#Transia

[scarlet--wiccan]

Has it ever been said where within Transia Wanda, Pietro, Marya, Django, Ana & Mateo lived outside of just “near Wundagore mountain”? Or were they migrants? I can never remember bc the comics showing their backstories are always so inconsistent

It's actually.... not that inconsistent. The same scene of the twins being adopted as babies has been played out multiple times over the decades, and it's always very similar. Django and Marya are depicted as part of a migrant community who lived in covered wagons. The High Evolutionary found them camping near the base of the mountain, and they primarily seem to live and work in that area. They stayed wherever they could find work. Other stories set during this period, such as Mystic Arcana, are very consistent with this depiction.

That's been the story since 1979, and it really hasn't changed, but some of the context surrounding it has. When this version of Wanda and Pietro's origin was first introduced, Transia was actually the name of a village near Mount Wundagore, not the country where it's located. The twins visit the village-- which is apparently in Bulgaria with Django in Avengers #185, and it's implied that this is near where they grew up. Sometime later-- I'm not actually sure when, sorry-- Transia was retroactively stated to be a distinct country where Mount Wundagore was located.

[gamereporter]

Threefold Recital: Jogo de aventura narrativa inspirado no folclore chinês chega ao Steam em 2025

O aguardado jogo de aventura narrativa Threefold Recital, desenvolvido pela Everscape Games e publicado pela INDIENOVA, será lançado oficialmente no Steam no dia 14 de janeiro de 2025. Com preço de R$ 46,99, o título contará com um desconto especial de 10% durante as duas primeiras semanas de lançamento. Ambientado em um mundo inspirado no folclore chinês, Threefold Recital transporta os…

[the-martyrfication-of-the-matron]

Reposting cropped because her legs looked funky in the full picture and I cba to fix it yet.

Anyways, redone Wanda. Slightly more comic accurate, slightly more just stuff I did because I can.

She’s just a 19 year old Jewish Roma girl from Transia that is a little activist-y about climate change and war, that got manipulated into a Nazi organisation alongside her brother in her teen years because neither of them knew what Hydra was and Hydra claimed to be ‘doing tests on people that survived the bombings to make sure there were no long-term health issues’ and she just wants to be thought of as human.

[vanillaxbiscuit]

Enchantment

Wanda and Vision wear a traditional Serbian clothes. Pietro and Wanda are romani born at Wundagore Mountain(is a pseudo place that live between Serbia and Transia). Since they're adopted by romani serbian family, I feel both Wanda and Vision look beautiful in Serbian clothes. She remind me from that classic comic, Maryam did wore cloth like that. Wanda in dress is so niche to draw. 

[rei-ismyname]

Magneto joins the Young Avengers part 2

After a while traipsing through Transia and picking up Pietro, the squad find Wanda. Except she's a Doombot. Seems like a pretty solid clue as to where she is.

Upon heading to Latveria, it comes to light that Wanda is living with DOOM and they're getting married tomorrow. She also has amnesia, so even if she were inclined to marry DOOM (she's not) she can't consent anyway. The plan is for Magneto to cause a ruckus and everyone else stealthily extract her.

Checking in with the Avengers, suddenly they're very interested in finding Wanda. Nobody gives a reason, except for Wolverine who wants to kill her and Billy, and Wonder Man who wants to prevent that. Logan engages in childish dickwaving.

'Guess I hit a nerve' says the man doing his best to antagonise everyone and murder women and children. He has no business accusing anyone of having inappropriate feelings for a teammate. Iron Man says something clever - 'we don't need Wolverine for this mission.' No, you don't. In fact none of you should be involved.

Anyway, they storm Latveria and then accuse everyone else of starting an international political crisis. I don't see anyone else acting with a mandate from the UN and US. Also, they did bring Wolverine. Surprisingly, he tries to kill Wanda.

You'd think Logan would be sympathetic to her situation, and think twice before demonising others for killing people. Nope.

The Avengers 'take command' of the situation and scold everyone for attracting Doombots. Nobody mentions that they didn't come out until the Avengers did. They take issue with Magneto fighting DOOM for some reason, as if one of the worst people around isn't taking advantage of his daughter's amnesia to marry her. I swear I'm not cherry picking here - The Avengers just escalated a situation that was in hand.

