New York City has been characterized as “the island at the center of the world” by historian Russell Shorto and this is holds true for the heroes and villains of Marvel Comics so inexorably drawn to the celebrated metropolis. Occupying only 23 square miles of what was once a cedar swamp, NYC is a global center of commerce, culture, and creativity with a rich art scene, theaters on and off of Broadway, museums celebrating the humanities and sciences, renowned universities with international student populations, and a legendary music scene. “The City That Never Sleeps” is the birthplace of publishing empires that invented the first American superheroes and, naturally, the concrete jungle of New York City became the stomping ground of many of Marvel Comics’ most famous characters and creations.
New York City is comprised of five boroughs, the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, Brooklyn, and Manhattan and superheroes abound in the bustling cityscapes and diverse neighborhoods. Peter Parker was raised in Forest Hills, Queens and has spent most of his protracted career defending NYC and Captain America, born and raised in in the spirited borough of Brooklyn, keeps a choice apartment in the prestigious Brooklyn Heights neighborhood, just across the East River from the storied island. Manhattan, the nucleus of the boroughs, is arranged along a grid and aligned with the cardinal points of the compass, allowing the region to be broken down into smaller districts, business centers, and communities. Midtown Manhattan, Hell’s Kitchen, the Upper West Side, and both the Upper and Lower East Side of NYC are home to numerous superhero hangouts and hideaways. Let’s a stars-tour look at the Top Five Locations in New York City for Superhero Sightings.
On the west side of Midtown Manhattan, just north of Chelsea where NYC ComicCon is held at the Javits Center, lies Hell’s Kitchen, a cosmopolitan and historic neighborhood brimming with nightlife and culinary delights from across the globe. But it wasn’t always like that, Hell’s Kitchen was once a working-class neighbor of immigrants, primarily Irish and Hispanic, that was fraught with civil strife and witnessed frequent rioting. It seems appropriate that Daredevil would prowl these rough-and-tumble streets and sightseers can find the law office of his alter ego, Murdock and Nelson on West 44th Street, as luck would have it right next to Josie’s Bar. Among Matt Murdock’s acquaintances in the neighborhood is Jessica Jones and her detective agency, Alias Investigations is just two blocks away on 485 West 46th Street. If you see a ruffian in dressed in black with a white skull emblazoned on his shirt, make an expeditious retreat back to the subway.
Hell’s Kitchen borders the Hudson River and the extensive dock network has been scene to many criminal pursuits disrupted by local heroes including the highly recommended Intrepid Museum, a mothballed aircraft carrier attraction—complete with a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird like the X-Men’s jet and a complete space shuttle—featured in the pages of Captain Marvel, X-Men, and Avengers. Hang around long enough in Hell’s Kitchen and you might catch sight of the ghostly Moon Knight, the Fist of Khonshu working the late shift.
Central Park occupies 843 acres of undeveloped land north of Midtown Manhattan and measures 2.5 miles in length with a half a mile of public gardens separating NYC’s Upper West Side and the Upper East Side. The Upper East Side is well known for its wealth and affluence, with attractions including the Guggenheim Museum and Metropolitan Museum of Art (where Spider-Man battled Red Sonja in Marvel Team-Up #79), and it’s no coincidence that here is where visitors will find Avengers Mansion. Located at 890 5th Avenue, Avengers Mansion was meant by Marvel’s Stan Lee to resemble the Frick Museum, a Beaux-Arts mansion of classical stylings and immense grandeur situated on same site (see 1 East 70th Street). It’s not unusual to glimpse Thor gliding past overhead or Tigra window-shopping at the opulent boutiques on Fifth Avenue.
The Upper East Side is embassy row for two distinct nations with the Wakandan Embassy northeast of Avenger’s Mansion on Madison Avenue and Latvian Embassy to the southeast of the mansion on Park Avenue. And the notorious Hellfire Club, an exclusive private society for the ultra-rich with more than a few criminal masterminds among its membership, sits on the corner of 5th Avenue and East 66th Street and is coincidentally at the location of the Lotos Club, a posh salon named one of the oldest literary clubs in the United States. If an X-jet lands across the street in Central Park and unloads a squad of mutants, high-tail it back to the hotel as fast as you can.
Escape the whirlwind of Midtown Manhattan and Times Square and take the 1 Train through the Upper West Side where corporate skyscrapers give way to neighborhoods and housing complexes where the workers in Midtown take up residence next door to students and a vibrant immigrant culture. Mary Jane Watson once lived on Amsterdam Avenue while she was acting off of Broadway, and Clint Barton had a crib on the west side of Central Park. Cast a look to the west and you might see the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier on patrol over the Hudson River or Doctor Doom’s stealthy Flying Fortress hiding in the clouds.
At 96th Street Station, visitors can stay on the 1 train that travels north to Washington Heights where the White Tiger defends the vulnerable populations other heroes have neglected. Or cross the platform to the 3 Train and head northeast to Harlem for a jaunt to the world-famous Apollo Theater. You might recognize Luke Cage and his partner, Iron Fist, the Living Weapon strolling the streets but you’re likely to meet Power Man anywhere in New York City as being a hero for hire leads him all over the 5 Burroughs.
