gotham?

[joker]

a discussion started by bird boy on the anigen board about the city's each superhero protects made me think. we all know what batman was like back in the golden age. very happy. he called robin ol chum. he was known to be seen in the day time much of the time where as now he has never been seen in day light except during no mans land. not to dark, like we know him no. and if youll notice, gotham isnt to filth ridden and dark back in the golden age. it looks kind of like metropolis. not really in tune with its name if you ask me. so when batman was created, why did they decide to call his city gotham? the city was in no way dark, and neither was batman for that matter.

[NewMaxFranklin]

The original Gotham, ala bob cain was quite dark and scary, by the standards of the time. If you saw pages from the early issues (the ones that were made before Batman's origins/ the murder of his parents were devised) you could claerly trace references to the popular horror genre films of the period, such as the original Dracula w/ Bela Legousi.

Actually, early on, Batman had a Tommy Gun, like the Shadow and dispatched criminals without blinking twice. Later, his weapons became more ingeneous and his motivations more clear.

As Batman got more and more popular, becomming a national icon he took on a new persona, closer to that of Superman. He became more of the clean cut, everyman, than dark avenger of the night. And Gotham was made into more of a generic town, than the city from hell. Though a far cry from his creative vision, Bob Kane had said repeatedly that he enjoyed the golden age Batman on it's own terms.