Tag: Fantastic Four

This feature originally ran on MCU Exchange in December of 2017.

Welcome to another installment of what I hope is an enjoyable, extended look at a series of films that I’d like to see used as a way to bring the X-Men and Fantastic Four universes into the MCU. I’ve spent a troubling amount of time in my own mind thinking about this and figured that if I was going to spend that much time, I might as well write it up and feel accomplished! In doing so, I know that I’ll push some buttons with some readers, so let’s be clear about a few things: these are only MY ideas and do not, in any way, represent insight into what we should expect; of all the films I end up writing about, there’s a very small chance ANY of them get made; you’re free to write your own fan-fiction about films you want to see.

With so much time between now and when we will first see the X-Men enter the MCU, there’s a lot of time for things to change (including my own mind); however, this “blueprint” is my current idea and one that I’ve attempted to base both in the kind of decisions Marvel Studios has made to date and on the types of changes we’ve seen recently. Unfortunately, in writing these I’ve discovered I am NOT cut out to do screenplays, so some of these  stray from convention in a few ways.

In the first installment, I took at look at how The Starjammers could potentially kick off Marvel Studios’ inclusion of the X-Men characters into the MCU. Then I took a shot at introducing Charles Xavier to the world and explaining just why he needed the X-Men in the first place. Next, we introduced arguably Marvel’s greatest character, Victor von Doom. We then caught up on the adventures of Corsair and crew and met the poweful Shi’ar Imperial Guard. Now it’s finally time to bring Marvel’s first family to the MCU. Today, we get the Fantastic Four!

This film is one that no matter what I came up with, even I wouldn’t be happy. I love the stories of the Fantastic Four and there adventures so much that I just can’t imagine how to do it right. I also know, that much like Spider-Man, fans can do without another origin story and so we are going to pick up in media res, with them returning to Earth after a 12 year absence during which time they were feared lost. Of the many things that the other versions got wrong, the ones that stand out the most to me are the missing sense of adventure that made the comics so unique and the lack of focus on Sue Richards as the central character. I know that everyone just loves how cool Johnny looks when he flames on and it’s easy to fall back on Reed, but as a kid reading these comics that grew into an adult reading these comics, it always seemed that Sue was the driving force behind their love and sense of adventure. While I’m a bit mad at myself for putting Sue in a precarious position in this film, it’s something that will be remedied before the end. This film is going to start a thread that eventually brings the Avengers into the story, but first it has to get started.

In some ways I’ve thought of this film as the MCU’s Odyssey. We get a story about the hell the family went through to get home only to find their home in imminent danger. The film will open right where the post-credit scene from Doctor Doom left the four.  From news reports we find out that the heroes have been a known quantity for since their accident in 2005. Despite being lost, the family actually looks to be in relative good health. Different reports allow for us to catch up on their adventures as we see news footage of their battle with the Mole Man in California, a tussle with a version of the Frightful Four (which sadly won’t have Medusa!) and a major encounter with Namor (who we have already met at this point). All of New York is abuzz at not only the return of the heroes, but the shock of them walking out their ship with two children. The four are taken into a government building in order to begin their debrief. Here the narrative structure of the film’s second act will unfold: each of the four heroes will tell a portion of what went wrong, where they’ve been and how they got back.

We begin with Sue, who tells of the earliest days of the family’s mission in 2008. We find out they spent some time on the Blue Area of the Moon where they were exploring Skrull ruins there. As they excavated the ancient base, they were able to reboot one of the old computers. Reed spent days and days away from the team, poring over the files and taking notes. Upon returning to the ship, Reed became a man possessed. Almost a week had passed now and while the rest of the team had continued to work on exploring other parts of the base, which Reed now estimated to be nearly one million years old, he had been sleeping an hour a day at best. As this part of Sue’s story comes to an end, we see Reed begin assembling a device based on his notes from the Skrull archives.