The Young Avengers, Wanda and Magneto leave them to it and look to reverse Wanda's M Day spell. Patriot ruins it, arguing that they should wait for the Avengers. Wanda gets her memory back and resurrects the Avengers she killed. Speed is disillusioned with this whole thing and Wanda is bombarded with so much aggression she decides to kill herself. Before she can, Beast asks her to try reversing the spell again and Magneto agrees. They need a volunteer though. Meanwhile, The Avengers are rushing to get to Wanda, because only they are allowed to fuck things up. They even bring Logan.

A volunteer is found, and Rictor's powers are restored! Good news, right? Well, the X-Men are still pretty mad about M-Day tbh. At least they have the excuse of massive trauma, but they're definitely being dicks. They manage to avoid the spell in favour of unspecified punitive punishment.

LOL. This, the Avengers object to, claiming they take care of their own. That's objectively false, but there's a hierarchy to the Marvel universe and The Avengers must always look better than the X-Men. Magneto is the most reasonable person here by far, and for some reason The Avengers shit on all their allies. Demonising Wanda until someone else starts doing it, ignoring that they have a legitimate grievance and that this problem is the Avengers' fault.

Next time, Hawkeye raping Wanda is played for humour, the superheroes fluff the situation, Wanda finally gets some agency, and this shitstorm concludes. Children get their souls crushed.

[agatharkn3ss]

Wanda references in AAA so far

Now that we had the big reveal, I thought I would summarise all the little Wanda references I've spotted throughout the show. Some are less obvious than others and I am sure I missed some because there are so many.

Personally, I think that these references were put in there only for fans' amusement, a little nod to Wandavision, a bit of red herring and as hints to Teen's identity. While I want Wanda to be alive, I feel having her make actual appearance in AAA could be detrimental to the show's already packed story. It would feel like "Wanda All Along".

Episode 1:

Agnes O'Connor was suspended for "punching a suspect", that is "now a convicted felon" - allusion to Agatha battling Wanda

Agnes and Herb exchange "She is dead though, isn't she?" - "Oh she's really, most sincerely dead" (Wizard of Oz reference!) - "You never know!" - wink = suggestion Wanda is alive

The victim's body is hinted to be Wanda's (but is it?) - the victim had black fingers (from Darkhold), described as "late 20s, green eyes, 5'7", hair the colour of scarlet", she was crushed by "something big and heavy", no drag marks as if she appeared "magically from thin air" and the dirt samples came out as from "somewhere in Easter Europe" - Wanda died crushed by the Darkhold Castle on Mount Wundagore in Transia in Easter Europe

The missing book is "The Dialogue and Rhetoric Known History of Learning & Debate" by Andrew Ugo = DARKHOLD by Wundagore

The messenger from Wandavision makes brief appearance to tell Agnes about the "library fire" where all copies of Darkhold were destroyed (also repeated by Rio at the morgue)

Finally, Wanda's name appearing on the library card

Episode 2:

Agatha makes a visit to Wanda's plot, with some hateful graffiti

While not a specific mention, I find it funny when Lilia calls Agatha the most infamous witch on the continent and Teen pretends to be offended, challenging her to name one for South America or Europe - while a little nod to Easter Europe again, it is telling that none of them mentioned Wanda as being even "badder" witch

In the comics, all of the coven witches have links to Wanda

Episode 3: (I think this is where we start seeing Agatha catching on to Billy's identity)

when the witches find out Teen has a sigil on him, Agatha interjects, calling it "a clumsy glamour" - in Wandavision, Wanda once pretended to be a magician's assistant called Glamour

the wine label is Rioja Reyna, so reference to "Red Queen" in Spanish

Agatha makes a toast to "Harbingers of Doom" - the Salem witches called the Scarlet Witch a "Harbinger of Chaos"

When Sharon is confused and says "Please Wanda, I'm begging you, let him breathe please" - it's a direct reference to the scene in Wandavision where Wanda is magically choking her husband Todd and Mrs Hart keeps saying "Stop it. Stop it. Stop it." while smiling because she couldn't do anything else. The words she said in AAA were likely what she was actually saying in her head at that moment.

