With the impending arrival of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s upcoming DC movie Black Adam – and with Johnson making a surprise appearance at Warner Bros' Comic-Con panel – it's time to take a closer look at the heroes who will be sharing the screen with the character — the JSA.

The Justice Society of America has long been a core part of the animated and TV landscapes of DC, with their most well-known characters popping up time and time again, including in a very big way in DC's Stargirl series. So what does all of this actually mean for the upcoming (sort of) Shazam spin-off Black Adam? Well, let's just say this isn't exactly your grandad's Justice Society of America.

Let’s dig into what the arrival of the JSA could mean for Black Adam and the bigger DCEU!

Black Adam Cast

While the membership of the JSA has varied greatly over the team’s eight-decade history, the Black Adam movie will be featuring a pared-down membership:

• Atom Smasher (played by Noah Centineo)
• Hawkman (played by Aldis Hodge)
• Doctor Fate (played by Pierce Brosnan)
• Cyclone (played by Quintessa Swindell)
• Black Adam (played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson)

Judging by the concept art teaser released back at DC FanDome 2020 (and the footage that's been released since then) , it looks like Black Adam will be fighting the Justice Society in the film… but, of course, don’t these things usually end with everyone making friends to fight a bigger threat? So maybe Black Adam will join the JSA by the end of the film…

What Is the Justice Society of America?

The JSA is a classic Golden Age superhero team — the first superhero team actually — that was born out of the minds of Sheldon Mayer and Gardner Fox. The team debuted in 1941's All-Star Comics #3 — predating the Justice League by almost two decades — and featured a lineup of powerful heroes: Hawkman, Doctor Fate, Spectre, Atom, Hour-Man, Sandman, Jay Garrick’s Flash, and Alan Scott's Green Lantern.

Eagle-eyed fans will notice that a couple of Black Adam’s characters are from that original lineup, as both Doctor Fate and Hawkman will be appearing in the upcoming super-flick. (The Stargirl TV series, meanwhile, has featured a selection of those characters both in their classic forms, and as reimagined modern versions, alongside heroes from the Seven Soldiers of Victory including Starman and his titular legacy successor.)

The JSA's adventures eventually ceased as superhero comics fell out of favor in the early 1950s, but in time the Silver Age of comics brought new versions of heroes like the Flash and Green Lantern back to popularity. In 1961, the new Barry Allen Flash met his counterpart from the JSA, Jay Garrick, and soon the concept of alternate Earths established that the JSA had been from Earth-2 while the "modern" heroes were from Earth-1. The JSA’s connection to the World War II-era led to them being depicted as older characters who often mentored younger heroes, and the different Earths were eventually merged in 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Who Is Black Adam?

Dwayne Johnson's DC Comics anti-hero Black Adam was once known as Teth-Adam. There have been variations on his story over the years thanks to DC's ever-changing continuity, but basically he's from the country known as Kahndaq in DC, and was born some 5000 years before the film takes place, where he was a slave. Like Shazam would be millennia later, he was granted the power of the Wizard Shazam, but was corrupted by this power and banished by the wizard. He would return eventually, and become the nemesis of the hero Shazam in modern times, before eventually becoming more of an anti-hero and a member of the JSA.

Atom Smasher (played by Noah Centineo)

The first hint that Black Adam wouldn't feature the full original iteration of the JSA was the announcement of Noah Centineo (To All the Boys I've Loved Before) being cast as Atom Smasher. The character first appeared in All-Star Squadron #25, a WWII-set series from Roy Thomas, Rich Buckler, and Jerry Ordway that gave the creators a chance to tell stories of the JSA in what they saw as their heyday. The period yarns were all set in the Earth-2 continuity which allowed the series to reimagine the adventures of the Golden Age heroes without disrupting their current continuity while also opening up space to introduce fresh faces and new legacy characters like the godson of the Golden Age Atom, Albert Rothstein, a.k.a. Atom Smasher.

