If you're a regular reader, you know this blog has more than once explored the question of where DC's fictional cities could be. With the New52, everything is up in the air again, and the Internet has been abuzz for almost a week regarding this page from Josh Fialkov's I, Vampire #3:
It looks from this "meanwhile in the various time zones" that goes from East to West, that both Star City and Coast City, both formerly on the West Coast, have been pushed eastward. Now that Green Arrow is back in Seattle, Star City can redefine itself, no problem. In fact, I'd love to see it resituated in Texas (Central Time), as the lone star of the Lone Star State. It's a state with a distinct flavor or four, and a unique environment for a would-be superhero. Perhaps somewhere El Paso's Blue Beetle could move to when he grows up.
The real problem, though, is Coast City now situated in Mountain Time. See, there's no coast in that time zone. Not unless the city's in Mexico, which it clearly isn't. We're left with four possibilities:
-It's a mistake. Ignore it.
-Part of Mexico has been annexed by the U.S. in the New DCU.
-"Coast" is ironic, much like "Greenland" is icy and "Iceland" is green.
-The definition of Coast has been extended to lakeside topography. Maybe Coast City is somehow facing Salt Lake City now.
For me, the missed opportunity was to do away with Coast City altogether. I mean, do we really need it? Hal Jordan's job always took him to some desert base anyway, so why not have him based in Nevada. He's not the defender of a particular city, after all, but of an entire Sector. Eliminating his contextualizing city would have promoted his actual role (and not been too far off the way Green Lantern's world has been portrayed of late). Sometimes I think the trouble with the New DC isn't that too much has changed, but rather that NOT ENOUGH has.
It looks from this "meanwhile in the various time zones" that goes from East to West, that both Star City and Coast City, both formerly on the West Coast, have been pushed eastward. Now that Green Arrow is back in Seattle, Star City can redefine itself, no problem. In fact, I'd love to see it resituated in Texas (Central Time), as the lone star of the Lone Star State. It's a state with a distinct flavor or four, and a unique environment for a would-be superhero. Perhaps somewhere El Paso's Blue Beetle could move to when he grows up.The real problem, though, is Coast City now situated in Mountain Time. See, there's no coast in that time zone. Not unless the city's in Mexico, which it clearly isn't. We're left with four possibilities:
-It's a mistake. Ignore it.
-Part of Mexico has been annexed by the U.S. in the New DCU.
-"Coast" is ironic, much like "Greenland" is icy and "Iceland" is green.
-The definition of Coast has been extended to lakeside topography. Maybe Coast City is somehow facing Salt Lake City now.
For me, the missed opportunity was to do away with Coast City altogether. I mean, do we really need it? Hal Jordan's job always took him to some desert base anyway, so why not have him based in Nevada. He's not the defender of a particular city, after all, but of an entire Sector. Eliminating his contextualizing city would have promoted his actual role (and not been too far off the way Green Lantern's world has been portrayed of late). Sometimes I think the trouble with the New DC isn't that too much has changed, but rather that NOT ENOUGH has.
Comments
Until the late eighties Star City was often placed on the Great Lakes or on the East Coast, so a change back to that isn't so bad, I guess. I'm inclined to call the Coast City thing a mistake.
(This means that it has to be located on the Florida Panhandle to get that time and an actual Coast.)
@Siskoid, remember a time when mistakes were often corrected the next time around?