The Fantastic Four already have the perfect villain for their MCU debut, offering fans a foe never seen on the big screen, but whose multiversal powers make them a worthy inclusion by improving even on the threat Thanos posed to the Marvel Universe. Despite being the first superhero team created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and therefore the heralds of a new age for Marvel Comics, the First Family have yet to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe thanks to their rights having resided outside of Disney’s control until 2019. Fans are eager for the Fantastic Four to join the MCU, but with a legacy of poorly received films starring the heroes’ most iconic foes, they need something new to make the leap.
While Doctor Doom and Galactus are both iconic Fantastic Four villains, neither is particularly well-suited to the multiversal direction of Marvel’s storytelling, as depicted in the recent Loki TV show and the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. But the FF do have one forgottens villain worthy of exploring even alongside staggering threats like Thanos and Kang the Conqueror, and one who would help establish their place alongside Marvel’s other cinematic heroes.
Related: The X-Men Finally Pick a Villain Perfect for Their MCU Debut
The villain in question is the Marquis of Death – a villain who can manipulate both time and reality, and who tours the multiverse killing one world after another. The Marquis of Death was once Clyde Wyncham Jr., a reality-warping mutant so powerful that Reed Richards, aka Mister Fantastic, saw no option but to build a device that trapped him in a coma, entertained by dreams of Marvel’s heroes. Unfortunately, after being freed by an alliance of the Fantastic Four’s villains, Wyncham lashed out, killing the bad guys and developing a taste for death. So began a billion-year quest across the multiverse in which Wyncham gained even greater power and lost his remaining humanity, methodically killing countless worlds and facing off against each reality’s version of the Fantastic Four.
The Marquis of Death returns to Earth-616 in 2009’s Fantastic Four #566, from Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch, revealing that he is Doctor Doom’s former master. Having since taken on a mysterious new apprentice, the Marquis of Death is disdainful of Doom’s accomplishments, brutally injuring him and then hurling him back through time. The Marquis of Death and his new apprentice then attack the Fantastic Four, torturing Reed Richards by offering him a series of dark bargains to win the day, the last of which is to kill the original Clyde Wyncham Jr. before he becomes the Marquis.
A true hero, Mister Fantastic turns these deals down, instead freeing the innocent Wyncham, who weaponizes his love of Marvel’s heroes to drain the Marquis of most of his power. The Fantastic Four then draw power from versions of the team from multiple realities to give them the strength to take down the villain. Despite no longer being a danger, the Marquis of Death is shockingly killed by his new apprentice – revealed to be a disguised Doctor Doom, who survived the Marquis’ attack and trained for millennia to get his revenge.
In depicting the Marquis’ habit of killing the FF in every reality, the story offers a chance to show what the team could become while still introducing them at the start of their careers, and handily offers the opportunity to introduce Doctor Doom while simultaneously depicting one of his greatest accomplishments. Wyncham drawing on Marvel’s history to fight the Marquis would work given the MCU’s now established history, and as a reality-warping mutant, he’d even be an easy way to introduce the X-Men to the movies. Most importantly, a villain who kills off whole realities for fun is both a fitting escalation from Thanos, giving the Fantastic Four a cinematic villain who can tap into their past, present, and future to ensure their MCU debut is as fittingly epic as it is unique.
Next: The Fantastic Four Need a Change, And They Need It Now