Episode 4:

Rio crawls out of the grave in the same creepy manner that Wanda made an entrance in Multiverse of Madness

When Rio asks Agatha why she brought Teen with her, she responds "Oh... Many hands" - this is a direct reference to Wandavision where Agatha was helping Wanda with her dinner and says "Many hands make light work. And many mouth make good gossip"

one of the tracks listed on the broken vinyl reads "Red Haired Woman"

Episode 5:

Teen is dressed in the same costume that young Billy Maximoff wore in Wandavision for Haloween

The back of the Ouija rules say "for ages 3 and up" - that's because Billy Maximoff's soul is technically only 3 years old because he was created in the Hex

When Agatha says "you're so much like your mother", we can hear a bit of Wandavision music

Billy's magic gestures and crown are very similar to Wanda's

[racefortheironthrone]

So the F4 cast announcement got me thinking about what comics to read if I get around to that and then about Doom and then I got me thinking... where exactly is Latveria supposed to be? The name makes me think of the Baltic states but I could be wrong.

So yeah, great announcement!

Pedro Pascal is a bit typecast as playing the Dad character (although that's become "one of those good problems"), but I'm thrilled that Cousin Ritchie is going to be playing Ben Grimm.

Obviously, they won't let Ebon Moss-Bachrach swear as much as he does in the Bear, but he's a fantastic actor and I cannot wait to see him bringing that mix of temper and soulfulness to the part.

I haven't seen much of Vanessa Kirby's work, but I'm looking forward to seeing what she can do with a better script than Napoleon.

And Joseph Quinn is excellent and I look forward to seeing some of "Eddie" Munson's energy in Johnny Storm.

In terms of recommendations for FF comics, I've got you there:

Read the Kirby/Lee run. It's a work of art from beginning to end.

Read the Walt Simonson's run.

This is going to be controversial, but you might want to skip the Byrne run.

Read the Jonathan Hickman run. A serious tour de force.

Alongside the Hickman run, Fraction/Allred is quite good too.

As for where Latveria is, it is indeed Balkan:

As you can see from the map, Central/Eastern Europe in Earth 616 is quite different and significantly more Balkanized (forgive the pun) compared to Earth 1218 (also known as our universe).

In addition to Doom's Latveria, we have Symkaria (the dysfunctional micro-kingdom whose economy is largely supported by Silver Sable's mercenary company), Transia (birthplace of Wanda and Pietro Maximoff and home to the High Evolutionary's Island of Doctor Moreau Wundagore Mountain), and a bunch of minor ones like Ruritania (from The Prisoner of Zenda), Carnelia (a post-Soviet state that Tony Stark and Justin Hammer fight over), Belgriun (a totalitarian monarchy that was overthrown by a bunch of Spider-Men villains), Draburg (which showed up in some Sabra comics), and some other small ones that I couldn't find on the wiki.

[hobiebrownismygod]

Researching Characters so you don't have to Part 8: Who is Jess Drew/Spider-Woman?

Origins:

Jessica Drew was originally born in England. Her father was a renowned genetic researcher and sort of a mad scientist, who focused specifically on arachnids (spiders). As a result of exposure to Uranium something her father often used, Jess developed a deadly illness which her father attempted to cure by creating a spider serum.

Although the serum did heal her, it also gave her spider powers, although she was not welcomed with open arms. She ran away to a nearby village where she fell in love with a young man, who she ended up accidentally killing. She was accused of being a witch and she was forced to run away again, eventually falling into the arms of Otto Vermis, a H.Y.D.R.A official.

She trained hard and became one of their top trainees, however she refused to kill Director Nick Fury during her first mission and rebelled against them, leaving H.Y.D.R.A.

After that, she became known as the vigilante, Spider-Woman, and also became a private investigator, patrolling the streets at night while being a detective during the day.

She ends up losing her powers then gaining them back and a lot more, but I can't fit her entire comic series into one post, so this is just her very basic origins.

She does however join the Avengers and SWORD, unlike a lot of the other Spider-people.

Fun Facts:

She's multi-lingual cuz of training with H.Y.D.R.A, and speaks Russian, Japanese, Portuguese, Korean, Spanish, German and French

She's a super spy - she's really really skilled in espionage

She has the ability to glide through the air - not to be confused with flying, which she can't do

She was a S.H.I.E.L.D agent

My Spider-Sona takes some inspiration from her!!

Sources:

[welcome-to-latveria]

AU where Kristoff inherits Latveria and Pietro somehow inexplicably becomes in charge of Transia and they just have to do diplomacy stuff together. Bonus points if Magneto is on the government of whichever island the X-Men are living on this week at the same time.

This would be hilarious bcos canonically Pietro and Kristoff fucking hate each other. In fact a similar situation actually occurs in West Coast Avengers (1985) #35:

So I imagine it would be pretty entertaining.

