This Star Wars: The Clone Wars Character Is Based On A Marvel Villain
"Star Wars: The Clone Wars" lives up to its title by placing a lot of focus on the clone troopers themselves (all voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, impersonating the live-action actor Temuera Morrison). Some of the characters, like Commander Cody and Commander Bly, were inherited from the "Star Wars" prequel films. The show used the idea that clones had nicknames (instead of only serial numbers) and ran with it, creating many other clones — including Captain Rex — with custom names and armor to convey individuality.
One of the more striking clone looks is Commander Doom, who appears only briefly in the "Clone Wars" season 6 premiere "The Unknown." That name isn't an accident; the "Star Wars" website confirms that the creators named Doom after Marvel Comics villain Doctor Victor Von Doom. While Commander Doom gets too little screen time to see if he has the ego of his namesake, the creators used Doctor Doom's design to color his armor.
Lucasfilm
Doctor Doom wears full-body silver armor; the only part of Doom's flesh visible behind his armor is his eyes. The armor is styled like the sheet metal suits of ancient knights — in Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert's "1602," reimagining the Marvel Universe in medieval Europe, "Count Otto Von Doom" looks identical to his modern self. Despite appearances, Doom's armor comes with tech that puts Iron Man to shame (incidentally, Robert Downey Jr. once auditioned to play Doom). Befitting the classical look of his armor, Doom wears a green hooded tunic and cape over his armor, kept in place with a yellow chain.
Designed by Jack Kirby, Doctor Doom's costume is as perfect a super-villain outfit as can be; I understand why the "Clone Wars" team couldn't resist homaging it.
Doctor Doom is the best-looking Marvel villain
Most of the clones have armor with white as the base color, but Doom's is gray. His armor's torso section, from the shoulders to the knees, is colored green but with some yellow highlights. Like Doctor Doom, he has a brown belt that leads down into a battle kilt. The outer pieces of his visored helmet are green while his face mask is gray, mimicking Doctor Doom's green hood and mask combo.
Some have theorized that the influence of Doctor Doom in "Star Wars" runs deeper and that Darth Vader was inspired by the Lord of Latveria. Both villains are sorcerers who wear armor to conceal substantial burn scars. Prolific comic artist Alex Ross noted the similarities and drew a wonderful picture of Vader and Doom squaring off.
George Lucas has not (to my knowledge) outright said he was thinking of Doom when conceiving Vader. But if he was, I can't blame him. Kirby's Doom is like Steve Ditko's classic Spider-Man suit; an artist struck gold on the first try and any attempt to rework the design will always be a distant second.
Attempts to give Doom metal skin, like in the comic "Ultimate Fantastic Four" or the woebegone 2015 "Fantastic Four" film? Disasters. I have a soft spot for Doom's look in the cartoon "Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes" (which fuses the cape and tunic into an open-chested cloak), but I'd still take the original. Doom's white outfit in "Secret Wars" works thematically, for he's ascended as God Emperor Doom, but green is still his color at the end of the day; his driving motivation is envy towards Reed Richards (though he'd never call his grudge by that name).
60 years after his debut, Doctor Doom's unchanged armor proves some things don't need to be fixed.