Just like the original Atom, the hero can manipulate the molecular structure of his body, and he even gained these powers in the same way as the original Atom, via a supervillain known as Cyclotron. Though the Golden Age Atom received his abilities during a battle, Albert inherited his from the maniacal villain who was his grandfather. Despite his grim origin, the hero was always far more interested in following in the do-gooder footsteps of his heroes in the Justice Society of America, first as the teenage super Nuklon and later as the fully-fledged JSA member Atom Smasher.

Atom Smasher is a particularly interesting character choice when you set it alongside Dwayne Johnson's eagerness to frame Black Adam as an anti-hero rather than a straight-up villain. During the '90s JSA run written by Geoff Johns and David Goyer, with art by Stephen Sadowski, Black Adam joins the JSA alongside Atom Smasher and Stargirl. If we look to that series as inspiration, we could see Johnson's powerful antagonist become an ally to these more traditionally heroic characters, at least for a little while. Basically, Black Adam and Atom Smasher are deeply connected in the comics, and you can expect to see Johnson and Centineo going on an emotional journey together in the film.

Hawkman (played by Aldis Hodge)

Next up is probably the most well-known of Black Adam's antagonists. Hawkman, who will be played by Aldis Hodge, has appeared in numerous DC animated movies and shows while also playing a major role in the early seasons of the long-running CW superhero series Legends of Tomorrow. Like most Big Two heroes, Hawkman has lived through multiple iterations with many people holding the mantle, but the usual suspect is Carter Hall, an Indiana Jones-style archeologist; it seems unlikely that we'll see his alien Thanagarian cop iteration, Katar Hol, in this film. That doesn't mean his is a simple story though, as Carter Hall's Hawkman is actually a contemporary reincarnation of Khufu, an ancient Egyptian royal. The Shazam movie featured a sequence which told the story of Black Adam, and it looked like he was in ancient Egypt. Plus there's the fact that Hawkman's entire backstory is filled with time travel, multiple lives, and DC's mysterious Nth metal.

Hawkman's wings are powered by that magical compound, which is also connected to his origin as he was stabbed by a dagger made of Nth metal and cursed to live again and again and again. Though the Shazam movie leaned into the Egyptian version of Black Adam's origin, in the Johns JSA run mentioned above the team retconned Adam to being from Kahndaq, a fictional North African nation. Don't despair, however, as Hawkman still plays a key part in that lore, as Black Adam served under Khufu, who would later be reincarnated as Carter Hall.

Something very interesting about these JSA choices is it seems the film is essentially building a team around Black Adam, with everyone having some deep-seated connection to the villain/anti-hero and his comic book history.

Doctor Fate (played by Pierce Brosnan)

Doctor Fate is the only Justice Society character here who will have featured in both the Stargirl series and the Black Adam movie — as well as, get ready for this throwback, Smallville. He’s a very interesting choice as the massively powerful hero doesn't have a substantial pre-existing relationship with Black Adam in the comics. Still, the origins of his magical helmet and powerset do lean into some very Shazam-style tropes. In his Golden Age incarnation, Doctor Fate awakens a wizard in a tomb and becomes a hero… that sounds a whole lot like Billy Batson and his origin story, so there's a lot to play with there. But seeing as we've been talking about Egypt, let's skip forward a few decades and talk about a smuggler known as Jared Stevens.

Hired by two previous Doctor Fates to steal the helmet and amulet from an Egyptian tomb — *cough* sounds like a good way to build in a backstory with Adam *cough* — Stevens was first introduced during 1994's Fate #0 and played a part in Johns and Goyer's time on JSA. It would make sense then that this is the version of Doctor Fate that we'll see (although, to be pedantic, he never truly took that mantle and was known only as Fate). It would be super cool to get a classic iteration of the character but we've seen that onscreen before and this version has an interesting connection to one of the biggest surprises about the Black Adam movie.

Back at DC FanDome in 2020, a concept image was shown off showcasing a small purple gem next to Adam. In the comics, that artifact is home to the demonic entity known as Eclipso — who was also introduced in Stargirl, thank Grodd for the Multiverse — who opens up another layer of connection to Jared Stevens. During his stint as a hero, Stevens had to face down threats from the mysterious Gemworld, the home of iconic teen heroine Amethyst. And in some parts of Eclipso canon — specifically the New 52 era — it's revealed that he was imprisoned in his gem by the House of Amethyst on Gemworld. Could that be the connection here? Does Stevens come up against Adam whilst they're both hunting for Eclipso? Perhaps they already know each other due to that connection? If so, then that's another hero with a bone to pick with Johnson's yellow and black-suited character.

