It shouldn’t be so hard to get Doctor Doom right in a movie

A comic book hero is only as good as the villains they face, and that’s doubly true in comic book movies. Doctor Doom is the perfect example of that.

One of the big reasons why the Fantastic Four have a group of loyal followers is Doctor Doom, a man who is simultaneously their greatest enemy and sometimes a friend. Which way each encounter goes generally depends on what Doom wants when they meet.

Doctor Doom is regarded by most comic book fans as a top five of all time comic book villain, regardless of the comic book universe. As such, it has been incredibly disappointing that none of his live action comic book movie appearances have come remotely close to doing him justice.

The legend of Doctor Doom grows

Victor von Doom, better known to fans as Doctor Doom, made Marvel Comics his debut in 1962 in the pages of The Fantastic Four. Even in that first appearance, it was quite apparent that this character was something special and would be a key figure moving forward.

As time went on, Doctor Doom only grew in prominence. He has worked with the Fantastic Four as often as he has fought against them. There was a point that Doom was even an active member of the Avengers, which was an odd sight to say the least.

What makes Doom so special is a variety of factors. He’s one of the few humans who can claim to be Mr. Fantastic’s intellectual equal, which is incredibly impressive. But that’s not the only thing he has going for him by a longshot.

Doctor Doom has a suit of armor that can stand up to Iron Man’s. He is a powerful enough sorcerer to give Doctor Strange a run for his money. And, like Black Panther, he has the resources of an entire country at his back.

With all of that going for him, one would think that he would inevitably become one of the most compelling movie villains of all time. Unfortunately, that has not turned out to be the case. In fact, he has been one of the worst.

Doctor Doom makes his big screen debut

The good doctor’s live-action movie debut happened in 2005’s Fantastic Four. Despite his defeat, Doctor Doom also appeared in the film’s 2007 sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. While the first movie did quite well at the box office, the follow-up was a disappointment.

Neither appearance captured what makes Doctor Doom great particularly well. Instead of being a brilliant scientist and sorcerer with a suit of armor, Doom was depicted more as an arrogant businessman who gained accidental super powers at the same time as the FF.

It just didn’t work, yet it was somehow still better than what came next. 2015’s Fant4tastic might be the worst superhero film ever made. While there were a seemingly endless litany of problems with this movie, Doctor Doom was the worst by far.

Victor Von Doom, who was almost called something different, was a computer technician working with Dr. Franklin Storm. The Negative Zone gave him powers as it did the FF, except he went all weird and evil thanks to them. This was nothing even close to Doom.

The future of Doom is coming

The 2005 Fantastic Four movie wasn’t great but it was at least watchable, which is more than can be said about Fant4tastic. But one of the worst offenses both movies made was absolutely botching their portrayals of Doctor Doom.

It shouldn’t be so difficult as the comics have laid out a pretty clear blueprint to creating a successful big screen movie version of Doom. Again, he’s a brilliant scientist and sorcerer with a suit of armor as well as his own country. Literally just do all of that.

Now that Marvel has the film rights back to the Fantastic Four, their debut is inevitable. There is an MCU feature film in the works but fans expect them to pop up before that happens. They are also anticipating the debut of what will hopefully be the first good live-action portrayal of Doom.

Keeping in mind that Doctor Doom has already made three rough big screen appearances, fans and critics alike are hoping that the fourth time will be the charm. If not, that bodes poorly for the future of the Fantastic Four in the movies, as well.