The Nerdwriter has chronicled the 75-year history of the home of Batman, from its humble beginnings as New York City (really!) to the crime-ridden, neo-gothic nightmare town we know today in the movies, comics and video games.
City (/ˈɡɒθəm/ goth-əm) or Gotham is a fictional American city appearing in American comic books published byDC Comics, best known as Batman’s place of residence. It was first identified as Gotham City in Batman#4 (Winter 1940). New York Times journalist William Safire described Gotham City as “New York below 14th Street, fromSoHo to Greenwich Village, the Bowery, Little Italy, Chinatown, and the sinister areas around the base of the Manhattanand Brooklyn Bridges.”[1] Batman artist Neal Adams sees the 1940s mobster history of Chicago as the basis for Gotham,[2]while writer/artist Frank Miller has stated that Metropolis is New York in the daytime and Gotham City is New York at night.[3]
