Avengers: Doomsday is slated to release in a little over a year from now. Earlier in 2025, Marvel revealed the film's cast in a 5-hour video, but even with the grand announcement, there's still very little we actually know about the project. One of the biggest burning questions about it is, of course, Dr. Doom himself, played by Robert Downey Jr. His motivations, background, or why he's played by the same actor who made Iron Man a household name—all question marks that remain tightly locked mysteries.
Earlier this year, the mystery veil was lifted slightly when promo art showcasing the character's look in Doomsday was revealed at Shanghai's Walt Disney Studios Marketing Expo. Recently, an HD version of the promo piece found its way online, offering a much more detailed look at the villain's armor. Though visible in the previous version of the image, the HD enhancement allowed yours truly to notice two potentially major details on his armor.
Much like in the comics, there are two disc-shaped fasteners on Doom's chest holding his cape around his neck. However, unlike his comic book counterpart, Downey's Doom has two insignias on each fastener. Looking closely at them, the one of the left seems to feature the Captain Marvel logo, while the one the right appears to feature what looks like the outline of Thor's hammer, Mjolnir:
Note: The insignias on the cape fasteners have been spotted before online, but I hadn't seen them until the HD version of the image was released, which is what prompted this article to be written.
Keep in mind, they may not be the heroes' logos, and the fasteners may either have entirely different designs than what they appear to look like in the image. Alternatively, their design may not even mean anything at all. Having said that, the designs seem too specific, and are too similar to Captain Marvel's chest symbol and Thor's trusty hammer to not be purposeful. Thus, assuming they are, indeed, logos related to the two heroes...
Why Would Dr. Doom Carry Mementos of Captain Marvel and Thor on His Costume?
Arguably the biggest possibility is that Doom killled the two heroes, and carries their symbols as trophies to show he was capable of murdering some of the most powerful people in the universe(s). If that is indeed the case, however, Doom most certainly took down multiversal versions of the God of Thunder and Carol, as opposed to the 616 variants we know and love.
While that may sound like an "out there" theory, it's important to remember that Dr. Doom essentially took the spot that Kang was supposed to occupy in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and the now-reworked Avengers: Secret Wars in terms of being the main villain of the two features. When Kang was still the MCU's latest big overarching villain, Marvel Studios was going on a very specific direction with him, portraying him as a multiversal conqueror who had killed multiple heroes across different universes. This approach allowed him to be a looming threat across the entire MCU—both the 616 universe and the whole multiverse.
This is told most plainly in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Upon learning Scott Lang was an Avenger, Kang asked him if he'd killed him before, and even tried to remember whether or not Scott was "the one with the hammer." Kang also implied he had encountered and killed so many Avengers by that point, that he couldn't tell them apart anymore. Given how Doom has taken Kang's place as the villain of the story, this bit of lore could now be his.
Of course, it appears that Doomsday was considerably rewritten from what The Kang Dynasty was going to be, but when movies go through reimaginings, some elements remain from one version to another (a good example of this is Daredevil: Born Again, which kept several elements from its previous version, prior to being reworked). The concept of Kang being this all-powerful villain who's killed the MCU's greatest heroes in various universes is an exciting concept—one that could reasonably be kept as backstory for Doom in order to make him feel like a real threat.
If that concept does indeed remain in play for the character, given Doom's character, there are really only a few reasons why he would seemingly be wearing the logos of people that are—at least in the comics—often at odds with him (again, if the insignias on his chest are, in fact, related to Carol Danvers and Thor). Seeing how he's going to be an Avengers-level threat, arguably the likeliest explanation is that he killed the two heroes. Ultimately, we'll get an answer to Doom's costume design when Avengers: Doomsday makes its way into theaters, but it's a fun theory to consider in the meantime.
Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled to arrive on December 18, 2026.
What do you think about the emblems on Doom's cape? Do you think they point to him having killed versions of Captain Marvel and Thor? Drop your theories in the comments.