Didja Know... Super Hero Stories of San Francisco

Super spy Natasha Romanoff’s returning to San Francisco in the all-new BLACK WIDOW #1 and—what? What do we mean returning? Oh, our stars and garters, True Believers, don’tcha know Nat’s got history with the City by the Bay? What, you think only the Big Apple has all the fun?

Well, then, pull up a comfy chair and rest your poor, tired dogs while we illuminate and educate you on some of our favorite Marvel Super Hero sagas set in ol’ SF! We promise you they’ll all be golden!

Didja Know... Spider-Man fought a werewolf in San Francisco?

You’d think after a century or more of gunslingers, FBI agents, rampaging robots, star-spangled sentinels, Atlantean monarchs, Secret Service men, dinosaurs, and blazing androids all causing chaos in San Francisco, a little thing like a werewolf wouldn’t raise an eyebrow…but it did, and here’s how, hero.

See, photog Peter Parker once ended up in the city on assignment for The Daily Bugle to snap a few pics of Daredevil and the Black Widow in MARVEL TEAM-UP (1972) #12, but as it happened, t’was Spider-Man who took all the shots. And by “shots” we mean the fabulously furry fangs and claws of a certain Werewolf by Night!

The Hairy One was being bewitched and bamboozled by a baddie name o’ Moondark, but once Spidey swung in and saw the situation, he sized up the sinister sorcerer and beat him at his own game…and right off the mighty Golden Gate Bridge and into the drink! Moonie appeared to expire at the end of the adventure, but in true fiendish fashion, he returned more than once to bedevil our stalwart Marvel heroes.

Didja Know… Daredevil once called San Francisco home?

So, you saw we mentioned DD and the Widow up there and maybe you wondered how they fit into the whole SF scheme—here’s how! Way back when, in DAREDEVIL (1964) #87 to be precise, Matt Murdock had it up to here with New York and packed up his troubles—and his billy club—in an old kit bag to move to the Golden City with his friend Natasha and set up shop in a rented mansion.

Now, lissen up, Louie, ‘cause this is important: our boy Matt was the first major Marvel super-type to leave NYC behind and try to make a go of it elsewhere! And try he did! Almost immediately, Daredevil and the Black Widow ran up against a steady procession of perps and pugilists, people like Electro, Killgrave the Purple Man, Mister Fear, the Indestructible Man, and a whole host of horrors…

Alas, it all came to an end in DAREDEVIL #108 when Matt learned his buddy Foggy Nelson went and got himself shot back in Manhattan and DD felt he needed to be at his side. There was also the little matter of his romantic feelings for Moondragon mucking things up with Natasha and, well, you know by now how homesick our heroes can get. Matt flew back to New York and didn’t return to SF again for many years, while Nat's about to head back any day now…

Didja Know… the X-Men once saw San Francisco as a significant sanctuary?

Long before Krakoa became the haven it now is for mutants everywhere, the City by the Bay welcomed the wayward wanderers and promised them a paradise within its perimeter. It came about in UNCANNY X-MEN (1963) #499, and songs are still sung about it to this day.

How it happened was that the merry mutants saved the life of then-mayor Sadie Sinclair and she declared SF as a place in which the X-Men could hunker down and have a headquarters. Furthermore, she also told the government the Initiative—remember that?—was no longer welcome within the city, and that the mutants were all it needed to feel safe and secure.

Cyclops put out the call to his extended mutated family in UNCANNY X-MEN (1963) #500, while at the same moment Magneto made a few malevolent motions and the High Evolutionary approached the Celestial that had taken up residence in Golden Gate Park—yep, not too far from where the wondrous Wall-Crawler wrestled with a werewolf oh-so-many years before, and a Widow wished she could settle down with her significant Super Hero forever. Small world, ain’t it?

Peruse these eye-poppin' publications with Marvel Unlimited right now, and be ready for BLACK WIDOW #1 on September 2!