Arrow - Season 3

[Christopher]

Star City = Seattle

Central City = Minneapolis, Keystone = St. Paul

Coast City = San Francisco

Metropolis/Gotham = New York

But...there are versions of all these real world cities in the DCU as well.

Right. The thing is, DC's continuity for decades was a loose hodgepodge. It wasn't a single interconnected whole like the Marvel Universe, but a bunch of distinct, independent series that occasionally pretended to share a universe in crossover books like Justice League, but otherwise pretty much ignored each other and went their own separate, often conflicting ways. So Superman had its fictional version of New York, and Batman had its own distinct version, and then Teen Titans came along and used the actual New York, and they all just did their own thing. It was only later that any real effort was made to systematize them all into a consistent geography.

 

[Nerys Myk]

The way I understand it is, Gotham = Gotham, NYC = NYC, SF = SF, Coast City = Coast City. These are separate geographic entities. The Teen Titans tower is located in San Francisco, which is different from Coast City.

Star City = Seattle

Central City = Minneapolis, Keystone = St. Paul

Coast City = San Francisco

Metropolis/Gotham = New York

But...there are versions of all these real world cities in the DCU as well.

I saw a fictional map once that made the U.S. slightly larger to accommodate all the extra cities.

Keystone was Philadelphia.(Pennsylvania being the Keystone State) it didn't become a neighbor of Central until after the Crisis On Infinite Earths. in the DCU Central is in Kansas and Keystone is in Missouri, making them similar Kansas City, KS and MO.

Coast City is usually in Southern California and an analog of LA which housed a large aerospace industry (not unlike Ferris Aircraft) It has migrated north in a few references.

Not sure when Star City became "Seattle". it was an NYC analog for a long time. Might have moved west when GA and GL teamed up. Tough even then it seemed to be in California. Possibly San Francisco.

Other analogs

Ivy Town= Boston area

Midway City= Chicago ( though some have placed it in Michagan)

Gateway City= San Francisco/St Louis

 

[sojourner]

I've always pictured Gotham as Boston and Metropolis as Chicago. Based purely on my personal views of those cities.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Metropolis in L&C and the New Gotham in BoP always felt to me more like medium sized cities to me. The latter may have had shown sprawling CGI cityscapes (I can't remember.), but the claustrophobic set design always made it feel smaller.

L&C Metropolis always felt like it was the size of Buffalo or New Orleans ... maybe San Diego.

Smallville's geography was always a disaster.

And I could swear there've been exterior shots on both Arrow and Flash that have shown Vancouver's coastline.

 

[Christopher]

I think the claustrophobic feel of Birds of Prey had as much to do with the small universe syndrome of the characters as with the backlot-bound exteriors. There was only one cop in town who investigated every crime, and he turned out to be the son of the city's leading gangster, and said gangster killed the mother of one of the female leads.

And yes, BoP did have a rather pioneering use of an elaborate digital cityscape, which was the most visually striking thing about the show (aside from Dina Meyer, Rachel Skarsten, and Mia Sara). I think a few of its buildings ended up getting recycled in Smallville's Metropolis.

Batman '66 was also a very backlot-bound show, but it also made plenty of use of Bronson Canyon and the LA hills, as well as plenty of stock footage and rear projection of New York City.

 

[arch101]

I always thought that Metropolis was New York and Gotham was Boston. If you watch Arrow, Starling city is Boston from the air and Vancouver on the ground :-)

 

[Christopher]

As mentioned above, Gotham has been a nickname for New York City for centuries. They're both New York.

The George Reeves Adventures of Superman's Metropolis was clearly Los Angeles, right down to using LA City Hall as the Daily Planet building. Although I think that when they used a cyclorama backdrop of a cityscape, it was New York.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Frankly, I always thought of Metropolis as LA. Maybe that's why, I have no idea. Maybe it was just an east coast bias when I was young where I assumed everything not on the east coast was close to it. So I just assumed "midwest" (where Smallville was) and "west" are somehow close.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Frankly, I always thought of Metropolis as LA. Maybe that's why, I have no idea. Maybe it was just an east coast bias when I was young where I assumed everything not on the east coast was close to it. So I just assumed "midwest" (where Smallville was) and "west" are somehow close.

Well, Smallville , the show, had Metropolis in viewing/commuting distance. So it can't have been very far away. And Smallville is definitely in Kansas,so....

 

[CorporalClegg]

At first, Smallville's Smallville/Metropolis were a good day's drive apart. Then you could use see Metropolis off on the horizon from a high vantage point. By the end of the show, Smallville may has well have been Burbank or Staten Island.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Frankly, I always thought of Metropolis as LA. Maybe that's why, I have no idea. Maybe it was just an east coast bias when I was young where I assumed everything not on the east coast was close to it. So I just assumed "midwest" (where Smallville was) and "west" are somehow close.

Well, Smallville , the show, had Metropolis in viewing/commuting distance. So it can't have been very far away. And Smallville is definitely in Kansas,so....

Yeah, but what the hell is near Kansas?

 

[Guy Gardener]

Arkansas?

No seriously what the fuck is up with that?

Kansas and Arkansas?

 

[DWF]

Nobody's surprised that Felicity's sleeping with the boss? I guessnow she can write a book entitled Fifty Shades OF Ray.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

She's been in lust with her "boss" for 3 years now...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZglq6Hy_JI

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZglq6Hy_JI[/yt]

... so its not surprising to see her transfer her needs affections to Ray after all the mixed messages she's been getting from Ollie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI4TlHDsQ5M

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI4TlHDsQ5M[/yt]

The Olicity camp must be having a freaking conniption fit tight about now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S26g2TsHODk

Yup... I'm right about that conniption fit .

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S26g2TsHODk[/yt]

Amell nailed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=JZCbhD19ykM#t=95

"Wait, what?????"

(go to 1:35)

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZCbhD19ykM[/yt]

 

[NCC1701MF]

Of course, NYC does exist in the DC Universe, so DC's geographical reference sources have generally put Gotham City in New Jersey, and Metropolis in Delaware.

So Gotham is Newark, NJ.

 

[Christopher]

^No, it's Gotham City. They just had to put it somewhere close to NYC, because NYC was there too.

Of course, in the '66 TV series, Gotham City was in Gotham State, across the West River from New Guernsey.

 

[theenglish]

Here are a couple of maps I found. They don't seem to be in agreement though:

http://www.comicvine.com/forums/dc-comics-2454/map-of-dc-america-1586624/

http://ifanboy.com/articles/the-secret-geography-of-the-dc-universe-a-really-big-map/

 

[Nerys Myk]

Maps of the DCU Earth are never a good idea.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Here are a couple of maps I found. They don't seem to be in agreement though:

http://www.comicvine.com/forums/dc-comics-2454/map-of-dc-america-1586624/

While I'm indifferent to ruining the good parts of the Jersey shore to create Gotham maybe it would make sense to place it on the continent side rather than Long Beach (which probably couldn't support a major city).

http://ifanboy.com/articles/the-secret-geography-of-the-dc-universe-a-really-big-map/

I'm not so much impressed by Metropolis being Georgetown, Delaware (would be nice and convenient to buy Dogfish Head beer), but I am impressed that they managed to move Dover 50 miles to the north and destroy Wilmington in the process.

 

[Gryffindorian]

She's been in lust with her "boss" for 3 years now...

Umm, I'm sure there's a three-way slash fanfic out there somewhere. I'll start Googling.