Metropolis (comics)
Metropolis is a fictional city appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, best known as the home of Superman, his closest allies and some of his foes. First appearing by name in Action Comics #16, Metropolis is depicted as a prosperous and massive city somewhere in the Northeastern United States. In recent years, it has been stated to be located in New York or Delaware.
The co-creator and original artist of Superman, Joe Shuster, modeled the Metropolis skyline after Toronto, where he was born and lived until he was ten. Since then, however, the look and feel of Metropolis has been greatly influenced by New York City.
Within the DC Universe, Metropolis is depicted as being one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the world, having a population of 11 million citizens.
In addition to Superman, the city is also home to other superheroes, such as Booster Gold, Black Lightning, Thorn, Gangbuster, Doctor Light, Hawkgirl and Marilyn Moonlight among several others.
Creation
Like many other fictional cities in DC Comics, the location of Metropolis has varied over the years but is usually portrayed as a major city in the Northeast, sharing various qualities with New York City. Superman co-creator Joe Shuster moved to Cleveland at age ten, where he met co-creator and Ohio native Jerry Siegel.Originally intending to sell the Superman strips to a Cleveland newspaper, they decided to set the stories there, but when the strips were re-used for the comic books, they changed the location to the fictional Metropolis. Shuster was quoted as having modeled his Metropolis cityscape on that of his hometown, Toronto, and in the early versions of Superman, Clark Kent worked for a newspaper called the Daily Star, modeled after the real-life Toronto Star. Action Comics #2, however, mistakenly portrays Clark Kent as a reporter for the Cleveland Evening News.
Geography
In Superman #2, Metropolis was placed in the U.S. state of New York, making it the earliest specific reference to the location of Metropolis. In that issue, Clark Kent sends a telegram to George Taylor, the editor of the Daily Star, addressed to "Metropolis, N.Y."In the 1940s Superman cartoons, produced by Paramount Pictures, Fleischer Studios and Famous Studios, Superman is said to live on the island of Manhattan. In the seventh cartoon of the series, Electric Earthquake, a Native American mad scientist claims that his people are the rightful owners of Manhattan, thus placing these cartoons on the island. In the fifth cartoon in the series, The Bulleteers, the name of the city is identified as Metropolis, as the Bulleteers address in that cartoon the population of Superman's city as "citizens of Metropolis"; and in the thirteenth cartoon Destruction, Inc., Metropolis is even seen spelled out twice on the Metropolis Munition Works.
In a 1970s edition of "Ask the Answer Man", a column that ran occasionally in DC publications, it was stated that Metropolis and Gotham City were adjacent to New York City; across the harbor from each other. That same column stated that Green Arrow's home, Star City, was in Connecticut, Flash's Central City was in Ohio, and Hawkman's Midway City was in Michigan. An earlier issue of DC's fanzine Amazing World of DC Comics, however, stated that Metropolis was located in Delaware, while Gotham was placed in New Jersey. The 1990 Atlas of the DC Universe role playing game supplement, published by Mayfair Games, states that Metropolis is in Delaware.
In June 1976, Superman #300 featured an out-of-canon story about the infant Kal-El arriving on Earth in that year, triggering an increase in Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. In that story's version of the year 2001, passing reference is made to the merging of the eastern seaboard cities from Boston to Washington, D.C., into a "newly incorporated urban center" called "Metropolis".
In his 1978 work, The Great Superman Book, an encyclopedia of the first forty years of the Superman comics, author Michael Fleisher cites many examples which demonstrate that Metropolis equates with New York City. The most blatant of these might be the statement he cites from Action Comics #143, which states that the Statue of Liberty stands in "Metropolis Harbor". The Statue of Liberty, in fact, stands in New York Harbor.
In the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths comics, Smallville was often shown as being within driving distance of Metropolis, although with no definitive location. John Byrne's 1986 revamp of Superman cited the city as being in Kansas.
The 1992 "The Death of Superman" storyline depicts Doomsday on a path from Ohio through the state of New York, ending in Metropolis, and the 2005 comic Countdown to Infinite Crisis also places Metropolis in the state of New York.
The 2003 DC Comics/Marvel Comics crossover mini-series JLA/Avengers depicts the city as along the multi-state Interstate 95, which is the main highway on the East Coast of the United States, and portrays the corresponding location in the Marvel Universe as forests and fields, explaining that Marvel's Earth and DC's Earth have different surface areas to account for their different geography.
