"The end" of DC's fictional cities? [Archive]

theXfactor

09-08-2011, 05:37 PM

kalorama

09-08-2011, 05:49 PM

NuclearNerd

09-08-2011, 05:50 PM

I think this was a secret joke topic poking fun at Dakota. >_>

Free-Man

09-08-2011, 05:55 PM

I thought they moved him out of Dakota for financial reasons?

Anyway, yes, it looks like they're doing a bit of that. I'm interested to see if Fawcett will be coming back.

Blue_Beetle

09-08-2011, 05:57 PM

Blue Beetle started in Hub City and went to Chicago.

I don't know why people dislike fictional cities. I think they're way more fun than boring real cities :biggrin:

Ben D

09-08-2011, 06:01 PM

blue beetle started in hub city and went to chicago.

I don't know why people dislike fictional cities. I think they're way more fun than boring real cities :biggrin:

thank you.

theXfactor

09-08-2011, 06:01 PM

This is nothing new. Green Arrow (and Black Canary) operated out of Seattle 25 years ago. The JLA were based in Detroit for a while in the 80s. The 80s Blue Beetle series was set in Chicago. They've always mixed real cities in with their fictional ones.
Didn't know about Green Arrow's past in Seattle. Now it makes more sense to move him there again.

I think this was a secret joke topic poking fun at Dakota. >_>
It isn't.

I thought they moved him out of Dakota for financial reasons?
Yeah, probably. I just wish they'd make him the only hero in New York for now. Hawkman could go elsewhere.

I don't know why people dislike fictional cities. I think they're way more fun than boring real cities :biggrin:
Agreed :smile:

md62

09-08-2011, 06:13 PM

Blue Beetle started in Hub City and went to Chicago.

I don't know why people dislike fictional cities. I think they're way more fun than boring real cities :biggrin:

I prefer DC's fictional cities over Marvel's approach that all heroes were in NYC.

Toreador

09-08-2011, 06:17 PM

What about Coast City and Central City? Are they still safe?

MajorHoy

09-08-2011, 06:46 PM

Didn't know about Green Arrow's past in Seattle. Now it makes more sense to move him there again.

Wasn't it during Mike Grell's run that Green Arrow and Black Canary were relocated to Seattle? (And her flower business there was called Sherwood Florist.)

But he moved back to Star City sometime later. (And wasn't Ollie the mayor of Star City?)

andybmcd

09-08-2011, 07:16 PM

Does anybody else think it's odd that DC seems to be moving most of the heroes that have their own fictional cities to real-world locations?
Some examples:
Green Arrow - from Star City to Seattle
Hawkman - from St. Roch to New York
Static - from Dakota to New York
and I'm sure I'm forgetting some others.

At least Gotham and Metropolis are safe. ;/

Hawkman is still referenced as being from St Roch in one of the titles.
(Mild spoilers) Static is working for Hardware who is still based in Dakota. Static moved to essentially spy on the shady stuff going down at Star Labs.

pariah-1972

09-08-2011, 07:22 PM

I don't want everyone to move to New York hell i'm not even sure if i want New York to exist since Metropolis and Gotham represent different aspects or stereotypes of NY to me.

Also it really makes no sense for all the heroes to live in one city cause then the smart criminals would just go elsewhere.

Or at least i would :evilsmile:

MajorHoy

09-08-2011, 07:33 PM

Does anybody else think it's odd that DC seems to be moving most of the heroes that have their own fictional cities to real-world locations?
Some examples:
Green Arrow - from Star City to Seattle
Hawkman - from St. Roch to New York
Static - from Dakota to New York
and I'm sure I'm forgetting some others.

At least Gotham and Metropolis are safe. ;/

I guess I'm old (and haven't followed Hawkman that closely in a looooooong time) since I still associate him with Midway City.

kevink31593

09-08-2011, 07:46 PM

What about Coast City and Central City? Are they still safe?

Coast City was mentioned in Justice League #1.

Munkiman

09-08-2011, 08:27 PM

Coast and Central are fine. DC has been including both real and fictional cities in its universe for a long while. Nightwing used to live in Manhattan, etc.

