MCU’s Iron Man & Doctor Doom Recreate Classic Spider-Man Meme After Robert Downey Jr. Casting In Marvel Art

Robert Downey Jr.’s shock casting as Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday has resulted in many MCU memes – and one creator has recreated a classic Spider-Man meme with Doom and Iron Man. The highlight of 2024’s San Diego Comic-Con was arguably the moment in which Robert Downey Jr. was revealed to be returning to the MCU and portraying one of Marvel’s most anticipated upcoming villains: Doctor Doom. Since the announcement, speculation and discussion have been kicked into overdrive while also resulting in some hilarious memes.

One such meme has been imagined by Reddit user @JustRalphyyy, who took the iconic Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man meme and replaced both Spider-Men with Doctor Doom and Iron Man. The concept has spawned out of the pertinent question of how Marvel Studios intends to navigate the glaring fact that Robert Downey Jr.’s face is best known as Tony Stark – both outside the MCU timeline and within it. Several theories have emerged from the conundrum, and sparked a spirited debate over which route the MCU might take.

The Multiverse Is Full Of Possibilities

The Multiverse Saga has established myriad ways in which an actor can portray multiple MCU characters. Loki season 1 established that variants of characters from other universes can look identical yet make wildly different choices, resulting in characters that are a marked departure from the Earth-616 variant. With that in mind, Avengers: Doomsday‘s Doctor Doom might simply be a Tony Stark variant whose choices and circumstances led him down a wildly different path, being named Victor Von Doom and emerging as the ruler of Latveria instead of the heir to the Stark estate.

This theory has its issues, as many Doctor Doom fans are anxious about Doom’s origins being too closely tied to Iron Man, who has arguably had his time in the limelight. Alternatively, Deadpool & Wolverine recently established that the same actor can portray two completely different characters from alternate universes, as Chris Evans’ Johnny Storm from Fox’s original Fantastic Four became MCU canon – confusing Deadpool as he expected Evans to be portraying Steve Rogers. The fact that Storm and Rogers’ origins are worlds apart sets a precedent that could see RDJ simply playing a brand-new character.

Another defining feature of the villain is how reluctant he is to remove his mask. The MCU may, therefore, be intending to debut this comic-accurate rendition of the character in Avengers: Doomsday without ever having to navigate the glaring fact that he looks identical to Earth-616’s Tony Stark by simply having him keep his mask on at all times. While this theory remains the least likely, simply owing to RDJ’s money-spinning star power, it remains a possibility as Kevin Feige was recently quoted as stating that they need to get Doom “right,” which makes turning him into Stark dangerous territory.

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Source: @JustRalphyyy/Reddit