Gotham City (Comics)

Gotham City is a fictional city in the DC Universe , the location of the comic series produced by the US comic publisher DC Comics . The city, which was first mentioned by name in the comic book Detective Comics # 48 from 1941, has become known to the wider public primarily as the setting for the stories about the superhero character Batman .

The name Gotham City and the “invention” of the city

The name is derived from the name Gotham City , a nickname in use since the 18th century for the city of New York City (originally only for its suburb of Manhattan ), with which Gotham City is in many ways identical. The name Gotham as a synonym for New York goes back to the name of an English village called Gotham in the county of Nottinghamshire ; It became known through a collection of satirical stories written by the Carthusian monk Andrew Borde in the 15th century with the title The Merry Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham . In 1807, the writer Washington Irving first transferred the name "Gotham" to New York City.

A darkly colored American city characterized by high-rise canyons and coastal location as the setting for the Batman stories was featured in the very first Batman story in Detective Comics # 27 in 1939 . The author of this story and thus the spiritual father of Batman's hometown was the writer Bill Finger , the drawings were in turn done by Bob Kane , who was the first to optically design “Batman's city” and thus the first to define and significantly shape its appearance. This city remained nameless in the story from Detective Comics # 27 and in most of the other stories of 1939 and 1940, but it was occasionally referred to as New York City. Most of the time, however, it was simply described with attributes such as the "gloomy city of gray shadows". It wasn't until 1941, in a Batman story that appeared in Detective Comics # 48 in February 1941, that the "gloomy city" was given the name Gotham City, which has remained with it ever since. New York was thus ruled out as a name for Batman's homeland, even if as before no one denied that Gotham City was nothing more than a cipher for New York City like paraphrases of the kind of "dark city" before .

A specific reason for the decision of the makers of the Batman stories at the time - still Bill Finger and Bob Kane - for this renaming of the location of the Batman stories has not yet been identified. The comic historian Greg Theakston has pointed out, however, that the name Gotham City had already been used shortly before, in December 1940, in a story about the adventurer Mr. Scarlet that appeared in the comic book Wow Comics # 1 and that it was therefore It cannot be ruled out that Finger and Kane knew the name Gotham City from this story and took it up for their own work. The said Mr. Scarlett story came from France Herron and Jack Kirby .

Often reference is also made to the "significant" coincidence that Gotham City, pronounced quickly enough, sounds in English like goddamn (ed) City , which means "city damned by God", and by many characters within the stories as Meaningful name , seen as meaningful for life in a city plagued by constant calamities (crime, corruption, etc.) and blows of fate.

The geographic location of Gotham City

As a fictional city, Gotham City naturally does not have a real geographical location, but is located as required by the story that the respective author wants to tell.

However, since the earliest Batman comics of the late 1930s, there has been a silent agreement between the makers and readers of the Batman comics that Gotham City is to be regarded as identical to the American east coast metropolis of New York City . Accordingly, long time was the home state of New York, the same state of New York , also routinely given as home state of Gotham City. Gotham City was later "moved south", to the US state of New Jersey , in order to remedy the dilemma that not only Gotham City exists as "New York" in the Batman stories, but also New York proper, ie New York York city.

In order to enable a coexistence of Gotham- "New York" and New York- "New York", two New Yorks were allowed to appear in the stories: The actual New York City at its regular geographic location on the Hudson River and with all its characteristic ones Buildings and institutions, as well as a (gloomy) copy of New York City, which is called Gotham City and is a little further south. The Gotham copy of New York is very similar to the "Big Apple", but is characterized by a few variations: In Gotham City, for example, there are some buildings and facilities that are foreign to New York, and Gotham City also owns it, despite the close proximity of the New York cityscape with its towering high-rise buildings, a skyline that is characteristically different from New York. In addition, the floor plan of Gotham differs significantly from that of New York.

"Fixed" geographical features of Gotham City, which are quoted again and again, are its location on the coast, by the sea or occasionally on the shores of the huge "Lake Gotham", as well as its proximity to Superman's hometown Metropolis and the former whaling port Blüdhaven, Occasionally the location of the Nightwing series , which is about the adventures of Bruce Wayne's adopted son Dick Grayson. The magazine New Adventures of Superboy # 22 in October 1981 placed Gotham City and Metropolis as "twin cities" at the opposite sides of a large bay. The radiant Metropolis is referred to as "Cinderella City" and Gotham as its "ugly step-sister". Other stories claim a distance of about 100 km between the two cities. Former editor Mark Gruenwald left Gotham in New Jersey ( The Amazing World of DC Comics , 1970s) while locating Metropolis in the Washington DC area. The The Atlas of the DC Universe (1990) Gotham locates also in southern New Jersey, as he wants to know is home to Metropolis in Delaware. Some comics even talk of Gotham as a state of its own ("The Dark Deco State") with Gotham City as its capital (Batgirl series, Vertigo Comics), but the booklets that want the city to be located in New Jersey clearly predominate ( Shadow of the Bat Annual # 1, Detective Comics # 503 and others).

