James Gunn’s DC World Map: Why It Matters

James Gunn’s recent comments about crafting a “world map” for his new DC Universe might feel like the kind of small, boring news that doesn’t matter much. In the context of DC, though, it’s anything but. While Marvel traditionally has their comics take place in something resembling the real world (usually New York), DC’s fictional locales are a staple, giving writers the ability to infuse the whole world of a project with the story’s tone in a quick way. Think about how many times you’ve heard some variation on “Gotham City is a character in this movie,” and apply that outward to Metropolis, Star City, Central City, and beyond.

DC have often used their fictional locales to be able to tell stories that would be difficult to tell in Marvel without straining credulity. One controversial issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, for instance, had Doctor Doom shedding a tear over the terror attack on the World Trade Center, transforming a poignant moment into an ongoing internet joke. That visceral, immediate examination of a national crisis didn’t happen when, for instance, the Cyborg Superman wiped Coast City off the map. Certainly, it had fallout, but it was something that could be explored on the story’s terms. Hell, even the cover had a “things are BOOMING in Coast City” joke — something you absolutely could not get away with when blowing up a real city. You’d end up on Fox News by the end of the day.

Similarly, when you need a fictional country, DC is the place to go. It’s easy to have Khandaq or Bialya be a “rogue regime” without worrying about how depicting a real-world country might imapct global box office. Obviously, the Sokovia Accords took this route at Marvel, too — a good thing to imitate, especially since right around 2012 was when international hauls at the box office started to get more and more important to the financial health of a movie.

There’s also an aspect of the shared universe that’s worth talking about, which is the “why didn’t so-and-so show up to help?” question. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Avengers are pretty much roommates, so it really does raise some questions when there’s a potential world-ending threat. Establishing the geography of the fictional cities in the DC Universe could provide fans with an idea of what heroes are neighbors, who is likely to show up in whose movies, and the like. It gives you a sense not just of how spread out they are, but of how close certain characters are relative to others.

We’ll start to get a feel for it in July 2025, when Superman: Legacy is expected in theaters.