So I see people suggest Kang the Conqueror as the next Big MCU Villain (especially since the Fox thing hasn’t gone all the way through yet). This might be tough to answer until we have a post Avengers 4 status of the universe, but how would you bring him in?

Good question!

To be honest, it depends on where things stand with Phase Four and how that interacts with the Fox/Disney deal. I could see Marvel Studios going with Doctor Doom in Phase Four, since Doom works equally well as an Avengers villain, a Fantastic Four villain, an X-Men villain, or a Spider-Man or Doctor Strange villain. (He’s sort of the universal adaptor of supervillainy.)

To be honest, Doom kind of does everything that Kang does with time travel and faked deaths and the like, but with a lot more flair, and I could see Marvel going with Doom out of a desire to show off that they could succeed with him where others had failed so often.

I did also see a tease from the Russo brothers that they might do a Secret Wars, which is a very simple way to get all of their new and old characters together and have them fight, and the Beyonder isn’t a bad pick for Big Bad as long as one stays away from his completely insane Secret Wars II incarnation:

We’’ll have to stay tuned, true believer.

In response to a question you mentioned that Darkseid was the only good villain you could think of who chased after power for its own sake. But what about Doctor Doom? Whenever he sees a chance to achieve godlike power he grabs it with both armored hands. His performance in Secret Wars (the original and the 2015 event) come to mind but they’re not the only examples IIRC.

Doom wants power, he luuuuuuuuuuuuuves power, but he very much wants power for something. Whether it’s to show up THAT FOOL RICHARDS! or to demonstrate that he’s the best or the strongest or to get everyone to love and admire him for a change or to pursue any other personal agenda…

And that’s what makes Doom so interesting – there’s always a personal agenda there, some deep-seated need or drive that’s pushing the story forward, even if it’s something as simple as petty revenge. It’s what allows story beats like Doom conquering the world and then giving it up because it’s not fun without superheroes to challenge him.

That’s a beat that you could not do if, like Darkseid, Doom wanted power for its own sake instead of power for a purpose.

Would Dr. Doom work better as an ultimate villain in MCU than Thanos or Ultron?

I love me some Doctor Doom, no question.

In terms of the MCU, I think he hits a nice sweet spot, as I discuss above. You can use him in lots of different kind of stories: he could fit just as easily into a Doctor Strange movie as he could into an Avengers movie or an Iron Man movie, whereas Thanos really only works on the cosmic-sci-fi level and Ultron only works vs. Avengers or component parts thereof.

Likewise, unlike Thanos who’s obsessed with Death or Ultron who’s obsessed with revenge, Doctor Doom has a more varied range of motives, so you can throw him into most any plot: he’s bound to be interested in any macguffin that promises power, he’s always up for an invasion or conquest, and he loves deeply petty personal grudges.

Indeed, I would argue that Doom works rather well for an MCU that’s expanding: he could fight the Avengers, he could fight Iron Man, he could fight Spiderman, he could fight Ant-Man, and if Marvel ever gets back the FF…fish gotta swim, Doom gotta fight that fool Richards.