Cyclone (played by Quintessa Swindell)

The final confirmed member of Black Adam's Justice Society of America is an interesting one. A legacy character with ties to both a classic Golden Age hero and their android replacement, Cyclone, a.k.a. Maxine Hunkel, is the granddaughter of the original Red Tornado (another Sheldon Mayer creation). An older, unnamed Maxine first appeared in 1996’s future-set Kingdom Come series by Alex Ross and Mark Waid but a younger version of the character was retroactively added to the JSA by Geoff Johns and Dale Eaglsham a decade later.

Though at first it may seem that she doesn't have a connection to Black Adam, Cyclone’s dark origin story introduced a thread that could be key. Maxine was recruited to the JSA by Mister Terrific and Power Girl during Johns and Eaglesham's 2007 JSA relaunch. It's there that we find out she gained her powers due to being kidnapped by the mad scientist T. O. Morrow, who was also the creator of the second Red Tornado. In some kind of horrific experiment, he imbued Maxine with the same technology that he used to create that android hero and years later she manifested her powers, joining the up-and-coming DC Comics team. So what does that have to do with Black Adam? His antagonistic history with T. O. Morrow introduces an easy potential connection that could very likely be built on during this exploration of the JSA.

In 2006, DC embarked on an unprecedented experiment: 52 was a weekly series that aimed to put out a new issue every Wednesday for a year… and they achieved it! Featuring some of DC's biggest creators, it was a huge moment for the company and it's also where Black Adam and T. O. Morrow faced down. During the event, Black Adam hunted down the scientist for the part that he played in the creation of the Fourth World's Four Horsemen of Apokolips. Now, while we don't necessarily think Black Adam will be getting deep into Darkseid lore, we do know this Adam is more of an anti-hero. Could he inadvertently run into Maxine while hunting down T. O. Morrow — maybe in flashback? Perhaps he even saves her from him? If so, it could mean that her connection to the antagonist is a positive one, which would add an interesting layer to the team.

We'll have to wait until the Black Adam film hits to find out, but what do you think of this Justice Society of America roster? Is our sleuthing outrageous or does it actually make quite a bit of sense? Are you just stoked to see the Rock finally become Black Adam? Let us know in the comments! And head this way for all the new DC movies and TV shows in 2022 and beyond.

Note: This story was updated on July 26, 2022, with the latest information about Black Adam. It orginally ran in August, 2020.

Rosie Knight is an Eisner-winning journalist, author and comics writer. She co-hosts Crooked Media’s X-Ray Vision podcast, discussing pop culture from superhero movies to prestige television to the best fantasy novels and, of course, comics.

Last year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced at the company's full year earnings call that the Xbox Series X and S were the fastest-selling consoles in Xbox history. Now, a year later and nearly two years into the consoles' life cycles, he's affirmed this continues to be true.

While this sounds a bit obvious, what Nadella's really saying here is that sales of the newest Xbox consoles haven't really slowed down significantly since they launched, at least not compared to past Xbox consoles.

His exact words were that Microsoft has "sold more consoles life-to-date than any previous generation of Xbox." So almost two years in, none of the other Xboxes had sold as many units as the current generation.

That's a lot of Xboxes, especially given the many challenges the ongoing chip shortage has presented in getting the dang things on the shelves in the first place.

Nadella also mentioned a few other numbers. He reminded us that Xbox consoles have been the next-gen console market leader for three quarters in a row now (basically, they've been outselling PS5 for the last three quarters). And, hardware aside, Xbox's xCloud seems to be doing all right too — over four million people have streamed Fortnite to date on xCloud, Nadella said, including over one million people who were brand new to the xCloud ecosystem.

That's all good news for Xbox, though it came alongside the announcement that gaming revenue for the quarter was down 7% year-over-year, content and service revenue was down 6%, while hardware revenue dropped 11%. While none of that sounds sparkling, it also shouldn't be shocking — last quarter the company was still riding the high of a massive hardware sales surge, and it's normal to see hardware sales gently decline as time goes on.

