Gotham City

Gotham City is Batman's home town and his base of operations. There are several buildings that are owned by Wayne Enterprises.

## Gotham City

### Appearances

"Batman""Batman Returns"

"Batman Forever"

"Batman & Robin"

## **History**

### Early history

The city was founded by John T. Gotham. Due to the absence of contributing businesses due to corruption and criminal influence, the city's tax base was crumbling.

### First Public sighting of the Batmobile

Carl Grissom was the biggest crime lord operating in high rise apartment building, until he is gunned down by his former hitman, Jack Napier. Below the Grissom building was Flugelheim Museum, built into its foundations. Napier later committed a mass murder in the museum using a custom nerve gas. Shortly thereafter Batman's vehicle was spotted by citizens for the first time as it was chased through Gotham Square by Joker Goon Cars.

### 200th Anniversary Parade

Eventually Joker hijacked 200th Anniversary Parade and tried to up the scale of his mass gassings, targeting a larger crowd of what he viewed as greedy peasants. Batman destroyed the Axis Chemicals plant in response to his parade announcement made prior. This seemed to have little effect as the parade went on with balloons filled with poison gas and a large number of men still at his disposal operating the floats. Batman arrived in an aerial vehicle to pull the balloons into the sky. Outraged Joker stood in the middle of Broad Avenue daring Batman to attack, as he approached Joker shot the plane down with trick gun. The vehicle smashed into the steps of the old cathedral, where the parade was launched. Joker planned to make his final stand in its belfry, the highest point in Gotham's skyline.

### Skirmish of Gotham Cathedral

Joker took Vicki Vale hostage and forced her up to the top of the old cathedral with him. Batman survived the crash, and had his final confrontation with Joker in the belfry. The police bore witness to these events from steps of the cathedral, unable to pursue the pair because of the stairwell being destroyed by a massive bell. The fight ended with Napier falling to the ground below; when the GCPD inspected his corpse, they found that he had activated a laughing box in his jacket on the way down.

### Press conference at City Hall

The Dark Knight himself sent a letter to city officials, assuring the people of Gotham that he will be there to protect them if a further evil surfaces in the city.

### Lighting of the tree ceremony

The Red Triangle Gang launched an attack on the annual Lighting of the Tree by the time City Hall was moved to Gotham Plaza. Their aim was to kidnap Max Shreck and bring him back to the Old Zoo in Gotham Park. This was only achieved by their ringleader himself, the Penguin after Batman had been summoned to disperse the riot. Dozens of citizens were beaten and set on fire prior to his arrival. A man called Organ Grinder opened fire on the tree with a gatling gun, destroying the ornaments and lights.

### Relighting of the tree ceremony

There was a second attempt to light the tree in Gotham Plaza, an act of defiance from the Mayor in spite of the circus gang's constant violence. This time the Penguin planned to frame Batman for murder of the Ice Princess, who was placed in danger on the edge of a rooftop across from the Dictel building by the Catwoman. Frightened by his umbrella full of bats she fell to her death, her body landing on the tree lighting button. The civilians looking upward from the street spotted Batman looking over the edge and blamed him as they were attacked by a massive swarm of bats released from the tree.

### Cobblepot rally

During this time there was a recall set up by Shreck, and Penguin made his bid for Mayor. The afternoon following the Relighting of the Tree tragedy, a rally was held outside City Hall. His speech was interrupted by voice recordings he made to Batman the previous night, gloating about how he had fooled Gotham's citizens and how he regarded them as "pinhead puppets." The crowd grew angry, throwing tomatoes and booing him off the podium. Immediately, abandoned by Shreck and his associates, Cobblepot reacted by firing his machine gun umbrella on the crowd and fleeing into the sewers of Gotham Park.

### Penguin army

A mass gathering of radio-controlled Penguin Commandos occurred that night in Gotham Plaza after Cobblepot's humiliation. As the prepared to fire their rocket launchers on downtown buildings they suddenly returned to the drainage gates they emerged from. In sewers of Gotham Batman instructed Alfred to jam their signal from the cave. As the Batskiboat neared the zoo's drain tunnels, two sentries fired their rockets, but they failed to land a hit due to Batman's piloting maneuver. When the boat reached its destination it smashed through the Arctic World exterior along with Cobblepot's escape vehicle.

### NygmaTech party

After Edward Nygma became Gotham's newest tech magnate celebrity he threw a the Box release party at the swanky Ritz Gotham hotel. Two-Face arrived to rob attendees of the party and Batman quickly emerged to give chase.

### Claw island siege

Riddler built his NygmaTech factory on a small island off the coast of Gotham Harbor. Nygma wanted to drain the information from all the brains in Gotham City. In the end, both were defeated by Batman and his new partner Robin.

### Showdown at Gotham observatory

Batman, Robin and Batgirl prevent Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy and Bane in an attempt to dominate Gotham City with ice and vegetation.