SAN LORENZO
Official Name: Nation State of San Lorenzo
Continent: Central America
Population: Unrevealed
Capital City: Unrevealed
Government: Unrevealed (but definitely not a communist country)
Major Languages: Spanish (presumably)
Monetary Unit: Unrevealed
Major Resources: Unrevealed
National Defense: Unrevealed
International Relations: Has an embassy in New York City, but strained relationship with neighboring nation Santo Angelo.
Extraterrestrial Relations: None known
Places of Interest: Phoenix Corporation Building
Domestic Super Humans: None known
Non-Human Population: None known
Prominent Citizens: Hector Montoya
Superhuman Residents: Phoenix Corporation (Faithful John Break-Sky, Edan Younge, others)
Domestic Crime: Unknown
International Crime: Drug and arms trade orchestrated through their New York City embassy.
First Appearance: (BTS) Punisher War Journal I#2 (December, 1989); (mentioned) Punisher War Journal I#3 (February, 1989); (seen) Wolverine & the X-Men II#2 (May, 2014)
History:
(Punisher War Journal I#2-3 (fb) - BTS) - Hector Montoya worked as an official at the San Lorenzo embassy in New York City. He was sympathetic to General José Accardo's Santo Angelo freedom fighters, who opposed the communists overrunning their country, and became involved in drug trade to finance them after the U.S. cut off their financial support. The unrefined drugs were delivered to Montoya at the San Lorenzo embassy by a courier, who also worked at the embassy. American banker Forrest Hunt picked up the drugs at the embassy and then sold them to the Costa mob family. Hunt laundered the drug money for a cut and Montoya bought weapons for the freedom fighters.
Montoya lost his diplomatic immunity after gaining dual citizenship due to marriage to an American citizen. The U.S. resumed support of the freedom fighters and Hunt, knowing that Montoya was an idealist and would not resume aiding the drug trade, contacted the other parties involved. Montoya suspected treachery and had his office bugged. He left Hunt alone with the courier at his office to confirm that the drug trade and weapons deals continued without him. Hunt got killed by the mob after Montoya secretly replaced a shipment with fake drugs.
Montoya pushed the courier on the rail at a deserted subway station, but a witness entered the station at that moment. The courier survived when he rolled out of the way at the last second. Montoya was charged with attempted manslaughter.
(Wolverine & the X-Men II#2 (fb) - BTS) - San Lorenzo was devastated during a battle between the Phoenix Five and the Avengers. It should've taken decades to rebuild, but the Phoenix Corporation rebuilt it overnight.
(Wolverine & the X-Men II#2) - The Phoenix Corporation used a building in San Lorenzo as their headquarter and their C.E.O. Edan Younge spread via a video on a mobile app their faith around the world.
Quentin Quire headed with a Bamf to the Phoenix Corporation because he believed they wanted him to come to them because he was believed to be a future host to the Phoenix Force. He had his mind invaded by Clan Askani member Faithful John Break-Sky from the alternate future of Earth-13729, who showed Quire the apocalyptic future that would be brought upon by his classmate Evan Sabahnur aka. Apocalypse. Storm and Wolverine were teleported in by another Bamf, but were no match against Faithful John. Quire was carried away by Phoenix Corporation faithfuls.
(Wolverine & the X-Men II#3) - Faithful John kept messing with Storm's mind at the Phoenix Corporation's headquarter in San Lorenzo, but a Bamf teleported Faithful John away to the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning before Wolverine could stab him. Meanwhile Quire was confronted in his own mind by Edan Younge, who tried to convince him to become the flame the Phoenix Force needed to be reborn. Storm and Wolverine fought their way through Phoenix Corporation's faithfuls to save Quire from Younge, who began messing with their minds before Quire used a psychic attack on him because Younge kept trying to tell Quire what he should be. Quire was teleported away by a Bamf while Younge, unable to keep up the illusion to make him look young, ordered his faithful to kill Wolverine and Storm.
(Wolverine & the X-Men II#4) - In San Lorenzo's Phoenix Corporation headquarter Wolverine and Storm took down the faithful while Younge retrieved the Blade of the Phoenix's Wings. Storm took off to return to the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning to save the students from Faithful John while Wolverine stayed in San Lorenzo and came face to face with Younge and the Blade of the Phoenix's Wings.
(Wolverine & the X-Men II#5) - Younge, armed with the Blade of the Phoenix's Wings, captured in the Phoenix Corporation HQ in San Lorenzo and gave him a lecture about the threat posed by Apocalypse and how he nearly gave up after the Phoenix Force seemingly died. A Bamf teleported Cyclops and Quentin Quire back to San Lorenzo where Cyclops blasted a hole into the Phoenix Corporation's wall to save Wolverine after Quire told Younge that the Phoenix Force was obviously lying about the future. The Phoenix Corporation faithfuls kneeled down before Cyclops, the partner of the Phoenix. The Bamf teleported Wolverine to safety, but Cyclops stayed behind to deal with the Phoenix Corporation's faithfuls.
Comments: Created by Carl Potts, Jason Latour & Mahmud Asrar.
In Punisher War Journal I#2 (December, 1988) mentioned that Hector Montoya worked at an embassy, but not the country it belonged to. San Lorenzo was named in the next issue.
Ronald Byrd pointed out that San Lorenzo is a nation that existed, at least in name, in the works of Kurt Vonnegut.
It was a Caribbean island in Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle (1963).
The San Lorenzo seen in Punisher War Journal I#22 (September, 1990) is the real world city in Peru and not the same as the Middle American nation mentioned before.
No clue when exactly San Lorenzo got in the crossfire of the Avengers vs. X-Men conflict.
Profile by Markus Raymond.
CLARIFICATIONS:
San Lorenzo has no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
Wolverine & the X-Men II#2, p2, pan2 (main)
Wolverine & the X-Men II#2, p10, pan3 (rebuilt)
Appearances:
Punisher War Journal I#2 (December, 1988) - Carl Potts (writer/layouts), Jim Lee (inks), Don Daley (editor)
Punisher War Journal I#3 (February, 1989) - Carl Potts (writer/layouts), Jim Lee (inks), Don Daley (editor)
Wolverine & the X-Men II#2-4 (May-July, 2014) - Jason Latour (writer), Mahmud Asrar (artist), Tom Brennan (editor)
Wolverine & the X-Men II#5 (August, 2014) - Jason Latour (writer), Mahmud Asrar & Matteo Lolli (artists), Jeanine Schaefer (editor)
First Posted: 12/04/2025
Last updated: 12/04/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and ©
1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff,
you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at:
http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!