Talk:Star City (comics)
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[edit] =From Scott McCullar
GEOGRAPHY
THE UNOFFICIAL
STAR CITY
MAP & INDEX
Art and Additional Information by Scott McCullar (based upon the original work from THE ATLAS OF THE DC UNIVERSE)
CITY DATA
Location: Star City, California Population: 1,750,000 citizens (1985 census: 1,500,000 citizens) Newspapers: The Daily Star, Star Gazette Local Television: Station: KSTR-TV College: The University of Star City (formerly S.C.U.) Professional Sports: National League (Western Division) Baseball: Star City Rockets; National Confernce (Western Division) Football: Star City Stags; Western Conference (Pacific Division) Basketball: Star City Lights HISTORY
Star City, California
Star City is located along Highway 101 between San Francisco and the northern border of California in the Pacific Northwest. Star City is north of what was Coast City. Star City was founded in 1797 by Colonel Jeb Star and named Fort Plymouth; it remained a small outpost for traders coming down from Canada until opening of the state by the railroads in the 1860s. Ringed by stockyards and slaughterhouses, the city became a major cattle town in the 1870s.
In 1823 Colonel Star was killed when Fort Plymouth was attacked and sacked by Indians. A relief force, under the leadership of Major John Damen, defeated the Indians several miles southwest of the Fort and established an outpost against further incursions. Fort Plymouth was rebuilt and renamed Fort Star after its founder.
In 1897, the south side of Fort Star burned to the ground when a stockyard smokehouse caught fire. The citizens of Fort Star toiled for over a year to rebuild the city to its former grandeur. This occurrence, which became known as The Great Fire, gave rise to a great new city, which was rebuilt as a leader in architectural innovation and renamed Star City to symbolize its greater size and newfound importance. One of the eccentric billionaires of this new city, named Samuel Fuller, actually transported an English castle built a thousand years earlier, stone by stone to just outside of Star City in 1900. Rumor had it that Fuller Castle is haunted by ancient ghosts. It has even been suggested that Merlin the Magician from the Arthurian legends has been known to appear every now and then here.
Throughout the 20th Century, Star City continued to grow and prosper. Today, with a population over a 1,750,000, it is one of the great cities of the West Coast who had a population boom in the past ten years. Its musuems are among the finest in the country, and Star City Symphonic Orchestra is one of the finest in the world. Star City is a giant of Market, and a major northern California air and rail center.
For many years, Star City seved as home to Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) and Roy Harper (Speedy) where they became the cities protectors. Eventually, Dinah Laurel Lance (Black Canary 2) moved into Star City and set up her first flower shop and soon afterward donned the costume of her mother and became the new Black Canary. She would very soon afterward become a founding member of the Justice League of America. Dinah would soon become romantically involved with Oliver Queen early in their crimefighting years. Oliver and Dinah would leave Star City after the Crisis on Infinite Earths (about five years ago) to move to Seattle, Washington.
Star City would also be the very brief hunting grounds of Miss Arrowette, a female crimefighting archer who helped Green Arrow and Speedy early in their careers. After Green Arrow left Star City after the Crisis on Infinite Earths, a new vigilante/hero...a new Manhunter, would make the streets clean of the vermin who hid in the alleys.
In the past few months, Star City suffered a great coastal flood which killed thousands of the cities citizens caused by the activities of the Injustice Gang. Relief programs were in effect restoring the normality back to this Great City. But with cosmic events and the philosopher's stone, Lex Luthor cast a wish that cancelled out the flood in recent history as if it never happened erasing this from history and everyone's memory. Those who had died returned to life with no memory of their death.
THE GREATER STAR CITY METROPOLITAN AREA
Star City has been mainly concentrated into twenty-six neighborhoods:
AURORA: This is an area of unspoiled beauty, most of which has been taken over as national or state park land. Aurora was named after Aurora Star, the wife of Colonel Star. It is part of Star City legend that Clyde "Squint" Baglianni left a fortune in stolen gems there before he died in a shootout with the FBI and police from seven states. The gems have never been recovered. Also, just on the outskirts in Aurora is the famed Fuller Castle that was reconstructed by transported stones. Reassembled stone by stone in 1900.
