How did Iron Man become Doctor Doom?
Who is the Iron Man who became Doctor Doom?
No, this never happened in an OFFICIAL Earth-616 story from the comics, but rather in the reality called Earth-11029. This happened in the comic WHAT IF? Iron Man: Demon in Armor, released in December 2010.
Firstly, it is mentioned that the characters' childhoods and origins are basically THE SAME as on Earth-616. However, everything goes down a completely different path from the moment Doom becomes Tony's roommate... instead of Reed Richards!
In the story, we see a young Victor Von Doom tricking Tony Stark into an experiment where they swap bodies. Doom's mind went into Tony's body and Tony's mind went into Doom's body, but with his memory being erased.
Tony Stark, trapped in Doom's body, is expelled from college because of the illegal experiment and has to fend for himself to earn a living and build Doom Industries from scratch.
During this, Victor Voon enjoys all the benefits of wealth and privilege of being the sole heir to a great empire. But the villain would not have the innate nature of a hero.
The success of a poor young man's company from Latveria angers the real Doom, who is running the company Stark Universal. Doom tries to sabotage Stark's plans and this dispute leads to the characters creating armor!
The Arc Reactor (couldn't be missing, right?) is surpassing all of Stark Universal's technology. In retaliation, Doom gives up selling the armor at the highest price and invests in sabotaging Doom Industries.
Obviously, Tony's body armor resembles Destiny's look. Doom's body armor is reminiscent of Iron Man's classic armor.
The armor of Iron Man and Doctor Doom from Earth-11029
The story ends with Tony defeating Victor Doom. But instead of undoing the experiment and swapping bodies, Tony decides to continue living as Victor Von Doom.
After all, Tony Stark's name in that world was now directly associated with a bad, greedy and exploitative person. A rather heroic sacrifice, to say the least.
So that's it! A very interesting story that has not been referenced at any other time in Marvel comics. But it's impossible not to remember this story.
It may not have any value for the future of the MCU, but it is a taste of how the union between Iron Man and Doctor Doom can yield good stories!
Will the MCU adapt this story in Avengers: Doomsday?
So far, everything indicates that the MCU's Doomsday will follow a TOTALLY different story from the one seen in this edition of What If?. There are several reasons and have already been expressed by different artists.
Starting with Kevin Feige and Robert Downey Jr., who reinforced the concern to keep Tony Stark's legacy and the sacrifice of Avengers: Endgame intact. Therefore, to bring the actor back to the MCU – even with the excuse of the Multiverse – they would have to look for another way out that wasn't a Variant of Tony Stark.
