Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara was a city in California,^[1] in the Santa Cruz Mountains.^[2][3] Santa Barbara was famous as a popular tourist resort with its Pacific Ocean beaches, with palm trees and surf enthusiasts.^[4] The city was named after Christian martyr Saint Barbara (Santa Bárbara), still revered and summoned in modern times (Spanish-speaking Christian superheroine Stigmata invoked St. Barbara's name to obtain superhuman strength).^[5][6] Santa Barbara was adjacent to bedroom community Valle Soleada (which hid an amount of mutant inhabitants)^[7] and was the birthplace of Eugene Strausser of Damage Control.^[1] The city of Santa Barbara also inspired a soap opera, called Santa Barbara, that was enjoyed by the Abominatrix^[8] (who followed several other similar shows);^[9] when the Abominatrix kidnapped Weezie Mason, she insisted in watching the show, even if Mason was aghast at the idea.^[8]

The Mole Man, ruler of Subterranea, was inspired to take a vacation in Santa Barbara after his Moloids gifted him with a Santa Barbara snow globe. Uttering just the word "Santa", the Mole Man left for a vacation without telling his minions. Dim-witted, the Moloids mistakenly believed their Master had tried to name Santa Claus and sent several huge monsters,^[4] including Giganto, to kidnap mall Santas in a vain attempt to recover their master,^[4][10][11] keeping the discarded Santas their prisoners. After the Fantastic Four intervened, the Moloids agreed to stop behaving like that, thou they did not discover what had happened to the Mole Man. The Mole Man eventually ended his beach vacation in Santa Barbara,^[4] returning to his previous occupation and throne room.^[12]

Alternate Realities[]

Earth-1218 (Our Reality)[]

Epic Comics author Lela Dowling was born in Santa Barbara.^[2][3]

Earth-199999 (Marvel Cinematic Universe)[]

On Earth-199999, Santa Barbara has been a tourist destination since at least shortly after World War II. Edwin Jarvis proposed to his then-recently-injured wife Ana a vacation there, suggesting that it was a picturesque place where they had not been, in an attempt to divert her attention to the questions she was asking him about Peggy Carter and Jason Wilkes. Edwin soon confessed to Ana that she would not be able to have children due to the injuries she had just suffered, and apparently they did not go to Santa Barbara.^[13]

More recently, geneticist Evan Declan was born in Santa Barbara and, using funds secretly provided by Inhuman Maximus, built the Declan Research Facility, a science research compound in Santa Barbara (although Declan had other centers in other cities). In Santa Barbara, Dr. Declan analyzed several Inhumans, trying to understand the Terrigenesis process that gave them superpowers.^[14] One day when Declan was going to leave his building, his assistant showed him footage of Inhuman Black Bolt using his superhuman voice to throw a car in the air. Correctly deducing that Black Bolt was an Inhuman, Declan decided to fly to Oahu, Hawaii to find him.^[15] Declan died before returning to Santa Barbara.^[16]

• Beaches^[4]
• Declan's Research Facility (only Earth-199999)^[15]

• Dr. Evan Declan (only Earth-199999,^[15] deceased)^[16]
• Mole Man (on vacation)^[4]
• Gene Strausser (birthplace)^[1]

• The article on Santa Claus in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #10 mentions how the Mole Man had a vacation in Santa Cruz. This is a typo: As seen in Marvel Holiday Special #2005, the Mole Man took a vacation in Santa Barbara, which is a different city.