Pop Culture Pilgrimage: Marvel Comics

This is the first in what will be a series of articles revolving around the concept of Pop Culture Pilgrimage.  The idea is to highlight pilgrimages based on visiting locations that have been the basis for locations appearing in Pop Culture, or Pop Counter-Culture. 

MARVEL COMICS

Superman lives and operates in Metropolis.  Batman is the protector of Gotham City.  But the Marvel super-heroes, by and large, lived and and jumped around in a real city, Manhattan, New York.  Sure, Gotham City has been described by Dennis O'Neil in these terms, "Batman's Gotham City is Manhattan below Fourteenth Street at eleven minutes past midnight on the coldest night in November."  This is the mood Gotham is intended to establish, and the term "Gotham" itself was a well-known nickname for New York city, even before Batman was published.  

A map of Gotham City, which can be found here... 

But it remains a fictional city.  Manhattan, however, is very real, and the various locations depicted in Marvel Comics can be visited.  

Some of the locations, and street names, have been fictionalised.  The infamous Yancy Street, home of the Yancy Street Gang and former stomping ground of The Thing, doesn't exist.  But there is a Delancey Street on Manhattan's Lower East Side, which probably served as the inspiration for Yancy Street, and Fantastic Four co-creator Jack Kirby was born in the Delancey Street neighbourhood.  Similarly, the Daily Bugle (where Peter Parker used to work as a photographer) has a real address (East 39th Street and Second Avenue) but in the real Manhattan there is an apartment block at that address.  The movie placed the Daily Bugle in the Flatiron Building on 23rd Street, which in the comics served as the site of the offices of Damage Control Inc.  Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus have also battled on this building (Deadline #2, July 2002).  The Baxter Building (the headquarters of the Fantastic Four), Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorium and the Avengers mansion also have real addresses, but don't actually exist.

For a look at these real life locations, click here

But there are plenty of Manhattan buildings and landmarks that have been woven into Marvel history and fame.  The Green Goblin threw Gwen Stacy to her death from the Brooklyn Bridge (Amazing Spider-Man #121, 1973).  Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson were married on the steps of City Hall (Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21, 1987).  Many Marvel stories have taken place around the World Trade Center, and the destruction of the World Trade Center in real life was also depicted in Amazing Spider-Man vol. 2, #36 2001.  Daredevil's stomping ground (and Nick Fury's birthplace) of Hell's Kitchen is a real location, currently referred to as "Clinton" by its residents.  The Egyptian god Seth attempted to destroy the United Nations (Moon Knight vol. 4, #4, 1998), which was only one of numerous adventures set at the United Nations.  Daredevil was lured to Madison Square Garden by Bullseye and their battle was broadcast on live television (Daredevil vol 1, #131, 1976).  Howard the Duck crash-landed in Central Park (Howard the Duck vol. 1, #18, 1977).  Central Park also hosted the Beyonder's alien construct (in Sheep Meadow, to be precise) which he used to teleport heroes and villains to Battleworld for the original Secret Wars.  The Absorbing Man and Titania tried to steal a life-size golden bull from the Guggenheim Museum (Thor #447-48, 1992).  Sam Wilson (The Falcon) and Joe "Robbie" Robertson were born and raised in Harlem.  And so on and so on and so on.  

Lest we forget, the location of Marvel Comics itself, currently 417 Fifth Avenue, is also worth a visit.  They used to do tours of the 'Bullpen', and when I did it in 1996, they had the poor jerk conducting the guide dressed up as Spider-Man.  A quick google-fu informs me that they no longer do tours, but it would be still worth a visit just to say that you had been there.  I've heard stalking gets results...

And the Bullpen has appeared in Marvel Comics stories itself, most notably Fantastic Four #10 1963, featuring Doctor Doom, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.  

More info from the Marvel Wiki here 

But all of this has been covered in a guide book.  "The Marvel Comics Guide to New York City" by Peter Sanderson is the definitive guide to stomping around New York City and visiting real and nearly real locations depicted in Marvel comics.  

Have a look here for some reviews

But for the less enthusiastic, who may wish to add, you know, 'other things' into their New York visit, there is this map here, originally published in Wizard Magazine, issue #199, which gives you the basics.

A larger version can be found here

And if you're going , you may as well do it in costume.  Don't be shy, now...

All images used without permission but with love and respect.  Please don't sue me.  Copyright by original copyright holders.  One would assume.

