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Metropolis is a fictional American city appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, and is the home of Superman. Portrayed as a prosperous and massive city, Metropolis first appeared by name in ''Action Comics'' #16 (September 1939). 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.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Fictional City of Metropolis )〕 Since then, however, it has become a fictional analogue to New York City.〔〔〔Bridwell, E. Nelson. "Metropolis Mailbag," ''Superman'' #306 (Dec. 1976).〕 Within the DC Universe, Metropolis is depicted as one of the largest and wealthiest cities on Earth, having a population of nearly 11 million citizens.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Metropolis )〕 The skyline and most of the notable landmarks in Metropolis are based on real-life landmarks in New York City.〔 Metropolis is nicknamed "The Big Apricot," just as New York City is nicknamed "The Big Apple."〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The City )〕 Frank Miller has said that "Metropolis is New York in the daytime; Gotham City is New York at night." ==Creation== Like many other fictional cities in DC Comics, the location of Metropolis has varied over the years but is usually portrayed as a major city in the Northeast, sharing various qualities with New York City.〔 Superman co-creator Joe Shuster moved to Cleveland at age ten, where he met co-creator and Ohio native Jerry Siegel. Originally intending to sell the Superman strips to a Cleveland newspaper, they decided to set the stories there, but when the strips were re-used for the comic books, they changed the location to Metropolis. ''Action Comics'' #2, however, mistakenly portrays Clark Kent as a reporter for the ''Cleveland Evening News''. In ''Superman'' #2 (Fall 1939), Metropolis was actually placed in the US state of New York, making it the earliest specific reference to the location of Metropolis.〔 In that issue, Clark Kent (Superman) sends a telegram to George Taylor, the editor of the ''Daily Star'' (the antecedent to the Daily Planet), addressed to "Metropolis, N.Y."〔 In the 1940s Superman cartoons, produced by Paramount Pictures and Fleischer Studios, Superman is said to live on the island of Manhattan. In the seventh cartoon of the series, "Electric Earthquake," a Native American mad scientist claims that his people are the rightful owners of Manhattan, thus placing these cartoons on the island. In the fifth episode in the series, "The Bulleteers," the name of the city is identified as Metropolis, as the Bulleteers address in that cartoon the population of Superman's city as "citizens of Metropolis"; and in the 13th episode "Destruction Inc.," Metropolis is even seen spelled out twice on the Metropolis Munition Works. In a 1970s edition of ''Ask the Answer Man'', a column that ran occasionally in DC publications, it was stated that Metropolis and Gotham City were adjacent to New York City; across the harbor from each other.〔"Daily Planet," ''Detective Comics'' #470 (June 1977).〕 That same column stated that Green Arrow's home, Star City, was in Connecticut, Flash's Central City was in Ohio, and Hawkman's Midway City was in Michigan.〔 An earlier issue of DC's fanzine ''Amazing World of DC Comics'', however, stated that Metropolis was located in Delaware, while Gotham was placed in New Jersey.〔''Amazing World of DC Comics'' #14 (March 1977).〕 The 1990 ''Atlas of the DC Universe'' role playing game supplement, published by Mayfair Games, states that Metropolis is in Delaware.〔''Atlas of the DC Universe'' (Mayfair Games, 1990).〕 In June 1976, ''Superman'' #300 featured an out-of-canon story about the infant Kal-El arriving on Earth in that year, triggering an increase in Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. In that story's version of the year 2001, Metropolis is located in New York. In his 1978 work, ''The Great Superman Book'', an encyclopedia of the first forty years of the Superman comics, author Michael Fleisher cites many, many examples which demonstrate that Metropolis equates with New York City. The most blatant of these might be the statement he cites from ''Action Comics'' #143 (April 1950), which states that the Statue of Liberty stands in "Metropolis Harbor".〔Fleisher, Michael and Lincoln, Janet E. ''The Great Superman Book'' (Grand Central Publishing, 1978), pp. 223–225.〕 The Statue of Liberty, in fact, stands in New York Harbor. In the pre-''Crisis on Infinite Earths'' comics, Smallville was often shown as being within driving distance of Metropolis,〔〔''New Adventures of Superboy'' #13 (January 1981)〕 though with no definitive location. Since John Byrne's revamp of Superman in 1986, however, its location has usually been cited as being in Kansas. The 1992 "Death of Superman" storyline depicts Doomsday on a path from Ohio through the state of New York, ending in Metropolis, and the 2005 comic ''Countdown to Infinite Crisis'' also places Metropolis in the state of New York. The 2003 DC Comics/Marvel Comics crossover mini-series ''JLA/Avengers'' depicts the city as along the multi-state Interstate 95, which is the main highway on the East Coast of the United States,〔David Montgomery and Josh White, ''The Washington Post'', 128 Cars, Trucks Crash in Snow on I-95, February 23, 2001, p. A1〕 and portrays the corresponding location in the Marvel Universe as forests and fields, explaining that Marvel's Earth and DC's Earth have different surface areas to account for their different geography (no Metropolis on Marvel's Earth, no Latveria on DC's Earth, and so on).〔''Avengers/JLA'' #2 (DC Comics, 2003).〕 On the television series ''Superman: The Animated Series'', the second part of the episode titled "Little Girl Lost" depicts Darkseid's minion using a machine hidden in or around Metropolis to attempt to pull a comet into the earth. The beam from that machine is depicted originating from the area of the mid-western United States where Kansas is located. In the second part of the episode "Last Son of Krypton" when Lois is introduced to Clark Kent, she is told he is from Smallville, she replies "Smallville? Never heard of it," prompting Clark Kent to ask her if she had ever been to Kansas. Lois replies "God No!" while turning her head in a sign of visible disgust. Frank Miller has said that "Metropolis is New York in the daytime; Gotham City is New York at night." Gotham City is home to Batman, whose activities are more often nocturnal, while Metropolis is home to Superman, who usually operates during the day. In terms of atmosphere, ''Batman'' writer and editor Dennis O'Neil has said that, figuratively, "Batman's Gotham City is Manhattan below 14th Street at eleven minutes past midnight on the coldest night in November, and Metropolis is Manhattan between 14th and 100th Streets on the brightest, sunniest July day of the year.〔〔O'Neil, Dennis. Afterward. ''Batman: Knightfall, A Novel''. New York: Bantam Books, 1994. 344.〕 New York City has been more recently used as a locale in the DC Universe, like the Marvel Universe, in which it exists as a separate city from Metropolis and Gotham City. The Justice Society of America, for example, is based in New York, as were the Teen Titans. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Metropolis (comics)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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