The Gotham Zoo is the main zoo in Gotham City and house to several animal species.
History
Earth-One
After a zoo ship had an accident near the Gotham Harbor, some of the animals broke free and roamed the city. Batman and Robin rounded the animals and captured the resposible for the incident. All the animals were subsequently moved to the Gotham Zoo, including a rhino, a giant mole, a couple of condors, a great ape and a sloth.[1]
Some time later, a criminal called John Marrow tried to hide in the Zoo and the Dynamic Duo followed him there. Marrow tried to eliminate Batman by opening the lions' cage, creating the perfect distraction that would allow him to escape. Batman however, confronted the lions and placed them back on the cages while Robin used a bat-bolo to capture Marrow.[2]
Later, Batman and Robin captured a gang that was using the Zoo as their base of operations and hideout.[3] A few years later, a couple of timber wolves were stolen from the Zoo by the criminal mastermind Achilles Milo.[4]
Not long after this, the Zoo was used as hideout for the Riddler, who was hidden in the giraffes' area. Batman confronted Riddler in the Zoo and the fight ended with Riddler being tossed into the monkeys' cage.[5] Afterwards, Batman started an investigation at the Zoo to clear his name and he was confronted by The Creeper. After a brief struggle, they worked together to stun some lions that were released by an unknown man and afterwards, they interrogated him, threatening to throw him at the alligators' cage. The man was murdered before he could reveal valuable information and the Zoo became the place where Batman and Creeper's alliance started.[6]
Afterwards, the Gotham Zoo was used as Killer Croc's hideout during his uprise in the Gotham underworld.[7] Eventually, Joe and Trina Todd found Croc's hideout and they were subsequently murdered and tossed in the crocodiles' pit, where the police found their bodies hours later.[8] The zoo was later used by Scarecrow to lure Batman into a deadly trap. Eventually, Batman managed to overcome the trap and defeated the Master of Fear.[9]
The Zoo was the chosen place for Metamorpho and Sapphire to inform her father, Simon about their wedding plans. During this meeting, a group of mercenaries tried to kill Simon, but they were stopped by Metamorpho and the Outsiders. After this events, Simon allowed Rex and Sapphire to get married.[10]
New Earth
The Gotham Zoo was once attacked by Mad Hatter. After being freed from Arkham, Hatter went to the Zoo to retrieve his pet chimpanzee.[11]
Later, the zoo was the target of the arsonist Firefly. Batman arrived in time to stop Firelfy from burning the whole place down. Though he was attacked by some of the zoo's animals, Batman succeeded on capturing the criminal.[12]
Other Versions
DCAU
- This version of the Gotham Zoo was the workplace of Kirk Langstrom, his wife Francine and his father-in-law, Robert March.[13] Among the various animals that could be found at the zoo were tigers,[14] timber wolves[15] and of course, bats.
Absolute Universe
In the Absolute Universe, Gotham Zoo fills a similar role in the life and backstory of Batman as Crime Alley and the Monarch Theater in most other universes.
When he was ten years old, Bruce Wayne won a statewide student engineering competition. The prize was a trip to the zoo for his entire class. During the field trip a mass shooter attacked the zoo, in what would be the bloodiest day in Gotham's history until the Party Animals attacks fourteen years later. Bruce's father Thomas Wayne, the teacher chaperoning the trip, rushed the children to safety in the bat enclosure and then tackled the shooter, stopping him at the cost of his own life. Bruce was left trapped in the bat house by his father's dead body slumped against the door and attacked by the bats until Jim Gordon found him. The Zoo was shut down and the animals shipped back to their native habitats.[16][17] The city originally planned to tear down the park and redevelop the site, but when Bruce himself said he didn't want something new and "practical" built on it, the abandoned site was left to stand as a memorial. A huge spotlight was installed that would be lit to illuminate the sky every year on the anniversary of the attacks.[18] As an adult Bruce would occasionally visit the abandoned park, particularly the bat enclosure.
Notes
- According to the reference book Batman: The Ultimate Guide (2022), Gotham Zoo is located north of Giordano Botanical Gardens and west of Newtown in the Uptown area of Gotham City. The exact location of Gotham Zoo is included on the official map of Gotham City by Brian Walters.
See Also
- Appearances of Gotham Zoo
- Location Gallery: Gotham Zoo
- Catalogued images related to Gotham Zoo
- ↑ Batman #100
- ↑ Batman #111
- ↑ Detective Comics #333
- ↑ Batman #255
- ↑ Batman #263
- ↑ Detective Comics #447
- ↑ Batman #359
- ↑ Detective Comics #526
- ↑ Batman #373
- ↑ Batman and the Outsiders #24
- ↑ Batman #491
- ↑ Detective Comics #662
- ↑ Batman: "On Leather Wings"
- ↑ Batman: "Tyger, Tyger"
- ↑ Batman: "Moon of the Wolf"
- ↑ Absolute Batman #1
- ↑ Absolute Batman #2
- ↑ Absolute Batman #5