Kevin Feige Compares Doctor Doom Buildup to Thanos, But Marvel Fans Aren’t Buying It

Marvel Studios returned to San Diego Comic-Con for its big Hall H panel, and this year they had some significant reveals to share. We got a new Ghost Rider (Ryan Gosling), a new Black Panther (David Jonsson), and brand new action-packed footage from Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday. And in the case of the latter, the new Doomsday Comic-Con footage seemed to blow a lot of fans away.

As we said in our breakdown of the Doomsday Comic-Con Footage, the new trailer was cut to make Robert Downey Jr.’s Doom the centerpiece, and gives fans an undeniable example of just how powerful the multiversal villain is. It’s a necessary sales pitch, as Avengers: Doomsday has been hounded with early criticism that its story and big bad feel rushed, compared to the careful chess game that was the Infinity Saga. But during the Comic-Con press lines, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige had some pushback on that front, saying Doom is not really being rushed out much faster than Thanos was.

Kevin Feige Addresses Marvel Fans’ Biggest Problem With Doctor Doom

While talking with Brandon Davis, Kevin Feige directly addressed fans’ claims that Doctor Doom is entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe with no buildup or fanfare. It’s been hard for some fans to really get their head around Avengers: Doomsday, as the movie doesn’t feel like the culmination of years of MCU storylines and character arcs. However, Feige argues that the build-up to Thanos wasn’t really anything but a few brief teaser scenes, not much of an “arc” to speak of.

“The Thanos ‘buildup’ has built up in people’s heads over the years,” Feige said. “He sat on a chair at the end. He put on a gauntlet and said, ‘I’ll do it myself.’ And he yelled at Ronin on a video screen briefly. And that was kind of it. And I remember the memes, making fun of Thanos for just sitting on a chair, and ‘All he does is sit on a chair!’ and there was a Twitter feed about him at the time, updating every day: ‘I’m still sitting in my chair!’ (It was more clever than that, but it was funny.)

And when we got to Infinity War, we said, ‘This is really the introduction of Thanos to people,’ that’s how that movie was built. That’s what we’re doing with Doom; Doomsday is the introduction and the story of Doom. You peel the onion, you learn things about him as you go, and it is very much meant for audiences that know and love him from the comics, and audiences who have no clue who he is. Yet.”

Feige makes several correct points, while maybe side-stepping a few other facts of the matter that don’t fit his sales pitch:

• YES, Thanos only got superficial buildup in Phases I and II of the Infinity Saga. Joss Whedon has even admitted the first Avengers post-credits scene was added out of his personal love for the villain, with no certainty it would build to anything.
• NO, it not the same situation with Doom. However superficial they were, the Thanos teaser scenes – combined with other scenes in other films (Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor: The Dark World) made us feel Thanos’ presence hanging over the MCU. Doom has no established presence to speak of, and will feel like a totally new character entering the franchise.

“How does he misunderstand the mcu this badly?” one fan inquired in a post. “The thanos buildup wasnt about seeing him, but the dynamics and events that set the stakes of Infinity War: gamora’s relationship, draxs revenge, the Infinity stones being in EVERY movie, Civil War, asgard destroyed, lokis invasion…”

Why Doom’s MCU Debut Really Feels Rushed, Explained

KANG! The elephant in the room that Kevin Feige doesn’t want to glance at is the fact that we all know there was a villain who was being developed for a bigger arc than Thanos ever had. We don’t even know how the MCU will explain Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror simply disappearing as a threat, and Doom usurping his plan to control the multiverse. But fans do understand that Doom is a last-minute substitution, and there isn’t going to be a smooth way to acknowledge it.

“Omg just come out and admit you didn’t wanna do the simple thing which was just recasting KANG and you were desperate to not take another L,” one fan said in a post. “Phase 4/5 were mid at best SO you begged RDJ to save u by driving truck loads of money and perks to his front door.”

Avengers: Doomsday will be in theaters (in Infinity Vision) on December 18th. Discuss more Marvel Comic-Con reveals with us on the ComicBook Forum!