Suicide Slum

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Suicide Slum is a notorious fictional slum in publications from DC Comics. The area was first introduced in "The Newsboy Legion" feature in Star Spangled Comics #7 (April 1942) as a slum in New York City. It was later placed in Superman's city, Metropolis, when the Newsboy Legion was reintroduced in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #133 (October 1970). Suicide Slum has been at various times the stomping ground of several superheroes, including the Guardian (who protected the Newsboy Legion) and Black Lightning. It was based on the Lower East Side neighborhood of New York City in which Jack Kirby grew up.

Suicide Slum is also the site of The Ace O' Clubs, a bar owned by Superman supporting character Bibbo Bibbowski.

In the comics the district's real name is Hobb's Bay. It was occasionally referred to by this name in Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

When Brainiac-13 turned Metropolis into a "city of tomorrow", Suicide Slum became the site of vast engines and uncontrolled conduits. Its harbour area was lost to a huge hydroelectric dam, creating a sheer drop that became a popular suicide point. John Henry Irons helped CAELOSS (Citizen's Army for the Economic Liberation of Suicide Slum) in trying to ensure the residents were not totally disenfranchised by the "new" Metropolis. Like the rest of the city, the Slum has since reverted to its old form.

According to then-current Post-Crisis continuity (1986-2004), Lex Luthor grew up in Suicide Slum alongside Perry White; he was able to escape the slum and set up his first company with the insurance payout following his parents' apparently-accidental deaths, which he of course orchestrated. In Pre-Crisis continuity, Lex grew up in Smallville alongside Clark Kent, and subsequent continuity retcons (in Birthright and further changes post-Action Comics #850) have reintroduced new variations of the Smallville origin to the modern Luthor, largely to create greater similarity with the TV show Smallville. Luthor's current origin has no direct ties to Suicide Slum.

[edit] In other media

In the television series Smallville, which also depicts Lex growing up in Smallville, it is his father, Lionel Luthor, who grew up in Suicide Slum and befriended future crimelord Morgan Edge there. Smallville's Clark Kent has visited the district several times, first during the episode Run where he had to track down a fence who threatened to kill Bart Allen, and more recently during Vengeance (Season 5) where he and a masked vigilante were tracking the same criminal there.