The Richards children, Franklin and Valeria, undergo a battery of tests in separate rooms. Everything about Earth is alien to them. As the doctors continue their tests, Valeria begins to giggle. When her attending physician asks her what made her laugh, she looks at him and says, “Just something my brother told me.” As we flash back into Franklin’s room, we catch just the slightest bit of a strange glimmer fade from his eyes and understand he was in communication with his sister a moment ago.

As Reed eats a warm meal, he picks up where Sue left off. The Skrull archives contained information about an ancient parallel universe made of what he believes to be anti-matter: the Negative Zone. This is Reed Richards and people are asking him about what may be the most monumental discovery of his time, so he gets deep into the science of it here. The Skrulls new of the universe and had constructed a gateway to it. Their first party was annihilated immediately upon breaching the portal, but a group of Skrull scientists were able to keep it stable and open. Over time they the Negative Zone through the portal and, eventually cataloged many planets, several of which they named. According to the archives, they never sent another team through the portal, but continued to monitor the Negative Zone for thousands of years until life found it from the other side. As the camera pans to give us a clear view of the Skrull portal, we see the figure of a young Annihilus approach before a Skrull scientist powers down the portal.

Ben tells the interview team that Reed became obsessed with recreating a portal to the Negative Zone because he believed that if they were able to undergo charge conjugation, they could fundamentally alter their bodies, allowing them to exist within the Negative Zone. While not something Skrull scientists of the time could achieve, Richards is a bit of an expert on Rydberg atoms and metastable states and believes he can create a device that can enter the Negative Zone. Ben indicates that at this point Reed realized he was on the brink of not only discovering another dimension, but also creating faster than light travel. Reed used a shuttle to return to Earth for supplies and it was this point that the remaining team became aware of the presence of another being: Uatu the Watcher.

Johnny tells us that Reed returned to the Blue Area of the Moon and, over the next couple of weeks, recreated the gateway. Though driven to make his way to the Negative Zone, Reed has always believed that the principles of science are to be trusted and so they opened the gateway, set up every piece of equipment they could, and simply observed for nearly 3 years. They recorded data on radiation, charted the movement of the planets they could see and decided that only two of them seemed to be capable of sustaining life. At one point during the observations, Johnny, bored to pieces by the process, rolled a tool into the portal only to watch it be instantly destroyed. At that time it was mid-2011 and Sue was pregnant with Franklin. Johnny explained that while Reed worked, he and Sue and Ben continued to explore not only the Skrull base but also the rest of the Blue Area, eventually stumbling onto the lair of Uatu.

Sue explains that while her pregnancy went on, Reed worked tirelessly at the math necessary to eventually allow them to send a probe into the Negative Zone. It’s crucial here to see Reed and Sue’s relationship work itself out. This isn’t Jessica Alba getting mad at Ioan Gruffudd for working too much. This is a couple that have committed to and know one another. Not only is Sue not mad at Reed, her presence in Reed’s life is what keeps him going and she’s aware of it. Once he was sure that he had it right, he built an early model H.E.R.B.I.E. and sent it through, programmed to return in two weeks. When two weeks time had passed, H.E.R.B.I.E. returned and Reed downloaded the video stream. H.E.R.B.I.E. had been programmed to spend one week on the planet they had named Arthros and one week on the planet they had named Baluur. As expected each of the planets were revealed to have life; unexpectedly, while H.E.R.B.I.E. was programmed to return in two weeks, he held over 10 weeks worth of data. Sue and Reed came to the conclusion that they were experiencing the relativity of simultaneity and upon a closer look at the data they’d been collecting realized that time in the Negative Zone moved faster relative to our own universe because the Negative Zone has begun to contract.

Reed explains that with the math done and proven successful, there was nothing to stop them from their expedition into the Negative Zone. He’s then reminded of there being one thing that stopped them: the impending birth of his first child. While this begins as Reed’s story, we get bits and pieces from everyone as they detail Franklin’s birth and first year. To me this is as important as any sequence in the film because it captures the essence of this group of people: for this bit of the story all we see is love and the importance of these characters to one another.

