Metropolis (comic)

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The Superman Museum in Metropolis , Illinois

Metropolis is the name of a fictional city in the DC universe , the setting for the comic series produced by the US comic publisher DC Comics . The place on the east coast of the United States is best known as the home of the superhero Superman , most of whose adventures take place in Metropolis.

background

Metropolis was first mentioned by name in the comic book Action Comics # 16 from 1939. Previously, the location of the Superman stories had been a nameless metropolis, but it was obvious that it should be New York City .

After Superman's hometown had already been given its own name, which was divorced from New York, the Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster set about giving it its own profile in other ways. Joe Shuster, the parts of his childhood in the Canadian Toronto had spent, the skyline of Metropolis from the city of his childhood was guided in the further development that he - at least selectively - nachempfand in his drawings of Metropolis.

Within the DC universe, however, Metropolis actually takes on the role of a “secret world capital” that New York City is often ascribed to in the real world. Nevertheless, New York City also exists as a city in its own right within the DC universe.

The urban planning structure of Metropolis is very similar to New York. Like New York, Metropolis is divided into five districts, at the center of which is an island district ( Manhattan or New Troy) as the heart of the city. Like Metropolis, New York has a large park that serves as a “green lung” for city dwellers ( Central Park or Centennial Park), and the city center is dominated by high-rise buildings. And while New York City is widely known as the Big Apple , Metropolis is nicknamed Big Appricot ("Big Apricot").

Other cities from which loans for Metropolis were made are the US cities of Washington, DC and Boston as well as Montreal in Canada .

In addition, the creators of the Superman stories have traditionally tried to create a close connection between Metropolis - as the home of Superman as one of the flagships of the DC publishing house - and Gotham City - as the home of Batman , as the second. In the 1970s, based on the aforementioned idea of twin cities , both were described as opposing halves, so it was said that Metropolis was a " Cinderella City" while Gotham was the "ugly stepsister". Similarly, in the 1980s , Frank Miller interpreted Metropolis as New York City by day and Gotham City as New York City by night. Dennis O'Neil, meanwhile, compared Metropolis and Gotham to New York up and down 14th Street .

Geographical location

As with most cities in the DC Universe, the exact geographic location of Metropolis was never given. However, various hints were made, but these suggest different situations.

In the earlier DC comics, i.e. H. the time before the restart of all series in the publishing program in 1986 (see also Crisis on Infinite Earths ), it was often stated that Metropolis was near the also fictional small town of Smallville. Since Smallville is usually located in the US state of Kansas , Metropolis should logically have been in Kansas or in one of the neighboring states at that time. However, this information became questionable because Metropolis was already then placed near a coast or at least a large body of water, as it is not to be found in real Kansas - a great plain state .

The neighborhood of Metropolis and Gotham City is also often noted. The spatial distance between the two cities fluctuates from a few hundred kilometers to an immediate border as twin cities, which are only separated from each other by a bay or a lake.

Furthermore, a location near New York City is also often implied. Sometimes it is even suggested that Metropolis in the DC Universe occupies that (geographical) area in the east of the US state New York where New York City is located in the real world. In June 1976 in US Superman # 300, the Northeast megalopolis from Boston to New York City to Washington (“Bosnywash”) is referred to as the “Metropolis”. In contrast, however, is the fact that New York City exists as a separate city in the DC universe, independent of Metropolis.

Various information exists about the state in which Metropolis is located: Sometimes it's New York, sometimes New Jersey and sometimes Delaware . Since the restart of DC Comics in 1986, which did away with the “Kansas theory”, there seems to be only agreement on the location of Metropolis on the US east coast.

Fictional story

The December 2000 one-shot Superman: Y2K contains details of the city history of Metropolis. The chronicle of the city, told from the viewpoint of the Luthor family, is closely based on that of New York City.

In this version, Metropolis was founded as a colony of the Pilgrim Fathers . After the original colony was destroyed by a fire - here it is indicated between the lines that this was caused by a meteorite impact - the surviving settlers had their city together with members of a local Indian tribe, the chief of whom was an ancestor of Lex Luthor was newly founded.

In the 1880s, the city was the scene of violent ethnic clashes between Irish and Anglo-Saxon residents. On the eve of the First World War , the city had become a center of the steel industry in the United States and a major supplier of steel for the war.

During the Great Depression , Metropolis was plagued by severe devastation from the economic turmoil of the time. The impoverishment of large parts of the population was so severe that some quarters of the city, such as the suicide slum , could not have recovered from the consequences until the present of the Superman adventure.

In the year 2000, the city, which describes itself as the “city of tomorrow”, is finally transformed into a city of the future in the truest sense of the word, when the time traveler Brainiac 13 met it on New Year's Eve in 1999 with its futuristic technology within less Hours transformed into a city modeled on the cities from his time. Brainiac achieves this technical miracle by infecting the building fabric of the city with a kind of positive computer virus that technically enhances all buildings and their furnishings in a very short time. Normal skyscrapers became metal and glass colossi with technology, doors that could be opened by hand became electric doors based on the model in spaceship films like Star Trek , normal interiors became elaborate, self-thinking, high-tech facilities that relieved the residents of all household chores, etc.

map

Over the decades, DC has developed a relatively solid map of Superman's fictional hometown that was made official in comics ( Metropolis Secret Files ) and manuals ( The World of Superman ). Changes are never excluded - in accordance with the laws of the comics medium.

