Superman hits Philadelphia on foot

But are those scenes really the City of Brotherly Love? Where exactly is Southside Philadelphia? Locals say it looks like Chicago.

Wednesday Philadelphia gets a visit from the Man of Steel. The new issue of the Superman comic book will hit stores with a storyline set in Philadelphia.

After 72 years of fighting for truth, justice, and the American way, Superman is no stranger to crisis. But the man of steel is in a slump. While he has been in outer space for the last two years, fighting for the survival of the universe, his fans on earth have lost interest. The publisher of D.C. Comics, Dan Dilio says Superman needed to be reigned in from that space opera.

“The tendency is to make things bigger, broader. But every once in a while we like to connect him with his Kansas roots, as we like to say, and show why he needs to connect with people to show why he behaves in the way he does.”

Superman will spend the next 12 issues adopting a simple lifestyle and walking – not flying, walking – across America and leading a simple life. He quotes Henry David Thoreau. Philadelphia was chosen to launch his sojourn because it is the birthplace of democracy. But Rob Lefevre, a manager at the comic store Brave New Worlds, says it’s Philadelphia in name only.

“It said Southside Philadelphia – I don’t know where that is. It definitely did not look like Philadelphia to me. Seemed like they wrote ‘Philadelphia’ and drew Chicago or something.”

Like every tourist in Philadelphia, while in town Superman has a cheesteak.