With Franklin now one-year old, the family is ready to board the ship and prepare for exploration into the negative zone. It’s 2013 and this is the last time we’ll see them in our dimension for 7 years. Ben explains that because they were certain to find life on Arthros and Baluur, they chose to explore other near by planets. The contraction of the Negative Zone along with Reed’s recent mastery of faster than light travel made it easy to navigate. It’s 2015 and Sue is pregnant again. Ben’s face harrows: the baby inside Sue was killing her. In some way the radiation from the Negative Zone took its toll on the baby. Reed was certain that his work reversing the polarity of their molecules should have extended to the baby; it didn’t and as she grew in Sue’s womb, she began emitting small doses of Negative Zone anti-matter. Desperate to save Sue, the team sets course for Arthros were they know they’ll find life.

Johnny is quick to add that the life they found was anything but friendly. Arriving on Arthros, the ship is immediately greeted by by thousands of insectivorids. Reed and Ben exit the ship and are taken away, leaving Sue, Johnny and Franklin aboard.

Returning to Sue, we find that she was days away from delivery by the time they made landfall on Arthros. From her perspective we see Franklin, now a 3-year old, continue to attend to his mother with growing concern. While she can’t explain it, Sue is sure that while Franklin is in the room, her pain is lessened. Despite being just 3, Franklin is so worried about his mom that he has created a pocket dimension in which he is siphoning off the radiation from his sister. Given that neither Sue, Johnny nor Franklin know what’s happening, they can’t account for it.

Reed and Johnny enter the throne room of Annihilus, the great lord of the Negative Zone. Ever pensive and paranoid, Annihilus is sure that the explorers have come to take his kingdom from them and, in classic Annihilus fashion, details the great power of his Cosmic Control Rod, assuring the duo that they are nothing to The Living Death That Walks! Reed tells us that he became instantly aware that the Cosmic Control Rod held the answer to saving both his wife and unborn child but that they needed to formulate a plan. Reed and Johnny throw themselves at the mercy of Annihilus, explaining they are merely a family of explorers from an alternate universe. Remembering how close he came to escaping the Negative Zone long ago, Annihilus allows the duo to return to their ship so he can plan his escape.

At this point, Ben explains, things were looking bad for Sue. Reed needed to make his play for the Cosmic Control Rod and needed to make it now. Johnny details how he alerted Reed to the apparent mobilization of Anninilus and his army of Borers. Annihilus is headed for the gateway and then Earth. Using Reeds hyperspace equation, the team jumped to the gateway, destroying it just as Annihilus arrives. A battle ensued that works as a showcase of the teams’ fantastic powers and their years of having worked together. With Annihilus defeated, Reed assures him that there will never be another gateway to his dimension as the design is in his mind. He makes a deal with Annihilus: hand over the Cosmic Control Rod long enough to heal Sue and the baby and Reed will make another gateway. Annihilus agrees. Sue is saved; Valeria is born. It’s now 2016 and the Fantastic Four realize they may never be going back.

Reed works night and day on the new gateway and time passes by. As the day approaches, Annihilus approches Reed who powers up the device. As the gateway opens and Annihilus and his army prepare to enter, the great bug king unleashes the power of the Cosmic Control Rod on Reed. As Johnny and Ben race to his side, Annihilus steps through the portal, ready to conquer a new universe. As he enters the threshold, an invisible and nearby Sue hatches the plan. The gateway changes color as Sue unleashes a powerful blast of concussive force onto Annihilus. As he staggers to his feet, we see him easily lifted from the ground. He’s still in the Negative Zone on Baluur and he’s now in the hands of Blastaar. His army of Borers is easily turned away with a little rock and fire and the family takes Reed back to the ship. They head back to the Blue Area of the Moon and approach Uatu who, despite his vow to only observe, helps restore Reed to health. Before they leave for Earth on July 3, 2o2o, Uatu uses his screens to reveal to them an impending threat to the time stream. It seems a bit silly, but this quick trip to Uatu’s lair proves crucial down the line. The Four head back to Earth and we are back to the beginning.

