By Andrew WestMETROPOLIS — Today, we’re basing our newsroom in Metropolis, Delaware.
Fake news? Yes.
But it’s July, and we all need a little amusement and diversion from the divisive national headlines.
Thanks to the new “Superman” film, we can claim the Man of Steel as a local hero and Metropolis as a Downstate Delaware community.
It may seem far-fetched, but so is a man wearing blue tights, red underwear and a cape, who is leaping buildings in a single bound.
For all of you who thought Metropolis was New York City, this movie clears it up with homage to maps of comic books past.
“I had to choose somewhere,” film director James Gunn told ScreenRant. “Metropolis has actually been in different places, but it has been in Delaware before. So, I didn’t just make up Delaware.”
If you’re not watching closely, the First State glimpses may whiz past you faster than a speeding bullet.
In one of the movie trailers, you’ll see Clark Kent walking past a Delaware flag. Some viewers have said they counted three appearances of the flag in the film.
A DC Comics blog said Delaware was among the “Easter eggs” in the new “Superman.”
“According to Lois Lane’s license plate, this version of Metropolis is located in Delaware,” the post reads. “This was first established in 1977’s Amazing World of DC Comics #14 and reaffirmed in 1990’s Atlas of the DC Universe.”
Comic and film geeks say the 2025 “Superman” is the first film to locate Metropolis in Delaware.
Additional research shows that there was a 1978 map in “The World’s Greatest Superheroes” newspaper comic strip that showed Metropolis and Gotham on opposite sides of the Delaware Bay.
The map has Metropolis along the bay, sort of overlapping Kent and Sussex counties. Across the water is Gotham City.
The two places are connected by the Metro Narrows Bridge. Guessing the locations as we know them, the bridge would stretch across the bay from Little Creek to Fortescue, New Jersey.
(Wasn’t there some debate years ago in the General Assembly about investment in such a crossing?)
Back in 1990, the State News had a story about “The Atlas of the DC Universe.”
Mike J. Carlin, an editor at DC Comics in New York, told us that claims that Metropolis is in Delaware, Illinois or anywhere else specific are false.
“We don’t ever want to say what state (Metropolis) is in,” Mr. Carlin said. “We would like all the readers to think that it is the next big town over.”
But now, we know the truth. Move over New York, Little Creek is where it's at.
