Maps of Central and Keystone City

      In preparation for the upcoming weekend podcast in which we will cover the first few issues of the New 52 Flash that launched 2011 and the single issue of Grodd #1 from the comics event "Forever Evil". I thought some maps were in order to set the stage.

         

    I love maps, the more intricate with topography of places, clever named locations that promote further investigation with some wild Google searches, and of course big fat detailed legends and keys.  I am especially fond of fictional maps, or any type of guides to places that never existed but in the mind of the author and readers.

For example I have almost zero interest in Lord of the Rings or any Tolkien work as prose but I love the world building involved and would spend hours pouring over a highly detailed atlas of Middle Earth.  The sheer world building behind the placement of Elfish capitals and their distance from human outposts would be enough to eat away a dull hour of a very slow day at work.

The DC Universe has the very clever distinction from the Manhattan-centric Marvel by creating fictional cities in which many of their heroes and villains reside.  The cities become ingrained in the DNA of the character to which they become part of the character of Batman in Gotham or Green Lantern in Coast City. James Robinson's eighty plus issue run of Starman is my favorite comic work and I do not think I could say that without his creation and expansion of Opal City in that comic.

The Flash protects a fictionalized version of the American Midwestern Twin Cities Minneapolis/ Saint Paul in Minnesota or Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri.  The DCU twin cities go by the names Central and Keystone and are separated by a river and bridge.  Of course depending on the writer and era they can be located anywhere from central Ohio to eastern Kansas,

Both the maps represented here were originally published in the 1990 edition of the DCU Atlas and I am sure it is few Crisis's and reboots out of date but still fun none the less.

Keystone City

Central City