Post-Credit Scene #1: The family is back to the Baxter Building. Reed is hard at work trying to recall the mechanics of his one-time rival Victor von Doom’s Time Platform. As he reaches the breaking point, a portal opens in his lab and out steps a man Reed has not seen in a long, long time: his father, Nathaniel Richards. He explains he’s come from the future and that the heroes of Earth have to assemble to stop the time lord known as Kang.

Post-Credit Scene #2: Latveria. As Victor puts the finishing touches on his Time Platform, Reed and his father open a portal to his lab. Victor attacks the duo, but is easily put down by Nathaniel who tells him his Time Platform is outdated and sad. He then uses the technology of his suit to open a chronal portal and he, his son and Victor step through into Ancient Egypt.

Fan Cast: I’ve thought about this one quite a bit and I absolutely love this group. In this iteration, we won’t be seeing Ben Grimm at all as he’ll have been the Thing for quite some time; therefore, we only need someone to voice him and Adrien Brody is my guy!

This feature previously appeared at MCU Exchange in December of 2017.

Welcome to another installment of what I hope is an enjoyable, extended look at a series of films that I’d like to see used as a way to bring the X-Men and Fantastic Four universes into the MCU. I’ve spent a troubling amount of time in my own mind thinking about this and figured that if I was going to spend that much time, I might as well write it up and feel accomplished! In doing so, I know that I’ll push some buttons with some readers, so let’s be clear about a few things: these are only MY ideas and do not, in any way, represent insight into what we should expect; of all the films I end up writing about, there’s a very small chance ANY of them get made; you’re free to write your own fan-fiction about films you want to see.

With so much time between now and when we will first see the X-Men enter the MCU, there’s a lot of time for things to change (including my own mind); however, this “blueprint” is my current idea and one that I’ve attempted to base both in the kind of decisions Marvel Studios has made to date and on the types of changes we’ve seen recently. Unfortunately, in writing these I’ve discovered I am NOT cut out to do screenplays, so some of these  stray from convention in a few ways.

In the first installment, I took at look at how The Starjammers could potentially kick off Marvel Studios’ inclusion of the X-Men characters into the MCU. Then I took a shot at introducing Charles Xavier to the world and explaining just why he needed the X-Men in the first place. Now it’s time to introduce my absolute favorite Marvel Comics character of all time: Victor Von Doom. This film would represent a major departure from the norm for Marvel Studios because the main character is one of their greatest villains; however, he’s also one of their most well-developed characters and deserves his own film, especially given the role I have imagined for him. After a brief discussion this morning, we are envisioning this as the MCU’s There Will Be Blood!

The film opens in Doomstadt on June 23, 2020: Midsummer’s Eve. Following some beautiful establishing shots of Castle Doom, Victor von Doom summons a dimensional gateway. Upon stepping through the portal, Victor finds himself in what appears to be Hell. This is not Muspelheim. This is not the Dark Dimension. This is a place unlike any other and, as we find out, one that is whatever its host wills it to be. As Victor makes his way through the visually striking dimension, he is greeted by two beings: the film’s villain and the driving force behind ever decision Victor has made his entire life. The demon Mephisto tortures a woman as he welcomes Victor to his realm. Victor gives his Inigio Montoya speech, revealing to us the woman is his mother, and then the two engage in a battle of extra-dimensional energies in the vein of Doctor Strange. Cut to title.

The film proper opens in Latveria in 1984. It’s an appropriate time not only to fit the current MCU timeline, but also to properly root Victor in the Romani culture from the comics. The 1980s were not kind to the Romani people of Eastern Europe. They lived in ghettos, were persecuted (one Eastern European leader of the time said there were some Romani you “just had to shoot.”) and even sterilized, so our fictional country of Latveria won’t differ much from what was actually happening during that time.

