Doctor Doom Was Once Marvel's Iron Man — But Was Tony Stark Ever Doom?

By now, everyone who's even remotely interested in superhero films knows that Robert Downey Jr. is back in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Doctor Doom, the iconic Marvel bad guy and the focal point of the upcoming "Avengers: Doomsday" and "Avengers: Secret Wars." Downey, of course, is no stranger to carrying the MCU on his back. From 2008 to 2019, he pulled off a career resurrection for the ages as Tony "Iron Man" Stark, the de facto centerpiece of the entire franchise until the character's death in "Avengers: Endgame."

The fact that Downey is playing Doctor Doom implies that the MCU version of the character may be some sort of alternate-timeline version of Tony, which is a fascinating idea considering the two characters' metal armor theme and penchant for bombastic antics. There's also some precedent (of sorts) for this in the comics, thanks to the Earth-11029 version of Doctor Doom, who debuted in "What If? Iron Man: Demon in an Armor" #1 (2010). This Doom is actually an amnesiac Anthony "Tony" Stark, locked in Victor Von Doom's body and rocking a Doom-style armor in Tony's classic red and gold color scheme. Meanwhile, Doom — who, of course, is behind the body swap — enjoys Tony's billionaire resources in his body, and wears an Iron Man armor in Doom's preferred silver and green. 

However, this is far from Doctor Doom's best-known rodeo as Iron Man. That would be writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Alex Maleev's 2016-2017 comic "Infamous Iron Man," where a redemption-minded Doom takes over the Iron Man duties after Captain Marvel has seemingly killed Tony during the events of the preceding "Civil War II" event.

When "Infamous Iron Man" kicks off, Victor Von Doom's face has been healed and his mind messed with (courtesy of his longtime rival Reed Richards, aka Fantastic Four patriarch Mr. Fantastic), and he's been busy reinventing himself after a bout of godhood. This soul-searching prompts him to explore a new career as a force of good, which isn't a simple feat for one of Marvel's premier supervillains. As Doom reinvents himself as Iron Man, heroes and villains alike react adversely. After a face-off with supervillain The Hood and a demon, Doom's soon back to what to him passes as normal, face scars and all.

Since the "Infamous Iron Man" story is out in the wild, there's always a chance the MCU will use aspects from it to explain why Robert Downey Jr. plays Doom. If so, this would likely be less of a straightforward adaptation and more of an "inspired by" remix. There's precedent for that in the MCU: "Captain America: Civil War" isn't about superhero registration like its source material, instead basing its central conflict around the Sokovia Accords and the machinations of eventual "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" dance lord Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl).

If I had to guess, I'd say it'll be a while before aspects of "Infamous Iron Man" make their way into the MCU because of that story's timeline: "Infamous Iron Man" takes place after the Doom-heavy 2015 "Secret Wars" event, which seems to be the key inspiration for "Avengers: Doomsday" and "Avengers: Secret Wars." Besides, it would make little sense to introduce Doom as an Iron Man-esque hero figure before he gets to be the gloating egomaniac villain that fans love. If anything, that's a fun redemption arc for later. 

While a redemption-seeking "Infamous Iron Man" Doom may be a long time coming for the MCU, the aforementioned Earth-11029 spin on the character might have more legs in the short term. A malevolent supervillain like Doom hijacking Tony Stark's body and resources would be a pretty fun spin on the MCU Doom. As a bonus, it'd also explain the whole Robert Downey Jr. situation.

What's more, this approach would provide a handy way to change actors once the expensive Downey inevitably exits the franchise once more. By revealing that Downey Doom was a Tony Stark variant controlled by the real Doom's mind and eventually rolling out the real thing, the MCU could potentially take another spin on its greatest swerve: The Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley) Mandarin fake-out from "Iron Man 3" and the eventual reveal of Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung) in "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings." Who knows? Judging by how great Leung's version was and how well Trevor Slattery completed his surprising heroic arc on "Wonder Man," Marvel Studios might be surprisingly willing to go back to that particular well.

Of course, there's no telling what the MCU actually intends to cook up to explain why Downey plays Doctor Doom. The franchise has plenty of easy outs: For instance, the well-established concept of multiversal variant characters means "Avengers: Doomsday" and "Avengers: Secret Wars" can simply present Doom as a particularly ambitious Iron Man variant. Still, it's good to know that regardless of the direction that the MCU ultimately ends up taking with Doom, there's at least some comic book precedent for the character's connection to Tony Stark's superhero persona.