The Centre Cannot Hold » Gotham City

Goin’ to Gotham

Loki — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:00:23 +0000

Is it just me, or has Gotham City suddenly become the tourist Mecca of the New DC Universe? This confuses me somewhat. For a city that’s routinely described as a wretched hive of scum and villainy, of crumbling ethics and infrastructure, with no visible tourist attractions beyond the Bat-Signal, it’s ludicrously popular as a place to visit.

I mean, this is a city whose native wildlife is probably the only such fauna to be more dangerous than that of the Australian Outback. It’s a place where bright colours are a sign of imminent danger, and dark colours a sign that danger will soon be imminent. It’s a city where they call the wind “the Razor”. Who in their right mind would ever want to go there?

Currently, DC is publishing a total of 52 ongoing series, all of them relaunched last year in a blaze of publicity. Of that number, 10 titles are actually based there (Batman, Detective Comics, Batman: The Dark Knight, Batman and Robin, Batgirl, Batwoman, Nightwing, Catwoman, Birds of Prey and All-Star Western), with 5 more (Justice League, Justice League International, Teen Titans, Suicide Squad and Red Hood and the Outlaws) featuring characters strongly associated with the city. That’s more than a quarter of the 52 to begin with.

But in the six months since the relaunch, two more titles have already begun Gotham arcs (I, Vampire and Resurrection Man), and at least two more (Grifter and Batwing) are inbound, based on either events in their own titles or press releases from DC. And that’s not counting the title that made more oblique connections to Gotham in its first issue (Supergirl), or various other Batman cameos that have occurred.

Now, I can understand the desire to play with the company’s best known, most popular and (let’s face it) best character. Not to mention that as a guest-star, he’ll produce more of a sales bump than, say, Aquaman would. And just think how much more over-exposed Gotham City will be when the other heroes that were historically based there – Ragman, Creeper, Etrigan the Demon, etc. – make their over-hyped returns to the new modern DC Universe!

But really, shouldn’t Bruce Wayne be allowed at least a little sleep, now and again?

Dark Knights, Dark City I: The Early Years of Gotham City

Loki — Tue, 26 May 2009 07:25:39 +0000

Something a little different: this is part one of a three part essay on the history of the Wayne family and Gotham City. It should by no means be considered canonical. Rather, it is an attempt to work together the various Batmen that have appeared in a number of Elseworlds books from DC, along with selected stories from DC Universe comics.

This is nerdcore, folks – if you’re not a comics geek, there’s probably not much here for you.

Long before human eyes ever saw it, the land upon which Gotham City now stands was covered by ice. For thousands of years, until the end of the last ice age approximately 10,000 years ago, glaciers covered the whole of the northern coast of what is now New Jersey.1 As the ice melted, it eroded the rock beneath it, forming many rivers, gorges and caves. One of these, centuries later, would become the Batcave.

The earliest known occupants of the Batcave were a pair of demons – Barbathos, a warrior demon who had served in the army of Morgan le Fay that finally defeated and destroyed Camelot, and a gigantic demonical bat that was his steed. After the fall of Camelot, le Fay dispersed her army, fearing that it would turn upon her, and this pair fled across the Atlantic, eventually reaching land at approximately the site of today’s Wayne Manor.

Here, on the bluffs above the cave, the pair quarrelled. Barbathos managed to escape his steed, trapping it in the cavern, but around its neck hung a treasure he was forced to abandon – the Stone of Aelk Hound. This stone was sought by one who had fought on the side of Camelot, Jason Blood. Blood was the host of the demon, Etrigan, Merlin’s half-brother, and believed that the stone had played a role in Camelot’s downfall. He tracked it for centuries, but to no avail, as Barbathos, the only one who knew the stone’s whereabouts, was quickly returned to Hell by native shamans.2

Hundreds of years later, Europeans settled the Eastern coast of North America. Gotham Towne was founded by a Norwegian mercenary, but later taken over by the British in the early decades of the 18th century.3 Gotham remained a sleepy town for the most part, over-shadowed by New York to the north. To the south of Gotham, a village named Blüdhaven was founded by whalers, where it would slowly grow into a small satellite city of Gotham. 4

