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Robert Downey Jr.'s casting as Doctor Doom in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday rocked the internet when it was announced, but I was instantly skeptical. To me, bringing back RDJ as a villain felt like a desperate move, one spurred by Marvel's diminishing box office returns, and not something motivated by the needs of the story.
I was willing to be proved wrong, though, until I saw Superman. The first movie of DCU Chapter One: Gods and Monsters drops us right in the middle of a lasting feud between Lex Luthor and his arch-nemesis Supes, and it doesn't need any kind of gimmick to set Lex up as an all-timer of a bad guy.
Back to the source
Nicholas Hoult's Lex is very faithful to the comics, with that iconic bald dome, booming Luthorcorp business, and irrational, passionate hatred of Supes. But you don't need a vast comic book knowledge to understand, going into the new movie, that Lex Luthor hates Superman; their status as arch-enemies has fully permeated pop culture. James Gunn's Superman leans into that assumed knowledge to set up the dynamic between them incredibly effectively.
Lex's loathing is obvious from the get-go, and he spends all of his screen time cooking up new ways to defeat, kill, or otherwise humiliate the hero. The movie wastes no time in diving into origin stories or lengthy explanations aside from a few quick lines of dialogue here and there; it's simply treated as a given that these two are arch enemies. All we really learn is that Lex is deeply envious of Supes, whom he doesn't view as human, the baseline of practically every version of Luthor we've seen. His resentment is so intense that, even though he's carted off to prison during the Superman ending, it's practically guaranteed that we'll see him facing off against Supes again.
This type of fidelity to the source material is incredibly useful as a form of shorthand, then, but it also proves that you don't need to build up a legendary rivalry across multiple projects to get the point across if you trust the audience.
Marvel easily could've taken advantage of the same type of storied history to establish Doctor Doom as its new big bad. Robbed of a chance to hype up a new villain like they did Thanos, who appeared across multiple movies before finally arriving properly in Infinity War, this kind of pop culture shorthand could've been invaluable, just as it was for Lex. Doom is one of the few Marvel villains who can boast the same kind of popularity as DC's heaviest hitters like the Joker or the Riddler, after all.
Instead, though, the MCU has tossed the comics aside. Obviously, Downey Jr. played Tony Stark for years, so it seems pretty much guaranteed that this context will come into play in Avengers: Doomsday. That means we're going to see a new version of Doom, one that seems the polar opposite of Superman's comic-accurate Lex.
Downey Jr.'s return also casts a long shadow over Doom himself, with more fan attention and speculation surrounding what it means for the multiverse, and the other Marvel characters confirmed for the movie, rather than the villain in his own right. Already, it feels like Doom's impact has been hamstrung by the casting. He doesn't feel like the Doctor Doom, but rather the Doom that's also Iron Man.
Fresh start
Of course, James Gunn had far fewer storytelling constraints on him than Avengers: Doomsday does, considering Superman is the first movie of the DCU, so there's no unwieldy canon to battle. But by leaning into the comics so heavily, and trusting the audience to be onboard for the ride, Gunn has proven that you don't need any fancy gimmicks or shock cameos to craft a compelling story. Instead, you just have to have faith in the quality of your bad guy and not be afraid to use decades of pop culture history to your advantage.
In comparison, Marvel looks as if it doesn't have the same kind of trust in Doomsday and Doctor Doom himself. Would the story work without Downey Jr.'s casting? That remains to be seen. But, for now, Superman has only increased my skepticism towards the film.
Superman is in theaters now. For more, check out our Superman review, or our guide to all the upcoming DC movies and shows.
