Depictions of the university's location have been vague, although maps published in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe depict the university as being near Washington Square Park, on or near the site of New York University. In the 2002 Chamber miniseries, the main character dorms in Empire State's Brittany Hall, the name of a real dorm at NYU. The novel The Venom Factor, by Diane Duane, places the university in Greenwich Village, where NYU is located.
Notable fictional students
Peter Parker, also known as Spider-Man, studied biophysics at Empire State University after graduating high school. Victor von Doom was invited to come from Latveria to study at Empire State, where he met Reed Richards. He was expelled after the accidental explosion that scarred his face. Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, attended Empire State University. He was expelled and then sued after he accidentally burned part of a building down while engaged in a battle with supervillains. A young Emma Frost also attended ESU in her late teens. She was there when an anti-mutant strike broke out. Later, X-Man Chamber enrolled briefly at ESU in order to investigate a bombing that killed six people. Chamber's findings resulted in ESU closing their main mutant program, and creating a new human/mutant student exchange program with the Xavier Institute. The first participants of this program were Walter—Chamber's paraplegic, human dorm-mate—and Amber, a reptilian mutant student who assisted Chamber in his investigation. Eddie Brock, AKA Venom, attends Empire State University in the Ultimate Spider-Man series. Flash Thompson, AKA Agent Venom in The Amazing Spider-Man series.
In Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, the university is sometimes shown as Empire State University and sometimes shown as Eastern State University.
In Spider-Man, Peter Parker is a college student and attends Empire State University, as does Debra Whitman and Michael Morbius. Also, Dr. Curt Connors is a professor there.
Empire State university is featured in The Spectacular Spider-Man as the college where Eddie Brock attends and works as a lab assistant under Dr. Curt Connors and Martha Connors. In Season 2, Miles Warren joins the scientific staff and becomes a professor just like in the comics.
Films
In the film Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker attends Columbia University and not ESU, but in ', which is set in between the first two Spider-Man movies, he, Mary Jane and Harry attend ESU.
Director Louis Leterrier wanted Bruce Banner to meet Samuel Sterns at Empire State University in The Incredible Hulk, but in the finished film, Sterns' place of teaching is named as Grayburn College in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s database since Columbia Pictures, who owned the name as part of their rights to film Spider-Man, refused. Grayburn College is also used in the 2010 show ' as the college where Henry Pym, or Ant-Man, does his research. It is named in the first-season episode "The Ultron Imperative".
In the short filmItem 47 on the Blu-ray bonus features of The Avengers, an Empire State University shirt can be seen worn by one of the characters.
In a deleted scene of The Amazing Spider-Man, Dr. Connors states that he has a doctorate from Empire State University.
In the film , Brad Davis is portrayed by Remy Hii as a classmate of Peter Parker.
Video games
In the game ', Doctor Octopus kidnaps Aunt May and holds her hostage in the university.
In the game adaptions of Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, the Empire State Building can be seen and visited. In both games this building is the highest point in the game but in the Ultimate Spider-Man game both the building and university can be visited.
In The Incredible Hulk, the subplot with Samuel Sterns at ESU is adapted from the film that the game is based on. Empire State University is also a marked location on the game's map screen, one of many that the player must destroy to earn certain collectible items.
Empire State University appears in '.
Empire State University appears in Marvel's Spider-Man.
