New York, Metropolis, Gotham: Why do these Cities still have crime?

Since the beginning of human civilization one of the great accomplishments of mankind was the creation of the city. A magnificent collection of culture and commerce wrapped in stone buildings of magnificent construction. But with the introduction of cities came the invention of urban crime. These streets where crowds of people exchange money and ideas become hunting grounds for all types of ruffians looking to make a cheap and easy buck. Now while cities in the real world have typically been portrayed as dens of criminal activity, in the world of comic book super heroes they should be portrayed as perfect utopias. Crime should be a foreign concept in a world of super powered heroes and costumed vigilantes. But no, there seems to be the same amount of crime in comic books as there is in the real world. In some cases, even more.

But my question is why? If we are to believe in the existence of super heroes, there should be no crime in any city inhabited by them. Particularly when portrayed with the number of super heroes that inhabit these fictional and fictionalized cities. One hero should be enough to keep any city fairly well free of crime but a city with an enormous super hero population should have criminals running in fear. New York houses the Avengers, Spider-Man, Daredevil, the Punisher, the New Warriors and many others. There literally could be a super hero every street corner. Why would any criminal try to challenge those odds by committing a crime?

And I am not talking about super powered criminals. I can understand why someone like the Shocker or the Rhino would attempt to go up against super heroes. Most super villains are pretty evenly matched with their super hero counterparts. A lot of villains could even be classified as far bigger heavy weights than your average hero. When I talk about criminals in this entry, I am talking about your completely average street thugs. Purse snatchers, gang members, jewel thieves, etc. People who for all intents and purpose are ordinary humans sharing the world with amazing individuals. The old saying goes “don’t bring a knife to a gun fight.” Well in the case of ordinary criminals, don’t bring a gun to a super powers fight.

Now you could perhaps forgive this one storytelling instance. After all, all of the above characters I listed are Marvel properties and Marvel comics is based in New York city so it makes sense that so many of their characters are based there. And New York does attract enough out of towners who may be ignorant of the odds they are up against with New York based super heroes. But what about the so many other instances of city packed with heroes?

Gotham City initially had only one costumed hero. The Batman. But as the years progressed and the character developed a literal army of supporting characters (see previous entry about the Bat-Family) Gotham City is being patrolled by a squad of well trained and well armed vigilantes. All who operate with the support of the law. Besides Batman, there is Nightwing, Robin, Red Robin, The Red Hood, Batgirl, Batwoman, The Birds of Prey (Black Canary, Batgirl, Poison Ivy and others). Plus before the New 52, there was also Azrael, Huntress (Helena Bertinelli, not Helena Kyle), Manhunter, an additional Batgirl, and the Spoiler, not to mention multiple other characters who operated out of Gotham at one time or another. (Note: Some of these identities have been adopted by numerous characters.) Suffice to say, if you are a criminal operating in Gotham, your odds are not good.

Like Batman, Superman also has a close cast of supporting characters he can rely on to protect his home town of Metropolis. Unlike Batman however, all of Superman’s allies have power levels similar to Superman. Superboy, Supergirl, Steel, Krypto the Super-Dog, Mon-El (a daxamite, who has a similar biology to kryptonians) can all be relied upon to assist Superman. Along with these close allies to superman there are also several other heroes that operate out of Metropolis that have no connection to Superman. The Alpha Centurion, Atlas, The Guardian, Crimebuster (who at one point was a depowered amnesiac Superman). Superman is pretty good at stopping crime just by himself but when you throw in multiple super heroes, it seems hard to even be able to litter in Metropolis, let alone commit any sort of crime.

"Seriously?"

Now I realize that in order for these characters to exist they must constantly be given purpose. In reality Superman could eliminate all crime from Metropolis but if a writer were to have him actually do that then there would be no more purpose to the character. And as a fan I would hate that. But like the nerd I am, I feel all the problems of the world could easily be solved by super heroes and am saddened that these characters only exist in comic books.