DCU Geography: Keystone-Central Cities - Post-Flashpoint Question

[dewline]

Just had a leaf-through at the local public library, specifically the first post-Flashpoint Flash collection, Move Forward, featuring Francis Manapul's material.

I have a vague feeling we covered this before...here or elsewhere...but anyway:

Did Manapul really go and replace all the existing Keystone-Central neighbourhood names with names of cities and neighbourhoods from the Greater Toronto Area? I had to take off my glasses and squint and I'm still not sure that I actually saw names like Vaughan, Pickering, Scarborough, and so forth on the map that showed up in that hardcover.

Comments

[liabrown]

Yes he did. And before Flashpoint, he actually stated in interviews that he and Johns were basing their Central City on Toronto. I've written (but not finished or published) a list of all the Toronto references I've spotted, and maybe I should get around to completing it. There are quite a few references to Toronto and his friends/colleagues in the pre-Flashpoint book.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Considering the work Geoff - particularly in concert with Scott Kolins - put into making Keystone its own place...West Key, the "242" district, Silverport and so on?...that seems odd.

I don't mind the idea of Toronto getting the odd shout-out, but that earlier work was good and livened the place up.

In any case, I'll be interested to see the results of your research!

[liabrown]

I'm guessing the idea was that Keystone is the blue collar city, while Central is the more upscale urban city, sort of like Hamilton-Toronto. The only real difference is that they're separated by the river, so it's more like Detroit/Windsor in that sense.

The old dynamic was completely thrown out the window in the New 52, considering Manabooch made the Twin Cities into a former mining town (now known as the Gem Cities) surrounded by Badlands, sort of reminiscent of the Alberta/Montana area.

I need to sit down and actually get back to work on that -- but that's what a new year is for, I guess :>

[dewline.livejournal.com]

No longer on the Kansas-Missouri line either, then, but elsewhere in the USA?

Pre-2011, I liked calling them the "Lightning Cities". Had I gotten the chance with the travel guide project West End Games had in mind for the Great Lakes/Upper Mid-West region of DCU America, I would've tried to sneak that nickname in as "official".

[liabrown]

I guess it's possible they're still in Kansas-Missouri, but the geography of the New 52 US is quite different. But I don't know -- I honestly get the feeling the creators didn't put a lot of thought into it. There's a lot of stuff in that book that doesn't hold up if you think about it for more than a few moments.

Oh yeah, that sort of thing is always a lot of fun :) Having an influence on canon is a special feeling!