This page covers the DC comicbook location Gotham City . If this is not the page you were looking for check here.

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History

During the Golden Age of Comics, Batman’s adventures were said to have happened in New York City. Eventually they would turn it into Gotham City and also modeled it after New York. Gotham City’s history was first explored in Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing. Gotham City was founded by a Norwegian mercenary in 1635, but it would eventually be taken over by the British. During the American Revolution, Gotham city was served as a major battle site. There have also been rumors that there is a super natural being residing in Gotham. Eventually this part of Gotham would be explored and it explains that there is an ancient being sleeping underneath Gotham City for about 40,000 years. DC would eventually want to revise the current Gotham City, and it is the reason why the Contagion storyline happened where Ra’s al Ghul released a virus on Gotham. This was followed by the 7.6 earthquake that hit Gotham in Cataclysm. Experts had believed that it was impossible for Gotham City to be hit by an earthquake. Then they wrapped it up with No Man’s Land, the writers intended to make Gotham an even more darker city.

Description

Gotham City, a home for Batman and high crime, is modelled after New York City, Boston, Chicago and Pittsburgh. To further emphasize the crime, it's known to be dark, with many shadows and corrupt cops. It also makes a connection to New York City, because of their high crime rates in the past. A recurring and emphasized theme for Gotham City is the corruption with the authorities, especially the Gotham City Police Department. Many commissioners and cops were corrupt, the most notable one being Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb. Batman found conspiracy charges against him, forcing him to resign from his position. There would be other commissioners but all of them seemed to be easily corrupted. Police men were easily influenced and would turn corrupt. James Gordon would later be promoted to Commissioner. Eventually Commissioner James Gordon would ally with Batman to lower the corruption rate. The two of them would continue to wage war on crime and the corrupt, Gordon continued to do so for 10 years and eventually retires. Apart from the crime, Gotham City has magnificent architecture with towering skyscrapers. It carries the style of Art Deco (for example, the Crysler Building in NYC) with multi-tiered flying buttresses. Sometimes it has varied depending on the artists. Artists usually base their city design on real architectural buildings from different time periods and sometimes would merge different styles with exaggeration on its characteristics. Gotham’s current architect design was influenced before the American Civil War by Judge Solomon Wayne, an ancestor of Bruce. Solomon would later meet a young architect named Cyrus Pinkney. Solomon hired Cyrus to design the first “Gotham Style” building and it would be placed in the middle of the financial district. Eventually writers would want to change some of the structures and lead to a story about an obsessed man blowing up all of Cyrus’ “Gotham Style” architecture. When No Man’s Land was finally resolved, Lex Luthor began building structures in Gotham to replace the old Art-Deco and Gothic structures and replaced it with more modern skyscrapers and building. The atomosphere has been described by writer Dennis O’Neil, “Batman’s Gotham City is Manhattan below Fourteenth Street at eleven minutes past midnight on the coldest night in November.” The atmosphere began as a grimy city, but during the 1950s, Batman’s Gotham became a lighter tone and went throughout the 1960s. Then in the 1970s, Gotham City’s atmosphere was returned to its dark and extremely corrupt atmosphere.

Areas and Landmarks --------- Description

- Ace Chemical Processing Inc. – Chemical plant that created the Joker

- Amusement Mile – An amusement park in Gotham City

- Blackgate Maximum Security Penitentiary – Main city prison

- The Bowery – Gotham’s worst neighborhood

- Brentwood Academy – A private High School attended by Tim Drake

- Burnley

- The Cauldron – Where organized crime operates

- The Clocktower – In the middle of Gotham, formally Oracle’s headquarters

- Chinatown

- Crime Alley – Area where Thomas and Martha Wayne were murdered

- Diamond District

- The East End – The slums of Gotham with crime, poverty, and prostitution

- Falcone Penthouse

- Fashion District

- Financial District

- Finnigan's - A bar GCPD officers attend

- Gotham County High School – Public school attended by Tim Drake

- Gotham Docks

- Gotham Heights – Location of Wayne Manor

- Gotham Square – Based on New York’s Time Square

- Gotham Village

- Grand Avenue

- The Hill

- The Iceberg Lounge - Nightclub ran by the Penguin

- Killinger's Department Store

- Monarch Playing Card Co. – Located next to Ace Chemical Plant

- My Alibi – Underworld bar

- New Town

- Old Gotham – A district in Gotham and also location of Oracle’s headquarters

- Otisburg

- Plant Factory – Batman’s first battle with Poison Ivy

- Robinson Park

- The Stacked Deck – Nightclub for the criminal underworld

- The Statue of Justice – Based off of the Statue of Liberty

- Slaughter Swamp – Swamp that Solomon Grundy was born from

- Tricorner – An island southwest of Gotham

- Toxic Acres – Toxic waste dump

- Wayne Manor

- Home of billionaire Bruce Wayne

- Wayne Tower

Geography

Gotham City’s actual location was never fully explained. The location would also vary depending on the writer. A majority of writers usually put Gotham City on the eastern coast on the shores of Lake Gotham. There have been maps created for Gotham but it has also varied many times. Sometimes Gotham City is based on the actual eastern coast and sometimes it would reside around Manhattan or Vancouver or some other American city. During the No Man’s Land story arc, it showed a map of Gotham and it seems to be based on Rhode Island’s geography. Sometimes it has been shown to be a completely original eastern coast and would tie Gotham in with Metroplis. In this version, Gotham is placed on opposite sides of a large bay. It is also located right next to Budhaven. The distance between Gotham City and Metropolis was never fully stated so therefore it would vary over the years. It has varied from being as close as a neighboring city, to as far as several hundreds of miles away. When the Atlas of the DC universe was finally published in the 90s, it revealed that Gotham City was south of New Jersey and Metropolis. However, various references in the comic books indicate that it's somewhere in New Jersey.

Notable Residents

Batman was not actually the first DC hero in Gotham. During the Golden Age, Alan Scott (Green Lantern) and the Golden Age Black Canary lived in Gotham. The time period was also before World War II. Gotham City is the City where the heroes Batman and Robin(Dick Grayson) living in Gotham. Eventually the Batfamily would grow and Tim Drake, Barbara Gordon, Huntress, Batwoman, and even Nightwing stayed in Gotham for awhile before moving the Bludhaven. Though Batman is the first superhero that comes to mind when Gotham City is raised, many other DC characters are known to be living in Gotham City. Plastic Man, Zatanna, Zatara, The Question, and Hitman. The Justice Society of America has also been seen to operate in Gotham City.

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Gotham City Appears in These Volumes

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