Within the comics, the changeability of the city's skyline, especially the high-rise buildings, is also noticeable: when looking at the city in panoramic images or from a bird's-eye view, it is noticeable that the three most striking high-rise buildings (the LexCorp Tower , the WGBS building and the Daily Planet Buildings) tend to change their location within the city from one booklet to another and to take up different locations within the city or in relation to one another. This is often due to the negligence of the draftsman as well as the fact that the authors of the Superman comics are primarily concerned with the plot consistency of the series and that less attention is paid to geographical continuity.

Neighborhoods and areas

Much like New York City , Metropolis consists of five districts, the largest of which is New Troy. Each of these districts has its own character, each imitating or resembling part of New York City in some way (notably the Bronx , Brooklyn , Manhattan and Queens ).

  • Bakerline : A neighborhood in the north of the city, north of the main island of New Troy.
  • Hell's Gate
  • New Troy : New Troy is the central and largest district of Metropolis. Like Manhattan in New York, New Troy is located on an island that is separated from the rest of the city by two rivers - the Hobb's River and the West River (differently in New York with the Hudson River and the East River ).
  • Park Ridge
  • Queensland Park
  • St. Martin's Island

Streets and squares

  • Glenmorgan Square : A central square in the New Troy neighborhood similar to New York's Times Square . Glenmorgan Square is a traffic junction that attracts attention with its numerous brightly glittering electronic advertising facades (illuminated posters, monitors with scrolling texts and images, etc.).
  • Planet Square : The forecourt of the Daily Planet building.

