Where is Batman's Gotham City in the pages of DC Comics?

One of Stan Lee's many innovations as Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics created the publisher's superhero stories in real-life New York. The greater sense of reality and interconnectivity in comics helped create a sense of community among fans (which Lee purposefully cultivated). You can track creator trends and fans trying to bring superheroes into the “real world” back to Lee's wonderful NYC. Contrast this with older DC Comics characters who had their adventures in places like Gotham City, Star City, etc. These characters had made homes because they were so much apparently figures that could never exist in our world; writing a superhero comic is like telling a fairy tale.

Note how Superman's home in Metropolis is literally named for a word that means “big city.” But then again, many comic fans really like knowing where DC's fabled cities are, if only for internal consistency. This is especially true of the most famous: Batman's Gotham City.

So, the canonical answer: Gotham City is in the state of New Jersey. (Perhaps there is a reason for this “Penguin” takes so much from “The Sopranos.”) in The Amazing World of DC Comics #14 (published in 1977), writer Mark Gruenwald writes an encyclopedic history of the Justice League. In the character bio section, Gruenwald makes it clear that Gotham City is in New Jersey. (Gruenwald also listed Metropolis as Delaware in this edition, which is likewise accepted as canon.) New Jersey is of sufficient importance as the site of Gotham; it's not New York itself, but close enough. Since then, Gotham has usually been implicitly written as New Jersey, but not always.

In the animated film Young Justice, a map of the US East Coast shows Gotham in southern Connecticut, around where Bridgeport, CT is in real life.

Warner Bros. Animation

Like New Jersey, Connecticut is an East Coast state that borders New York, so it fits the profile of Gotham should is. As a Connecticut native born and raised, Batman et al. I obviously enjoyed being a member of the Nutmeggers. But that's the point, right? Gotham City has to be anywhere and nowhere, as Springfield in The Simpsons so that everyone can see their hometown in it.

DC has resisted the notion that Gotham City is a stand-in for New York; to real New York has even appeared in several DC comics, so it and Gotham co-exist in the DC Universe. But if there's any real city that Gotham allegorizes, it's New York.

“Gotham” is a nickname for the city of New York coined by writer Washington Irving in the 1800s. When Batman debuted in 1939, DC Comics (then National Comics) was also based in New York, and thus home to Batman's acclaimed creators, Bill Finger and Bob Kane. In fact, “Detective Comics” no. 33 (first representation of Batman's oft-retold origin story) clearly named his hometown Manhattan. It was only a year after publication, 1940's “Batman” #4, that Batman was relocated to the fictional Gotham City.

In writer Jim Steranko's History of Steranko Comics, Bill Finger said:

“I was originally going to call Gotham City 'Civic City.' Then I tried 'Capital City,' then 'Coast City.' Then I flipped through the phone book and saw the name Gotham Jewelers and said, 'That's Gotham City.' we didn't call it New York because we wanted someone to identify with it, of course Gotham is another name for New York.

Later Batman writers based Gotham in New York as well. In his novel Batman: Knightfall, Dennis O'Neill describes the aura of Batman City, which reflects our collective fear that cities are filled with evil that lurks in the shadows. He concludes that “Batman's Gotham City is in Manhattan below Fourteenth Street at eleven minutes past midnight on the coldest November night.”

A quote often attributed to Frank Miller (writer of The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One) suggests that “Metropolis is New York by day; Gotham City is New York by night.” Miller has talked about how he was mugged while living in New York, which colored both his Batman comics and his earlier show Daredevil (which, being a Marvel series, was literally set in New York). “(Being robbed) at least for a while I'm as mad as (Batman)” Miller told CBR in 2016.

Gotham City may be modeled after an East Coast metropolis, but the 1960s Batman series took it West; the show was filmed throughout Southern California in the Los Angeles area.

Then director Tim Burton took Batman across the pond. The 1989 “Batman” movie was filmed on sets built at Pinewood Studios in England. The exterior of Wayne Manor was actually Knebworth House, a stately home in the Hertfordshire countryside. However, Burton's sequel “Batman Returns” was filmed at the studio Warner Bros. Director Joel Schumacher filmed part of “Batman Forever” in New York (the exterior of the new Wayne Manor was actually the Webb Institute of Naval Architecture on Long Island, which was later reused for the 2014 TV series “Gotham”), but much of “Forever” and its sequel, Batman and Robin, was still shot on California soundstages.

However, Zack Snyder's Batman V Superman was shot in Detroit, the Michigan city representing both Gotham and Metropolis. In Snyder's film, Gotham and Metropolis were shown as twin cities separated by a bay, implying that they are located in New Jersey and Delaware respectively, just like the comics.

Christopher Nolan's goal with his Batman films was to ground the character in the real world. This meant avoiding the fantastical gothic sets used by Burton and Schumacher. Instead, Nolan filmed his “Dark Knight” trilogy in real cities, reinforcing the truth and the idea that this Batman could actually exist in the real world as we watch him navigate it in every scene.

Although “Batman Begins” was mostly filmed throughout England, Nolan shot urban exteriors not only in London, but also in New York and Chicago. After that, Chicago became the main filming location for “The Dark Knight”. Nolan had spent part of his childhood in Chicago, and believed it was the right look for his Gotham City: “I think the architecture of the city is really brilliant, fantastic. It gave us an incredible variety that is used as a backdrop for the film.”

The Dark Knight Rises moved out of Chicago, instead filming in Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, New York, and Newark, New Jersey (with some exteriors in London and Glasgow, Scotland). Richard Moskal, then director of the Chicago Film Office, told the Chicago Tribune in 2011 that he believed the filmmakers wanted to stay “fresh” by not reusing Chicago in the third film. However, with The Dark Knight being the most famous of Nolan's Batman films, Chicago is still synonymous with Gotham for many. One person who confirmed the connection was the late “Batman” comics artist Neal Adams, who said:

“Chicago has had a bit of a reputation for crime. Batman is in this kind of corrupt city and he's trying to turn it into a better place. One of the things about Chicago is that Chicago has alleys (which New York practically doesn't have). ).

Matt Reeves' Batman takes Nolan's cues by grounding the Dark Knight in reality and taking it a step further with a truly unbalanced Batman (Robert Pattinson). Similar to “Batman Begins,” “Batman” took off and shot down his Gotham City in the United Kingdom. More specifically, “Batman” was filmed primarily in Liverpool, but with additions from London, Glasgow and Chicago as well. According to “Batman” director James Chinlund, the filmmakers chose Liverpool because its naturally Gothic architecture evoked the history they wanted to suggest for Gotham City: an old and “crumbling” metropolis, but one that has seen periods of renewal.

The tower that Batman dives from in his wingsuit to escape the Gotham police? It's actually Liverpool Royal Liver Building. Chinlund told the BBC:

“I started looking at the area and it started to slowly reveal itself, how rich this world is and what an amazing city Liverpool is, in terms of (how) it follows the story. It had this incredible boom and then it's suffered a number of times. over the years, and the patina that existed on the buildings, and obviously the hard weather…it all just fit like a glove.”

The spin-off TV series “Penguin” was filmed in New York, but driver's licenses were briefly mentioned in the program still marks Reeves' Gotham as being in New Jersey. Kristin Miliotti (Sofia Falcone) is a native Jersey girl, and with the accent Colin Farrell puts on as Oz, Gotham couldn't be anywhere else but the Garden State.