Opal City
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Opal City is a fictional city set in the DC Universe. Created by James Robinson and Tony Harris, Opal City first appeared in Starman vol. 2 #0 (October 1994). "The Opal" has been established as the home of several DC Comics characters, most notably several super-heroes who have operated under the name of Starman.
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[edit] Location
Recent issues of the current JLA series, specifically the "Crisis of Conscience" arc, have explicitly established Opal City as being located in Maryland[1], per Robinson's longstanding opinions on the subject in various interviews with fans. Other, non-Starman related heroes who have come to call Opal City their home are the second Black Condor and the Phantom Lady, as mentioned in Teen Titans vol. 3 #20, as well as the Elongated Man.
[edit] History and visual depictions
Opal is particularly notable for several aspects of its depiction in the second Starman series. The original settlement, "Port o' Souls", was established by Puritan settler in the early 1700's. In 1884, the town elected Brian "Scalphunter" Savage as sheriff; Scalphunter is later reincarnated as Matt O'Dare, and later as Star Boy. About the same time the morally ambiguous Shade made Opal City his home.
The modern Opal City had its greatest expansion in the 1910s to 1930s, as evidenced by it many Art Deco buildings. It was in 1939 that the first Starman Ted Knight began his career as a superhero.
Robinson used the names of several famous persons as places names in Opal City, including:
- Jack Burnley - the first artist of the original Starman feature in Adventure Comics (Starman Secret Files and Origins # 1)
- Eero Saarinen - noted Finnish-American architect (Starman Secret Files and Origins # 1)