AVALON PARK: This was created in the 1960s as a housing project to house Star City's urban poor; it is considered the worst slum in the city. Unemployment, drugs, crime, and street gangs are rampant in this area, which even police officers are afraid to enter. Inside Avalon Park is an area called "Hell's Acre" which was Star City's shame and worst ghetto. In the past years, citizen donations through the DAILY STAR newspaper has lead to the revival of Hell's Acre Reclaim Project which gave birth to a housing project to help the less fortunate.
BLUMEBURY: Also known as the Stockyards (which used to be the function of this district), Blumebury is a poor neighborhood of brick-front row houses and tenement apartments. The Star City Stags National Conference football team plays here at Kirby Stadium.
BRAINERD: This is an area of quiet streets and clean, well-tended three- and four-flat apartments. A five-story urban shopping mall, which features some of Star City's finest stores, opened in the early 1990s in the heart of Brainerd.
CITY CORE: This is Star City's downtown shopping and business district. This neighborhood includes the two-mile long Shopping Shoreline, which features exclusive shops and department stores as well as the city's many cultural centers. Also located here is the Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper, The Daily Star in which Oliver Queen wrote a regular column called "Queen's Gambit" about 8 years ago. One can find the Golden Archway Bridge that crosses over the bay here in Star City. The Star City River passes through the City Core and empties into the Star City Bay. Star City Square Park is also located in a small area which is covered with trees where several of the areas chess players spend their afternoons. Grand Plaza Freeway passes through the City Core here. Also, City Hall is located in this area. The Star City Lights basketball team plays here at Elias Stadium. There is also another Olympic Size sports stadium here called Star City Arena where track and field events are held. Star City Harbor is home here.
CLAREDON HILLS: This is a quiet neighborhood of colonial homes and split-level ranches that hide the wealth of organized crime figures who live there. There is a Horse Racing Track at Orangeville Downs in Claredon Hills.
DALEYVILLE: This is a working-class neighborhood whose modest homes belie the vast accumulation of political power that resides there. This neighborhood is the center of the patronage system that control's the citys political workings. After losing his multi-million dollar fortune, Oliver Queen resided in this neighborhood in some low income apartments after losing his fortune about 10 years ago. A portion of Daleyville has become known as "the Swamp" since the 1960s. Also in Daleyville there is an area known as Chinatown which is the home to several street gangs.
DAMEN HILLS: This is an exclusive neighborhood of family estates, mansions, country clubs, and riding stables. Six championship quality golf course are located here. This was the neighborhood in which multi-millionare Oliver Queen's mansion was located. This area is named after Star City's historical figure Major John Damen who defeated the Indians that had attacked Colonel Star's forces at Fort Plymouth in the Battle of Fox Valley. Also, Joseph Deane Breeders Stables are located here, where some of the finest horses in the country have been raised. Evert Dare also has a mansion located in the country here (his daughter Diana Dare would briefly be Queen Arrow...a female crimefighting archer in the earlier part of Green Arrow's career in Star City). There is an exclusive night spot here called the Tick-Tock Club.
EAST GARY: Virtually all of Star City's steel industry is centered here, although the late 1980s and early 1990s it saw a closing of many of the city's steel plants where violent demonstrations were held. The Star City Raceway is located here which hosts a spectacular annual race, where men challenge disaster in mobile cages of steel.
ELGIN: This houses the Stateville Federal Penitentiary, a maximum security facility designed by S.T.A.R. Laboratories to hold superpowered criminals. (Currently, the prisoners that are still there are: Camouflage King, Red Dart, Printer's Devil, Crimson Archer, Death Dealer, Rainbow Archer, and other of Green Arrow's foes. Most are serving life sentences). SFP also has several special cells created by S.T.A.R. Labs to hold super-criminals having mystical or mental powers. These precautions have led to a high success rate in holding criminals, but has not given the prison a 100% effectiveness rate. On the other side of Elgin are a few residential sections dotted with many bars frequented by the city's criminal element. Elgin also houses the Elgin Home for the Criminally Insane and the Sunnydale Mental Corrections Center.
