So, you’re starting a new life in the DC Universe. Let us be the first to say welcome to Earth-0! Don’t worry, you’re not alone in your multiversal displacement. We get “out-of-towners” moving in all the time. Just ask Power Girl or Naomi McDuffie. The first thing you’re going to want to do after you get your bearings is figure out a place to live. Don’t worry, we’ve still got a New York, a Chicago and a Los Angeles, along with most of the cities you’re used to. But you may be wondering what life might be like if you relocated to Metropolis or Gotham City. So, we’ve put together this handy guide for you on the best cities to consider settling down in until the next reboot (and which to consider avoiding). Let’s take a tour!
Amnesty Bay
Small-town charm with coastal amenities and a historic, walkable downtown which has seen underinvestment but has great potential. Stay out of the splash zone or you will get wet.
Walk Score: 80
Transit Score: 50
Villain-Free Score: 40
Blüdhaven
Once a city which suffered under the reputation of “the poor man’s Gotham,” this historic whaling town has seen a number of renovative overhauls since that nasty Chemo business. An up-and-comer with good bones and a boom in tourism, thanks in large part recently to an angel investor from the prestigious Wayne family.
Walk Score: 60
Transit Score: 65
Villain-Free Score: 35
Central City
The capital of the Midwest has its share of super-villains, but you’ll find that any issues tend to resolve themselves in a Flash. But when it comes to getting around…unless you’re the Scarlet Speedster, you’re going to need a car.
Walk Score: 20
Transit Score: 30
Villain-Free Score: 30
Coast City
Surprisingly dense and walkable for a west coast city. Almost like the designers were more familiar with Northeast-style big cities and assumed the west coast would be the same or something. Most villains have left it alone since the whole Mongul and Cyborg Superman event, but word is that Hal Jordan may be headed home soon and trouble follows that guy across the universe.
Walk Score: 70
Transit Score: 50
Villain-Free Score: 60
Gotham City
NYC-style public transit and services, with lower rents…mostly because of all the super-villain attacks. Oh yeah, and the rampant government corruption. Great transit scores, though! Walkability would be higher if you could reliably get from one place to another without getting held up at gunpoint or doused with Joker gas.
Walk Score: 40
Transit Score: 80
Villain-Free Score: 5
Hub City
If you want a good sense of how rough life in Hub City is, the mean parts of Gotham are where Hub City residents go for vacation. Mayor Fermin’s crowning achievement is getting the sanitation services to run every week. No real super-villainy to speak of, just your run-of-the-mill urban decay. Avoid.
Walk Score: 10
Transit Score: 5
Villain-Free Score: 90
Ivy Town
As a college town, it’s walkable with a variety of great food options. During the summer, however, substantial portions of the town empty out, which makes it an awkward home for those not studying or working at the university. There’s also the madness-inducing elder god which lies beneath it, but a superhero will typically step in to take care of any significant damage to the residents’ collective subconscious.
Walk Score: 90
Transit Score: 30
Villain-Free Score: 70
Metropolis
Generally less street-level crime than Gotham, but more prone to alien and high-powered super-villain attacks. Superman does a great job at supplementing emergency services. Traffic is terrible, but the city has good public transit and walkability. However, you pay for Metropolis being “cleaner” than Gotham in higher rents.
Walk Score: 90
Transit Score: 50
Villain-Free Score: 15
Opal City
Honestly, we don’t understand why more people don’t move here. Opal City has all the glamor of Metropolis or Gotham with far fewer super-villain attacks—practically none, in fact, for the past thirty years. Even the city’s resident superhero was able to retire. True to its name, Opal City is a real gem, both in that it’s a wonderfully livable place and in that it’s likely very expensive.
Walk Score: 100
Transit Score: 90
Villain-Free Score: 95
Smallville
Ironically, actually really big for a Kansas small town, as though the statisticians who delivered the population figures were using a Northeastern standard for what a small town’s population is. (Strange, that.) Nice place to live, though, if you’d like to get away from it all, but Smallville doesn’t offer much in the way of amenities. Of note, Superman spends a weird amount of time here, a fact which residents have collectively decided is none of their business.
Walk Score: 50
Transit Score: 5
Villain-Free Score: 90
Star City
A lot of people will tell you that Star City is a lot like Seattle, except one has Green Arrow. Highly walkable, great transit and high rents, albeit lower than most Northwest cities thanks to the Emerald Archer’s rogues gallery. That’s the tradeoff across the board: the lower the rent, the better chance you have of getting blasted by some kind of umbrella or boomerang or laser gun that turns you into cheese. Welcome to the DC Universe. A superhero will be here to assist you shortly.
Walk Score: 80
Transit Score: 80
Villain-Free Score: 20
Alex Jaffe is the author of our monthly “Ask the Question” column and writes about TV, movies, comics and superhero history for DCComics.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AlexJaffe and find him in the DC Community as HubCityQuestion.
NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Alex Jaffe and do not necessarily reflect those of DC Entertainment or Warner Bros.