As for content revenue, without a ton of blockbuster releases hanging around, Xbox will probably have to wait for October or later for some big releases to bolster those numbers further.

Xbox is projecting that its current quarter (running from July through September) will see a year-on-year drop in the low-to-mid single digits due to declines in first party content, while console revenue and Game Pass subscriptions are expected to rise.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Development on the upcoming remake of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic has reportedly been paused indefinitely after what appears to be disappointment over the current progress of the RPG.

According to Bloomberg, Texas-based studio Aspyr’s recent internal demo of the Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic demo didn’t land as well as it could have when it was shown to Lucasfilm and Sony. This has led to Aspyr telling employees that the project would be put on pause and that the company would look for “new contracts and development opportunities.”

Additionally, Aspyr fired the remake’s art director and design director, Jason Minor, who reportedly said on social media channels that the dismissal was unexpected.

Aspyr has been working on the remake of the 2003 Star Wars RPG for the last three years before finally announcing the game in September 2021. However, after presenting a demo, or vertical slice, of the game to its production partners Lucasfilm and Sony, it was followed by employees learning of the development pause, and two firings.

Bloomberg reports that Aspyr’s studio heads told staff that the vertical slice “wasn’t where they wanted it to be and that the project would be paused.”

While Aspyr’s future involvement in the project remains unclear, Aspyr’s parent company, Embracer, announced in May that Saber Interactive would assist on the project and some Aspyr employees believe Saber may take over the project completely.

Knights of the Old Republic remake was set to be released as a PC and PS5 console exclusive and was touted as a full remake developed from the ground up. Originally developed by BioWare, Knights of the Old Republic has consistently been regarded as one of the best Star Wars video games and western RPGs.

The first teaser premiered in Sony’s 2021 PlayStation Showcase and it was revealed that original voice actor Jennifer Hale would be returning as Bastila Shan.

According to reports, Aspyr was targeting a late 2022 release date for the remake but insiders suggest 2025 was a more realistic target. However, it’s now unclear how this project will continue.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

At San Diego Comic-Con 2022, IGN had the chance to check out the House of the Dragon: The Dragon's Den fan experience and take a trip to Westeros to see some dragon eggs, a dragon skull, and sit upon the Iron Throne.

The House of the Dragon fan experience was there to help promote the Game of Thrones prequel that is set to premiere on HBO on August 21 and it brought fans to King's Landing, the Red Keep, and even the caverns of Dragonstone, the ancestral home of the Targaryens.

We were even able to choose our very own dragon egg and hatch it via the new AR app called House of the Dragon: DracARys. Following the event, we were encouraged to continue to raise our personalized dragon in the app.

One of our favorite moments was sitting upon the Targaryen-era Iron Throne in a recreated throne room, and our time in Westeros was made even better by the staff that were fully in character as residents of George R.R. Martin's universe.

San Diego Comic-Con had so much to offer those who can't wait for House of the Dragon, including a brand-new trailer and a panel that featured Martin talking about how he won't cameo in a Game of Thrones spin-off until he finishes Winds of Winter, talk about how House of the Dragon is inspired by real history, and what it was like for the actors to dragonride.

For more on San Diego Comic-Con, check out our recap of the show and who, alongside House of the Dragon, the biggest winners of the weekend were.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

We know that a Fantastic Four reboot is on the way from Marvel Studios, and while comic fans everywhere are clamoring for Marvel’s First Family to make their MCU debut, just as anticipated is their primary nemesis: Doctor Doom. The sovereign monarch of Latveria and a master of both science and mysticism, Doom has been one of the Marvel Universe’s most dangerous and prolific villains since his debut in 1962, and we’re all eager to see him show up in the MCU.

However, while he will likely play a part in the upcoming F4 film, Doom is far more than just a Fantastic Four villain. He’s encountered just about every other hero and villain in the Marvel Universe at some point or another, and has been a star player in numerous stories over the six decades since his first appearance.

