Personally, I love this concept, and I’m very happy to see Feige and the Russos going for it.
There isn’t room in the MCU for two armored super-geniuses… trying to introduce a conventional Victor Von Doom into that world would be like trying to retrofit Latveria into a world where we’ve already established the concept of Sokovia. It all seems duplicative, even with a multiverse to power it.
But the idea that each universe gets —spiritually speaking— one Tony Stark, and that said Stark —with his titanic ego and willingness to do things he shouldn’t— could easily go bad…? Why wouldn’t a disillusioned Tony just buy out/conquer a Slavic city-state, establish his idea of a utopia, become paranoid enough to live 24/7 in his metal suit, and start allowing the locals to call him “Doom”? With sufficient infrastructure, he could fend off all of his world’s Avengers indefinitely, and claim national sovereignty every time they approach him.
It works, and by using RDJ’s charisma to carry the switcheroo, Feige will do more to cement the concept of the multiverse than 1,000 iterations of Kang ever could.
Meanwhile, on the business front… I’m betting Downey is about to take home $100 million for just one of these movies. So the bean-counters’ goal is likely for him to add at least another 3 or 4 billion to DIsney’s coffers. There’s a *lot* riding on this.
So these will be the most heavily promoted films in Hollywood history… and if I’m James Gunn, I’m already rescheduling everything DC has planned to avoid getting wrecked. RDJDoom is not something he wants his new Superman to face.
Robert Downey Jr to star as Marvel’s Doctor Doom in Avengers Doomsday and Secret Wars