New York City/MU

New York City is a major metropolitan city located in the U.S. state of New York. This version of New York City is the one featured in comic books published by Marvel Comics in reality often referred to as the "Marvel Universe". The landscape and history of Marvel's New York City is the same as that of the real world, but there are also many historical elements, as well as characters, that are of course exclusive to the internal reality of the comic books. New York City is divided into five boroughs, each with their own neighborhoods. They are the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island. A large majority of characters from the Marvel Universe are based out of NYC, as is the parent office of Marvel Comics itself. As such, Marvel's New York has a rich and colorful dynamic overlaid upon it's normal patina.

History
In the Golden Age era, New York became quite prominent in ushering in the first costumed super-powered beings into the world. Professor Phineas T. Horton created the world's first android, the original Human Torch. Shortly after the 1939 World's Fair, New Yorkers paid witness to the city's first major superhuman battle as the distraught Atlantean youth, Namor, the Sub-Mariner declared war on the surface world and chose New York as his battleground. The fight between the Human Torch and Sub-Mariner painted an image of the city skyline that no one would ever forget. Fortunately, the two would declare a truce between one another, and even become colleagues in the war-time Invaders.

In the modern era, the superhero renaissance began with one hapless science-loving youth - Peter Parker. Born in the Forest Hills neighborhood in Queens, Peter Parker was given enhanced physical traits due to a bite from a radioactive spider and has since become a city-wide fixture known as the Amazing Spider-Man. Due to the bad and extremely biased publicity leveled against Spider-Man by J. Jonah Jameson of the Daily Bugle, the general populace of New York have often found Spider-Man to be a menace; no better than the supervillains he fought against. Many more however, having witnessed or even encountered the wallcrawler themselves, recognize him for the true hero that he is.

Whereas many New Yorkers turned a baleful eye towards Spider-Man, they welcome with open arms America's first family - the Fantastic Four. Scientist Reed Richards, his best friend Ben Grimm, his girlfriend Susan Storm and Sue's teenage brother Johnny were given tremendous powers due to exposure from cosmic rays. They beame known as Mister Fantastic, the Invisible Girl, The Thing and the second Human Torch. The members of the Fantastic Four became celebrities of the superhero jet set in New York - owing largely to not only their deeds, but also because of their public identity. Despite this, one can still find the occasional New Yorker who might shiver in fear at the presence of everybody's favorite blue-eyed Thing.

With the emergence of heroes such as Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, it wasn't long before other costumed adventurers began making their presence in New York. Industrialist Tony Stark - owner and CEO of Stark Industries gathered together a group of heroes including Ant-Man, the Wasp and Thor to stop the rampaging monster known as the Hulk, who was being mind-controlled by Thor's evil half-brother, Loki. At the conclusion of this adventure, the heroes decided to band together as the Avengers, though the Hulk left immediately afterwards. The Avengers quickly rose to the ranks of becoming America's premiere superhero team, notably after recruiting their most patriotic team member - the recently rejuvinated World War II hero Captain America.

Manhattan

 * IBM building: The IBM building was an uncompleted skyscraper in Manhattan. The Shi'ar criminal Deathbird used as a front for constructing her own private starship. When she was forced to flee following a battle with the X-Men, she launched the craft, destroying the building.
 * Nelson & Murdock: Nelson & Murdock is a law firm founded by Foggy Nelson and Matt Murdock. They gained particular notoriety in New York City for it's penchant in representating clients in the superhero community. In the early days of the firm, Matt and Foggy's secretary was Karen Page. Foggy's mother, Rosalind Sharpe, later took control of the firm, much to the chagrin of both partners.

Queens

 * Acme warehouse: The Acme warehouse is an old abandoned building. The burglar responsible for murdering Ben Parker fled here to escape from the police. Ben's nephew, Peter Parker, having only recently donned the red and blue garb of Spider-Man tracked the burglar down and arrested him.
 * Forest Hills: Forest Hills is a neighborhood in Queens. It is the home of the Parker family, which originally included Ben Parker, May Reilly Parker and Peter Parker. The Parkers' neighbor was Anna May Watson, aunt of Peter's future wife, Mary Jane Watson.
 * Midtown High School: Midtown High School was where Peter Parker went to school. Other classmates who attended school at this time included Flash Thompson, Liz Allan, Sally Avril and Seymour O'Reilly.


 * Parker residence: The Parker residence was the home of Ben and May Parker and their nephew, Peter. The home was built sometime in the 1930s and was a temporary safe house for a ganster named Dutch Mallone before he was apprehended by treasury agent Elliot Ness. When Peter Parker was fifteen-years-old, a burglar broke into the house and murdered Ben Parker. Years later, May Parker turned her home into a boarding house. Nathan Lubensky stayed there for some time.

Unspecified locales

 * Cord Manufacturing: Cord Manufacturing was a business firm founded by Drexel Cord and based out of New York. Drexel used some of the funding from Cord Manufacturing to finance the reconstruction of a castle laboratory located some miles away. Cord created the Demolisher robot, which he believed was strong enough to destroy even Iron Man. After Drexel died, the company was inherited by his daughter, Janice Cord, who kept the business running until her own untimely demise some months later.


 * Westhaven Nuclear Generating Research Station: The Westhaven Nuclear Generating Research Station was located along the bank of the Hudson River. The supervillain known as Firefly set the facility ablaze and members of the NYFD were unable to contain the fire without the use of chemical bombs. Firefly fought up against Nova at this time who flew into him and dragged him out of the building.

Residents
Not all individuals listed her were necessarily born in New York City, but they did take up residence at some point.


 * Anna Watson
 * Ben Grimm
 * Ben Parker
 * Bernard O'Brien
 * Blake Tower
 * Clifton Shallot
 * Crusher Hogan
 * Flash Thompson
 * Foggy Nelson
 * Gloria Jenkins
 * Glory Grant
 * Harry Osborn
 * Heather Glenn
 * Janice Cord
 * J. Jonah Jameson


 * Jennifer Walters
 * Jim Hammond
 * John Jameson
 * Johnny Storm
 * Joseph Robertson
 * Liz Allan
 * Matt Murdock
 * Mary Jane Watson
 * May Reilly Parker
 * Melvin Potter
 * Norman Osborn
 * Nose Norton
 * Otto Octavius
 * Pepper Potts
 * Peter Parker


 * Reed Richards
 * Robert Farrell
 * Sally Avril
 * Sam Wilson
 * Seymour O'Reilly
 * Simon Williams
 * Steve Rogers
 * Susan Storm
 * William Baker
 * Willie Lumpkin

Teams

 * All-Winners Squad (part-time)
 * Avengers
 * Defenders
 * Fantastic Four
 * Unholy Three
 * X-Factor (original team)

Organizations

 * Hellfire Club
 * Morlocks