Recurring locations

The City Council of Los Angeles acted in the television series Adventures of Superman (dt. Superman - knight in shining armor ) as the setting for the Daily Planet -building
  • Ace O'Clubs : Ex-boxer Bibbo Bibbowski's pub in the Suicide Slum in northern New Troy. Bibbowski, who is Superman's self-proclaimed biggest fan, buys this shabby establishment after he accidentally finds an apt lottery ticket with his winnings in order to do something good for the inhabitants of the slum as a generous host. In “his shop” Bibbowski hosts a clientele that consists mainly of rockers, homeless people and adventurers. In addition to Clark Kent, regular guests also include the Superman supporting characters Jimmy Olsen and Scorn. Superman himself often ends up in the pub in the course of his missions.
  • Apartment Kent-Lane : The apartment Lois Lane and Clark Kent have lived in since their marriage in the 1996 Superman: The Wedding Album is located in New Troy at 1938 Sullivan Street. The apartment is given to you as a gift in this issue by Kent's friend Bruce Wayne ( Batman ), who owns the building.
  • Big Belly Burgers : A fast food chain that has its headquarters and numerous branches in Metropolis and is more common in the Superman universe. The chain is owned by LexCorp and specifically sells its trademark, oversized hamburgers. Their specialties also include French fries and milkshakes. The company's mascot is Big Belly , a grinning, bearded man whose face adorns the facades of restaurants and the packaging of Big Belly Burgers . Jimmy Olsen and Perry White once worked as a promoter for the company (US Superman Secret Files & Origins # 2) and the villainous magician Mr. Mxyzptlk once brought one of the "Big Belly" statues to life for a fight against Superman.
  • Centennial Park : A large park similar to New York's Central Park in the New Troy district. The park includes large lawns, an open-air stage and two gold statues of Superman and Superboy / Kon-El. The Superman statue was erected in the storyline "Funeral for a Friend" from 1993 on the occasion of the supposed death of Superman , the statue of Superboy after his death in the Infinite Crisis (2006).
  • City Hall : The Metropolis City Hall ( same name in New York ). The city's mayors in the past included Frank Berkowitz (comics from 1986 to 1998), whom Lex Luthor had murdered in US Superman # 130, and Luther's favorite "Buck" Sackett (comics from 1998).
  • Clark Kent's Apartment : Up until his marriage to Lois Lane in the 1996 comic book Superman: The Wedding Album, Clark Kent traditionally lived in an apartment (Apt. # 3B) at 344 Clinton Street in the Superman comics.
  • Daily Planet Building : The Daily Planet Building houses the editorial office of The Daily Planet , for which Superman's alter ego Clark Kent works as a reporter. With a huge globe, the namesake and trademark of the newspaper, that rests on the roof of the high-rise building, it is one of the most eye-catching buildings in the Metropolis skyline and one of the city's landmarks.
  • Emperor Building : Metropolis' counterpart to New York's Empire State Building .
  • Halldorf Hotel : The Metropolis counterpart to the Waldorf Astoria .
  • Hamilton's laboratory : Professor Emil Hamilton's workplace .
  • Lacey's Department Store : Metropolis' counterpart to New York's Macy’s .
  • LexCorp Tower (also L Tower ): The headquarters of the LexCorp group founded by Lex Luthor. Originally the LexCorp Tower had the shape of an L-shaped high-rise (an allusion to the initials of the company's founder and owner of the high-rise). In the Y2K storyline from 2000, the LexCorp tower is transformed into a structure made up of two twin towers similar to the World Trade Center . In addition to LexCorp's offices, business premises, laboratories, etc., the building houses a huge penthouse that Luthor lived in (intermittently) in most of the Superman stories from 1986 to 2005. There are also numerous secret passages, secret laboratories, etc., which can be found throughout the building, and which are shielded from Superman's X-ray view by lead paint and cladding (like the entire LexCorp building in general).
  • Lois Lanes apartment : Lois Lanes apartment until her wedding with Clark Kent.
  • Metropolis University : The city's university (equivalent to New York University ). According to some comics, one of her former students is Clark Kent, who studied journalism there.
  • Newstime Building : The editorial building of the weekly Newstime (a mixture of the real magazines Newsweek and Time ) published by the businessman Colin Thornton . The Newstime building, a classicist Chicago-style structure, is owned by Thornton (behind which the demon Lord Satanus hides) like the magazine.
  • Spiffany's Jewelry Store : Metropolis' equivalent to New York's Tiffany & Co.
  • Sports facilities : stadiums and other club grounds of various local clubs. The Metropolis sports teams include the Metropolis Monarchs and Metropolis Meteors (baseball teams), as well as the Metropolis Sharks and Metropolis Metros (football teams), as well as the Metropolis Mammoths hockey team and the Metropolis Generals basketball team .
  • Stacey's Department Store
  • STAR Labs : A futuristic research facility headquartered in Metropolis. STAR manufactures modern technical equipment and researches meta-bees, i. H. Beings with superhuman abilities. For this purpose, numerous experiments on humans and other creatures are carried out at STAR, which often do not go as desired. The result is the creation of new threats that Superman then has to deal with - for example in the case of the villain Atomic Skull, which arises in a “research accident” at STAR. STAR's staff include Superman's girlfriend Kitty Faulkner (who occasionally becomes the creature Rampage after accidents ) and the facility's questionable director, avid hunter Burton Thompson. A freelancer is Professor Emil Hamilton in numerous comics from the 80s and 90s . Numerous monsters are also held captive in the STAR cellars, for example the creatures brawl , ripper or a white-haired giant monkey.
  • Steelworks : The workshop of Superman's friend John Henry Irons, which is in an old steel foundry. Steel manufactures and maintains the equipment for his own missions as high-tech armor and hammer-bearing superhero Steel as well as equipment and technical aids for other people such as Superman or the special unit of the Metropolis police. The workshop is also inhabited by his niece Natasha (Steel II). In the past, the Kryptonian robot Kelex stayed here at times .
  • Stryker's Island : The Metropolis prison, located on an island a few hundred meters off the shores of New Troy. The institute is named after its director, Director Stryker. Numerous Superman opponents are locked up there.
  • Superman Museum : A museum built by the city in honor of its hero, which was often used as a setting in Superman stories from the 1950s and 1960s. The museum houses numerous memorabilia from Superman's various adventures, as well as pieces from his Kryptonian homeland.
  • WGBS high-rise : The headquarters of WGBS-TV, the city's largest TV station, the flagship of the Galaxy Broadcasting System (GBS) group, a subsidiary of the Galaxy Communications conglomerate . Popular WGBS shows that keep popping up in the background in the Superman comics include The Midnight Show Starring Johnny Nevada (a nod to The Tonight Show by Johnny Carson ) and The Whitty Banter Show (a tribute to colorist Glen Whitmore ). In the comics of the 1970s and 1980s, Clark Kent worked for WGBS as an anchorman for a news program. Other well-known presenters of the station are or were Cathrine Grant, Jimmy Olsen ("Mr. Action"), the sports reporter Steve Lombard and Lana Lang (also in the 1970s and 80s). The station bosses included u. a. Morgan and Vincent Edge.
  • Wireless City Movie Theater : Counterpart to Radio City Music Hall in New York.

Suburbs

  • Highville
  • Metrodal
  • Midvale : Midvale is a suburb of Metropolis best known for being the location of numerous older Supergirl stories from the 1950s to 1980s.
  • Wild Area
  • Zoomway

Metropolis in the real world

In the US state of Illinois is a real city called Metropolis . The city has declared itself the "hometown of Superman". This is expressed u. a. at a Superman statue, a Superman museum, and an annual Superman festival. The city newspaper is called Metropolis Planet after the fictional newspaper Daily Planet in the DC Comics, at the Superman's alter ego Clark Kent, u. a. works with Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen for editor-in-chief Perry White .

literature

Primary literature

  • World of Metropolis , four-part miniseries, 1988
  • Metropolis Secret Files
  • Superman: Metropolis , one-shot

Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dennis O'Neil : Batman: Knightfall. A Novel , New York 1994, p. 344 (afterword).
  2. ↑ Countdown to Infinite Crisis , Miniseries, 2005.
  3. ^ U.S. Amazing World of DC Comics # 14, November 1977; Guide to the DC RPG by Mayfair Games .
  4. ↑ The house number is an allusion to Superman's debut year 1938, the street name an allusion to the editor of the first Superman comics.