How The MCU’s Doctor Doom Actually Could Be A Kang Variant

Did Loki secretly set up Doctor Doom with its Kang reveal? If Marvel takes inspiration from an old comic idea, he could turn out to be a Kang variant.

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Two major MCU villains could be linked together if Marvel reveals that the MCU’s Doctor Doom is a variant of Kang the Conqueror aka Nathaniel Richards. The superhero film franchise’s take on the Latverian dictator hasn’t been introduced yet, but it’s possible that he was secretly set up when Marvel unveiled the puppet master behind the TVA in Loki’s season finale.

After reaching the castle hidden in the Void, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) came face to face with He Who Remains. The character is played by actor Jonathan Majors and He Who Remains immediately made it crystal clear that, just as many suspected, Kang the Conqueror was indeed at the center of Loki’s time travel shenanigans. However, the villain of the series isn’t the Kang, but a variant from another timeline. Now that he’s dead, the door is open for the true Kang the Conqueror to emerge and threaten the MCU in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, if not before. As one of the greatest villains in the history of the Avengers in Marvel Comics, Kang is different from Thanos (Josh Brolin) and has a good chance at succeeding the latter as the “big bad” of the MCU.

Even before Majors’ casting, Kang was a favorite for this role. But, he wasn’t the only one. With Fantastic Four on the horizon, it was thought that Doctor Doom could be a candidate too. But instead of playing second fiddle to the 31st-century time traveler, Doom could one day become just as big of a threat. Plus, there’s a possibility that Marvel will find a way to connect the two characters. If a long-overlooked link between them in the comics is properly explored, the MCU could actually use Kang to bring Doom into the MCU. Here’s why Doctor Doom may be a variant of Majors’ Kang the Conqueror.

Doctor Doom’s Kang Connection In Marvel Comics Explained

In the original Marvel Comics canon, the first character to discover time travel wasn’t Kang – it was Doctor Doom. In the pages of Fantastic Four #5 in 1962, Doom built a time machine in his castle and used it in many of his schemes to defeat Marvel’s First Family. The machine has since reappeared as the crux of several key time travel plotlines, including in Fantastic Four Annual #2, when Doom crossed paths with Egyptian pharaoh and fellow Fantastic Four villain, Rama-Tut. According to Rama-Tut, he was a visitor from the distant future who had stolen Doom’s time machine. What neither of them knew at the time was that Rama-Tut is a young, alternate timeline version of Kang the Conqueror. Apparently, Nathaniel Richards’ destiny in the Marvel Universe is to travel to ancient Egypt and establish himself as its ruler, Rama-Tut. Eventually, Rama-Tut is to become bored with his life, leave Egypt, and slowly evolve into Kang.

At a point in his timeline when he was still Rama-Tut, he believed himself to be an ancestor of Doctor Doom. His opinion on that seemed to change when he actually met Doom, who speculated that their connection may go even deeper. Doom suggested that the two may somehow be the same person, even though they don’t share the same histories or any of the same memories. Doom’s idea was that he may one day travel to the future and become Rama-Tut. Both seemed to believe Doom’s theory, regardless of the fact that there wasn’t any proof.

If Rama-Tut is Doom in Marvel canon, then obviously this would apply to the time-traveling Kang and Doom as well. Kang has teased in the past that he bears some secret connection to Doom but hasn’t really gone into detail about what that might be. In later stories, Marvel distanced Doom from Kang a bit by explaining that Kang’s time travel technology may have originated from Mr. Fantastic’s father, and not Doom.

How Kang Sets Up Multiple Comic Villains (Including Doom)

It’s important to note that Rama-Tut is one of several alternate universe counterparts of Kang. Quite a few versions of Kang have diverged enough from Kang’s path that they ended up developing their own identities. In other words, a handful of Marvel Comics characters are really just different versions of Kang. This is true for Rama-Tut, Scarlet Centurion, Immortus, and the Young Avenger known as Iron Lad. So by revealing that Kang (and all his variants) are about to wreak havoc in the multiverse, Loki essentially just laid the groundwork for all four of these characters to join the MCU at any time. And if Marvel were to go by the ideas presented in early Fantastic Four and Avengers comics, Doctor Doom could be counted as one of them.

How Doctor Doom Can Work As A Kang Variant In The MCU

An obvious problem with Kang and Doom being different versions of the same man is the same one that made this matter so complicated in the comics: their backstory. Doom grew up in the present, while Kang is from the 31st century. Since Loki already ascertained that Kang is from the future, it may not work for Marvel to reveal that Doom travels to the present and becomes Kang. Instead, it could be that a variant of Nathaniel Richards traveled to present-day Earth and built a home for himself there. That Kang variant could be the MCU’s Doctor Doom in Fantastic Four. As for who would play him, it wouldn’t necessarily have to be Jonathan Majors. Looking at what Loki has done with its God of Mischief variants, Doctor Doom could be Kang and look like a different person at the same time.

Going in this direction would help Marvel simultaneously build up its next two major villains in a way that would feel organic and interconnected. In addition to that, it can use Kang to foreshadow the danger posed to the MCU by Doctor Doom, while also setting up what could prove to be the most sinister MCU team-up of all time.

Most importantly, taking such a surprising course with these iconic villains wouldn’t necessarily risk ruining either of them. That’s because the fundamental aspects of the character of Doom, who may appear in Doctor Strange 2, are shared by Kang. They have their differences of course, but they also have some interesting parallels that could bind them together. Both are ambitious, egotistical time travelers with god complexes and a belief that they deserve to rule over others. Since they have so much in common, that might actually become an issue when Marvel adapts Doom and tries to make him into a unique villain. Perhaps the best way to get around that is to lean into their similarities and provide a good reason for them: Kang the Conqueror and Doctor Doom are one and the same.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/mcu-doctor-doom-kang-conqueror-variant-theory/