Reconsidering Gateway City: Wonder Woman Having Her Own Iconic Town!

[Mel Dyer]

It's a shame Gateway City wasn't around long enough to become one of the DCU's iconic superhero locales or even mildly interesting, because I still think Wonder Woman deserves her own town! Yes...a slightly quirky, comically menacing, somewhat stately and instantly ICONIC playset from which to launch Diana's greatest adventures - maybe, a place to put her feet up and slam back caramel Macchiatos, with Etta, Steve and I Ching, sometimes. Sometimes, it'd be a place for monsters and oversized cosmic enforcers to blow up or tear up...

Definitely, a place to tear up, ..at least, once, every two years.

I think it should prominently feature the clock-tower and tree-lined campus of Holliday College, top-secret Blankenship Air Force Base, the ultra-modern Cale Tower and Campion Building, ..the Marston Monument, a large, obelisk-topped monolith that recalls the Washington Monument (honoring a fictional namesake of Marston - NOT the creator), ..and, at its center, A.R.G.U.S Headquarters, which resembles the U.S. Capitol – but, is a sinister, red sandstone building, topped by a rotating, bronze dome, with a giant, mechanical eye on it! Marston Harbor, Sappho’s Coffee (because Sappho REALLY needed a good, hot cup of coffee) and Kanigher’s department store, filled with oversized sight-gags, mocking comedic moments from Wonder Woman's past, would also make recurring appearances.

I've always envisioned her in a stately, but, also clunky, rather Spartan city ..that looked and felt like the overtly militarized Washington, D.C. of the 1940s - the one with a WAR Department [Whew! Scary!] and a National Armory that wasn't used for monster truck shows and gospel revivals! I've envisioned it cluttered with absurdly garagntuan MONUMENTS to people, most of us've never heard of or read about, and sometimes, they'd come to life and beat the hell out of you! Ha'ha! It's enough of a parody of the real D.C. that you get the joke - Marston and Kanigher would have LOVED that - but, not so weird or crazy that it couldn't just nondescriptly sit in the background, sometimes while important things happened to Diana and her supporting cast.

Get this lady a supporting cast, please!

It should also feel like an important, world-class, international city, the way Metropolis and Gotham do, because I think an Amazon princess would hunker down in a city, where important things were happening...but, NOT too important for cosmic Adjudicators to tear up and turn everyone into crystal statues! That actually happened in pre-Crisis Washington, D.C...swear I'm not making this crap up! This is WONDER WOMAN...used to be a place, where any bizarre, freaky thing you can think of could actually happen!! [I miss that comic! Can you tell?]

I also think it should be near the real D.C., literally right next door, ..like Georgetown (technically in DC), Annapolis, Pentagon City or garish, irrelevant National Harbor. I think it should be close enough for the Potomac River to run right in front of it ..and for Steve to grumble about infuriating visits to Capitol Hill and the White House.

What would you stick in there? What would you CALL it? Something interesting, I hope...

[AmiMizuno]

Agreed. One thing also is Gateway should really be a gateway between the magic world and the real world. That magic creatures do live there. It's a gateway to all the magical cities in the world some like Eu government. Also am I the only one who wants Diana to be 18 and attend Holliday College? I think because of that Diana should get her citizeship so she can help both the magical and the regular peopel but her citizenship still applies to both sides.

[richalex]

I like the idea of Gateway City, and its name. If Gotham is of the Past, though Modern, and Metropolis is how things would be leading to the future, Gateway, is the bridge to get there. It should almost look like DC, with a mixture of Pillars and GrecoRoman architecture, mixed with Modern Buildings. Gotham should be like my city, Chicago, Old with the new. And Metropolis should always look shinny and new with huge tall buildings on every corner.

[CRaymond]

My ears were burning.

I've had a few thoughts on Gateway City.

I'd rename it San Entrada, to give it different initials than Gotham City.

