Avengers: Doomsday Coffee Popup Hints at Doctor Doom's Latverian Origin

The Russo brothers' Doctor Doom tease for June 2 turned out to be a themed coffee popup in London, not a trailer. Still, it carried Easter eggs that suggest the Doom of Avengers: Doomsday is grounded somewhat in his comic book Latverian origins. One sign reading Richards was wrong points to what I think motivates Doom in the movie.

The details are specific enough that they seem to come from the production company's own internal bible for the character.

The Russo brothers' Doctor Doom tease became a London coffee popup

Over several days, the Russo brothers posted more and more of Doctor Doom's Latverian sigil on their Instagram, teasing a big thing happening on June 2nd. They were due at South by South by Southwest London that day for a scheduled screening of Avengers: Infinity War.

The event was a fan popup at Flying Horse Coffee in London, a partnership with the Russos' production company AGBO. It offered a number of Doctor Doom themed drinks and collectibles to buy. The Russo brothers showed up with a security escort to keep fans back, posed for a few pictures, and then left for a Q&A before the Infinity War screening. When it came to the Doomsday trailer, there was nothing to have.

The menu drinks point to Doom's comic book Latverian history

The Fortunov single espresso refers to Vladimir Fortunov, the cruel Latverian dictator who ruled the country before Victor von Doom overthrew him. The Rapprochement, a hot latte, refers to the annual Latverian holiday when Latverians traditionally seek to make peace with their enemies. It falls on the anniversary of the death of Victor's mother, Cynthia von Doom.

Next came Cynthia's Blend, a green matcha latte. In certain retcons of Doom's backstory, he lost his mother in a bad deal with Mephisto. His whole pursuit of science and magic is motivated by a mission to get her back from that dark demon.

The Zefiro flat white refers to the Romani clan his parents, Cynthia and Werner, belonged to. Victor later leads that clan in overthrowing Fortunov. Finally, the Hassenstadt dark refers to the original name of Doomstadt, the capital of Latveria. When Victor overthrows Fortunov, he renames it Doomstadt after his mother and father's family name.

A Latverian alphabet and a new flag hint Doom took power during Fantastic Four: First Steps

Underneath the Doom Latverian coffee branding was what looks like a Latverian alphabet. I couldn't find a consistent substitution system, with matching symbols for each of the 26 letters of the English alphabet. It may be phonetic or conceptual instead. Or it may be something I'm thinking about way harder than the people who made it did.

The event also showed the complete Latverian flag with Doom's imperial sigil, the same sigil the Russos had been teasing on Instagram. It's a different sigil from the Latverian flag in Fantastic Four: First Steps, at the Future Foundation session where the Latverian delegation was missing.

From that, I think we can assume Fortunov was supposed to attend that session. Presumably he wasn't there because he was dealing with civil conflict at home. Victor von Doom was probably leading the Zefiro to overthrow him in Hassenstadt. That would mean that during the events of Fantastic Four: First Steps, Doom had recently taken power in Latveria.

The coffee bag suggests a closed off Latveria under Doctor Doom

More details were printed on a bag of coffee sold at the popup. It was labeled small batch and called itself "the official coffee of world domination." It was "Approved by the Ministry of Morale," which suggests that Latveria under Doom has a Ministry of Morale.

The bag also read "Resistance is delicious." Under altitude, it said top secret. That might tell us that after Doom took over, Latveria became a closed off country that didn't want the outside world knowing too much about it.

'Richards was wrong' suggests Doom's Avengers: Doomsday motive centers on Reed Richards

The big detail was on the board: Richards was wrong. It's similar to the Thanos was right meme, which Marvel Studios put on a urinal in the Hawkeye series.

I realize these are small details that AGBO worked out with a London coffee shop. That's what activations and popups at South by Southwest or San Diego Comic-Con are. They're in-world experiences that aren't necessarily canonical to the finished movie. But these details are very specific, and they seem to come from the production company's internal bible for the character. I think it shows the creatives treat it as a given that in Avengers: Doomsday, Doctor Doom is motivated by fixing something Reed Richards broke or got wrong.