[keepsmagnetoaway]

Wolverine: First Class 3 (July 2008)

Fred van Lente/Salvador Espin

As is presumably clear to everyone reading this tumblr, there are huge swathes of the Marvel world that I know nothing about. One of these is the High Evolutionary: but fear not, because here comes a faux-stained-glass double page spread to explain it all to me!

Yeah, no, this didn't help at all. Isn't this a Wolverine comic?

I don't even know anymore. Also all these 'New Men' live in a country called Transia, which I feel like is something tumblr should be doing more with.

What is the plot here? Fuck off, man. Don't be talking to me about no plot, not when we have panels like this to process.

And of course you know where this is headed, right?

Is it a sex thing? I guess we'll find out in issue 4, because this is a two-parter.

[campcrow2]

How far from sokovia do you think transia and mount wundagore is???

[astromechs]

What's wrong with Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda?

I'm asking out of curiosity, I neither agree nor disagree, I don't really know Wanda outside of MCU (and I never cared too much about her character tbh).

wanda maximoff is, canonically, not a white woman. since the 1970s, she and her brother pietro have been written as romani people from southeastern europe (their original country of origin is transia, a fake country within the marvel universe, but more modern origins put them as being from serbia). the depiction is not without its stereotypes and issues (wanda is commonly referred to by a slur associated with romani people, the mysterious witch is another stereotype here), but she has been written as romani for decades, and romani people are not white.

furthermore, wanda and pietro were, before an mcu-motivated retcon in the past ten years, children of magneto, who is one of marvel's most well-known jewish characters, thereby making wanda and pietro jewish as well.

rather than work to reduce the racism from the source material, the mcu doubled down on it, casting a white woman to play the character, making no mention at all of her romani heritage and thereby erasing it, and creating a backstory that had wanda involved with hydra — which is really bad, considering that hydra are nazis, no matter how much marvel tries to distance that, and both romani and jewish people were persecuted and victims of mass genocide during the holocaust.

here is an article from the atlantic about the casting, and if that's paywalled, there's a good summary here.

there are plenty of working roma actresses who could have played this role (for instance, there's even oona chaplin, the granddaughter of charlie chaplin and a well-known actress in the uk, who could have played this role and been a better choice than elizabeth olsen, because she has romani heritage), but disney/marvel studios instead chose to erase all of wanda's marginalized identities. it's whitewashing and it's a big problem.

[earth-93]

BRIGADE FILES: QUICKSILVER

Stars & Stripes Hotline [Version 1.15]

C:\login\Buddy_Holly

C:\Users\mini\BrigadeFiles\Avengers

Directory of C: \BrigadeFiles\Avengers

04/27/2006 12: 37 PM Total Files Listed: 16 File(s) 538, 687 bytes

Directory of C:\BrigadeFiles\Avengers\MAXIMOFF_PIETRO.txt

[file data =

Main Alias/Moniker: Quicksilver

Legal Name: Pietro Matheo Maximoff

Other Aliases: Pretty Boy, Silver Head, Speedfoot

Date of Birth: May 31st, 1985 (Age: 19)

Status: Alive

Species: Mutant

Sex: Male

Gender: Cisgender

Height/Weight: 6' (1.83m) / 175 lbs (79.38kg)

Hair/Eye Color: Silver / Blue

Timeline (1985 - 1990): Pietro and Wanda grew up in a Romani ghetto in Transia, raised by their maternal aunt and uncle. They never met or knew of their father until they were adults, and their mother Magda only visited them once when the twins were five. Magda spent most of her time with Wanda, and though Pietro was the last person she met with before departing, she was reportedly cold and sparse on words with him. Wanda has suspected it was because Pietro reminded Magda of their father.

In spite of this, Pietro was not bereft of affection in his formative years. Well before gaining his powers, he was an energetic child. One of the few things that could reliably relax him was his uncle Django's puppeteering. There would be less time for these puppet shows following the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, radically altering Transia's economy and forcing Django and their aunt Marya to work long hours to keep the family afloat. Pietro's rambunctiousness would shift to bitterness and rebellion as he got older.

Timeline (1990 - 2000): As true as it is today, Pietro had a short tolerance for insults, especially ones lobbied at Wanda, and was unafraid to pick fights with anyone should he feel slighted. Depending on the person, this attitude made Pietro a hero, a laughing stock and a bad egg all at once. In the case of his aunt and uncle, they were distraught over who Pietro could provoke, should he pick a fight with a non-Roma outside the ghetto. They kept Pietro out of trouble for a time by arranging him to help with the cooperative farm out in the countryside. He complained at first, but quickly found the fresh air and open spaces extremely uplifting.

