Metropolis Appreciation 2019

[Kuwagaton]

Well... literally the biggest supporting character to not have a thread already. Metropolis carries almost everything despite our main character being able to fly out of the solar system on a whim. Superman's sandbox is whole universe but here's enough to keep him. To be honest the wiki is a pretty complete resource
https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Metropolis
But here are some highlights to get us going:





Location: historically we've seen Metropolis vaguely inspired by Toronto and Cleveland, two major cities of its creators. Originally Metropolis was named as a New York city, similar to how Batman debuted as a New Yorker and not a Gothamite. Though both share similarities with Chicagoland, and Metropolis Illinois was honored by D.C. in 1972, later affirmations would place Metropolis in Delware across from Gotham in New Jersey. Metropolis being generally close to Washington, where Pete Ross and Lex Luthor would end up. Gotham seems, as some have pointed out, much like Hudson county with Wayne Manor maybe in Bergen. That would ruin the idea of them being across from each other, but I was personally never crazy about that anyway. Metropolis was shown to be in a canyon on another map, which is a little crazy but we are talking about the home of Superman. The city of tomorrow right?

Neighborhoods: of the six boroughs, New Troy is central. Bakerline is most prominently shown in the story of Pete Shoemaker where Perry has ties in Queensland Park. Little Africa was the pre crisis neighborhood for blacks, where Little Qurac was a middle eastern neighborhood later. Chinatown is Chinatown. Hob's Bay, known as the infamous "Suicide Slum." Hypersector was later capitalized on by Lex, although he had to contend with Odett's private land. Midvale was just called the outskirts pre crisis, later it was 60 miles from Metropolis in its NW section.

Residency: Lois and Clark of New Troy. At 344 Clinton st, you have Nathan Warbow, Jon Slaughter, Martin Thorpe, and Andrea. In an undisclosed part of presumably the same borough, you had Mrs Nyxly as a landlord. Later we saw Lee Lambert and Dante Rodriguez. Lois has lived alone and with roommates; Kristin, Julie, Lori Lemaris and... Marsha Mallow. Perry is a Slum kid who is now at home at Queensland while Jimmy is from Bakerline. Bibbo won millions but is still in Hob's Bay with the likes of Jose Delgado. Dave Stevens and Davood Nassur stood out from their crowds in Little Africa and Little Qurac, while Linda Lee was tied to Midvale. Past noted figures include Edna Luthor and Jeremiah Galloway. I wish DC tapped me about doing a Gangs of New York style story with Edna. Before Superman the city had Franks Stern and Berkowitz, Perry, Jim Harper, and inspector/ previous commissioner Bill Henderson as strong positive figures, while Vincent Edge and a younger Lex played for the other side.

Funny things: while Steve Lombard was quarterback of the Meteors, Lex owns the NBA team, the Monarchs. Newstime building is LA city hall. Maggie Sawyer's SCU series was the first from a major comics publisher to feature an out lesbian, and won a 1996 GLAAD award.

[Vordan]

I loved the focus on fleshing out Metropolis in the 80s and 90s. It felt like a colorful city all it's own during those times. I feel like since then it's kind of floundered a bit, with only the Daily Planet and Lexcorp building sticking around. I'd really like some more Metropolis landmarks featured. Also one of my biggest pet peeves is when artists draw Metropolis as just a regular old city. The City of Tomorrow must look different. When cities in the present day like Tokyo look more "future-esque" I have a problem. In my mind the nicer areas of Metropolis look like 70s sci-fi such as this:
70s sci-fi Metropolis.jpg
Big grand structures that house the ultra-wealthy and the privileged such as Lex's private penthouse.
Then areas like Suicide Slum look like this:
Suicide Slum.jpg
And then the middle class area where Clark and Lois live looks something like this:
MiddleClassMetropolis.jpg

I love when writers have Clark start off in the poor areas of Metropolis, like in Morrison's Action Comics or Wolfman's Man and Superman. That to me needs to be a key part of Superman's origin, him living side by side with the oppressed population of Metropolis.

[magha_regulus]

I agree. I would have Clark move to a nicer party of town only after marriage. I really liked the city's depiction by ed mcguinness after the brainiac 13 invasion. It was appropriately futuristic.