I guess I'm old (and haven't followed Hawkman that closely in a looooooong time) since I still associate him with Midway City.
That was more the Silver Age Hawks, right? Katar and Shayera? Carter and Kendra moved to St. Roch, Louisiana at the beginning of the 2002 Hawkman series (which was awesome).

Jaded Devil

09-08-2011, 09:33 PM

My guess is that if the cities that are super-closely tied to the characters will remain. Metropolis, Gotham City, Central City, even Coast City in this age of greater GL awareness. Plus, we know the Shade will be operating out of Opal City, so that's safe. In other cases, it makes sense...Green Arrow has a past in Seattle and, as Seattle's home to a company like Microsoft, it makes sense for the new corporate/tech take on the character.

But characters like Hawkman, Nightwing, Wonder Woman...most people don't think of them and automatically associate a city with them. St. Roch, Bludhaven, and Gateway City served their purposes, but it's not as though taking that character out of the city changes the character at all....the ties aren't nearly as strong as they are with other characters.

I'll be curious to see if places like Hub City or Fawcett City make it through. I guess that all depends on the fates of the Vic Sage Question and the Marvel Family.

sethysquare

09-08-2011, 09:53 PM

The only fictional cities I'll accept are Metropolis, Gotham, Atlantis, Thermyseira and Coast City. Everything else seems way too much

dancj

09-12-2011, 04:47 AM

The only fictional cities I'll accept are Metropolis, Gotham, Atlantis, Thermyseira and Coast City. Everything else seems way too much
Even Coast City seems unnecessary

coconutphone

09-12-2011, 06:03 AM

What about Coast City and Central City? Are they still safe?

Flash is still in Central City

(though it is modeled directly on Toronto....)

coconutphone

09-12-2011, 06:05 AM

And her flower business there was called Sherwood Florist.

a) that's such a guy's idea of what a female character would do job-wise
b) that is possibly the greatest name for a flower shop :biggrin:

vitruvian

09-12-2011, 07:15 AM

Flash is still in Central City

(though it is modeled directly on Toronto....)

Even Toronto doesn't have blocks that long.

coconutphone

09-12-2011, 07:24 AM

Even Toronto doesn't have blocks that long.

LOL Hey I'm just going by what Manapaul said at the New 52 panel at the Fan Expo a few weeks back. The cover of Kid Flash Lost #3 supports that too. :biggrin:

CaptCleghorn

09-12-2011, 07:44 AM

Flash is still in Central City

(though it is modeled directly on Toronto....)

Outside of the tower and possibly the lake. there is very little that differentiates Toronto form any other Canadian/US city. This is why Toronto is used as a stand in for NY and other US cities. That and it's cheaper to work there I guess.

When the Central City Stadium dome closes, I'll believe it.

Or the people are polite...
Or the population is multi-national...
Or they have the best Hot Dog wagons, where for a toonie (and if ANYONE tells me the prices have gone up, I will cry), you get a large dog with an amazing assortment of toppings...

And when the Ivy Town folks complain that the Gotham City and Metropolis teams has a HUGE payroll, despite the fact that Ivy's numbers are third in the league, I want Central City fans to roll their eyes and go watch their bird team beat on the Star City bird team.

Kiryu

09-12-2011, 07:53 AM

Does anybody else think it's odd that DC seems to be moving most of the heroes that have their own fictional cities to real-world locations?
Some examples:
Green Arrow - from Star City to Seattle
Hawkman - from St. Roch to New York
Static - from Dakota to New York
and I'm sure I'm forgetting some others.

At least Gotham and Metropolis are safe. ;/

Well we know for a fact that DC wanted to reduce the number of fictional cities it had in Cry for Justice, according to James Robinson the bomb was supposed to get most of the fictional DC cities.

Seems like after it didn't work there editorial grafted it onto the reboot.

PA_Kid

09-12-2011, 07:54 AM

While a fully fleshed out living fictinonal city like Gotham and Metropolis sounds great - it's a LOT of work.

Using an existing city gives an existing backdrop that a writer can pull interesting landmarks from for the city into the story and that an artist can draw from.

