Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Lois & Clark Where is Metropolis?

I get the distinct impression that in LnC, Metropolis is supposed to be New York City, although admittedly that would be contradicted by Clark's sarcastic request to Lois that she speak up, since they might not have heard her in Gotham City -- Gotham City definitely being a stand-in for NYC. I know that other Superman venues imply or state it is elsewhere. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_*comics*#Location has several paragraphs discussing possible placements for Metropolis.

My favourite choice of locales is the Dover, Delaware area. According to http://en.allexperts.com/e/m/me/metropolis_*comics*.htm, (Please substitute open and close parentheses for the asterisks in the preceding URLs; the MB won't let me post this with the parentheses in the URLs.) I like that choice for two reasons; the first is that it would place it in my home state; but the second is because of the county Dover resides in...If you aren't a Delawarean, you might not know that Dover is located in Kent County!

I realize that the preponderance of the evidence places Metropolis elsewhere, but I thought you all might be amused about the county name. I must admit that nowadays whenever I hear Kent County mentioned in the news, it brings a smile to my lips...

cheers,
Lynn

See The Geography of Metropolis

And in one episode, there is an envelope with a Metropolis address and an NYC zip code. (But I don't recall which episode.)

Oh, and in SR, Luthor's map puts Metropolis at the lowermost point of New York State, across the river from New Jersey. Map

We'll ignore the Smallville TV series, where the writers seem to have placed Metropolis about an hour away from Smallville. I'm trying to remember if they ever mentioned that Smallville was actually in Kansas.

And one of these days I plan to actually drive through Metropolis, Illinois, instead of just passing by on the Interstate.

I think that Metropolis was originally supposed to be Cleveland, which was, I think, the hometown of Siegel and Shuster. Soon it became identified with a comic book version of New York. However, Gotham City is also New York. I believe that DC solved the problem by having Metropolis be slightly south of New York and Gotham slightly north of it.

Ann

Oh, that mention of Cleveland reminds me...At one point (I can't recall the episode off-hand), Clark flies through an electrical storm over Cleveland as he flies between Metropolis and Smallville. Unless he was taking a detour, that would put Metropolis East of Cleveland and north even of New York City.

cheers,
Lynn

Oh, that zip code reminds me .. In Barbarians at the Planet, Lois gives her phone number, starting with area code 217. That is a valid area code for Springfield, Illinois. But if Metropolis were in Illinois, Clark *really* took the scenic route when heading from there to Smallville...

Maybe Metropolis has some very weirdly active plate tectonics that cause it to migrate throughout the country. ;-)

cheers,
Lynn

Shuster was born and spent his first years in Toronto until his family moved to Cleveland when he was 10. He was a paperboy for the Toronto Star (would that become The Daily Planet? )

So perhaps Metropolis is his imaginary blend of his childhood home and his adolescent home?

c.
eidt: just checked Wikipedia ( ) and it cites an interview Shuster gave in the year before he died, in which he indicated that Metropolis was based on Toronto. Also found out that at first Clark Kent worked for "The Daily Star" but that DC later changed the paper's name to the Daily Planet. ( never knew that but I bet Ann and Tank, comic book fans extraordinaire, both knew that latter bit )

Yes I knew that the paper was originally called the Daily Star.

When wondering about Metropolis one has to immediately discount 'Smallville'. They, for purposes of story conveinence placed Metropolis close enough to Smallville to be able to see the skyline from the top of the Smallville watertower.

Toronto, Cleveland, New York, Boston, and other major cities have all been 'implied' as the location of Metropolis. There are two keys to the location of Metropolis. First, it's a coastal city. You have Hobb's Bay and a definite 'docks area' of the city. Next, unlike Marvel superheroes like Spiderman who actually hails from New York, DC heros don't exist in our world. You have Metropolis, Gotham, Central and Keystone cities (two midwestern cities across a river from each other), Star city (a Seattle analog?), and Coast City.

