The idea that Doctor Doom‘s own team could be made up of people with “stolen lives” adds an interesting layer to the ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’ theory. The biggest clue is that several characters potentially connected to Doom already have complicated relationships with alternate realities, timelines, or the consequences of their own choices.
Doom Could Be Offering Them A Way Out
Doctor Strange is perhaps the clearest example. His actions in ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ are directly connected to incursions, with Clea arriving at the end to confront him about the damage. If Doom presents himself as the person capable of fixing a collapsing multiverse, Strange could potentially see cooperation as a necessary evil.
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Wanda is even more complicated. She used dreamwalking to possess her Earth-838 variant and ultimately massacred the Illuminati while searching for her children. If Wanda becomes one of Doom’s witches, her relationship with the multiverse could make her a weapon.
She would be someone who understands exactly what it means to lose a life that was never truly hers. Then there is Sylvie. After escaping the TVA, she spent years moving through different realities and deliberately rejected the organization that tried to control her.
If Doom offers her stability, or a reality where she can finally live the life she wants, her decision might not be as simple as “good versus evil.” And that’s where the phrase “stolen lives” becomes interesting.
The Comics Show Doom Has Done This Before
Hickman’s 2015 ‘Secret Wars’ provides an important precedent. After the final incursions destroyed the multiverse, Doom used the power he had taken from the Beyonders to construct Battleworld from fragments of dead realities. He then ruled over it as God Emperor Doom, while its inhabitants largely forgot their previous lives.
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Marvel itself describes Battleworld as a patchwork world made from devastated dimensions, with its population bending to Doom’s rule. That could be the crucial difference between Doom’s followers and the Avengers.
The Avengers may fight because they want their old lives back. Doom’s allies might fight because their old lives are already gone. And if Doom can offer Strange, Wanda, Sylvie, and others something the heroes cannot- another chance at the lives they lost- they may not need to be forced into serving him.
They might choose him. That would make Doom’s team considerably more tragic. He wouldn’t simply be assembling powerful characters. He could be assembling people who have already lost everything.
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