The latest trailer for Clayface helps us get over the lack of Batman by leaning hard into its horror tone. Not only do we meet Naomi Ackie as mad scientist Caitlyn Corr and Max Minghella as a Gotham City detective, but we get to see Hagen struggling to keep his melting flesh together. The trailer even builds to a stomach-churning set piece in which Hagen takes extreme measures to deal with his oozing eyelids. But in between all the gross body stuff, one might catch a glimpse of an important Gotham landmark, one that involves baddies Black Mask and Firefly.

Throughout the trailer, Hagen visits Club Vesuvius, a minor venue used in Batman comics and other media. For the most part, the Vesuvius serves as a background location, a place where the magician Zatanna performs her act and small-time hood Johnny Sabatino does his dirty deeds. However, in the 2009 series Batman: Streets of Gotham, Club Vesuvius gained a new purpose.

Written by Paul Dini and penciled by Dustin Nguyen, the first arcs of Streets of Gotham saw Batman and Robin investigating the criminal activities among the city’s rich and famous. Along the way, they encounter Firefly, a minor villain who had been hiding out in the abandoned club. Across the arc, we learn Black Mask acquired Vesuvius at some point and has given it to Firefly in exchange for his services. However, Firefly has his own agenda and sets large swaths of the city on fire in retaliation for all that’s gone wrong in his life. Black Mask confronts Firefly at Vesuvius, and the two attempt to kill one another until Batman and Robin arrive to stop them.

As the above description indicates, Vesuvius is hardly one of Gotham’s most important landmarks, in the same way that Firefly is hardly a top-level villain. While Black Mask did appear in Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), played by Ewan McGregor, Firefly has yet to show up on the big screen. That’s because Warner Bros. Discovery canceled the 2022 Batgirl movie to get a tax write-off, despite the fact that it featured Brendan Fraser as Firefly.

So why include Club Vesuvius in Clayface? The answer is more simple than you’d think. Clayface writer Mike Flanagan has cited as inspiration the Batman: The Animated Series entry “Feat of Clay,” and the trailer’s shots of a mangled Matt Hagen recall the character design from that classic two-parter. Batman: The Animated Series was primarily developed by Bruce Timm, Mitch Brian, and Paul Dini, the guy who wrote Streets of Gotham.

The inclusion of Club Vesuvius is likely a nod to Dini’s work and, in particular, his love of Zatanna. But it might also be a way to sneak Black Mask and Firefly into the new DCU. For those of us counting the days until we can see Batman again, we say, “The more Bat-baddies, the merrier!”

Clayface comes to theaters on October 23, 2026.

The post Clayface Trailer Teases Other Batman Villains appeared first on Den of Geek.

The latest episode of X-Men ’97, “Danger.exe” opens with a satisfying action scene, in which the government-sponsored X-Factor takes on the Purifiers, an anti-mutant religious cult led by Reverend William Stryker. Satisfying as it is to see Polaris unleash on the hate-mongers, the real fight occurs shortly afterward, when team leader Havok accosts her for going too far. Havok defends himself by insisting that the team does good, finding mutants before other, more hostile forces can and getting them to safety—even if that safety is a prison cell.

Havok’s logic fails to convince Polaris, however, who storms off and eventually joins the X-Men. Viewers won’t find it convincing either. Nonetheless, the idea of X-Factor posing as mutant hunters to secretly find and help wayward mutants comes straight from the comics. In fact, that ethos drove the first incarnation of X-Factor, a concept lifted in part from the movie Ghostbusters.

When X-Factor #1 hit comic stands in 1985, it lacked Havok, Polaris, or any of the members seen in “Danger.exe.” Instead it featured the original five X-Men introduced in 1964’s X-Men #1—Cyclops, Marvel Girl (Jean Grey), Beast, Angel, and Iceman—forming a team called X-Factor. Well, sort of.

