Comments on: A city of justice, a city of love, a city of peace

A city of justice, a city of love, a city of peace

Artw — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:38:09 -0800

By: Uther Bentrazor

Uther Bentrazor — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:43:47 -0800

I thought this was going to explain the architecture behind whatever Spiderman is web-swinging from most times when he shoots his webs directly above him, when he's clearly over the horizon. But this is nice too.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:46:45 -0800

I have to admit then when I was a kid and visiting Manhattan for the first time there was the THIS IS WHERE SUPERMAN/BATMAN/XMEN LIVE YES going on. Does TOP TEN's Neopolois count here?

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:47:40 -0800

(Also from that map I think I live a block from Mary Jane Watson)

By: Artw

Artw — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:49:07 -0800

I have to admit then when I was a kid and visiting Manhattan for the first time there was the THIS IS WHERE SUPERMAN/BATMAN/XMEN LIVE YES going on. I got that and also Sesame Street.

By: Scoo

Scoo — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:49:12 -0800

I could look at Jack Kirby cutaway views of the Baxter Building all day.

By: Mblue

Mblue — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:50:43 -0800

I'd like to see flaming architecture after super powered battles, isn't destruction visual during melee?

By: Cool Papa Bell

Cool Papa Bell — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:55:17 -0800

I have to admit then when I was a kid and visiting Manhattan for the first time there was the THIS IS WHERE SUPERMAN/BATMAN/XMEN LIVE YES going on. I did the exact same thing. I kept looking for glimpses of Spider-Man swinging between buildings.

By: This, of course, alludes to you

This, of course, alludes to you — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:56:26 -0800

Mister X is pretty fucking neat i think

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:59:31 -0800

(Also Impossible Industries is housed in the Grace Building)

By: LoudMusic

LoudMusic — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:05:10 -0800

I was hoping for one of those "If [building X from fantasy world Y] were constructed in reality it would look like THIS!" showing off massive disproportions and broken physics. But that's not what the article was about.

By: Harvey Kilobit

Harvey Kilobit — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:07:39 -0800

That map of a Manhattan that never was is a map of a Manhattan that we'll never see again. The Yancy Street Gang on the Lower East Side!

By: justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow

justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:08:06 -0800

Maps of...the Flash's Central City, among others, approximate the cartographic reality of Manhattan The Flash's Central City doesn't seem to be modeled on Manhattan. It's an abstraction designed for the benefit of a character who needs endless room to run. It has twenty lane streets with sidewalks thirty feet wide. Apartments in Central City have rooms the size of bowling alleys. The city is so vast that its skyline sits on the horizon in every direction. I cower in existential dread of the endless expanse that is Central City. A realistic cityscape is vital for a character like Daredevil. Daredevil lives in Hell's Kitchen, an area of a few city blocks. With his hypersensitive senses he must have gotten to know every inch of the place. To understand his perspective, we need to be able to feel the pattern of the rivets on the underside of that bridge. Abstraction works better for the Flash. In a blink he can be a block away, or on the other side of town, or in Moscow, or Singapore. His freedom to be anyplace makes him untethered from any one place. He doesn't really live in Central City at all. He lives in an anonymous, blurred cityscape.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:11:51 -0800

Wait, Peter Parker lives in Chelsea? That must be some kind of mythical rent control going on.

By: arcticseal

arcticseal — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 17:00:17 -0800

You would think that Reed Richards would want Sue and the Human Torch to live in the Baxter Building if only to help out with the rent.

By: adamrice

adamrice — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 17:06:48 -0800

The poverty of these representations prove incapable of registering the volatility of these shifting urban centers, formed by the accumulation of diverse experiences whereby the familiar (the grid, landmarks, parks) is subverted and read anew through Situationist techniques. This guy is trying way too hard to impress us.

By: penduluum

penduluum — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:48:09 -0800

Wait, Peter Parker lives in Chelsea? That must be some kind of mythical rent control going on. I had exactly the same thought. Shit, I didn't know that freelance photography and maybe-sometimes-depending-on-the-writer teaching high school science paid that well. You would think that Reed Richards would want Sue and the Human Torch to live in the Baxter Building if only to help out with the rent. I love the actual line, though: "Torch and sister Sue Storm commute from suburbs." Like: huh. Okay. By Fantasticar or something? Or do they just hop a commuter bus to the F like every other workaday schmoe in the world? In this universe they're huge celebrities, world-saving heroes, operating out of Manhattan. And they commute to work. From the suburbs.

By: penduluum

penduluum — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:58:01 -0800

(oh and Artw: daps for the title reference. Second best song on a Batman movie soundtrack of all time [Batdance; Kiss From a Rose coming in a surprising third], and best R&B song about a fictional city [Chocolate City came very close to upsetting but was declared doubly ineligible].)

By: IAmBroom

IAmBroom — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:41:50 -0800

penduluum, Johnny can fly, and could carry Sis with a non-flaming hand if he wished. But what's so weird about commute by Fantasticar? It is their "family" vehicle.

By: Slap*Happy

Slap*Happy — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:48:13 -0800

If you like Mr. X, you will love the holy fucking shit out of Terminal City.

By: painquale

painquale — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:49:17 -0800

Does Daredevil still say that he lives in Hell's Kitchen, or does he now call it Clinton?

By: Slap*Happy

Slap*Happy — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:56:15 -0800

If his ~~cheesey rice~~ risotto doesn't make it to the pass at the same time the Owl's scallops do, he has to pack up and move to Queens.

By: Kevin Street

Kevin Street — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 21:03:05 -0800

"This guy is trying way too hard to impress us." Yeah. There's whole passages of the article that are nonsensical, and he makes a bunch of factual errors. The scans are fun to look at though. "In this universe they're huge celebrities, world-saving heroes, operating out of Manhattan. And they commute to work. From the suburbs." There was a Human Torch feature in the, uh, 60's I think, that actually showed them living in an ordinary single family home somewhere in the burbs. Better there than Johnny's "abestos room" in the Baxter Building! Though I hate to think what kind of insurance premiums Sue was paying with a brother who can start fires in his sleep...

By: penduluum

penduluum — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 04:04:36 -0800

Johnny can fly, and could carry Sis with a non-flaming hand if he wished. If that's what was regularly happening, I hope they wouldn't call it "commuting". It's too awesome to be commuting.

By: HeroZero

HeroZero — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 05:12:03 -0800

I was curious as to why the author calls the benches in the High Line "infamous." Apparently it's because of the provenence of the wood. It's now twenty years since I was really into Marvel Comics in my adolescence, and the placement of all of those heroes in Manhattan just seems completely absurd. Avengers' Mansion would be much better suited to some bland Northern Virginia suburb.

By: HeroZero

HeroZero — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 05:12:16 -0800

provenAnce. Dammit.

By: painquale

painquale — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 09:18:28 -0800

Avengers' Mansion would be much better suited to some bland Northern Virginia suburb. A little while back they tried putting a version of The Avengers in each of the fifty states. Virginia's was never specified.

By: Apocryphon

Apocryphon — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 12:00:25 -0800

No Astro City? Not reading, then.

By: John Kenneth Fisher

John Kenneth Fisher — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 10:51:40 -0800

Fun fact: Around the No Man's Land era at least, it was said by creators that Gotham City is where Little Egg Harbor, NJ is in our universe.