Unlike Marvel Comics, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was never primarily set in New York City - and that's a good thing. The MCU began with Iron Man and the divergence was immediate: unlike in the comics, Tony Stark and his company Stark Industries were based in Los Angeles, and the billionaire genius owned an opulent cliffside home in Malibu. Marvel Studios' decision to stage Iron Man's production in California instead of mounting the expense to shoot in NYC (just to adhere to the comics) also helped open the door to the worldwide success the MCU would become.

From its inception, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby designed the comic book Marvel Universe partly as a response to how their rival DC Comics' superheroes lived in separate fictional cities. Marvel was meant to be "the world outside our window", a real-world city that happened to be inhabited by colorful costumed heroes and villains. By basing most of Marvel's characters in the Big Apple, it also allowed them to cross over into each other's titles. It isn't uncommon for Spider-Man to swing by the Fantastic Four's midtown Manhattan HQ, the Baxter Building, for example. Even as it evolved into a multiverse, New York City remains the home base of Marvel Comics and most of his characters. The movies, however, had other, bigger ideas from the get-go.

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The MCU was also planned as a shared universe, but the realities of movie-making made basing all of the heroes in New York City logistically impossible. Just as the MCU only tangentially adapts the comics, the movies are their own thing and only pay lip service to NYC as Marvel's comic book home. After Iron Man already kicked off the MCU beyond NYC, Marvel Studios decided to never limit their characters to just one city. Besides, the superheroes have crossed over in many other ways, both within and outside the confines of Manhattan.

The Avengers Barely Spend Time In New York City

The Avengers eating Shwarma

Though World War II-era Brooklyn was seen in Captain America: The First Avenger, the MCU's first foray into present-day New York City (specifically Harlem) was in The Incredible Hulk. Iron Man 2's Stark Expo then took place in Queens, but it wasn't until the Battle of New York in The Avengers that Earth's Mightiest Heroes would formally take Manhattan. With Stark Tower, which would later become Avengers Tower, based in midtown, the MCU seemed to be signaling a move to the Big Apple that would reflect the comics. However, fans who hoped to see the heroes walking the streets of Manhattan just like in the comics had to settle for the Avengers eating shwarma together in a post-credits scene. Afterward, the heroes were only seen in the luxurious upper floors of Stark Tower whenever they were in the city.

What's more, the Avengers as bonafide New Yorkers only lasted all of one movie (or roughly three years in the MCU timeline). After Ultron attacked Avengers Tower in Age of Ultron, Stark quickly vacated his ARC reactor-powered midtown skyscraper and relocated the team to a sprawling upstate facility by the end of the film. That was the last time the Avengers set foot in the Big Apple until Tony, Bruce Banner, Doctor Strange, Wong, and Spider-Man fought the Black Order in Greenwich Village during Avengers: Infinity War. True, Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum is Manhattan-based and much of Strange's film took place in NYC, but the Sorcerer Supreme is technically not (yet) an Avenger.

Even Spider-Man Skips NYC

Manhattan is really only a minor setting in Spider-Man: Homecoming. The opening scene, set in the days after the Battle of New York, established the reason why Adrian Toomes became the villainous Vulture. In addition, the vacating of Stark Tower is overseen by Happy Hogan. However, Spider-Man was never seen swinging amongst the skyscrapers of Manhattan in Homecoming. Peter Parker (mostly) listened to his mentor Tony Stark's demands that he remain a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Not that this stopped Peter from ditching his beat patrolling Queens; he fought the Shocker in the suburbs and took a field trip to Washington, D.C., the setting of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Spidey finally spun his web (briefly) in Manhattan in Avengers: Infinity War, but, amazingly, in the MCU, the wall-crawler has actually spent more screen time in Berlin than in NYC!

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Marvel Studios deliberately had Spider-Man skip NYC to avoid repeating tropes that fans had gotten tired of in the five previous Spidey films, all of which primarily took place in Manhattan. To offer something different that would firmly establish Tom Holland's webhead in the MCU, Marvel Studios instead turned Spider-Man into a world-traveling (and even outer space-traveling) teenage hero. Once he's resurrected in Avengers 4, Peter is even heading back to Europe in next year's Spider-Man: Far From Home. At this point, it's not clear if Holland's Peter will ever live in a dingy Manhattan apartment and become a photographer for the Daily Bugle, but the happy result of these changes is that Spider-Man's non-NYC adventures continue to be surprising and unexpected.

Page 2: Avoiding New York Makes The MCU a Better Universe

Marvel's The Defenders team

The Defenders Make NYC Feel Like A Separate Universe

In contrast to the movies, Marvel Television gladly made New York City the home base of its Netflix Marvel series. As The Defenders, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and The Punisher have divided Manhattan among them to fight crime (and the evil ninjas of the Hand) at the street-level. Marvel TV falls under the auspices of Marvel Entertainment, rather than Disney which oversees Marvel Studios, and has embraced hewing closer to their parent company's comics by having the Defenders protect the Big Apple, enjoying regular crossovers, and potentially more spinoffs. This ends up enhancing the Avengers' global scope since their movies are set all over the world and beyond. Earth's Mightiest Heroes are too big and important to protect just NYC, which leaves a slot the Defenders are happy to fill.

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A side effect of the Avengers' absence from New York City is that it makes the City That Never Sleeps feel like a different Marvel universe altogether. Even though they continue to promise that "it's all connected", the corporate disconnect between Marvel Studios and Marvel TV means the movies never mention anyone or anything that happens in the TV series. In turn, the Defenders' series will reference movies continuity, but in oblique ways like coyly calling the Battle of New York "the incident". Thanks to the Netflix shows, the Big Apple gets to be home to a version of the Marvel Universe that seems a lot more like what's in the comics, but it's also a smaller-scale universe absent the biggest Marvel names (especially Spider-Man, the quintessential NYC superhero). While the fate of the world (and even the universe) is decided in the Avengers movies, The Defenders' NYC ends up feeling like a pale shadow of the films.

Avoiding NYC Makes The MCU Better

The Avengers are a truly worldwide (and beyond) superhero team, one of the keys to the MCU's incredible success and popularity. Even though most of the superheroes are American, their scope is pleasingly international. In the various MCU films, fans have seen the Avengers visit Rio De Janiero, Kolkata, India, Sokovia, South Africa, South Korea, Lagos, Bucharest, London, Vienna, Berlin, Russia, Scotland, and Wakanda. Thor first landed on Earth in New Mexico but he has since visited the UK and Norway. Doctor Strange learned the Mystic Arts at Kamar-Taj in Nepal, but he's also been to London and Hong Kong. Meanwhile, the Ant-Man films continue the West Coast flavor Iron Man began with his San Francisco-based adventures, and Black Panther was bookended in Oakland, CA (with Shuri complaining about not visiting Coachella or Disneyland).

By not being based in New York City or being solely about protecting the Big Apple, the Avengers truly became a superhero team that everyone can call their own. Fans all over the world not only enjoy the MCU movies but they also get an extra thrill whenever the superheroes arrive in their country. Similarly, audiences embraced Black Panther's fictional African kingdom of Wakanda, which is arguably a more popular MCU setting than NYC currently is. The Avengers first assembled to defend Manhattan from Loki and the Chiaturi, but they quickly outgrew Marvel Comics' traditional setting and they only benefited from the change. By making the entire world the Avengers' home base, Marvel Studios wisely made the MCU a universe that belongs to everyone.

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