Gotham Clock Tower is what the name implies - a large clock tower in Gotham City. It was previously the headquarters for both Oracle and the Birds of Prey.
History
The Gotham Clock Tower was built and owned by Wayne Enterprises and it was the residence of Barbara Gordon after she was paralyzed. Barbara lived in the building all by herself and she transformed the place into the secret headquarters for her activities as Oracle, installing a great deal of state of the art computers as well as a great deal of security measures like a direct alarm to Batman, an emergency generator, which were used for her own safety.[1] Barbara was the main source of help for Batman and the Justice League providing information that they needed on their respective missions.
The building was fortified against earthquakes and thus, it was able to withstand the earthquake that leveled Gotham.[2] The Clock Tower was also used as meeting point for the Bat-Family during No Man's Land[3] and also as a base of operations for the Birds of Prey.
Over time, Barbara improved the security system of the Tower to better protect herself as well as the many records and files she had saved over the time on her duty as Oracle. The new security system consisted of traps like lasers, trap doors, electrified fences, flashing lights, sliding staircases and more.[4][5] These security measures proved useful during No Man's Land, when the Tower was targeted twice: one time by Black Mask and the second time by William Pettit.[6][7]
Black Mask would target the Tower again during the Gang War that shattered Gotham.
Black Mask learned about the place from Hush, who lied to Black Mask telling him that the tower was in fact the Batcave.[8] Black Mask gathered the criminal underworld in Gotham around the tower and revealed it as the Batcave.[9] Black Mask then allowed all the criminals to storm the tower while Oracle did her best to defend the place.[5] Batman arrived and fought Black Mask in the main chamber with Barbara as witness. They were killing each other and in order to make them stop, Barbara activated the auto-destruction sequence and locked all the ways outside. She did so in order to stop Batman from fighting Black Mask and save her instead, as she wasn't able to get out. Batman managed to save Barbara just when the whole building collapsed from the explosions caused by the auto-destruction sequence.[10] This was the end of the Gotham Clock Tower and Oracle relocated to Metropolis afterwards.
Residents
Formerly:
Notes
- Even though Oracle's hideout was implicitly introduced as early as Batman: Sword of Azrael #1; the earliest recorded appearance of the Clock Tower as a proper place happens in Showcase '94 #12.
- The Gotham Clock Tower is located in the Old Gotham area.[11][12]