Fantastic Four writer (and Squirrel Girl writer, and Dinosaur Comics writer) Ryan North knows why Doctor Doom is the Cadillac of supervillains.
“He’s got all the powers of science, he’s got all the powers of magic. And he dresses like a robot in a cape,” he told Polygon via video chat. “Everything is ‘peak.’ [laughs] And, most impressively of all, he can speak in the third person and have it read as cool, and not ridiculous.”
Polygon got a chance to talk with North in the lead-up to his first stint as lead writer of a big Marvel crossover event, One World Under Doom — a nine-issue story in which Doctor Doom has already taken over the world on the first page, and it’s up to the Avengers and the Fantastic Four to figure out how he did it, and how to undo it.
North has penned Marvel’s Fantastic Four since 2022, so he’d already spent a lot of his time thinking about Doctor Doom. With One World Under Doom #1 hitting shelves next month, that percentage has only increased. So, naturally, we asked if he had any advice for the folks behind Doctor Doom’s upcoming entrance to the Marvel Cinematic Universe — writers, directors, and actor Robert Downey, Jr. — on how to nail the quintessential Marvel Comics nemesis.
“I’m not an actor,” North answered, “but it seems to me that Doom is probably the hardest character to play in all of the Marvel universe. Because he does have this depth, but also this breadth to him. He can send you back in time for Blackbeard’s gold” — the very outlandish scheme in which Doom entrapped the Fantastic Four in his first appearance — “and he can also trade someone’s soul in Hell and do horrible, horrible things.”
“That’s a huge range for a character,” North continued, “especially for an actor in an hour- or two-hour movie to hit […] I mean, I’ve spent the past couple of years thinking about Doom, writing speeches for Doom, capturing that voice. And I had the advantage that my output was 20 pages a month, and that gives me time to go for long walks and try to nail down what Doom says on this one page in a few words. I can’t imagine the challenge of trying to do that full time for the year, or whatever it takes, to make a movie.”
But if he had to sum it all up? “I guess it boils down, don’t forget his depth,” North concluded. “He can do anything.”
One World Under Doom #1 hits shelves on Feb. 12, kicking off the crossover event. The main series, written by North and drawn by R.B. Silva (Powers of X), will ripple out into both existing series like Storm and Fantastic Four, and tie-in books like Thunderbolts: Doomstrike and Red Hulk. Read on for Marvel’s four page preview of the #1 issue:
