Map of DC Universe Locations

[SaudiFleetOwner]

Does anyone know of where the major cities of the DC universe is located? I have found edvidence

For instance, I read that Gotham City is in NJ
Metropolis is east of Washington D.C.
I like to know where Dakota is located?
Anyone got a good site I can check out?

 

[SimonMoon5]

http://www.idyllmtn.com/rac/dc/universe/racdu.html

In this FAQ, your question is number C5.

However, my favorite answer to this question that is occasionally given is that Metropolis is New York during the day, and Gotham is New York at night.

 

[Seven Marks]

http://www.idyllmtn.com/rac/dc/universe/racdu.html

In this FAQ, your question is number C5.

However, my favorite answer to this question that is occasionally given is that Metropolis is New York during the day, and Gotham is New York at night.

Nah, it goes like, Metropolis is the clean east side on NY, you know manhattan and stuff, and Gotham is the dirty west side

But in reality Metropolis is based on Montreal (especially the daily planet)and Gotham's name sake is New York. )New york's nick name is Gotham City for architectural reasons)

Your just supposed to imgine that they're coastal New England cities close to New York. You know there was a time when people didnt worry about this

 

[The Detective]

Well we know that Metropolis and Gotham in the Animated Universe are both coastal cities. And in the BTAS episode, AVATAR it shows Gotham City as being in the lower hook of Mashechuetts (sp?) probably around Boston. And we all know that Smallville is smack in the middle of Kansas.

 

[StarScream64]

Well we know that Metropolis and Gotham in the Animated Universe are both coastal cities. And in the BTAS episode, AVATAR it shows Gotham City as being in the lower hook of Mashechuetts (sp?) probably around Boston. And we all know that Smallville is smack in the middle of Kansas.

That "lower hook" is Cape Cod.

And Metropolis is in Illinois.

 

[BCVM22]

In addition, the Flash's base town of Central City is located in Missouri, which located (in the comics) directly across the river from Keystone City, Kansas.

 

[Dwayne McDuffie]

Dakota is in Southeastern Michigan, just north of Ontario, Canada.

 

[cysurf]

Dakota is in Southeastern Michigan, just north of Ontario, Canada.

Oh yeah, and just how do you know that?? Oh wait...nevermind.

 

[Squall]

The way I always understood it, was that Gotham City *is* New York City, NY (just with another name) and Metropolis *is* Los Angeles, CA (just with another name). Central City *is* Kansas City, MO/KS (just with another name), and Coastal City *is* Seattle, WA (just with another name). Think of them as fictional counterparts to real-life cities; like a caricature of geography.

Also, Dakota is a small town a few hours' drive from Detroit, MI.

 

[JusticeLeagueLegion]

Speculation, specualation, speculation. No one really knows the locations of the DC Comics cities and towns. We know that Smallville is in Kansas. Someone said it was smack in the middle...I never heard that. So that would make it...in Barton County perhaps? I could see that...it's also been said that Central City is on the MO border with Keystone City which is on the Kansas border. And since Dwayne McDuffie said Dakota City is located in Michigan...that's another confirmed one. But as far as I know, it's never been said where Metropolis and Gotham are located. There's been unofficial stuff, like in books. (The DC Atlas, noteably) but none of them are official, just posibilities. Who knows? Bob Kane, Jerry Siegel & Joe Schuster might not have even known. It's kind've like the Anti-Life Equation, did Jack Kirby even ever know what it was?

 

[Harvey Dent]

In the animated universe, Gotham replaces NYC geographically, as seen in the ep referenced above as well as "Sub Zero".

 

[Apache Chief]

Well, by now we've given the original poster plenty of answers to choose from, so here's another:

I've always assumed that the DCU (comic, animated, or otherwise), has a New York City, along with two other major East Coast cities that we don't have: Metropolis, which is in Delaware, and Gotham, which is in New Jersey. I forget where I first heard that.

But as SimonMoon5 already mentioned, there is a cool way to think of them - Metropolis is the gleaming, hi-tech "day-time" New York, and Gotham is the seedy, crime-ridden "night-time" New York.

 

[Ssrn53]

In the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, Metropolis was New York City because it had NYC land marks. I personally always considered Metropolis to be New York City and Gotham City to be Chicago. Anyone else felt that way?

 

[Anthonynotes]

As someone who grew up near Chicago, afraid I don't feel that way

Let's see...

Metropolis: in my mind, I'd agree with those that suggest it's in northern Delaware (IIRC, there *is* a "Kent County" there ). Though I've seen some suggest (due to the original location of the JLA's "Secret Sanctuary" in Happy Harbor, RI) that it'd be in Rhode Island, I'd beg to differ---a city the size of Metropolis wouldn't leave much room left in such a small state for Happy Harbor (let alone Providence, the state capital!). Besides, we'd be getting Stewie Griffin trying to take over the place or something... ;-p (STEWIE: BLAST! Curse that solar-powered Kryptonian leftover!)

Gotham City: in my mind, southern New Jersey, probably on the opposite side of the large (several hundred miles?) bay from northern Delaware/Metropolis. Close enough to Metropolis for team-ups, yet still far enough apart to have their own identities (and cities *are* pretty close together on the East coast)---in my mind, Gotham and Metropolis are probably not more than a few hours' drive apart (distance-wise maybe something like the distance from Chicago to Milwaukee or Indianapolis and Cincinnati).

