Buzz
Thanks to the popular Fox TV show 'Gotham' and Batman’s upcoming ninth cinematic adventure, more and more fans are discovering the dark depths of his infamous city. But with a history spanning over seventy years, even the most devoted Bat-fans may be unaware of some of Gotham’s most intriguing secrets.
10. The Founding Fathers Invoked A Bat Demon In Gotham
Veteran Bat-fans know that Gotham City has faced more chaos than your average comic book town. Earthquakes, plagues, and a never-ending cycle of craziness at the asylum—so why is Gotham so messed up, both for its residents and the readers of Batman’s adventures?
The culprit, of course, is demons—specifically, one bat-demon. Summoned by none other than Thomas Jefferson, an ancestor of Bruce Wayne, Barbatos, the bat-demon, was trapped beneath Gotham long before the Revolutionary War ended. Batman’s mythos suggests that this dark foundation shaped the city’s future, influencing both the metropolis and its people, and may have played a role in the strange occurrences that plague Gotham.
Grant Morrison’s explanation makes things even stranger—the bat-demon is actually a time-jumping weapon designed to hunt and torture a time-traveling Bruce Wayne. Essentially, Batman inadvertently contributed to the creation of the very demonic lore surrounding his own city.
9. At one point, the government officially declared Gotham a ‘No Man’s Land’
Many Batman fans recognize the plot from The Dark Knight Rises, where Bane isolates Gotham City from the government by threatening its destruction if they interfere. To follow through on his threat, Bane destroys nearly every bridge into the city. What kind of villain, viewers may ask, could commit such a brutal act?
In the original Batman comics, it was actually the government that severed ties with Gotham. After a massive earthquake claimed over a million lives and left the city in ruins, the government made a chilling decision: to cut off the city completely. With most of Gotham in shambles and nearly empty, the government demolished the bridges and declared it a no man’s land with one specific rule—those with criminal records had to remain in the devastated city.
This created a grim dilemma as some citizens, either too poor or too determined to leave, found themselves trapped with criminals. Despite the danger, Commissioner Gordon and his team, along with Batman, decided to stay behind to protect the remaining residents. As a consequence, everyone who stayed in the city had their citizenship revoked by the government.
8. There’s an implication that Gotham City was designed to create a Batman
The R.I.P. arc brought one of the most bizarre revelations in Batman lore: the existence of a backup identity for the Dark Knight, a wild, colorful, and aggressively violent Batman known as The Batman of Zur-en-Arrh. This strange contingency plan was crafted to take over if the original Batman was ever compromised.
In typical Batman fashion, even the most outlandish aspects of this new Batman—like speaking to hallucinations—uncover deep truths. For instance, a conversation with stone gargoyles reveals their ability to see Gotham through 'slow vision,' allowing them to perceive how the city itself evolves and how it influences its citizens, much like the way its people impact the city in return.
When Batman taps into the 'slow vision' of Gotham, he remarks, 'A checkerboard. A blueprint, a machine designed to make Batman.' This cryptic insight suggests that Gotham might have orchestrated the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne in a calculated plan to eventually create its 'future savior: Batman.'
7. Rebuilt by Lex Luthor
Gotham seemed doomed to never recover from its 'No Man’s Land' crisis: a catastrophic earthquake, widespread destruction, mass evacuations, and the complete abandonment by the federal government. It appeared that nothing could save the city—until an unexpected hero emerged: Lex Luthor. Using his vast wealth, Luthor took it upon himself to rebuild Gotham from the ground up.
Interestingly, the federal government was powerless to intervene. Having essentially abandoned Gotham, the city had fallen outside of their jurisdiction. The U.S. government couldn't stop Luthor from offering his aid without the risk of a public relations debacle. The optics of sending in military tanks to prevent a wealthy philanthropist from saving lives would have been disastrous for the president. In the end, Lex Luthor rebuilt Gotham, and under public pressure, the president officially reintegrated the city into the United States.
Lex Luthor’s involvement in Gotham's reconstruction was part of a high-stakes plan to seize near-total control of the city through intricate and nearly undetectable fraud. Batman ultimately thwarted his schemes, but only after Luthor had already restored the city to its former majesty.
6. Gotham Is Also Green Lantern’s City
Gotham is often linked exclusively with Batman, especially among casual fans. However, Gotham has another hero with a long-standing connection to it: Green Lantern. But this Green Lantern is not the familiar intergalactic officer wielding a willpower-powered ring. Instead, it’s Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern, who once made Gotham his home long before the Batman we know today.
The Green Lantern's ring, unlike the one used by later Lanterns, was actually a magical artifact fueled by the mystical Starheart. Despite this key difference, his abilities are familiar to any modern Green Lantern fan. He can fly, project energy blasts, and conjure objects using both willpower and imagination. In some respects, his magical powers give him an edge over future Lanterns like Hal Jordan, as his abilities allow him to nullify magic spells, phase through walls, and even teleport.
Alan Scott originally lived in Gotham City, where he worked for Gotham City Broadcasting. As Green Lantern, he fought crime in the city, and one of his battles—against the villain Icicle—was witnessed by a young Bruce Wayne, helping to inspire him to become the Batman.
