...mutants in Latveria?

It just seems too obvious an idea for Marvel not to have done something with at some time or another. Geez, talk about your Holocaust analogies, they could really push that over the top here, with Doom first attempting to kill every last stinking mutie within the country's borders, then eventually turning them into some sorta Baron Karza-style brainwashed super-troops or something.

I'm just wondering. 'Cause, if Marvel has worked with this concept, I don't remember ever reading about it.

Real untapped potential there.

I agree. I don't think they've dealt with that, Ian. They tend not to go into detail about Latveria regarding any issue, though. All we ever see is a 'Young Frankenstein' syle generic European village, with the odd gypsy flouncing about for good measure.

That'd make a great story, though. Marvel don't do enough with all those 'lost' civilizations they've got hanging around, in my opinion. You'd think The Mole Man would take in a lot of mutants, as they're outcasts like himself, but that hasn't really been delved into either.

Great idea, Ian. They haven't really done anything with mutants in places like Latveria, Wakanda, Atlantis (other than the obvious one).

I thought Doom was a mutant. Isn't that armor something he grows on his skin? Just the mask is fake, right?

Rob Liefeld brought us some mutants from Atlantis. It was in a New Mutant Annual back in the 80's. Eel, Undertow and something like Sharkskin I think was the other guys name.

It just seems like an interesting thing to play out.

So often, mutant storylines have revolved around basically 'what if the US became a fascist state' ideas. Well, Marvel already has a country where, basically, the Nazi's still rule. Thus, some of those ideas could be explored to more extreme depths.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I totally understand why writers want to set those types of stories (intolerance, governmental attempts at genocide) in the States instead of anywhere else. There is a great contrast in telling a xenophobic tale set in a 'free and tolerant' nation, and dichotomy is a great foundation for a story.

(I agree with Peter David on his ideas about the film 'Borat' for things like this - nobody really bothers with exposing anti-semetism in, say, England, because it is usually assumed that England* is already incredibly rife with it. Exposing racism and such in the States is a bigger deal only because so often the States is held up as an example of how the races get along. Which is actually true, compared to most of the rest of the world, but still has a ways to go.)

I just think it'd be cool to find out what goes on inside the 'Nazi Germany that was', even if it is just to discover that there are mutant detectors installed inside every hospital in Latveria, and that Doombots constantly crush the skulls of mutant infants long before they can develop their powers.

* To clarify this point, I personally know people who moved to Canada from England entirely to escape racism. Really, anti-racism advocates in both Canada and the States do great work and need to keep at it, but some of them have no idea just how bad it is in the rest of the world, even other Western nations!

Given Doom's history with the Nazis (I think his family was Romany) would Latveria really be a Nazi-like State? Totalitarian, to be sure, but I don't know that Doom would be especially bigoted towards mutants.

Well, not Nazi-specific, but a fascist regime is a fascist regime is a fascist regime

And it is also about Doom's attitude toward mutants that would be interesting to explore - there is a good chance that he would look down on any super-powered individuals, especially those that could end up being a rival for power within Latveria's borders.