Central City/Keystone City: Central City in my mind seems to be either Cincinnati )(not sure why; maybe since pre-Crisis, Central City was apparently an analogue of Akron, OH) or St. Louis. Despite the comics comparing it to Kansas City, I never liked the idea of Keystone City being in Kansas... since "the Keystone State" = "Pennsylvania", and I presume Keystone City (as originally shown in the older comics) was probably meant to be an analogue of Philadelphia/some Pennsylvanian city. Thus, Central/Keystone straddling the Ohio-Penn. border would probably make more sense in my mind than stripping both their unique identites for some generic "Kansas City MO/KS" analogue...

Dakota: I always thought it was in the midwest, but didn't consider it as a Detroit analogue...though Benton Harbor, MI (not far from where I grew up) might seem more befitting given events there of late (large Black population, recent riots [but no "Big Bang"!])...

Smallville: Kansas of course (though pre-Crisis, its location wasn't nailed down; while some stories implied it was [as today] "hundreds of miles from Metropolis"/"in the midwest", a lot of Superboy stories put it as being near Metropolis... which is likely why the "Smallville" TV show probably put Metropolis in Kansas, since they seem to have taken some amount of their show's settings/influence off old "Superboy" comics)
-B.

 

[The Detective]

Speculation, specualation, speculation. No one really knows the locations of the DC Comics cities and towns. We know that Smallville is in Kansas. Someone said it was smack in the middle...I never heard that. So that would make it...in Barton County perhaps? I could see that...it's also been said that Central City is on the MO border with Keystone City which is on the Kansas border. And since Dwayne McDuffie said Dakota City is located in Michigan...that's another confirmed one. But as far as I know, it's never been said where Metropolis and Gotham are located. There's been unofficial stuff, like in books. (The DC Atlas, noteably) but none of them are official, just posibilities. Who knows? Bob Kane, Jerry Siegel & Joe Schuster might not have even known. It's kind've like the Anti-Life Equation, did Jack Kirby even ever know what it was?

I didn't mean literally that Smallville was in the middle of Kansas, I was speaking figuratively since we there is do doubt that Smallville is in Kansas. You know, I almost prefer they not tell where these fictional cities are it just..I don't know adds to the timeless nature or something like that.

Also, Dakota and Gotham can't be too far apart Batman and Static as well as various villians have trecked back and forth a couple of times.

 

[Cy-Kill]

But in reality Metropolis is based on Montreal (especially the daily planet)

Wrong! Metropolis was inspired by a bunch of cities, but it was initially based on Toronto, and the Daily Planet was based on the Toronto Daily Star.

 

[BigFatHairyDeal]

I've posted about this before, but since the thread bumped I'll restate what I mentioned prior.

In the DCAU, Gotham City is in New York state. That's plain fact, according to the movie Sub-Zero. Barbara Gordon's address is listed as 47 College Way, Gotham City, NY 10025. That zip code, in real life, describes an area in Manhattan along the Hudson river and near Columbia University. Too bad there's no "College Way" in Manhattan, though.

In the STAS episode "Speed Demons," they show a map that points to Weather Wizard's hideout, said to be just outside Metropolis. Metropolis, then, appears to be in the NY/NJ/PA tri-state area.

 

[quigonkenny]

In Young Justice, Gotham has been confirmed to be in the southwest corner of Connecticut, northeast of New York. Central City is confirmed to be in Missouri on the Kansas border, which means Keystone City is probably on the other side of that border. Star City is West Coast, probably as a San Francisco/Oakland analogue. Metropolis is East Coast, probably south of New York (maybe northern New Jersey?).

 

[Otaku-sempai]

On-line DCU maps...

I know of two on-line resources, neither of which can be considered completely definitive:

1. The Atlas of the DCU (based on the 1990 game suppliment from Mayfair Games): http://www.karridian.net/dcatlas.html
- locations include: Metroplis, DE; Gotham City, NJ; Smallville, KS, etc. Starting with COUNTDOWN TO IDENTITY CRISIS, DC relocated Metropolis to New York State.

2. DCU Flashpoint Map: http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/files/2011/05/flashpointmapv6.jpg
- seemingly shows Metropolis in Maryland.

As noted by others, the Timm-verse Gotham City replaces NYC.

 

[Hypestyle]

I find that the online (unofficial) DC Atlas is helpful..

From a writing/editorial standpoint, I consider it somewhat annoying that writers are not allowed to give the DCU cities a "real" fixed location in terms of a state.. to me, it detracts from a realistic milieu..

Even if you have Flash Speed, how far is it from Fawcett City to Gotham? Or from Gotham to Gateway City?

Realistically, could you ever depict government at the county or state levels.. what does the governor of _________ feel about all the super crime in Gotham?
Does a state senator whose district includes Metropolis get to brag about Superman? on the flip side, do they get undue scrutiny from rivals who don't like "meta aliens" hanging around? Would the state national guard get called in for Keystone city?
Do government social workers 'only' work for their respective cities, never for the state? this is a thematic handicap that is unfairly placed on writers, it prevents some stories from being told.

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