GLABERTON: This is the city's entertainment district, features jazz at Ponty Hall, rock music at Boneshaker Sam's, Mozart quartetes at Corey's, and everything else in between, including movies from the world over on Union Pacific Drive to the plethora of playhouses and theatres featuring live theater. Also here is the Park Lane Gallery.
HYDE PARK: The University of Star City (formerly Star City Univerity - S.C.U.), a world leader in physics, anthropology, and microbiology, is located in Hyde Park. The entire neighborhood has been influenced by the Univeristy's presence and features some of the best bookstores in the city. A local hotspot of Hyde Park is Johnny's, a bar where an expert in almost any field of academic research can be found sipping a drink and watching the Rockets play baseball on the television.
JACKSON PARK: During Prohibition, Jackson Park was the city's center of crime and violence, home of John "One-Thumb" Riddell, the Al Capone of Star City's underworld. At one time, One-Thumb had complete control of the mayor and the city council of Star City. Like many of his kind, One-Thumb grew too greedy and attempted to cheat on his taxes. He died a lonely and penniless man in a federal penitentiary. Today, Jackson Park is a quiet, middle-class neighborhood, with a pocket of exclusive mansions atop the hill at its center. The inhabitants of the only hill in Star City think of Jackson Park as "The Village in the City".
LOMBARD: This is the neighborhood surrounding O'Grady International Airport. this area is home to a large percentage of airport and airline workers. Many pilots can be found for hire in this area. The buildings are generally wooden A-frams of unvarying styles in Lombard. Also, next to O'Grady International Airport can be found Fort Carlin Army Base.
MARQUETTE: This is a blue-collar neighborhood consisting of steel workers employed in the nearby South Shore and East Gary plants. Several plant closings in the early 1990s left this area in somewhat of an economic decline. This area is known for its diverse collection of ethnic restaurants. The Star City Port Authority is located in Marquette.
NEAR SOUTH: Near South is home to Star City's old rich. It is a quiet neighborhood of tree-shaded streets, expensive old family estates, and beautiful manicured grounds.
OAK FOREST: This is the commercial heart of Star City. Beginning in 1955, skyscrapers and office buildings were erected to lure big business to this small, self-contained city. Oak Forest was once an unicorporated suburb, but it was absorbed into Star City in 1971 when the mayor of Star City threatened to charge the Oak Forest residents five dollars per gallon of water carried to Oak Forest through Star City pipes. Today, this area thrives with a S.T.A.R. Labatory testing complex as well as housing the headquarters of the First National Bank of Star City.
OLDTOWN: Until a few years ago, Oldtown was a run-down section of the city. In the early 1990s, this area experienced an upswing due to the influx of young professionals who have been buying up and renovating the old brownstone apartments that predominate the area. Oldtown still retains its old flavor and is popular with young artists and musicians. When Dinah Laurel Lance, lived in Star City, this was the area she resided. She kept a floral shop here called "Pretty Bird Flower Shoppe" which used the upstairs as the location of Oliver Queen's Public Relations Office.
PLESA PARK: This is a small industrial area which contains Printers Row, metal finishing factories, textiles, and warehousing.
SAULK VILLAGE: An old trading post even before Star City was settled. Originally a French settlement, Saulk Village was largely abandoned after the Indian Wars. The post was resettled by German settlers who turned this into Star City's dairy district, and industrial outgrowth of the cattle trade. Today, Saulk Village is a residential neighborhood, with many old farmhouses still standing on the large tracts of land.
SEAVIEW: Set on the Pacific Coasts, Seaview is the city's trendiest neighborhood and is home to a largely middle aged professional population. With its refurbished brownstone homes, health spas, restaurants, and expensive boutiques and shops. This is also the location of the central campus of the exclusive and highly-respected Northeast University. The school is noted for its Business and Journalism departments.