Through most of the first issues of X-Factor, the five members advertise throughout the U.S. as the world’s premier set of mutant hunters. They present themselves as humans, wear blue jumpsuits, and even carry high-tech equipment, including a backpack that Angel wore to disguise his wings. When a human hears about a mutant causing a problem, as when the flame-producing Rusty sets fire to a bar, they call X-Factor to come and neutralize the threat.

After capturing the mutant and taking them back to their headquarters, the members of X-Factor would reveal their true plan, providing shelter and training for the wayward mutant. Also they would sometimes put on their standard superhero costumes and call themselves the X-Terminators, mutant terrorists who would wage war against X-Factor and protect the hunted mutants.

If that wasn’t convoluted enough, X-Factor hid their identities from the rest of the X-Men, which meant that the team’s former allies would express anger toward X-Factor and even come to blows with them, not realizing they’re all on the same side. Even more galling, X-Factor came to be after Jean Grey suddenly came back to life after sacrificing herself at the end of The Dark Phoenix Saga, prompting Cyclops to ditch his wife, Madelyne Pryor and son Nathan (the future Cable), and run back to his old girlfriend.

In short, it was a mess, one almost entirely the fault of Marvel editorial. Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter oversaw the rise of the X-Men when writer Chris Claremont took over the book in 1975 and transformed it from a C-tier property to the most popular comic on shelves. But he also took a famously heavy-handed approach to editing and demanded that Jean Grey die at the end of The Dark Phoenix Saga against the intentions of Claremont and co-writer/artist John Byrne.

Yet when Marvel wanted a second X-Men spin-off to go with New Mutants, Shooter entertained a pitch/brainstorm from artist Jackson Guice and writer Bob Layton about reuniting the surviving original X-Men to explore the adult lives of Xavier’s graduates. Despite originally demanding her death, Shooter insisted upon resurrecting Jean as a publicity stunt. Then because Jean’s return and the reunion of the original five X-Men apparently weren’t enough, the creative team added one more hook and decided to copy Ghostbusters, still a blockbuster playing in theaters around the world.

Thus we got one of the most convoluted and tiresome storylines in comics history. The X-Factor disguises looked stupid and stretched credulity (no one notices that X-Factor has the exact same composition as the X-Terminators, complete with a guy wearing red glasses?). The schism between X-Factor and their friends undermined the whole purpose of a shared universe. Worst of all, it took years to rehabilitate Cyclops after his nonsensical decision to abandon his family.

Fortunately, new writer Louise Simonson dropped the mutant hunter concept shortly after she took over the book with X-Factor #6 (1986) and eventually pinned the whole idea on Cameron Hodge, who became one of the most memorable X-Men villains. By the time the original team rejoined the X-Men and a whole new team arrived in X-Factor #71 (1991), both the X-Terminators and the mutant hunters were a distant memory… that is, until X-Men ’97 resurrected it for “Danger.exe.”

X-Men ’97 streams new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.

The post X-Men ’97 Revisited One of the Worst Story Ideas in Marvel History appeared first on Den of Geek.

The very best animated villains linger in the mind long after the TV or movie credits have rolled. Disney alone has produced more than its fair share of legendary antagonists, but we’ve deliberately kept their presence to a minimum here. Those villains deserve a spotlight all their own, and they have one right here.

Instead, this list celebrates some of the greatest animated villains from across the wider world of animation, proving that evil comes in many forms, no matter who brings it to life.

The Joker – Batman: The Animated Series

Standing out as a chaotic streak of color against the noir and art deco-style design of Batman: The Animated Series, this Joker became one for the ages. Voiced with a playful menace by Mark Hamill, the show’s version of the Joker was never overused, which made his appearances all the more unsettling. Still, The Animated Series had a lot of fun with its take on DC villain, having been given the opportunity to twist his red grin into a menacing scowl in an instant and giving a whole new generation of comic book kids a reason to fear and love the Clown Prince of Crime more than a decade ahead of Heath Ledger’s scene-stealing live action performance in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.

