Home > Gotham City

Gotham City is a fictional city appearing in DC Comics, best known as the home of Batman. At one point, DC placed Gotham City in the state of New Jersey, though its features and location have been altered at times due to the capricious nature of the writers, editors and storyline. Gotham is known to be architecturally modeled after New York City and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but with more exaggerated vices. It has been said that, metaphoricaly, Metropolis (home to Superman) is New York during the day, and Gotham is New York at night. This comparison is helped by the fact that Metropolis is more often seen during the day, and Gotham more at night. Longtime Batman writer and editor Dennis O'Neil has also said figuratively that Metropolis is New York above 14th St., and that Gotham City is New York below 14th St.

According to Swamp Thing #53 (and various subsequent comic book stories), Gotham City was founded in 1635 by a Swedish mercenary and was later taken over by the British. During the American Revolutionary War it was the site of a major battle and various occult rites were rumored to have been conducted within the city. Perhaps for these reasons Gotham is a dark and foreboding place rife with crime, grime, and corruption. It has maintained a thriving economy and is considered a major center of manufacturing, shipping, finance, arts (with its numerous museums, galleries, and jewelry displays), and the production of giant novelty props.

In recent years Gotham has faced more than its fair share of difficulties. Numerous costumed maniacs have emerged, necessitating the construction of an asylum dedicated to the incarceration of the criminally insane (see Arkham AsylumArkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane is a fictional mental hospital near Gotham City in the DC Universe, where many of Batman's foes (most famously the Joker) wind up after they are captured and recaptured; those who are 'cured' and released tend to re). Unfortunately the asylum has rarely managed to cure or keep its various insane inmates for long. Gotham has also suffered from rampant crime, an artificially created plague, an earthquake, another plague, and, following yet another earthquake, a federal edict to cut off the city from the rest of the country. After a full year cut off from the United States, Gotham was once again recognized as a municipality, and the process of rebuilding is now well underway.

Apart from the superheroA superhero is a fictional character who is noted for feats of courage and nobility and who usually has a colorful name and costume, and abilities beyond those of normal human beings. Superheroes spend much of their time battling monsters, natural disaste residents, the residents of the city were featured in a back up series in Detective ComicsDetective Comics is a comic book published by DC Comics since 1937. It is, along with Action Comics (the book that launched with the debut of Superman), one of the company's best-known titles in fact, the "DC" in the company's name comes from "Detective C, Tales of Gotham City and in two mini-series called Gotham Nights. In addition, the Gotham City Police Department is the focus of its own series, Gotham CentralGotham Central is a comic book series published by DC Comics, written by Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka and drawn by Michael Lark. A police drama in the tradition of such television series as Law & Order and Homicide: Life on the Street the series focuses on.

Several maps of Gotham City have been produced over the years. Many of them are directly based on ManhattanFor other uses, see Manhattan (disambiguation . Manhattan is the name of an island alongside the lower Hudson River and also of one of the five boroughs that form the City of New York. The borough is coterminous with New York County and includes the Islan, while another is based on the Rhode IslandAlternate uses: see RI (disambiguation The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (commonly known as Rhode Island is geographically the smallest state in the United States. Rhode Island (pronounced "Road Island") is part of the New England regio coastline, and others are completely original. A map of Gotham City used in the 19891989 is a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). Events January January 7 Akihito becomes Emperor of Japan following the death of Hirohito. The Heisei period begins January 8 the Kegworth Air Disaster A British Midland Boeing 737 cra film Batman was actually an inverted map of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In the same movie, a map of the Axis Chemical plant was actually a map of the Capitol Hill neighbourhood in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. The current definitive maps of Gotham City are those based on the ones produced for the " No Man's Land " arc.