Finishing

It began at the end of summer: I was away (you might recall) fiercely regressing and spending way too many sunny days reading comics. It began while looking at a map similar to this, I said to my brother, "The only thing I know about Hell's Kitchen involves Daredevil," to which he replied, "That's all there is to know about Hell's Kitchen." And then pointing somewhere Midtown he said, "Baxter building is here," or maybe it was "Daily Bugle," but the point is, by the end of the conversation I was looking rather like this:

go on....

It was going to be an epic collection filled with super-headquarters, living quarters and maybe even, uh, battle quarters around New York City! And then I put the idea on the shelf for 4 months. I mean, it was daunting collecting information about multiple universes, with multiple timelines and histories to figure out. I was asking for a massive nerd war over canon vs retcon. Plus the map in my head/heart had no stylistic relation to the vintage themes I had already. But I just couldn't help it -- with my penchant for imperfection and extensive internetting, this map was surely inevitable.

A little disclaimer: I only used locations I could get an address or at least a Neighborhood to pinpoint. There are many cases where a hero will just be "in Manhattan," and I did not want to simply place a dot anywhere. While most locations are fairly accurate (from at least one story line), I did have to guess a few times (namely Yorick and Stark Westchester). And one day, someone with a geekier heart than I will confront me at a show with startling news of a highly important and obvious figure I neglected to add to the map*, to which I will smile, acknowledge defeat, and inwardly thank Photoshop for making the world fabulous. But until then, you will have to deal with what I have.

So this is my last piece for 2013. Hopefully over the holidays I will work on something to dazzle you all, but most likely that will not happen until the scary unknown of 2014 (if ever). I hope you all enjoy a lovely and graceful finish to this year!

Kaz/Awk out



*Give me a direct and important home base for Spawn and I will put it on the damn map. But until then, Manhattan is just too general.