The town slowly grew and prospered in a quiet way. The demon slept beneath it and for a time, things were good. All that would change, in 1765. In that year, a circle of mystics composed of Thomas Jefferson, Jacob Stockman, Thomas Wayne, Crosby Jacob Manfurd, Henry Queen and Bartly Langstrom invoked Barbathos, after spending six months preparing a sacrifice for him. Although the giant bat was unable to intervene and prevent the ritual’s commencement, it sent one of its progeny, a bat smaller than itself but still larger than normal bats. Terrified by the beast, Stockman and his group left the ceremony incomplete. Barbathos, half summoned but incapable of taking physical form, seeped into the wood and mortar of Gotham City. The the planned human sacrifice, a young girl named Dominique, was abandoned to die. Stockman and his compatriots fared little better – one took his own life, and another was slain at Saratoga during the American Revolution – or so many believed. Stockman himself was overcome with remorse, and eventually left the city for good in 1793, leaving behind his diaries of the events.5

In truth, four of the six were contacted by Ludwig Prinn, a misshapen dwarf who was a worshipper of the Elder Things, and the author of De Vermis Mysteriis.6 Sensing their greed, Prinn convinced Manfurd, Wayne, Queen and Langstrom to join him in a conjuration from the stolen Testament of Ghul. The four were convinced, and willingly sold their souls for immortality and power. They each had children, faked their own deaths, and assumed other identities. Wayne left behind a son by the name of Darius, who was the heir of his name and properties. In the decades that followed, Thomas Wayne would father several more children under different names, many of which would also be influential in Gotham’s history, and few of whom would escape his curse. Among others, these offspring included the ancestors of the Dent and Cobblepot. families.

Still seeking the Stone, Jason Blood returned to Gotham in 1799, and on New Year’s Eve his agent Stoker succeeded in finding the Stone, although completely by accident. Due to the intervention of the Swamp Thing, Stoker and his nemesis, the hero known as Tomahawk, crashed into the caves below the newly built mansion of Darius Wayne, where they encountered the giant bat. Grasping the Stone of Aelk Hound, Stoker found his hand became fused to it, and he died there, in the cave. The stone and Stoker’s arm would collectively become known as the Claw of Aelk Hound. It was carried away from Gotham at this time, never to return.7

Darius Wayne was ultimately ruined in business after the escape of the giant bat. Whether this was due to the vindictiveness of Barbathos or simply the result of bad luck is unclear. The Waynes left Gotham, and the mansion fell into ruin, remaining unoccupied for decades – local legend stated, not without some basis in fact, that it was haunted.

To be continued…

Footnotes:

The site of Gotham City is a matter of some dispute. I am following the location as laid down in both The Atlas of DC Universe and Catwoman #66 (1998), among other sources.
Swamp Thing #87
Swamp Thing, vol. 5: Earth to Earth
Nightwing, vol. 1: A Knight in Bludhaven
Batman #452-454
“Shambler from the Stars” by Robert Bloch, in Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos
Swamp Thing 86

Dark Knights, Dark City II: The First of the Batmen

Loki — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 07:25:11 +0000

Welcome back for part two. This time with actual Batmen, although maybe not any you’ve heard of
Let’s get to it, shall we?

Wayne Manor stood empty for many years, until in 1858 it was purchased by Darius’ grandsons, Solomon and Joshua, who planned to use the caves beneath the mansion as part of the underground railroad that helped escaped slaves find freedom in Canada1. And from the day they bought it until the end of the Civil War, Solomon and Joshua did just exactly that.

In the year 1860, Joshua was attacked and left for dead by bounty hunters chasing the escaped slaves. Although his death was used to great effect by his brother, and Joshua became a martyr to the cause, he did not truly die. Instead, at the orders of President Lincoln, he faked his death and went underground as a special agent, fighting for justice in the old west.

Joshua Wayne donned the costume of the Bat-Man, and became ranked among Lincoln’s most trusted agents. Joshua recruited a half-Indian boy, known only as “Redbird”, as his assistant, and regularly fought alongside Wild Bill Hickock2. However, the President did not take Wayne’s concerns for his security seriously enough, with tragic results. After the murder of Lincoln, he became despondent, and was eventually caught in a blizzard when he tried to return to Gotham the following winter. Trying to find the entrance to the cave, he became lost and died of exposure a drain pipe beneath the mansion3.

Meanwhile, back in Gotham, Solomon Wayne was unaware of his brother’s activities. He fought in the Civil War alongside his old friend Jacob Packer, and in the meantime become one of the most influential voices in Gotham. For example, it was largely at his insistence that the architect Cyrus Pinkney became the man who designed a vast number of Gotham’s public buildings, giving the city its distinctive, and somewhat scary, look4.