Most Gotham City maps are based on Manhattan and Vancouver . Swamp Thing # 53 from October 1986 used the geography of the small US state of Rhode Island for a map of Gotham .

The cityscape of Gotham City

Since the 1980s, American comics have tried to maintain the greatest possible degree of continuity within a series. Since then, the geographical location as well as the cityscape and the arrangement of various locations within the urban fabric have become more consistent: Recurring buildings such as the Wayne Tower , Wayne Manor , Arkham Asylum or Blackgate Prison have since been kept in the same place with great care of the urban area. Likewise, the external appearance of these buildings is now determined by strict guidelines and "construction plans", so that the way in which they appear in the graphic representation in most comics is subject to only minor fluctuations. Likewise, the basic idea that Gotham City's architecture should be a combination of modern building technology and neo- Gothic has been treated with great fidelity since the 1980s.

In the Batman stories of the 1950s and 1960s - which also mostly took place during the day - Gotham City's appearance was significantly brightened: the buildings and streets of the city, in keeping with the cheerful stories of the time, were atmospherically much brighter and friendlier than in the 1940s Years. In the 1970s they returned to the atmosphere of gloom, a trend that was further intensified by the zeitgeist of the 1980s ("Dark Age"). Since then, Gotham has been portrayed as a dark, sinister and ominous place that produces a cynical and grim race.

The appearance of the city

The longtime editor-in-chief of the Batman department at DC Verlag, Dennis O'Neil , once characterized Gotham City as " Manhattan across 14th Street at eleven minutes after midnight on a freezing cold November night" .

Gotham City is characterized by the mixing of fundamentally different, incompatible architectural styles and building schools: the streets and buildings in the Batman stories show characteristics of Gothic and Neo-Gothic , but also of Art Deco and Art Nouveau . Intradiegetic , d. H. Within the fictional reality of the comics, this eccentric amalgamation of incongruent architectural means and styles is explained by the fact that Judge Solomon Wayne, a resident judge and the secret ruler of Gotham City in the 19th century, used his influence to denounce the eccentric architect Cyrus Pinkney Transfer expansion of the city. Pinkney, the statement went on, used the far-reaching power and financial resources to realize his unusual and chilling visions, which due to tight city coffers could not be revised afterwards. This explains the bizarre haunted house atmosphere of the buildings designed by Pinkney in the downtown area (“Gotham Style”).

Architects whose work has significantly influenced the appearance of Gotham City's buildings, as traditionally portrayed in comics, television series and cartoons, include Norman Foster , Otto Wagner and Albert Speer . The set designs that the production designer Anton Furst created for the Batman film from 1989 and whose optics have been adapted for the comics since the early 1990s had an important influence on the appearance of the city in the comics of the last few decades . Burton's 1989 film was based on Antoni Gaudí's Sagrada Família (Gotham Cathedral) and the works of the Japanese architect Shin Takamatsu (Flugelheim Museum).

The city history

In most versions, the town's history begins in 1635 when Norwegian mercenaries set up a permanent camp on what will later be the town's premises ( Swamp Thing # 53). In the 18th century, Epislah Psalter and Benedict Rance built a mental hospital near a trading post that had risen from the old mercenary camp, around which a small town gradually developed and later a growing city that eventually became a metropolis (Atlas of the DCU ).

Recurring locations in Gotham City

Eponymous bodies

Various streets, bridges, public parks and other geographic entities in Gotham City are named after major Batman authors and drawers of the past:

