By Batman’s hometown of Gotham City has always been a nebulous area, never really getting an official location. Originally it was basically a renamed New York City, but then it was sort of right next to New York, and now DC treats it as part of New Jersey, on the Delaware Bay. It’s clear that there’s some difficulty shoving a major city into the coastline, like Gotham City and NYC are stubbornly fighting over the armrest in a movie theater.
But in Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises, director Christopher Nolan bases Gotham on Chicago, with elements of Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, and other cities popping up along the way. It’s kind of hard to get a grasp on the city’s layout.
Thankfully, Brandon T. Snider, author of The Dark Knight Manual, has created an official map of Nolan’s Gotham. It’s treated as an actual city map, so it doesn’t highlight things like Wayne Manor, but fans with a keen eye will be able to figure out where non-marked landmarks are located. Of course, the map doesn’t exactly explain where Gotham is located beyond the east coast, but still, it’s cool to see a fictional city rendered in full.
[Via /Film]