The Silver City is a fictional location

Location (geography)

The terms location and place in geography are used to identify a point or an area on the Earth's surface or elsewhere. The term 'location' generally implies a higher degree of can certainty than "place" which often has an ambiguous boundary relying more on human/social attributes of place identity...

 in stories published DC Universe

DC Universe

The DC Universe is the shared universe where most of the comic stories published by DC Comics take place. The fictional characters Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are well-known superheroes from this universe. Note that in context, "DC Universe" is usually used to refer to the main DC continuity...

. It is the home of beings known as Angel

Angel

Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...

s and of the The Presence, the primary deity of Judeo-Christian theology in the DC Universe. The Silver City debuted in More Fun Comics

More Fun Comics

More Fun Comics, originally titled New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine a.k.a. New Fun Comics, was a 1935-1947 American comic book anthology that introduced several major superhero characters and was the first American comic-book series to feature solely original material rather than reprints of...

#52, (February 1940

1940 in comics

-Year overall:* Another boom year for the burgeoning American comic book industry, as Ace Comics, Columbia Comics, Farrell Publications, Holyoke Publishing, Novelty Press, and Street & Smith Comics all begin publishing.-January:...

), and was created by Jerry Siegel

Jerry Siegel

Jerome "Jerry" Siegel , who also used pseudonyms including Joe Carter, Jerry Ess, and Herbert S...

 and Bernard Bailey.

Publication history

The original form of the Silver City is referred to in More Fun Comics

More Fun Comics

More Fun Comics, originally titled New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine a.k.a. New Fun Comics, was a 1935-1947 American comic book anthology that introduced several major superhero characters and was the first American comic-book series to feature solely original material rather than reprints of...

#52, (February 1940), and was created by Jerry Siegel

Jerry Siegel

Jerome "Jerry" Siegel , who also used pseudonyms including Joe Carter, Jerry Ess, and Herbert S...

 and Bernard Bailey.

History

The modern Silver City was re-imagined for Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman

Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...

's Season of Mists

The Sandman: Season of Mists

Season of Mists is the fourth collection of issues in the DC Comics series, The Sandman.It was written by Neil Gaiman; illustrated by Kelley Jones, Mike Dringenberg, Malcolm Jones III, Matt Wagner, Dick Giordano, George Pratt, and P...

storyline in The Sandman, when the angels Duma

Duma (DC Comics)

Duma is a fallen angel in the DC Vertigo series The Sandman, created by the British author Neil Gaiman. His name means "silence", and he is based on an angel from Jewish mythology.-Outside the Sandman mythos:...

 and Remiel are dispatched to the Dreaming to observe the events there following Lucifer

Lucifer (DC Comics)

Lucifer is a DC Comics character that starred in an eponymous comic book published under the Vertigo imprint, whose entire run was written by Mike Carey...

's abdication of the throne of Hell

Hell (DC Comics)

Hell is a fictional location, an infernal underworld utilized in titles published by DC Comics. It is the locational antithesis of the Silver City. The DC Comics location known as Hell is based heavily on its depiction in Judeo-Christian mythology...

. The Silver City is emphatically not the same place as Heaven

Heaven

Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...

. It exists "outside the created order of things" and apparently predates the rest of Creation. These same traits are attributed to the Christian Heaven.

Gaiman used the location again in his short story "Murder Mysteries

Murder Mysteries

"Murder Mysteries" is a fantasy short story by Neil Gaiman later collected in his collection Smoke and Mirrors. The bulk of the story is an account of the first murder in the history of the universe, before even Cain and Abel, recounted in first-person hardboiled detective fiction style by Raguel,...

", which is set in the Silver City, and features the angel Raguel's investigation of the first murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

 ever. In 1999, comics author Mike Carey started The Sandman-spinoff series Lucifer

Lucifer (DC Comics)

Lucifer is a DC Comics character that starred in an eponymous comic book published under the Vertigo imprint, whose entire run was written by Mike Carey...

, in which the Silver City is an important and frequently displayed location.