Gotham City is ruled by the darkest of dark forces - secret societies, mobsters, and the criminally insane. Hidden among the creeping shadows is Leviathan, a worldwide criminal organization filled with assassins, super-powered warriors, and brilliant scientists.
While The Batman follows a no-kill code, a moral choice that guides the modern-day superhero, it wasn’t always so. Here are 15 secrets you may not know about Gotham City and its shifty history.
15. Batman can thank the Shadow for helping to shape his identity
Bruce Wayne - the playboy billionaire by day and Gotham City caped crusader by night - made his first appearance in 1939’s Detective Comics no. 27, a straight-up ‘take-off’ of a Shadow story published three years earlier, according to Batman co-creator Bill Finger.
"I patterned my style of writing Batman after the Shadow. Also after old Warner Bros. movies,” Finger said. “It was completely pulp style."
Batman pounds his enemy into an acid tank in The Case of the Chemical Syndicate, 1939
14. Batman has been involved in dark deeds
The caped crusader was ridding the streets of criminal elements back in 1939 when a noir-twinged Batman punched his rival and watched him fall into an acid tank. “A fitting end for his kind,” Batman notes in his debut in Detective Comics #27. Six months later, we discovered Bruce Wayne’s parents were gunned down as the family walked home from a movie, likely the motive for the grim avenger’s vigilante crime-fighting exploits.
13. Batman may have a few psychological 'issues'
Bruce Wayne, a billionaire who dresses as a giant bat to fight crime, has created dual identities for himself but does that mean he has serious mental health issues such as PTSD? No, at least that's the assessment of Robin S. Rosenberg, a US-based clinical psychologist and author of What's The Matter With Batman?
"Batman has had more than his share of trauma in his life. Yet, remarkably, he does not appear to have enough symptoms to meet the criteria for post traumatic stress disorder," Rosenberg said, but she's hedging her bets.
"Let's be clear. Most people don't dress up and become vigilantes who wear capes and cowls. Just because Wayne doesn't have a diagnosable psychiatric disorder (in my opinion) doesn't mean that he doesn't have issues," Rosenberg adds. "Yes, Batman could learn to rely on other people more (to rely on trustworthy people, of course.) He could become better at asking for help. The people in his inner circle would appreciate that. And if he relied more on the adults already in his life, perhaps he wouldn't end up taking on new young sidekicks and endangering their lives."
12. The Riddler's cards likely hide Easter Eggs
Eagle-eyed fans have noticed that Robert Pattinson's The Batman (2022) is loaded with Easter Eggs and secrets including a plot thread in which the Riddler (Paul Dano) leaves greeting cards for Batman containing clues. The front of the cards hide unexplained details including an owl on the first card, which fans believe is a nod to the sinister Court of Owls organization (see below). A second card shows a bald doctor that may well be Professor Hugo Strange, one of Batman's sometime villains. The third card includes a red-haired girl surrounded by flowers, which some believe to be a nod to Poison Ivy.
11. A CIA counterterrorism officer is behind many Batman stories
Batman author Tom King is a former CIA counterterrorism operations officer who was posted to Iraq and Afghanistan before quitting the Agency in 2009 to write his first novel.His critically acclaimed book, A Once Crowded Sky, explores a city of superheroes and villains reduced to normalcy.
King also pitched comic book publishers and sharpened his skills writing for DC’s Grayson (along with artist/writer Tim Seeley) telling the story of Spyral spy Agent 37. The offer to write Batman for DC Rebirth left King reeling, however. “How am I feeling?” he said in a 2016 interview. “I really should say that I'm embracing the excitement and wonders of it all, but honestly I'm just feeling scared and frightened and intimidated.”
Batman became a camp classic TV show in the 1960s
10. Robin was only supposed to be a minor character
In 1940, Batman began working with his apprentice, Robin, a circus performer whose parents were murdered by a gangster. (Gotham City has always been a hotbed of crime). Robin was supposed to appear in only one issue - DC’s publisher Jack Liebowitz didn’t want to portray a child constantly in the middle of violence - but comic book sales doubled and Robin became a long-term sidekick.
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Gotham City is ruled by the darkest of dark forces - secret societies, mobsters, and the criminally insane. Hidden among the creeping shadows is Leviathan, a worldwide criminal organization filled with assassins, super-powered warriors, and brilliant scientists.
