About the Style of Metropolis in S:TAS, JL and JLU Cartoons

[Raider969]

I loved how Gotham looked, but felt the StAS Metropolis was boring.

I like to know why? The differences between Gotham and Metropolis that I notice is that Gotham looks old while Metropolis looks old and futuristic at the same time, while Gotham is mostly at night while Metropolis is mostly during the day, both differences being almost opposite to each other. Could those differences be why you like Gotham, but think Metropolis is boring? I like both Gotham and Metropolis because of their looks. As I said before, I like the past 20th century look and the future look.

[DochaDocha]

One could argue that Gotham just looks more interesting, or has more personality, than Metropolis, period. If you did an architectural tour of Metropolis, the tour guide would be like, "Here's the Daily Planet building with the enormous globe that'll cause a lot of damage once a supervillain attack the city. And to your right is the Superman memorial statue, erected after his battle with Doomsday, during which Daily Planet globe was knocked off the roof and destroyed a few cars, and Superman died. Our tour is now concluded."

[Vordan]

One could argue that Gotham just looks more interesting, or has more personality, than Metropolis, period. If you did an architectural tour of Metropolis, the tour guide would be like, "Here's the Daily Planet building with the enormous globe that'll cause a lot of damage once a supervillain attack the city. And to your right is the Superman memorial statue, erected after his battle with Doomsday, during which Daily Planet globe was knocked off the roof and destroyed a few cars, and Superman died. Our tour is now concluded."

Add the Lexcorp building and STAR Labs but yeah the number of recognizable locations in Metropolis is pretty low. Batman writers have spent a lot of time world building in Gotham. Of course the Arkham video games have also helped by making the general audience more aware of stuff like Iceberg Lounge and what not. I do think Metropolis has a ton of potential though, stuff like the Avenue of Tomorrow from Busiek and Johns run was a great idea, Metropolis should be a city where there are constant types of architecture and people you can’t see anywhere else. Something in the vein of the City from Transmetropolitan:


Bright, colorful, suffocating under corporate advertising from Lexcorp and other companies. Psychedelic cyberpunk basically.

I still far prefer the DCAU Metropolis look to the rather generic modern day city we usually get in the comics. I would keep that look for the business center where the Lexcorp and Daily Planet buildings are. In an ideal world every district of Metropolis would have its own feel.

[Raider969]

I prefer the way and Metropolis looks like in the DC Animated Universe too. I love that they mixed the old with the futuristic stuff.

[DochaDocha]

In an ideal world every district of Metropolis would have its own feel.

DCUO did a pretty decent job of creating districts within Metropolis. I wouldn't say the city was particularly memorable, but it felt like a city with actual subsections.

[Sacred Knight]

The comics had somewhat the right idea with Metropolis after B13. One of the few things that honestly grabbed me during that era when I read up on it. Not exactly the same thing as we're discussing as it was straight up futuristic, but it was still something unique for the city befitting Superman's home base.