BY MATT TUCK
Deadpool & Wolverine has the comic circles in an uproar, and it’s driving the market for 2015’s Secret Wars #5, but there’s another issue that could have bigger implications.
Between the D&W Super Bowl ad and today’s Fantastic Four casting announcement, there’s plenty of comics for buyers to chase down. Bridging the gap between those franchises, at least for now, is Doctor Doom. Obviously, he is the odds-on favorite to be the FF’s antagonist in their MCU debut, but the new Deadpool trailer featured a mysterious figure that many fans believe is a Doom variant.
Eagle-eyed fans spotted the remains of 2015’s Secret Wars #5 in the trailer. For over a year, the rumor has been that D&W will lay the groundwork for Avengers: Secret Wars, so the SW comic more or less confirms that theory. Add the possibility of Doctor Doom to the mix, and theorists are pointing toward God Emperor Doom’s arrival in the MCU. It’s made SW #5 one of the hottest comics on the market, with raw copies averaging close to $25 for the standard edition.
Who is the God Emperor? As part of Jonathan Hickman’s modern SW, incursions between universes (an idea planted in the MCU via Multiverse of Madness) was causing the Multiverse to collapse. Doom took the power of the Beyonders for himself, and pieced together the remaining worlds. Dressed in white, he reigned supreme over what was basically a mix of Game of Thrones with Marvel Comics.
This would be an interesting and new way to introduce Doom to the MCU. Since audiences have already seen the character in the previous Fox FF films, it would repackage him in a way mainstream fans have never seen. That should be enough to have speculators targeting God Emperor Doom’s first appearance in SW #2, which you can own for around $10.
Of course, this is Marvel Studios, a production company that seems to resent its comic book roots and fans. That may or may not be Doom in the cloak and mask, much less God Emperor Doom. Making audiences think it’s the good doctor for a joke on the audience would be a very Marvel Studios thing to do, so don’t get too caught up in the FOMO effect and overspend on either issue.
