Blackgate Penitentiary

From DC Database

Blackgate Penitentiary

Gallery

Official Name

Blackgate Penitentiary

Aliases

Blackgate Prison, Blackgate, Gotham State Penitentiary, Gotham Prison

Location Details

Universe

New Earth

Galaxy

Milky Way

Star System

Sol

Planet

Earth

Country

United States of America

City

Gotham City

Locale

Gotham County

First appearance

Unknown

History

Blackgate Penitentiary is located on a small island in Gotham Bay, Gotham City. It has been suggested to have been preceded by the "Gotham State Penitentiary," a.k.a. "Gotham Prison," which appeared often Pre-Crisis. It was later officially re-named "Blackgate Prison". In the late 1980s, Blackgate Prison was condemned by Amnesty International and forced to shut down. When it eventually re-opened, it was officially known as "Blackgate Penitentiary".

Unlike Arkham Asylum, Blackgate is where non-insane criminals such as David Cain, Monsoon, Ernie Chubb, The KGBeast, Catman, and various henchmen, mobsters, and mafia bosses are incarcerated when captured. There are instances where inmates from Arkham Asylum are temporarily moved to Blackgate, such as when Bane destroyed the original Arkham building.^[1] All of the Arkham inmates were incarcerated in Blackgate until the new Arkham structure was built and Arkham re-opened.^[2]

"Batman: Blackgate tells an interesting story of an attempted escape from Blackgate by a group of inmates." The prisoners in the story were Cluemaster, Steeljacket, Ratcatcher, The Trigger Twins, Dragoncat, Gunhawk, Czonka (The Baffler), Actuary, and although they were at first unsuccesful, they eventually escaped during the "Cataclysm," when an earthquake and the resulting tidal waves damaged the prison and open up a land bridge to Gotham. This allowed the majority of the inmates of Blackgate to escape, although many of them were defeated by the Batman before they could leave. They were all eventually re-incarcerated or put down while violently evading arrest. Most recently, Blackgate has been seen in the pages of Gotham Underground, where it is unclear whether or not they are active accomplices of the Suicide Squad in the Salvation Run deportations.

Residents

• Actuary
• Bane
• The Black Spider
• Matches Malone
• Calendar Man
• Catman
• Rhino
• Clayface (Basil Karlo)
• Clayface (Matt Hagen)
• Cluemaster
• The Cypher
• Dalton Perry
• David Cain
• The Electrocutioner
• Ernie Chubb
• Eustace Marker
• Faceless
• Firebug
• Firefly
• The Great White Shark
• Henry Etchison
• Jared Manx
• The KGBeast
• Lady Spellbinder
• Monsoon
• Mortimer Kadaver
• Mister Zsasz
• The Penguin
• The Polka Dot Man
• The Ratcatcher
• Rupert Thorne
• Sasha Bordeaux
• Steeljacket
• The Ten-Eyed Man
• Czonk
• Tony Zucco
• The Trigger Twins
• Two-Face
• The Ventriloquist

Notes

• Whoever's idea it was to put a gigantic super-villain containment center and an asylum for the dangerously criminal insane right next to a major population center has, as of yet, not been revealed.
  

Trivia

• The Penguin, Firefly, Rupert Thorne, The Joker, Zsasz, Two-Face, Clayface, the Calendar Man, and The Ventriloquist are the only criminals that have done time in both Arkham Asylum and Blackgate.

See Also

• Appearances of Blackgate Penitentiary (Alphabetical)
• Location Gallery: Blackgate Penitentiary

Links and References

• None.