What Do I Know?

I’m reading reviews of the new Fantastic Four movie, and I’m not feeling overly positive.

You know why Doom is an awesome character?

Doom is arguably the greatest scientific mind on the planet, but also believes in and utilizes magic, and is certain his mother’s soul is in Hell, and that he can use science and/or magic to communicate with her.  I don’t care if Hollywood thinks that’s crazy, it’s infinitely more interesting than “I’m a rich guy with the hots for Sue.”

Doom rules a small eastern European country, and they have had such bad leaders in the past that Doom iron fist, since it’s evenly applied for the most part, actually kind of makes him popular in his home country.  Additionally, as the leader of a country, there are all sorts of crazy ins and outs to why heroes can’t touch him here or there and political maneuverings going on.

Doom actually does the right thing from time to time!  Sure, he may be willing to kill lots of people to ensure he’s in charge of the planet, but if something actually threatens the planet, he’s the first one to side with the good guys to repulse the threat.  Nobody gets to take Doom’s planet away from him!

Doom’s signature gotcha moment is for the heroes to find out that they were really facing a robotic duplicate the whole time, so much so that “It was a Doombot” is actually a trope, and yet it’s a trope we’ve never seen from the character in any of his movie incarnations.

Yes, Doom is cheesy and over the top, but gloriously so!  So was Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, and Hugo Weaving’s Red Skull.  People are chomping at the bit to see Thanos, and so far the character has been made of equal parts CGI and Ham!

Doom has so much nuance, he’s like a nuance roller coaster, but it’s all weird and wonderful, and not the usual complexities that a villain normally has.  Oh, sure, he’s got issues with his parents, but those issues stem from being the bastard son of nobility and trying to find his mother’s soul in Hell.  Romance?  No time for love, Doctor Doom!

At this point, Hollywood types need to stop fixating on Doom being in every FF movie.  They missed the perfect opportunity to use someone like Annihilus who actually is more of a force of nature that just wants to destroy things.  I mean, using Doom in every single FF movie to date is almost like having Wolverine and Magneto be the focal point of almost every X-Men movie . . . oh, yeah.  Nevermind.