Marvel Studios has made changes to the origin story revealed in Fantastic Four: First Steps. The filmmakers decided to de-emphasize the team's origins after two previous Fox adaptations explored the topic in detail. While the MCU's interpretation of how they gained their powers is more faithful to the source material, the tie-in comic, Fantastic Four: First Enemies #1, introduces some interesting changes that could have interesting implications for Avengers: Doomsday. Specifically, this concerns the team's relationship, or lack thereof, with its titular villain.
Throughout the film "First Steps," Doctor Doom is only briefly mentioned outside of a post-credits scene—a blank space for Latveria in the Future Foundation. Otherwise, his name is never even mentioned, despite the team having existed for four years and him presumably being their sworn enemy.
Instead, almost every other Fantastic Four supervillain is directly referenced, such as the Mole Man, the Puppeteer, the Wizard, Diablo, the Red Ghost (who even had an entire scene cut from the episode), and the Mad Thinker. However, it was recently revealed that the last of these villains is far more important to the Fantastic Four's origins than was revealed in the film.
The first issue of the comic book "First Enemies" reimagines the origin story of the Fantastic Four, revealing that the Mad Thinker was involved in the events that led to the team gaining their superpowers.
This creates a very different relationship between the Mad Thinker and Reed Richards, a relationship and rivalry that is eerily similar to that of Doctor Doom.
Richards knew this man not only as Dr. Rene Roden in the Marvel Cinematic Universe before he adopted his villainous alias, but also as one of Reed's university professors, whom he recruited for a mission that would give the group their powers. Neither account is accurate in the comics, as Richards and Roden were strangers before and after Reed became Mister Fantastic. However, his appearance does have parallels with the Ultimate Comics and Fox adaptations, as well as, again, with Doom.
The comic also details how the team acquired their powers. In "The First Enemies," Reed didn't convince the others to hijack a spaceship with him to study cosmic rays, as he so recklessly did in the original comics, but rather obtained permission to do so as part of an officially sanctioned government mission four years before the events of the film. Unfortunately, while observing a cosmic phenomenon, the rays struck them and pierced the ship's protective shields, permanently altering them.
In Ultimate Comics, another universe where Marvel characters were reimagined for new readers, a different supervillain was introduced into the Fantastic Four's origin story: Victor von Doom, a character who, in the original comics, had nothing to do with their cosmic incident.
Instead of cosmic rays and a spaceship, as in "First Steps," it was a failed teleportation experiment into the Negative Zone, where Doom altered the coordinates behind Reed Richards's back. Fox used this origin story twice as inspiration, and Doom became the common thread.
In the 2005 Fantastic Four comic, the origin story is a mashup of the original story and the Ultimate Comics story, in which Victor not only joins them but also funds their mission into space to study a unique cosmic storm. Unfortunately, the storm arrived earlier than expected, leaving Ben outside the space station's protective shield. Reed wanted to cancel the mission, but Doom insisted on continuing, resulting in the cosmic storm engulfing everyone in cosmic radiation.
Fox's second attempt at a Fantastic Four in 2015 followed a much more consistent origin story with the Ultimate comics. Not only were they younger, but their mission remained the same: crossing dimensions and exploring the Negative Zone. They even worked alongside a similarly young Victor von Doom. However, when the environment became too unstable and Doom was presumed dead, they made a dramatic return, imbued with terrifying powers.
What does the Fantastic Four's origin story in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have to do with Doctor Doom?
Absolutely nothing, which is interesting in itself. With the exception of the original Fantastic Four origin story in the comics, every other reimagining or adaptation in comics or films has involved Victor von Doom in one way or another. It's especially curious that in the Fantastic Four origin story in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Mad Thinker occupies a similar role to Doom's usual role in those stories.
When the team nearly crash-landed aboard the Exlizor, René Roden, who co-created Herbie, came to their aid, preventing a deadly re-entry into Earth's atmosphere by providing the family robot with new coordinates. Roden even earned national acclaim for his assistance in rescuing the team that would later become the famous Fantastic Four.
However, Rodin quickly became jealous of the team's fame, which drove him to become the Mad Thinker. He took revenge by seizing control of New York City's technological fabric, briefly depicted in the opening montage of "First Steps." After his defeat in the spin-off issue, it was revealed that the Mad Thinker's calculations were in fact «"incomplete", as Reed delicately put it.
It's clear Reed was trying to salvage what little self-esteem Rodin had left, but this wasn't the first time Reed had had to deal with a brilliant rival with a sensitive ego. Much like in the original comics, when Reed tried to correct the calculations of Victor von Doom, an arrogant former classmate.
In fact, there's another, much more concrete similarity between the MCU's Mad Thinker and Victor von Doom: both knew Reed back in college. It would be a remarkable coincidence if Robert Downey Jr.'s Victor von Doom and Pedro Pascal's Reed Richards were also former college classmates.
One can't help but wonder if this version of the Fantastic Four ever met Doctor Doom. After four years of active service as a superhero team, he's nowhere to be seen in "First Steps," and he doesn't even appear as the leader of Latveria in the Future Foundation.
However, the appearance of Doctor Doom's new insignia in Avengers: Doomsday could point to two possibilities to explain his absence: Robert Downey Jr.'s Doom is from a different universe than the Fantastic Four on Earth-828, or he took over Latveria much later than depicted in the comics.
The latter explains both the difference in the Latverian flag emblem, the absence of the then-leader (possibly trying to contain Victor's revolution behind the scenes), his lack of mention alongside the other villains, and Doom's later appearance in the post-credits scene, which was a huge time jump given Franklin's age.
However, the Fantastic Four's new origin story in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the introduction of the Mad Thinker, seem to have been deliberately designed to weaken Reed's connection to Doom. After all, the Mad Thinker not only took the team's dictatorial position during their origin story, but also attended the same college as Reed and even harbored a profound dislike for Mister Fantastic, based on simple calculations.
It will be interesting to see what kind of relationship develops between Robert Downey Jr.'s Victor von Doom and Pedro Pascal's Reed Richards in Avengers: Judgment Day, despite their limited screen time and history so far.