Sunday, February 07, 2010

Capitalizing on Our Comic Book Heritage

When asked why one would take a train between Clevo & Porkopolis & how would the line pay for itself, proponents say nothing pays for itself an opponents wail and compete to imagine greater and greater numbers for costs. Proponents cite sports & entertinment as reasons for travel, opponents curmudgeonly dismiss such prattle. If we play on our comic book heritage, we can create reasons to utilize the line and, perhaps, get corporate subsidies.
Cincinnati's Union Terminal, as most of you know, was based on the Justice League's Hall of Justice. Here, the League (Superfriends) plotted out their New World Order under illegal alien, Kal El (Superman). To the north, sunny Cleveland was the hometown of the 2 nerds who created Superman. Seems to me we could have memorials to the comic book characters in the corresponding stations & dedicate one of the trains to the DC characters. We could paint the cars bright primary colors & the conductors could wear super hero outfits. We could call that train The 3CDC. ok, maybe that name is in use.....
A room at Union Terminal with bronze statues of the League could greet travelers to the Queen City. We could hang some cables from the ceiling & tell people they hold Wonder Woman's invisible airplane. The cafeteria could sell sandwiches with names like The Manhunter. They could run Lenten specials on The Aquaman. The news stand could sell Time magazine & DC comics. A statue of a kid reading The Black Freighter could be placed nearby. News stand sales would be astronomical as people realize the scenic void between Washington Courthouse & Kent.
Cleveland could build a glass pyramid or something in honor of Joe & Jerry.
"It's not about where you were born. Or what powers you have. Or what you wear on your chest. ... It's about what you do... It's about action."
~Superman

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good afternoon Quimm,

Great article; and we agree, we'd love to have train service return once again to the Hall of Justice!

We would like to clarify, however, that Union Terminal was not based on the Hall of Justice; rather, the Hall of Justice was designed based on our beautiful Art Deco structure, nearly 40 years later. Hanna Barbera maintained offices in the Cincinnati area in the 1960s, and were inspired by our building to make it the home of the heroes of the world.

You can actually get the full details of the story from the Cincinnati Enquirer's March 2009 story: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090325/ENT/903250327/Meanwhile--at-the-Hall-of-Justice-...

Thanks for the great mention and we love the blog!

Sincerely,

Ben Cober
Manager, Media Relations
Cincinnati Museum Center

Ronny Salerno said...

Best idea I've read yet for the Cincinnati station debate.