Are there any comic book superheroes whose crime fighting takes place in the suburbs or the country?

Cowman!

Did Archie fight crime?

Clark Kent grew up on a farm and his life as a high schooler (and beyond) is depicted (in terrible canon violation) in Smallville

Davey Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier

@Akex: I thought about Superman, but alas he did eventually go to Metropolis.

I guess what I’m wondering also is if there’s not some cultural bias being portrayed in the comic genre. Like cities are dark and bad places where evil crimes happen.

@shock: Did Davy Crockett have superpowers (like Spidey) or did he have cool toys (like Batman)?

I think you have to take into consideration what the country was like when the superhero comic books first appeared on the scene in the 1930’s. At that time, crime was mostly centered in the larger metropolitan areas, not the countryside. The mindset was also good versus evil, and things were more clear cut in people’s minds as to what they considered right and wrong. We’re talking the era of Al Capone here, and the comics were a symbol of the good guy winning and hope for the future.

Shortly after print comics appeared, the heroes became the stars of radio shows and crime fighting shows abounded with those and the detective genre.

You also have to remember that most people didn’t have their own transportation at that time, so criminals had to concentrate on the cities, where things were closer together. In small towns and the countryside, everyone knew everyone else, what their children were doing, and outsiders were easily recognized. When I was a kid, I lived in a relatively small town, a suburb of Los Angeles. We didn’t lock the door to the house unless we were going on a vacation, and we didn’t lock the car door unless we were parking in downtown Los Angeles. Now my car locks automatically when I put the key into the ignition and I never leave the door to the house unlocked.

I don’t think it was a cultural bias, I think that it was based on the way things were.

The Great Lakes Avengers and Nextwave are two modern Marvel comics that largely take place outside the main metropolis areas. The books are pretty satirical in tone though and poke fun at themselves very frequently. Its funny to see Superheroes outside the cities. There is also the Alpha Flight, who are Canada’s premier super hero team. They defend lots of wide open natural habitats. Wolverine and Hulk also both spend lots of time in the woods and country. Swamp Thing and Man Thing are similar looking, sludgey, ecological warriors both living in… swamps. They are published by DC and Marvel respectively. Aquaman and Namor both defend the oceans for the respective publishers. The Inhumans live on Marvel’s moon. Most recently in the Marvel Universe: after a major catasrophe in which a supervillain killed a bunch of superheroes and blew up half of Stamford in the process, all the heroes were forced to register with the govt or otherwise face persecution. All registered heroes were then enlisted in a plan called the 50 State Initiative, in which the heroes were allocated away from New York and LA all over the rest of the country. Only a few got the lucky post on Hawaii. Seriously.

I’m wondering why I didn’t just ask you in the first place. :)
Great answer.

Toxic Avenger

I just found this question now, as it just got linked as an all-time great question. I thought I’d add my two cents.

I don’t read comic books either, but I’ve loved some movie adaptations. The X-men movies – isn’t that academy in suburban NY? And don’t a lot of the fight scenes happen out in the country?

What a great question. I watched Spiderman as a kid and I’ve always thought it was funny that he only fought crime in Manhattan, but lived in Brooklyn.

Aquaman! Duh.
And Captain Underpants.