"Gotham City is....where?" Topic

I've really been getting into the world of 'Batman' recently, what with my discovery of Hot Wheels' excellent collection of diecast Batmobiles (which, incidentally, are perfectly scaled for 28mm gaming, save for the Batcycle, which is of a larger scale).

I've been looking at maps of Gotham City, of which there are the following more prominent interpretations:

Gotham City Secret Files and Origins #1:
picture

The Christopher Nolan map:
picture

So, where exactly would my fellow TMPers/Batman enthusiats place Gotham City? Traditionally, there's been a subtle indication that it was a substitute for New York City, but recent suggestions are that it's location may possibly be in New Jersey, or even Chicago. In focusing on the East Coast, and correlating the maps with the Batman maps, I can see where it could be located on the peninsula where Bayonne is, or maybe down south in the Cape May area. IMHO, I'd personally place it on Staten Island, since they all have the same rough general shape. And since we're talking about an "alternative universe" of sorts, Gotham City would take the place of New York City.

So, what say y'all about this mental exercise?

Unfortunately, the DC Universe has three New Yorks – Metropolis, Gotham and New York (where the Teen Titans are based). They got around it in JLA/Avengers by having one of the Marvel heroes remark that the world seemed a bit bigger, so there were cities in places that didn't exist in the Marvel Universe (and by corollary, in the real world).

I always thought of Metropolis as NYC and Gotham more of a Chicago. I have no basis for that but it was the impression I had. I can only guess that it is because of my childhood association of gangsters with Chicago and the use of fedora wearing gangsters in Batman.

Ed G.

I live in Cape May and there are some strange characters around here, especially in the summer, but none of them are superheroes.

Tom

I'd always pictured Metropolis as replacing New York, with Gotham being somewhere else on the east coast (maybe Baltimore or Boston); though I suppose you could slot Gotham into New York, with Bludhaven then moving to Jersey.

It's actually in Notts:

link

Check out the paragraph about the connection to the DC version.

I vaguely remember seeing a map somewhere that had all three located on the East Coast.

I always thought that Gotham was NY City, and Metropolis was Chicago… But hey, I was a Marvel guy as a kid, so who knows?

It's just to the north of the Simpson's Springfield.

Now I have always thought of Metropolis as New York City and of Gotham as Chicago – so who knew?

I have seen a map published by DC that shows Gotham City in New Jersey about 40 miles south of Metropolis

In the real world, Gotham is one of the nicknames for New York City. Wikipedia search on keyword "Gotham", third entry. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotham

Thus in the DC Universe, "Gotham City" has always been a euphemism for New York.

"Metropolis" is also based on New York.

It's probably best explained in this blurb from Wikipedia's entry on the DC Universe:

… Gotham City or Metropolis. These cities are effectively archetypes of cities, with Gotham City embodying the negative aspects of life in a large city, and Metropolis reflecting more of the positive aspects.

Whole DC Universe article: link

I always thought Metroplois was New York and Gotham was the outer suburbs like Bronx/Queens/etc… into New Jersey

I think I saw a map depicting it in Delaware.

Metropolis = +/- Chicago
Gotham = +/- NYC

Anyone that says differently is wrong
IMO
YMMV
FWIW

TEOTWAWKI

I saw somewhere way back when that at least stylistically Metropolis was the equivalent of Manhattan, while Gotham City correlated with the outer burroughs.

They are both made up cities so there is no real answer.

If you believe the television Smallville, which they clearly say is in Kansas, Metropolis is only an hour away, so that would make Metropolis Kansas City, which is moronic.

I always equated Metropolis as a metaphor for NY and Gotham as a metaphor for Chicago, but the reality is whatever you make of it.

Gotham is in New Jersey and Metropolis is in Delaware. Now this is circa late 80s early 90s so the cannon may have changed from that. New York and Chicago are within the cannon of DC so they are distinctly different cities.

Yet again that is 80s-90s DC so things may have changed.
Brian

Well…:
link

Now my take, I've never really thought about it: I've always believed the city to be close to Metropolis; it least relative to 'driving distant' (I mean: yes the Batmobile can do top speeds of…hmmm, between 200-300mph).

All these thing said, I think I've mostly thought of it as in New Jersey, accept when I was a kid; then I thought it was New York…But then it AND Metropolis couldn't N.Y.C. at the same time in the same place, not even in a comic-book universe…Ok, in that instint (and movies, animation, TV,…) it 'could'; but it'd be a lot less fair to the readers/viewers.:)

I've thought Gotham is meant to be a not-NYC too, for the reasons given by donrice above. Tho when we did a radio play parody version of Miller's Dark Knight years ago, I sorta swapped it for Boston so it could be nearer to Arkham, Massachusetts -- now I know the Arkham Asylum is not (in the current incarnation of the illustrious insitution) located in nor yet named named after the Lovecraftean city but… "Hi, my name is Jouni and I'm a Lovecraftholic. And a bit of a Batmaniac to boot".

The Atlas of the DC Universe, a DC universe RPG book, places it in Delaware if I remember right.

Lots of people whine about that, but it's still an official DC product, so take it up with them I guess.

I used to have a site bookmarked that had the whole atlas, but I seem to have lost that.

This is a question that has puzzled me for years. Since I don't like unsolved puzzles, I look at it like this:

Gotham has to be either New York City, or at the very least New York State. As donrice wrote, 'Gotham' is a euphemism for 'New York', as used by film critics in their reviews (which was something I first learnt from the glossary in a 'Variety' film review book).

As for Metropolis I would happily place it somewhere else on the East Coast. I never liked the idea of Superman as a character (far too powerful – due to the motives for his creation as a Jewish antithesis to the rise of Nazism in the 1930s, turning Nietzsche's 'superman' on himself? Don't take that the wrong way, it's just an historical/cultural observation, since Siegel and Shuster were both Jewish). Goody two-shoes Superman and his bright and airy city didn't concern me too much.

Batman on the other hand, is a far more interesting character. A human at the peak of physical and mental fitness, without any superpowers. In his Dark Knight guise he gets down and dirty in a grim, gothic version of New York.

The trouble is that Gotham is more than a nickname. It's the actual name of the city. The only logical thing to do is make it an extension of NYC. The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, Gotham… (Maybe, if you have too, add Metropolis as another borough, but it might make NYC as big as Judge Dredd's Mega-City One!).

Are there any references to known NYC landmarks in depictions of Gotham or Metropolis? Empire State Building? Statue of Liberty? etc.

Matt

i always thought that Gotham was based on New York and Metropolis was based on Washington DC, but with the originals also existant in the DC universe….

I live 9 miles from Gotham and it is in south western Wisconsin. link

I remember reading that some old DC artist used to say that he always thought the city was Metropolis by day, Gotham by night.

As a kid, I always thought of Gotham as Chicago because of the fedora wearing tommy-gun toting gansters, like Templar above says.

According to tha ATLAS OF THE D.C. UNIVERSE published by Mayfair games as a supliment to the D.C. HEROES game, Gotham City is in New Jersey, and Metropolis is in Deleware. the maps were not accurate enough to be any more specific than that.