Gotham Public Services
7:49pm, July 23, 2008
[Edit]
[Delete] | Like most popular comic Mythos’s, the Batman Series has endured over 60 years of publishing. If that were a direct correlation with the characters age, most of the characters from the mythos would be well into their 70ies or 80ies in many cases. In order to curb this, many writers have simply pushed forward the time period in which the events unfold. In that tradition, so too are we going to push forward the time line.
1979 - Bruce Wayne is born.
1983 - Gotham City officially enters an “Economic Depression”. Later that year Gotham City is named the “Most Dangerous” city in America.
1984 - Hoping to stimulate the economy and offer the citizens of Gotham cheap transportation, the Wayne Family invests in a city spanning monorail.
1986 - Dr. Thomas Wayne saves “The Roman” Carmine Falcone’s life as the pleading of his Carmine’s father.
1987 - Bruce Wayne is treated by his father after breaking his leg while falling down an abandoned well.
1990 - The Gotham City Monorail is completed however it does little to assist in the economy as mafia turf wars making traveling through the city hazardous.
1991 - Bruce Wayne becomes orphaned at age 12 when Dr. Thomas Wayne and his wife Martha are murdered in front of him. He is tended too by the family butler, Alfred Pennyworth.
1992 - Gotham City’s mafia turf war is brought to an end by “The Roman” Carmine Falcone making him the unofficial King of Gotham City.
1994 - District Attorney David Kalborne’s body is found floating in Gotham Harbor. Later that year four more City Officials are found dead. This marks the beginning of the complete Mafia take over of the city as puppet politicians replace the fallen city officials.
1998 - Bruce Wayne apparently disappears. Foul play is suspected but never proven. Alfred Pennyworth becomes the Legal Custodian of Wayne Industries and all of its assets.
2002 - Harvey Dent joins Internal Affairs in order to weed out corruption within the police force.
2003 - The Iceberg Lounge is opened by Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot aka the Penguin as a neutral ground for rival Mafia and Underworld elements.
2004 - Gotham City is given the dubious title “Most Violent City” after a gang war leaves 20 innocent bystanders killed. Gotham City PD blamed traffic for their slow response.
2005 - After seven years of absence the long lost Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham City to much media buzz. He relates his lavish and carefree life style in various interviews and is branded “Gotham’s Playboy”. Secretly, however, he has begun working on a plan to attack Gotham’s criminal underworld. He eventually creates the persona of the Batman which he uses to terrify Gotham’s corrupt.
Later that year Jim Gordon is transferred from Chicago to Gotham City after he exposed two fellow officers of corruption. He finds few allies in the heavily corrupt Gotham PD and is threatened and assaulted on at least one occasion by his fellow officers.
Harvey Dent's success within the Internal Affairs Division results in his "promotion" to Assistant District Attorney where his superiors manage to undermine or limit his abilities to prosecute.
2006 - When stories of Gotham’s Batman begin to get out of Gotham it attract the attention of the curious, the brave and the insane. The idea that a vigilante is maintaining law inside of Gotham prompts various government officials to begin a city wide Man-Hunt causing Batman to become Gotham's Most Wanted.
2007 - With Batman's assistance Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent manage to put away several high profile gangsters and corrupt police, including the previous Commissioner. As a result Jim Gordon is promoted to Commissioner while Harvey Dent is elected to District Attorney.
Despite that progress however “The Roman Empire” still remains in power over most of the city. The three men, James Gordon, Harvey Dent and Batman, enter a pact where they swear to bring down Carmine Falcone and his crime family without breaking the law.
However during the course of the investigation, a murderer known as “Holiday” begins killing off mafia targets on every major holiday, leaving a small knick-knack tied to the holiday as a trademark. Slowly Gotham’s invincible crime families are killed off putting tensions within Gotham at an all time high.
2008 - While attempting to prosecute Carmine Falcone, Harvey Dent is hideously scarred by Sal Maroni after Sal throws acid in Harvey’s face. The event leaves Harvey broken and driven into insanity when he later kills a surgeon trying to repair his face and flees into Gotham’s sewers.
Later that year it is discovered that the Holiday Killer is Carmine Falcone’s son, Alberto Falcone, resulting in the near full collapse of the Roman Empire. To make matter’s worse a mysterious figure known as Two-Face rounds up most of Gotham’s “Freaks” and unleashes them on the surviving members of the Falcone Family. Two-Face is revealed to be Harvey Dent who finally breaks his pact with Jim Gordon and Batman by executing Carmine Falcone, revealing that he was also the Holiday Killer. This revelation tarnishes Gordon's faith in his friends, especially after he begins to suspect that Batman knew of Harvey's crimes but did nothing.
This is considered the official fall of the great Mafia Families within Gotham, though they are not completely driven out. New, more blood thirsty and psychotic criminal elements begin to take over Gotham in the forms of criminals like The Joker and The Scarecrow.
2010 - Batman is reportedly severely wounded and believed dead after being shot several times by Mercenaries hired by a former Falcone Capo named Rubert Thorne. Thorne turns up dead a few weeks later with no known suspects.
Jim Gordon's wife leaves him and moves to Cleveland unable or unwilling to live in Gotham any longer.
2011 - Rumors of Batman's return circulate amongst the people of Gotham, most heavily amongst the criminal element of Gotham. No direct sighting has been made at this time however.
Gotham, in Batman's absence, has become even more dangerous however other vigilantes have crawled out of the woodwork to counter it. Batman's status as an Urban Folk Hero prompt many to take up a masked identity and fight crime where ever they can prompting a serious crack down by police on "Misguided Civilian Police Actions".
Gotham wins the right to be called "Most Violent City" for it's 7th year in a row.
2012: A massive break out at Arkham Asylum results in the release of nearly all of the inmates. Police forces struggle to return many of the patients to Arkham however many of it's most dangerous guests remain at large. There is still no confirmed sightings of the Batman as hope for Gotham begins to fade.
Edited 5:56pm, July 26, 2012 by Gotham Public Services, author. |
