in the post credits scene of The Marvels. Under the rules of the multiverse established in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, her being there confuses and destabilizes that universe.

Combine that with another recent report that the X-Men universe is on a collision course with Earth 616 and will hit other universes on the way. It would make sense for Doom to want to kill Monica, since the universe would no longer be unstable without her there. That's most likely how we get Doom attacking the X-Mansion, a scene we'd been hearing about and had even seen leaked set photos of.

One could argue Doom could simply show up and offer to take her back to her own universe. But that's where the villainous side comes in. Since incursions killed his family, we could assume he's probably very angry at the people who cause them. So instead of helping, he does it his own way. Killing them is also faster, and if you have to visit many universes to remove whoever is causing each incursion, eliminating them saves time. Still, I think his anger over his family is probably the true motivation.

How I think Doom gets to Battleworld in Avengers: Secret Wars

That's probably also why Doom wants to put himself in a position of power. His way is probably ultimately getting to the TVA and becoming a god over a world he can monitor. He probably believes that's the only way everything can go on without being destroyed. Thanos thought eliminating half of life would save the universe, while Doom thinks him being in charge of everything is the only way to ensure it survives, because Doom knows best according to Doom.

I think we eventually reach a point where Doom realizes he can't save the multiverse, and that's how we get Battleworld: he decides to save something. Much like in the comics, I think Doctor Strange takes his side, because I think Strange will realize he caused some incursions and needs to fix them. So he joins Doom to try to save the multiverse.

Again, I think they arrive at the same place. The multiverse is already on a path that can't be stopped. So Doom, using the power of Franklin Richards or the Scarlet Witch or whatever it may be, maybe even the Beyonders, becomes all powerful and creates one thing out of the remnants: a single planet, Battleworld, which he rules because he thinks he knows best. That's how we go into Avengers: Secret Wars. It's nice that the Russos and Stephen McFeely are sticking to what they know, because the films they made are the best movies in the MCU. If it's not broken, don't fix it, and I'm personally here for this.