While The Batman follows a no-kill code, a moral choice that guides the modern-day superhero, it wasn’t always so. Here are 15 secrets you may not know about Gotham City and its shifty history.
15. Batman can thank the Shadow for helping to shape his identity
Bruce Wayne - the playboy billionaire by day and Gotham City caped crusader by night - made his first appearance in 1939’s Detective Comics no. 27, a straight-up ‘take-off’ of a Shadow story published three years earlier, according to Batman co-creator Bill Finger.
"I patterned my style of writing Batman after the Shadow. Also after old Warner Bros. movies,” Finger said. “It was completely pulp style."
Batman pounds his enemy into an acid tank in The Case of the Chemical Syndicate, 1939
14. Batman has been involved in dark deeds
The caped crusader was ridding the streets of criminal elements back in 1939 when a noir-twinged Batman punched his rival and watched him fall into an acid tank. “A fitting end for his kind,” Batman notes in his debut in Detective Comics #27. Six months later, we discovered Bruce Wayne’s parents were gunned down as the family walked home from a movie, likely the motive for the grim avenger’s vigilante crime-fighting exploits.
13. Batman may have a few psychological 'issues'
Bruce Wayne, a billionaire who dresses as a giant bat to fight crime, has created dual identities for himself but does that mean he has serious mental health issues such as PTSD? No, at least that's the assessment of Robin S. Rosenberg, a US-based clinical psychologist and author of What's The Matter With Batman?
"Batman has had more than his share of trauma in his life. Yet, remarkably, he does not appear to have enough symptoms to meet the criteria for post traumatic stress disorder," Rosenberg said, but she's hedging her bets.
"Let's be clear. Most people don't dress up and become vigilantes who wear capes and cowls. Just because Wayne doesn't have a diagnosable psychiatric disorder (in my opinion) doesn't mean that he doesn't have issues," Rosenberg adds. "Yes, Batman could learn to rely on other people more (to rely on trustworthy people, of course.) He could become better at asking for help. The people in his inner circle would appreciate that. And if he relied more on the adults already in his life, perhaps he wouldn't end up taking on new young sidekicks and endangering their lives."
12. The Riddler's cards likely hide Easter Eggs
Eagle-eyed fans have noticed that Robert Pattinson's The Batman (2022) is loaded with Easter Eggs and secrets including a plot thread in which the Riddler (Paul Dano) leaves greeting cards for Batman containing clues. The front of the cards hide unexplained details including an owl on the first card, which fans believe is a nod to the sinister Court of Owls organization (see below). A second card shows a bald doctor that may well be Professor Hugo Strange, one of Batman's sometime villains. The third card includes a red-haired girl surrounded by flowers, which some believe to be a nod to Poison Ivy.
11. A CIA counterterrorism officer is behind many Batman stories
Batman author Tom King is a former CIA counterterrorism operations officer who was posted to Iraq and Afghanistan before quitting the Agency in 2009 to write his first novel.His critically acclaimed book, A Once Crowded Sky, explores a city of superheroes and villains reduced to normalcy.
King also pitched comic book publishers and sharpened his skills writing for DC’s Grayson (along with artist/writer Tim Seeley) telling the story of Spyral spy Agent 37. The offer to write Batman for DC Rebirth left King reeling, however. “How am I feeling?” he said in a 2016 interview. “I really should say that I'm embracing the excitement and wonders of it all, but honestly I'm just feeling scared and frightened and intimidated.”
Batman became a camp classic TV show in the 1960s
10. Robin was only supposed to be a minor character
In 1940, Batman began working with his apprentice, Robin, a circus performer whose parents were murdered by a gangster. (Gotham City has always been a hotbed of crime). Robin was supposed to appear in only one issue - DC’s publisher Jack Liebowitz didn’t want to portray a child constantly in the middle of violence - but comic book sales doubled and Robin became a long-term sidekick.
Batman (actor Lewis Wilson) was a counter-espionage agent during World War II when he faced off with Japanese spy Dr. Daka. The evil doctor, based in Gotham City’s Little Tokyo neighborhood, was using a mind-control device to turn American scientists into zombies.
The caped crusader’s ties to the intelligence community remained strong during the Cold War - he’s on record discussing Soviet spy KGBeast with CIA Agent Ralph Bundy. Afterward, Batman lured KGBeast into the sewers, cornered him in an underground room, and locked him in - effectively burying the KGB assassin alive in Batman #420. (Major spoiler alert: KGBeast somehow escapes.)