Fantastic Four was announced at Comic-Con 2022 as the start of Marvel’s Phase 6 with a release date of November 8, 2024. And while Doom very well might make his debut there as the villain of the film, let’s look at some other ways how the MCU could use Doctor Doom…

Doctor Doom: An Origin Story

For the uninitiated, here’s an overview of Doom’s backstory: Victor von Doom was the son of Werner and Cynthia von Doom, a Latverian doctor and a Romani witch respectively. When Victor was very young, Cynthia sold her soul to the demon Mephisto in exchange for the power to free her people from persecution, only to be damned for eternity when she couldn’t control the magical powers she gained. Werner would also die while Victor was a child after failing to save the terminally ill wife of Baron Vladimir Fortunov. From that moment on, the young Victor swore revenge not just on the Baron, but all of humanity. The only other person Victor loved besides his parents was Valeria, a girl of similar age from the same traveling Romani clan as his mother, but Victor forswore Valeria after both his parents were killed.

Growing up to become an engineering prodigy and skilled inventor, Victor accepted a scholarship to State University in New York. It was here where he would first meet Reed Richards, the man who would eventually become his rival, Mister Fantastic. Victor would be expelled from school when the machine he built to contact his mother’s soul exploded on activation, permanently scarring his face. But what made matters worse is that Reed had peeked at Victor’s calculations and warned him he made a mistake, while Victor was adamant he hadn’t. In his arrogance, Victor blamed Reed for the accident, and after spending some time with a group of Tibetan monks, Victor built a suit of armor not just to give him power, but also to hide the scarred face he was determined to never let anyone see again. Naming himself Doctor Doom, he would return to his homeland, murder Fortunov, and establish himself as Latveria’s sovereign. From then on, Doom would seek nothing less than world domination and the destruction of Reed Richards, the man who he held responsible for his downfall.

This story was first relayed in Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four Annual #2 in 1964, and would receive far more elaboration in the 2006 Books of Doom miniseries from Ed Brubaker and Pablo Raimondi. It could easily be adapted as an origin film or Disney+ series, and further story material could be mined from Doom’s solo run in Astonishing Tales, which detailed the underground Latverian resistance loyal to the monarchy Doom overthrew, as well as the yearly battle Doom has with Mephisto to try to free his mother’s soul.

A Doctor Doom solo film was actually in development back when 20th Century Fox still had the rights, under the purview of Noah Hawley, best known for the Fargo TV show and another Marvel adaptation, Legion. While that version is likely long defunct, Howard Stern may have recently leaked that an MCU project for Doom is in the works, so perhaps Doom’s origin will receive the screen treatment after all.

Super-Villain Team-Up: Doom and Namor

Doom first appeared in Fantastic Four #5, where he battled the Fantastic Four, but he would return in the very next issue with a new ally: Namor the Sub-Mariner, the prince of Atlantis who first debuted in the Timely Comics era as a hero, but was brought into Marvel’s Silver Age in Fantastic Four #4 as one of their earliest antagonists. Doom and Namor would team up in issue #6 to get revenge on the F4, and this issue also featured one of Doom’s all-time greatest schemes: literally launching the F4’s home, the Baxter Building, into orbit. The villainous alliance was sadly short-lived when Doom betrayed Namor by leaving him stranded on the building, but Namor and the F4 would of course survive this encounter to fight another day. Ever since, Doom and Namor have had a volatile relationship, sometimes working together, but just as often turning on one another.

Doom and Namor would have several more encounters in the following years, including multiple run-ins in Namor’s solo book, where Doom would try to coerce Namor into once again allying with him in his bid for world conquest. Their back and forth would even receive its own comic in the 1975 series Super-Villain Team-Up, which launched with two Giant-Size specials before becoming a regular series with Doom and Namor for 13 issues. During this time, the two would have encounters with the undersea barbarian warlord Attuma, the Fantastic Four, the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime, the Avengers, and even the Red Skull, which culminated in a duel between Doom and the Skull that took place on the moon (!). Even with all that, what is most hilarious about the series is that despite the title, Doom and Namor spend more time in it at each other’s throats than actually working together.