Jacob and his wife would be murdered by a unknown criminal, the first of the Waynes to be struck down. Alan Wayne, their son, witnessed the horrible event, and was plagued by recurring nightmares regarding it. In the decades that followed, the way so many members of the Wayne family died in violent manners that it would be rumoured that the family was cursed. It’s possibe that they were, in fact. Ludwig Prinn’s desire for vengeance was most concentrated on the Wayne name, since it was Thomas Wayne who had convinced the others to betray him, although it extended to the others as well.

When Alan was old enough, he left Gotham to travel and study. Aware of his uncle’s legacy as the Bat-Man, he sought to assume the role himself. In 1888, he was in London, studying under Sherlock Holmes at the time the Ripper murders occurred. The following year, he studied with Holmes’ friend Sigmund Freud in Vienna, before returning to Gotham to debut as the second Bat-Man. When the Ripper resurfaced in Gotham, Wayne himself was a suspect based on his presence in London years before. In the end, he managed to clear his name and bring the true Ripper – none other than Jacob Packer – to justice5. Although shaken by the discovery that a man he considered almost an uncle was actually Jack the Ripper – and the murderer of his parents – Alan Wayne continued to fight as Batman on those occasions his town needed him, wearing the cowl for 15 long years6. His best known exploit occurred in 1903, when he teamed up with the visiting Harry Houdini to battle the first Joker7. His marriage produced a single son, Brutus, who, like his father before him, witnessed the death of his own parents.

Brutus Wayne became a noted arctic explorer, spending many years outside of Gotham. In the meantime, his childhood friends, men like Harold Dent and Oliver Queen, stayed in Gotham and observed its decay with growing apprehension. After unsuccessfully attempting to rescue his mentor, Professor Cobblepot, from the arctic wastes, Brutus returned to Gotham with his aides, Richard Drake, Timothy Grayson and Jason “Jack” Todd. Unknown to all but Brutus, Jason was actually his illegitimate son. Brutus and his allies fought against the demonic Prinn, now serving Ras al Ghul, an immortal sorcerer and madman. The time to pay the debts of the original men who made the pact with Prinn was come – and all four of the sorcerers were killed by Prinn or his allies. The descendents of these men formed the nucleus of resistance to the demon’s plans, and with the aid of the demon Etrigan, they won. The price of victory was very high. Dent, Queen, Langstrom, Manfurd, Grayson and Hunter all gave their lives to defeat the horrid entities that Ghul served, much of Gotham, including stately Wayne Manor, was destroyed by fire, and Brutus himself was be transformed into a giant humanoid bat8.

Brutus understandably retired from public affairs after these events, recognizing Jason’s paternity and naming him heir to the Wayne fortune. He also helped fund Amadeus Arkham’s construction of the asylum that bore his name.9 Now known as Jack Wayne, Jason was under-estimated by many people, who thought less of him for his origins as a bastard. But he was a more capable and determined man than most people gave him credit for – he almost single-handedly rebuilt Gotham City in addition to being the third man to bear the mantle of the Batman. Brutus, on the other hand, became increasingly animalistic, and eventually escaped his bonds, becoming known as the Man-Bat. At the outbreak of World War Two, Jack joined the OSS, becoming one of their best agents, the Bat. He was instrumental in the conversion of the Nazi Ubermensch to the allied side in 194210. But after this incident, Hitler recruited superhumans of his own, including the power-canceling Parsifal. By Presidential edict, all heroes were required to fight only on the home front11. This bothered Jack not at all, since Gotham had always been his main passion.

Jack Wayne fought alongside such heroes as Superman12, Captain America13 and Tarzan14, alongside who he battled Finnegan Dent, Harold’s son. He also adopted young Dick Grayson, grandson of his old friend Timothy Grayson. He also dealt with his young aide, a man known as Brass, who had become more and more of a criminal in running Wayne’s businesses. In an angry confrontation, he threw Brass out of his newly built Manor, and started to devote more time to his own son, Thomas15. Dick Grayson would become Jack’s sidekick as Robin. Later, when Jack retired from active crime fighting, Dick assumed the role of Batman, and Jack’s son Thomas became Robin. In one of their more celebrated exploits, they rescued Captain America from his frozen state, reviving the living legend16. Dick’s career as Batman was cut tragically short at the hands of the Joker, and Jack’s son Thomas, who had served as Robin for some years, took over the role.

