The City

A single thought has been crouching around in my brain of late and I suspect it is beginning to take form.

Every great superhero story, to my mind, starts with a city.

Gotham City and Metropolis are the best examples of this, and then there are the real world ones like New York and Seattle.  For those who are wondering, that's where a lot of the Elementals comics took place.  Man I miss that book so much.

Back to my point though, many fans often ask which is preferred in comics, the real world outside your window of Marvel, or the DC more made-up world.  For me, the older I get the more I realize I prefer the DC approach as it gives so much more freedom and allows you to present a different world.  A world that you can tailor more to your own tastes and goals.

Yes this ties into the Dieselpunk thing I was going on about last month.  Hush now and listen.

The thing is that almost every great story of a superhero starts with the city that they are in, usually it is in disrepair, a shade of its former glory and, to misquote the Maxx, run on a system of corruption, graft and violence.

This is a world that is crying out for a hero, but at first hates any that arrives.

This is one of the secrets of the success of Batman I think.  His origin story is so compelling that it has grown in the telling from being a page or so when he first appeared and now has been done as an entire mini-series, such as Batman: Year One.

Currently there is an excellent new Noir comic called the Black Beetle from Dark Horse Comics, that is set in the fictional Colt City and is thus far quite an interesting read.  I am fascinated by it, but must confess I was a bigger fan of Spider-Man Noir.

So what does all this mean really?  What am I going on about with the City and such?

Well I think I have to get a Golden Age tale out of my head soon.  Something set in a fictional City (probably Centropolis) and something that encompasses the elements of Noir and Dieselpunk that are kicking at the brain stem.

I have no idea if this will be successful or a fool's errand, either is fully possible.

Stay tuned...