Embrace your sandy destiny! Best Florida cities to be a superhero like Batman, Spider-Man or Wonder Woman

C. A. Bridges, USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida

Planning your superhero career of running down dark alleyways, punching brightly colored foes and fighting crime?

You'll want to do your research, especially if your superhuman heroic destiny begins in Florida. Leather outfits get hot fast in the Sunshine State, masks are going to leave obvious and interesting tan lines and if you swing between high buildings in Ormond Beach you're pretty much limited to fighting condo crime. (I would watch that movie.)

On the plus side, caped crusaders can wear pretty much anything they want in Key West, South Beach or Gulfport and never raise an eyebrow.

We don't have a Metropolis or Gotham City, but in honor of National Superhero Day (Sunday, April 28, for those who observe) it's worth taking a look at which cities a real-life superhero might call home.

The good and apparently bored folks at insurance company AmFi used 12 ranking factors, including crime indexes, population density, number of skyscrapers, number of costume shops and more to determine the best places for superhero activity. While the Northeast dominated the list, a couple of Florida cities stood out.

If swinging between tall buildings or parkouring across fire escapes is your thing, Miami can't match New York City, which was unsurprisingly named the Best Urban Landscape for Heroic Feats. But it did come in No. 3, right after Chicago.

Lakeland was named the third best city in the nation for concealing your secret identity, based largely on the number of costume shops and journalist job openings.

U.S. cities with the highest demand for superheroes

Which cities are crying out for the hero they need and deserve? Marvel Cinematic Universe, take note: based on crime rates, number of cold cases, population density and the number of law enforcement officers, the five cities with the highest score out of a possible score of 100 were:

  1. Washington, D.C.: 72.79

  2. Detroit, Michigan: 71.09

  3. Chicago, Illinois: 66.00

  4. Baltimore, Maryland: 65.50

  5. Stockton, California: 62.91

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U.S. cities with the best urban landscapes for heroic feats

Do you want to bound from rooftop to rooftop in search of evildoers? Based on the number of skyscrapers and crowded skies (as indicated by the number of aviation facilities), the obvious choices are:

  1. New York City, New York: 93.82

  2. Chicago, Illinois: 91.57

  3. Miami, Florida: 84.85

  4. San Fransisco, California: 68.30

  5. Boston, Massachusetts: 64.38

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Granted, it's trickier to hide your super suit under shorts and a tank, but Florida is represented in this list based on the number of intrepid journalist job openings and the number of formal wear and costume rental shops:

  1. Allentown, Pennsylvania: 63.86

  2. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: 63.46

  3. Lakeland, Florida: 62.07

  4. New Orleans, Louisiana: 58.16

  5. Akron, Ohio: 57.04

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U.S. cities with the highest public interest in superheroes

It's no good soaring majestically over your city if no one's going to shout, "Look! Up in the sky!" as you go by. You want a place with a solid fan base for public support behind your flagrant, colorful vigilantism*. Based on the number of comic book stores, online searches for Comic Con, and the number of children aged 14 and younger, that's:

  1. Providence, Rhode Island: 79.48

  2. Grand Rapids, Michigan: 78.15

  3. San Diego, California: 77.97

  4. Detroit, Michigan: 74.23

  5. Albuquerque, New Mexico: 73.22

✱ Note: The USA TODAY NETWORK does not condone vigilantism, even if it looks cool.

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What is National Superhero Day?

National Superhero Day is for celebrating your favorite heroes, whether they're fighting cosmic battles, jumping off buildings to punch criminals, or performing real-life heroic tasks in uniforms or scrubs.

It was started in 1995 by Marvel Comics, home of Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Avengers when they sent interns out to ask the public in central Pennsylvania what they thought of superheroes and what super powers they'd most like to have.

National Superhero Day "is for the fictional and real life heros that give it their all so please join us in honoring all those people that risk their lives every day to keep us safe," the Facebook group said.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Best U.S. cities to be a superhero: Florida ranks up, up and away

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