5. Gotham’s Government Helps Batman’s Cause
When reading a Batman story, it's easy to suspend disbelief—after all, once you've accepted that a billionaire is fighting mentally ill criminals and the story is supposed to be both noble and serious, it feels like you can believe just about anything. But here's a curious question: Why is Gotham filled with empty rooftops for Batman to sneak around on? Where are all the bright neon signs and glaring advertisements that you’d expect on rooftops in any other major city?
Luckily, the comics provide an answer to this mystery. In Dan Slott’s Arkham Asylum: Living Hell comic, it’s revealed that an Arkham inmate named Humpty Dumpty once tried to repair the Gotham clock tower, which led to a chain reaction that destroyed most of the giant, flashy advertisements that were cluttering Gotham’s rooftops. In response, Gotham passed the 'Sprang Act,' which banned such oversized advertisement props. This serves as a whimsical explanation for the disappearance of the props used by villains in the Golden and Silver Ages, while also paying tribute to Batman's longtime penciller Dick Sprang.
4. Could Gotham Be In New Jersey?
Gotham has had many different identities over the years. Initially, it was portrayed as New York City—at least in the earliest Batman stories before 'Gotham' was ever even mentioned. The echoes of an older New York are still evident in Tim Burton’s Batman films and the Fox TV series Gotham. Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies, however, are famously filmed mostly in Chicago. But perhaps the most convincing case for Gotham's location in the comics points to New Jersey as the true home of the iconic city.
One of the clearest pieces of 'evidence' pointing to Gotham City's location in New Jersey comes from a 1990 DC Comics role-playing book. This book included a map of the DC universe's America, and it explicitly marked Gotham City as being in New Jersey. While it's easy to dismiss this as a non-canonical source, other references, such as Detective Comics No. 503, mention the proximity of Gotham to the Jersey Shore—just 20 miles away. In addition, Robin and Batgirl are shown traveling from the Bat Cave to New Jersey's Hudson County Highway. Moreover, the 1994 Shadow of the Bat Annual displays a license plate reading 'Gotham City, NJ.'
3. Gotham City Is Inherently Evil
Batman often speaks of Gotham City's persistent evil nature. The city has never been a place of goodness that deteriorated; rather, it has always been rotten, but Batman's efforts have driven out mob influence and corruption from the police force. Despite these improvements, the city’s evil remains. Could there be a deeper source for this malice? Some suggest that besides the aforementioned bat-demon, an ancient evil may be at work: a trapped warlock.
The Shadowpact comic introduces a warlock who has been imprisoned in a tomb in Gotham City for thousands of years due to his evil actions. Upon being awakened, he declares that the city's growth has been secretly influenced by his malevolent presence, and he adopts the name 'Dr. Gotham.' The villains Pentacle and Strega awaken Dr. Gotham, hoping to use his power to conquer the world. Although the superhero group Shadowpact stops his plans, it seems that Dr. Gotham's dark influence continues to linger over Gotham City.
2. Batman Holds Dominion Over the City's Power
An intriguing concept that some readers might struggle with is the idea of Batman as an urban legend. In a world dominated by surveillance, one would expect constant live-streams of the Dark Knight's nightly crusades. So how does this urban legend remain so elusive?
It turns out that Batman possesses an incredibly precise control over the city's electrical grid. Specifically, he has installed special devices, hidden across Gotham, which allow him to siphon power and make alterations to keep his identity secure. These devices, dubbed 'bat-boxes' by Batman, offer a clear reason why the authorities haven’t tracked him to Wayne Manor yet. The bat-boxes help him disable surveillance cameras, jam tracking systems, and otherwise remain off the grid in places he currently occupies or intends to visit. This ensures the myth of Batman endures. Some people are convinced he exists, while others believe he is a mere ghost story used by the police to frighten criminals.
1. Arkham Asylum Was Once a Brighter Place
For even the most casual Batman enthusiasts, Arkham Asylum is often conjured as a dark, foreboding institution of madness where rehabilitation seems impossible. But surprisingly, this wasn't always the case. When Arkham was first introduced in 1974 by Dennis O'Neil, it had a somewhat lighter atmosphere, fitting the playful tone of the Silver Age, where villains like the Joker could be treated for mental illness instead of being locked away. However, as Batman's narratives grew more somber, Arkham's tone shifted to match, becoming the grim place we recognize today.
The reputation of Arkham Asylum was solidified, in part, by the same work that established Grant Morrison as a prominent figure in comic book writing: Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth. While the narrative presented a chilling, surreal nightmare for Batman, it also provided a deeply unsettling history of the asylum itself. Founded by Amadeus Arkham, it was intended to be a sanctuary for those suffering from mental illness, much like his mother had experienced.
Yet, one of Arkham's first patients, Martin 'Mad Dog' Hawkins, managed to escape. He brutally attacked Arkham's wife, leading to the death of both her and their child. Hawkins had been one of the initial residents when the asylum opened, and despite his violent nature, Amadeus had insisted on treating him. In a tragic turn, Amadeus killed him with electric chair voltage. This incident drove Amadeus to madness, eventually leading him to be institutionalized within the very walls he had created, cementing the myth that he haunts the asylum's halls to ensure no one ever truly recovers.
