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Gotham City (Earth-1)

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"This is why nobody talks about Gotham, okay? City might as well be dead."
—Oliver Queen[src]

Gotham City, simply known as Gotham, was a major city in the United States. It was home to several important businesses and corporations, such as Wayne Enterprises, Elliot Estates, and Hamilton Dynamics. Gotham was mentioned to have had a population of 1.6 million people. However, as only the one-percenters brought the good part of city to them, Gotham was notorious for its hostile nature. Crime, corruption, and poverty were widespread to the point that Gotham was considered a sort of "ghost city" that nobody ever talked about.[1]

Overview[]

Business[]

Companies[]

Wayne Enterprises (Earth-1)

Wayne Enterprises

Cafés and restaurants[]

  • Marley Coffee: Having portable stalls roam around populous areas of the city, Marley Coffee sold various coffee beverages.[2]
  • Dusty's Roadside Diner: A diner frequented mainly by bikers and truckers, which was located on the road just outside of Gotham.[6]
  • Alessandro's: A high-profile Italian restaurant in Gotham City.[5]
  • Slice of Gotham: A second-rate restaurant in Gotham City.[7]

Crime[]

Gotham City was infamous as a breeding ground of crime. According to many, Batman's presence in Gotham generated a new breed of "crazy" criminals as the city was terrorized for years by the notorious madman known as the Joker.[8]

Alice and her gang hold Sophie hostage

Alice and her gang holding a Crows agent hostage.

The situation worsened after Batman mysteriously disappeared in around 2015. According to Kate Kane, Batman's absence made the residents of Gotham go to "five different kinds of Hell", and implied that crime was at an all-time high.[1] This was evident when in 2018, a criminal who went by Alice, along with her Wonderland gang, began attacking Gotham to satiate her personal vendetta against the Crows Security's head, Jacob Kane.[2]

Another incident in December 2018 included five men claiming to be from the Gotham Tourism Bureau as they tried to mug Oliver Queen, Barry Allen, and Kara Danvers. The heinous nature of the city was a result of the rampant poverty, akin to an endemic disease that affected almost all of Gotham's citizens, who do whatever they need to in order to survive.[1]

Other well-known criminals were the art thief Magpie[4] and the murderous vigilante Executioner.[8]

Vigilantism[]

Batman

Batman, the original vigilante.

Gotham was prominent for having registered the first known case of vigilantism in the figure of Batman, a brutal individual who dressed like a bat, fought against evil, and struck terror into the hearts of criminals everywhere. However, Batman's very existence has always sparked debate, with many arguing that he was nothing but an urban legend created by the Gotham City Police Department to instill fear in criminals, while other dismissed him as being simply a "myth". One of Batman's apparent associates was a young individual known to the world only as "Robin".[9]

Batwoman (Kate Kane)

Batwoman, Gotham's new vigilante.

The mysterious Batman, however, disappeared sometime around 2015. Three years later,[2] the equally-mysterious Batwoman took his place. She alone fought crime, and more so than Batman, since his absence brought out the worst criminals in the city.[1] However, many initially mistakenly believed Batwoman was Batman himself, having returned after three years away.[2]

Landmarks[]

Bat-Signal (Earth-1)

The famous Bat-Signal

Culture[]

  • Gotham Art Museum: The Gotham Art Museum contained historical pieces of art. It is where the official Bat-Signal was located and kept.[2]
    • Bat-Signal: In the past, Gothamites would turn on the Bat-Signal as a distress signal for Batman whenever someone needed help. In 2018 though, the city's government decided that it was best they ultimately switch off the signal to signify the permanence of Batman's absence. Many Gothamites protested this, as even though the vigilante was nowhere within the city, the searchlight continued to instill fear in criminals, along with hope for its ordinary and desperate citizens.[2]
  • Movie in the Park: As of 2018, the Gotham City government, in partnership with Crows Security, reinstated the Gotham City: Movie in the Park event at Robinson Park, intended to show Gothamites' resilience to fear of local crime.[2]
  • Museum of Antiquities: The museum contained artifacts of Gotham's past. A new exhibit was opened in 2018.[2]
  • Orpheum Theatre: A historical theatre in Gotham. It hosted the city's annual Humanitarian Ball.[7]

Parks[]

Structures[]

Education[]

Health[]

Arkham Asylum (Earth-1)

The gates of Arkham Asylum.