Such a luxury was once more revoked due to radical changes in Transia. Following General Novoty's rise to power, Transia's economy was remade to serve a small aggregate of oligarchs, one of whom bought the cooperative farm out from the Romani. The rampant injustice of the world became cruelly apparent to Pietro and he soon fell into petty crimes with other young hoodlums, participating in the sweep of criminality in Transia following the fall of Communism.

Timeline (2000 - 2003): To quell Pietro yet again as well as bolster the family under desperate times, Marya took Pietro and Wanda with her to England to do seasonal work. Pietro continued his thievery, where he first earned the name "Quicksilver" for his uncanny evasion of the law. Pietro had reportedly been quick since he could walk, but his knack for speed became more and more uncanny until one day, where he and his group's getaway car was sputtering out and the authorities were on their tail. In his fluster, Pietro ran down the street faster than the car could have--entirely on foot.

Having resented the lowly status he had been forced to live all his life, Pietro reveled in his newfound powers. Such elation gave him little patience for the opposition he encountered among his gang almost immediately, be it anti-mutant bigotry or Pietro's own ego as he sought to take more active leadership. One supporter of Pietro was Toad, a fellow hoodlum that Pietro thought little of before.

Mortimer divulged to Pietro of his own mutant status and introduced him to the London chapter of the Brotherhood. The organization's rhetoric of mutant superiority was tantalizing to Pietro, but much to his chagrin he was barred from membership until he could convince his sister to join alongside him, explained away as the likelihood that she was a powerful mutant as well. Pietro had been aware of his sister's "hexes," as she called them, but was adamant that they were not a mutant ability, but some sort of witchcraft first taught to her by their estranged mother. Regardless of this, he begrudgingly carried out the request of the Brotherhood representative, who was none other than Wyndgarde.

Wanda was defiant of Pietro's cajoling for a few days until they returned home one night to see it in flames. Pietro witnessed Wanda break down in anguish, and in a state of distress himself could think of nowhere else for them to go but a Brotherhood safehouse. Neither sibling was aware that the flames were but a convincing illusion conjured by Wyndgarde, and that their Aunt Marya was sleeping soundly in the home the twins abandoned. The deception nonetheless succeeded, as by the time Wanda awoke from her grief had turned to wrath. For the first time in their lives, the roles were reversed, and Pietro found himself having to keep Wanda in check.

Timeline (2003): In spite of their youth and relative inexperience, the Maximoff twins were brought onto the Santo Marco mission. Pietro and Wanda were among those tasked with sniffing out intruders, aka the X-Men. Pietro personally confronted me, blocking me away from the rest of the team and wearing me down with rapid blows from all directions. The stride in his step was swerved courtesy of Bobby, while Wren took his feet off the ground altogether.

Pietro attempted a rematch with us in the city square during Magneto's confrontation with the Stranger, but that left him vulnerable to capture once the military swept through the country. He and Wanda were arrested and remained in captivity in the Neverland Containment Center for the next few months. They were among the many inmates who fled during our jailbreak, but in the chaos of it all a falling out apparently occurred between the siblings, and Pietro and Wanda went their separate ways.

Pietro's tenure going solo did not last long. Shortly after we had regrouped back at the Mansion, he had appeared to begrudgingly ask our help in finding Wanda. We were still quite shaken ourselves, with the Professor still in a coma and Wren being MIA since Neverland. We eventually agreed to help, with Jean and Hank staying behind to tend to the Professor while Bobby and I accompanied Pietro. Hy happenstance, our respective missing persons problem was mutual, as Wren had given Wanda sanctuary in her family cabin in Colorado.

Pietro was understandably hesitant to go back to prison, though we swore we would vouch for both of them (At the time, he bluntly told us that didn't make it much better). With his relationship with Wanda relatively mended, however, he ultimately agreed to finally step away from the Brotherhood. The twins were given sanctuary on Muir Island for a time, and when Steve Rogers headed a reserve team of Avengers that would grant a pardon to convicted super-villains in exchange for service, the Maximoffs were quickly put through. That project is still underway, but if there's anyone on the planet who can take Pietro's bad attitude and whip him into shape, it's Captain America.

end of data]

[lit-works]

Doom-Wars

Contd. -

Scott Dunham, Lawrence Tylas, Anya Rodinas, and a man known simply as Boris are in Boston, secluded in an old Brownstone on Beacon Street. Publicly, they are guests of a man named David Regal; Actually, they have been summoned and sequestered there by Victor Von Doom. The former Lord of Latveria addresses the group : “All of you have joined me and my cause of your own free wills, and you have my word of honor that good will be done here – good for the people of Latveria.