I'd simplify things and have Diana Prince be her government name, so she can collect a paycheck working as a Humanities adjunct at west coast Ivy League Marston University. The campus grounds would also feature the elite Marston Academy, a college-prep boarding school, where young heroes like Robin, Miss Martian, Static would secretly live, learn and train. Instead of having a Holliday College for girls, the Academy would have two dormitories: girls would be housed at Holloway, boys at Byrne. Marston's campus flag, with a block "M" would be inverted occasionally to honor their celebrity superhero "W"onder Woman.

San Entrada would be a mess of a wild variety of architecture, with a downtown featuring hundred-year-old Art Deco skyscrapers, like its sister cities Gotham and Metropolis. Situated around a Entrada Bay, the city is divided into several boroughs separated by rivers and connected by several bridges; the largest bridge connecting the far side of the bay. It's beams and cables form another "W".

The center of Entrada Bay is a haunted island permissable only to those of the Ohlone tribe of native Americans. Their god Kaknu sleeps there, and accepts tribute.

The city reaches into the Redwood forest, up the mountain side, and even under the bay itself, where immigrants from the nearby Pacific colony of Atlantis have created a queendom under the cruel rule of Clea.

The city is also home to the Hall of Justice, where citizens can visit and engage with visiting heroes, and hear speakers from around the world.

[Mel Dyer]

My ears were burning.

I've had a few thoughts on Gateway City.

I'd rename it San Entrada, to give it different initials than Gotham City.

I'd simplify things and have Diana Prince be her government name, so she can collect a paycheck working as a Humanities adjunct at west coast Ivy League Marston University. The campus grounds would also feature the elite Marston Academy, a college-prep boarding school, where young heroes like Robin, Miss Martian, Static would secretly live, learn and train. Instead of having a Holliday College for girls, the Academy would have two dormitories: girls would be housed at Holloway, boys at Byrne. Marston's campus flag, with a block "M" would be inverted occasionally to honor their celebrity superhero "W"onder Woman.

San Entrada would be a mess of a wild variety of architecture, with a downtown featuring hundred-year-old Art Deco skyscrapers, like its sister cities Gotham and Metropolis. Situated around a Entrada Bay, the city is divided into several boroughs separated by rivers and connected by several bridges; the largest bridge connecting the far side of the bay. It's beams and cables form another "W".

The center of Entrada Bay is a haunted island permissable only to those of the Ohlone tribe of native Americans. Their god Kaknu sleeps there, and accepts tribute.

The city reaches into the Redwood forest, up the mountain side, and even under the bay itself, where immigrants from the nearby Pacific colony of Atlantis have created a queendom under the cruel rule of Clea.

The city is also home to the Hall of Justice, where citizens can visit and engage with visiting heroes, and hear speakers from around the world.

Very imaginative...and that's what's missing from Wonder Woman, post-Marston. I love that Marston Academy carries on what Holliday College used to be.

[Confuzzled]

All great ideas. I'd also stick the world's foremost hospital (Blackwell Memorial) and medical research centre in there too, capable of treating even superhumans to an extent.

[CRaymond]

I love that Marston Academy carries on what Holliday College used to be.

Thanks! Yeah I see Wonder Woman as the very first legacy hero. Her mother was a superhero in antiquity, and built a nation of women to preserve paradise. When Diana finds herself in Man's World, she follows her mother's example --and builds a society of superheroes to preserve justice.

[Mister BoMan]

I would love to see Gateway City come back along with Steve, Etta, etc.

[AmiMizuno]

Sadly Gateway would have returned in Legend of Wonder Woman. I think that Gateway should be a gateway of magically beings who live and travel to gateway. Maybe Babara should be a teacher looking for the Cheetah artifacts

[Mel Dyer]

Agreed. One thing also is Gateway should really be a gateway between the magic world and the real world. That magic creatures do live there. It's a gateway to all the magical cities in the world some like Eu government...

I also liked that Gateway was a nexus for portals to all of the weird and magnificent worlds that Wonder Woman travelled to in the Golden Age - one of them, of course...Paradise Island! I think that could be part of Gateway's niche in the DCU, ..being a place where the denizens of all of these worlds occasionally visit us and make trouble for Wonder Woman.

