Heroic Hangouts!

Every hero needs a place to call "home"...even though it's not. Let's just say it's a really cool clubhouse and go from there. These bases would really make fun places to live!

The Fortress of Solitude

The commute for this one would be killer if you didn't have super-speed or flight on your side, but you have it admit it would be a pretty nice place to hang out. Now I'm not talking about the "ice castles" version you see in the movies and on Smallville...I'm talking about the one in the comic books. 

This thing had gigantic statues, a bottled city called Kandor, a full-sized cruise ship (just for decoration!), a private alien zoo, and so much more. Not to mention the fact that it virtually guaranteed no solicitors at your doorstep. They wouldn't even be able to find the place or lift the gigantic arrow key!

Of course, between all the world-saving and the Daily Planet day job, I don't see how Superman spent any time in the thing.

The Baxter Building

Home to the Fantastic Four since the beginning and almost constantly since, the Baxter Building is the antithesis of the Batcave: It's located right in the heart of the busiest city in the U.S. so everyone knows where it is! Add to that the fact that no one in the team has a secret identity and you get the feeling it was begging for visitors.

Filled to the brim with scientific do-dads and even the entrance to the Negative Zone, the Baxter Building packs a lot of function into a small amount of space.

It took several years and multiple battles before Reed Richards finally bought the place. Before that happened, it couldn't have been fun working in that building.

"What's that sound? Oh great, Doctor Doom's attacking the top floor again. Now I'll have to take the stairs to go home! 35 flights of stairs! I'm getting another job!"

The JLA Satellite

A base in outer space is another way to keep the unwanted visitors off your doorstep. Unfortunately, there are those of us who have crippling fears of heights which would immediately strike this off the list of potential heroic hangouts. 

This is definitely the most unsafe of the bases in this list, as any puncture to the hull would result in immediate and terrifying death for those who weren't built for outer space.

This base got a really bad rap during Identity Crisis, when Sue Dibny was assaulted by Doctor Light in it. To me that was something that could have been skipped over altogether.

The JLA no longer have this place, choosing instead to work out of the Hall of Justice. Those of us who grew up in the Bronze Age of comics still think of this place as the JLA's true home. Even the moon base they had for a while didn't seem as cool as your own satellite in space.

The Avengers Mansion

This one is cool because...well, it's a mansion. It's located in Manhattan (where all the cool heroes hang out) and has been the sight of several titanic battles over the years. Tony Stark originally paid for and built the thing for the Avengers back before they knew he was Iron Man and it's served them well over the years.

The mansion has been the site of several heart-wrenching battles. The "Avengers Disassembled" storyline saw the death of Ant-Man and Hawkeye there before it was destroyed. The Masters of Evil also came in the ripped the place to shreds at one point, almost killing Jarvis in the process.

The Avengers moved to their own floating island/building for a while. Big surprise here, but it was eventually sunk during an attack in the "Acts of Vengeance" storyline. Recently it was rebuilt by Stark and given to Luke Cage as a base for the "New Avengers" after the events of Civil War.

The Batcave

Hands down the coolest place to live on Earth, the Batcave won our reader's poll of best overall base and it's easy to see why. Besides being hidden in a cave (and what guy doesn't think that's cool?) it's filled with the latest gadgets and goodies...along with an awesome car, boat, and plane at your disposal at any moment!

Don't feel like being in the dark? Well, you get the best of both worlds here by just walking upstairs to stately Wayne Manor! Now it's nothing but fireplaces and flat-screen televisions in every room, along with your own butler! No more cleaning up after yourself!

Actually though, there's a possibility Batman could have been a bit of a hoarder with all that junk he kept in there (a giant penny and a mechanical dinosaur? Seriously?). Also, what's the point of having such a boss base and never letting anyone else see it? I'd have friends over all the time, which is probably why I'm not the Batman (or am I?).

Plot Twists That Didn't Work - Fantastic Four #587

Last time we talked about a bad plot twist, it was a comic book from the 70's. This time we're going to look at one that's just a couple of months old, but it telegraphed the "twist" just the same.

When Marvel announced the imminent death of one of the members of the Fantastic Four, they put a lot into the marketing. They even went so far as to put the issues in a black poly-bag (not done since the "Death of Superman" issue) and told retailers they would not be publishing any extra copies of the issue. In other words, what didn't get ordered for a specific person wouldn't be coming out. It was a brave move meant to draw attention and sales to the comic series that had at one time been Marvel's flagship title and their first foray into a team book.

The stage seemed perfectly set to allow them the chance to really keep the reader guessing. All four members of the team were purposefully put in dire straits and there seemed no easy way out for any of them. Reed was facing Galactus alone, Sue was facing a sacrificial moment with Namor, while Johnny and a powerless Ben Grimm were facing hordes of enemies from the Negative Zone. Any of the four team members could have died and it would have made sense.

The problem came when Marvel decided to make this a big news event and invite the non-comics-related news sources into the party. The cat would be let out of the poly-bag too soon.

Unlike Marvel's decision to kill Captain America a few years back and get all the mileage out of it they could, this particular death was meant to be a surprise to the reader. They knew someone was going down, but not exactly who. Unfortunately for Marvel, some guy who probably never reads comics gets this story across his desk on a slow news day and decides to publish it. "Some guy named the Human Torch is getting killed in a comic book somewhere. Ok, whatever, print it."

The problem? The news broke the story the day before the comic book hit the retail stores! Suddenly all the secrecy and hush-hush marketing tactics were thrown out just 24 hours before the big reveal. Granted, in the age of the internet it's just about impossible to keep anything secret for long, but to have gone that long and have it spoiled was a bummer.

In a poll we ran here in the days leading up to the issue, our wise Comics in Crisis readers voted Johnny as most likely to be killed. It turns out you guys were right, but it was all just speculation until the issue itself came out...but then the news media got it.

In a desperate attempt at damage control, Marvel gave the unprecedented okay for retailers to sell the issue on Tuesday if they had it instead of waiting until Wednesday. Of course, the only way to find that out was to go into the comic shop on Tuesday instead of Wednesday (and who does that?), or to see it in the paper...in the same news story that told you who died in the book in the first place. Marvel got crushed by its own marketing machine.

So in the end, even though the Human Torch went out in a blaze of glory (Ha! Couldn't resist...sorry), the big moment itself fizzled out. Of course, his death was a useless act anyhow. The door was closing behind him already. All he had to do was fly up there, shoot a few fireballs to throw them off, and then just fly away and stay alive for a few days until Reed got back and got him out! Instead, he pulls this macho "me against the millions" routine and gets killed. Like a dog staring down a truck and saying, "I think I can take him", Storm got smashed like roadkill for no reason.

And in all honesty, who really believes Johnny Storm will stay dead? No comic book character ever stays dead, right?