Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Location, location, location!

I’m not a big comic book universe person. The last super hero movie I saw that wasn’t X-Men, was the George Clooney as Batman movie… I grew up watching the Christopher Reeves Superman, and Dean Cain’s Clark Kent had to rival E.R.’s Dr Ross for my ‘90’s attention! All of that to say, I’m not that great with the specifics, or particulars, or the various comic book universes.

I’m curious where Metropolis is supposed to be located? I assumed the NE states? Somewhere near New York?

Lois mentions Gotham City in one episode… is that close to Metropolis?

As for politics…. I know it’s available online but I end up getting bogged down searching. In Canada we have a premier of the province or territory, and then a prime minister. They’re separate. You can have electoral ridings that vote for one party in a provincial election and a different one in the federal election. Then there’s the senate where senators aren’t voted in, they’re appointed by the ruling federal party or the GG. Is the American system completely different? I know there’s two parties for the federal elections, but what about within the state? Are there separate governments for the individual states that aren’t tied into the federal system? I know there’s senators and governors but that’s it….

I have questions about the criminal system too but will wait. Trying to outline a story and should probably get to know the systems in the country it’s taking place!!!

There's a quick globe image in the pilot that pegs Metropolis as somewhere around Delaware, if memory serves. I believe it's when Clark is flying to China to pick up the dinner he and Lois share while working late. But the show was also very inconsistent. Metropolis clearly has a harbor, but when Nor and company come, Metropolis is shown as land-locked, for instance. In the recent Justice League/Batman vs Superman movies, Metropolis and Gotham are shown as being relatively close to one another. You can basically get away with as much as you'd like in your writing.

As for the elections, yes, the two party system covers it all, from federal down to the local positions. At the most local level (for towns and cities) you'd also have Mayors. Once in a while you might get an outlier that runs (ie. Tom Jones of the Green Party or Jessica Smith of the Libertarians). But any "third party" basically has a snowball's chance in a furnace of getting elected. I don't think I've ever seen it happen where I've lived. Each state has certain powers independent of the federal government. For example and to use something current, New York might implement a mask mandate while Florida might opt not to make it mandatory to work, shop, or go to school. Each state has its own sales tax, etc. (It might be 6% in Connecticut and 8% in New York.)

I'll leave any questions on the criminal system to those who are more knowledgeable than I am.

The Executive and Judicial branches are pretty simple but the Legislative branch is a little confusing. (Well, the Presidential election is a little confusing, too. I'm not even going to try to explain the Electoral College.)

The federal government and all the state governments have bicameral (two branch) legislatures, except Nebraska which is unicameral. The two branches are the Senate, where seats are allocated by governmental entity. U.S. Senate seats are allocated 2 per state and have a six year term. Terms overlap so that in any election (every 2 years) 1/3 is being voted upon. The House of Representatives is allocated by population so more populous states have more representatives. All seats of the House are up for re-election every two years. Districts are redrawn after each Census (at 10 year intervals). The rules governing representation of territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, etc.) and Washington D.C. are different. If those details are needed I recommend looking them up.

State governments follow the same general pattern with a Senate and House. The terms and rules for the entities can be a little different from state to state. In Michigan, each county is roughly the same size and is broken into townships. In other states the county sizes are completely different. Louisiana has "parishes" and Alaska has "boroughs" instead of counties. The Executive position at the state level is Governor and in most states they have a 4 year term..

DC mentioned Mayors, which is the most common. Instead of a Mayor, city and town governments could have a City Council that runs the city directly or a City Manager, usually hired by the city council.

There are also cities where the city council members take turns being mayor. Sometimes this works; sometimes this turns into ludicrous (and possibly hilarious) power struggles.

There are also such entities as school districts, which may overlap each other, causing massive confusion. I don't what the laws are in most states regarding school board representation, but in California each district is divided into trustee areas, so each part of the district is represented.

In small, local elections, voter turnout is often very small, especially in years where there is no big election going on (generally years where there is a presidential election there is a lot of voting; other years, not so much). Winners in small elections are often the people whose name is first on the ballot or who has the most friends at church or other community activity.