A couple of months ago, there was a bit of discussion about cities in comics, in terms of fictional ones versus real ones. What I mean is, there are people who prefer DC to Marvel, and part of what they enjoy is that DC comics are frequently set in cities that were created from the minds of the writer and artist. Sure, those cities, be it Metropolis, Gotham, Opal City, Central City, whatever, probably owe some of their style to a city that exists in our world, but they're also their own unique entities, which is part of the appeal, as I understood it. THe city can reflect the characters that live in it, and what they represent.
Conversely, for some of the people that prefer Marvel, they like that the cities used are ones that exist in our world. Usually it's New York, but the X-Men have spent a couple different stints in San Fran, the West Coast Avengers were in L.A., Thor set up shop in Chicago for a time, and so on. By using cities the readers know and can visit, it provides a sense of connection between the reader and the characters, in theory.
It occurred to me that Marvel's cities are to me, largely as fictional as DC's. I've never been to New York City, or L.A., or San Francisco. I've spent maybe 3 days in Chicago. I know those cities exist, but I don't "know" them, in the sense that I've lived in them, thus I'd recognize their unique quirks, and then be able to recognize those in a Marvel comic set there, prompting the aforementioned sense of connection. I don't have any idea how similar the New York City of Marvel is to the New York City here in our world. Even if Marvel N.Y.C. is presented as a perfect copy, I wouldn't realize that, so it still wouldn't feel real to me. Maybe it's because I'm focusing on the characters, and when I'm reading about a guy climbing walls and swinging on webs he created himself, I don't feel like it could be my world.
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2 comments:
I have to admit that I am a sucker for DC's fictional cities...they all seem to have such inordinate characters in and of themselves. Take Opal City for example, all Victorian and Art Deco, I would LOVE to live there. Metropolis is bright and shiny, Gotham is dark and gloomy and so on and so forth.
Marvel has "real" cities. So does DC of course, but seriously, how many times has Marvel blown up New York? There can't be too much left by now.
sallyp: Sally, that's where Damage Control comes in! They are excellent at rebuilding cities. Though I don't think New York gets completely destroyed that often. Let's see, the Hulk broke some of it in World War Hulk, the Sentinels trashed it during Onslaught, Cap surrendered before they could break it in Civil War, hmm, there are probably some others.
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