Megatron – The Transformers: The Movie

“Megatron must be stopped, no matter the cost,” says Optimus Prime in The Transformers: The Movie, and he means it, because in a film that features a literal planet-sized Transformer, Megatron remains the number one villain of the piece. Having already slain a number of Autobots along with his Decepticon crew, he finally battles Optimus Prime and both are mortally wounded. But ol’ Megs isn’t gone for long, because he’s soon remade into Galvatron and re-ignites his mission to become the biggest animated metal bastard of all time. And we wouldn’t have it any other way! Y’see, although The Transformers: The Movie initially annoyed the crap out of some fans by notching up a slasher movie-level number of Transformer kills, it’s now considered a classic, and absolute peak Megatron.

Omni-Man – Invincible

Invincible‘s Nolan Grayson may be the most powerful superhero on Earth, but he is also an alien and initially works as an agent of the Viltrum Empire, sent here to weaken our planet and prepare it for an invasion. The way he goes about this mission is explored in an absolutely horrifying string of incidents during season 1 of Prime Video’s animated series, from ripping apart Earth’s mightiest heroes, the Guardians of the Globe, to a devastating rageathon through Chicago that kills thousands of innocent people. But what makes Omni-Man such a great villain is that it’s clear that he has been deeply affected by the love of his family and friends on Earth, yet he still moves forward with his deadly plans. Later, he begins a real redemption arc, but season 1 Omni-Man is as dark as they come.

Aku – Samurai Jack

Aku isn’t just a rote villain plopped into Genndy Tartakovsky’s Samurai Jack story to be a bit of an opp to our hero. He’s already won by sending Jack into a future where his rule has seeped into every crack, so Jack’s main mission can’t ever be to simply stop him. He has to travel back in time and get home first! Indeed, this proves to be a much harder mission, and this way, even when Aku’s dishing out grandiose monologues, having childish outbursts, or not even in the episode at all, he remains a menacing, credible danger, whether by trying to break Jack’s spirit through a string of hopeless situations or forcing him to question whether his mission is even possible. The late Mako Iwamatsu also gave such a rich, theatrical performance as Aku; it helped Samurai Jack (and his villain) become so beloved.

King Haggard – The Last Unicorn

1982’s The Last Unicorn remains a massively underrated animated movie. Peter S. Beagle wrote the script for it based on his terrific fantasy novel following a unicorn who sets out to discover what happened to all the rest of her kind when she realizes she’s the last one left. The late and great Sir Christopher Lee voices the villainous King Haggard, leader of the depressing Hagsgate, in the adaptation, and hoo boy does he sell this cursed man well, because when we find out that the only thing that makes the king happy is looking at unicorns, we also find out that he’s found a way to keep them around forever by chasing them into the sea outside his castle. It allows him to watch them come in and out with the tides. Frightened in their captivity, the unicorns are eventually freed and, along with his castle, Haggard falls to his death in the very sea that kept them prisoner. Good riddance.

Azula – Avatar: The Last Airbender

It’s harder than you’d think to craft an emotionally complex animated villain, but they knocked it out of the park with Azula, who tends to rely on strategy over strength to defeat her opponents in The Last Airbender. A notably skilled firebender, her ruthless nature has nonetheless been tragically shaped by her upbringing and her obsession with perfection. As a consequence, her fear of failure and inability to trust others cause her to unravel. Azula’s eventual downfall is accidentally driven by her own flaws, but that’s just one of the many reasons why she remains one of the most compelling animated villains ever.

Venger – Dungeons & Dragons

As the main antagonist of the 80s cartoon series Dungeons & Dragons series, Venger was such a menacing sorcerer that even his massive and arguably cumbersome gray skirt couldn’t dampen the threat of his arrival. Forcing children to fend off his sorcery and help poor villagers escape his terrorism, Venger traumatized 80s kids everywhere with his single red horn and vampiric teeth, riding in on his black horse to put so many spanners in the works that the young crew never found their way back home. In that respect, he became a kind of nightmare villain; the kind you can’t get away from in your dreams no matter how hard you try.