• Aparo Expressway (after the draftsman Jim Aparo )
• Aparo Park (ibid.)
• Archie Goodwin International Airport (named after writer and editor Archie Goodwin )
• Barr Town (after the author Mike W. Barr )
• Cape Carmine (after the draftsman Carmine Infantino )
• Davis Avenue (after the draftsman Alan Davis )
• Dixon Dock (after the author Chuck Dixon )
• Finger River (after the author Bill Finger )
• Finger Memorial Park (ibid.)
• Grant Park (after the author Alan Grant )
• Kane County Morgue (after the draftsman)
• Miller Hafen (after the author Frank Miller )
• Novick Tunnel (after the draftsman Irv Novick )
• Peterson RR Tubes (after Scott Peterson)
• Port Adams (after the draftsman Neal Adams )
• Robbinsville (after the draftsman Frank Robbins )
• Robinson Plaza (after the draftsman Jerry Robinson )
• Robinson Square (ibid.)
• Rogers Yacht Basin (after the draftsman Marshall Rogers )
• RH Kane Building (after the draftsman Bob Kane )
• Robert Kane Memorial Bridge (after the draftsman Bob Kane)
• Sprang Bridge (based on the draftsman Dick Sprang )
• Sprang River (after draftsman Dick Sprang)
• Vincefinkel Bridge (after Gordon F. Vincefinkel)
• From Grunewald Tower (after Mark Grunewald)
• The Westward Bridge (based on the actors Adam West and Burt Ward )

Recurring locations in Gotham City

The Knebworth in Hertfordshire was used as the setting for Wayne Manor in the 1989 Batman film