In the comics, the rivalry between Reed and Victor goes back to college. That was originally State University, though the alma mater has changed in other comics. The two students argued late into the night about theories. Reed and his friend Ben Grimm mocked Victor by calling him Doof instead of Doom, and Ben sabotaged Victor's experimental device, which led to Doom leaving college.

Doom's exact history, including how he got his scars and his mask, changes across versions of the comics. So do his Latverian origins, his Romani heritage, and his relationship with his mother and with Mephisto. But it sounds like Doomsday was sticking to these elements and establishing that he had a history with Reed Richards in the 828 universe.

What Reed Richards may have gotten wrong in Fantastic Four: First Steps

So what did Reed do wrong? It's probably everything he did to confront Galactus in Fantastic Four: First Steps. His first plan was to mobilize the world's resources to build teleportation platforms across the globe and move the whole Earth to another solar system where Galactus couldn't find it. When the Silver Surfer wrecked most of those platforms, Reed was forced to use the last one, in New York City, to teleport only Galactus to another part of the galaxy.

In his chalkboard equations and in his opening explanation on a kids' science show, Reed openly acknowledged that this kind of technology could cause breaches in the fabric of reality and open rifts to the multiverse. I think Reed helped create an incursion this way, and that Victor von Doom is the only scientist in the 828 universe smart enough to see it.

It could be that the global mobilization hit Latveria disproportionately. I also think Doom is smart enough to see the apocalyptic path Earth-828 is on because of Reed's actions. That puts Doom in a race to do what his variant, Tony Stark, always dreamed of doing: putting a suit of armor around his world. New mask, same task.

Finding Franklin Richards, a young reality warper with omega level powers and perhaps his universe's anchor being, seems to be part of that plan. The idea would be taking the broken pieces of three colliding worlds and building a new, stronger world out of them: Battleworld.

The MCU events that could explain a three way incursion in Avengers: Doomsday

Avengers: Doomsday was going to have to establish why three universes were colliding in this rare three way incursion. They are Earth-616, the main MCU Avengers universe; Earth-10005, the X-Men universe; and Earth-828, home of the Fantastic Four and, it looks like, Doctor Doom. For each, I think the film would need at least one event that broke the walls of reality from the inside, and at least one where a neighboring universe broke in from the outside.

The possible incursion events start with Steve Rogers staying in the past with Peggy Carter at the end of Avengers: Endgame, which the Ancient One warned against. That could be an incursion from 616 to 828, because I think that's the universe where Steve Rogers now is. When Doctor Strange and Spider-Man tinkered with the Runes of Kof-Kol in Spider-Man: No Way Home, that could be an incursion from 616 to Earth-96283 and Earth-120703.

When Dar-Benn used the Bands and the Universal Weapon to open the rift that left Monica Rambeau stranded in the X-Men universe, that could be an incursion from 616 to 10005. When Deadpool used Cable's time travel watch to try to join the Avengers and met Happy Hogan at the start of Deadpool & Wolverine, that could be an incursion from 10005 to 616. Wanda Maximoff and Doctor Strange dreamwalking with the Darkhold in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness could be an incursion from 616 to 838, or one that weakened 616 internally.

The X-Men getting away with altering their timeline in X-Men: Days of Future Past could have weakened 10005 internally. Reed teleporting Galactus away from Earth could have weakened 828 internally. And when Loki did everything he did to let the multiverse exist as a chaotically branching tree rather than a strictly pruned Sacred Timeline, that could be an incursion level event that weakened all of these realities from within.

I know a coffee popup was not what we wanted to wake up to. But it gave us some possible answers to some of our burning questions from Fantastic Four: First Steps and Avengers: Doomsday.