Keeping up with all of that would give ARGUS and Blankenship AFB something to do.

I like the idea of Gateway City, and its name. If Gotham is of the Past, though Modern, and Metropolis is how things would be leading to the future, Gateway, is the bridge to get there. It should almost look like DC, with a mixture of Pillars and GrecoRoman architecture, mixed with Modern Buildings. Gotham should be like my city, Chicago, Old with the new. And Metropolis should always look shinny and new with huge tall buildings on every corner.

I would really like to see Wonder Woman take up residence in a uniquely iconic, fictional town that would be instantly recognizable to all of us - that would be as much a part of her mythos, as her Invisible Plane ..and kangas! This would be a quirky, larger-than-life backdrop that would bring some of the imagination that made WW's Golden Age and even the satirical wackiness of the Kanigher Era, back to the title in a big way.

This title desperately needs that. Doom and gloom and pretentions to dark fantasy, with swords and high-brow dialogue, are fine and seem to be gaining popularity with the masses, ..but, the Marstonian weirdness and Kanigheresque sight-gags would balance all of that and makes it uniquely WW's. A fictional town could help pull all that together, very nicely.

And who says it's got to called 'Gateway' anything? I never meant to confine anyone's musings to re-loading or re-conceptualizing Gateway or even using that name, again. Marston City, Georgetown, Pentagon City, Navy City, Argus City or whatever sounds just as good to me!

Call it whatever you like!

Thanks! Yeah I see Wonder Woman as the very first legacy hero. Her mother was a superhero in antiquity, and built a nation of women to preserve paradise. When Diana finds herself in Man's World, she follows her mother's example...

I forgot to throw in a brownstone townhouse, just like we have here in the real Washington, for Diana to share with Etta and Artemis ..or vain, kooky Queen Desira of Venus! I think Diana should preside over a house of wild, wonderful women, who are different from one another, as night and day, ..AND who don't always get along! Somewhere in that brownstone (which doesn't have to be brown, at all) would be Diana's magic sphere ..and an arsenal for her mystical weapons, of course.

All ladies, here...Steve, I Ching, Howard Huckaby and Champion can drop by for visits. It'd be like Diana had her own little tribe of Amazons, ready for anything!

[sakuyamons]

I would love to see Gateway City come back along with Steve, Etta, etc.

I think in GL they mentioned Gateway City, Jessica even asked why Diana even moved from that Wonderful place.

[Mel Dyer]

ARGUS, btw, needs some big, crazy, menacing HQ in this fictional town - something as iconic as the globe on the Daily Planet building. ARGUS doesn't have heli-carriers and some of the visually distinctive junk that makes Marvel's SHIELD so cool. Most of us can't imagine Metropolis's skyline without that big globe spinning around, ..and ARGUS could bring the same thing to WW's fictional town.

Again...doesn't have to be called 'Gateway', for my money. I think Argus City or Marston City or whatever works, just as well.

[Dr. Poison]

I always liked Gateway City. I say make it a suburb of Washington D.C. this way she and Steve can be close to the Capital. Just keep Diana out of Boston, NYC, and London. They were all a bit too generic for her IMO.

[Factor]

These thread has so many awesome ideas, now I really want Diana to return there.

[Mel Dyer]

I always liked Gateway City. I say make it a suburb of Washington D.C. this way she and Steve can be close to the Capital. Just keep Diana out of Boston, NYC, and London. They were all a bit too generic for her IMO.

I agree, even in total appreciation of what Brian Azzarello attempted to do - make Diana's extremely quirky, grotesque Olympian family function as her Metropolis or Gotham. It might have worked and stuck, ..if he hadn't taken so agonizingly long to tell a story.

London, Boston and New York work, only if she's the female Doc Savage, diving out of her unnamed, nondescript townhouse, ..straight into her Invisible Plane and jetting off to weird dimensions or lost civilizations! Comics, being a visual medium, and not prose-driven adventure magazines, that scenario leaves much to be desired.