SOUTH SHORE: This ia a quiet residential area of brick three-story eight-flats. Devoid of any points of interest, most residents of Star City think of South Shore as simply a nice place to raise children and play on the beaches. There are also several piers at South Shore Marina here. This has been an unfortunate hot spot for some drug trafficing over the past few decades.
TESERVILLE: This is the city's rail center, the switch yards here accommodate the continuousflow of rail traffic. The Central Transit Authority, Star City's computerized mass transit system, is headquartered in this district.
WESTCHESTER: This area was built as a "planned city" by Henry Porter in 1909 to house the 10,000 workers employed by the factories. The Great Depression of 1929 forced Porter to lay off thousands of workers and to cut the salaries of thoughs who remained. This situation led to massive strikes that destroyed Porter's relationship with his workers. After the strike ended, the workers moved to housing outside of Westchester to avoid paying rent to Porter. Westchester was a ghost town until it was annexed by Star City in 1932. It became popular as a middle-class family neighborhood and is still favored by young couples seeking a quiet place to raise families.
WRIGGLEYVILLE: Another working-class neighborhood. This is the area that houses the National League Star City Rockets baseball team at Pappas Stadium. A little over ten years ago, the baseball team changed its name from the Star City Colts to the Star City Rockets after never winning a baseball championship in over 100 years. Still, Star City's baseball team has failed to win a pennant. The Gotham City Knights are the hated rivals of the Rockets going back to the days when Gotham's team was known as the Gotham City Vets.
VILLA PARK: This area competes with City Core as the cultural center of the city. It boasts the famous Stream Musuem of Natural History, the Museum of Technology and Indistry, and the Eastern Institute, which holds the greatest collection of Near and Mid-Eastern treasures outside of Egypt. Villa Park also includes the Midler Planetarium and its powerful Electro-telescope.
Star City's neighbors include:
ASHRAM MONASTERY: This was a Zen Buddhist Monastery in the Napa Valley which recently closed due to back taxes and was bought out by the owners of Winky World. It was in the hands of a Dutch businessman named Fritz Mueller who was a former failed disciple of the Zen Buddhist monks. He bought it out and became a self proclaimed Sensei of the Monastery turning the Ashram into a health spa while desecrating the grounds. Recently, the second Green Arrow, Connor Hawke, has taken the Ashram back and it is home where he resides along with Master Jansen and Eddie Fyers. Oliver Queen's gravestone in on the grounds outside the woods.
Also, near the mountain next to the Ashram lies the crashed wreck of what was the Arrowplane. It now is mostly stripped apart for souvineers.
COAST CITY: The great city to the south was destroyed a few years ago. What is left is a crater and a ghost town.
EDGEWOOD: This small town is outside the city limits at one time lacked a police force. Criminal elements of Star City lived there to evade law enforcement officers.
DESERT: 20 Miles Southeast of Jackson Park lies a desert.
STAR CITY 2113
(As seen in CHRONOS #7)
In the 22nd century, Star City remain a major megalopolis on the western seaboard of the Pacific Northwest.
The city's skyline reaches higher and higher into the heavens with mile high skyscrapers. Technology in the future has allowed for compensation in the plate shifting of the Earth's crust during earthquakes.
The higher, the fewer, the better off. The noble and rich classes live in the highest levels of the city in penthouses and such with balconies looking down on civilization. It still rains an awful lot in Star City with no weather controls.
Traffic flows in 3 dimensions on Earth now as airspeeders with repulsorlift engines drives crafts in above the ground in traffic that flies between the sky scrapers of Star City.
Advertisements can be found all over the ziggarats of the future. Skycabs fly everywhere. In the lower levels of the city lies the poor and empoverished. Addicts get themselves amped up on Neon Jag there. Citizens need to have their identification cards encoded with their geneprint and hologram. Shelters are all over the area. If Star City was once had a quiet charm in the 20th Century, one might now find that there anymore.
