Marvel’s New What If…? Novel Sends a Multiverse Team After Doctor Doom

Marvel’s next What If…? story arrives Aug. 4, and it’s a novel rather than an episode. What If… The Multiverse Was Doomed? comes from author DaVaun Sanders and Random House Worlds. It also drops months before Doctor Doom takes over the big screen in Avengers: Doomsday this December — and Doom sits at the center of this book too.

Per the publisher’s synopsis, the story follows America Chavez as she assembles a team to stop Doom from conquering every timeline. Kitty Pryde joins her, and in this continuity she carries the Phoenix Force. Loki, the Scarlet Witch and a Venom-fused Moon Knight round out the lineup. Together, they make a last stand against a Doom who wants the entire multiverse.

It’s a book, not the Disney+ series

First, the clarification that matters. This is prose fiction, not a new season of Marvel Animation’s What If…?. That animated series ran three seasons on Disney+ from 2021 to 2024. This release continues the What If…? brand on the page instead.

In fact, it’s the fifth entry in Random House Worlds’ What If…? novel line, which builds on the comics concept that Marvel launched back in 1977. So longtime fans get a familiar premise in a new format.

Why the timing matters

The Doom focus is the hook. Marvel has spent 2026 building toward Avengers: Doomsday, with Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom as the marquee threat. As a result, a multiverse-spanning Doom story landing in August reads as part of that larger drumbeat.

The book won’t tie directly into the film’s plot. Still, it gives Doom-hungry readers something to chew on while the movie’s marketing ramps up.

When and where to get it

What If… The Multiverse Was Doomed? releases Aug. 4 in hardcover and digital, wherever books are sold. For readers tracking the road to Avengers: Doomsday, it’s an easy pickup — and a rare chance to see this particular team square off with Doom before December.

Photo: Cover art courtesy of Marvel / Random House Worlds