Wherein I delve into comic geekdom

[kierthos]

But only for a few minutes.

Consider New York City. Not the safest city in the world. Muggings, drugs, murder, terrorism.

Now add super-heroes. And of course, super-villains.

Why in the name of fuck do people still live in NYC in the Marvel Comics Universe? I mean, there has been tons of property damage: Dr. Doom has, at a couple of points, had entire skyscrapers hurled into orbit (okay, okay, one of those Dooms was really Kristoff, but the point stands), the Masters of Evil have trashed the Avengers Mansion at least once, and a year can't go by without the top of the Fantastic Four's HQ being the site of a floor-detonating explosion/gateway to another universe/whatever.

Throw in alien invasions by the Skrulls, demonic invasions in Inferno, super-villain murder sprees by Carnage (and other none-too-stable villains), world-threatening doom from the likes of Galactus, never-fully-explained-to-the-citizenry doom from Onslaught, the Hulk destroying a good chunk of the city in World War Hulk, various random super-villainry....

I mean, it's amazing that there's anyone left in the city to be taken hostage or be victim of a mugging.

Comments

[martinhesselius.livejournal.com]

People are masochists --
I mean, look at how many still LARP!?! ;)

[kierthos.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but those people are crazy.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

And that doesn't even count things like the Ultimatum Wave, where Magneto + The Hammer Of Thor put New York City underwater up to about the 20th story.

(Apparently Marvel's writers REALLY LIKED that one tidal wave scene in The Day After Tomorrow.)

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Related: Given that any kind of workplace injury or industrial accident that might end up in death or maiming in the real world always results in superpowers and usually also insanity in the Marvel Universe, what must their disclaimer of liability forms for employment as, say, a janitor LOOK LIKE? And what kind of hazard pay do they get?

[kierthos.livejournal.com]

Any superpowers obtained during the course of employment are the property of....

[neverwhere74.livejournal.com]

I think this means two things in the Marvel universe as far as New York is concerned: 1. People are having a lot of sex to create more people. 2. Out of this world events are kind of ho-hum. But that's not far from reality in that city.

[kierthos.livejournal.com]

As regards point #2, in one of the first issues of the Ghost Rider (Dan Ketch version), the Ghost Rider is racing down a street, and none of the pedestrians are really pointing and staring. This gets brought up in a "Letter to the editor" which was published in a subsequent issue of Ghost Rider, where the response was that by this point, the people of NYC are so jaded and used to superpowers that it was "what flaming-skulled motorcyclist?"