A script for the unproduced finale confirmed that Venger was set to be revealed as the Dungeon Master’s estranged son, but although that knowledge certainly would have added a tragic footnote to his story, it wouldn’t have helped the countless heroes whom he eliminated before the show’s new gang arrived to thwart his evil plans.

Lord Shen – Kung Fu Panda 2

While Kung Fu Panda‘s Lord Shen (Gary Oldman) is much more of a moustache-twirling villain than some others on this list, he’s definitely earned his place on it. He’s also probably the dumbest smart villain here, because his intelligent manoeuvres are regularly countered by his inability to escape a prophecy he himself is helping come to pass. After his role in the destruction of Po’s village and the loss of his family, Shen makes a series of increasingly cruel decisions to turn fate in his favour, refusing to accept responsibility for his past and ultimately falling to Po, who has made peace with his. Shen is one of those tragic villains who might have eventually found some kind of redemption if he’d just found a way to let go of his fear.

Cruella de Vil – One Hundred and One Dalmatians

What could be more upsetting to animal lovers than a vain, greedy person who wants nothing more than to kidnap puppies and skin them for fashion? Disney’s animated version of Dodie Smith’s “cruel devil,” voiced by Betty Lou Gerson, was the walking, talking epitome of evil in One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and although she’s been portrayed by many other actresses since, the animated Cruella de Vil’s wild, twisted red mouth and pale complexion have always been truly upsetting to witness. Unlike other villains on this list, she doesn’t want power or revenge. She isn’t a supernatural monster. Cruella is a regular human being, and she just wants to kill puppies. Awful woman.

The Lich – Adventure Time

Revenge? Power? Good, old-fashioned greed? Pah! A true villain doesn’t truck with such pathetic motivations. The Lich is more than happy to simply exterminate all life. Giving off “death is inevitable and life is meaningless” vibes, when The Lich appeared, you know the situation just got very real in the normally whimsical land of Adventure Time. His quiet, philosophical demeanor and cosmic nature make his power feel beyond the control of our heroes, possibly infinite, and the nihilism he brings to the show smothers it in ancient and unstoppable evil. Great guy. Good times.

Hexxus – FernGully: The Last Rainforest

Voiced by the always sensational Tim Curry, Hexxus is a malevolent entity that feeds on the byproducts of human-caused environmental destruction in 1982’s Ferngully: The Last Rainforest, delighting in corruption and growing stronger every time he encounters sludge, toxic waste, or pollution. By the end of the movie, he’s become a smoky, skeletal monster filled with horrors, embodying industrial devastation and putting the fear of god into kids who finish the movie and realize that there are human forces that will stop at nothing to turn a profit, even if it means destroying the world we live in. Oh, and he also has a fun song, “Toxic Love,” if you need a breather from thinking about everything he represents.

Scar – The Lion King

Scar is such a good emotional manipulator, and although he’s a literal lion, he doesn’t resort to physical force to reach the top. Why would he, when his psychological tactics work so well? No, Scar plots and plans until he finally gets the opportunity to murder his brother and steal the throne in The Lion King, convincing little Simba that he’s to blame, then letting his land rot as he basks in his own majesty. Jeremy Irons’ sharp, theatrical line-readings add an extra layer of threat to Scar’s inevitable rule, and he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids (and hyenas).