8. Batman’s butler Alfred also dabbled in espionage
Is it just a coincidence that Batman’s trusted butler and surrogate father, Alfred Pennyworth, also trained as a spy in the British Secret Service during WWII? Alfred was an ex-Special Operations Executive operative and, like many spies, has changed his legend over the years. At one point, Alfred was supposedly hired away from the Royal Family by Bruce’s parents. At another point, Alfred is described as a retired English stage actor who worked for the Waynes and raised Bruce to fulfill a deathbed wish.
The Court of Owls Secret Society: Batman (Volume 2) #1
7. Batman is tangled up with The Court of Owls Secret Society
The Court of Owls is a Gotham City splinter group, an offshoot of a cult that worshiped Barbatos - a demon associated with bats. Some of Gotham’s most dangerous criminals are members. The Owls have a grisly reputation for assassinations carried out in Gotham’s sewers by agents known as Talons. Billionaire philanthropist Bruce Wayne may not be a member, but he discovers the Owls have secret HQs planted in every building established by the Alan Wayne Trust.
Wayne Enterprises HQ in Gotham
6. Alan Wayne may have been murdered
Alan Wayne, Bruce Wayne's great-great-grandfather and founder of Wayne Enterprises, largely built Gotham City. Alan had a deal with The Court of Owls that allowed the society to establish secret hideouts across Gotham, often using the 13th floor of buildings that were unoccupied because of superstition. Alan and the Court fell out, however. Around the same time, Alan went insane. Alan ran raving through the streets of Gotham before he was dragged through a manhole cover and stabbed with a knife. The death was officially determined to be the result of a fall into a sewer.
Psychiatrist and murderer Amadeus Arkham built the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum
5. Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane
Bruce Wayne's great-great-grandfather isn’t the only Gotham resident who has been driven mad. Psychiatrist Amadeus Arkham built Gotham’s Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, named after his late mother. The institution gradually became dedicated to the criminally insane and has housed many of Batman’s foes. In The Batman (2022)Robert Pattinson’s Batman, desperate to catch the Riddler (Paul Dano), meets the Joker in Arkham. The eerie five-minute scene was deleted from the final cut but released later.
4. Gotham is teeming with mobsters
Gotham seems to have a bigger problem with organized crime than The Sopranos. America's oldest surviving crime family, the Falcone Mob, is run by Carmine ‘The Roman’ Falcone (John Turturro in The Batman). Gotham is also home to The Maronis - run by Salvatore ‘The Boss’ Maroni. What does the mob have to do with Bruce Wayne? (Spoiler alert ahead.) We learn in The Batman that Bruce Wayne’s father - Thomas - asked the Mafia to frighten a reporter working on an uncomfortable story. Instead, the journalist was murdered. Alfred suggests Thomas may have threatened to expose the mob hit, leading Falcone to have the Waynes murdered.
3. A secretive villain threatened the DC universe
When DC Comics revealed the top 10 threats to the DC Universe in 2018, the most terrifying threat was a new character - The Batman Who Laughs, a creepy, evil version of Bruce Wayne's Batman. He is a hybrid of the superhero and Batman's arch enemy the Joker. What makes him such a big threat? The character is depicted as an ‘alternate universe’ Batman with a list of superpowers including self-duplication. Worse, The Batman Who Laughs does not have a code against killing. Holy Dark Knights, Batman!
2. Order of St. Dumas
The centuries-old Order of St. Dumas is led by Father Creel in the Batman series Gothamand links Batman to characters like the assassin Azrael. When Batman was dealing with the Order, he needed to uncover numerous secrets. Luckily Oracle was available to research their history and beliefs. Along the way, she unearthed clues about the complex history of Gotham. It seems The Order of St. Dumas was one of the five wealthy families who founded Gotham City but the Waynes banished the Dumas family, triggering a centuries-old blood feud.
Batman’s brother Thomas is the Boomerang Killer
1. Batman has a brother
That’s right. Batman isn’t actually an only child. In Justice League 2, we learn about his brother, Thomas Wayne Jr. Apparently, Thomas iwas struck by a car, diagnosed with brain damage, and committed to an asylum (no, not Arkham.) Batman’s parents died before they could explain the complex family dynamic. Batman and Thomas meet eventually, however, after Thomas is brainwashed into becoming the Boomerang Killer. And you thought your family was complicated…
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