It’s fascinating to see how the Marvel Universe has been reshaped by the MCU. At some point around the time the first Avengers movie came out, the film franchise became such a dominant component of pop culture that every other type of Marvel media was pulled into its orbit. For many, the MCU is Marvel, and any deviations from what’s been established in the movies seems wrong, even if its history predates the MCU by decades. That’s why the comic book version of Nick Fury was replaced by his long lost son who bears a striking resemblance to Samuel L. Jackson, and why Loki became an anti-hero. It also probably explains why the cast of Marvel’s Avengers look like low-rent celebrity impersonators, and why Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy featu♎res the exact same team as the film, despite that roster not having much history in the comics prior to tha🦋t.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns stands out in this regard. It takes its cues from the comics ⛎- being based on a ‘90s crossover event of the same name - and features characters that aren’t part of the MCU, like Magik, Nico Minoru, and Robbie Reyes’ Ghost Rider. All of its history is rooted in the comics too, and it isn’t afraid to let some of those plot points contradict the MCU. Wanda got her powers from the High Evolutionary in Transia, not Hydra experiments in Sokovia, for example.
But for all its fealty to the Marvel comics, there’s one aspect of the MCU Midnight Suns can’t escape. Like every MCU movie going all the way back to the original Iron Man, Midnight Suns features a hype-building, sequel-teasing post-credit scene. But unlike most MCU post-credit scenes, which typically introduce new characters you’ve never heard of, Midnight Suns’ post-credit scene is a huge moment of pay-off for perceptive fans. There’s a major Marvel character lurking around the edges of Midnight Sun’s story, and when they finally show up after the credits have ꩵalready rolled, it becomes one of the highlights of the entire game.
One of the main themes of Midnight Suns is the competing ideologies surrounding science and magic. Tony Stark and Doctor Strange, who personify these concepts, are positioned as both rivals and partners throughout the story, competing to solve problems in their own unique way and working together to develop magic-infused technology. From another angle, the central conflict between the young Midnight Suns and the more experienced Avengers also represents the science/magic dichotomy, which can also be viewed as logic vs. faith. Even the villains🅠, Cthon’s herald Lilith, her thrall Bruce Banner, and the fascistic crime organization Hydra, explore yet another version of the complicated relationship between the objective and the arcane.
With all that in mind, every Marvel fan with even the slightest background in comic book history will have the exact same question: Where the hell is Doctor Doom? This isn’t just his purview; Victor Von Doom is the human personification of the🌜 combined power of science and magic. What makes him such a formidable force in the Marvel Universe is not just his intellect, nor his mastery over the mystic arts, but his command over both. How Doom isn’t involved in this story seems like a huge missed opportunity. The moment Doom heard about Hydra working alongside demons to steal a gamma reactor, he would have been there.
At first I wondered if Doom was off-limits to Firaxis. Until he makes his MCU debut, Marvel might prefer to hold him back. But as soon as I heard Iron Man crack a joke about the Human Torch and The Thing, I knew something was up. If they’re not gℱoing to ignore the Fantastic Four, surely they aren’t going to ignore Doom either. To make things even more confusing, Doom plays a central role in the current Midnight Suns comic series, which is loosely connected to the game.
As far as I can tell, there are two references to Doctor Doom. While exploring the grounds surrounding the Abbey you’ll occasionally find Tarot cards that briefly tell the story of other Marvel characters. Almost all of these cards depict heroes, but there’s one card for Galactus, and another for💦 Doctor Doom.
The other reference to Doom can only be found by increasing your friendship with Capt🅘ain America. At one point he’ll ask you to meet him in the library where he’ll rattle off the titles of a few magic books sitting on the shelf. One of those books is written by Doctor Doom, but asi♉de from a chuckle, Rogers doesn’t make any other comments about it. What are you laughing at, Steve?
It all comes together in the post-credit scene. In the aftermath of the final battle with Cthon, the Darkhold sits buried in a pile of rubble. Then, an unmistakable gauntle✱t reaches into the debris and lifts the tome out. With an evil laugh, Doom clutchesꦺ the Darkhold and says just one word: “amateurs.”
If I was in a movie theater, I would have clapped like a trained seal. This was the perfect sequel bait for Midnight Suns, and it puts Doom’s absence from the story in perfect context. He wasn’t missing - he was waiting for his opportunity to strike. Doctor Doom is too big to have just been part of Midnight Suns’ story, he needs to be the center of the entire story, and ღthat’s exactly what this scene sets up.
The MCU’s post-credit scenes started out as cool teasers, but they’ve become formulaic ways to shoe-horn in famous actors playing characters no one cares about yet. Here’s Hercules, here’s Clea, here’s Eros, here’s Adam Warlock. The Midnight Suns cameo is completely different. Instead of, “Here’s a character you’ve never heard of,” it’s, “here’s the guy you’ve been waiting to see the whole time. What, did you think we forgot?” It was the ideal way to end Midnight Suns and create excitement for the future of the series - exactly what a post🧔-credit scene ought to do.