Between Gotham and Metropolis: image of New York in superhero comic books of 1938-1945

The article deals with the key for the genre of superhero comics topoi Metropolis and Gotham City. The author retraces the process of introduction of the cities’ names into the fictional reality of the comic books on the stage of the genre establishing. The centerpiece of the article is a review of the splitting of New York image and design of the new location, in which the hero’s actions are specified.