Comic Books
Related: About this forumAre Gotham City and Metropolis both versions of New York City, or is
Metropolis Chicago?
Broken_Hero
(59,305 posts)Metropolis is close to New York, if you take a look at Bruce Waynes tags in the last batman trilogy, you will notice Illinois plates. I don't think either city replaces the other entirely, but I do believe both cities helped fashion Gotham/Metropolis. Also, there is a Chicago, and New York in the DC universe.
The Philosopher
(895 posts)They are both based on New York, using different aspects of the city. I think the early Batman stories were located in New York City before relocating to Gotham.
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)one view much darker than the other, or views of two cities, one of which lends itself better to a dark view.
WCGreen
(45,558 posts)Gotham was first used in reference to New York City by Washington Irving in the satirical piece Salmagundi (1807). Gotham was at that point already known to refer to a place with "foolish inhabitants." Somehow the name stuck to NYC, even though it had originally been a nickname for Nottinghamshire (a village in England where, apparently, wise men acted as fools in order to avoid paying for the king's upkeep).
Broken_Hero
(59,305 posts)Codeine
(25,586 posts)Or they did in the DC Universe Atlas thingamabob, anyway.
But yeah, the reality was well-expressed by Frank Miller -- "Metropolis is New York in the daytime; Gotham City is New York at night." NYC has always had a noir side and a glitzy side, and the Metropolis/Gotham dichotomy is a very effective way of expressing the difference.