Which is bigger: Metropolis or Gotham?

[The Darknight Detective]

And the way that universes' Gordon and O'Hara deferred to Batman, they probably had them all over the city.

Heh. The way they consistently denigrated their own police force in deference to the Caped Crusaders. I'm surprised Gothan wasn't renamed (with the help of Mayor Linseed) as Batmanville.

[phantom1592]

I would say Metropolis is much much larger. My reasoning, Superman flies all over on patrol and gets there 'just in time'... Batman sees a light in the sky and can actually drive a car to get there in time to deal with the problems. Sometimes he just swings on batarang cables... Either way it's a very 'human' method of travel that really doesn't seem like a major imposition. Metropolis? Just 'feels' bigger because the main character travels by more than human methods and is still sometimes late. Batman still seems to think that 'He' can fix Gotham

I'm also not a fan of Gotham and Metropolis being right next to each other. It makes so sense for Superman to have such a handle on the street crime in his city, but Gotham still being such a cesspool. Especially when any stray gunshot is still in his earshot. There's just no way he'd let innocent people suffer and die just out of 'professional courtesy'.

[Tulku]

...or maybe the DCEU didn't introduce the idea. Looks like the idea dates back to the Bronze Age:

Holy cow!!! Metropolis is in Delaware???? I live here and never knew that!!!

[Güicho]

What's funny is both places they chose across from each-other, correspond to pretty much swamp Wildlife Preserves, places with a whole lot of nothing.
Bridge would be abt. 4 miles long.

[DrNewGod]

Heh. The way they consistently denigrated their own police force in deference to the Caped Crusaders. I'm surprised Gothan wasn't renamed (with the help of Mayor Linseed) as Batmanville.

Oh, For God's Sake! Dont give TPTB ideas!

[DrNewGod]

So, that's geographically sensible.

Unless we consider that a vast %age of Superman's rescues might be outside Metropolis, and anything we're shown that isn't explicitly in Metropolis might be else where.

[MajorHoy]

Metropolis is around 4-6 million population wise, we have any numbers for Gotham?

May depend on if the Joker has recently gone on a massive killing spree (again) or not . . .

[Jim Kelly]

If it's 14 miles from the Batcave to Gotham City, that would mean that Wayne Manor is not inside the city limits. That suggests to me that Gotham City is one of those cities that doesn't include all the suburbs or boroughs as part of the city. Metropolis, on the other hand, might be a metropolis--including many townships within its limits.

[Tzigone]

DC's two inaugural Everyburgs. Metropolis was descended from Cleveland, but rapidly became New York. Gotham was implicitly New York from Day One. In spite of the "by day/by night" view, the towns have since diverged. So, being as they're separate, which is larger?

Oh, I'd knew that Gotham was explicitly NYC before being renamed Gotham, but I didn't know about Cleveland.

Metropolis is around 4-6 million population wise, we have any numbers for Gotham? No clue which covers more land area though.

When did we get that size for Metropolis? I like keeping track of these, though of course different comics contradict each other. It's fun. In an early post-COIE comic Maggie Sawyer said Metropolis was the biggest city in the world (when her daughter was missing). And I was like "what" I just can't do that, that's just way too big for an American city to me.

Gotham always appears older and more sprawly, while Metropolis comes off as a newer more modern city, but I have no definitive answer to that question.

I've always though of older (pre-automobile) cities as much denser and more walkable, with newer cities as more sprawly. Though maybe that's changing with even newer cities - don't know. I do rather like the idea of Metropolis as a modern city with lots of new buildings, though, despite liking it walkable and with good public transit.

[Robanker]

I tend to think of Metropolis as a larger city that probably has a more affluent population (not rich, but decently well-off) because it's usually pushed as the City of Tomorrow and a hub for scientific advancement. We rarely see it in a state of disrepair or chaos, so most municipal functions are seemingly well-funded. It does have its less idealized neighborhoods (such as Suicide Slum) but they never go full Gotham, which is one step from a DMZ half the time with how Batman's rogues run roughshod over it. Keep in mind the kind of threats that come to fight Superman in that city and how quick they seem to recover from the destruction. There's just more money there and somehow enough of it does seem to funnel into municipal bodies to fix **** that's breaking down. The overall quality of life for most is just seemingly better, so it likely costs a bit more to live there than other places.

I think Gotham is more populace with higher disparity between the wealthy and poor, who are overcrowded into designated slums and forced to turn to crime by design to help justify private prisons. It isn't without it's nicer neighborhoods, but they are the gleaming veneer that masks what life is like for most in Gotham City. Gotham is just a corrupt hellscape most the time, and that provides the most need for a Batfam when you have a ton of poor people being forced into a broken system.

Tldr Metropolis by geography, Gotham by population. That's how I generalize it in my head.

[Tzigone]

I tend to think of Metropolis as a larger city that probably has a more affluent population (not rich, but decently well-off) because it's usually pushed as the City of Tomorrow and a hub for scientific advancement.

Of course the cities change over the years int the comics, but I read an article a few years ago the few large American cities where wages kept up with housing price increases (places that were growing, not dying, though), and I kind like the idea of Metropolis being one.

I also deeply disliked Suicide Slum being moved to Metropolis, especially since that was then used to insult Superman.

[Goldrake]

for sure Gotham has more heroes per inch than any other city, despite that people still get killed etc

[SecretWarrior]

I just think of Metropolis as NY and Gotham as Boston, even though those cities exist in-universe.

[Jim Kelly]

They were both modelled on New York City--and more specific, Manhattan. Which is why I never liked when they brought actual New York City into continuity as another city. They already had more than enough. And even more when you count all the other fictional cities that were New York copies--like Elongated Man's Empire City (DETECTIVE COMICS 346, 354).

[Robanker]

Of course the cities change over the years int the comics, but I read an article a few years ago the few large American cities where wages kept up with housing price increases (places that were growing, not dying, though), and I kind like the idea of Metropolis being one.

I also deeply disliked Suicide Slum being moved to Metropolis, especially since that was then used to insult Superman.

I'm not crazy about that either, but what can you do. It makes zero sense for Superman as a character to ignore an entire section of his city, and there have since been walkbacks on what is extremely out of character for Clark, but I find it hard to believe that any major city like Metropolis doesn't have sectors of it which are just not that well-off.