“It is time now to act. We separate at this juncture. I shall continue on my own, and we shall rendezvous in Transia in three days.”

Each of Doom’s guests receives a one-way plane ticket to Transia and hotel reservations for a one-night stay at a local inn. Boris receives a map giving a location to meet Doom; written instructions with the map explain how a hidden base can be accessed should Doom fail to arrive at the appointed time – 10 PM, the day after the team arrives in Transia.

Doom warns: “My counterpart may track the ticket purchases through one of his many aliases. Do not trust anyone other than the manager of the inn, Karl Hammak; he is aware of your mission and will be beneficial to our cause without revealing your mission or your powers.”

-

As the team leaves paparazzi and eBay-autograph-hounds swarm around the actors and actresses of TV soap opera ‘Secret Hospital’. The one who draws the most attention is the famous and alluring actress/model M.J. Watson-Parker; her scientist husband shuffling nervously at her side. The troupe is also traveling to Transia for an on-location shoot for their series.

-

The person seated across from Boris aboard the plane is elderly and nervous; He is eventually approached by a tall, toned and slim woman with silver hair who coldly whispers, “You’ve been upgraded to 1st class, Herr Schwarzer. You’ll soon stand trial for your war crimes and crimes against humanity.” The woman, Silver Sable, attempts to lead him away, but the man is armed with a loaded gun and he tries to resist. As an interrupted terrorist attack unfolds, one of Boris steps in to aid and prevent any stray bullets from puncturing the aircraft.

-

A young girl is seated towards the rear of the plane, obviously nervous about the flight, and she begins constantly complaining of worsening headaches. The girl is a latent mutant, and Anya is able to coach the girl through it.

-

A small, bald man meets the group at the airport and asks to escort them to the hotel. He says he is the owner of the best hotel in Transia, with a majestic view of Wundagore Mountain. When they enter his van, it floods with amazingly intense knockout gas; the vehicle itself is reinforced with Vibranium to deter any physical escape. They had fallen victim to The Puppet Master (Phillip Masters) who once again works for Doom II. He wants to reduce the party to mindless slaves, setting them to attacking the countryside, terrorize the innocent villagers, and wreak general havoc. They are rescued by their Master, Doom I, but are discredited and ashamed.

[marvelousmrm]

Marvel Two-in-One #74 (Gruenwald/Springer, Apr 1981). Ben escorts Alicia and her stepfather, the Puppet Master, on a Christmas trip to Transia. The paroled villain’s plans to retrieve more radioactive clay from the foot of Wundagore Mountain are waylaid by how dang weird Wundagore and its residents are.

[racefortheironthrone]

Wait , you're saying the MCU had a whole slew of pre-existing fictional Eastern European ministates to choose from and made up a brand new Sokovia instead? Why?

Good question!

It's a little hard to say, because this was way back during the Perlmutter years and Ike made weird decisions like that all the time.

My guess is this:

Because this long predated the Fox deal, Marvel couldn't use the comics origin in which Wanda and Pietro were mutants and the children of Magneto. Remember, this was back when there were duelling Quicksilvers and the MCU couldn't say the word "mutant." Thus, they didn't want to hew too closely to the best-known version of the Transia backstory. Now, they could have still gone with some of the weirder versions - like the one in which they're the kids of the Whizzer and Miss America, or the ones in which they were granted powers by the High Evolutionary's experiments, but...

At the same time, Perlmutter was pushing very hard for everything in the MCU to tie into the Infinity Stones - hence the heavy interference with Thor's storyline in Age of Ultron - which meant that he wanted Wanda and Pietro's powers to come from the Infinity Stones, and that's where we got the whole unfortunate business with HYDRA.

At the same time, Marvel didn't have the rights to the Fantastic Four either - those belonged to Fox. That means that the MCU couldn't use the most prominent Marvel Eastern European country, Latveria, either.

So I think the decision was made to go with a new country that would be a blank slate that gets us to a weird place where Baron Zemo was still a Sokovian villain, but not HYDRA for some reason.