Where In The US is Gotham City?
November 4th, 2008 by Esther Inglis-Arkell |I always pictured it as being DC’s equivalent of New York City. (And while we’re at it, how great a name for it is ‘Gotham.’ That really does evoke a certain mood and tone without being explicit about it. It has to be one of the best made-up city names that I’ve ever heard.) However, DC already has New York, so that possibility is out. I suppose it could be a Boston Equivalent, but Gotham does not have a New England quality to it. What I’ve heard, although I don’t remember where, is that Gotham is supposed to be in New Jersey, making Batman and his crew all Jersey Boys. That would explain Matches Malone. Anyone?
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Gotham City is a toxic nightmare filled to the brim with the freakish and insane.
Yeah, definitely Jersey.
Apparently it’s Chicago if you watch Tdk.
I also read “Gotham City is NY after 12pm in November; Metropolis is New York at 10am in early August.” (Paraphrase)
“Batman’s Gotham City is Manhattan below Fourteenth Street at eleven minutes past midnight on the coldest night in November.”
-Dennis O’Neill (from wiki)
I think it forms a sort of megalopolis with Metropolis and New York, if I remember correctly. Morrison even called NYC the “Cinderella City” in Seven Soldiers, with Metropolis and Gotham as its “ugly stepsisters.”
I always thought of Metropolis as the idealized Chicago (it is, after all, supposed to be in the Midwest) and Gotham as Chicago at its worst (what with all the organized crime and hideous murders that take place there every year). But that’s just my opinion, having lived in Chicago for a while…
Let’s see. Most Dangerous City north of Baltimore (Bludhaven)? It’s got to be Newark.
I’m pretty sure there’s just a big grouping of metropolises running from Connecticut to DC in the DCU with Metropolis being in CT and Gotham being south of NYC (and Bludhaven somewhere south of that).
Not to mention that the DCU’s Earth is apparently larger than the Marvel U’s, which has to be at least a bit bigger than ours to fit Latveria, Genosha, and Wakanda (plus whatever others I’m forgetting).
Probably New Jersey. That state can actually use a Batman.
In one of the Bloodlines annuals (I know, I know) a thug’s driver’s license lists Gotham as being in New Jersey.
So Tommy Monaghan is not the ONLY good thing to come out of that mess.
Pedro got it spot on. Metropolis is basically an idealized NYC and Gotham is NYC.
It’s in my pants.
mq1986- Metropolis is only in the Midwest in the Smallville universe
I thought the Wiki entry for Gotham had it set in NJ. It has the image of the driver’s license that Max Power was referring to. Then again I think it shifts from New York, to Jersey to Chicago, depending upon where the story line needs it to be.
Gotham was a methaphor for new york at night and metropolis a methaphor for new york during the day.
I think both are Chicago too, but have never been to America – I have been listening to Sufjan Stevens a lot and obvs the election, so it’s a recently drawn conclusion. Chicago is like the second-biggest city in the US apparently? Ever overshadowed.
The DC atlas has Metropolis as a replacement for Philadelphia, though, off memory? I don’t know anything about Philly; Chicago/Gotham makes a rudimentary bit more sense too because I think Chicago was quite famed at one point for crime, corruption and deprivation?
@Kevin Huxford: That’s really not accurate. New York is safer than cities of comparable size. Either way, there really is no answer. Gotham’s a pretty shapeless city and while certain writers try to place it, there’s no 100% consistency. Gotham is a nickname for New York though, so there probably was some connection made when the city was first named.
Gotham was initial based on Manhattan specifically but is more Chicago now although it’s nearly always placed in New Jersey, state-wise.
Metropolis was actually first based on the Toronto skyline but mixes Toronto, Cleavland, NYC and Vancouver and gets placed in either Delaware or NY State. I prefer Delaware because Metropolis makes the First State actually mean something.
@A.o.D.: Yes.