The fictional city of Metropolis is the home of the comic book superhero Superman. It is a very large city, located on the east coast of the United States, and seen by many as a fictional analogue of New York City. The co-creator and original artist of Superman Comics, Joe Shuster, modeled the Metropolis skyline after both Toronto, Ontario (where he was born), and Cleveland, Ohio (where he later lived and met co-creator Jerry Siegel in high school). It has been said that, metaphoricaly, Metropolis is New York during the day, and Gotham City (home to Batman) is New York at night. This comparison is helped by the fact that Metropolis is more often seen during the day, and Gotham more at night.
The real town of Metropolis, Illinois, has proclaimed itself the "Hometown of Superman", and celebrates its "local hero" in every possible way that it can.