History Main / SuperheroCapitalOfTheWorld

If the city is not fictional, than it will often be a national capital or a landmark city, a city big enough to justify having so many people fighting each other to rescue somebody. While not mutually exclusive, most examples of the trope coincide with the BigApplesauce and TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse, as most examples tend to fall either in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, UsefulNotes/{{Tokyo}} or [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed a fictional place based on either]] [[{{Americasia}} or both]]. These typically exist when a StandardSuperHeroSetting is undergoing its Late Stage of {{Superhero Prevalence|Stages}}.

SubTrope to CityOfAdventure. Compare SuperheroSchool. Contrast SupermanStaysOutOfGotham and WestCoastTeam. Can happen in works where EveryoneIsASuper.

* The UrExample of the trope can be attributed to UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse. New York is the most common location for superheroes and {{Super Team}}s in the setting. Examples include: ComicBook/TheAvengers, ComicBook/FantasticFour, ComicBook/HeroesForHire, Franchise/SpiderMan, ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}, ComicBook/DoctorStrange, Franchise/XMen[[note]]Well, Westchester, which is just outside of New York City and considered "upstate" by New Yorkers[[/note]], etc. Granted, some of them often leave New York to go on foreign missions, but overall most Marvel heroes live in and are active in New York. The reason for this? Marvel Comics' seminal figures of the time, Creator/StanLee, Creator/JackKirby and original publisher Martin Goodman were all native New Yorkers. Further, Marvel (first known as Timely Comics) was headquartered in NYC. In sum, CreatorProvincialism and WriteWhatYouKnow.

* In ''ComicBook/AstroCity'', every major city has its own superheroes, but the Astro seems to attract an unusually large number of them.

If the city is not fictional, than it will often be a national capital or a landmark city, a city big enough to justify having so many people fighting each other to rescue somebody. While not mutually exclusive, most examples of the trope coincide with the BigApplesauce and TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse, as most examples tend to fall either in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, UsefulNotes/{{Tokyo}} or [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed a fictional place based on either]] [[{{Americasia}} or both]].

* The UrExample of the trope can be attributed to UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse. New York is the most common location for superheroes and {{Super Team}}s in the setting. Examples include: ComicBook/TheAvengers, ComicBook/FantasticFour, ComicBook/HeroesForHire, Franchise/SpiderMan, ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}, ComicBook/DoctorStrange, Franchise/XMen[[note]]Well, Westchester, which is just outside of New York City and considered "upstate" by New Yorkers[[/note]], etc. Granted, some of them often leave New York to go on foreign missions, but overall most Marvel heroes live in and are active in New York. The reason for this? Marvel Comics' seminal figures of the time, Creator/StanLee, Creator/JackKirby and original publisher Martin Goodman were all native New Yorkers. Further, Marvel (first known as Timely Comics) was headquartered in NYC. In sum, CreatorProvincialism and WriteWhatYouKnow UpToEleven.

[[quoteright:350:[[Franchise/MarvelUniverse Pictured above: only a handful of the Marvel superheroes living in Manhattan (and Stan Lee).]]]]

[[quoteright:350:[[Franchise/MarvelUniverse Pictured above: only a handful of the Marvel superheroes living in Manhattan.]]]]

** Notably, Wild Cards has several volumes that are treated as SomethingCompletelyDifferent where the main hook is to explore the setting outside of New York City. They indirectly cement New York's centrality in the setting.

* In the ''TabletopGame/FreedomCity'' setting for ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'' the eponymous Freedom City was originally the centre of super activity. This is lampshaded in ''Atlas of Earth-Prime'', which notes that America has more supers than the rest of the world, and Freedom has more supers than comprable cities in America, and offers [[WatsonianVsDoylist Watsonian and Doylist]] explanations. The former is that superheroes began as an American phenomenon, and the ''Freedom'' setting was originally just the city, so of course that's where all the characters were based. The latter is that when [[SupermanSubstitute the Centurion]] arrived from an alternate reality, the accompanying wave of quantum weirdness essentially turned the whole city into a WeirdnessMagnet. Origin events are more common, and superhumans are more likely to settle there. In third edition, the MassEmpoweringEvent in Emerald City has resulted in superhumans being as common there as in Freedom, but Emerald supers are more likely to move away than in Freedom.

* ''ComicBook/JustImagineStanLeeCreatingTheDCUniverse'' is a direct play off Creator/StanLee's habit mentioned above, as for his alternate take on ''Franchise/TheDCU'', he chooses UsefulNotes/LosAngeles (a city on the opposite side of the country) as its superhero capitol.

* The City from ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'' is so full of superheroes, the Mayor has a BatSignal for each and every one of them and has since run out of room on his window sill to house them all. Since all sorts of shenanigans of epic proportions -- from aliens to terrorists, {{Kaiju}} and too many supervillains to count -- happen in The City and only a handful of them are any good at being superheroes (either due to CripplingOverspecialization or just plain cowardice), The City ''needs'' all the help it can get.