The Marvel Universe is almost exclusively based in New York City. The Avengers, The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Daredevil, The Punisher and countless others are all located here (while even the X-Men are just north of the city in Westchester county, NY).
So, being a Bronx native, I got to wondering: how many Marvel characters are from my little borough?
Well, apparently Marvel has a Character Wiki that lets my figure that out.
In no particular order:
- Spawn’s inspiration, The Prowler
- Lousy Spider-Man villain, Hydro Man
- More badass than he has a right to be general Marvel villain, Taskmaster
- Batman knock-off, Nighthawk
- The X-Men’s Celia Reyes (who apparently is “Puerto Rican” despite being born in the Bronx)
- Some guy who’s surprisingly boring for being named “Death-Stalker”
- Some Spider-Man supporting character Vin Gonzalez
Folks probably from the Bronx, but not definitively:
- Kingpin! And I have no idea why I find pride in that…
- Patriot (Elijah Bradley) went to Bronx Science at least…
- Catiana? I have no idea who this is…
- The House of M Mary Jane Watson came from an “abusive family” in the Bronx…
- X-Force traitor, Feral
- Some guy named King Simian is imprisoned in The Bronx Zoo
- An Ecuadorian immigrant named Chio Chulindo who sold fruit in the Bronx became a Ghost Rider villain named Doghead. And I’m not even joking.
So, there you go. Are there any common themes here? Is a writer trying to say something when they make a character from the Bronx? Not sure. Out of the 14, half are villains (or villain-ish).
But I can’t complain.
My wife’s from Cleveland and all she’s got is Howard the Duck. ;’)
Feel free to give the wiki a try yourself and see if any fictional hero shares your hometown.
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Geekery & Whatnot 