Doctor Doomsday: The Marvel & DC Character We'll Never See In An Avengers Movie

If you thought the prospect of Robert Downey Jr. returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Doctor Doom was bonkers, there are alternative routes Marvel Studios could've gone that would've been even more mind-melting. In a franchise where variants and anchor beings are a thing of the norm, there was a time when Doctor Doom was twice as threatening after merging with a character not from the universe of thunder gods and mutants, but dark knights and supermen. Once upon a time, in a limited run of comics, there was the Amalgam universe, which brought DC and Marvel together after the two properties ran an event that pitted the two worlds against each other. The fallout led to pivotal characters combining to create new ones. Wolverine and Batman became Dark Claw, Superboy and Spider-Man became Spider-Boy, and Doctor Doom combined with one of Superman's most feared adversaries to become Doctor Doomsday.

Merging the backstories of both terrifying bad guys, Amalgam Comics saw Victor von Doom use a scientific experiment to fuse himself with an alien monster he discovered. Pegged by heroes in this limited series as "evil incarnate," Doc Doomsday has all of Victor's brains and the relentless barbaric force of the creature known as Doomsday. His power set also makes him a force to be reckoned with against anything in the universe, but there's one thing that could stop him from being brought to the big screen — ownership rights.

Warner Bros. and Marvel Studios joining forces, while a fangasmic event for the ages, would also be a logistical and financial nightmare. For example, just look at the tangled web of ownership rights around Spider-Man appearing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Sony's Spider-Man Universe that doesn't have a web head of its own. In the case of "Spider-Man: No Way Home," it became Sony's most successful film ever and Marvel Studios only earned 25% of the film's considerable profits. That's because the wall-crawler is still on loan to the Kevin Feige camp, which took some doing to even happen. There even came a point in time in the saga of Peter Parker's complicated Marvel movie rights when Tom Holland himself had to use his negotiation skills to keep things going. 

With that in mind, it makes sense that the studios wouldn't consider an even more complicated comic book terrain like Amalgam. Both Warner Bros. and Disney have enough of a playground to work in on their own without resorting to meeting in the middle, and with the former starting over following its fumble with the DC Extended Universe, it's unlikely it'd even want to. That's why Doctor Doomsday and the Amalgam universe brought to life is the pipe dream of pipe dreams. Nevertheless, that hasn't stopped the Marvel Studios head playing with the idea that his team and DC (now being run by his old pal James Gunn) might be able to cross the comic book movie streams some day.

In an interview with Collider about "Deadpool & Wolverine" and the MCU's future, Kevin Feige was probed about the monumental "what if..?" when it came to DC and Marvel meeting at the movies. "I think about it occasionally, like any fan would think about it," he admitted. "I don't know when in the heck that would ever happen, or how that would happen. But we've been talking too long for me to go, 'Never! We'd never be able to do that.'"

Given how Marvel Studios has featured the return of heroes like those surprise cameos in "Deadpool & Wolverine" and two former Spider-Men in "Spider-Man: No Way Home," it seems nothing is out of the realm of possibility. For now, though, Feige is just enjoying the friendly competition of seeing what director and DC Studios head James Gunn is working on. "We'll never say never, but no, no plans. I've seen the paparazzi shots of the 'Superman' set looking cool. So he's focusing on that. We're focusing on ['Deadpool and Wolverine']."

So while an Amalgam universe doesn't seem likely, it's interesting to hear the idea of DC and Marvel together crosses the huge mind hiding under that iconic cap collection. But at the moment, Robert Downey Jr. being back in the comic book movie game is enough. One world-shattering event at a time, right?