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.

[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

[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.