It’s in a Latverian Romani ghetto, just outside the capital city of Hassenstadt, that we first meet the von Dooms: Victor, his father, Werner, and his mother, Cynthia. From their ghetto, the von Dooms look up to Castle Hassenstadt, ancestral home to the ruling family of Latveria, the Fortunovs. The castle is now inhabited by a young, ruthless warlord, Valdimir Fortunov, the third member of his family to rule the country since being given control of it during the Red Skull’s march on Europe in World War II. During Vladimir’s 4-year reign, the Romani have been villainized and identified by the government as dangerous criminals. It’s not uncommon to see mass executions of the Romani and, as we move back to Victor and his family, we find that the people of their tribe, the Zefiro, led by an elder named Boris, are planning their exodus from the country. The von Doom’s small home holds a wealth of treasure for young Victor. While is father is a doctor and man of science, his mother is well-known among the Romani people as a practitioner of the mystic arts and their home is full of texts and artifacts, many of which the 4-year old Victor is shown reading and studying.

As plans develop, a group of Zefiro are caught outside of their ghetto and brought before Vladimir. As punishment for their “crime”, Vladimir takes them back to their part of town and has them executed in front of the remaining Romani. Victor’s mother Cynthia is outraged and begins to summon a spell but is stopped by Werner. As Vladimir walks away, Cynthia sets her heart on revenge and sets in motion the series of events that will lead Victor to becoming the man we met in the opening.

Back to Hell. Mephisto and Victor battle fiercely and Victor’s assault is seen to weaken Mephisto who makes not of his surprise at how strong Victor has grown. At this point, Mephisto summons Kagrok, a brimstone beast, to attack Victor, turning the tide. As Victor battles Kagrok, we close in on Mephisto grinning.

The camera pulls away from Mephisto and we see him looking face to face with a very alive Cynthia von Doom. It seems Cynthia’s interest in sorcery has allowed her to tap into the dark arts and she has summoned Mephisto in order to have her revenge. Ever the deal maker, Mephisto agrees to empower Cynthia’s revenge against the soldiers who killed her people in exchange for the only thing he ever wants: a soul. Believing that making this deal will save her son from an early death, Cynthia gladly pays the cost of her soul, due to Mephisto at the time of her death. Cynthia’s retribution is swift and brutal. As she makes her way through the village where the soldiers who killed her people live, she casts the spell given to her by Mephisto. As screams come from every house in the village, Cynthia sees Mephisto’s evil at work as he collects the not only the souls of the soldiers as they leave their bodies but the souls of their wives and children as well. Stricken by the fact that she has just committed the same atrocity for which she had sought vengeance. As the scene ends, Cynthia ends the spell and is shot by Vladimir. A wide smile covers Mephisto’s face as he collects her soul and returns to Hell.

Word of Cynthia’s death at the hands of Vladimir reaches the Zefiro quickly and expedites their exodus. Initially they consider leaving Victor and Werner behind, they decide to move on together. Victor and his father collect their and Cynthia’s things into a chest and begin their move from Hassenstadt. It’s winter and their journey is harsh. Several of the Zefiro die and Werner falls ill. Victor watches as Boris and the others try to save him, but to no avail. Victor watches his father die and be buried unceremoniously in the woods. As they leave the country, Victor, clutches the chest, his only possessions, and takes one last look at Latveria and Castle Hassenstadt, determined to return to it under very different circumstances.

When next we see Victor he has aged 10 years. Communism has lost its grip in most of Eastern Europe. Economic reforms had swept most of Europe, leaving the small nation of Latveria as one of the only holdouts. Victor had taken advantage of the open markets to in the neighboring countries to sell some inventions and has grown into central figure among the Zefiro. Several scenes will show Victor mastering not only science and technology, but also the mystic arts. Key among them will be a scene in which Victor is followed back to the Zefiro camp by a group of men who mean his people harm. Victor quickly turns to the use of magic against them, sending them running. As they run, Victor uses a spell to bring one of the men to him before strangling him; at this moment Victor realizes that his actions could bring retribution to his people and uses what money he has to get to America. We see Victor arrive in Manhattan in the fall of 1994.

