Generally speaking, comic book worlds are not the best places to move. With frequent superhero battles, non-stop crime, and the off-chance that you can get retconned out of history at a moments notice, who would want to live in comic book world? Well, if you got to reside in one of our ten favorite four-color homes, maybe you would. Want to. Dangling sentence… Okay, here’s the list:
10. The Sanctum Sanctorum
Dr. Strange’s mystic manor has been around since 1963, when it was first introduced in Strange Tales #110. The Greenwich Village based townhouse has a cool retro design, one of the neatest looking windows in comic books, and even cooler, is an actual address in New York City: it was the apartment of comic creators Roy Thomas and Gary Friedrich. Now, though, those hopeful to see Marvel’s sorcerer supreme, or his manservant Wong at 177A Bleecker Street will instead find… A Pinkberry. Oh well.
9. Wayne Manor
Stately Wayne Manor is probably one of the most famous locations in all of comic-dom. Originally the home of Thomas and Martha Wayne, after they were gunned down in an alleyway, their son Bruce took over the mansion, alone there with only his butler Alfred to take care of him. Oh, and also, he then became Batman. From the Batcave below, to secret passageways, and ancient bat cult caves or something, Wayne Manor would take weeks to explore… If you survived Gotham City that long.
8. Infinite Avengers Mansion
One of the neater recent additions to the Marvel Universe, the base of Avengers Academy is literally infinite. It was originally contained in the celestial nervous system of superhero The Wasp, which is, you know, pretty weird. But with hallways containing all the great works of art in the world, robot butlers in the form of Ultron’s girlfriend Jocasta willing to help at every turn, and doorways to almost any point on Earth, the Infinite Avengers Mansion is like living in the world’s sweetest museum.
7. Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters
Ignoring the fact that Xavier’s School is currently a big pile of ruins, and even before that, it was destroyed probably every other month, there’s one major advantage to living at The X-Men’s base in Westchester County: you’re a mutant. I mean, sure, there’s all the hate and whatnot, but there’s also the getting to hang out with other mutants, learn to use your powers for good, and the frequent softball games. And if that wasn’t enough, there’s The Danger Room, which was the holodeck well before the holodeck existed. Oh, and you want entertainment? It’s like living in the world’s most complicated soap opera, so you’ll never be bored.
6. The Baxter Building
The headquarters of The Fantastic Four is one of the only places on this list you actually COULD live in, if you lived in the Marvel Universe. Despite being the home to the frequently attacked FF, The Baxter Building is also a thirty-five story office building at the corner of Madison and 42nd Streets in New York. Okay, fine, you probably couldn’t LIVE there, but most of the building is a regular NYC building, with the top five floors belonging to the Richards family. And though you might not get to enter the technological playground at the top, you would get to hobnob with their famous mailman Willie Lumpkin, watch frequent Fantasticar take-offs, and get unlimited access to the Fantastic Four museum and gift shop on the bottom floor. So that’s pretty nice.
5. The Money Bin
First great thing about living in Scrooge McDuck’s Money Bin? You’re definitely Scrooge McDuck… Because the miserly mallard wouldn’t allow anyone else to dive into his precious, precious gold. But beyond being the richest duck in all of Duckberg, you get to come home to the largest, most ostentatious shrine to money ever constructed. To paraphrase Swingers, you’d be so money, and you WOULD know it. Swingers is really current to reference, right guys? Good. Good.
4. Castle Doom
Living in Dr. Doom’s castle in Latveria may have it’s downsides, mainly that you could be fried to a crisp by Doom at any moment. But the perks of living in a fortress filled to the brim with insane science, magic, robots, and catacombs can’t be underestimated. Plus, you’ll actually have a better chance of glimpsing the Fantastic Four after they’re (frequently) captured than you would living in The Baxter Building. Just don’t ask The Thing for an autograph.
3. Fabletown
The domicile of the renegade storybook characters who escaped their Homelands (read: books*) in Bill Willingham’s Fables, Fabletown is an enormously huge high-rise apartment building in the center of New York, that looks like a regular high-rise due to magic. But from the fabulous parties on the roof, to the infinitely huge library that contains all the treasures rescued from the Homelands, Fabletown is worth the frequent attacks from wooden men and nightmares who eat your teeth.
*Also, read books.
2. Rock of Eternity
The home of the wizard Shazam, who gives Captain Marvel his powers, The Rock of Eternity is pretty much the center of all magic in the DC Universe. It may not seem like much – just a long hallway where the Seven Deadly Sins are held prisoner, and a big old throne, but this diamond-shaped rock holds unlimited power, as well as most of the secrets of the universe. That beats “sun drenched” and “charming” any day of the week.
1. Fortress of Solitude
Yes, we get it’s a little on the nose to call the Arctic based Fortress of Solitude the coolest home in comics, but Superman’s second place of residence is the dream of a young boy from Krypton, as well as any young boy or girl who has ever had the slightest bit of imagination. From trophies taken during Superman’s many adventures, to an intergalactic zoo, the Fortress of Solitude has nearly anything you can dream of in it. And it’s so large, writers and artists have never had a hard time adding new features and sections to the Fortress. And as it’s far, far away from any large cities in the DCU, barring the occasional drop-in from Lex Luthor or Mongul, it’s as safe as anywhere to live. Just watch out for the Phantom Zone projector, or you’re gonna be in biiiig trouble.
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