Judge Doom – Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

The reveal of Judge Doom as not merely a villainous Dip enjoyer but a homicidal toon continues to traumatize many a child, with his bulging, animated eyes and screeching voice pretty hard to forget during the climax of 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. Actor Christopher Lloyd plays him with an enormous amount of menace in his live-action moments, but when Judge Doom toons out, he is terrifying on another level. The kindly Doc Brown of the Back to the Future films is immediately forgotten, replaced with a twisted amalgamation of surreal, hand-drawn intimidation, live-action, and a very real threat to kill all toons, which director Robert Zemeckis himself likened to Adolf Hitler’s Final Solution. Chilling and unforgettable.

The post The Best Animated Villains Ever appeared first on Den of Geek.

They don’t call him your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man for nothing. The adventures of Peter Parker, aka the guy in the red and blue costume, can be traumatic, they can be angst-ridden in that way every young adult knows, and they can even flirt with tragedy. But more often than not, there’s a reason his main comic line has Amazing in the title. It’s about the joy of youth!

That’s perhaps doubly so for Tom Holland, who’s donned the Web-Head’s mask in six previous Marvel Studios films. And yet, as Holland and his co-stars in this month’s upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day tease in the latest Den of Geek cover story, that appears to be changing with the first Spidey film to deal with the character confronting the totality of adulthood… and the lingering effects of burying a parental figure like Marisa Tomei’s May Parker.

“We’re dealing with a dark version of Spider-Man, where he’s closing himself off and trying to figure out who he is,” actor Jon Bernthal revealed while discussing the addition of the Punisher to the onscreen Spider-Man mythos. The character of the Punisher of course first appeared in a Spidey comic (1974’s The Amazing Spider-Man #129 to be exact), but Bernthal’s version of despondent vigilante Frank Castle has been a decidedly R-rated affair on various Netflix and Disney+ shows. Yet Bernthal thinks Castle will meet Spidey somewhere perfectly in the middle during this month’s PG-13 superhero extravaganza.

“Frank doesn’t buy into all this stuff,” Bernthal said. “He’s a level guy and he gets frustrated with all this superhero stuff. But there’s a sense of mutual respect with Spider-Man. Frank knows that Spider-Man can do things that he can’t. Spider-Man’s embracing darkness in his life, and, as someone who’s been down that road, Frank doesn’t love that for anybody. It cracks open Frank’s heart. He’s begging Spider-Man not to go to the places he goes.”

Confronting those darker elements of Peter Parker makes sense, as it’s always been the B-side of the Spider-Man comics where Peter has had to deal with burying friends and family at a young age, and the weight of doing the right thing in a world that doesn’t care. Brand New Day seems to mark a chance for Holland to fully explore those elements which were only beginning to be teased out during the ending of Spider-Man: No Way Home, the film where Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin kills Peter’s aunt and ends with the world forgetting Peter Parker exists because of timey-wimey shenanigans.

“The loss of Aunt May should be devastating,” Holland said in the new issue of Den of Geek. “It should take up the entire third act of [No Way Home]. But we were trying to make something fun and exciting, so he meets these two other Spider-Men, the most iconic Spider-Men. We couldn’t have Tobey [Maguire] and Andrew [Garfield] having the time of their lives while my character’s crying all the time. It wouldn’t have worked… Brand New Day deals with some of those things we had to gloss over in No Way Home.”

Hence in the new movie, we jump ahead five years and find Peter still mourning May, as well the loss of his great love in MJ (Zendaya) and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), and how their absence leaves Peter in a place where he and Punisher can connect. For actors with so much history working together like Holland, Zendaya, and Batalon, all of the above creates unique acting challenges.

“Honestly, we felt bad for Tom,” Zendaya laughed. “Jacob and I are just having a good time, minding our business. And Tom, bless him, is standing off in a corner alone, staring at us from afar! It was like an acting exercise, to play as if you’ve never met this person before. We had to imagine this life that Ned and MJ had without Peter’s presence.”

It’s an interesting note, as is playing these characters at the end of their academic careers. No previous live-action Spider-Man movies has ever reached that point in a young person’s life when the full horizon after school stands before them. It can be an exhilarating time for some. For others, perhaps, a darker one. Although the way director Destin Daniel Cretton framed it, this is less about darkness as that universal anxiety that accompanies uncertainty.