If a perp is caught without Corporate identification and cannot be identified in the gene bank, he is sent to the Tsunami District Transient Shelter along with the rest of the destitutre and disenfranchised.
OPTICOM has bought out nearly the entire state in which Star City resides. Most of the citizens of Star City are employess in some sort of capacity to the corporation. Many of the disenfranchised resist against thie fascist system of class.
Infortainment Vidsets are distributed to the masses courtesy of OPTICOM. Usually it is propoganda and news orchestrated to be fed with their twist.
The city is also lined with monorails which transport the workers of the great city to their corporate drone jobs during their scheduled shifts as they work to transfer credits into their accounts.
The policeforce of Star City in 2113 is a Military State always on guard watching for metahumn villains or other disidents opposing and making trouble of OPTICOM. One villain, known as the Justice League Killer, shapeshifted into different forms and assummed the identity of Green Arrow in his first outfit. Walker Gabriel was able to stop the villain and turn him over to the police on one of his visits to this city in the future.
Notes: This Star City Guide is based on Post Kingdom/Post-Zero Hour retcon information being used for the "Central Branch" in Hypertime.
The newest material about Star City takes precedence now over earlier information for the "Central Branch" of the timeline.
The use of Star City has been all but abandoned by D.C. Comics since Mike Grell moved Green Arrow from it to Seattle, Washington into the "real world". Only recently are we getting to see Star City again in flashback stories.
The earliest mentions of Star City by name that I can find so far appears in ADVENTURE COMICS #258.
Star Ciy's location has been a hotbed of debate. It was originally intended to be next to a large body of ocean water. It also has a desert approximately 20 miles away from the city limits.
Star City seemed to "FLOAT" all across the United States of America.
I spoke to editor Julius Schwartz at WIZARD WORLD '98 in Chicago recently and we discussed Green Arrow and Star City. In the 1960's and early 1970's, it was unspoken that Star City was actually a New England Colonial City which was suppossed to be something like Boston. It seemed as if Green Arrow could take a "short drive" over into Gotham City to see Batman for help if he needed to. One issue in the 1970's had Ollie's old foe, John DeLeon, thinkng that Ollie might actually be Batman which could explain how close Star City was to Gotham City.
In one comic in the late 1970's, on a JLA beacon map, it showed Star City in the South near Memphis, Tennessee. In other issues,
Also, it appeared that Star City moved again in the late 1970's and was right next to Coast City (the home of Hal Jordan...otherwise known as Ollie Queen's best friend, Green Lantern.) The D.C. Universe had established that Coast City was a Pacific Coast city. Also, we knew from Green Arrow/Oliver Queen's origin story, he fell/was pushed off the yacht in the Pacific off California towards the Channel Islands. This pushed Star City to the West Coast.
In a publication of D.C. HEROES Role Playing Game - GAME MASTERS MANUAL in 1985, the listing of Star City placed the metropolitan city with a population of 3,000,000 along the shores of Lake Michigan. The Star City map was a mirror image of the Star City map shown above. The city from the 1985 Sourcebook lead you to believe the Star City was actually a disguised Chicago (especially with the Star City Colts baseball team in WRIGGLEYville! (The Chicago Cubs play at Wrigley Field). Also the entry of Villa Park sounds an awful lot like Chicago and was later removed in the 1990 released DC HEROES: THE ATLAS OF THE DC UNIVERSE by Paul Kupperberg.
The majority of information for this page comes from DC HEROES: THE ATLAS OF THE DC UNIVERSE by Paul Kupperberg published by Mayfair Games in 1990. In this version, we read that Star City has been actually placed into California north of Coast City. It has been mirror flipped and the history of the French-Indian Wars has been left out. About 95% of the material from the 1985 edition made it here. A map in this book places Star City (as well as the majority of the rest of the DC Universe) onto their exact locations on the map.
The DC HEROES: THE ATLAS OF THE DC UNIVERSE has been debated on whether or not it is OFFICIAL canon of D.C. Comics and thus could be inaccurate. Some writers use it still, others have changed portions of it to fit their titles.
