Actually, they’re based out of New York state. At least they were last I read the comics… I suppose they might have moved in the past few years, but doing a quick search I find no reference to such. All references to the X-Men being in DC mention them GOING there.
Arken, you forgot the Powerpuff Girls, in Townsville. And for what it’s worth, in the recent X-Men movie, they needed to hop in a supersonic jet to get to NYC. I got the impression of DC from the movie, but I don’t recall if they explicitely said so. I realize, of course, that the movie is not to be taken as canon.
The X-Men are of course based out of Westchester County, New York.
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That was something specifically created for the animated series. It seems a bit odd at first but it does add to the coolness factor of the Batman show. Somehow they make it work for the animated series very well.
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Yeah and I think instead of a torch and a book she carried a sword and shield. She may have been seen in the animated series or the comic book as well but I can’t recall.
Marc
IIRC, the art deco gotham city was also featured in many of the comics and the movies…
Some people think comic book cities secretly ARE real cities, e.g. Gotham = New York. Others, such as myself, think comic book cities are inspired by real cities but they are not one and the same.
So Gotham is simply Gotham, a dark and seedy place inspired by elements of New York. Metropolis is a bright, vibrant city inspired by other elements of New York. But in the DC comics universe all three huge cities co-exist on the East Coast.
You can try to find real-world analogs to help you figure out where, geographically, comic book cities are located, but I think that’s as far as you can go in tying them to our universe. For instance, Green Lantern used to hang out in Coast City, a large-ish West Coast city that is NOT Los Angeles (How do we know it’s not LA? Because it’s “Coast City”) But San Diego is close to LA and has a strong military and aircraft connection (Lantern was a test pilot). So perhaps Coast City is akin to San Diego _ a big city near enough to LA to be convenient but not the dominant city in southern California.
There is occasional discussion of this issue on an excellent comic site _ http://www.captaincomics.net
Anyway, that’s my take on things.
In one of the Batman cartoon episodes, a roadside sign is shown stating “Gotham City: Art Deco Capital of the World” or some such. Seemed keeping in character with the series.
… the Statue of Justice, not of liberty, Batman being about justice and not freedom. The statue appeared in Batman Forever (with Val Kilmer) and the 2-part episode of the Animated Series that introduced Batgirl.
At the end of one animated episode, the Penguin is in prison making license plates. On the bottom of the plate is the motto “The Dark Deco State.” The state name is not visible.
In English folklore, the town named Gotham has a reputation for producing crazy people & fools.
In one folktale, The Wise Men Of Gotham, the English Gothamites try to fish the reflection of the full moon out of a mill pond with a net. They also try to trap a songbird by building a tall fence around it so it can’t leave. Naturally, the bird flies away.
In Batman, Gotham City has a reputation for producing eccentrics, oddballs, loonies…and truly, truly dangerous psychos, like the Joker.
The Gotham=Crazy connection is not likely to be entirely a coincidence.
There are amazingly similar tales in Jewish folklore about a town called Chelm, known as the village of fools. I never knew about Gotham.
On the same note, why did Godzilla move from Japan to NYC? The official explenation is he/she/it wanted to move to an island to mate (w/ itself) , why not one of the several thousand closer Pacific Islands? Oh yeah, I forgot, a huge lizard attacking a village in Fiji wouldn’t make such a box office hit…