Substituting New York City for Metropolis

[Tom Kalbfus]

Suppose we made the DC Universe more like Marvel by using real cities instead of fictional ones like Metropolis, how would that change things?

[jb681131]

Suppose we made the DC Universe more like Marvel by using real cities instead of fictional ones like Metropolis, how would that change things?

Well, we already know that Gotham was created based on New York so Metropolis can't be New York. Lawrence Block says it very well in the Gotham Central Omnibus Introductive texte.

There is also a fan made (I think) map that locates every DC city (HD Link):
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[Alpha]

Well in my own personal take Metropolis would be set in Arizona, but it would be a very different city with a really particular history and purpose.

[PCN24454]

I think that using Bridgeport, CT would be best. The only problem is that it's not a major enough city.

[Tom Kalbfus]

Well in my own personal take Metropolis would be set in Arizona, but it would be a very different city with a really particular history and purpose.

Most of the movies I've seen with Metropolis have shown a Manhattanesque cityscape of gleaming towers. Metropolis has everything Manhattan has subway system included, it looks like it had a population of millions. Metropolis looks like a gleaming city of the future, most of the buildings look modern and glass office buildings are fairly common.

Gotham City looks older and more residential. New York City is divided into five Burroughs, at one time the Burroughs of Brooklyn was its own separate city, it has an older more residential feel. I think we could put Superman in Manhattan and Batman in Brooklyn, but in this world, Brooklyn is a separate city from Manhattan, it has its own separate mayor and city government. It kind of makes sense to give New York City/Metropolis Manhattan and the Bronx, and give Gotham City Brooklyn, QUEENS, and Staten Island. The Gothals Bridge connecting Staten Island to New Jersey now becomes the Gotham Bridge.

I think Central City seems like a Great Lakes city like Cincinnati, so the Flash is based in Cincinatti, Ohio. Wonder Woman lives in Washington DC. Aquaman looks like he belongs in California in Los Angeles or San Francisco which do you think?

On the other hand maybe Aquaman belongs on the East Coast, since he comes from Atlantis, so perhaps Miami.

[Gaius]

I've always just kind of heacanoned Metropolis is the NYC of DC.

Nolan films have me substitute Chicago for Gotham.

[Tzigone]

I used to like the idea of a real-city basis (in the broad strokes) for ease of understanding what type of city it was, prices, major fields of employment, crime rates, etc. Now, I'm more and more against it. I like Metropolis as its own city, with its own propulsion, though that's harder in some ways to work with. But much easier than others, because real cities change a lot more in 80 years than fictional ones do, if you know what I mean. New York in the 1970s and New York now, you know? And what happened to the rust belt. And just certain little quirks - I feel like Metropolis should have fewer old building than NYC. I've grown to really resent Metropolis being given boroughs like NYC and such. Obviously, with so many large cities, the DC universe USA must have a larger population than our USA, as many others have noted.

But that said, if I was using real cities, I'd keep Metropolis as New York rather than Gotham (though it definitely was New York, too). It's the City, and I think Chicago might suit Gotham better. Hell, depending on how gloomy you want it, maybe use a city that's really been declining (in population or income or prestige or safety or something) in the past 30 years. But, of course, that could only look at what the cities are today, not what they'll be in 30 years.

There is also a fan made (I think) map that locates every DC city

I mostly like that, for locations. I want to say I saw a pintrest post where someone said s/he made it and used the nearest real-world city for populations (explaining the tiny population of Metropolis, etc.).

[ironman2978]

Honestly while Gotham and Metropolis both serve as counterpoints of New York. Frank Miller stated in one interview: “Metropolis is New York in the daytime; Gotham City is New York at night”. Dennis O’Neil put it more detail: “Gotham is Manhattan below Fourteenth Street at 3 a.m., November 28 in a cold year. Metropolis is Manhattan between Fourteenth and One Hundred and Tenth Streets on the brightest, sunniest July day of the year.”

