Avengers: Doomsday‘strailer (which is soon to be released publicly) confirms that one MCU character is way stronger than anyone knew, and Marvel Studios saved the proof for the big screen. The crossover event opens in theaters on December 18, with directors Anthony and Joe Russo returning and Robert Downey Jr. playing the villain, Doctor Doom. Marvel kept the movie’s marketing limited to four short teasers for months, so any new footage instantly becomes the biggest talking point among fans.
That talking point arrived at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, where Disney screened a full Avengers: Doomsday trailer for theater owners. The Direct was in attendance when the footage debuted to the event’s private audience. Near the end of the trailer, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor leaps at Doom and swings Stormbreaker down at the villain’s head. Doom stops the axe with two fingers and barely reacts.
The moment caps off a trailer that puts Doom front and center. Downey’s villain opens the footage hooded and kneeling, speaking in a Latverian accent that sounds nothing like Tony Stark. He sets the tone with an ominous warning, telling the heroes that “something is coming, something we may not be able to deter.”
Thor confronts Doom alone in a desolate area later in the footage. The God of Thunder jumps down at him with a lightning-charged Stormbreaker strike, and Doom shuts the attack down on the spot. Thor admits afterward that the heroes “are going to need a miracle.” Steve Rogers answers that call moments later, with Chris Evans’ hero summoning Mjolnir into his hand for the trailer’s final shot.
Joe Russo told the CinemaCon crowd that Doom always stays three moves ahead of his enemies. Marvel Studios is yet to release the trailer online, so written descriptions of the Stormbreaker stop remain the only way most fans can experience it for now. Recent reports have revealed that the full teaser could be released somewhere around July.
How Does Doom’s Move in Avengers: Doomsday Compare to Those of Other MCU Villains?
Stopping Stormbreaker in the manner Doom did outclasses a lot of other strength feats in the MCU because of what the axe did to Thanos. Eitri forged the weapon in Avengers: Infinity War for one purpose: killing the Mad Titan.
When Thor hurled it at Thanos in Wakanda, the villain fired a beam from a fully loaded Infinity Gauntlet to stop it. Stormbreaker cut straight through the combined power of all six Infinity Stones and buried itself in Thanos’ chest. Doom brushed aside that same weapon bare-handed, with the full force of an angry god behind it.
Hela offered the closest precedent back in Thor: Ragnarok. The Goddess of Death caught Mjolnir mid-flight with one hand and crushed it into pieces, instantly establishing her as a stronger fighter than Thor at the time. Even so, one could argue that Stormbreaker is slightly stronger than Mjolnir since it can summon the Bifrost and has been described as “a king’s weapon.” Regardless, both feats are equally impressive.
What makes Doom stopping Stormbreaker all the more impressive is the low amount of effort he put into pulling it off. Some MCU heavyweights needed a boost to pull off their most impressive feats. An example is Surtur, who only grew powerful enough to destroy Asgard and strike down Hela after Loki dropped his crown into the Eternal Flame.
Someone like Galactus, on the other hand, presented a different kind of problem in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, where Marvel’s First Family failed to hurt him at all and only won by shoving him through a teleportation portal, a move that briefly cost Sue Storm her life.
There are other powerful villains, like Dormammu and the Scarlet Witch, who rewrote reality and cast a massive spell over an entire town. All these villains’ feats in the MCU are impressive, but what makes Doom’s battle with Thor scary is that it’s the tip of the iceberg. It’s just a taste of what’s to come, and it’s already on par with the biggest moves other villains have pulled. We’re yet to see the Latverian use his magical powers, his doombots, or his absurdly high IQ. That scene is simply an announcement that an unprecedented threat has arrived.
