Real Places That Inspired Super Hero Fictional Landmarks
In movies, you never really know what’s real and what isn’t. Starting with some of the most famous superhero homes, headquarters and hideouts. Who wouldn’t want to walk around Iron Man’s Malibu home, or the Hall of Justice. Unfortunately, these places don’t actually exist in real, at least not exactly the way they were portrayed in the movie. There are however places that inspired these fictional locations and are out there for all the view. Although some are really out there like the Wayne Manor and the X-Mansion which you can read more about on the Don Burns’ Medium page, these you’ll find are only part of the fictional world for now.
The Hall of Justice
The iconic Hall of Justice from Hanna-Barbera’s Super Friends is where all of the DC superheroes would get together to save the world. Superman, Batman and the rest of the team would get actually meet up in building inspired by the Union Terminal in Cincinnati, Ohio. This used to be an old train station, but is now a museum and library. So if you are ever in the mood to visit the Justice League headquarters just spin by Cincinnati and go to this beautiful building.
The Avengers Mansion
In the comics there are sometimes fictional addresses in the real cities like is the case of the Avengers Mansion that first appeared in the 1963’s Avengers #2. Located on 890 Fifth Avenue in the Marvel Universe version of Manhattan, where Iron Man, Thor and Hulk, along with the rest of the Avengers, is actually the real address of the Henry Clay Frick House. This mansion is massive and takes up most of the block on Fifth Avenue and East 70th Street.
The Daily Planet and Metropolis
The alternate universe where Superman lives and works is home to the Daily Planet iconic building. The co-creator of Superman, Joe Shuster, says he was inspired by Toronto for the the look and feel of Metropolis, which is why it’s no surprise that the Daily Planet was inspired on the former headquarters of the Toronto Star. Fun fact: The Toronto Star used to be called the Daily Star. Although this may be true, the globe that sits on the top of the building is not found anywhere on the Toronto skyline.
The Sanctum Sanctorum
In the Doctor Strange world, the fictional character’s lair is located in 177A Bleecker Street in Manhattan. The residence is in Greenwich Village, but in the real world this location is not as magical as in the comics. The real address actually has no direct relation with the comic at all, but in this case got itself on the pages of the comic book because the writers, Roy Thomas and Gary Friedrich, shared an apartment at this address in the 1960s.
Peter Parker’s House
Peter Parker’s Queens, NY residence, which was first specified in a 1989 issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, is home in the real world to a real life Parker family. They had lived in the home for almost a decade before the comic came out, but the odd thing is that this was actually a big coincidence. There are no real similarities with the real house at 20 Ingram Street.
The Iron Man Malibu Mansion
In this case, at the real location there is no mansion at all. The mansion actually only exists on the big screen of the Marvel movies. It was filmed at Point Dume, but it was simply a computer designed home. Although there are amazing similarities to the Razor Residence in La Jolla Farms Way, San Diego, California.
Nightwing’s Cloisters Headquarters
The famous sidekick to Batman, Robin, later turned into Nightwing once he went solo. He lived in DC Universe’s Washington Heights at The Cloisters Museum. In the comic he was the museum’s curator by day, but protected New York by night.
Yancy Street
In the Fantastic Four universe they all live in New York, but The Thing is one who usually reminisces about his childhood. He says he grew up in a tough neighborhood and that he grew up tough thanks to Yancy Street. In real life though there is no Yancy Street on the Lower East Side Manhattan. There is however a Delancey Street, which is where the co-creator Jack Kirby grew up. Especially in the early days of comics, writers and creators were known to include details of their real lives, so it’s definitely believed that Yancy Street is a direct reference to Delancey Street.
Now some buildings in the movies were altogether created specifically for the screen and don’t and never have existed in real life. Some that fall into this category are the Baxter’s Building from the Fantastic Four, Iron Man’s Stark Tower and the Justice Society of America’s former headquarters all located in Manhattan.
