How can Iron Man be Doctor Doom? That’s the paradox Marvel fans have struggled to resolve ever since Robert Downey Jr. took the stage at Comic Con to reveal his new role as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s latest big bad — a move which seemingly makes about as much sense as casting an uninsurable RDJ as Tony Stark in the first place.
The studio has said precious little, which leaves a vacuum for fan theories to run wild in a way we haven’t seen since the era of Avengers: Endgame. And while plenty of fans have pointed to the What If comic “Demon in Armor” (a one-shot story in which Stark and Doom are college roommates who switch bodies), everyone seems to be overlooking arguably the best possible comic book inspiration: Anthony Stark, aka the Iron Maniac.
Created by writer Robert Kirkman (creator of The Walking Dead and Invincible) and artist Scott Kolins, the Iron Maniac first appeared in the 2004 comic Marvel Team-Up (Vol. 3) #2. But at the time, everyone assumed he was simply Doctor Doom.
“I believe it was all Robert Kirkman’s idea,” Kolins tells Inverse via email, adding: “I thought that Doom-Stark was a fun idea.”
Hailing from Earth-5012, this version of Stark first appears in the main Marvel universe (Earth-616) already dressed as Doctor Doom. Confused by his new surroundings, he does what any good Doom would do: He attacks the Fantastic Four. The confrontation ultimately ends with Stark revealing his scarred face, which confuses everyone until they figure out they’re dealing with an alternate reality Tony Stark.
This version of Stark hails from a universe that was decimated by the supervillain Titanus (another character created by Kirkman and Kolins), leading to the demise of many heroes and pushing Stark to become a supervillain with Doctor Doom-like armor. After fighting his version of the Fantastic Four and getting a gruesome face scar in the process, Anthony Stark is banished to Earth-616, which is where this story begins.
Of course, there’s no guarantee Avengers: Doomsday will follow this story, or even borrow from it at all. But Kolins seems to think that, at the very least, we’ll be dealing with some sort of evil Tony Stark variant.
“I am very interested [in] how much Doom they put in this alternate reality Stark,” Kolins says. “Does he run his own country? Does he live in a castle? Will he have a facial scar? Lots of possibilities!”
Inverse spoke with Scott Kolins about how he designed the Iron Man-Doctor Doom mashup character, the one costume element he had to remove, and more.
How did the idea for this evil variant of Tony Stark who dresses like Doctor Doom first come about? Whose idea was it? Do you remember the earliest conversations where it was mentioned?
I believe it was all Robert Kirkman’s idea. I’m sure he went over several ideas with the editor, but the alternate universe Doom-Stark was the one Robert called me and told me was going to be in the next issue, and a continuing bad guy for our Marvel Team-Up run. That and a new continuing alien villain he named Titanus, that I designed. I thought that Doom-Stark was a fun idea — to fake out the FF, thinking that they are again fighting Dr. Doom, but then the damaged Stark face reveal from under the mask was cool. Surprising the readers and the FF!
What was your approach in designing the Stark-as-Doom character? Were there any noteworthy differences in their design? Were there any clues for readers in his first appearance before he takes off his mask?
Robert never gave much backstory about Doom-Stark at the time that I remember. They did continue on later after I was off the book (that’s a whole other story) — and I heard that’s when they named him the Iron Maniac and he looked more like Iron Man. The first appearance stuff of Doom-Stark was all about keeping [him] mostly like Dr. Doom — to fool readers. So it’s mostly a green hood and cloaked original gray Iron Man. The eye and mouth slits would be like early Iron Man, different than Dr. Doom eyes and mouth pieces. But those are small differences. And we didn’t go for a close-up on the mask — until the reveal. The face shot of scarred Tony was a big panel. Or a splash page? I wish we had put him on the cover in retrospect. It’s a great visual.
Talk about the look of Tony Stark’s disfigured face. What was your thinking with that design? How did you make it dramatic while still making it obvious that he’s Tony Stark?
Again, it was a mostly going with mixing Stark and Doom visually. I’m not sure if Robert asked for the facial scar — he probably did. And I had just drawn Earth’s Mightiest Heroes series, about the classic early Avengers stories, so I was well versed in drawing Tony — and his early mustache. So I kept the thin (Errol Flynn kinda) mustache and maybe the hair style? But then gave him a big facial scar to mix it with the idea of Doom. Of course, it’s a classic mystery if Dr. Doom really had a facial scar or not when Lee [and] Kirby created him. We never saw it.
Was there anything about the character you recall from discussions that didn’t make it into the comic?
I think I tried a couple sketches without the cloak? But that immediately gave the game away — you knew it wasn’t Doom. I don’t think there was anything we had planned that didn’t make it to print — though I would’ve liked it if Doom-Stark could’ve had science and sorcery as Doom has had, not just technology. It seems way more complicated and interesting to mix the two.
What did you think of Robert Downey Jr. returning to the MCU as Doctor Doom? Do you think it’s possible that his version of the character will be inspired by this comic arc?
I love all of what Downey did for his entire MCU movie run as Stark. He’s a genius. I’m thrilled he’s doing something with those movies again. I hope the comic book origins have some connection to the big screen but if not, that’s OK too. Each medium to its own. I like movies to be movies (or TV) and comic books to be comic books. I will say I am very interested [in] how much Doom they put in this alternate reality Stark. Does he run his own country? Does he live in a castle? Will he have a facial scar? Lots of possibilities!
Anything else you’d like to share?
It’s a funny thing about reusing old ideas with a different twist. Geoff Johns and I did it on The Flash for years and I’m doing one now — a new book called Patra (short for Cleopatra) where the book plays off several different well known horror themes, from slasher films like Halloween and creepy stuff like X-Files or Kolchak: The Night Stalker. I’m hoping Patra can translate to other media like Doom-Stark or other stuff of mine that’s in toys and TV.