To be concluded…

Footnotes:

Dark Knights, Dark City III: The Last of the Batmen

Loki — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:25:13 +0000

Welcome back to this, the third and final installment of Dark Knights, Dark City. I hope you’ve enjoyed it – I know I have.
Hell, I may even do this, or something like it, again someday…

Parts One and Two are here and here respectively.

Thomas Wayne II became the fifth Batman in the 1960′s, and was virtually unique in being the only man ever to be Batman who was actually recruited by his father. But Thomas’ life was far from easy. He fought alongside Anthony Gordon and Harvey Dent only to see Dent fall prey to his family curse, assuming the role of Two-Face as his father had before him.1 He fought against many of the familiar faces of the Gotham underworld, including the Man-Bat (who was his own grandfather, Brutus Wayne), the third Joker, the second Penguin and others – and other less familiar faces. The fourth Batman teamed with both Spiderman2 and Daredevil,3 and encountered the Hulk,4 the Aliens5 and the Predators6. But he did not do so alone – like his father, he recruited a Robin, a youth named Jason Todd, whose grandfather had been the half-brother of the original Jason Todd7. But Todd was no Dick Grayson, and he was eventually slain by the Joker after his rashness led him into a trap8.

On the other hand, it was also Thomas who achieved some of the greatest triumphs of the Batmen. He found and properly buried the remains of Joshua Wayne9, the original Batman, and most importantly, he set free the demon Barbathos, whose captivity had slowly transformed it into a more benign presence. Indeed, referring to itself as Gotham, the demon elected to remain present as a spirit of the city, but was no longer an integral part of it.10 The various criminal roles that continued to crop up – particularly the first rank of Gotham’s criminals, such as the Penguins, Jokers, Two-faces, Catwomans and the like, would no longer be compelled by the various curses laid on the city, although the conditions would remain ripe for anyone who sought to travel the same paths. At the same time, Gotham had lost the living spirit that had protected it from so much over the years. Perhaps this explains the rapid reversal of Gotham’s fortunes in the months that followed.

Shortly after the demon was freed, Ra’s al Ghul returned to the city, bringing with him plagues.11 Another demon, known only as Scarface, created an earthquake that almost destroyed the city.12 Perhaps Barbathos’ new-found freedom made him less able to protect his city. Perhaps it was simply bad luck. But these disasters, combined with Gotham’s high crime rate, brought the city to its knees. By federal decree, in 1974 Gotham City was cut off from the USA, and became a No Man’s Land.13 This state of affairs continued for a year, until Gotham was welcomed back into the United States after the President was pressured into allowing its re-entry to the union. But there was a price to be paid – 1975′s Keene Act specifically outlawed all costumed and super-powered heroes, excepting only those who worked for the government14.

Most were reasonably happy to retire, excepting only Superman, who continued to work for the government, and the team of the third Green Arrow (Oliver Queen III) and the second Black Canary (Dinah Lance), who took to the underground, preaching revolution. In a conflict between these three, the Canary was slain and Green Arrow’s arm was torn off by Superman. After a short time, the Arrow escaped from prison, and continued his fight, covertly funded by Thomas Wayne.

By 1985, the situation in Gotham had grown almost unbearable. Thomas Wayne returned to the streets as Batman, just as the Joker escaped and went on a final homicidal rampage. In their last meeting, Batman slew the Joker, and the government elected to send in Superman to bring him to heel. Thomas almost succeeded in killing Superman as well, with the aid of the third Robin (Carrie Kelley) and Green Arrow. Instead, he faked his own death, destroyed the mansion and literally went underground with his allies, intending to return one day and clean up the entire planet. Alfred, his butler, was badly injured in the explosion, and Thomas’ son Bruce arranged for the aging retainer to be put in a home.15

Superman left the service of the government thereafter, and formed what he called the Kryptic Order, a group of super-powered individuals who fought crime invisibly and without any public notice. In partial expiation of his guilt, Superman created memorials for Thomas, Oliver and Dinah in the Order’s trophy room.

In 1998, Bruce, now an agent of the FBI, teamed up with tabloid reporter Lois Lane to investigate the Kryptic Order. Discovering the truth about his father, Bruce too donned the mantle of the Batman16. Marrying Lane, he returned to Gotham City and rebuilt his grandfather’s mansion. He fought off the return of Brass to Gotham the following year, when the mercenary sought to reclaim his lost gold17. Like all Batmen, he encountered that peculiar group of investigators, Planetary18.