• Amusement Mile
• Arkham Asylum : (Mercy Mansion / New Arkham Asylum) The Arkham Asylum is Gotham City's psychiatric hospital. The new building of the institute is located in the old mansion Old Mercy Mansion, on a smaller island west of New Gotham near the D'Angelo sewage works.
• Arkham Asylum : (Old Arkham Asylum) The old building of the Arkham Asylum is outside of downtown Gotham on the outskirts on the mainland. In the Batman stories of the past 12 years, Old Arkham has been vacant and badly damaged by a terrorist attack. The institution has since been housed in the building of the Old Mercy Mansion.
• Axis Chemicals (also Aces Chemical Processing Inc.): A chemical plant in Uptown Gotham, the northern island of downtown. The work was the scene of the transformation of a nameless crook into Batman's archenemy Joker: while trying to break into an adjoining playing card factory through the Axis factory, the man - on the run from Batman, who surprised him - fell into a collecting basin filled with chemical acids . The acids turn his skin white, his hair green and his lips blood red. In the 1989 Batman film, the Joker uses the factory to produce a deadly poison that haunts Gotham residents until Batman blows up the factory.
• Babylon Towers
• Banks : Gotham City's numerous banks include the American Bank, the Commercial Bank, the Diversified Bank, the Empire Bank, the Federal State Bank, the Gotham General Bank & Trust, the Heritage First National Bank and Trust, the Gotham City National Bank and Gotham City Bank.
• Bard PI : The detective agency of the private detective Jason Bard, which is used again and again as the setting for stories in which Bard plays a part.
• Bartinell House
• Bessarovian Embassy : The diplomatic mission of the fictional state of Bessarovia, which is located in downtown Gotham City.
• Blackgate Maximum Security Penitentiary : Gotham City's prison, modeled after Alcatraz Prison in California. Blackgate is mostly indicated as being on an island (Blackgate Island) in the south of the city in Gotham Bay. In the Batman animated series of the 90s, Blackgate was referred to as Stonegate Prison , in a novel by Andrew Vachss as Hellgate Prison. Batman's sane, non-insane opponents are housed in Blackgate. Warden Zerhardt is usually portrayed as the director of the institution, and the psychologist Dr. Simpson Flanders and a doctor named "Doc" returning.
  Blackgate inmates are, or have been, a .: Actuary, the Baffler, Bane, Black Spider, Bruce Wayne, Cassidy, Catwoman, Cluemaster, David Cain, Dean "Hungry" Fahy, Dragoncat, Elmo Galvan, Ernie Chubb, Eustace Marker, Faceless, Firebug, Firefly, Gunhawk, Jared Manx, Joe Rabbit, the Joker, KGBeast, Monsoon, Nate, Ratcatcher, Rhino, Shoppie, Steeljacket, the Trigger Twins, Vincent "The Shark" Starkey, Weasel and Willis Danko. Constantly switching between Blackgate and Arkham are Mister Freeze, the ventriloquist and Firefly.
• Blood's Apartment : The apartment of the occultist Jason Blood. Bloods Apartment, a collection of gloomy rooms crammed with all sorts of mystical souvenirs and magical artifacts, is one of the main locations in the comic series The Demon, about the adventures of Blood's alter ego, the demon Etrigan.
• Armless Master's Bonzo : A martial arts school in Gotham City's Chinatown. The former students of Bonzo, who was formerly led by an armless martial arts master, include Selina Kyle (Catwoman) and the mercenary Hellhound.
• Brentwood Academy : An exclusive boys' boarding school located outside of Gotham City in the idyllic Somerset suburb. Brentwood's students in the past have included Tim Drake (Batman's assistant Robin) and Crown Prince Ali ben Kadir.
• Bullock's Apartment : Sergeant Harvey Bullock 's apartment . Bullock, a grubby, overweight, trench-coated cop with a penchant for old movies is one of the most common supporting characters in the Batman comics. Bullock's apartment is particularly noticeable because of the disorder and filthiness that prevails in it, and because of the large number of movie posters that the cinema enthusiast Bullock pinned on the walls. Despite its questionable hygienic condition, Bullock's apartment, which is located in a noble apartment building in one of the most expensive districts of downtown, is an exclusive place to stay.
• Mayoral residence : (Mayor Mansion) The official residence of the mayor of Gotham City.
• Clayface cave
• Clock Tower : An old clock tower in Old Gotham, the southern island of Gotham City. For many years the tower was used as headquarters by the information broker Oracle, alias Barbara Gordon, who provided Batman and other “superheroes” with information: Gordon brought together all of the data she had collected in the tower in order to then evaluate it and forward it to her “clients “To pass on. After the gang leader Black Mask destroyed the clock tower, “Oracle” had to look for a new accommodation and operations center.
• County Police Station : The headquarters of the Gotham County's sheriffs' headquarters outside of town.
• Gotham Superior Courthouse : The main courthouse of Gotham City. As the place where convicted criminals are tried, the venerable courthouse is the setting for countless Batman stories. Among other things, it plays the "origin story" of the villain Two-Face, which describes how attorney general Harvey Dent was sprayed with acid on his face during a trial against the mafioso Salvatore Maroni, went mad and became the insane villain Two Face.
• Davenport Center : The headquarters of the snobbish millionaire Devin D. Davenport's company. The Davenport Center, a chunky Gotham-style skyscraper, overturned in an earthquake during the "Cataclysm" storyline. During the "No Man's Land" storyline, the building, which is no longer vertical, but lying horizontally, is used by the criminal "Penguin" as his headquarters, where he trades in food and other essential goods, which he offers for money and Exchanging valuables and holding gladiator fights.
• Davenport Mansion : A venerable mansion and home of Bruce Wayne's closest neighbor, billionaire Devlin D. Davenport, located in close proximity to Wayne Manor.
• Dents apartment
• Drake household
• Falcones penthouse
• Fox Household : The home of Lucius Fox, the chairman of Wayne Enterprises, is in Somerset, a suburb of Gotham City.
• Gordon's House : The home of James Gordon, the Gotham City Police Chief, is south of downtown in the Tricorner district near the harbor.
• Gotham Arts Center
• Gotham City Chimes Building
• Gotham City Harbor
• Gotham City Library : The Gotham City City Library , located in the Old Gotham District.
• Gotham City Millionaires Club
• Gotham City Science Institute
• Gotham City Square Gardens