The big well documented cities will always be used because they've taken on a life of their own, but St. Roch was just an New Orleans stand-in and might as well be New Orleans.

I like that Hawkman is getting NYC as a city - it's perfect for him - big tall buildings, concrete canyons, gridlock traffic, tons of culture and academic centers. It's perfect for a character that's all about flight. (Though lets be honest, he's going to be the official hero of Manhattan, not NYC as a whole :biggrin:)

Gotham, Metropolis, Opal, Fawcett, and Coast City all have pretty well definied character and are thematically important to the characters that are tied to them - most of the rest are fairly unremarkable. (I would have included Star, Gateway, and Keystone - but it's unclear if most of what made them unique remains post reboot.)

outlander78

09-12-2011, 08:02 AM

heiro5

09-12-2011, 08:33 AM

Coast City was mentioned in Justice League #1.

And in reference to Gotham City ("Coast is yours, Gotham is mine")... I think the fictional cities are fine, but Dc telescopes their fiction in and out to weave the fictional in with the real.

Hatut Zeraze

09-12-2011, 08:38 AM

Not that this adds to the discussion about the merits of fictional cities, but it does appear the Keystone City is confirmed as still being existent in the new DCU - Lois Lane had a Keystone shirt on during her bullet train ride in Action #1.

At least one fictional country still exists - Vixen was noted as a citizen of Zambesi.

coconutphone

09-12-2011, 08:41 AM

Outside of the tower and possibly the lake. there is very little that differentiates Toronto form any other Canadian/US city. This is why Toronto is used as a stand in for NY and other US cities. That and it's cheaper to work there I guess.

When the Central City Stadium dome closes, I'll believe it.

What do you mean you'll believe it? The guy who's writing it and has drawn it in recent times explicitly said those exact words. "Central City is modeled after Toronto".

PA_Kid

09-12-2011, 09:02 AM

I also prefer fictional cities that mirror real-world ones, because of all the flexibility that they give you. For example, Gotham can be hit by plagues and earthquakes without wrecking the US. Given what the 9/11 attacks did, imagine what effect earthquakes in NY would have on the US!

The problem is that always causes a dopelganger effect in that you have both. We have both Metropolis and NYC as well as Gotham and Newark. (Which IIRC are what both were originally modeled after).

If DC never referenced the real cities (or only a tiny bit), then I'd be all for just using the fictional ones, but it never works that way. We had Coast City and Titan Tower in San Francisco. We had Metropolis and a NYC Titans and Green Lantern. We had a Star City and Seattle Green Arrow.

I think at this point if having a fictional city brings something to the table (like Metropolis and Gotham do) that they should do it, but I don't think they need to create a whole new fictional city every time they want to move a hero to a new place.

That also leads to another issue - there are only so many huge cities in the US that warrant a hero to "protect" them. If the hero is just going to live there, I'm not sure it matters as much, but if you're writing or creating a hero that focuses on a single city, the reality is that your character probably won't be the only one - just deal with it. Moving Nightwing to Bludhaven kinda worked originally, but the reality is - if most of the bat characters want their own city, they'd need to move some place with an existing hero. Not meant to be a knock on smaller cities, but lets be honest, most places just aren't so big that a large criminal element is going to survive with a dedicated hero cleaning the place up (unless something else is going on to drive things).

CaptCleghorn

09-12-2011, 09:06 AM

What do you mean you'll believe it? The guy who's writing it and has drawn it in recent times explicitly said those exact words. "Central City is modeled after Toronto".

I did not mean to cast doubt on the writer's veracity. My phrases were poorly selected and cast doubt upon the wrong thing. I merely question whether we will see a truly Torontonian Central City, or the generic go-to North American (usually US) city model.

The first would give Central City flavor, the second is going to cook up a big pot of meh...

notsosuperman

09-12-2011, 09:28 AM

I've always preferred fictional cities too. Being a big Marvel reader, it makes a change to see a hero that doesn't live in New York :smile:

sethysquare

09-12-2011, 10:01 AM

I've always preferred fictional cities too. Being a big Marvel reader, it makes a change to see a hero that doesn't live in New York :smile:

There are still tons of fictional cities in DCnU
Metropolis, Smallville, Gotham, Bludhaven, Atlantis, Themysira, Coast City and many more.