Lower Manhattan is where the urban design goes off the grid, as the southern end of the island was the area first occupied by Europeans and developed as a colony of the Dutch and later the English. The streets meander along centuries old cart paths and the result is a tighter web of lanes and alleys. The Lower East Side that connects to Brooklyn via the Williamsburg Bridge is where sightseers will find Yancy Street, where the Fantastic Four’s Thing and a young Jack Kirby grew up tussling with the Yancy Street gang on what is known more commonly as Delancy Street. Beneath the city streets and accessed by the sewer system, a vast series of tunnels originally built as bomb shelters in the 1950s weave across Manhattan and the neighboring region. These tunnels, known as ”The Alley,” are home to mutant outcasts Callisto, Caliban, Leech, Marrow, and rest of the Morlocks. Things can get pretty tense in The Alley and cell service is spotty at best. Better to stay above ground and head north through the Bowery where Human Torch found the Sub-Mariner in the Silver Age and onto “The Coffee Bean” near the trendy St. Mark’s Place—you just might catch sight of Daily Bugle photograph, Peter Parker and his sometimes-sweetheart Mary Jane Watson sipping java and acting coy.
Heading west to Greenwich Village, tourists won’t want to miss a trip to Doctor Strange’s mystical Sanctum Sanctorum, and once headquarters of The Defenders, at 177A Bleecker Street, but beware of what he’s got locked up in the cellar if you’re going to be calling on the good doctor. Just a block away is the Coffee a Go-Go, legendary haunt of the ‘60s class of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters and a cadre of of groovy beatnik poets. If you’re in the mood to peruse fine art, travel south through Soho to Tribeca and check out the work of sculptor Alicia Masters and the other studio artists taking up residence in Lower Manhattan. And X-Fans might find what remains of original X-Factor headquarters just around the corner, a project funded by Warren Worthington III, the high-flying Angel when Magneto was handed the reins of the X-Men. There’s a veritable trove of Marvel history to be unearthed in Lower Manhattan.
The heart of the Big Apple is doubtlessly Midtown Manhattan with its soaring skyscrapers, bustling crowds, and frenetic pulse, and that’s where the majority of superhero sightings are reported. In fact, with Stark Tower on 58th and Broadway near Columbus Circle at one end of Midtown and the Baxter Building on 42nd and Madison at the other, some very high-profile superheroes have established their headquarters here. Encompassing a wide swath of land south of Central Park, Midtown counts the Empire State Building, the prestigious New York Public Library and its hallmark lion statues, magnificent Grand Central Station, and the famed Times Square at the crossroads of the world among its most popular tourist attractions. At the western edge of Midtown Manhattan, where Hell’s Kitchen creeps in from the Hudson River, the original office of Timely Comics, the publisher that would become Marvel Comics can be located at 330 West 42nd Street where the McGraw-Hill Building still stands. Bucket List for every True Believer.
Numerous battles between supervillains and the defenders of the city have ravaged Times Square, leveled countless construction sites (looking at you Sandman and Wrecking Crew), and even seen the Baxter Building sink into the depths of the Mole Man’s underworld. Superheroes here have faced Sentinels, the Sinister Six, and the heralds of Galactus in the chasms between soaring office towers of the city, as well as Serpent Society, Marauders, and the Lizard in the squalid sewers beneath the surface world. It’s unclear whether villains are drawn by the dearth of heroes concentrated in so small an area—with Avengers, X-Folk, and web-slinging Spider-Friends all active in the city—or the desire to capitalize on striking fear into the huddled masses for maximum exposure on New York 1 or in the pages of the Daily Bugle (East 39th Street and Second Avenue). Business consortiums of questionable repute such as Roxxon Corporation keeps corporate offices in Midtown near Grand Central Station and Oscorp Tower of bioengineering and chemical manufacturers Oscorp Industries can be counted amongst the teeming skyscrapers looming over Midtown. Interstellar oddities like Galactus the Devourer of Worlds, the shapeshifting Skrulls, and the eldritch horror of Shuma-Gorath have all paid a visit to Manhattan, taking in the sights and as many souls as possible. NYC is known as “The City of Dreams” and star-struck tourist flock here from the Savage Lands to the Shi’ar Empire in deep space. Take in a show or take down The X-Men, the choice is yours.
Manhattan is an urban labyrinth full of superhero safehouses, Mighty Marvel lore, and hidden treasures for those with a keen eye eager to uncover. Daredevil and most of those in his orbit including Punisher, Bullseye, and The Chaste, as well as The Hand duke it out in the side streets of Hell’s Kitchen while Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. police the skies above. Kingpin might be your mayor one week and the cyclopean Inhuman city of Attilan might come down from the Blue Area of the Moon to weigh anchor in the Hudson River the next. Remember, if you see something, say something—the next Secret Invasion, Civil War, or Chitauri incursion might erupt unexpectedly during your stay in “The City That Never Sleeps.”
Manhattan is an urban labyrinth full of superhero safehouses, Mighty Marvel lore, and hidden treasures for those with a keen eye eager to uncover. Read More