Gotham City Has Seen Some Dark Days, But These 5 Batman Stories Were Apocalyptic

DC Comics is home to many iconic fictional cities. Still, Batman’s home, Gotham City, is easily the most memorable for just how much of a hellhole it is. Gotham City is basically the capital of crime in the DC Universe, from the colorful, criminally insane supervillains to the corrupt officials that prey on the city’s least fortunate. In this toxic environment, Batman certainly has his work cut out for him in terms of dispensing justice and protecting the innocent. Yet despite saving the day countless times, Batman is hardly perfect. Even a superhero as awesome as Batman fails many times preventing Gotham City from experiencing horrific catastrophes and falling into complete ruin.

Gotham is well known as a city always on the edge of total collapse. On more than one occasion, Gotham has fallen over the edge and turned into a wasteland of chaos and death.

5) “City of Bane”

Bane is widely regarded as one of the most successful villains in his battles against Batman. His victory in “City of Bane” is arguably his greatest achievement. Instead of relying on brute strength, Bane used his cunning, along with help from Flashpoint Batman, to sow friction among the Bat-Family. These mind games would eventually lead to the Bat-Family’s exile from Gotham. Bane threatened to kill Alfred if any of them ever returned and when Damian didn’t listen to his warning, he did murder Alfred. Without the Bat-Family to stop him, Bane put his subordinates into the highest seats of power in Gotham. He then ruled the city as a police state.  In addition, Bane unlocked every cell in Gotham and let all the villains go free. Not only that, but Batman’s rogues became Gotham’s new police force. To control both Gotham’s villains and citizens, Bane used the mind-altering Medusa Mask to bend the masses to his will. 

4) “Joker War”

The Clown Prince of Crime is infamous for his countless atrocities that have left thousands of people dead or traumatized. His actions during the “Joker War” caused the entire city fall into ruin. Knowing that Batman is Bruce Wayne, the Joker brainwashed Lucius Fox and had him hand over control of Wayne Enterprises. With Batman’s seemingly infinite funds and technology at his disposal, the Joker handed Gotham’s gangs the Dark Knight’s most powerful and dangerous weapons. Even worse, he paid them millions to go on an endless city-wide riot. Clown-masked goons flooded the streets, vandalizing, burning, plundering, and killing everything and everyone in their path. At its peak, “Joker War” had all of Gotham go up in flames and left hundreds of people dead. The Joker gave all the money and power to Gotham’s worst citizens, and they chose to turn on their fellow neighbors and burn the city to the ground.

3) “Zero Year”

Just months into his crime-fighting career, Batman had to restore order to a Gotham City after it was destroyed and taken over by the Riddler. When the Riddler triggered an EMP to knock out Gotham’s power grid, Batman and the GCPD worked tirelessly to restore power. Unfortunately, they played right into the Riddler’s hands because the moment they reactivated the power grid, numerous bombs went off and flooded the city. When Batman woke up months later from a coma, he found that Gotham had lost all electricity and had become overrun with plant life. The Riddler ruled this savage Gotham with an iron fist. Every day he would promise to restore civilization if anyone in Gotham could outsmart him, which no one ever could. Of course, even without his usual arsenal of high-tech gadgets, Batman, genius that he is, managed to defeat the Riddler and restore power to Gotham. With this feat, Batman cemented himself as Gotham’s savior.

2) “Cataclysm”

Batman might be one of the greatest superheroes of all time and has saved Gotham from the worst villains imaginable, but even he’s powerless against natural disasters. In “Cataclysm,” Gotham City was hit by a 7.6 earthquake. Because of Gotham’s pitiful infrastructure, the earthquake completely decimated the city, causing entire skyscrapers to crumble and homes to be lost. Even Wayne Manor and the Batcave were left in ruins. By the time the earthquake ended, the only buildings still standing were those owned by Wayne Industries because they were built to withstand earthquakes. With thousands dead or homeless, practically all concepts of civilization vanished as the surviving gangs took control of the remnants of the city. The situation became so dire that the United States literally declared Gotham City to be a lost cause and exiled it from the union, bombing the bridges to ensure that no one could get out. Of the countless villains that have brought ruin to Gotham, none compares to Mother Nature.

1) Bad Seeds

The latest major Batman storyline again showed why it’s a terrible idea to have supervillains run Gotham. In exchange being forgiven for killing the elemental Bog Venus while also gaining protection from Gotham’s psychotic police commissioner, Vandal Savage, Mayor Poison Ivy handed the keys to her city over to the Parliament of Trees. In an instant, Gotham was overrun by a massive jungle of mutant plants. Within a day, thousands of civilians had died from the toxic pollen that choked the air. Those who were not affected by the pollen met worse fates as carnivorous mutant plants tore thousands more people apart and devoured them. The Parliament wouldn’t stop until every animal in Gotham City was dead. Even worse, Vandal Savage attempted to retake control of Gotham by releasing deadly chemicals that would have killed plants and humans alike. The situation got so bad that Batman had to team up with Mr. and Mrs. Freeze to encase much of Gotham in a new Ice Age to kill the plants and toxins.

What do you think was the worst disaster to befall Gotham? Leave a Comment below and join the conversation in the ComicBook Forum!

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