Gotham City

Night view of New York, one of the cities in which Gotham City is inspired, along with Detroit and Chicago.

Gotham City is a fictional city which is the home of Batman, a DC Comics character. The city is largely based on Chicago and became Batman's home in 1941. Gotham was a village in England, near Nottingham, where the people were believed to be evil, greedy or insane.

Author Washington Irving was the first person to describe New York as Gotham in his 1807 book, Salmagundi.

In Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight Gotham City is based in Chicago. The Dark Knight Rises Gotham City is based in Pittsburgh, New York City, and Los Angeles.

Christopher Nolan based Gotham City on Chicago, New York City, and London. When Bob Kane first thought of a city he wanted it to be like New York City, London, and Chicago. Bill Finger was about to name the city "Civic City".

In comics

The first Mayor of Gotham seen in the comics was not named. He was drawn to look like Fiorello H. LaGuardia, who was mayor of New York City.

• Bruce Wayne was the Mayor of Gotham City for a week.
• Mayor Hayes was introduced in Batman #207 (Dec. 1968). His first name was not known.
• Mayor Theodore Cobblepot was the great-grandfather of Penguin. He had the longest time in office of all the mayors of Gotham City. He is mentioned in Gotham Underground #9 (August 2008).
• Mayor Thorndike appears in the flashbacks from the "Made of Wood" storyline (Detective Comics #784-786). He was killed by the original Made of Wood Killer on July 17, 1948. His first name was not given.
• Mayor Wilson Klass was mayor during Batman's early years. He first appeared in the "Prey" storyline from Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight.
• Mayor Hamilton Hill was a corrupt politician who became mayor through the dealings of Rupert Thorne. He became mayor in Detective Comics #511 (February 1982). During his early time in office, he helped in Thorne's attempts to identify and defeat Batman. He fired Police Commissioner James Gordon and replaced him with one of Thorne's lieutenants, Peter Pauling. Hill last appeared in Batman #381 (March 1985) in the Pre-Crisis DC universe. Lloyd Bochner provides the voice of Mayor Hamilton Hill in Batman: The Animated Series. In The Batman, he is voiced by Lex Lang. He also briefly appears in the Young Justice episode "Alpha Male", in which he is voiced by Corey Burton.
• Mayor Skowcroft appeared in Swamp Thing #53 (October 1986). He tried to prevent panic when the city was under attack by Swamp Thing. He is also mentioned in Batman #389 (November 1985) and appears in Detective Comics #553 (August 1985).
• Mayor Julius Lieberman plays a major role in Batman Versus Predator #1 (1991) and also appears in Batman: Run, Riddler, Run #1-3 and Justice Society of America (vol. 2) #1.
• Mayor Armand Krol first appeared in Detective Comics #647 (August 1992). Like Hamilton Hill, he did not like Commissioner Gordon. Krol also did not like Batman until the "Knightfall" series, during which Batman saved his life. Krol died of the "Clench" virus released by Ra's al Ghul in the "Legacy" story arc (Detective Comics #699, July 1996).
• Mayor Marion Grange was elected during the crisis caused by the Clench virus. She replaced Krol, who was not doing a good job. She re-appointed James Gordon as Police Commissioner (Robin #28, April 1996). She remained mayor until Gotham was hit by an earthquake in the "No Man's Land" story arc. She was killed by agents of Nick Scratch. Grange appeared as a male in The Batman, and was voiced by Adam West. The male version was also featured in the Beware the Batman episode "Broken".
• Mayor Charles Chesterfield was killed by a strange biological disease that removed fat cells from the human body.
• Mayor Daniel Danforth Dickerson III was mayor from the end of No Man's Land through the early 2000s. He was a corrupt mayor. He was killed by the Joker in Gotham Central #12.
• Mayor David Hull was mayor through the mid-2000s.
• Mayor Sebastian Hady was introduced in Batman as a very corrupt and mean politician. He was taken hostage by Azrael (Michael Lane) during the events of "Judgement on Gotham", but was rescued by Red Robin.

In other media

Some of the mayors listed above also appeared in television series and movies about Batman. There are some series and movies that have their own Mayors of Gotham City:

• The 1960s television series Batman featured Mayor Linseed (played by Byron Keith). His name was a reference to the name of the mayor of New York City at the time, John Lindsay. The governor of "Gotham State" was named Stonefellow (a reference to Nelson Rockefeller who was governor of New York State during the same period).
• The movie Batman (1989) featured Mayor William Borg, played by Lee Wallace.
• Batman Forever (1995) featured an unnamed mayor (played by George Wallace).
• Gotham Knight (2008) featured a Mayor Manning who was killed by Deadshot.
• The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012) featured Mayor Anthony Garcia, played by Nestor Carbonell. He was mayor during the Joker's reign of terror. He survived an assassination attempt by the Joker thanks to James Gordon, who took the bullet for him and faked his own death to catch the Joker. Because of his efforts in both situations, Garcia promotes Gordon to succeed Gillian B. Loeb as police commissioner after Loeb was killed. After the death of Harvey Dent, he signs the "Dent Act", giving Commissioner Gordon enough police power to arrest every criminal in Gotham. Garcia was killed during a Gotham Rogues football match at the start of the Gotham Revolution.
• The television series Gotham (2014-2019) featured Mayor Aubrey James, played by Richard Kind. Aubrey James is the long-term mayor of Gotham City. He is a corrupt political figure, formerly under the control of Carmine Falcone and The Court of Owls.
• The television series Gotham (2014-2019) featured Mayor Burke in Season 4, episode 19.
• The Batman (2022) features Mayor Mitchell, played by Rupert Penry-Jones.

Gotham City Media

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  Art Deco and Art Nouveau buildings, such as Helsinki Central Railway Station, inspired the look of Gotham in the 1989 film Batman.