• Gotham City University : The University of Gotham City. Probably the best-known former employee of this alma mater is the psychology professor Jonathan Crane, who has made a name for himself as a criminal as "Scarecrow".
• Gotham City Zoo : Gotham City Zoo is located in the center of Robinson Park, Gotham City's largest park.
• Gotham Country Club : An exclusive club for Gotham City's high society. The members of the club devote themselves to elite amusements such as playing golf or horse racing. The country club's posh clubhouse is located outside Gotham City in the rural Somerset area.
• Gotham County High School
• Gotham Penitentiary : The old, now closed, city jail of Gotham City, which has been replaced by the Blackgate Penitentiary in more recent stories.
• Gotham Public Library:
• Gotham Towers
• Gotham Town Hall : The Gotham City Town Hall .
• The hat bunker : A hideout for the insane criminal "Mad Hatter", which is located in a heavily armored underground vault ("Bunker") below Gotham City. The "bunker" bears his name because it is primarily a safe place to store the hat collection of the hatter.
• Iceberg Lounge : A night club run by the criminal Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot and which secretly serves as a backdrop for all kinds of criminal business and as a transshipment point for contraband. The Iceberg Lounge is a themed restaurant that to a certain extent imitates the polar region, with the chairs looking like blocks of ice, pools decorating the interior of the lounge and the like. The name is derived from Cobblepot's nickname, "Penguin", which it owes to its cute appearance with tailcoat, monocle and top hat, which makes it resemble a penguin.
• Janus Cosmetics : A Wayne Enterprises subsidiary that specializes in the manufacture of cosmetics. The original owners of Janus were the Sionis family. The Sionis eventually had to sell their company to Wayne Enterprises due to mismanagement that made them insolvent.
• Joker Club
• Kadavers Murder Agency : The "office" of the criminal Mortimer Kadaver, who runs an agency in which one can buy the services of professional assassins. In the agency's basement there is a torture chamber, which the sadistically inclined carcass has equipped with iron maidens, hatchets, stretchers and an acid bath in the style of the Spanish Inquisition.
• Killinger's Department Store
• movie theater
• The " Box City": A collection of makeshift, hut-like accommodations made of cardboard boxes and corrugated iron sheets in the East End of Gotham City. The box city is inhabited by a few hundred homeless people, who form a kind of subculture to the rest of the population of Gotham, from which they deliberately separate themselves as "outcasts". The most common resident of the box city in the Batman stories is the Vietnam veteran "Legs".
• Knight Dome Sporting Complex
• Langstrom Household : The household of the scientist Kirk (" Manbat ") Langstrom and his wife Francince in Old Gotham. The household also includes the children Rebecca and Aaron.
• Lehah penthouse
• Morgue : The morgue (Morgue) Gotham City is located near the police headquarters. One of the pathologists working there is the eccentric Mortimer Gunt. The morgue - as the scene of the discovery of the curious causes of the death of its "patients" - often serves as the starting point for Batman stories tinged with detectiveism.
• LexCorp Gotham
• Madame Soleil's Wax Museum : The wax museum is one of Gotham City's most popular attractions.
• Miller Harbor : The port of Gotham City.
• Monarch Playing Card Co.
• Museums : Gotham's museums include the Gotham City Museum, Gotham City Museum of Antiquities, and Gotham City Museum of Natural History.
• My Alibi : A pub in Gotham's East End, mostly used by criminals.
• Noonan's Bar : A bar formerly operated by the aging killer Sean Noonan, which is located in the dilapidated district "The Cauldron" (German: "The Kessel"). The Noonan's was a regular pub for all kinds of killers and thugs and a main location of the Gotham City satirical comic series Hitman . Visitors to Noonan's included a. the killer Tommy Monaghan and the thug hoes. The current bartender, a hell demon (!) Named Baytor, deserves special attention.
• One Gotham Center
• One Part Trinity Plaza
• Parkhurst Galleries
• Phony Island
• Phony Island Lighthouse
• Potatoe PI : The private investigator Joe Potatoe's detective agency. Potatoes chaotic, dusty law firm is located in the East End of Gotham City.
• Police headquarters
• Satorius power station
• Scarecrow field
• Sionis Mansion
• South Complex
• Sports Teams : Gotham-based sports teams include the Gotham City Bats (baseball), Gotham City Eagles (baseball), the Gotham Goliaths (basketball), the Gotham Knights (football; sometimes baseball), and the Gotham Gators (basketball) .
• Spring Street Aquarium : The Gotham City Aquarium, which is located in New Gotham near the city's marina.
• The Stacked Deck
• Stadiums : Gotham City has several sports stadiums including Spayed Stadium, Tyler Stadium, Gotham City Coloseum and Gotham City Soccer Stadium.
• STAR Labs Gotham
• The Statue of Justice : A statue also known as "Lady Gotham" on a small island in the harbor of Gotham City, which is modeled after the New York Statue of Liberty.
• Thompkins Clinic
• Tobacconists' Club
• Umbrella Shop : A secret workshop located in the back room of a bird shop in downtown Gotham City. Here a nameless man is making the special umbrellas for the villainous "penguin".
• Underground city
• Vauxhall Opera Shell & Indoor Concert Center : The Gotham City Opera, a futuristic building with an intricate structure, modeled after the famous Sydney Opera House.
• Ventriloquist Club
• The "bird house" : A Victorian-style, large-hall bird house owned by the criminal Oswald Cobblepot, known as the penguin. The aviary is located outside Gotham in Gotham County and is designed as a free flight aviary for the poultry from the penguin bird collection. In addition, it occasionally serves as a hiding place, a retreat and planning forge for the actions of the monocle-armed crook.
• Orphanage
• Washington Center
• Wayne Animal Sanctuary : An animal sanctuary operated by the Wayne Foundation.
• Wayne Botanical Gardon:
• Wayne Foundation : A foundation established by Bruce Wayne in memory of his parents. The company policy of the foundation is directed by the manager Lucius Fox. The foundation's tasks are to care for victims of crime as well as general projects to increase the welfare of the general public. The foundation is located in the Wayne Foundation Building in the center of the city. On the roof of the foundation there is a penthouse that Bruce Wayne temporarily lived in. There is also a secret, second, bath cave, which is located in a basement of the building.

