Batman is comics’ most popular character, but would he be without the urban hellscape of Gotham City? Gotham City has taken root in the minds of fans for decades, a city of impossible scale filled with shadows and darkness, a city that breeds monstrous evil, a city that wouldn’t survive without Batman and his Bat-Family. Batman has a love/hate relationship with the city; he is a scion of its wealthiest, most illustrious family and wants to save Gotham from itself but he hates the nature of his home. However, there’s a question that Batman really has never asked about Gotham, and it’s one that cuts to the core of his mission: can Gotham City really be saved?
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Gotham City is a city that has turned out the way it did because of centuries of exploitation and corruption. It has secret societies of frightening power, and an upper crust that lives off the blood and suffering of those below them. Places like Crime Alley are hallowed ground in Gotham, but they aren’t holy; no, Gotham breeds dark little singularities that suck in lives and never let go of them. Batman’s mission seems doomed, as Gotham is a place that eats up the weak and strong alike, infecting them with its darkness.
Gotham City Glories in the Evil of Its Inhabitants
Gotham City is easily the greatest fictional city in history. It was built from the ground up to be the dark twin of Metropolis, a dark mass of gothic buildings that stands in diametric opposition to Superman’s bright and shiny ‘burg. If Metropolis is the City of Tomorrow, than Gotham is the City of the Past, under the control of gangs, organized crime, corrupt officials, and wealthy magnates who were never told no. Gotham is a city with a black and cold heart, and it breeds crime, which breeds monsters. Gotham draws out the worst in people, and often seems to glory in its darkness. It’s a character in and of itself, one that is constantly trying to infect everything in it with its darkness.
Batman’s war to save the soul of Gotham can seem doomed from the start and an easy way to illustrate this is by looking at Bruce Wayne himself. Bruce Wayne is endemic of everything that is wrong with Gotham; it’s a city completely under the control of men like him. Bruce Wayne does a lot for the downtrodden of Gotham, yet he never actually fixes the problem. Wayne could destroy the network of families that holds all of Gotham in its bloodstained silk gloves, but instead he keeps perpetuating this system, laughing with the corrupt magnates but never actually doing anything to stop them in his civilian life. This is the problem with Gotham and its one that makes saving it so difficult — even the good people in Gotham City like Bruce Wayne are so enmeshed in the teeth of its infernal machinery that they will never see outside of it. They have been raised in it in the machine, and can’t imagine a way to get out of it.
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Even Gotham in Absolute Batman is a cursed city, under the control of the powerful. There’s something broken in Gotham City; all cities have their corruption, even shining beacons like Metropolis, but Gotham City is corruption personified. Only the most pure can stay above the rising tide of grime that Gotham is, but even they can never actually make any changes. Batman’s battle is never going to end because Gotham doesn’t want it to end. Gotham chews people up and spits them out, and what comes out isn’t always human. Monsters like the Joker are what Gotham creates, and he’s just the most obvious example. The Court of Owls has spent centuries steering Gotham, crafting the city into a place where only the monstrous can truly thrive. Even Batman, to an extent, is something of a monster, having to don Gotham’s cloak of night in order to make any kind difference.
The question of whether Gotham City can be saved has a simple answer — Gotham can’t be saved because Gotham doesn’t want to be saved. Gotham’s food chain is full of predators and they would never allow Gotham to become a clean, shining example of the goodwill of humanity. They have crafted Gotham City into what they want and the only way to fix the city is basically to destroy it all and rebuild it. Even that might now work, as shown by the aftermath of stories like “No Man’s Land”; even when Gotham literally gets rebuilt, its dark soul is always there, corrupting everything it touches. Gotham will not allow itself to be saved.
Batman Should Never Give Up on Gotham City Despite the Hopelessness of His Mission
Batman’s mission is one without hope; even if Bruce Wayne used his wealth and power to break the hold of the wealthy over Gotham, there would still be the corrupt politicians, police, and powerful criminals. The common people would still suffer, and they need someone devoted to protecting. Batman mission is a Sisyphean effort, but that’s just life in general. Just because something is impossible doesn’t mean it should not be attempted, and that’s why Batman is needed in Gotham. The city has always had a protector of some kind — several times it was a time-traveling Batman — and Batman plays an important role in the ecosystem of Gotham City.
Gotham City can’t be saved, partly because it doesn’t want to be saved. The city luxuriates in its darkness, but it also craves light. Batman, ironically, is that light. The Dark Knight’s purity shines through and gives light to a city that definitely needs it. Just because Gotham City can’t be saved doesn’t mean that the people can’t be saved, and that’s why Batman’s mission is so important. The city needs someone willing to fight for the little guy, to stand between the city and its inhabitants. Batman will never save Gotham, but he’ll save its people and in the end, that’s exactly what Gotham needs.
