Some had speculated (or worried) that RDJ’s Doom costume would be less classic Doom, more evil Iron Man. See “Infamous Iron Man,” where Victor von Doom becomes a new Iron Man and starts wearing Iron Man style armor with a hooded cape. The apparent Disney Expo art, though, shows a Doom who looks like he walked right off of a Jack Kirby or John Byrne drawing.
The big detail is the eyes. To hide his scarred face, Doom always wears a mask, but the mask has eyeholes that keep his eyes visible. That is vital because it’s only through those eyes that Doom’s face can visibly emote. Despite his mask, Doom is not a stone-faced bad guy. Rather, he’s a bombastic character prone to dramatic speeches.
When Downey Jr. played Iron Man, that armor’s mask had glowing eyes and completely concealed his head; the MCU’s movies usually crosscut to shots of Tony’s face inside the armor to let RDJ act. As Doom, though, Downey Jr. should be able to express himself through his eyes while keeping the mask on — the same way, for instance, that all the actors who’ve played Batman have.
Doom’s armor has always been deceptive in its appearance. It’s packed with advanced technology, but from the green cloak to the knight-like build of the armor itself, Doom looks almost medieval, à la the historical Man in the Iron Mask. It’s telling that in “Marvel 1602,” that book’s 17th century Doom looked almost identical to the classic one.
This art honors that aspect of Doom’s appearance; the details of his green tunic, such as the large belt around his chest and the two circular cloak clasps, make him look like a king or a sorcerer from antiquity. Look closely, and you can notice that chainmail runs underneath his armor; this armor looks like it’s composed of tactile, interwoven pieces like true armor, not nanotech like the later Iron Man armors were.
If this Doom look is the final one, then “Avengers: Doomsday” has already gotten the surface level of his character right. Now let’s just hope it can nail the deeper layers of Doom’s character, from his complex code of conduct to his resentment of Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), too.
“Avengers: Doomsday” is currently set to release in theaters on December 18, 2026.
