Gotham City-State

Reggie Bartlett · Jul 28, 2012

Beedok said:
Gotham clearly is New York. They very obviously used Manhattan in the longh shots.

The Freedom Tower gave it away.

But yes, in the DK continuity Gotham is New York.

Otherwise it's in Jersey.

Badshah · Jul 28, 2012

Reggie Bartlett said:
The Freedom Tower gave it away.

But yes, in the DK continuity Gotham is New York.

Otherwise it's in Jersey.

Some writers also state its in Massachusetts, with Metropolis in New York.

Reggie Bartlett · Jul 28, 2012

trollhole said:
Some writers also state its in Massachusetts, with Metropolis in New York.

Are you talking about New Earth or the movies?

Badshah · Jul 28, 2012

Reggie Bartlett said:
Are you talking about New Earth or the movies?

New Earth....or at least slightly before New Earth/ Early 2000s.

Reggie Bartlett · Jul 28, 2012

trollhole said:
New Earth....or at least slightly before New Earth/ Early 2000s.

If so, I thought that was retconned.

But now that I think about it, Gotham being in MA would make sense, but it fits Jersey quite well too.

JSmith · Jul 28, 2012

Stolengood said:
Apparently, Gotham City has license plates: http://www.flickr.com/photos/meryddian/911234291/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Isn't that usually only reserved for states or federal districts?

Right -this is part of why I was posing this question.

JSmith · Jul 28, 2012

GrandpaTanaka said:
If NYC, and possibly some surrounding areas, formed it's own state it would be a lot like what you are describing. In not-so-serious suggestions for that to happen the name Gotham has even been proposed as the name they'd use. City-State of New York would be better, but then you need to call upstate something else. I think Gotham is supposed to like 30 million people, which is obviously much more than NYC proper, but still the same idea. If the 5 boroughs became a state it would function a lot like a city-state. They would skip an entire level of government, so there would be a Governor/Mayor and NYC representatives in Congress. it wouldn't have the unique position of DC, and it wouldn't even be a small state. it would be relatively large population-wise. This isn't realistic, but it is about as much so as most suggestions to divide states.

This is along the line of what I'm thinking but I dont think it has to be New York or in place of New York.I actually like the New Jersey location.Of course we'd be talking alternate geography too since Gotham is on 3 islands.

JSmith · Jul 30, 2012

Any more on this?

Guildencrantz · Jul 31, 2012

Gotham is New York at night, Metropolis is New York during the day.

Pkmatrix · Aug 1, 2012

Gotham City is in New Jersey. The only thing even suggesting a contradiction for the Nolanverse is the Gotham liscense plate, which I assumed to be one of those specialty plates you see now and then.

JSmith · Aug 1, 2012

Pkmatrix said:
Gotham City is in New Jersey. The only thing even suggesting a contradiction for the Nolanverse is the Gotham liscense plate, which I assumed to be one of those specialty plates you see now and then.

So do you have an idea where it is in New Jersey?

Pkmatrix · Aug 1, 2012

JSmith said:
So do you have an idea where it is in New Jersey?

What what I've read, it's supposed to be more or less where Little Egg Harbor sits in OTL. It's not exactly the same - DC took quite a few liberties with geography to make Gotham work here, making the harbor MUCH larger and modifying the coastline (plus adding the islands) - but it's easy enough to see.

Here's a map I drew up a while back to illustrate:

JSmith · Aug 1, 2012

Pkmatrix said:
Here's a map I drew up a while back to illustrate:

Awesome. I dont suppose you have a Nolanverse History of Gotham City to go along with this do you

Pkmatrix · Aug 1, 2012

JSmith said:
Awesome. I dont suppose you have a Nolanverse History of Gotham City to go along with this do you

A Nolanverse-specific history? Sorry, no. ^_^()

You can find the regular DC version of Gotham's history at Wikipedia, and probably elsewhere.

JSmith · Aug 1, 2012

Pkmatrix said:
A Nolanverse-specific history? Sorry, no. ^_^()

You can find the regular DC version of Gotham's history at Wikipedia, and probably elsewhere.

Yes have actually seen that but when it comes to things Batman I'm pretty much just a Nolanverse fan. It may be blasphmey to some but I never liked the old tv show or the 80's-90's movies. Hopefully, eventually someone will write a Nolanverse history to go along with the maps and pictures.

Pkmatrix · Aug 1, 2012

JSmith said:
Yes have actually seen that but when it comes to things Batman I'm pretty much just a Nolanverse fan. It may be blasphmey to some but I never liked the old tv show or the 80's-90's movies. Hopefully, eventually someone will write a Nolanverse history to go along with the maps and pictures.

You're not alone in that. I won't watch the 60's TV show, and I really could care less for the older movies save for the first Tim Burton Batman. As for the history, I don't recall anything in there really fantastic that would preclude it from being canon to the Nolanverse...

Malta · Aug 1, 2012

black angel said:
..... wait Metropolis is in Delaware?

Jeeze. Of course they put Metropolis twenty minutes away from me. Of course they put it in Sussex County which only has a population of 200k and besides the beaches it's mostly corn.

Now Metropolis has a population of 11 Million. Greater then the OTL State of DE plus neighboring MD combined.

I imagine any TL focusing on these two cities could be called 'A Tale of Two Cities: Gotham and Metropolis'

jpj1421 · Aug 1, 2012

This reminds me, I've been toying with the idea of an alternate history where Superman debuted in a 1939 world identical to ours except for the DC universe changes. That'll go in my other half formed ideas bin that I'm too lazy to work on.

JSmith · Aug 1, 2012

jpj1421 said:
This reminds me, I've been toying with the idea of an alternate history where Superman debuted in a 1939 world identical to ours except for the DC universe changes. That'll go in my other half formed ideas bin that I'm too lazy to work on.

This sounds very interesting . Maybe you can do a drib here and and drab there

neamathla · Aug 2, 2012

Here are a trio GC maps. They relate to the comics not the movies. However, as the movies use the comics map as a base, I thought they might be relevant.
The first lists important locations (comics not movie).
The second shows its location with New Jersey (influenced by the DC Atlas).
The third is the subway map.