Back in Hell, Victor has defeated Kagrok and sets his sights on Mephisto once more. He is distracted by the screams of his mother as he sees her torn into shreds by the hands of countless minor demons only to be reconstituted and torn apart again. Victor summons a massive energy surge and strikes Mephisto who is driven back by the blast.

It’s now 1996 and the 16-year old Victor is wearing a welding mask as he works on an android. We meet Professor Gregson Gilbert and learn that Victor’s genius has earned him a scholarship at State University in upstate New York. Victor’s arrival has breathed new life into Gilbert who has been working on robots and android technology for years before hitting a stopping point. Victor works late into the night, using his access to the lab to work on several side projects as well as Gilbert’s android, “Dragon Man.” Over the years, Victor’s continued work with the mystic arts and communing with other spirits have led him to believe that his mother’s soul belongs to an inter-dimensional being known as Mephisto. Victor believes that by blending magic and technology, he can open a doorway to Mephisto’s dimension and reclaim his mother’s soul from eternal torture and he begins to design the machine. Word of Victor’s genius spreads and he is approached by Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D., alongside an unnamed man (Nathaniel Richards) who asks for his help in examining an interesting piece of alien technology: a Kree Sentry. The Sentry has been on Earth for some time and given the events that took place around it (seen in Captain Marvel), Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. are interested in cracking it secrets. Victor agrees to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. on the project as a way to gain access to more materials and is paid handsomely for his work. It is here that Victor first comes across the Tesseract and begins work on his original Time Platform. NOTE This sort of behavior is not spreading Victor too think, in my opinion. This is, perhaps, the type of behavior exhibited by many genius-level intellects over the course of time: being capable of holding several complex problems in their mind consecutively, working to solve one mentally while physically constructing another.

Of course this time at State University will also introduce two of the most important characters in Victor’s upcoming life: Reed Richards and Ben Grimm. Though Reed and Victor are not working together on any projects, the school is abuzz at having two super genius intellects on campus. Reed and Ben stop into Victor’s robotics lab one day to introduce themselves to the other resident star. Though hard at work, Victor recognizes the two and they share a brief interchange. As Victor continues work on Dragon Man, Reed grabs a notebook believing he’s looking at plans for the android. Reed quickly understands the schematics he’s seeing aren’t for an android at all and include symbols and a language he’s never seen before. Stunned at his inability to understand a machine, Reed asks Victor to explain; Victor scoffs at Reed’s ignorance and dismisses the two from his lab; Reed warns Victor that while he can’t understand the language, he also can’t agree to the calculations for how it channels energy. Of course Victor ignores Reed and finally completes his machine. (Does Ben mess with the machine now?) The machine uses energy to open a portal to Hell, where Victor is greeted by Mephisto. As the two speak, the machine begins to draw too much energy and surges. Victor hears his mother’s voice, warning him to never come back, and as he reaches to her, Mephisto grabs his throat and stares into his eyes, terrifying Victor. At that moment, the machine explodes, closing the portal and disfiguring Victor. As he recovers from his wounds, Victor is asked to leave State University for his actions. Reed and Ben visit Victor in the hospital and he accuses them of tampering with his machine, an accusation Reed denies as Ben stands mute. As the two leave it’s clear where they stand with Victor. As the second act of the film comes to a close, Victor leaves America with the knowledge that his mother remains in Hell and that the man who killed her has survived the fall of the Iron Curtain and remains in power in Latveria (hospital TVs are handy).

The final act of the film will take us catch us right back up to where the film begin and will reveal how Victor came to power in Latveria. Victor uses a portion of the money he made and invested while working for S.H.I.E.L.D. to purchase an abandoned castle in Sokovia: a small country near Latveria. Here Victor refined his original Time Platform, eventually perfecting it and using it to catch a glimpse of a being from the 31st Century who is identified as Immortus. Victor also continues his pursuits in the mystic arts, though after his harrowing experience with Mephisto, he has begun to dabble more and more in the dark arts. As his knowledge grows, Victor is still unable to achieve his ultimate goal, the release of his mother’s soul, and begins acquiring and studying ancient texts in order to gain more knowledge. In these texts he comes across stories of Kamar-Taj and the Ancient One and, eventually, the Aged Genghis, a legendary being thought to have been gifted with his power by the Vishaniti themselves. Despite most writing him off to legend, Victor believes he is alive and can be located and heads to the Himalays.