With Gotham, I always. thought Newark, New Jersey (because most people also put Gotham in New Jersey since the "World's Greatest Superhero" comic panel), or Boston, because of what Kurt Busiek said: " It's set in Boston because we wanted to set it in a place that felt to Bruce like Gotham City. Boston has preserved a lot of the older buildings and there are neighborhoods that just feel like it would be a great place for Batman to be tooling around. It allowed us to go a little differently than Manhattan in Secret Identity and gave us a background of visual images that John Paul could play with that were distinctive and kinda gothic and spooky."

While for Metropolis, I often think Manhattan or New York City. If not there, I would place it in Delaware or make Metropolis, Illinois an actual big city on the level of Los Angeles and NYC. Especially looking back at the Fleischer cartoons, the Donner Movie, and Tom De Haven's It's Superman novel. It makes sense coming from a small town in Kansas, he would want to work in somewhere like the New York Times.

I agree with Tom Kalbfus on Central City/Keystone, that city works best when it belongs in Ohio. While with Wonder Woman, I can considered she is a more international hero who goes wherever she's needed but she is more comfortable in London and Paris, but she keeps home bases anywhere, especially in America (Washington D.C., Boston, L.A., etc). Aquaman, I think more stories place him in New England city, while Miami is another good alternative tbh.

[Mutant God]

I've always just kind of heacanoned Metropolis is the NYC of DC.

Nolan films have me substitute Chicago for Gotham.

I agree with this

[NaVi]

It is assumed that a fictional city gives the author more freedom, it can develop without depending on the real world, but in DC metropolis does not develop it is just any city, so there would be no problem in changing it with a real city, I suppose it would be New York, the statue of liberty would be exchanged for one of Superman.

[Jim Kelly]

While the city was originally Cleveland and Joe Shuster drew the city to look like Toronto, it soon became an ersatz New York City. Which was the case with most cities in 1940s comics. The Spirit's city was literally New York and Wildwood Cemetery was in New Jersey--but that was soon changed to the fictional Central City. All the editors, writers and artists lived and worked in the New York area, most had grown up there. This is why Stan Lee put his characters in New York--following the maxim write what you know.

I hate it when there's both a New York City and these other fictional versions of N.Y. in the same universe. Pick a lane. I wish they got rid of New York in the current comics and just stick with fictional cities. That's their brand.

I'm surprised Disney hasn't made Marvel use fictional cities rather than New York. They can't trademark New York City. They could trademark New Duckburg. This is where Warner Bros. are ahead of the game--they can trademark all those fictional cities and license them out for merchandising.

If you got rid of the fictional cities and just used real ones, that would force big changes in the universe. It would become more like Stan Lee's New York, where all those super-heroes had to co-exist within the same real estate. There would have to be compromises between the Metropolis of Superman and the Gotham of Batman to harmonize the two as one functioning city.

Likely many other super-heroes would be living in New York and there would be a hierarchy. Superman would rent the top floor of an office tower and he would specialize in only world-threatening cases. This would explain why he doesn't clean up the city and why the non-powered heroes have to fight crime in the slums. Clark would lose his altruism and accept payment for his services.

[Johnny Thunders!]

I always thought of Metropolis as Chicago, Gotham as New York City, Coast City as San Diego, and Central City... I guess as Chicago again. I do like the idea that they can visit cities in our world but I thought of Metropolis and Gotham as sort of extra cities.

[witchboy]

Metropolis always felt like NYC to me.
At times Gotham does feel like NYC too, but also can work as Chicago.
If I were going to put WW in a real city, I associate her with Washington DC because she did live there for a long time. As well as NYC, and the fictional Gateway City, but D.C. seemed like the best fit for her.

[DABellWrites]

I'd just plop everyone where their respective creators was born/lived/or died, like Jack Kirby and Stan Lee did in the 60s.

[OopsIdiditagain]

I headcannoned San Fransisco/Silicon Valley as Metropolis. But if NYC was Metropolis it would have less gothic architecture, the skyscrapers would look more "modern". Something like Vancouver.