While a straight adaptation of the stories from the Super-Villain Team-Up book is unlikely, the core concept of pairing Doom and Namor in a project does hold potential. We’ve already seen double-bill MCU projects in films with Ant-Man & the Wasp, as well as on Disney+ with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, so Doom and Namor could easily receive similar treatment. We also know that Namor and the Atlanteans are set to make their debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, so perhaps the prince of Atlantis will meet the ruler of Latveria sooner rather than later.

Doomwar: Wakanda and Vibranium

Speaking of Black Panther, while Doom’s primary adversaries are the Fantastic Four, he also has rivalries with several other Marvel heroes, with two of the biggest being Iron Man and, you guessed it, the Black Panther. Doom and T’Challa first met in Astonishing Tales #6, when Doom learned of Wakanda’s vibranium and decided he wanted some of the miracle metal for himself. T’Challa, who was living in the United States at the time because he was serving with the Avengers, naturally hurried home to defend his kingdom, and the two battled to a stalemate in the following issue. Ever since, Doom has sworn to get his hands on the precious resource, and he would finally succeed in this goal decades later in the 2010 miniseries Doomwar by Jonathan Maberry and Scot Eaton.

In this series, Doom secretly provides backing to the Desturi, a xenophobic political faction that wishes for Wakanda to return to its isolationist roots. After the Desturi oust T’Challa, Shuri (who had the Black Panther mantle at the time) and capture T’Challa’s then-wife Storm, Doom strolls in to steal all the vibranium out of a vault, which requires passing a purity test where Bast, the Panther God, looks into a person’s soul and judges their intentions. Incredibly, Doom passes this test, because Bast learns that Doom’s quest for world domination is not based in greed, but in the genuine belief that his rule is the only way to prevent humanity from destroying itself. With a new arsenal of vibranium weapons and robots, Doom would then wage war against dozens of Marvel’s heroes, and was only thwarted when T’Challa used “shadow physics” to reduce all the vibranium to an inert state.

While the tragic passing of Chadwick Boseman and the announcement that his role will not be recast in Wakanda Forever means that some aspects would need to be changed, an adaptation of this storyline with some of the characters’ roles moved around could easily provide the basic template for Black Panther 3. The MCU’s Phase 6 has several blank spots on its roster right now, so a third film set in Wakanda seems like a strong possibility. Similar to Captain America: Civil War, it’s easy to imagine a movie that’s less of a solo film but more of an event crossover to round out the trilogy, with numerous Marvel heroes joining Wakanda’s forces to help repel the master of menace.

Triumph and Torment: Doom, Sorcerer Supreme

Another character that Doom has an interesting relationship with is Doctor Strange. One aspect of Doom that is left out in most adaptations is that he is a skilled sorcerer, able to effectively wield both science and magic. Believe it or not, he was even a candidate to become the Sorcerer Supreme! This event occurred in the 1989 graphic novel Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment, written by Roger Stern and with art by Mike Mignola and Mark Badger. The story involves Aged Genghis, vessel of the Vishanti (think supernatural beings that give the Sorcerer Supreme their power), bringing together several mystics from around the world for a once-a-century contest where the winner is bestowed the official title of Sorcerer Supreme.

While Strange wins the contest, Doom comes in second place, and so Strange is honor-bound to grant Doom one favor. Strange is horrified by this because he knows of Doom’s reputation as a dictator, but Doom asks Strange for help to free his mother’s soul from hell. After traveling to Latveria, Strange is surprised to discover the extent of love the Latverian people have for their monarch. The two sorcerers journey to hell to confront Mephisto, and during the battle Doom enacts a plan where he seemingly betrays Strange. Cynthia’s refusal to go along with Doom’s plan because he’s a “traitor” is what proves her purity of heart and frees her from damnation. It then turns out that Doom had only pretended to betray Strange, and the implication that Doom was willing to have his mother hate him to save her hangs over their final conversation.

Beefing up the narrative to make the pair’s journey into hell a longer quest narrative could easily be the plot of a hypothetical Doctor Strange 3. Given that the mid-credits scene of Multiverse of Madness implies Strange would travel to the Dark Dimension with Clea, perhaps Dormammu could play the part of the demon who owns Cynthia’s soul, and Clea could come along for the ride? However it happens, seeing these two sorcerers working together would be a dream come true for longtime Marvel fans.