“Brand New Day has a more mature Spider-Man, but I don’t like the word ‘darker,’” Cretton asserted. “Spider-Man isn’t Batman… When I graduated from college, I had a communications degree and no job prospects. I struggled through my 20s, sharing an apartment with three to eight guys, all of us looking for work. The reality of the world hit me in the face. In that stage, I learned what it really feels like to lose someone, to go through sadness and darker times, and I learned what was important in life for the first time. That’s the stage that Peter Parker happens to be going through.”

Audiences will soon learn for themselves what shades of light, and dark, Brand New Day weaves in its web when the movie opens on Friday, July 31. In the meantime, you can subscribe and get your own physical copy of the Den of Geek magazine with our complete conversations with Holland, Zendaya, Bernthal, and Cretton right here.

The post Spider-Man: Brand New Day Promises Darkest Spidey Movie Yet appeared first on Den of Geek.

The internet at large has spotted a few other things in the days since. For example, when we see a shot of Loki’s TVA card in the trailer, the hand holding it sports a gold wedding ring. This has led people to believe that Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is the one checking the official ID, and that he and Loki may have met in a branch timeline during the events of the Loki TV show—we just haven’t seen it yet.

Yet it’s Evans’ full appearance at the end of the trailer that’s got people talking. See, some aren’t convinced that the Steve Rogers who pops up and summons Mjolnir to prove to Thor that he’s worthy is really Steve Rogers. There’s no obvious reason to think this, just a sense that something is “off” about him. If you’re sitting there right now going “what do you mean? Of course that’s our Steve Rogers!” then we’re here to help break down the reasoning and best guesses of our online sleuths. We’re also going to rank them by how likely they are to be right, because why not?

6. Mephisto

Long after the heady days of WandaVision, when the internet was convinced that Mephisto was the one behind the strange occurrences in Westview, he really did show up in a Marvel TV show: Ironheart. Played by Sacha Baron Cohen, Mephisto revealed himself to Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) in the finale, admitting that he was the one who’d given the show’s villain his magical cloak.

Mephisto is a telekinetic master manipulator (and actual demon) who can shapeshift, manipulate time and reality, and even bring people back to life. Oh, and he just loves making pacts that destroy lives. If there was a way to swing the events of Doomsday to his advantage, or even just for kicks, Mephisto might choose to do so. And yes, he could also pretend to be Steve Rogers. But how could he wield Mjolnir, you may ask? To answer that question, you simply have to think like Mephisto: by conjuring a fake version of Mjolnir to fool Thor into thinking he was offering him the real one.

Though Mephisto is always a fun addition to key crossover events in the comics (and the main villain in Secret Wars II), we think it’s pretty unlikely that he’s pretending to be Steve here. You may have noticed that no one introduced in the Disney+ TV shows appears in the Doomsday trailer save for the new Falcon, who has since been established in the MCU movies thanks to Brave New World, so explaining TV Mephisto during a Doctor Doom movie seems like a headache Marvel could simply avoid.

5. Mystique

Mystique has rarely met a person she wouldn’t pretend to be. In the X-Men movies, the blue-skinned mutant has previously taken the guise of everyone from Rogue to Wolverine to William Stryker to even Hugh Hefner, and during the Doomsday trailer, we see her fake being Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) to get the upper hand.

Could she pretend to be Steve Rogers? Maybe, at a stretch. She would probably need to have seen photos or videos of Steve to accurately impersonate him, and there’s no reason to believe she’d have had access to those in the X-Men universe. As for wielding Mjolnir, it’s possible, but again, at a stretch. Magneto can manipulate magnetic fields around much bigger objects than Thor’s hammer, but he wouldn’t be able to bypass Odin’s enchantment to allow anyone to actually wield it. However, in that particular moment between Steve and Thor shown in the trailer, Mystique might just be able to get away with a basic ruse. But not for long.

