Hold on to your hats, Marvel followers, as a result of Avengers: Doomsday is quick approaching. Now that we’ve seen our first have a look at Robert Downey, Jr’s Doctor Doom in motion in the recent trailer, we all know that Marvel is sticking pretty shut to the supply materials for Victor von Doom’s outfit. The Fantastic Four and Avengers nemesis has one in every of the most iconic supervillain costumes in all of superhero fiction, so it’d be a mistake to reinvent the wheel right here. Thankfully, the metallic masks, inexperienced hood, and flowing cape offers the MCU’s Doom a regal apparel worthy of Jack Kirby’s unique design for the character.
Now that we have now photographs of the costume on show at SDCC, let’s take a better have a look at how Doctor Doom’s MCU costume compares to the comics.
The Man in the Iron Mask
If there’s one facet of Doctor Doom’s look that merely have to be preserved, it’s his signature iron masks. Not solely is it his most recognizable visible trait, it’s a crucial a part of his character. Victor von Doom is one in every of the most smug and egotistical males on the planet, and the injury he incurred to his face due to a botched experiment in school that he blames Reed Richards for is the origin level for his or her rivalry. How broken Doom’s face really is varies by interpretation (Jack Kirby famously believed that Doom solely had a small scar), however any imperfection is an excessive amount of for Doom, who hides his visage behind the metallic masks.
As we are able to see from this comparability between the supply materials and the MCU costume, Marvel has replicated the design from the comics fairly intently. The form and texture work is great, and the look of the nostril and mouth areas hearken again to basic photographs of Doom from the supply materials. Also preserved is the inexperienced hood over the high of his masks, which is one other one in every of his signature prospers. An early look at Doom’s costume from the Disney Marketing Expo in Shanghai appeared darker and extra washed out, however fortunately that appears to have been the lighting, with the costume on show making it clear that the hood is inexperienced.
Stickler for Details
Doom’s comedian costume is elegant in its simplicity, however the MCU model has its personal tackle a lot of the particulars. Typically, Doom’s chest space is simply lined by a inexperienced tunic related to the hood, laid over his armor and fixed with a brown belt with gold buckle. Those facets are maintained however with some coloration variation (appears like a black belt with silver buckle in the movie), however the larger change to the chest space is the addition of what appears to be a samurai-inspired chest plate.
I’m not sure if this was a direct inspiration, nevertheless it jogs my memory of the upgraded armor Doom wore in the 1984 Secret Wars comedian after he stole the Beyonder’s energy (pictured on the far proper above). We additionally need to level out the gold rondels affixed close to the shoulders, which whereas sometimes simply flat circles in the comics, right here have some further patterning which may be necessary. The symbols could possibly be mystic runes, which might make sense provided that Doom’s mom was a witch and he possesses magic powers in the comics.
We see comparable runes on Doom’s gloves, which even have a key distinction from the comics. The precise hand portion of the glove in the movie model is fabricated from leather-based as an alternative of full metallic gauntlets, which is smart to let RDJ or his stunt doubles really seize objects comfortably. There’s additionally an identical adjustment to the legs, the place we see darkish inexperienced pants on Doom’s higher legs, and the metallic parts of his boots solely begin round the knee space. Again, this alteration was possible made to make the costume simpler to put on on set, since a full metallic bodysuit isn’t fully sensible. Still, the total look looks like basic Doom even with these adjustments.
How Does the MCU Doom’s Costume Compare to Fox’s Versions?
Looking at the costume on show, it’s clear that Marvel Studios has realized some classes from twentieth Century Fox’s interpretations of Doctor Doom. While the late Julian McMahon’s costumes weren’t horrible, and so they did get the masks proper, the total look in the first Tim Story movie finally felt a bit low cost since he had enterprise put on as an alternative of armor, and the costume in Rise of the Silver Surfer was principally all black as an alternative of inexperienced. Worse, the design from the 2015 reboot left poor Toby Kebbell saddled with one in every of the worst supervillain appears in all of comedian e-book films: an astronaut swimsuit warped by inexperienced vitality and gray sludge, making him appear like a possessed crash-test dummy. It’s nowhere close to what anybody wished out of the lord of Latveria on the huge display.
It’s a disgrace that the majority cosplay from followers has to this point been higher than Hollywood’s takes on Doom prior to now, however we’re lastly seeing this rectified by the MCU. We can’t say how Doomsday will depict Doom’s persona but, however not less than by way of visuals, Marvel Studios is on the proper observe. We’ll see how RDJ’s Doom fares when Avengers: Doomsday arrives in theaters in December.
Carlos Morales writes novels, articles, and Mass Effect essays. You can observe his fixations on Twitter.
