Latveria

Latveria is a fictional nation in the Marvel Universe. It is supposedly located in the Banat region. It also borders the fictional Symkaria (to the south), home of Silver Sable. It is surrounded by the Carpathians, and is an isolated country within the Marvel Universe, ruled by the villainous Doctor Doom.

Leadership
Victor von Doom is the ruler of Latveria, and has been since Fantastic Four Annual #2 of the first series. Though he has been dethroned a number of times, von Doom has inevitably managed to return to the throne of his country within a matter of months.

Von Doom also has a council who obey him entirely. In Fantastic Four #536 in 2006, he killed his own Prime Minister for claiming control of Latveria in his absence, and threatened to kill two other ministers if they failed to find the landing spot of Thor's hammer.

Doctor Doom's style of rule can best be described as an absolute monarchy, as it was revealed in the comic strip that there is no parliament, and one minister boasted "Doctor Doom decides everything. His slightest whim is Latverian law!"

Latveria under the Fantastic Four
Due to Doom's constant activities that drive him away from Latveria, the monarch is often absent. After Doom's descent into Hell, the nation became a target for conquest by the neighboring countries, forcing Reed Richards to take matters into his own hands and seize control of the country, attempting to pry the populace out from under the thumb of Doom, while at the same time disarming all of Doom's weaponry and technology, so if he ever should return, he would come back to absolutely nothing. In the process, Richards relocated Doom from Hell into a pocket dimension of his own design, and although Doom used his consciousness-switching abilities to escape, the death of his host body seemingly caused him too to die, and the Fantastic Four pulled out of the country.

Series of Takeovers
After the Fantastic Four left, the United States attempted to fill the void left by Doom by establishing a democracy for the nation. The Countess Lucia von Bardas was elected as Prime Minister. However, when it was revealed that von Bardas was employing the Tinkerer to use Doom's technology to arm various tech-based villains in America, S.H.I.E.L.D. Commander Nick Fury took action. During Secret War, Fury and a number of superheroes invaded Latveria without permission of the US Government and attempted to assassinate von Bardas. While von Bardas survived, she was horribly disfigured and sought to destroy Fury and the heroes responsible. She was killed by S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Daisy Johnson while trying to blow up New York with the armor of the various villains she employed.

During Avengers Disassembled, Iron Man alluded to the fact that several dictators might have attempted to rule Latveria in Doom's absence or that, while Doom goes through one of his famous disappearances, other people might take over before Doom comes back and deposes them. Recently, Doom has returned from hell, and has retaken the reins of Latveria. He is however keeping his return a secret as of now, ruling via a puppet Prime Minister. Doom also uses robotic versions of himself to keep the peace while he's away.

Population
The population consists of mixed European stock and Gypsies, in whose welfare von Doom takes a particular interest.

Superheroes and Doombots
Because it lacks a native superhero populace, Latveria relies largely on Dooms' robot sentinels called Doombots to keep law and order. One of the few known Latverian superhumans is Dreadknight, whom Doom himself created.

Amalgam Comics
In the Amalgam Comics storyline, Latveria was combined with Markovia of DC Comics to form Latkovia, a country ruled by Doctor Doomsday.

Marvel 1602
In the Marvel 1602 storyline, Latveria is ruled by Count Otto von Doom, also known as Otto the Handsome. It is inhabited by mythical beings, and Latveria experiments on intricate clockwork devices, one of which was used to kill Queen Elizabeth I of England. The native language appears to be a close resemblance to modern German.

Ultimate Marvel
Latveria was introduced as a bankrupt peasant nation, but thanks to Doctor Doom it was made the ninth richest country on Earth. The townsfolk wear Doom's dragon tattoos as backup should anything ever happen to him.

In other media
Latveria is referred to in the Spider-Man 2 video game when J. Jonah Jameson says that a Latverian diplomat is landing at the United Nations building by helicopter, although circumstances force the player to miss sighting any such diplomat. In the Ultimate Spider-Man game, the supervillain Beetle is first seen coming out of the Latverian Embassy. In the special edition of the game, you can look at concept art that shows what happens to Beetle. He flies into the embassy and walks up to a throne, kneels down, and presents the Sandman Vile to Doom.

In the Fantastic Four film, Latveria is mentioned initially in reference to Victor Von Doom's past and is described as "the old country", possibly indicating his birth there. After "The End" has appeared, Von Doom's incarcerated body is shown on board a ship bound for Latveria.

In the sequel, Doom arrives in Latveria, dominates it and stays there until he learns of the Silver Surfer's presence.

In an X-Men mini comic, it describes Latveria "Its storybook exterior masks a world of misery for its people!" The group is sent to Latveria to investigate why Dr. Doom is conducting solar experiments. They come face to face with Doom who explains that he is personally trying to solve a severe energy crisis in his country.

Spider Man newspaper strip
A 1992 serial of the Spider Man newspaper strip had several weeks devoted to Latveria and Spider Man crossing paths with Dr. Doom. The serial started when J. Jonah Jameson was complaining of lack of gripping news, so his assistant recommended he go to the United Nations.

Statistics
The capital city of Latveria is Doomstadt, formerly Hassenstadt, renamed when Doom seized power, located just north of the Kline River. The administrative center is Castle Doom.


 * Population: 500,000 (This is an approximation since the government of Latveria has not allowed an outside census in over 20 years)
 * Type of Government: Dictatorship (Victor von Doom prefers to call this an "enforced monarchy")
 * Languages: German, Hungarian, Latverian (local dialect, derivative of Hungarian), Romany, Esperanto.
 * Ethnic Groups: Mixed European stock, Roma
 * Major Business Centers: None
 * Currency: Latverian Franc
 * Public Holidays: Doom's Day, Christmas, New Year (Note that Doom's Day is an eclectic holiday, celebrated whenever Doom declares it. It is different from Doomsday)
 * Airports: The only airport for the country, Doomsport, lies on the southern outskirts of Doomstadt. It maintains two runways and a modern terminal, but flights into and out of Doomsport are quite limited.

Trivia

 * Creator Stan Lee prides himself for coming up with a realistic sounding fake country.