It doesn't matter that much to me. But then again, if my hometown was destroyed in comics, I guess I would feel a bit awkward. I contradict myself, I know.

I got a kick out of when Nightwing moved to NYC.

I think it has an positive effect on the readers if they see known locations. It helps to connect to real life. Besides that the reader can fully comprehend the mass of destruction on a building from the reality.

i hate the fact that they used Soldier Field as a way to invade Asgard. F@ck you Norman Osbourne!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It might, but what I think your asking in this "off my mind" is that, "What happened if a city was destroyed in comics, and then in real life?" People act crazy, they try to imitate things, I'm trying not to act all doom and gloom.

It would be kind of crazy to see your hometown in a Comic, I'm game.

The way I think of it, it's an alternate universe from this one, so it's no biggy. =]  
   
I'm right by Milwaukee myself, all we got is Great Lakes Avengers. x) I think if something I live near got destroyed in the comics, it would just make the moment itself a little sadder, since it has more of a personal connection. Beyond that, I don't think it would really bother me. 

The only real issue with it is, say with San Deigo being sunk, what if some significant RL event happens in San Deigo that actually affects the world (a stretch I know, but stick with me here). As far as it being weird for me to see my hometown blasted or something, I doubt I'd care.

Seeing as how its pretty doubtful Pontypool (the original Welsh one)  will be levelled by some sort of nefarious super-powered villain in a comic book I can honestly say it doesn't bother me. As grufaine pointed out, its an alternate reality. Personally, I like the blending of the fictional and the non-fictional

Yeah, Siege was a real problem for be because I grew up really close to Broxton, OK and they kept showing all these images of the downtown and the city...which don't exist...not even close.  Broxton is literally one building.  There is nothing there. 

if you "not feel comfortable" that your hometown was destroyed during 24 f!@#ing drawn-'n-inked-paper-pages story  you have some serious mental disorders

Yes.... Absolutely. Just one more reason I prefer Marvel.

Yes. Ditto what IrishX said...

Being that I used to live in CT and knew stamford as an actual location, I found it's use interesting and was able to connect with the story on another level. When a place like Gotham or Metropolis is torn asunder it seems like no big deal because it is always happening there, but when an actual location is blown apart and people are hurt, then you can understand the gravity of the situation more. 

why not? how many times has New York been destroyed by aliens,flood,earthquake,gorillas, plague,dinosaurs, zombies and ghosts in movies. about 5 times a year.

its kind of cool to say 'what if?" 

basing the fiction is a real city has always worked for Marvel in establishing their characters as more Human and relateable. Spiderman wouldnt be the same if he didnt live in Forest Hills (my old neighborhood) and swinging thru Manhattan. Its worked so well DC has  started using real locales to familiarize themselves to the readers.

Besides who hasnt been from a certain city that appeared in the comics and think 'oh cool'.  

"

why not? how many times has New York been destroyed by aliens,flood,earthquake,gorillas, plague,dinosaurs, zombies and ghosts in movies. about 5 times a year.

its kind of cool to say 'what if?" 

basing the fiction is a real city has always worked for Marvel in establishing their characters as more Human and relateable. Spiderman wouldnt be the same if he didnt live in Forest Hills (my old neighborhood) and swinging thru Manhattan. Its worked so well DC has  started using real locales to familiarize themselves to the readers.

Besides who hasnt been from a certain city that appeared in the comics and think 'oh cool'.  

"

yes i love it when they are. I hated siege, but thought it was awesome that it took place in Oklahoma

It's nice to see references to the real world in comics. That's why Grounded is a brilliant storyline because Superman is going to real places albeit with some geographical mistakes

I'd love to see my home town or the city I usually live in during the school year to be in a comic. Though it 'll never happen since Belgium isn't interesting. But I don't think it'd bother me.

eh, a home town is just a place.  I could care less about it

I don't have a problem with it. I think it gets tricky, however, when certain places or landmarks are destroyed in real life, and then have to be explained in comics.

"if you "not feel comfortable" that your hometown was destroyed during 24 f!@#ing drawn-'n-inked-paper-pages story  you have some serious mental disorders "

Being a Vikings fan, I enjoyed watching Soldier Field go BOOM.  :)

Has never really bothered me if a city is fictional or not, i must admit however when you are in a location from an event in a comic book you do secretly geek out to yourself, well i do anyway :P

Considering I like my movies and TV shows set in real locations, why wouldn't I like my comics to be the same?  If the X-Men have to deal with the government, would you want the government officials to be in some fictional town or in Washington, D.C.?

@G-Man  I'll use this as my illustrative piece.  Remember during Blackest Night Wonder Woman when Black Lantern Maxwell Lord had started leaving a literal trail of bodies, like breadcrumbs around and near monuments in Washington D.C. ?  When I read that, I was just that more involved in the storyline so, having said that, I am not bothered at all by real life locations being used, be it a large city or where I live.  It adds an interesting facet to the story if done well.

