Is it set in stone which States Gotham and Metropolis are located in?

[tib2d2]

I've read a few places that Gotham is in New Jersey, and Metropolis is across the water in Delaware. Is this set in stone in DC continuity? Or has it ever been mentioned in other states?

[Anodyne]

I've read a few places that Gotham is in New Jersey, and Metropolis is across the water in Delaware. Is this set in stone in DC continuity? Or has it ever been mentioned in other states?

Real-Life Metropolis, IL was authorized by DC in 1972 to call itself Superman's hometown.

Where heroes and history meet on the shores of the majestic Ohio River. This All-American town has been a must visit destination for Superman fans since being authorized by National Periodicals (D.C. Comics) to be known as the adopted "Home of Superman" in January 1972. Metropolis has become more than a comic fan Mecca. With world-renown events that celebrate the history, hunting and yes, Superman; as well as, an action packed casino and outdoor wonders that take you through the Shawnee National Forest or even under water through a Boeing 727 Airplane, Metropolis is a town that has been added to many bucket lists!

[Jackalope89]

Meanwhile, Batman is chilling out in Turkey.

[Venomized-spider-man]

I've read a few places that Gotham is in New Jersey, and Metropolis is across the water in Delaware. Is this set in stone in DC continuity? Or has it ever been mentioned in other states?

It fluxuated a couple times during the Golden age but around the Silver age and post-crisis set in stone that Metropolis is in Delaware south of Gotham New Jersey separated by the Delaware Bay

[DochaDocha]

It fluxuated a couple times during the Golden age but around the Silver age and post-crisis set in stone that Metropolis is in Delaware south of Gotham New Jersey separated by the Delaware Bay

I thought that was specific to a board game.

I'm all for expanding heroes beyond NYC, but suggesting the City of Tomorrow is located in Delaware never made sense to me.

Also, in case you know nothing about Metropolis, IL, it's certainly nothing like the Metropolis in the comics, TV, or movies. But I think it's cool that they have an annual Superman celebration and I would like to check it out once.

[The Frog Bros]

Delaware is a wonderful state, lots of nice beaches, history, and tax free outlet shopping. But Metropolis being there doesn't seem quite right.

[Jim Kelly]

They don't use stone anymore for printing comic books, so now nothing is set in stone. If there are made up cities, shouldn't there be made up states as well? I prefer to think that Gotham and Metropolis are both made up versions of New York City (since that's clearly the city that they were modelled after), so they both exist in an unnamed made up version of New York state--so unnamed Gotham state and unnamed Metropolis state.

A couple of decades ago, there was a comic that showed a map of North America, where Canada looked a lot smaller, with the U.S. border being further north than it should be. So I came up with the theory that Canada is much smaller, with less southern real estate, in the comic book world than in our world. This would explain two things--why there's so few Canadian characters in the comic book world and why Canada is so cold in the comic book world whenever we do see it. That extra property allows space for all the made up U.S. cities to exist, along with the actual U.S. cities that we know in our world. Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal may exist in the comic book world, but they're located further north than in our reality.

[Jon Clark]

I can't remember the exact description but in the Pre-Crisis introduction of Superboy-Prime Superman described Earth-Prime by stating that a lot of northeastern US was different. Things like Boston spreading out into an area that should contain a DCU city (maybe Star City or Midway). I'm almost positive he also referenced Gotham and Metropolis. Just not sure if they were replaced or if the land they are on wasn't there.

[Superfly Frankenstein]

It fluxuated a couple times during the Golden age but around the Silver age and post-crisis set in stone that Metropolis is in Delaware south of Gotham New Jersey separated by the Delaware Bay

I like this actually. Having NYC, Gotham and Metropolis (all cities with over 7 mill each in population) being in the same state is just illogical.

[DochaDocha]

I like this actually. Having NYC, Gotham and Metropolis (all cities with over 7 mill each in population) being in the same state is just illogical.

Fair point, but consider that Delaware's largest city is Wilmington, population 71,000.

I do think it's kind of funny to think that Gotham is in New Jersey.



Can we just excise NYC from the DCU and say it's represented by both Metropolis and Gotham?

[Jim Kelly]

If I had my way, there'd be no reference to New York City in the comics. Leave that for the Marvel books. Metropolis and Gotham each have everything that New York has--it's surplus to supply.

In the 1970s Superman comics, it gave me great happiness to know that the creators were using their real life experience in New York for what was happening in the fictional city of Metropolis (an idealized New York City).

There was even a villain named Black Rock--a sly reference to the CBS Building (a.k.a. Black Rock).

Two or more big cities right next to each other--that's pretty much standard in the real world. It always happens that urban development clusters in these large metropolises--conurbation.

[Alan2099]

I just assume Mxyzptlk moves it every once in a while just to mess with people.

[Sutekh]

Smallville was always a riot about the exact location of Metropolis. In one episode, you could sit atop a grain silo or water tower in Smallville and see Metropolis in the distance. In another, it's a *two hour drive* away. Then Ma Kent is working there, and comes home in, like, thirty minutes, and various other non-super-speedsters, like Lex, Lois and Lionel, could travel between the two in a few minutes?

I always kind of felt like Metropolis *was* New York, and totally replaced it, on DC Earth. Same for Gotham and Boston. But in Justice League vs. Avengers Superman scanned around on Marvel Earth with his vision and noted, 'Their Earth seems smaller than ours. They are missing entire cities. No Metropolis, no Gotham...' so, at least in that story, it seemed canon that DC Earth has both a New York and a Metropolis, a Gotham and a Boston.

I actually had to check Wikipedia to have any idea where Coast City or Central City were!

[Jim Kelly]

SMALLVILLE makes perfect sense to me.

When they're at high school--outside of in studio filming--they're sometimes at Vancouver Tech or sometimes at Temp, both in Vancouver--Tech was the school where all my local buddies who were into crime were sent to learn a trade. Not that it's like that anymore.

The Kent farm is in Abbotsford, in the Township of Langley. Now if I was going to one of my sibling's for Christmas, I'd have to take a series of buses to get all the way there, so it would be about a three hour trip. If they drove me home, it would take about an hour, depending on traffic.

The Talon is the Clova Theatre in Cloverdale which is close to Abbotsford.

From certain locations in the Lower Mainland, you can see parts of downtown Vancouver in the distance. And there's farmland all around Vancouver--even in Vancouver itself, in Southlands, there are horse farms and you'll see people riding their horses in that area.

All of Metropolis is pretty much in Vancouver itself. Although they would usually use the University of British Columbia for university settings or some intellectual stuff. They also have a farm at U.B.C. and the university is surrounded by forest. U.B.C. is its own city on the border of Vancouver, with a view of the sea.

The exterior of the Luthor mansion is all the way across the water on Vancouver Island, close to Victoria. And other locations had to be filmed way out in the interior--which would have been quite a journey for the film crew.

One of my nephews used to work on film and T.V. crews (but after SMALLVILLE had wrapped) and he was often sleeping in his car, because it wasn't worth it to go home just to drive out to the next day's location early in the morning.

[Pete26]

I always assumed that Metropolis was a souped up version of Topeka, the capital of Kansas. I read somewhere, I think that it was a novelisation in the 70's that Clark went to the University of Kansas to study Journalism. In Smallville, Metropolis was the nearest city to Smallville and Clark and his fellow alumni base themselves there after graduation. Clark's Mother becomes a member of the State Senate after the death of Jonathon Kent.

It also makes some sense as crime has plummeted since the 1990's.