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I decoded the secret language on Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom jacket from Marvel Studios’ Hall H Avengers: Doomsday panel so you don’t have to
How Robert Downey Jr.’s Comic-Con jacket sent me down a Doctor Doom rabbit hole.
FeaturesbyGrant DeArmitt, Staff Writer
Published on Sun Jul 26 2026
Popverse’s coverage of Comic-Con International: San Diego 2026 is brought to you byDark Horse Comics.
The biggest event at San Diego Comic Con 2026 was undoubtedly the Marvel Hall H panel, predominantly because of its reveals. We know who will play the MCU’s Ghost Rider and when Black Panther III will hit theaters, but the revelations didn’t end there. In fact, at least one of the revelations at Marvel’s Hall H extravaganza wasn’t even directly referenced on stage, but instead comes to us jacket
That is, the assumed language presumably used by Doctor Doom and his fellow Latverian countrymen.
Before we get into that, though, we have to bring you back to June 2, when the Russo Brothers teased a “special announcement” happening at a British coffee shop during SXSW London. While fans lined up expecting a celeb experience or perhaps a trailer, what they actually got was the Avengers: Doomsday-branded “Dom Latveria” coffee, a special brand partnership between RDJ’s coffee brand Happy and Marvel Studios. Each fan in line got a bag of coffee that, while perhaps delicious, was definitely not what they were hoping for.
But here’s what’s interesting – emblazoned on every package of Dom Latveria coffee was a series of runes that look very much like the Vikine Elder Futhark language. And before you got thinking that this had something to do with Thor & Co – what the runes actually turned out to be were a 1-to-1 translation from English alphabet. In other words, for all you puzzle-heads out there – what the Russos gave out wasn’t just a bag of coffee, it was a cypher. Check out an image of the bag via the COMIC Instagram page.
(I’d post an image here, if it wasn’t for those mean ol’ image rights.)
Now fast forward to San Diego Comic Con. After realizing that the same Latverian language was styled onto RDJ’s jacket (pictured in the header image), I translated what I could directly from the coffee bag cypher, then started filling in what letters I didn’t have. For example, I know from the Dom Latveria packaging what the Latverian equivalent of both T and E are, so when a word appears on RDJ’s cuff that goes “T-[UNKNOWN SYMBOL]-E,” I could assume that that mystery symbol was an H, making the incredibly common word “THE.”
(Fun fact, I learned how to do this by watching David Fincher’s Zodiac, which just happens to start one Robert Downey Jr.)
After a couple of hours fiddling with the runic permutations, I think I’ve determined not just what RDJ’s hiding-in-plain-sight messages were, but a pretty workable code for the Latverian alphabet, with a few notable exceptions I’ll get into later. This is what I found:
Starting with RDJ’s right lapel (that’s his right, mind you), the message that goes from top to bottom reads: “THERE IS NO PROMISE OF TOMORRO” – and yes, we know that’s missing a W. But keep in mind: Latverian appears to be a very close, but not exact, English analog, an example of which we can see in the Dom Latveria package above, which spells “coffee” as “KAVI.”
Moving on, the jacket features two front pocket folds, the left of which reads “JUSTICE” and the right reads “REVENGE,” which in my opinion, give some very vague hints as to Doom’s motivation in the film. Next up, we have the messages written around RDJ’s wrists, that go “TO THE VICTOR” on his right sleeve, and “GO THE SPOILS” on his left. I don’t have to tell you, reader, how this is a reference to Doom’s first name in Marvel Comics.
Now here’s what’s annoying – there’s still one message on RDJ’s jacket that, for the life of me, I cannot translate. It’s the one the left side of the outfit, just above the breast pocket. I can see that the word contains the Latverian symbols for L and O and is at least four letters, but that’s as far as I can get. Unfortunately, there are two symbols for which I have no translation, and what’s even more frustrating, it appears that there are other letters in the word covered up by RDJ’s left lapel. That said, I did some process of elimination and found that the English letters still left without an equivalent to the alphabet we have are: B, Q, W, X, Y, Z – and I’ll note that, because of the “TOMORRO” spelling mentioned above, there may be no equivalent of W in the Latverian language.
So take that info and do you best, fauthful Popverse reader, perhaps you’ll figure out what I couldn’t. make sure to have fun with it, too, because God knows I did.
Avengers: Doomsday comes to theaters December 18.
Consider this a meta post-credits scene for Marvel fans – the four key articles you need to read next to continue the thrills:
- All the upcoming MCU movies, TV series, and specials on the horizon
- How to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe in release or chronological order
- The best Marvel Comics stories of all time
- All the MCU movies ranked from best to worst
About Comic-Con International: San Diego
Comic-Con is the premier event for all things comics and related popular art, including movies, television, gaming, interactive multimedia, and so much more! Enjoy cosplay galore and take part in unique programming, exclusive previews, and presentations, not to mention the expansive and diverse Exhibit Hall featuring merchandise and displays representing all fandoms.
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Grant DeArmitt: Grant DeArmitt (he/him) likes horror, comics, and the unholy union of the two. In the past, and despite their better judgment, he has written for Nightmare on Film Street and Newsarama. He lives in Brooklyn with his partner, Kingsley, and corgi, Legs.
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