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Gotham City located in the state of IL?


JayC

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Annnnd...I jump in with the maps I saw...somewhere...that put Gotham further South than Metropolis, basically flipping Metropolis and Gotham around, Gotham being a major port city in or around northern Virginia and Metropolis between DC and NYC.

 

Though I do like the whole DC Atlas idea there. Gotta love 70 years of continuity being attempted to get logically explained.

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Metropolis is in Illinois. It's the only city in the U.S. actually named "Metropolis". On January 21, 1972 DC Comics declared Metropolis "Hometown of Superman". On June 9, 1972 the Illinois State Legislature passed Resolution 572 that declared Metropolis the "Hometown of Superman," the comic book superhero who is based in the fictional city of Metropolis.

So, since Metropolis is in Southern Illinois maybe Gotham is in Northern Illinois.

 

I think this logic is extremely flawed. Metropolis has always been portrayed as an eastern coastal town, and last time I checked, Illinois is certainly not on the east coast. Smallville is been clearly identified as in Kansas. And again, Gotham also always shown being on the east coast. Regardless of a 1972 resolution, reading any issue of the comic or any other media would show that no creator has actually ever thought it was in Illinois. Even in the movies, Metropolis is clearly sitting on the Atlantic Ocean.

 

I think the whole naming it the "Hometown of Superman" in Ill is nothing more than a nice publicity stunt. It is the same with the Simpsons. Even if they came out and said one of the Springfields in the country is the one, watching the show would debunk that. Hell, that's even more confusing than the whole Metropolis/Gotham issue as they have never been consistant with what part of the country it is in. At least we can say that Gotham and Metropolis have always been shown to be on the east coast.

 

Louis

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Metropolis, Illinois being the "Hometown of Superman" is much more than a "publicity stunt." They have Superman Days every summer, have a Superman Museum and a huge Superman Statue. This past year was a HUGE year, since it was Superman's birthday.

 

It's true that in the comics, Metropolis is on the East Coast. But if you watch the Supergirl movie (the Helen Slater one, that's really NOT VERY GOOD), Linda is looking at a map to see how she can get from Smallville to Metropolis and both of them are CLEARLY in Illinois! Go figure!

 

And the DC Atlas is a published book...published by Mayfair Games. It's NOT just an interesting idea. I own a copy, but it's in storage at my folks' house...in Illinois.

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Metropolis is in Illinois. It's the only city in the U.S. actually named "Metropolis". On January 21, 1972 DC Comics declared Metropolis "Hometown of Superman". On June 9, 1972 the Illinois State Legislature passed Resolution 572 that declared Metropolis the "Hometown of Superman," the comic book superhero who is based in the fictional city of Metropolis.

So, since Metropolis is in Southern Illinois maybe Gotham is in Northern Illinois.

 

I think this logic is extremely flawed. Metropolis has always been portrayed as an eastern coastal town, and last time I checked, Illinois is certainly not on the east coast. Smallville is been clearly identified as in Kansas. And again, Gotham also always shown being on the east coast. Regardless of a 1972 resolution, reading any issue of the comic or any other media would show that no creator has actually ever thought it was in Illinois. Even in the movies, Metropolis is clearly sitting on the Atlantic Ocean.

 

I think the whole naming it the "Hometown of Superman" in Ill is nothing more than a nice publicity stunt. It is the same with the Simpsons. Even if they came out and said one of the Springfields in the country is the one, watching the show would debunk that. Hell, that's even more confusing than the whole Metropolis/Gotham issue as they have never been consistant with what part of the country it is in. At least we can say that Gotham and Metropolis have always been shown to be on the east coast.

 

Louis

 

I haven't read enough of the comics to know where any of the cities actually are, but Smallville must not be close to Metropolis in the comics the way it's been portrayed in other mediums, right?

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Metropolis, Illinois being the "Hometown of Superman" is much more than a "publicity stunt." They have Superman Days every summer, have a Superman Museum and a huge Superman Statue. This past year was a HUGE year, since it was Superman's birthday.

 

Isn't having a museum, superman days, and a huge statue honoring a fictional character the very definition of a publicity stunt? Granted, it's a long term one, but getting publicity for being the adopted hometown of a fictional character sounds like a stunt to me. No real heroes to honor?

 

OMG, please read this article about Metropolis, Illinois:

 

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2090

 

@loll@

 

Louis

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I donated my $35 for a brick to fund the Superman statue (way back in the day). I haven't been back to Metropolis since the statue was unveiled, but my sister and her family have been there and they found my brick. They took a picture of it, even. It's inscribed "LLL" Which, of course, means "Long Live Legion." Although there are enough "Ls" that it could mean "Lex Luthor Lives" or "Lana Lang Lives" or "Lori Lemaris Lives" or "Lightning Lad Lives" or...hmmmm...isn't there someone else close to Superman who has a double-L initial???

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The only thing missing from Metropolis, IL are the skyscrapers. My boys asked where all the tall buildings were, once. So, I told them:

"See those open fields. They used to stand there. The insurance companies were losing too much money due to paying out so much whenever a supervillain would come to town and knock buildings down when they fought Superman. So, they raised they're prices. It got so expensive businesses couldn't afford to pay insurance anymore. So, people quit building skyscrapers."

Well Smallville is accepted to be in Kansas usually. But Metropolis being in IL is the general consensus. As for Gotham I still think its basically New York or New Jersey.

Well, see, Littleville, KY is the real Smallville, KS. The name of the town was changed to protect the innocent, and to keep sightseers away. It's such a little community they wanted to protect their privacy.

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Gotham City's geography, like other fictional cities' geographies in the DC Universe, has varied over the decades, because of changing writers, editors and storylines. At various times the depiction has Gotham on the shores of "Lake Gotham". The majority of appearances, however, place Gotham on the eastern coast of the United States.

 

Historically, "Gotham" is a nickname for New York City, first used by Washington Irving in the early 19th century.[7] For most of the publication history of Batman in comics, Gotham has been assumed to be a New York City analogue;[7] Frank Miller has said that "Metropolis is New York in the daytime; Gotham City is New York at night."[8] DC Comics president and publisher Paul Levitz says that Gotham is "New York from 14th Street down, the older buildings, more brick-and-mortar as opposed to steel-and-glass."[7] New York Times journalist William Safire describes Gotham City as "New York below 14th Street, from SoHo to Greenwich Village, the Bowery, Little Italy, Chinatown, and the sinister areas around the base of the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges.[9]

 

However, longtime Batman artist Neal Adams considers Gotham to be based on Chicago (whose nickname is "New Gotham"), pointing to its history of corruption and organized crime, and adding, "One of the things about Chicago is Chicago has alleys (which are virtually nonexistent in New York). Back alleys, that's where Batman fights all the bad guys."[7] Film adaptations have varied: Tim Burton's Gotham was based primarily on New York, while the films directed by Christopher Nolan have shown a Gotham more closely based on Chicago.[7]

 

Seems like Gotham city is sometimes Chicago and sometimes NY

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Let me reiterate what I think Christopher Nolan was trying to do.

 

I think that the plates were made to look like Illinois plates on purpose, kinda like an Easter egg for the fans that like to breakdown every part of the film (Like us :P ). I don't have Blu-ray, but I do have HD and I can read Gotham on the plates.

 

The style and lettering for Gotham and Illinois is the same. The license plate colors are the same as Illinois. The whole style of the plate is the same. IT IS AN EASTER EGG FOR US FANS. That's all. :) I'm not nocking any heritage with small towns named after big comics book cities, I'm just saying that the plates in TDK are supposed to look like Illinois plates.

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