4. The Beyonder

The Beyonder was key to both Secret Wars and Secret Wars II, while a race of Beyonders appeared in 2015’s Secret Wars run. Though there’s been no MCU set-up for the Beyonder to show up in Doomsday or 2027’s follow-up, Avengers: Secret Wars, fans have often wondered if the omnipotent being from beyond the Marvel multiverse would pop up at some point. After all, the character is such an important aspect of those earlier Secret Wars runs, during which he was notably impressed by Steve Rogers’ ability to prioritise selflessness and reasoning over power or revenge, and once modeled himself after Steve.

If Doctor Doom is messing with the multiverse in Doomsday, the Beyonder could potentially take the form of Steve to insert himself into the narrative. His power would also likely outweigh Odin’s enchantment, leaving him free to toss Mjolnir wherever he chooses.

3. Captain Hydra

One of the most popular “Steve isn’t Steve” theories around is that the version of him we see in the Doomsday trailer is actually Captain Hydra. About a decade ago, Marvel Comics flirted with a storyline in which Cosmic Cube shenanigans rewrote Steve’s past so he believed in Hydra’s ideals from childhood. If we add this dastardly Steve into Doomsday, it would mean a Captain Hydra variant has taken Steve’s place. Fans make a good point that we already have an “evil” version of Iron Man (kinda) here, with Robert Downey Jr. now playing Doctor Doom. Why not throw another big one in?

The idea of tricking the audience into thinking Steve Rogers is back to save the day, only to reveal that he’s an evil variant, is admittedly quite delicious, but Marvel already has enough on their hands explaining who Doctor Doom is and why he looks exactly like Iron Man, not to mention having to catch people up on what happened to Loki for anyone who skipped that show. They’ve also added in so many extra teams and characters. The Thunderbolts, the Fantastic Four, the Wakandans, and the X-Men will all need to get their moment to shine. Wouldn’t bringing more variants into the equation just make things super, super convoluted? Besides, Captain Hydra isn’t in the least bit worthy. Yeah, we aren’t buying into this one!

2. Loki

This is the theory that makes the most emotional and narrative sense. Thor still believes that Loki is dead (and his version of Loki actually is dead), so the villainous variant who escaped during the Time Heist in Avengers: Endgame and went on to become a genuine good guy by working with the TVA might not want to confuse Thor by showing up out of the blue to help the Avengers. He could choose to appear as Steve Rogers instead.

Loki would arguably be much more likely to gain Thor’s trust that way, especially if he proves he’s worthy of summoning Mjolnir. Moreover, the payoff of Loki’s variant being able to wield the hammer would indeed be considerable. Many people would understand how much the character grew and evolved during his TV show arc, even sacrificing the rest of his days to keep the multiverse afloat alone. Who’s to say Loki isn’t worthy at this point? It also wouldn’t be the first time Loki has chosen to impersonate Captain America. He’s previously pretended to be Steve to get under Thor’s skin, and let’s not forget that when Steve saw another version of himself during Endgame, even he thought that version was Loki! That was his first and only thought!

It’s also worth noting that the moment when Thor says “it’s not possible” in the trailer has been embraced by different fan theories elsewhere, after people noticed someone standing in the shadows behind him. Marvel’s mischievous history of editing context in their trailers could have struck again. Could Thor actually be looking at the real Loki there, and that’s why he’s so shocked? Or is he looking at someone he believes to be the late Tony Stark? All we know is our gut says “maybe.”

1. Steve Rogers

Occam’s razor time: Doomsday’s Steve Rogers is probably just our Steve Rogers, and the internet is probably just being the internet again.

Avengers: Doomsday will be released on December 18, where all will be revealed.

The post Avengers: Doomsday – Is Steve Rogers Really Steve Rogers? appeared first on Den of Geek.