On returning to his kingdom of Latveria after a successful revolution against him, its monarch, Doctor Doom encountered a young boy named Kristoff and his mother, a Latverian woman still loyal to Doom. A robot under the control of Zorba Fortunov, the current ruler of Latveria, slew the woman for violating curfew, thereby outraging Doom, who considered the woman to have been under his protection and destroyed the robot in retaliation. After regaining the Latverian throne, Doom took the orphaned Kristoff under his care and had him raised in the royal palace. Doom became quite fond of Kristoff and decided to make him his heir.