This Canceled Avengers Cartoon Had Marvel's Best Doctor Doom Adaptation

Doctor Victor von Doom is the most fantastic villain in all of Marvel Comics, but he has a pretty poor showing in the movies. (We'll see if the gambit of bringing back Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr., to play Doom in the upcoming "Avengers: Doomsday" pays off, but a lot could go wrong.)

Doom in Marvel cartoons, though? That's a different story. There are a lot of strong takes on Doom in animation, particularly the canceled-too-soon "Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes." That Doom (voiced by Lex Lang) had scant screentime, but boy did he leave an impression with it.

Lang's Doctor Doom debuts in the season 2 premiere, "The Private War of Doctor Doom" (written by series' co-creator Christopher Yost). The Avengers are spending time with the Fantastic Four. They get roped into Doom's latest attack on the Four when Doom's minions abduct the Sue "the Invisible Woman" Storm (Erin Torpey) and the Wasp (Colleen O'Shaughnessey). 

In Latveria, the trash-talking Wasp tries to get under Doom's skin (or at least his armor). When Doom's own silence doesn't shut Wasp up, he gives this withering retort:

"Miss van Dyne, I am not some common criminal that can be distracted by your prattling. You are nothing to Doom, and your pathetic attempts to play mind games with me amount to exactly less than nothing. So please, stop embarrassing yourself."

From there, Doom singlehandedly defeats the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. The fight ends because he deigns to let them leave his lair. The heroes still don't understand what Doom was trying to accomplish, but the episode's last shot reveals he's clued into something the heroes haven't: "Sue" has been replaced by a Skrull. 

When the "Secret Invasion" arc comes to a head later in the season, Doom shows up at Tony Stark's (Eric Loomis) doorstep to give him some Skrull-detecting tech. Doom may not be a hero, but no aliens are conquering Earth on his watch: "This world is mine to rule, and mine alone! These... reptiles may not have it."

If you find the MCU's overexposure of Iron Man a bit grating, then it's very satisfying to see Doom repeatedly put the Armored Avenger in his place (verbally and physically). Victor's genius may come in second place to Reed Richards', but next to Tony Stark, Doom is indeed the superior iron man.

Unfortunately, "Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes" season 2 was the show's last. The episode "Emperor Stark" was originally written as "Emperor Doom" per Yost. It was substantially rewritten to remove Doom as the villain in favor of the Purple Man (Brent Spiner).

If the show had continued, Yost and co. had plans for more storylines with Doom. In a now-deleted tweet, Yost said if the show had gotten a fourth season, Doom would have become the main villain. A storyline called "Under Siege" would have seen Doom unite an alliance of the Earth's mightiest villains, who force the Avengers to go on the run.

This would've been a good way to dig deeper into Doom's character (and not just continuing his rivalry with Iron Man as they set up in season 2). Doom only has about 10 minutes of screentime in "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" and about two dozen lines, each one memorable. The show is a perfect adaptation of who Doom is on the surface i.e. a bad guy, but a pragmatic, hyper-competent, and ultimately fair one.

That persona is as much a mask for Doom as his armor is. The true Victor von Doom is insecure, petty, and entirely capable of horrible cruelty. With how nigh-invincible Yost writes Doom, one could write his work off as that of a Doom fanboy. The show even tones down Doom's pomposity to add to his regality. In "Earth's Mightiest Heroes," Doom works quietly and efficiently, almost never raising his voice. He still sometimes refers to himself in the third person, but he's not breaking out into Shakespearean soliloquies about his own greatness. His aforementioned dressing-down of Wasp is cold and grim, not loud. But it makes sense knowing this wasn't all the show had planned for Victor. If you set him up as almost untouchable early on, then his fall can come later.

Doctor Doom is often compared to Darth Vader. In fact, Doom predates Vader by 15 years! The only onscreen Doom that compares to the Dark Lord's sinister presence is the one in "Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes." There have, however, been other successful animated adaptations of Doom.

Ever since there have been cartoons based on Marvel Comics, those cartoons have starred Doctor Doom. He appeared first in the 1966 series "The Marvel Super Heroes" (which were really barely animated comic issues) voiced by Henry Ramer. The next year, he appeared in the very first "Fantastic Four" cartoon, played by Joseph Sirola. His most recent animated appearance was a cameo in "X-Men '97," with Ross Marquand voicing Doom.

One of the most beloved Doom voice actors is Simon Templeman, who voiced the villain in the 1994 "Fantastic Four" cartoon's second season (plus two episodes of 1996's "The Incredible Hulk"). Now, Templeman's aristocratic English accent is a little out of place since Doom is supposed to be Eastern-European. (Tom Kane in "Spider-Man: The Animated Series" gave Doom a Bela Lugosi-like accent.) Even so, Templeman is so confident and deliciously theatrical in the role that you hardly care. In the series finale, "Doomsday," Templeman delivers the perfect summation of Doom's twisted benevolence after the villain steals the Silver Surfer's (Edward Albert) power cosmic:

"Imagine — I now possess the power to end hunger! To abolish disease! To eliminate crime! To establish a perfectly content, perfectly ordered world, all under the benevolence of my iron will!"

The next "Fantastic Four" cartoon was 2006's "World's Greatest Heroes," featuring Paul Dobson as Doom. The anime-styled series updated Doom's look (rather than a short tunic and cape, he wore a hooded open cloak) and Dobson's deep voice was imposing. The writing ... less so. This Doom was more like Skeletor, i.e. an overconfident villain that ran away humiliated and swearing vengeance at the end of each episode. Doom in "World's Greatest Heroes" is arrogant; his bark is worse than his bite, when they should always be in balance.

I'm not the biggest fan of the 2010s Disney XD Marvel cartoons ("Ultimate Spider-Man," "Avengers Assemble," and "Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.") but what those shows did have was Maurice LaMarche as Doctor Doom. LaMarche, the world's greatest Orson Welles impersonator, used that talent to play Doom. The voice fit the character like Doom's armored gloves.

We'll see what Downey can do with Doom, but if he wants to prepare, he should study the old masters: Templeman, Dobson, LaMarche, and especially Lex Lang.