Coast City

Coast City
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Showcase #22 (September–October 1959)
In story information
Type	City
Notable people	Hal Jordan Carol Ferris

Coast City is a fictional city created by John Broome and Gil Kane that appears in stories published by DC Comics. It is depicted most often as the home of the Silver Age version of the superhero Green Lantern, Hal Jordan.

Fictional history

Coast City, which first appeared in Showcase #22 in September–October 1959, was a city located in California. This made it one of the few fictional cities in the DC Universe to have a specifically given location from the start.

Coast City was usually portrayed as an analogue of San Diego or Los Angeles or the Jersey Shore.^[1] Green Lantern: Rebirth identified it as being in Northern California, and recent issues of Green Lantern listed it as being twenty miles from Edwards Air Force Base.

Destruction

In the 1990s, Coast City was destroyed, with nearly all of its residents - then numbered at seven million - killed by Mongul. Mongul's gigantic ship appeared over Coast City and released thousands of spherical bombs which detonated simultaneously. It was then revealed that Mongul was doing the bidding of former astronaut Hank Henshaw, better known as the Cyborg Superman. Mongul and Henshaw built Engine City in Coast City's ashes, as part of a plot to turn Earth into the new Warworld. This plan was stopped by Superman, Superboy, and Steel, with the help of Hal Jordan, who had just returned from space to find his home destroyed.

Killed in the blast were numerous supporting characters of the Green Lantern comic books, including Kari Limbo and several Ferris Aircraft employees. Jordan attempted to resurrect the city using his ring and learned that his first girlfriend had also died in the blast, but whether this was truly her spirit or his imagination made real is unclear.

One result of the City's destruction was Hal Jordan becoming the villain Parallax, apparently due to a mental breakdown over the destruction of his city, though it would subsequently be revealed he was under the influence of the yellow emotional entity of the same name. He slaughtered nearly all the Green Lanterns, absorbed the energies of the Power Battery, and tried to remake history. This led in turn to the appointment of a new Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner. A memorial to Coast City's victims was erected on the site of the city with the help of most of the major superheroes of the period.

For a time, an alien city named Haven (which crashed onto Earth) resided on top of the ruins of Coast City.

When Hal Jordan died saving the world, the heroes memoralized him as well. An eternal flame was constructed on the grounds of the city. Swamp Thing utilized his powers to fill the surrounding area with greenery.^[2]

It was later revealed that Hank Henshaw chose to destroy Coast City because he and his wife, Terri Henshaw, were its former residents. This was part of an effort to erase his former life.^[3]

Reconstruction

More recently, Coast City was rebuilt in the wake of Jordan's apparent return to the ranks of the living. While the Spectre, Hal Jordan, and the Parallax parasite were wrestling for control of the Spectre's powers, all roads, street signs, and Jordan's apartment reappeared, setting the groundwork for the city. 'Haven' also vanishes.^[4]

Repopulating the rebuilt city became one of the latest initiatives of Jonathan Vincent Horne, then-President of the United States. Charities and industries around the world, including Wayne Enterprises, made contributions to the goal of rebuilding the city. Despite all those efforts, Coast City remained a ghost town due to its reputation as the site of a mass murder. Among the exceptions was the resurrected Hal Jordan, who lived in Coast City when he wasn't working at nearby Edwards Air Force Base as one of their test pilots.

The U.S. Navy was also establishing a presence in the region in the wake of its reconstruction, as both a domestic security and economic stimulus measure.^[5] More details of Coast City's emptiness are later given. For example, Hal's nephew attends a school with less than twenty students.^[6]

One year after the events of Infinite Crisis, Coast City finished reconstruction. During the Sinestro Corps War, it is targeted for destruction by Sinestro and the terrorist organization which bears his name, as part of a demoralizing plot. Hal Jordan used his ring to contact every citizen, urging them to evacuate the city. En masse, they decided to stay. Many cause green lights to shine from their homes as a way of support.^[7] Jordan and his fellow Green Lantern and friend, Kyle Rayner, defended the city from the rogue Corps' attacks, and Sinestro was defeated on the rooftops of Coast City.

In the aftermath, the city's population rose dramatically with many businesses and citizens returning. It was explicitly stated that all available space was spoken for. It has also been dubbed by the media as "The City Without Fear" as it is well known the citizens stayed where they were despite the full knowledge of an advancing alien threat. The damage that did result from the Sinestro Corps battle was repaired by Green Lantern John Stewart, with the aids from some of the Green Lantern Corps and Earth's superheroes.^[8]

By the time of the Final Crisis, Coast City's population was cited on local promotional billboards as being 2,686,164.^[9]

Detective Nicholas "St. Nick" Gage, formerly of Coast City Police Department, has transferred to Gotham City Police Department.^[10]

Blackest Night

As of the beginning of Blackest Night, the population was noted to have increased to 2,765,321. A new memorial was erected for the memories of the city's history which includes a green lantern, lighted by Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, and Kyle Rayner.^[11] In the middle of the story, the Black Lantern Corps' central power battery teleports to just outside Coast City, bringing forth the demon Nekron, (the black personification of Death and longtime enemy of the Green Lantern Corps) the undead Guardian Scar, and Black Hand. The Anti-Monitor also emerges from the battery but is defeated before exiting. Nekron then sends forth black rings into the city's memorial, reanimating the dead as Black Lanterns.^[12] Nekron is then defeated in the streets of Coast City.^[13]

Geography

The Atlas of the DC Universe published by Mayfair Games in 1990, placed Coast City in northern California, between San Francisco and Green Arrow's Star City.

Ferris Aircraft is an aerospace company which Hal Jordan worked for as a test pilot, it is located twenty five miles out from the city.^[14] His romantic interest, Carol Ferris, was the company's manager. Coast City also included an extensive beach, and was a popular spot for surfing.

When the city was destroyed, a news broadcast in the comic showed a map locating Coast City a little south of Santa Barbara, California.

Media

• Coast City briefly appeared in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Hail the Tornado Tyrant!". The Tornado Tyrant attempted to wipe it out with a massive tidal wave, but was stopped by Batman and Red Tornado. It also appeared in "Sidekicks Assemble!" by being the place where Ra's al Ghul infests the city with his evil plants. It later appears in Scorn of the Star Sapphaire.
• Coast City appears in the 2011 film Green Lantern.

References

1. ^ Comicvine
2. ^ Green Lantern (vol. 3) #81
3. ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) # 13
4. ^ "Green Lantern Rebirth" #3 (2004)
5. ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) # 4-5
6. ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) #7
7. ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) #23-25
8. ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) #26.
9. ^ Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns
10. ^ Batgirl vol.2 #1 (2009)
11. ^ Blackest Night # 1
12. ^ Blackest Night #4 (2010)
13. ^ Blackest Night" #8 (2010)
14. ^ "Green Lantern Rebirth"

External links

• Coast City on Smallville Wiki