MajorHoy

09-12-2011, 11:40 AM

a) that's such a guy's idea of what a female character would do job-wise
b) that is possibly the greatest name for a flower shop :biggrin:

Actually, I believe the florist job was first introduced for Black Canary back in the 1940's and kept being mentioned / used over the years.

I also prefer fictional cities that mirror real-world ones, because of all the flexibility that they give you. For example, Gotham can be hit by plagues and earthquakes without wrecking the US. Given what the 9/11 attacks did, imagine what effect earthquakes in NY would have on the US!

Actually, here in the NYC-area we experienced the shakes from the recent earthquake that was centered in Virginia. :biggrin:

There are still tons of fictional cities in DCnU
Metropolis, Smallville, Gotham, Bludhaven, Atlantis, Themysira, Coast City and many more.

Wasn't Bludhaven nuked out of existence by the Infinite Crisis? :eek:

sethysquare

09-12-2011, 12:03 PM

Wasn't Bludhaven nuked out of existence by the Infinite Crisis? :eek:

Yeah but it still happened right? According to kyle higgins, so yeah its destroyed but not forgotten

Jordanstine

09-12-2011, 12:13 PM

I hope they won't slowly start turning Metropolis into New York and Gotham into Chicago or even Smallville into Kansas City or something.

Let Marvel handle those real cities in their books.

The Darknight Detective

09-12-2011, 12:13 PM

I guess I'm old (and haven't followed Hawkman that closely in a looooooong time) since I still associate him with Midway City.

Same here, but don't call me old! :biggrin:

The Darknight Detective

09-12-2011, 12:31 PM

The problem is that always causes a dopelganger effect in that you have both. We have both Metropolis and NYC as well as Gotham and Newark. (Which IIRC are what both were originally modeled after)..

Gotham City was modeled after NYC. In fact, Batman's earliest adventures were supposed to have been taken there until National decided to use Gotham City (an old nickname for New York City) instead.

That's why Mayor Lindseed (Lindsay) and Govenor Stonefeller (Rockefeller) could be seen on the old Batman show, too. It was even nicknamed "The Big Apple" in a few Batman issues during the '70s, IIRC.

AdamYJ

09-12-2011, 12:42 PM

Same here, but don't call me old! :biggrin:

I still associate him with Midway City too, but that's probably because I read a lot of old-school comics.

S_Rhoades

09-12-2011, 01:01 PM

Coast City is safe Batman tells Green Lantern to go back there and leave Gotham to him.

doctormistermaster

09-12-2011, 01:06 PM

Blue Beetle started in Hub City and went to Chicago.

I don't know why people dislike fictional cities. I think they're way more fun than boring real cities :biggrin:

I completely agree that the fictional cities are great and they are also such a DC thing. I think that a huge problem with the cities are that they are interchangeable with real world cities. 90% of the time Metropolis will come off as the major city best known to the writer usually New York and so never feels like the City of Tomorrow.

doctormistermaster

09-12-2011, 01:12 PM

What do you mean you'll believe it? The guy who's writing it and has drawn it in recent times explicitly said those exact words. "Central City is modeled after Toronto".

If the Flash doesn't eat at a DCnU equivalent of Burrito Bandidos and have an enemy who is an evil TTC (CTC?) driver I will not believe your claim.

coconutphone

09-12-2011, 01:22 PM

If the Flash doesn't eat at a DCnU equivalent of Burrito Bandidos and have an enemy who is an evil TTC (CTC?) driver I will not believe your claim.

I think we can do better than Burrito Banditos. Dangerous Dan's for one....

Mr. Holmes

09-12-2011, 01:26 PM

The problem is that always causes a dopelganger effect in that you have both. We have both Metropolis and NYC as well as Gotham and Newark. (Which IIRC are what both were originally modeled after).

Metropolis is partially based on NY, but it's mainly based on Toronto (where Joe Shuster came from) maybe Cleveland than it is NYC.

doctormistermaster

09-12-2011, 01:38 PM

I think we can do better than Burrito Banditos. Dangerous Dan's for one....