  • Arkham Asylum: A psychiatric asylum "for the criminally insane", Arkham was where criminals suffering from mental illnesses were incarcerated, presumably because most of these patients are considered very dangerous. Many of the patients admitted to the asylum were meta-humans; Caitlin Snow showed her cryogenic powers to a nurse, who then stated that there are others with cases similar to hers.[1]

Media[]

Security[]

  • Gotham City Police Department (GCPD): The GCPD was the police department of Gotham, in charge of the Gothamites' security and also overseeing and associating with the operations of private security companies such as the Crows.[9]
  • Crows Security: With Batman's departure from Gotham, the Crows took over as the protectors of Gotham City, albeit only for the wealthiest of civilians.[2]

Buildings[]

Neighborhoods[]

Residences[]

Mayors[]

History[]

Bruce Wayne lived in Gotham with his parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne, until one fateful night, they were murdered, leaving him as the sole survivor. Sometime after, Bruce began to operate as the vigilante Batman long enough for the public to be aware of him.[2] However, Batman's presence was heavily disputed, with some believing the vigilante was made up by the Gotham City Police Department to scare criminals.[1]

On January 26, 2003,[11] a notorious criminal known as the Joker hijacked a school bus carrying 34 children and was pursued by Batman.[8] Through happenstance, the bus hit a car with Bruce's two cousins, Kate and Beth Kane, and aunt, Gabi Kane. Despite Batman's efforts to save them, the car fell off a bridge into the river below, leaving Kate as the only survivor.[2] Batman, as well as the whole city, searched for Gabi and Beth's bodies for months until seemingly succeeding. In reality however, only Gabi's body was recovered; a group of men led by Catherine Hamilton-Kane used deer skull fragments from Miller Farm to pose as Beth's body, with Catherine bribing the coroner to match them to Beth's DNA.[4][9]

Batman's presence soon ensured that Gotham became a relatively peaceful city. In 2015 however, Batman left Gotham for unknown reasons. Since then, the city was rarely visited by anyone due to crime rates and corruption skyrocketing.[1] Crows Security became the new protector of Gotham, albeit only available for wealthy individuals.[2]

After surviving the explosions on Lian Yu in 2017, Talia al Ghul went to Gotham to pay an old foe a visit, which landed her in Slabside Prison.[12]

In 2018, the Bat-Signal was finally shut off to signify the permanence of Batman's absence, but the event was interrupted as a new villain, Alice, aimed to wage war against the Crows. Due to Batman's absence, Kate was forced to uphold her cousin's legacy and eventually became the new vigilante of Gotham City known as Batwoman.[1][2]

Gotham City, as well as entire Earth-1, was destroyed in the Anti-Monitor Crisis, when an antimatter wave decimated the multiverse.[10] But A new Gotham City was created on Earth-Prime after the Crisis.

Known individuals[]

Known residents[]

Current residents[]


Incarcerated residents[]


Former residents[]


Known visitors[]

Known mayors[]

Known commissioners[]

Appearances[]

Arrow[]

Season 6[]

Season 7[]

Season 8[]

The Flash[]

Season 5[]

Season 6[]

Supergirl[]

Season 4[]

Season 5[]

Batwoman[]


Trivia[]

  • Gotham's citizens referred to themselves as Gothamites.[2]

Behind the scenes[]

  • In the DC comics, Gotham City is the home of the hero known as Batman. Gotham City is located in the Northeastern United States, in close proximity to Metropolis, with the majority of DC comics references placing Gotham City specifically in New Jersey.
  • In real life, "Gotham" is a nickname that writer Washington Irving attached to New York in November 11, 1807 referencing a village in England inhabited, according to folklore, by people who feigned madness and were branded as true fools.[13]
    • Batman creator Bill Finger took inspiration from that nickname[13] and New York City itself provided the basic visuals for the fictional city.
  • The filming of Gotham City in Elseworlds​ took place in Chicago.[14]
    • This was also the location for Gotham where Batman Begins and The Dark Knight was filmed.
  • In "Mine Is a Long And a Sad Tale", it was revealed that Gotham borders Blüdhaven. Since Blüdhaven was close enough with Star City to have a direct train line with it,[15] it is implied that Gotham was that close to Star City as well, thus making it approximately 600 miles from Central City, which was the known distance between said city and Star City.[16]
    • This distance is further suggested when Barry Allen implied Gotham to be quite far from Central City; while deducing Ramsey Rosso's identity, Barry stated they spread their investigation from Central City to Gotham, referencing it as a great length.[17]
  • As it was stated that Dollywood, Tennessee, was in the South with respect to Gotham and reachable in a few days, it's strongly implied that the city was located on the East Coast.[7]
    • To further prove this, maps of Gotham City seems to indicate it was located somewhere in the New Jersey side of the Delaware Bay.[6][8]
    • As the exterior shots of Gotham are also typically shot over Chicago, it may be located somewhere near the East Coast (again), though a bit further up than NJ: possibly near Illinois (where pictured), or even up to Michigan near Detroit.

References[]


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