Due to the DC universe’s love of using fictional settings, it’s often hard for fans to work out where exactly in the United States their favorite superheroes live. The Arrowverse has traditionally decided to leave this vague, though there have been a few easter eggs over the years that allow us to paint a bit of a picture. Last night’s episode of Legends of Tomorrow, however, finally provided a definitive location for The Flash‘s Central City.
Titled “Slay Anything,” the episode opened with a flashback to the execution of serial killer Freddy Meyers AKA the Prom Night Killer. When his body was bagged up to be sent back to his hometown of Central City, the label can be glimpsed. And it clearly states that the city is located in Missouri. So, there we go. After six years of the show, the question is finally answered…on a completely different series.
Of course, Central City being in Missouri is an idea pulled from the comics. In the original Post-Crisis comics, the town was explicitly specified as being in that state. Over the years, this has varied, but Central City has often been used as an analogue for Kansas City, Missouri, with the neighboring Keystone City standing in for Kansas City, Kansas. Similarly, Arrow‘s Star City is an analogue for Seattle, Batwoman‘s Gotham City is akin to Chicago and Supergirl‘s National City is like Los Angeles. None of these have been outright confirmed on screen, though.
This Flash reveal does create some plot holes with past information, though. An episode of season 1 featured a Central City ZIP Code that appeared to locate it in Oklahoma, for instance. Meanwhile, there’s said to be 600 miles between Central and Star City, when there’s a heck of a lot more between Missouri and Seattle (if that’s where Star City is). And just to confuse matters further, much of the aerial photography used to portray Central City is of Portland, Oregon.
Basically, the geography of the Arrowverse doesn’t make sense, though maybe we can chalk some of that up to “Crisis on Infinite Earths” rebooting reality. But, thanks to Legends of Tomorrow, we now at least have one mystery cleared up.