Modern era CONFIRMATION that Star City is in California can be found in CHRONOS #7 (1998) that Star City lies "..the Pacific Northwest" (page 5). This story has Walker Gabriel visiting Star City in 2113. The map in DC HEROES: THE ATLAS OF THE DC UNIVERSE has Star City displayed as being located in California on the Pacific Northwest.
I have reworked the Guide to the City and updated it to a 1998 version. Star City has been recently mentioned in issues of JLA in which the Injustice Gang caused a great flood to the city causing great damage. The JLA have responded in helping the surviving citizens. A few issues later, in the recent ending to the "Rock of Ages" story inside JLA, Lex Luthor used the Philosopher's Stone to revert the flood and bring back the lives of the citizens of Star City who were killed in the flood. This event has been erased. There are also recent stories in LEGENDS OF THE DC UNIVERSE that also show more aspects of Star City in flashbacks.
Mike Grell removed Oliver Queen from Star City in GREEN ARROW: THE LONGBOW HUNTERS (1987) placing Ollie and Dinah into Seattle, Washington in a "real world" setting to make the characters more realistic. Recently, the new Green Arrow, Connor Hawke has taken up residence in San Francisco, California just "south" of Star City. It would be my opinion that it would be interesting to return Green Arrow back into this abandoned D.C. Universe "make believe" city.
I have chosen the location of the Ashram Monastery to be northeast of Star City towards the mountains. In the issue of the FLASH #219 back in 1972, we know Oliver Queen crashed his Arrow Jet into a mountain near Star City and made his way to the Monastery for help. Also, in DETECTIVE COMICS, Green Arrow and Onyx went for a short drive to the Ashram. Recently, in the current GREEN ARROW series, we know that the Ashram is located in Napa Valley in California.
Also, this leads me to believe that perhaps Connor was born and raised in his early years in San Francisco (as stated) which was driving distance for his Mom (Moonday Hawke) to the Monastery. I liked the idea that Connor shot the arrow symbolically in the forest outside Ashram which wasn't too far off from Star City, Oliver Queen's home for the longest time.
If you have a piece of info on Star City, e-mail me and let me know.
Also, I added Edgewood as an outside town. This follows a story I read in MORE FUN COMIC #94 (1943) that discusses the town. I also included the "real towns" of Inglenook, Branscomb, Westport, and Laytonville which are "actually" in California. I bet the people in these towns have no idea that they live next to a D.C. Universe "Major City". I do know from the Role Playing Game that Star City lies next to Interstate 101. Looking at maps and geographical interests, I was able to pinpoint "exactly" where Star City was and place "real" references. If anyone from these small towns are reading this...please e-mail me and let me know what the area is really like!
I have sprinkled as many Star City references I can that were not mentioned in the DC HEROES Atlas of the DC Universe guide. There are several little mentions.
I have also taken "minor" liberties at naming a few points of reference such as Elias Stadium, Kirby Stadium, etc. after men who made their mark drawing and writing Green Arrow over the years as a tribute in my own personal way.
I continue weekly reading old stories and whenever I find a reference, I'll be sure to add it.
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http://web.archive.org/web/19990421021402/www.fgi.net/~grnarrow/arrowcave/starcity.html
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This Who's Who Entry was Last Updated on:
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The Unofficial Green Arrow Compendium is brought to you by Scott McCullar (1997-99)
Green Arrow and related characters and art are ©1941-1999 DC Comics.
Color artwork and reconstruction of Star City Map by Scott McCullar based on DC HEROES RPG and other deductions.
11:53, 16 October 2006 (UTC)Enda80
[edit] Monday Night Football!
I was going to add in the information about Star City going to the Superbowl. Lions vs. Star was detailed in issue #4 of the Human Defense Corps. But then I saw there were many real life Star Cities in America. I don't think any of them for real have football teams but I'd rather wait for 'confirmation' that it's the fictional one.
P.S. As for the long entry above my words...what the heck? Lots42 09:39, 5 October 2007 (UTC)
