5 Marvel Nations That Prove You Don’t Need to Be Real to Rule the World

Marvel Comics offers a vast and fantastical universe brimming with iconic characters, races, and countries. This is a universe where magic, aliens, gods, and mutants have existed on Earth for thousands of years. So naturally, wholly original nations would emerge with their own unique histories, cultures, resources, and superhuman residents. And while these fictional countries often lack size, they more than make up for this by housing some of the most valuable resources and powerful rulers in Marvel Comics. These countries are the true definitions of world powers, as they could easily throw the entire planet into chaos with the threat of war.

Marvel Comics is brimming with incredible fictional countries that can range from idyllic to downright dystopian. Either way, any foreign country would be foolish to challenge them.

5) Attilan

Fifty thousand years ago, the alien race known as the Kree came to Earth and experimented on some early humans, turning them into the superpowered subspecies known as the Inhumans. Almost immediately, the Inhumans established the city-state of Attilan. Inhuman culture centers on the Terragin Mist, which, upon exposure, gives Inhumans their abilities. Attilan is ruled by a Royal Family and the Genetic Council, with Black Bolt and Medusa the country’s king and queen. Yet even without their powers, Attilan is a country brimming with technological innovations that are far beyond those of the rest of humanity. Yet fearful of humanity’s persecution, the Inhumans have repeatedly moved Attilan to stay as far away from humans as possible. Attilan has been moved from the Himalayas to the moon. Yet after a devastating battle against Thanos, the Inhumans founded New Attilan above the Hudson River in New York. Now, Inhumans have begun to establish a connection with humanity.

4) Atlantis

One of Marvel’s very first superheroes was the King of Atlantis: Namor the Sub-Mariner. Originally, Atlantis was a small continent about the size of Australia, home to a lush, thriving country. However, 200,000 years ago, Atlantis suffered a great cataclysm that caused it to sink beneath the waves. In the sunken rubble of a once-proud nation, a mysterious race known as Homo Mermani colonized the ruins. These blue-skinned people would eventually be known as the Atlanteans, and they would rebuild Atlantis into a crowning civilization that rests beneath the waves. Atlantis also has some of the most advanced technology on the planet. Atlanteans may need water to breathe, but their incredible strength, speed, and warrior culture make them a fearsome people. And that’s without even considering their king, Namor, whose mastery over the ocean and all its inhabitants makes him practically a force of nature. Atlantis has always been wary of humanity and won’t hesitate to flood the surface world to protect their oceans.

3) Latveria

Nestled in the Balkans of Europe, Latveria went from an inconsequential and impoverished third-world country to one of the most powerful and feared nations on the planet thanks to its tyrannical ruler, Doctor Doom. Before Doom, Latveria was under the cruel regime of King Vladimir Fortunov, who killed Doom’s father for failing to cure his wife’s illness. Years later, after traveling the world, Doom returned in a suit of armor and took revenge on the Fortunov family before declaring himself Latveria’s one true ruler. As one of the smartest men on the planet, Doom turned Latveria into a prosperous kingdom with advanced technology and a world power. Although Doom has ensured his people will never know hunger again, he still rules them with an iron fist. Consequently, the people of Latveria look to Doom with both reverence and fear. Aware of Doom’s thirst for power, the rest of the world is always nervously waiting for Doom’s next attempt to expand Latveria’s borders globally.

2) Wakanda

For centuries, a small region in Northeast Africa has been home to the most technologically advanced nation on the planet: Wakanda. Around 1,000,000 B.C., a meteorite made of pure vibranium crash-landed into the area that would one day be Wakanda. By the Bronze Age, the tribes that made up the region united under the rule of the Black Panther, a mighty and wise king who established Wakanda. Soon afterward, the Wakandans began harvesting the vibranium from a meteorite that had since become the mountain, Mena Ngai. Vibranium is one of the most versatile and durable metals in Marvel Comics. Soon, with vibranium, the Wakandans created innovations in infrastructure, medicine, vehicles, communication, and weapons that were leagues beyond anything the rest of the world had developed. Wakanda kept its existence hidden for centuries until its current king and Black Panther, T’Challa, brought Wakanda onto the world stage. And using spacefaring and time travel, Wakanda has now become an intergalactic empire and the pinnacle of humanity’s innovation.

1) Krakoa

Mutants have always been a persecuted people, so when the X-Men finally had enough, they founded an ethnostate on the living island of Krakoa. Welcoming almost every mutant on the planet, Krakoa became the most powerful country in the world overnight. Not only did Krakoa house dozens of Omega-Level mutants who could easily reshape the Earth and even the universe, but the concentration of so many mutants led to some of the greatest technological and medical breakthroughs in history. Under the leadership of the Quiet Council, Krakoa established the Five, a group of mutants who discovered the secret of resurrection and immortality. Having conquered death itself, Krakoa continued to flourish as the mutant population skyrocketed. Krakoa even terraformed and colonized Mars, renaming it Arakko and establishing it as the capital of the solar system. Tragically, the nation of Krakoa would fall after only five years because of a coordinated attack by the anti-mutant group Orchis. Although Krakoa is gone now, it was still a country with accomplishments that the Marvel Universe had never seen before.

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