Rust Belt Rivals: What Marvel & DC tell us about Cleveland & Pittsburgh

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If you live in Cleveland or Pittsburgh, you probably have Dec. 8 and Jan. 1 marked on your calendar. Those are the dates when the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns are scheduled have their two regular season clashes. The Browns, the underdogs with very loyal fans, have only won four of the 24 contests since 1999. In that same time, Pittsburgh has gone to three Superbowls and won two.

The Pittsburgh/Cleveland rivalry goes deeper than just sports. While the Pennsylvania city has been heralded as an example of rust belt revitalization, Cleveland continues to have an identity struggle. It’s still butt of pop culture jokes (anyone who watches 30 Rock or Hot in Cleveland knows exactly what I’m talking about) and is desperately trying to shake the industrial era thinking, or at least the perception of it.

I’m acutely aware of the outside perceptions that both cites face. I grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania, a small city 2 hours from the ‘Burgh and 1.5 hours from the Cleve. After college, I first looked for jobs in Pittsburgh because it was Pittsburgh. But I ended up getting a job in Cleveland and have lived here for nearly four years.

The two cities aren’t very different in what they offer – food, arts, culture, music. The real difference between the two cities is attitude: Pittsburgh appears to have been born great and as a result demands greatness, while Cleveland wasn’t dealt the same cards and is positioned as an underdog.

This summer DC’s The Dark Knight Rises filmed in Pittsburgh, while Marvel’s The Avengers filmed in Cleveland. Tax credits and locations may have been the main impetus for filming in the respective cities. However, a DC production in the ‘Burgh and a Marvel production in CLE, whether a coincidence or not, is a deeper representation of the attitudes in both cities.

When it comes to DC superheroes – Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Green Lantern – these individuals were all talented, wealthy, or superpowered from the start. When they struggle, it’s based on the fact that they are bigger, stronger, faster than others in the universe. Pittsburgh has the same leg up to a certain extent. For decades, the city has rebranded, revitalized, and renewed so that today it presents itself as the crown jewel of the rust belt.

Pittburgh’s success meant it was selected as America’s host city for a 2009 G-20 summit. President Barack Obama released a statement extolling the Pennsylvania city’s ability to adapt: “Pittsburgh stands as a bold example of how to create new jobs and industries while transitioning to a 21st century economy… As a city that has transformed itself from the city of steel to a center for high-tech innovation – including green technology, education and training, and research and development – Pittsburgh will provide both a beautiful backdrop and a powerful example for our work.”

Pittsburgh, America’s city. Of course, the G-20 summit was meet with protests by anti-globalization activists. Pittsburgh police reported that 4,500 people participated. Nearly 200 people were arrested and there was $50,000 in damage done to local businesses. It was a conflict born out of Pittsburgh’s greatness.

Pittsburgh’s perceived greatness, however, has a flip side. The city still faces a population decline, though lower than other former industrial havens. In 2003, it filed for distressed city status with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, effectively giving the state oversight over city finances. And a pension crisis looms, with the city attempting to avoid a state takeover. Like Batman and Superman, these struggles are more existential as the city maintains an aura of strength.

What Pittsburgh has in common with DC superheros, Cleveland, likewise, shares with Marvel characters. You could say that Cleveland isn’t innately great, like a 90 lb. Steve Rogers or a nerdy Peter Parker. Or you could say that the city has its power, but is just perceived as an outsider, like a mutant. Some might say that it fell victim to its own hubris, like Thor or Tony Stark. The Marvel heroes aren’t as easily packaged as DC’s, but they do share one quality: They’re worst enemies are often the people closest to them.

Thor must take on his own brother, Loki. Parker’s worst enemies are his best friend Harry Osbourne and his idol Dr. Connors. The Hulk faces off with his love interest’s father. And of course, there’s ongoing saga of Charles Xavier versus Erik Lensherr.

In Cleveland’s case, high profile local leaders, some who were in office for years, were recently indicted on public corruption charges. The accusations ranged from receiving deep discounts on home improvements to receiving bribes to purchasing call girls to playing favorites–all to the detriment of the people in Cuyahoga County. Like Marvel heroes, a conflict arose out of loyalty to individuals that residents trusted for years and the reality of this shocking betrayal. County voters did fight back in the end, approving a completely new County charter that led to the election of former FBI agent Ed Fitzgerald as the first County Executive. (There’s the whole Lebron James thing, too, but that’s still a sensitive issue.)

As a Pennsylvanian, I can tell you that any loyalty in the Keystone State is borne out of stubborn arrogance. Whether Pittsburgh is great because of its arrogance, or vice versa, greatness still appears to be an innate quality that forces the city to wrestle with its own image more often than it does anything else. Cleveland doesn’t have that problem. And because lacks an air of superiority, it sometimes expects the right things from the wrong people.

Don’t get me wrong, though. I love both cities. The difference between Pittsburgh and Cleveland is more a spiritual one than anything else, part of the way they perceive the world. Pittsburgh is Mars. Cleveland is Venus. And going from one to the other can seem like traveling to different planet. Maybe our shared destinies as comeback kids is enough to make an idea like “Cleveburgh” work. It worked in the 90s when DC and Marvel made Amalgam Comics, right?

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