8 Smartest Decisions In Marvel Villain History

1. Doom Is Rabum Alal - Avengers

Jonathan Hickman's Avengers was brilliant start to finish, but one of the best things about it actually drew upon what the writer did on the Fantastic Four years earlier.

Hickman is a long-term strategist; concepts introduced early on in his stories rarely ever peter out as a run nears his end, and the Avengers were no different. Early on, during New Avengers, Hickman introduced the threat that would govern the remainder of his time on the comic - multiversal incursions. Alternate Earths and realities threatened to destroy the Earth and it was up to the Illuminati to save the day - but at great cost.

They toiled for years, destroying other realities so that their world could live. Along the way they encountered the Black Swans, cosmic beings beholden to the will of Rabum Alal. The big reveal? Doom is Alal, and he's been using the Swans as his soldiers in a multiversal conflict against the Beyonders, a group of beings who existed outside of the omniverse and threatened to destroy all the perceived realities in Marvel continuity.

Doom uses the Swans to destroy each universe's Molecule Man, and in doing so goes on to confront the Beyonders themselves. The battle results in the demise of thousands of different worlds, leaving only a select few. Successful, Doom then goes on to fashion Battleworld, a mishmash of the remaining realities which he ruled via the help of Stephen Strange, the only other Earthly figure to discover Doom's master plan.

Victor's creation of Battleworld typified the character's tyrannical inclinations, but he also saved all of existence with a plan years in the making. Moves don't get much smarter, and if anything were to back up Doom's status as Marvel's greatest villain, that would be it.