[Restingvoice]

Do you guys prefer Metropolis as a regular modern day town or future town where robots are floating around like in Birthright? I'm undecided.

[Ascended]

Do you guys prefer Metropolis as a regular modern day town or future town where robots are floating around like in Birthright? I'm undecided.

I flip flop on that a lot. Most days I split the difference with myself; I want the Avenue of Tomorrow and select other locations (places owned by STAR or Lex or whatever) to look like it fell out of a sci-fi novel, but the rest of the city is more real. You can play up a few things anywhere in the city; have more drones than normal, have the occasional jetpack in the air or hoverbike on the sidewalk, but if the whole city looks fantastical, you lose that bit of "Superman, fighting for the average guy" mentality.

As for Clark's first apartment, I totally agree it should be in Suicide Slum. And I think Clark should stay in that apartment long after he's making enough money to move to a nicer part of town. I think Clark's neighborhood should be used as a barometer of Clark's success in his mission: When Clark first moves there it's just like any other apartment building and neighborhood in the Slum. Run down, disrespected, ugly, etc. But over time, Clark's influence slowly spreads through the neighborhood and after he's been living there for a few years, all the graffiti is gone, the hookers and dealers are gone, people walk with a little more pride, there's less litter on the streets, etc. I think Clark saving Suicide Slum is both a victory for "Clark Kent" (which are rare and always hard won) and a litmus test for "Superman" in that if he can save the Slum from itself, he can save anywhere.

Once Clark is married, that's when he moves to a different neighborhood, and only because both Clark and Lois' apartments are too small for them to co-exist in. I think these are two highly individual people who require a lot of their own space, so they need some swanky super-big apartment, not some tiny hole in the wall.

[Vordan]

Do you guys prefer Metropolis as a regular modern day town or future town where robots are floating around like in Birthright? I'm undecided.

What a “regular” modern day City looks like depends on location. Check out some pictures of Tokyo, that place looks like Cyberpunk made real. But Metropolis should be like a “real” City in that there are various districts that each have their own character, just like NYC’s boroughs. Even a hellhole like Gotham has nice areas like Burnside. Metropolis should likewise have areas that run the gambit from full blown futuristic sci-fi utopias, to run-down cyberpunk slums, to 50s retrofuturistic Art Deco. What Metropolis shouldn’t look like is a boring bland landscape of regular square boxes, which is what it looks like in the DCAMU and Young Justice. I hate that.

[Vordan]

Hey guys any recommendations for Superman stories that deal with the history of Metropolis? I enjoyed the brief mini history Fraction have in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen.

[Kuwagaton]

I loved the focus on fleshing out Metropolis in the 80s and 90s. It felt like a colorful city all it's own during those times. I feel like since then it's kind of floundered a bit, with only the Daily Planet and Lexcorp building sticking around. I'd really like some more Metropolis landmarks featured. Also one of my biggest pet peeves is when artists draw Metropolis as just a regular old city. The City of Tomorrow must look different. When cities in the present day like Tokyo look more "future-esque" I have a problem. In my mind the nicer areas of Metropolis look like 70s sci-fi such as this:
70s sci-fi Metropolis.jpg
Big grand structures that house the ultra-wealthy and the privileged such as Lex's private penthouse.
Then areas like Suicide Slum look like this:
Suicide Slum.jpg
And then the middle class area where Clark and Lois live looks something like this:
MiddleClassMetropolis.jpg

I love when writers have Clark start off in the poor areas of Metropolis, like in Morrison's Action Comics or Wolfman's Man and Superman. That to me needs to be a key part of Superman's origin, him living side by side with the oppressed population of Metropolis.

Man, those look great. It probably would have been tolerable to get Burton because of what he did for Gotham. I imagine his Metropolis like that. Like a less nightmarish cross between Brazil and City of Lost Children.

The Suicide Slum image is like a nice, elaborated version of this opening page I've always liked



I'm torn because I like the B13 idea when it comes to Metropolis being exceptional, but that radical change is harder to swallow than seeing a rebooted version like that or having it evolve slowly.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I am currently reading Black Lightning Year One and I really like how they've handled Suicide Slum and their explanation for why Superman wasn't able to help there as much.