Night view of the Chicago Board of Trade building used as the backdrop for the Wayne Tower in Batman Begins (2005).

• Wayne Manor : The Bruce Wayne (Batman) mansion. In most versions of the Batman fabric, Wayne Manor is a huge mansion that sits on top of a hill in the exclusive Gotham suburb of Somerset. According to Shadow of the Bat # 45, the house was built in 1855 by railway magnate Jerome K. van Derm, but he never moved in because he committed suicide following the bankruptcy of his company. Instead, the young judge Solomon Zebediah Wayne purchases the vacant house and the surrounding marshland, which he has drained in order to surround the building with splendid parks and set up his family's ancestral home there. After the death of his father Thomas Wayne, a great-grandson of Solomon Wayne, Bruce Wayne inherits the property. In the cellar vaults of the house, under which there are kilometer-long caves that extend underground into the city center - and which formerly served as part of the "Underground Railroad" fled slaves from the southern states as a route to the safe north - Wayne later sets up the bath cave, as the headquarters for its crime-fighting activities. Besides Bruce Wayne, Wayne Manor is also inhabited by his English butler Alfred and the guard and house dog Ace. Other residents of the house in the standard continuity of the Batman stories are or were in the past Bruce Wayne's foster sons Dick Grayson, Jason Todd and Tim Drake, as well as the hunchbacked mechanic Herold, who had temporarily set up a workshop in the cave complex below the house . The building includes a ballroom, a collection of paintings, a pool, a library, a flight of stairs, as well as countless suites and winding corridors that are furnished with all kinds of antiques such as English knight armor or the defensive hangings of samurais. After the almost complete destruction of the house as a result of an earthquake (1998) it was rebuilt in the style of an English knight's castle, since then it has not only had battlements and ornamental cannons, but also a heliport. In the gardens of Wayne Manor there are extensive lawns and a small cemetery. According to some stories, the house gets its energy from solar panels. Wayne Manor was used as the setting in all six films between 1989 and 2008, using Knebworth House, a Gothic Tudor building north of London and Hatfield House in Hertfordshire (interior shots) for the Tim Burton films, the Webb Institute and as sets the Mentmore Towers estate in Buckinghamshire. The building is modeled on the houses in the Rockcliffe neighborhood in Ottawa.
• Wayne Memorial Clock Tower
• Wayne Tower
• White's Pond
• Newspapers : Newspapers based in Gotham include the Gotham City Herald , Gotham Gazette, and Gotham City Times .

Bridges and tunnels

• Amerigold Columbus Bridge
• Brown RR tubes
• Gotham City Bridge
• Gotham County Underwater RR Tube
• Gotham Water District Tunnel
• Moonres Bridges
• Novick tunnel
• Old trunk tunnel
• Peterson RR Tubes
• Robert Kane Memorial Bridge
• Jumped Bridge
• Trigate bridges
• The Westward Bridge
• Vincefinkel Bridge
• Gotham Pioneer Bridge

Rivers

• Gotham River
• Jumped River
• West River

Areas and neighborhoods

• Bowery
• Bristol : See “Gotham Heights”.
• Burnley
• The Cauldron
• Chinatown : The Chinese quarter of Gotham City, which is dominated by the so-called Lucky Hands Triads.
• City Hall District : The “government district” of Gotham City. The City Hall District is located in Old Gotham. In addition to the town hall, most of the important administrative authorities and the district court are located in it.
• "Crime Ally" (actually: Park Row)
• Diamond District
• East end
• Fashion district
• Financial District : Gotham City's financial district, which is home to most of the city's banks and a stock exchange.
• Gotham County
• Gotham Heights : (also: Bristol or Crest Hill)
• Gotham Village (after Greenwich Village )
• Grand Avenue : Gotham City's counterpart to Broadway. There are numerous theaters, an opera house and similar cultural and entertainment facilities here.
• The Hill
• Kubrick District
• Little Odessa
• New Town
• Old Gotham : The southern of the two main islands that make up downtown Gotham City. Old Gotham is home to City Hall, Wayne Towers, Police Headquarters and Gotham City Main Court, among others.
• Otisburg
• Park Row : See “Crime Ally” above.
• Slaughter Swamp : A swamp area outside Gotham City that is home to the monstrous colossus Solomon Grundy. The swamp was first featured in a 1947 comic.
• Toxic Acres : A chemical contaminated area that is in the vicinity of the Axis Chemicals factory.
• Tricorner
• Waterhall District