Metropolis and Gotham were often felt to represent the two 'sides' of New York. Gotham being the dark and seedier side of a large city; while Metropolis, the 'City of Tomorrow' represented the more bright and progressive aspects. The most telling factoid is that Metropolis isn't even in a state that exists in our world. L&C placed Metropolis in New Troy, an obvious analog to New York state, but not New York state.

I can't say that I remember any state references ever given to any of the DC cities in the comics. They were always careful to keep their locations rather general and generic.

Tank (who says the Chris Reeves movies used New York City locations for their exterior shots)

In Countdown to Infinite Crisis (April 2005) Metropolis is stated to be in New York State.

Occasionally there were also driver's licenses depicted that put Metropolis in NY.

But in L&C, Metropolis is in New Troy which (almost) has to be assumed to be a 14th original colony. (Or NY state was subdivided.)

Ain't fiction fun?

Originally posted by Carol Malo:

Yep, I knew that!

Here you can see how Clark talks to the editor of the Daily Star about Superman, right after he has been hired as a reporter there:



The editor here isn't Perry. I have forgotten his name. Taylor, perhaps?

Note that in the last panel, Clark is told about a wife-beating. Did you know that one the very first times that the original Siegel and Shuster Superman showed himself in his super suit to do a heroic deed was when he stopped a wife-beating?

Ann

P.S. Yes, according to Wikipedia, the "Perry" of the Daily Star was called George Taylor.

Well, as far as LnC is concerned, numerous occasions indicate that Metropolis is New York and New Try is New York state. There's Centennial Park, the map shown in one of the S1 episodes that clearly depicts Manhattan, Hobbs River and West River as stand-ins for Hudson River and East River. And the only time New York is mentioned in the scripts is when Wanda Detroit mentions her past career and that she's played in New York. So, Lois probably came up with the name 'New York' as a stand-in for Metropolis.

Michael

Interesting comic, Ann. Thanks for posting it! Do you know off-hand what year it was published?

- Lynn

You make a lot of compelling points, Michael.

I wonder whether it is a coincidence that, except for one letter, "Troy" is "York" spelled backward? (Perhaps "New Kroy" would just sound too weird...)

- Lynn

Originally posted by Carol Malo:

I had no idea!!!



Metropolis?

Ann

Originally posted by Lynn S. M.:

Yes, it is from Action Comics #1, the comic that launched Superman in 1938. It had this iconic cover:



Ann

Oh, and by the way... in 1938, Superman couldn't fly, just jump! Which is why he isn't seen flying on the cover of Action Comics #1!

Oh, and by the way, Action Comics #1 ended with the following words:

Hmmm, Lynn... you said something about Superman as a Christ figure? It seems to me that the thought occurred to Siegel and Shuster as far back as 1938!

Ann

Ah...The original, then!

So that explains the "able to leap tall buildings" line! I had always wondered about that. It always seemed to me to be a very odd understatement to describe the abilities of someone capable of flight.

Thanks for clearing up that mystery.

cheers,
Lynn

Or they could be stand- ins for Toronto - the very large (ok, I don't know total acreage ) High Park with the Humber River to the west and the Don River to the East.

Interesting frames from the first comic book, Ann, Btw didn't one of those sell for $1,000, 000 earlier acouple of weeks ago?

c. (told you Ann and Tank would know )

Sure did! Wish I had one of those rare remaining originally 10 cent comic books which are now worth a million dollars, instead of just a reprinted version of the story in a collection of Superman stories!

Ann

Hmmm, just thought of an elaboration on my earlier post:

***buzzword alert***

[t] and [k] actually are very similar from a linguistics perspective. They have an identical manner of articulation: both are voiceless stops; i.e., in both cases the air temporarily stops flowing out of the mouth and in neither case do the vocal cords vibrate. They differ only in their place of articulation (in this case, the position of the tongue in the mouth when they are said).

***end buzzword alert***

Again, this may just be a coincidence; but I find it an interesting one.

cheers,
Lynn