Why Are All The Heroes in New York?

There’s an interesting article in the New York Times' City Room blog from Peter Gutiérrez titled “Why So Many Superheroes Are Drawn to New York” (and thanks to Bleeding Cool for the head's up).  He’s moderating a panel discussion at the New York Center for Independent Publishing tonight with Danny Fingeroth, Gene Kanenberg Jr., Frank Tieri and Billy Tucci titled “New York, the Super-City.” The answer to the question Gutiérrez puts forth in his title isn’t that surprising.

A choice snippet of how he lays it down…

Even beyond its physical architecture, New York City provided a perfect setting for superheroic exploits. As a financial center, its concentration of wealth could act as a powerful magnet for bigger-than-life criminals. As a global city, it was ripe for international intrigue. And as a fashion mecca and a famously tolerant place, it established a social environment in which saviors of humankind dressed in flamboyant homemade costumes could go about their business.

I’ll agree that skyscrapers - - and rows and rows and rows of them - - are requisite for a super hero. Spider-Man wouldn’t really work in LA given that there’s really no concentrated downtown here for him to swing around in. The Flash could actually work well in LA, given how his super-speed would make for some fast (and exciting) navigation of the sprawl. Imagine Barry Allen having to book it from Malibu to Burbank to save Iris’ life and running into traffic on the 101 along the way - - now that would create some conflict.

Given that some of these characters have been around for seventy years, it’s easy to lose sight of the context of their creation and how the lives of their creators shaped their design. I recommend any serious fan check out the non-fiction book THE TEN-CENT PLAGUE, which details the origins of the industry and its struggle with censorship in the 50s. Among other points the book stresses is that the creators of all these characters were largely young New Yorkers who were the children of recent immigrants. Obviously, when they write a story about these fantastic characters that they’ve created, they’re going to set it in their own neighborhood.
 

Gutiérrez also brings up that Gotham City began as New York City and I suppose people are going to call me up on eating my words about Gotham standing in for Chicago. I’ll have to put aside the Midwest bluster aside then and give you guys the serious take, now… Gotham City is whatever you want to be. It doesn’t  actually exist. In my mind, it’s fun to notice the parallels to Chicago’s art deco architecture and history of flamboyant super-criminals that can be found in BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES and Neal Adams’ Batman run. But you have just as much license to see it as New York or New Jersey or even Philadelphia.

Having moved around the world a lot myself, I do think this brings up a challenge to creators to diversify their settings and realize that all-too-often the generic American city their stories are set in is just a stand-in for New York. I tip my hat to Millar for realizing that himself and setting his own super-hero movie in Scotland for a change. I hope more will follow suit and show us how superheroes can work outside the Tri-State area’s archetype. 
 

-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Comics and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia Comics.   Watch out for the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover collection this March - - available for pre-order now on Amazon.com .