Super Heroes with vices Part 2 Other Smokers

In Part 1 of Superheroes with Vices, we looked at superheroes (and a couple of non-super characters in Marvel and DC) that enjoyed a good cigar, either every now and then, or (in the case of Nick Fury), fought WWII and the Cold War with a cigar as a permanent feature.  Cigars can  be seen as symbols, adding airs to certain characters.

In Part 2, we will look at Cigarette smokers, and other smokers.

Cigarette Smokers

Marvel seemed to have alot of cigar smokers, at least up until Joe Quesada introduced the No Smoking policy for Marvel characters (in the mainstream titles.  I believe the MAX line was exempt from this).  Which is fair enough from his point of view, as his grandfather died from a heart condition related to his smoking.  There didn't seem to be alot of cigarette smokers at Marvel, however.

And yet...

I don't know about you, but for Tony Stark, a man with a heart condition, I think smoking would be the first thing he should give up.  But, hey, he had some other, more serious vices to play with, as we will see later in subsequent posts.

While the occasional cigar may seem recreational (unless you were Nick Fury, in which case they were mandatory), cigarette smoking is more of a habit.  And there seems an air of the rebellious, or even self-destructive with cigarette smoking, as well as a certain 'cool' factor, even today.  For superheroes, who generally rely upon being fit and healthy, cigarette smoking seems counter-productive (unless you happen to have a healing ability, like Wolverine).  So the characters drawn to cigarette smoking were more along the lines of characters in the DC Vertigo line, particularly if your character had been written at some stage by an Englishman or an Irishman.

John Constantine, in the title 'Hellblazer', is a chain-smoking magician, who, for whatever reason, favours Silk Cuts, though he has been seen to smoke Malboros or Camels as well.

He was also famously diagnosed with advanced lung cancer in the story arc 'Dangerous Habits'.  He managed to wriggle out of that one with some creative deals with devils.  Lucky bugger.

Garth Ennis, the Irish writer who started his run on Hellblazer with the above-mentioned story, went on to co-create another smoking hero, the Reverend Jesse Custer, or 'Preacher' as he is perhaps better known.  An altogether more wholesome character than John Constantine, who can be a right bastard, but still with a vicious edge, and an axe to grind against God.  And, of course, a smoker.  When you possess the Voice of God, you probably want a bit of gravel in there for extra effect.

 And speaking of right bastards, there's no getting around Spider Jerusalem, from Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan.  An iconic bastard for iconic times.  And chain-smoking bastard to boot.

Pipe Smokers

Now we come to an odd group of smokers, the Pipe Smokers.  If cigars add a touch of class and sophistication, this is even truer for pipe smokers.  There is an element of decadence, or an air of intellectualism about pipe smokers.  And you may be surprised at who has been caught with a pipe in their mouths.

Reed Richards, a.k.a. Mister Fantastic from the Fantastic Four was, early on, an occasioanl pipe smoker

Other intellectuals who indulge in pipe smoking included Leonard (Doc) Sampson (Psychiatrist, later Gamma-irradiated super adventurer)

And that most decadent of alter-egos, Bruce Wayne

While I don't recall ever seeing Batman with a pipe, it seems that he liked to unwind as Bruce with a pipe, even sharing this indulgence with Commissioner Gordon.

And as Batman, he wasn't above giving tobacco as a gift

  Another intellectual super-hero who has been caught with a pipe is Charles Xavier, a.k.a. Professor X of the X-Men

Other Smokers

 

 As for smokers of...other substances, there is very little evidence of that sort of thing going on in mainstream comics.  I mean, the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers have that sort of thing covered in the underground comics scene of the late '60's and '70's...

But they're hardly super-heroes, now are they.  But the odd hint is dropped here and there, like this one in Warlock, of Pip the Troll (again)

And while Doctor Strange never got actually 'busted' in his Ditko era, he always seemed to be around swirling incense and smoke (and we all know what that is used to cover up...), and his 'astral' form looked awfully 'smokey', we may just have to acknowledge that the Doctor Strange of the '60's was just a cracking read while smoking (or tripping, or whatever else happened back in the 'fuzzy' '60's). Meanwhile let's have a little giggle at the references that were placed, like this classic of Doctor Strange 'emerging from clearing mist' (that looks awfully like a smoke-ring), and encountering some very psychedelic guardians, on his search for a chap called 'Dormammu', whose head happens to be 'on fire' (Rather fortunate, if you need to spark up).  Boom!

And just what the hell is Batman up to now...?!?

(pictures used without permission, but with lots of love and respect.  Please don't sue me...)

Next: Drinkers