Avengers: The Children’s Crusade – Scarlet Witch and Doom as Partners

Strange wouldn’t be the only Marvel mystic that Doom would be paired off with. He also spent some time with the Scarlet Witch in Avengers: The Children’s Crusade, a 2010 miniseries from Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung. The story involved Wanda’s return to the Marvel Universe after her disappearance at the end of House of M five years earlier. An amnesiac Wanda, who claimed not to have magic powers, was discovered by the Young Avengers in Latveria, where she was engaged to be married to none other than Doctor Doom.

The main thrust of Children’s Crusade is Speed and Wiccan not just trying to confirm that they are in fact Wanda’s kids, but trying to prove that she can be redeemed for the devastation she caused during Avengers Disassembled and House of M. During the story Wanda’s memories and powers are restored, and she relates how years ago Doom helped her access the Life Force to generate enough mystic power to resurrect her children, and that she would need to do it again to perform a counterspell to undo the depowering of nearly all mutants in House of M. However, Patriot tries to stop the spell, and this results in Doom gaining the full power of the Life Force, which he only loses after a battle where Wanda and Wiccan work together to remove it. Doom would subsequently take the blame for Disassembled and House of M, repairing Wanda’s reputation at the cost of their relationship.

Given Multiverse of Madness’ ending, a loose adaptation of Children’s Crusade could easily bring Scarlet Witch back into the fold, with the idea of her turning into a multiversal villain replacing her depowering of mutants as what she needs to be redeemed for after she loses her memories and winds up in Latveria. The MCU has also been bringing in most of the Young Avengers, with Tommy/Speed, Billy/Wiccan, Kate Bishop/Hawkeye, Eli Bradley/Patriot and Cassie Lang/Stature having already appeared in the MCU in some capacity. This story features Doom in more of a supporting role, but it would still be a great way to weave him into the MCU canon.

Secret Wars: God Emperor Doom

When it comes to his most well-known event stories, Doctor Doom has played the “ultimate villain” in both versions of the universe-wide crossover Secret Wars. The original version of Secret Wars was published in 1984, and involved an ultra-powerful cosmic being called The Beyonder bringing a group of heroes and villains to Battleworld so he can learn whether good or evil is more powerful. Doom became the de facto leader of the villains, and even managed to steal the Beyonder’s power (it didn’t keep). However, far more likely to be used for the MCU is the 2015 version of Secret Wars.

In this story, an Incursion between the mainline Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Universe that would have destroyed them both is leveraged by Doctor Doom, Doctor Strange and Molecule Man to steal the power of the Beyonders (yes, there’s more than one) so Doom could build a new Battleworld out of shattered remnants of the destroyed universes. Doom would become God Emperor of this new Battleworld, where most of the Marvel characters would lose their memories and serve new functions. The Invisible Woman was Doom’s wife, Strange was his lieutenant, the various versions of Thor were his personal army, the Human Torch was the sun (!) and the Thing became a giant shield wall around his kingdom. Doom thought he’d managed to erase Reed Richards from this new reality, but Reed had in fact survived the Incursion in a life raft vehicle, and returns for a final battle with Doom where both the multiverse and Doom’s face are restored.

While Secret Wars is a massive crossover involving most of the popular Marvel characters, the main series from Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribić is far more contemplative than action-packed, with the story serving as a finale of sorts for the Reed Richards and Victor von Doom rivalry. Because of the MCU’s recent interest in the multiverse with Loki, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (Incursions were even a plot point in the latter), and now the confirmation at Comic-Con 2022 that the current MCU phases are telling the Multiverse Saga and Secret Wars is definitely happening, it seems that God Emperor Doom has a good chance of showing up on the big screen. Though we hope we don’t have to wait until 2025 to see him!

However the MCU decides to use him, there are a plethora of avenues to choose from when it comes to Doctor Doom. Where would you like to see the character show up first? Let’s discuss in the comments!

Carlos Morales writes novels, articles and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Twitter.