Doctor Doom

Marvel

Fans were hyped last night not just to see the return of Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle’s The Punisher in Daredevil: Born Again, but also big references to Latvia, with Matt Murdoch meeting a Latvian lawyer and then Fisk going to a Latvian Heritage Day celebration as mayor.

It’s the first time the MCU has acknowledged the homeland of Doctor Doom, which has big implications for—wait, no. That’s not right.

Latvia is not Latveria, you may be disappointed to learn. Latvia is a very real country which can be seen on a map below. This is also not the first reference to Latvia in the MCU, as an entire episode of Falcon and the Winter Soldier took place there.

Latvia

Latvia

As of now, there is no indication that the fictional country of Latveria exists in this MCU Earth-616, even though we know that yes, Avengers: Doomsday starring Robert Downey Jr’s Doctor Doom is coming in the near future. But all indications are that this takes place on a separate, multiverse Earth, likely the one the upcoming Fantastic Four now occupy. It seems probable that these characters will merge into the actual MCU Earth-616 at some point, but no, this episode did not feature a clue that a Doom variant may already exist there in his home country.

I’m not entirely clear why the MCU does seem to like the very real country of Latvia so much. In addition to Latveria, they have mostly focused on fictional nations like Sokovia and Wakanda, with Sokovia existing in Eastern Europe just like Latvia. At some point we’re probably getting Genosha Island too, a mutant haven off the coast of Africa near Madagascar.

I’ll be honest, they got me. I was in fact getting ready to write an article about how the MCU revealed that Latveria exists in Earth-616 before I realized what country they actually were talking about. Not my proudest moment, but hey, at least I didn’t actually write it.

Is this the last we’re going to see of Latvia in the MCU? Probably not, given that it seems to be the most well-liked real country in Earth-616 besides the United States for whatever reason. Is Kevin Feige Latvian? In any cast, citizens can celebrate their place in the MCU and we’ll see what Latvian developments may happen next.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.