Of course Metropolis isn't really really New York, just like the world of Superman isn't the real world, either. But more to the point, Metropolis represents certain aspects of New York - New York as seen through a shiny bright rather 1930-ish looking-glass, as it were. Remember that Siegel and Shuster created their dream city in the 1930s, when Empire State Building had just become the building that touched the sky and the original King Kong movie put the modernistic glory of New York on breathtaking display in movie theaters all over the world. Consider the meaning of that word, metropolis, too. It means "big city". And no city on the Earth represented the idea of the "big city" as perfectly as New York did in the 1930s.
Siegel and Shuster siezed on the bright and futuristic aspects of New York, refined them and turned them into the building blocks of their dream-city, Metropolis, protected by the ultimate futuristic hero, Superman. Therefore Metropolis resembles New York more closely than it resembles any other city, but it is not New York. So if we could somehow enter the world of Superman, we would find that Metropolis probably co-exists with New York. And while New York might still be the Big Apple in this universe, it would nevertheless be very much second banana to Metropolis! But because Metropolis is a kind of futuristic dream version of New York, it would have very many traits in common with New York, such as the fact that it would be situated on the east coast of the United States, just like New York.
Ann