Parks

• Dinosaur Island amusement park
• Gotham City Central Park
• Grant Park
• Robinson Park
• abandoned amusement park

Streets and squares

• Cathedral Square
• Chimes Square
• Coley Square
• Gotham City Speedway : A freeway to and from Gotham City used to handle commuter traffic.
• Gotham Square (Times Square)
• Monolith Square

Gotham City images

"Images" of the skyline and panoramic views of the cityscape can be found under the following links:

Gotham City in the Batman Comics:

• Gotham by night, pencil drawing 1992
• Gotham by night with bat signal, pencil drawing
• Gotham City, colored drawing circa 2004

Gotham City in the Batman films:

• Tim Burton's " Batman "
• Christopher Nolan's " Batman Begins "

Residents

As emerged from the movie The Dark Knight , about 30 million people live in Gotham City. The residents of Gotham City include Batman, his allies - such as Robin and Nightwing - and adversaries - such as Two-Face, the Riddler and the Joker - as well as numerous other characters. So lived and the contract killer Tommy Monaghan, the title character "worked" the series Hitman, long time in the boiler , one of the worst slums of Gotham City. The tragic obscurant and mystic Jason Blood, who has to share his body with the demon Etrigan due to a curse, is also a resident of Gotham City, as is the Jewish pawnbroker Roary Regan, who as Ragman gives the Jews of Gotham City special protection.

The Mayors of Gotham City

Since 1939, just under a dozen characters have appeared in the Batman comics identified as the Mayor of Gotham City.

• The first - as yet unnamed - Mayor of Gotham City appeared in Batman # 12 and Detective Comics # 68. Visually, it was modeled on the New York Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia .
• Mayor Hayes : A mayor who first appeared in Batman # 207 in December 1968, and then appeared as the city's mayor in some of the 1960s Batman stories.
• Mayor Wilson Klass appears more frequently in issues of the Legends of the Dark Knight series , which tell stories from the early days of Batman's career .
• Mayor Taylor can be seen in World's Finest # 148, Detective Comics # 330 and 375, The Brave and Bold # 59, 67 and 78, and Batman # 173 and 186.
• Another unnamed mayor appeared in: Batman # 270, 275, 283 and 302, The Brave and The Bold # 148, Super Friends # 22, World's Finest # 260 and 262, Detective Comics # 490 and # 500.
• Hamilton Hill : A corrupt politician who is elected mayor in Detective Comics # 511, February 1982, with the help of corrupt former alderman Rupert Thorne. Hill resigns from office in Batman # 381, March 1985, after Batman and Gotham Police Chief James Gordon prove his involvement in criminal activity.
• Mayor Lieberman : The Mayor of Gotham in the crossover Batman vs. Predator (1991), as well as the mini-series Robin II and Batman: Run, Riddler, Run .
• An African American mayor appears in Detective Comics # 648.
• Armand Krol : A Republican mayor who appears in Detective Comics # 647 from August 1992. As a “ law and order ” man, he ruled the city until he was defeated by the moderate Marion Grange in Shadow of the Bat # 46, January 1996. Kroll finally dies in Detective Comics # 699, August 1996, of the consequences of his illness of an Ebola virus, which he contracted in the "Contagion" storyline.
• Marion Grange : Grange is elected mayor in Shadow of the Bat # 46, in the run-up to the 1996 "Contagion" storyline. She finally takes up her position early on the instructions of the governor of the state in which Gotham is located during a terrorist attack on the city (Robin # 28, terrorists set Ebola virus free in Gotham).
• Daniel Danforth Dickerson III was elected mayor of Gotham after the "No Man's Land Storyline" and remained in office until he was murdered by Batman's arch enemy, the Joker.
• David Hull was Gotham's Mayor in Mid-2000s Stories.
• In addition, a man named Aubrey James was identified as Gotham City's mayor at the time of Bruce Wayne's (Batman's) parents' murder ( Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight # 204, June 2006).

In the 1960s Batman television series, actor Byron Keith appeared as the city's mayor. The name of his role Linseed was an allusion to John Lindsay , the then mayor of the real Gotham City, d. H. New York City. The Batman cartoon series of the 1990s made use of a far more noble and non-corrupt version of Hamilton Hill, spoken by Lloyd Bochner in the original. In the animated series "The Batman", the part of the mayor was spoken by Adam West , who played Batman in the 1960s.

In the 1989 Batman film, Lee Wallace appeared in the role of Mayor William Borg . In Batman Returns, Michael Murphy played Hamilton Hill, while in Batman Forever George Wallace slipped into the role of an unnamed mayor.

