Latveria

• 1. Introduction

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  Latveria is a fictional country in Marvel Comics, and one of its own ministers once explained how it is run. He boasted, "Doctor Doom decides everything. His slightest whim is Latverian law!" The country is a small, isolated corner of Europe, yet it has repeatedly drawn in superheroes from far beyond its borders. What does it mean to live where one man's mood is the law? How can a tiny, old-fashioned kingdom stand beside the great powers of the Marvel world? And what happens to a nation when its ruler is dragged away from the throne? The answers begin with the strange place itself.

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• 2. A Place on the Map

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  Fantastic Four Annual number 2, published in 1964, is the issue where Latveria first appears. Screen Rant dates the trouble earlier, calling the tiny country "a thorn in the side of Marvel's heroes" ever since issue 5 of The Fantastic Four in 1962.

  A 1964 description called Latveria a small country in East Europe "nestling in the heart of the Bavarian alps". Mark Hibbett of Central Saint Martins says it felt like "a fairy tale village transplanted into the real world" from the start. Jack Kirby's drawings showed peasant cottages and caravans in an almost medieval setting.

  The Banat region is where the comics now place the country. Screen Rant notes that as of 2020 its location was firmly identified there. That grounds Latveria in real geography and suggests realistic political tensions. The Carpathian Mountains surround it, near the area where Hungary, Romania and Serbia's Vojvodina meet. Centuries before the stories begin, its land was annexed from southern Hungary, and possibly from Serbia. To the south lies Symkaria, the home of Silver Sable, which is a benevolent constitutional monarchy and a pointed contrast to its neighbour.

  Bustle once published a humorous guide to convincing people that Latveria is real. The writer pointed out that the name "doesn't sound made up".

  Doomstadt is the capital, and on the map it takes the place of the real Romanian city of Timișoara. It stands just north of the Kline River and was called Hassenstadt until Doom seized power. Nearby sits Cynthia Von Doom Memorial Park, named for his mother. Farther out, on Mount Sorcista, a demon sorceress named Pandemonia is said to live. Above the old town of Doomstadt looms Castle Doom, an ancient fortress fitted with modern technology, and it is the administrative center and home of the man who rules everything below.

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• 3. Absolute Rule

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  Issue 536 of Fantastic Four, published in 2006, shows how Doom treats a minister who oversteps. His Prime Minister claimed control of Latveria while Doom was away, and Doom killed him for it. Doom then threatened to kill two other ministers unless they found where Thor's hammer Mjölnir had landed. The council around him obeys without question.

  Doctor Doom governs as an absolute monarch, and the country has no legislature at all. Doom himself calls it an "enforced monarchy". Devices placed throughout the kingdom let him watch his people, and hidden weapons stop them from leaving without his consent. In one story he switched on a force field around the whole country that nobody could cross. It also apparently works as a defense against nuclear attack.

  Doom's Day is a holiday that Latveria celebrates whenever Doom decides it should. A figure known as the Editor is tasked with rewriting Latverian history to fit Doom's view of the world. Tristian de Sabbat, a member of the inner circle, is responsible for holy propaganda. The result looks like a personality cult, and some Latverians do admire and worship their ruler despite how he treats them.

  Valeria shows what closeness to Doom can cost. She was the teenage love of his life and the granddaughter of Boris, his guardian since childhood and closest confidant. Doom sacrificed her to the Haazareth Three, a group of demons.

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• 4. Daily Life

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  Roughly 500,000 people live in Latveria, but the figure is only an approximation because the government is secretive about its census. Residents speak German, Hungarian, English, Romani and a local Latverian dialect derived from Hungarian. The population is a mixed European stock that includes Slavs, Roma and Greeks. It possibly includes Bulgarians who migrated into the Banat during the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria.

  Victor Von Doom is himself Roma, and his father Werner was a talented doctor of the Zefiro Gypsy Tribe. Doom has declared the Romani a protected class and tries to shower them with benefits. Yet the poor economy and oppressive rule mean their lives hardly outshine anyone else's. They fear their own government just as much as other Latverians do.

  Doom proudly claims that Latveria is free of poverty, disease, famine and crime. The comics usually show a rural land with an almost medieval way of life, which Doom likely enforces. Citizens live in fear of him, but they are also relatively well cared for, as long as they do not cross him. Any leader who has replaced Doom has tended to prove more corrupt and less stable.

  The Latverian Franc is the official currency, because Doom refuses to join the European Union or adopt the Euro. It is still considered reasonably strong against the United States Dollar. Much of the economy depends on Doom's high-tech inventions.

  Doomsport, on the southern outskirts of Doomstadt, is the country's only airport. It has two runways and a modern terminal. Even so, flights in and out are limited.

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• 5. Doombots and Daggers

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  Doombots do most of the policing in Latveria, because the country has no native superhero population. These are robot sentinels built by Doom. The military plays several roles as well. It defends the country, or more accurately keeps Victor Von Doom on the throne. It also makes arrests and acts as a secret police.

  Dreadknight is one of the few known Latverian superhumans, and Doom made him as a punishment. The man behind the mask was a scientist who had been hoarding ideas from Doom. Doom had a skull-shaped cybernetic helmet bio-fused to his head. Dreadknight developed a vendetta against his maker, and various superheroes have thwarted his attempts at revenge.

  Fydor Gittrlsohn and Otto Kronsteig are among Doom's chief scientists, but two brothers named Hauptmann tell the darker story. Gert Hauptmann tried to betray Doom and died at his hands. His brother Gustav had been a Nazi who worked for Adolf Hitler and the Red Skull. Gustav was attacking Mister Fantastic with a flamethrower that endangered his own art collection. Doom turned the sonic weapon he had planned for the Fantastic Four on Gustav and killed him.

