Five Other Champions of Metropolis

Superman is well known for being the champion of Metropolis. It's his city and the residents love him as much as he loves them. He has fought many foes in that city and it's impossible to not connect the two.

However, Superman can't be everywhere and do everything. What about the smaller problems like street gangs? Or organized crime that are smart enough to work around Superman? This is why Metropolis has had other defenders over the years. Sometimes they work alone and other times they work with Superman, and while none are as well known or loved as The Man of Steel it's all part of the same never ending battle. Here are five:

Black Lightning

Even Metropolis has to have a slum section, and as you can expect a city as big as this one would have a large section of poverty. It's called Suicide Slum and is where Black Lightning first made his home when he first appeared. He was a teacher who donned the mask to help out his students. It makes sense, Superman can handle the big threats but who can handle the small one's that happen in parts of the city? I have no idea what his modern origin is these days. 

Booster Gold

Again when he first appeared Booster made Metropolis his home. I don't know why it never made sense. But Booster ended up fighting the mob group The 1000 which is an organized crime group that works around Superman. They fought Black Lightning as the 100 before Booster Gold. Gold was never nearly as loved in the city as Superman was. 

Gangbuster

Pretty similar to Black Lightning with one significant difference. He has no powers at all. Just a suit with padding. Lots of it. The other difference is Jose is Latino, which was rare to see in a superhero back then. I have no idea if the character is still around.

Gaurdian and The Newsboy Legion

Wow, this is a complicated one. We all forget that Metropolis does have a police force and one them was Jim Harper. Years before Superman showed up he fought crime as Jim Harper and as The Gaudian. One day he befriended a bunch of neighborhood kids who would eventually form there own rag tag group called the Newsboy Legion, In the old days they would appear in Jimmy Olsen's book. This was all in the WW II era, so how did they end up working with Superman in the modern era? Well Jim Harper was cloned before he died, and the scientists-the same boys who were the Newsboy Legion-made the clone and clones of themselves so that The Gaudian could continue to protect the streets. Did I mention they were originally ties into Jack Kirby's 4th world saga? Got that? Me either

Thorn

When Rose Forrest's father, a cop in Suicide Slum, was killed Rose developed a split personality and became Thorn. She wanted revenge for her father who had been killed by the 100. She was more of a villain in the silver age, appearing in Lois Lane's book, and the modern age version never really caught on. She appeared in Superman and Green Arrow. It was the more modern era where the character has really found new life. First with the Birds of Prey and these days she is a member of the Legion of Superheroes, and there is no I am trying to understand that one.

Except for Booster these heroes all grew up in Suicide Slum and did there best to keep that area safe for its citizens. Another one I left off, because he wasn't in Metropolis very long, was Steel. He made hi tech weapons that ended up in the hands of the gangs in suicide slum. And made it his business to fix hat mistake. 

The big difference between these heroes and the one's over in Gotham City is that none of these are closely tied to Superman, They pretty much do there own thing.