For a man on the go DD's seems a little out of place but I would enjoy an off handed reference but then again with a super fast metabolism I couldn't think of anywhere else.

A Rob Ford/Gorilla Grodd Team up book would be pretty fun :biggrin:

Then again I don't think Grodd would want to close down the libraries. Next election Grodd has my vote.

CaptCleghorn

09-12-2011, 02:23 PM

I think we can do better than Burrito Banditos. Dangerous Dan's for one....

Well, the meal stop for my next Jays pilgrimage is set.

Toreador

09-12-2011, 06:38 PM

Fictional cities I believe allow the writer a greater freedom when writing a story. If a writer wants to set a scene in a red light district or industrial park or a chinatown/little saigon/barrio in a certain part of town they can without having to look it up in a real city map or have someone complain that that area doesn't exist in the real city.

dancj

09-13-2011, 05:24 AM

a) that's such a guy's idea of what a female character would do job-wise
b) that is possibly the greatest name for a flower shop :biggrin:
I had both of those thoughts too.

OrpheusTelos

09-13-2011, 05:36 AM

I thought they moved him out of Dakota for financial reasons?

I always thought Static's move was done so DC could ignore the other Milestone Heroes easier. :tongue:

Aelle3

09-27-2011, 01:23 PM

I love the fictional cities and I really hope they stick around (even the smaller ones).

BrianBooch

09-27-2011, 03:15 PM

Keystone City and Central City are alive and well! In fact, after the first arc Francis and I will be revealing the history of these sister cities.

:)

coconutphone

09-27-2011, 03:18 PM

Keystone City and Central City are alive and well! In fact, after the first arc Francis and I will be revealing the history of these sister cities.

:)

[Les Nessman] Oooh! [/Les Nessman]

Mr. Holmes

09-27-2011, 03:20 PM

Star City was always basically just Seattle; it barely made a difference what they called it. Only recently they tried to make Star City unique with the magical forest, but how long did anyone expect that to last?

Metropolis and Gotham have so much history, they're a lot more unique than just NYC dopplegangers, but the same can't be said for Star City, St. Roch, etc.

voodoo

09-27-2011, 03:39 PM

Is there a map of the DC geography at all that anyone has?

MajorHoy

09-27-2011, 06:01 PM

Star City was always basically just Seattle; it barely made a difference what they called it.
That's strange. I never got a Star City = Seattle vibe from all those stories I read in the 1960's and 1970's. And when Mike Grell located Green Arrow in Seattle during the late 1980's, it seemed like it was a relocation, not simply a renaming.

pad

09-27-2011, 07:28 PM

The only fictional cities I'll accept are Metropolis, Gotham, Atlantis, Thermyseira and Coast City. Everything else seems way too much

How about Gorilla City?:smile:

Crisis

09-28-2011, 06:21 AM

even if the rest of the fictional cities go away Metropolis will be the one that lasts ...after all the legion is based in Metropolis...which is the name for the whole East Coast region of what was once North America.

sethysquare

09-28-2011, 06:30 AM

My theory is the big 7 should keep their "cities" while the others just lose them, and no new cities for cyborg please. although ill buy a cyborg solo series in a heartbeat.

InSovietRussia

09-28-2011, 07:59 AM

How about Gorilla City?:smile:

DC really needs to come up with a book set in Gorilla City... maybe a crime/detective book? Detective Chimp could guest-star!

MajorHoy

10-01-2011, 07:28 PM

Is there a map of the DC geography at all that anyone has?

There's a site related to the Atlas of DC Universe, which was part of the DC Heroes RPG from Mayfair Games. It's not exactly the official comic book bible to things, but DC was involved in approving some of this stuff, and it was written by Paul Kupperberg.

http://www.karridian.net/dcatlas.html

Star City was always basically just Seattle; it barely made a difference what they called it.

Oh, by the way, the Atlas of the DC Universe placed Star City in California, "along Highway 101 between San Francisco and the norther border of California". (Coast City, California was south of Star City, "located on Highway 101, across the bay San Francisco and Oakland near Sausalito.")