Finally, after the death of Lois, Bruce himself went up against the king of all vampires, Dracula, and was turned by him. Fighting back, he managed to defeat Dracula, and continue his fight as Batman. Eventually, he succumbed to his own bloodlust, and allowed himself to be staked rather than betray his ideals19.

The long saga of the Waynes was at last at an end.

Footnotes:

Batman: The Long Halloween
Batman and Spider-Man
Batman and Daredevil
Batman Vs the Incredible Hulk
Batman and Aliens
Batman and Predator
Batman: Dark Victory
Batman: A Death in the Family
Shadow of the Bat #45
Batman #452-454: “Dark Knight, Dark City”
Batman: Contagion & Batman: Legacy
Batman: Cataclysm
Batman: No Man’s Land, Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4 and Vol. 5
Ironically, this had been anticipated: DC Comics once published a book entitled Watchmen, which sounded a warning clarion that allegedly retired heroes might take it upon themselves to return. Like Morgan Robertson’s Wreck of the Titan, Or, Futility, the book was ignored until it actually happened.
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
JLA: Secret Society of Super-Heroes #1-2
Batman Legends of the Dark Knight #132 – 136
Batman/Planetary: Night On Earth
Batman: Vampire

Smilex

Loki — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 07:30:09 +0000

Perhaps more indicative of the insanity of the Joker than anything else about him, Smilex is a deadly poison that causes horrific facial deformations, usually in form of a rictus grin.

Smilex is made in both liquid and gaseous forms – the gas resembles a green smoke. The liquid can be mixed into almost any foodstuffs.

The puzzling thing about Smilex is the business plan behind its distribution. The Joker gives it away, seeking the widest possible range of people inn Gotham, with the intent of killing them. Surely, this is insanity by any modern standard: the total absence of anything even resembling a profit motive – in fact, the Joker probably took a loss on the deal.

The Coolest Batman villain

Loki — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 07:30:48 +0000

There’s only been a few hundred Batman villains over the years, due to most of them having a tendency to come back again and again and again…

…and let’s face it, I’m going to be talking about one of the big guns here. One of the longest-lasting and most well-known of all Batfoes. So you can rule out Film Freak and Ratcatcher and all those villain-come-latelies.

It is, of course:

The Riddler

Why the Riddler? Why not the Joker, or Two-Face, or (insert nom du crime here)?

Because the Riddler is just more damned fun. But if you want some real reasons, I’m happy to oblige:

Riddles are just cool. They’re a mental challenge that gives you the same chance as Batman to figure it out – and who doesn’t like to out-think the Bat? (See? You’re thinking like the Riddler already.)
His civilian name: E. Nigma. Okay, sure he had it legally changed (from Edward Nashton), but it’s still a pretty cool name.
He’s smart. Really smart. As in, figure out Batman’s secret identity smart. In some specific fields, such as cryptography, he may actually be Batman’s superior. As a detective, he’s near to being Batman’s equal.
He’s as nutty as any other Batman opponent, but smart enough to realise that’s he’s a nut and therefore allow for it. He’s the only Bat-villain who sets out to compensate for his own insanity.
One time, when possessed by a demon – which basically just affected his morality, not his wits – he managed to trick Batman into cutting the throat of an infant as part of a dark ritual (never fear, Bat-fans – it was to give the kid an emergency tracheotomy, not to kill them).
He’s one of the few Bat-villains – or for that matter, supervillains of any kind - to be capable of learning from his experiences. In the early days, he was one of the few Gotham City costumed villains to carry a gun, purely for use on Batman, since there was a non-zero chance of him showing up.
Continuing from the previous point: more recently, he worked out that matching wits with Batman didn’t neceessarily mean opposing him, and went straight, hiring himself out as a private detective and competing to solve the same cases. He still gets the mental thrill of matching wits with Bats, but this way he gets fewer beatins, no jail time, and a legal source of income. Plus, it annoys the hell out of Batman, which is a nice bonus.

Not enough?

How about he has the coolest costume – not the stupid jumpsuit, but the suit based on the costume worn by Frank Gorshin in the Sixties Batman tv show. Plus, hey, Frank Gorshin. Can’t go past Frank as the Riddler – the best match of Bat-villain and actor until Heath Ledger, forty years later.

Nope, it’s the Riddler.