M&M : Supercities

Batman's Gotham City is Manhattan below Fourteenth Street at eleven minutes past midnight on the coldest night in November.

-Dennis O'Neil

Atlantis, Lemuria, Shangri La, Carcosa, Walla Walla. One thing I plan to do for Mutants and Masterminds is to structure the setting around various mythical cities, both hidden and open.

I'm a big Jack Kirby fan, and while I can't say for sure that he's responsible for all of them,, I associate strong associate Kirby with classic hidden superhuman societies societies in Marvel & DC Comics: The Inhumans(Attilan/Atlantis), the Eternals (Olympia, Titan), & The New Gods (New Genesis & Apokolips). While Jim Starlin's creations really don't fit into the "cities" theme, I just wanted to give him credit as the only other "cosmic" superhero creator I consider comparable to The King.

However, imaginary cities in comics predate Kirby, and they predate modern comics in Lovecraft-era pulp horror. Although technically seperate locations, Superman's Metropolis and Batman's Gotham have long been associated the dark and light sides of New York City, and Lovecraft created Arkham as sylized version of salem, giving it a pervasive atmosphere of dread ideal for horror stories from Lovecraft and several of his peers.

For MnM, I plan create (or just steal) several distinct cities that either represent part of the background for superhumans, or as places with thier own rules that focus on certain types of game-play. For example, I plan to include a version of Metropolis (Chicago?), Gotham (Seattle?), and Arkham (Portland, Oregon?). The Metropolis city would encourage over-the-top heroism, the Gotham city would focus on gritty, hyper-realistic action and intrigue, and the Arkham city would emphasize occult-themed characters and powers.

I'm also considering a "sin city" gestalt of Los Angeles, Hollywood, and Las Vegas (it's a post-world-war-III setting, and LA could just as well go the way of NYC). While I like the idea, it presents two problems. First, would it overshadow the street-level atmosphere of Gotham? Second, as much as I like the name, can I really get away with creating a major american city called "Babylon"?