The location of The Simpsons’ hometown Springfield has been a closely guarded secret over the animated series’ run. Show creator Matt Groening once revealed that the town’s name was inspired by Springfield, Oregon. However, the location of the Simpsons’ Springfield has never definitively been revealed – as the show goes out of its way to keep even the town’s home state hidden.
In one Marvel comic, however, the superhero Speedball literally drops into the Simpsons’ house while patrolling his hometown, revealing that the Simpsons – or at least their comic book doubles – live in the Marvel Universe!
The story happened in New Warriors #27 during an even bigger event – The Infinity War. While fans may know this as the title of Endgame were based on). This follow-up crisis revealed that a new menace, The Magus, was creating doppelgangers of several Marvel heroes and sending them out to attack the originals. The doppelgangers possessed nightmarish versions of the original heroes’ powers and were intent on possessing the originals and taking over their lives.
Naturally, the heroes retaliated and formed a group to track the Magus down and take the fight to him. However, not all the heroes were invited to participate in the frontal assault. Some, like the bouncing hero Speedball, were considered too low-powered to be of much use for the team – so they sent him out to pick up pizzas for the rest of the superheroes. As a result, Speedball’s personal Infinity War crossover story began as Speedball bounced around town trying to balance multiple pizza boxes and avoid some attacking pigeons.
At that moment, however, Speedball spied his teammate Rage battling his doppelganger on the streets below. Ditching the pizzas, Speedball decided to lend his friend a hand – only to accidentally attack the wrong Rage. Once the mistake was sorted out, Rage advised Speedball to look for his own doppelganger before it caused any trouble. This inspired Speedball to head to his hometown of Springdale (an appropriate name for the hometown of a bouncing hero).
Once he got to Springdale, however, Speedball realized his doppelganger was already there and was leaving all sorts of destruction in his wake. Worse, the police mistook Speedball for his doppelganger and immediately opened fire on him, causing Speedball to accidentally smash into someone’s house. As he got his bearings, he (and the reader) saw that Speedball had actually crashed into the Simpsons house as a family with a striking resemblance to Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie all stared in fear at the hapless superhero (Marge even had blue hair and Lisa wore her customary red dress).
Furious at Speedball, Chief Wiggum but by Speedball’s own father!) ordered Speedball to surrender themselves to them. Unwilling to surrender – but realizing that the police might start shooting and accidentally hurt the Simpsons if he hid in their house, Speedball came up with an alternate plan on the fly.
First, he began bouncing around the house (even ing by the infamous Simpsons’ couch) until he built up enough momentum to rocket out of the house. Unfortunately, the police decided to open fire on his fleeing form. While Speedball’s invulnerable kinetic force field protected him from the bullets, he realized that any ricochets could kill the cops or America’s Favorite Family. In desperation, he expanded his field and managed to absorb the bullets’ momentum, letting them fall harmlessly. Having saved the Simpsons, Speedball bounced away to confront his evil twin.
While there are some differences between the Simpsons Speedball encountered and the animated Simpsons, it’s pretty obvious that the Simpsons not only exist in the Marvel Universe but have taken up residence in Speedball’s hometown of Springdale. Perhaps they gravitated toward a town with a similar name to Springfield – or perhaps Springfield is the alias to hide where the Simpsons really live.
These Simpsons also weren’t doppelgangers (like the one Speedball was chasing), but a family that continued to make spot appearances in Marvel Comics over the years (with one recent appearance in The Immortal Hulk). Marvel actually has a history of Bruce Wayne once tried to seduce Mary Jane Watson), so it’s very possible they chose to do the same thing with the Simpsons. While it’s unlikely we’ll be seeing Bartman applying for the Avengers anytime soon, Simpsons fans will be able to state definitively where at least one version of The Simpsons live.