On the television series Superman: The Animated Series, the second part of the episode titled "Little Girl Lost" depicts Darkseid's forces using a machine hidden in or around Metropolis to attempt to pull a comet into the earth. The beam from that machine is depicted originating from the area of the mid-western United States where Kansas is located.
Frank Miller has said that "Metropolis is New York in the daytime; Gotham City is New York at night." Gotham City is home to Batman, whose activities are more often nocturnal, while Metropolis is home to Superman, who usually operates during the day. In terms of atmosphere, Batman writer and editor Dennis O'Neil has said that, figuratively, "Batman's Gotham City is Manhattan below 14th Street at eleven minutes past midnight on the coldest night in November, and Metropolis is Manhattan between 14th and 110th Streets on the brightest, sunniest July day of the year". New York City has been more recently used as a locale in the DC Universe, like the Marvel Universe, in which it exists as a separate city from Metropolis and Gotham City. The Justice Society of America, for example, is based in New York, as were the Teen Titans.
In the DC Universe film franchise, Metropolis is located in Delaware, as confirmed by James Gunn, the writer and director of Superman.
In relation to Gotham City
Metropolis is frequently depicted as being within driving distance of Gotham City, home of Batman. This happens, for example, in the three-issue 1990 mini-series of World's Finest Comics by Dave Gibbons, Steve Rude, and Karl Kesel. The distance between the two cities has varied greatly over the years, ranging from being hundreds of miles apart to Gotham and Metropolis being twin cities on opposite sides of Delaware Bay, with Metropolis in Delaware and Gotham City being in New Jersey.In Bronze Age stories that depicted Metropolis and Gotham City as twin cities, the Metro-Narrows Bridge was said to be the main route connecting Metropolis to Gotham City. Stated as being the longest suspension bridge in the world, the Metro-Narrows Bridge is likely based on the Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge, which stretches between Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City.
In The World's Greatest Superheroes newspaper comic strip, a 1978 Sunday strip shows a map of the east coast of the United States; the map places Metropolis in Delaware and Gotham City across Delaware Bay in New Jersey, with the Metro-Narrows Bridge linking the two cities. A similar map appeared in The New Adventures of Superboy #22, with Smallville shown within driving distance of both cities. 1990's The Atlas of the DC Universe also places Metropolis in Delaware and Gotham City in New Jersey.
However, the exact location of the two cities has varied. A map of the United States in the Secret Files & Origins Guide to the DC Universe 2000 depicts Metropolis and Gotham City as being somewhere in the tri-state area.
In the TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, when Lois finds out about Superman's secret identity and yells at Clark about how he's been hiding his secretly being Superman, he responds, "A little louder, Lois. I don't think they could hear you in Gotham City." In the TV series Smallville, Linda Lake, a columnist for the Daily Planet, once boasted that she could see Gotham City from her new office. In Superman: The Animated Series, Bruce Wayne is shown taking his private jet aircraft to Metropolis, indicating that the two cities have at least some distance between them.
In the 2016 film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, director Zack Snyder confirmed that Metropolis and Gotham City would be portrayed as geographically situated right next to each other, on the opposite sides of a bay, similar to Jersey City and Manhattan.
History
A Native American tribe sold Metropolis Island to the first European settlers in 1644, similar to the history of New York City, in which Native Americans sold Manhattan Island to Dutch settlers in 1626.Features
Over the years, Metropolis' features have greatly changed in the comics; however, Metropolis is always presented as being a global city. It is often referred to as "The Big Apricot" just as New York City is nicknamed "The Big Apple". It is commonly portrayed as having an Art Deco style of architecture, much like New York City. The skyline and many of the notable landmarks in Metropolis are based on real-life landmarks in New York City. Frank Miller has said that "Metropolis is New York in the daytime; Gotham City is New York at night."Metropolis' features became more defined and more obviously based on New York following both 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths miniseries and John Byrne's subsequent revamping of Superman, including the late 1980s comic special The World of Metropolis.
According to Action Comics #143, the Statue of Liberty is said to stand in "Metropolis Harbor", while the real-life Statue of Liberty stands in New York Harbor. However, most stories indicate the Statue of Liberty is actually in New York City, which also exists in the DC Universe as a separate city from Metropolis.
The map of Metropolis designed for Mayfair Games' first edition of the DC Heroes Role-Playing Game resembled that of Manhattan.