The NYC Super Hero Tour begins at the United Nations Building. It turns out the UN Building has always been a part of superhero lore and movies. Unfortunately, we took our tour during UN week which meant we missed out on a small portion of the tour. But, our guide James made up for the chaos with a charming personality and great sense of humor.
Instead of starting our tour near an area of the city referred to as Tudor City. Tudor City is in reality, one or two blocks from the UN Building. Tudor City is home to the Green Goblin’s apartment(in the Spiderman movie) and the bridge often highlighted in Netflix’s DareDevil series.
We left Tudor City and headed to Metropolis and the Daily Planet. The News Building in NYC served as the Daily Planet in the Christopher Reeve Superman films. The News Building was originally the home of the New York Daily News but eventually became the inspiration and filming location of the Daily Planet. The globe sits inside the lobby! Although it is slightly outdated, it is still mesmerizing to view. This golden sliding door(pictured below) is the exact door that Christopher Reeve first stepped out of as Superman for the first time.
The next stop on our walking tour was the Chrysler Building. The Chrysler Building doubled as Crime Central the home of King Pin and was its own character in the Hercules series. Thor even used the building to amplify his lighting attack against Chitauri reinforcements in the first Avengers movie. If you’re a fan of Batman, you may notice that the Chrysler building is the inspiration for Gotham City architecture.
A few blocks from the Chrysler Building are two more superhero sites… Grand Central Terminal and the MetLife Building. Grand Central Terminal was the site of a Captain America fight and was almost destroyed by Ultron. The MetLife Building is used as the inspiration for the Stark Tower. When the Stark Tower is destroyed, the MetLife Building is remodeled into the Avengers Tower.
The next stop on our tour was the Pershing Square Bridge. The Pershing Square Bridge is another Avengers battle site and another Gotham City location. During the filming of the first Avengers film, the classic green light posts(you can see one on the left of the image below) had to be painted red as their original green color interfered with filming. The city has plans to repaint the posts back to their classic green color, but have not started on that project yet.
The second to last stop on our tour was Daredevil’s church. Daredevil is a devout Catholic and often visits his priest at this church. The church is located at 38th and Park Avenue and is still an active parish.
After leaving Daredevil’s church, we headed to the original headquarters of Marvel Comics. The original Marvel offices are still an active office building.
Our tour ended at a comic book store, where I took to pursuing comics. The tour is a must for any superhero fan in your life. I know we thoroughly enjoyed the nostalgia and intricate details that our tour guide brought up.
I’m also slightly obsessed with my DC pinup girl scarf that I wore for the tour. You can get your own version HERE.
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- Amanda is a native of Richmond, VA. She enjoys writing, blogging, traveling, shopping, and spending time with friends and family.
