Metropolis (comics)
Metropolis is a fictional city appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, best known as the home of Superman and his closest allies and some of his foes. First appearing by name in Action Comics #16 (Sept. 1939), Metropolis is depicted as a prosperous and massive city in the Northeastern United States, in close proximity to Gotham City. In recent years, it has been stated to be located in New York.[1]
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.[2] Since then, however, the look and feel of Metropolis has been greatly influenced by New York City.[3][4][5]
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.[6][7][8]
In addition to Superman, the city has also been home to other superheroes, such as Booster Gold and Black Lightning.
History[edit]
A Native American tribe sold Metropolis Island to the first European settlers in 1644,[33] similar to the history of New York City, in which Native Americans sold Manhattan Island to Dutch settlers in 1626.[34]
Industry[edit]
LexCorp, founded by Lex Luthor, endeavors into all aspects of technology, communication, medical science, technical science, architectural engineering, future technology, and more.[8]
Steelworks is the laboratory of Dr. John Henry Irons and in post-Crisis, it came to rival LexCorp as its reach expanded into many different industries. John Henry renamed Steelworks Ironworks to further himself from his superhero life as Steel.[8]
Media[edit]
Metropolis' premier newspaper is the Daily Planet, one of the most renowned news organizations in the DC Universe. The city is also home to the national Newstime magazine, where Clark Kent held the position of editor during the Eradicator story arc until he was fired by his superior, Collin Thornton, in The Adventures of Superman #465, for his increasingly strange behavior due to the Eradicator (including firing of some employees).
Other major media located in Metropolis include WGBS-TV, flagship station of the Galaxy Broadcasting System (GBS) television network, both subsidiaries of media conglomerate Galaxy Communications.[67] Popular shows included The Midnight Show Starring Johnny Nevada (a fictional version of NBC's The Tonight Show, with Johnny Nevada being an analogue of Johnny Carson).[68]
Between the early 1970s and mid-1980s, both Clark Kent and Lois Lane worked for WGBS after Galaxy Communications purchased the Daily Planet in a 1971 storyline, with Clark as the anchorman for the WGBS evening news.[69] He was eventually joined by Lana Lang as a co-anchor.[69] After John Byrne's revamp of Superman's origins, though, Clark and Lois were reverted to working at the Daily Planet once again. Galaxy Broadcasting and WGBS-TV still exist post-Crisis, however, and are usually used in any story where a television station or network is needed or shown. Post-Crisis, Clark, Lois and Lana never worked for the station. During the 1990s however, both Jimmy Olsen and Cat Grant did work there.
Legion-Era Metropolis[edit]
Metropolis is traditionally depicted as continuing to survive, thrive and expand well into the 30th- and 31st-century timeframes used as the backdrop of the Legion of Super-Heroes in all that series' varied incarnations to date.
During the original incarnation of the series, Metropolis would be depicted as covering anything ranging from the entire Atlantic American coast to a more narrowed jurisdiction – according to one map officially published during Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen's initial partnership on the series, in Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 2) #313 (July 1984) – covering most of Massachusetts, all of Rhode Island and Connecticut, New York State from Long Island's eastern tip up into the Catskills, and a large portion of northern New Jersey. In one imaginary Superman tale published in 1976 and partly set in then-futuristic 2001, "Metropolis" is the name of the new megalopolis of the Eastern seaboard corridor, comprising the cities of Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York and Boston and all the territory in between (Superman #300, June 1976).
Whatever version was used, it was generally viewed as given that the original city, as well as Gotham City, were considered within Legion-era Metropolis' boundaries, from the mid-1960s until the events of Zero Hour.
The first post-Infinite Crisis version of the series as published in the "three-boot" edition has described Metropolis as having expanded over the intervening millennium up the "entire Atlantic seaboard" of North America in one issue (reminiscent of New York's future expansion in Isaac Asimov's The Caves of Steel and in Poul Anderson's The Corridors of Time, and to an extent Mega-City One of the Judge Dredd comics). In Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds, it is revealed that this version of Metropolis belongs to the newly restored Earth-Prime's 31st Century.
In Adventure Comics (vol. 2) #12, Metropolis during the Legion's first year is described by Brainiac 5 as having a population of "78 million sentient inhabitants in the urban zone before you reach the greenbelt".
Metropolis, Illinois[edit]
The real town of Metropolis, Illinois, has been proclaimed the "hometown of Superman" by the Illinois State Legislature, and the town celebrates its "local hero". Among the ways it celebrates the character include a large Superman statue in the city, a Superman museum, an annual Superman festival, and its local newspaper The Metropolis Planet, a name inspired by the major newspaper in fictional Metropolis, the Daily Planet. A version of the town has appeared in the comics itself, as a city whose citizens idolize the hero who lives in their 'sister' city.[85]