  The Seven Daggers of Latveria are mutants loyal to Doom. Dreamer, whose name is Hugo, can enter dreams. His sister Ramona, called Ironcloak, can make anyone invulnerable for a limited time. Nerium has four arms and botanopathy. Szik, known as Slag, has rock-like skin and magma-like blood. Volta commands electrokinesis and carries a Vibranium spear to help control her powers.

  Doom Island is not part of Latveria at all. It is a private island near the coast of Japan, hidden by an invisible shield. Doom keeps the mutant citizens of Latveria there, along with a legion of Doombot and Sentinel hybrids.

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• 6. Great Power in Miniature

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  Wakanda is among the very few nations that Marvel treats as a rival to Latveria. The comics consistently show Latveria as a global superpower, on par with or beyond any nation on Earth, including the United States.

  Doom's scientific genius explains the gap. He has invented time travel and interdimensional travel, and he often owns or builds devices that count as weapons of mass destruction. The country itself is extremely small and economically backward. That gives it a vastly disproportionate influence on world affairs relative to its size and GDP.

  That influence rests on a single person, and Doom's own undertakings often pull him away from the country for long stretches. His absences set up the crises that follow.

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• 7. Thrones Lost and Won

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  Baron Karl Hassen ruled Latveria in the 14th century, long before Doom. Count Sabbat and Vlad Draasen belonged to its royalty in the 15th century. A family of vampire hunters called the Kroft family is recorded from the 16th century to the 19th.

  King Vladimir Vassily Gonereo Tristian Mangegi Fortunov was a tyrant who was extremely harsh to the Romani living on the borders. Doom killed him, and the Fortunov family was ousted. Years later Prince Zorba Fortunov reclaimed the throne when the Fantastic Four defeated Doom. With the help of the Fantastic Four, Doom took it back.

  Once Doom descended into Hell, neighbouring countries began to eye Latveria for conquest. Reed Richards seized control of the country. He tried to free the people from Doom's grip and disarmed all of Doom's weapons and technology, so that Doom would return to nothing. Richards also moved Doom from Hell into a pocket dimension of his own design. Doom used his consciousness-switching abilities to escape, but the death of his host body seemingly killed him too, and the Fantastic Four withdrew. Doom survived and ruled for a time through a puppet Prime Minister and robotic enforcers.

  The Countess Lucia von Bardas was elected Prime Minister after the United States tried to build a democracy there. She was secretly using the Tinkerer to turn Doom's technology into weapons for tech-based villains in America. S.H.I.E.L.D. Commander Nick Fury took action. During Secret War, he and several superheroes invaded Latveria without permission from the US Government and tried to assassinate her. She survived, horribly disfigured, and sought revenge. S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Daisy Johnson killed her as she tried to blow up New York using the armor of the villains she employed.

  The Marquis of Death attacked Latveria, destroying much of it and severely reducing its population. Later, Iron Man led S.H.I.E.L.D. and a team of US-sanctioned Avengers into the country after Doom unintentionally helped release a symbiote virus on New York. The country was devastated again, and Doom was taken into custody for crimes against humanity. Norman Osborn, director of H.A.M.M.E.R., influenced his release, and Doom restored his devastated nation.

  During the Avengers vs. X-Men storyline, Latveria even became the battleground where Spider-Man fought Colossus, who was empowered by Juggernaut.

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• 8. Other Worlds and Screens

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  In Marvel 1602, Latveria is ruled by Count Otto von Doom, also known as Otto the Handsome. Mythical beings live there, and the country experiments with intricate clockwork devices. One of them was used to kill Queen Elizabeth I of England. The native language closely resembles modern German.

  In the future called Marvel 2099, power struggles over Latveria end with most of its population destroyed by chemical weapons known as necrotoxins. In the Marvel Zombies storyline, Latveria is one of the last outposts of humanity. Doom gathers the fittest and most fertile survivors to send them to other dimensions. An army of super-zombies breaks into his castle and Doom is bitten, but all the Latverian citizens escape. In the future shown in Loki: Agent of Asgard, Doom finds Latveria destroyed after King Loki destroys the Earth, and he tries to prevent it by imprisoning the present-day Loki.

  Ultimate Marvel introduced Latveria as a bankrupt peasant nation. Thanks to Doom it became the ninth richest country on Earth. The townsfolk wear Doom's dragon tattoos, which contain microfibers that interface with the brain and act as mind control. In the Ultimate Universe, on Earth-6160, the Maker uses Latveria as his seat of political power. It holds the City, his base, and a hidden Council of regional leaders that keeps populations docile.

  On television, Latveria appears in Fantastic Four from 1994 and in The Super Hero Squad Show episode "Pedicure of Doom!". It also appears in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes episode "The Private War of Doctor Doom", Ultimate Spider-Man, Avengers Assemble and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. In video games, Castle Doom is a level in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Lego Marvel Super Heroes, and the country appears in Ultimate Spider-Man from 2005, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 and Marvel Heroes. A Latverian embassy appears in The Incredible Hulk and Marvel: Avengers Alliance. It also turns up in the Spider-Man newspaper strip.

  In the film Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Latveria is not led by Doom, so its capital is renamed from Doomstadt to Hassenstadt. In The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the country's seat at the United Nations is left vacant during Susan Storm's unveiling of the Future Foundation.

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