Gotham City Police

Members of the Gotham City Police Department , the Gotham City Police Department (GCPD), appear in virtually every Batman story. While some police officers are portrayed as being hostile to Batman, and occasionally stories even deal with attempts by some police officers to hunt down the "vigilante" Batman, the vast majority of officers in most stories are portrayed as extremely positive towards the vigilante.

A large number of the Batman stories are about how the "midnight detective" teams up with Gotham police officers to jointly hunt down particularly bad criminals. While the Batman stories of the early years portray the city's police department as a swamp of corruption and incompetence, later stories, especially since the comic series GCPD told the Gotham police officers' own adventures for three years, show the city cops as a tight-knit community of honest officials.

Gotham City Police Chiefs who appear at different points in Batman's career include: Michael Akins, Peter Grogan, Gillian B. Loeb, Andie Howe, Sarah Essen-Gordon, Peter Pauling, and most importantly James Gordon.

Recurring police officers for the GCPD in the Batman comics include: Harvey Bullock, Stan Kitch, Cazz Sallucchi, Steve Henderson, Renee Montoya, Chrispus Allen, Jason Bard, Mackenzie Bock, Jim Corrigan, Detective Driver, Eddie Flass, Andy Grubs , Josie MacDonald, Stan Merkel, Moses, Murtough, "Chief" Clancy Ohara, Tactical Leader Billy Petit and Maggie Sawyer.

Departments are the Murder Department and the Serious Crime Department.

Pat Hingle , Lyle Talbot and Gary Oldman appeared as Commissioner Gordon in the Batman movies and series , while Neil Hamilton slipped into the role in the 1960s TV series. In the same series, Stafford Repp starred as Chief O'Hara. Harvey Bullock appeared in the 1989 Batman film , played by William Hootkins (and renamed Max Eckhart).

Gotham City as the setting for comics, films and TV series

Gotham City as the setting for comics

Gotham City is or was, among other things, the location of the comic series or series about the following characters:

• Batman series and Batman-related series set in Gotham City:
  • Azrael , Batman , Catwoman , Birds of Prey , Nightwing , Robin .

• Gotham City non-Batman series:
  • The Demon / Etrigan, Hitman , The Question , Plastic Man , Ragman , Zatara the Magician.

Gotham City as a location for films

In the past, Gotham City was the location of all Batman films : The movies Batman , Batman Returns , Batman Forever , Batman & Robin , Batman Begins , The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises , Batman keeps the world in suspense , as well as the Cartoons Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and Batman: Sub Zero in this fictional city.

In Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Gotham is right next door to Metropolis .

For the 1989 Batman film, set designer Anton Furst and director Tim Burton created a dark gothic set that portrays Gotham as a nightmarish, claustrophobic place and was awarded an Oscar in 1990 for Furst.

Joel Schumacher had his Batman films Batman and Robin and Batman Forever designed by the set designer Barbara Ling, who took a contrary approach to Furst: She made the city appear in a multi-criticized, dazzling fairground atmosphere, with modern expressionistic and futuristic in particular Motifs predominated, but there were also occasional Art Deco motifs (in one scene a car license plate even appears, which Gotham calls the “Art Deco” state). Ling's idea of ​​Gotham City was accordingly characterized as a mixture of Neo-Tokyo and Manhattan.

Christopher Nolan worked with designer Nathan Crowley on his films to bring Gotham City to life. He chose a very realistic approach that is strongly reminiscent of the Chicago location .

Cincinnati ( Batman Forever ) and Chicago ( Batman Begins ) served as locations that were issued as Gotham City in the Batman films . The district "The Narrows" in Batman Begins is modeled on the city of Kowloon (in SVZ Hong Kong).

As the location for the film song Gotham City by R. Kelly served New York .

Gotham City as the location of television series

The series Gotham has been broadcast since 2014 , in which the city and its residents are examined more closely.

literature

• Damien K. Picariello (Ed.): Politics in Gotham: The Batman Universe and Political Thought. Springer International, Cham 2019, ISBN 978-3-030-05775-6 .

References and comments

1. ↑ oA "Gotham", June 10, 1902 in: Barre Evening Telegram ( Barre, Vt. ) Page 6, column 3
2. ↑ The name is first found in Nolan's film Batman Begins, comparable to New York State and New York City.
3. ↑ In the afterword to the Batman novel Batman: Knightfall, A Novel , New York 1994.
4. ↑ batcave.stopklatka.pl ( Memento of April 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ images.wikia.com ( Memento of the original from January 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ Howe gets his job in Detective Comics # 693, in Robin # 28 he is fired.