In a journey that mirrors the one he made in his youth, Victor treks the Himalays to the point of exhaustion. Calling upon the dark arts to sustain his energy, Victor eventually finds the cave of the Aged Genghis. An order of monks, similar to those in Kamar-Taj. Victor spends years with the monks, mastering all aspects of the mystic arts, but still haunted by his inability to save his mother’s soul. Over the years he is there, Victor feels both a strong repulsion to yet an urge to enter an underground cavern located within the monks’ cave. In a very Cambell-esque moment, Victor enters a dark cave nearby and leaves a changed man. Victor and the monks quickly begin work on an enchanted suit of armor designed to literally and figuratively build a barrier between him and the world. As Victor leaves the monks, he is still unable to save his mother from Mephisto so he sets his sights on Latveria and Vladimir. As he descends the mountain, Victor places the mask on his face, completing his transformation into Doom!

After briefly returning to his Sokovian castle, Doom leads his newly built army of Doombots to Latveria. Doom’s army quickly pushes through the Latverian defenses and Doom takes note of the impoverished state of his homeland. Doom breaches the castle and after torturing Vladimir, chooses to kill him with his bare hands instead of using any of his considerable powers. Doom uses both his Doombots and his mastery of the mystic arts to destroy Castle Hassenstadt and erect a new castle in the village where is mother was slain. He supplies the population of Latveria with food and supplies, long horded by Fortunov’s men and is shortly hailed as hero by the people. Now the people of Latveria are his. Castle Doom becomes the center of Doomstadt, the new capital city and the people have no needs or fears, only the care of their new ruler, the benevolent Doom!

It is June 21, 2005: Midsummer’s Eve at Castle Doom. Mere days after his takeover of Latveria, Doom, now a master of the dark arts, creates a dimensional portal to Hell where he confronts Mephisto again. Eager to leverage anything he has for his mother’s soul, Doom enters into a pact with Mephisto. Each year, on Midsummer’s Eve, the day in which there is the least amount of darkness on the Earth, Doom is allowed to enter Hell and battle Mephisto. Should he win, his mother’s soul is released; should he lose, the people of his newfound kingdom will suffer. Doom agrees and we quickly montage through 15 years of Doom’s defeat at the hands of Mephisto and the growing distress in Latveria. We end where we last saw Doom and Mephisto in battle and watch as Doom is defeated again and sent back to Castle Doom where he angrily returns to his lab to begin refining the Time Platform.

Post-Credit Scene #1: In Hell, Mephisto is pleased with his victory. As he delights in the tortured screams surrounding him, he turns his eyes to newly opened portal where we see the Silver Surfer race through the Cosmos. We get a sense that this is a soul that Mephisto highly covets and as the scene ends, the Surfer becomes aware that he is being watched.

Post-Credit Scene #2: July 4, 2020. At work in his lab at Castle Doom a defeated Victor works on a Doombot. The face of another Doombot morphs into a screen broadcasting the return of the Fantastic Four. From the broadcast we learn that the four heroes have been missing since early 2008 when they left on what was expected to be a two-year voyage. As the cameras pan in, the four are joined by two small children: 8-year old Franklin and 4-year old Valeria.

Fan Cast: I simply cannot decide, but I’d love to hear who you guys think would make a great Doom! Let me know in the comments.

Man do I hope Marvel Studios makes the choice to give Victor his due! I know this is just poor fan fiction, but Victor is a character unlike any in their stable and I want him fully realized on film. At any rate, we move onward and revisit the cosmos to check in on the Starjammers.

Victor von Doom will return!!!