When I was making my own comic I used a real location because of the Marvel reasons,
I knew the location, I could use photo reference and make it feel real,
and I wanted the readers to look through the comic and see real locations and say "Hey, I recognize that building."  When they walk by places in my comic in real life I wanted them to be excited, thats where this stuff happened in this comic by ArtisticNeedham.
Just like Marvel did, fans were excited that Peter Parker lived in a real neighborhood that they could visit.  That Dr. Strange's apartment had a real address.  They even had "Marvel's Guide to New York" on the travel channel where they pointed out all the real locations of places like the Daily Bugle, the Bridge Gwen was killed on, the apartment of Dr. Strange, and the barbershop of Nick Fury.  Joe Quesada talked about wanting to go visit Peter Parker's house.  Its fun to think you could take a bus and visit the Marvel sites, and that's what I wanted for my comic. 
It even works when a TV show, like the Laguna MTV show used Laguna as their backdrop.  I only watched for a second but they were eating at a Pizza place i went to several times with friends during our lunchbreak.  Its fun to see places you know in comics or TV shows or other stories.
The down side,
Is that you can't really get super creative and make stuff up then.  You can't create unrealistic or elaborate settings, not really.  In Starman James Robinson and Tony Harris made up Opal City and were able to just get really creative with their architecture.  While drawing a comic its fun to just run off with the creativity of the settings, but if the city is real in the real world like San Fransisco or New York, you can't really just make it up.  Say you are drawing a scene and you wanted a habor type setting, if the city the comic is based in doesn't have one of those then you can't add it in.  But if your city is made up you can add in as many elements as you want.
In JLA v. the Avengers one character commented that Avenger's Earth compared to the JLA's Earth was smaller with less cities and smaller cities.  Because in the JLA world the artists and writers didn't have to stick with the real world and could expand the cities of DCU but Marvel had to stick with the real world.
So, from a creative standpoint its a little more fun to make up a city.
 
From a fan reading it standpoint I think Marvel did it to ground their characters more, DC made up cities for their characters and (at the time, but not anymore) their characters were more shallow and unreal (the heroes were heroes and their villains were evil) so maybe that was part of Marvel grounding their comics, using real settings to help their characters seem more real.  So not only were Marvel characters real in that they had realistic problems and motivations but they lived in the real world too.
Just a thought.  I don't know.

I agree about the destruction stuff too, its fun up to this point and then things seem a little off somehow.  unless maybe that is touched on in the story.  Especially when a place is destroyed completely.  If somethings is damaged a little, later on people can look and think that's the building Thor crashed through.  The downside of this that I can see would be, like with the Sub Diego thing, its not that you expect it to be like that in the real world.  Its that they took a real location that you can visit or maybe even some readers live in and destroyed it or changed it so much that it makes it so different.  Maybe its that the reader can no longer visit it or imagine they live there in the comics because it has been taken out of the comics and changed into something that doesn't exist.  Again, i don't know.  I am just thinking up things as I write.
This was a fun topic.

Like others have said, if we can mess up real places in the movies then why not comics too? I get a kick out of it when a place I'm familiar with with is depicted in fiction. In the end, whether or not a real place or a made up one is best for a story depends on the story.

wow. haha i never new about Sub Diego! haha I LIVE UNDER THE SEA!   ^__________^   lol

Never really bothered me, the thing that bothers me is when they destroy something and then never mention the subject again, Marvel's good at when they destroy something they normally have the heroes helping with the clean up and possibly rebuild after the story, giving you the allusion that they rebuild or are in the process of rebuilding.

I love the fact that use real places in comics. I think they should use more real locals more then fake ones. I like that they use fake nation because if it wasn't for them I wouldn't want to travel the world but come on the fact that marvel uses real neighborhoods is awesome it gives neighborhood pride to those in it when young knowing that you live in the same place where Peter Parker met MJ or that the GLI is afew towns down the way from where I live. That's fricken sweet to know.

I would love to see comics use Chicago more ;]

My thoughts are its ok as long as they don't use place where tragedies or terrorist attacks & natural disasters like don't disrespect those residents in a rude & taste light by saying "oh Doomsday went on a rampage & tore down the World Trade Center" or "Sinestro went crazy & demolished the Statue of Liberty" that's kinda of f***ed up IMO. I think it's ok to have heroes protect real places & locations but let them stick to their fantasy locations like Utopia or Metropolis plus comics are fictitious & should be contained in their respective universes 

You're just over thinking it, Tony. I wouldn't mind if my hometown was used, even if it was blown up.

Since I barely know American geography, it really doesn't affect me.