Blackgate Penitentiary

Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
In story information
Type	Prison

Blackgate Penitentiary is a fictional prison depicted in the DC Universe, traditionally located on a small island in the Gotham Bay, Gotham City. Batman: The Long Halloween suggests that it was preceded by Gotham State Penitentiary, which appeared often in pre-Crisis comics.

Fictional history

Blackgate Prison (later known as Blackgate Penitentiary) operated separately from Gotham Prison (later known as Gotham State Penitentiary). Both prisons are located in Gotham and while Blackgate is the main correctional facility used by writers today, Gotham State Penitentiary was the primary correctional facility used in the comics up until the early 1990s. According to modern continuity, in the late 1990s, Blackgate Prison is condemned by Amnesty International and forced to shut down. When the prison eventually re-opens, it is officially known as "Blackgate Penitentiary". Because of its secure location on a secluded island, Blackgate begins to take prominence over Gotham State, until the latter becomes virtually unused.

Unlike Arkham Asylum, Blackgate is where sane criminals such as the Penguin, Catman, David Cain, Monsoon, Ernie Chubb, KGBeast and various henchmen, mobsters, and mafia bosses are incarcerated when captured. The Joker, Two-Face, Clayface II (Matt Hagen), the Ventriloquist, Mr. Zsasz, Firefly, Calendar Man and Rupert Thorne are some criminals that have done time in both Arkham Asylum and in Blackgate Penitentiary.

There are instances where inmates from Arkham Asylum are temporarily moved to Blackgate, like when Bane destroys the original Arkham building in Batman #491. All of the Arkham inmates are incarcerated in Blackgate until the new Arkham structure is built and opened in Batman #521.

There is a one-shot about a breakout happening in the prison entitled Batman: Blackgate. The prisoners in the story are Cluemaster, Steeljacket, Ratcatcher, The Trigger Twins, Dragoncat, Gunhawk, Czonka (The Baffler), Actuary, and others. Several of these villains are also featured in the Cataclysm storyline when an earthquake and the resulting tidal waves damage the prison and open up a land bridge to Gotham. This allows the majority of the inmates of Blackgate to escape.

Other Versions

In Batman: Crimson Mist- the third part of the trilogy that began with Batman & Dracula: Red Rain-, the now-vampiric Batman, having killed Black Mask and the False Facers, leaves the gang's decapitated heads impaled on the spikes of the fence around Blackgate, the faces looking in to the prisoners in an action interpreted as a 'warning'. Batman later reflects, when contemplating his rapidly-depleting supply of 'deserving' prey- attempting to kill only those who are themselves killers-, that many of Blackgate's inmates are only in for theft or less, grimly musing that they do not deserve his kind of death.

Known inmates

• Actuary
• Bane
• Billy (one of The Ventriloquist's henchmen)
• Black Spider
• Bonaventure Strake
• Bruce Wayne (when he is falsely convicted of murdering Vesper Fairchild)
• Calendar Man
• Catman
• Catwoman
• Charles "Rhino" Daley
• Clayface (Basil Karlo)(Relocated to Arkham Asylum)
• Clayface (Matt Hagen)(Relocated to Arkham Asylum)
• Cluemaster
• The Cypher (Avery Twombey)
• Dalton Perry
• David Cain
• Dean "Hungry" Fahy
• Dr. Fang
• Dr. Phosphorus
• Dragoncat
• Electrocutioner (Lester Buchinsky)
• Ernie Chubb
• Eustace Marker
• Faceless (Joseph Zedno)
• Firebug
• Firefly
• Greg Rourke (Puzzleman) (relocated to Arkham Asylum)
• Gunhawk
• Henry Etchison
• Hsui Cheung
• Jan Brodie
• Jared Manx
• John McCone
• The Joker (in The Joker: Devil's Advocate the Joker is sentenced to death row in Blackgate before eventually returning to Arkham Asylum)
• KGBeast
• Lady Spellbinder
• Monsoon
• Mortimer Kadaver
• Mister Polka-Dot (Abner Krill)
• Mugsy (Rhino's partner, henchmen of Arnold Wesker)
• Mr. Zsasz
• The Penguin
• Professor Ivo (Anthony Ivo)
• Ratcatcher
• Rupert Thorne
• Sasha Bordeaux (when she is falsely convicted of involvement in Vesper Fairchild's murder)
• Skeets
• Stanislaus Johns
• Steeljacket
• Ten-Eyed Man
• Titus Samuel Czonka (Czonk AKA The Headbanger AKA The Baffler)
• Tony Zucco
• The Trigger Twins
• Two-Face (relocated to Arkham Asylum)
• The Ventriloquist (relocated to Arkham Asylum)
• Vincent "The Shark" Starkey
• Weasel (Chet Grimes)
• William Guilloryta
• Wrath
• Zeke

In other media

Television

• In Batman: The Animated Series, this prison is called Stonegate Penitentiary. It was built as a plan by Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent to build a better, safer Gotham. Criminals like the Penguin, Catwoman (later deemed insane and relocated to Arkham Asylum), Bane, the Ventriloquist (he briefly spent most of his time behind bars in Arkham), Clock King, Rupert Thorne, Roland Daggett, Sidney "The Squid" Debris, and Baby Doll were sentenced to Stonegate, as well as Poison Ivy when she committed her first crime by attempting to kill Harvey Dent for building the prison on a site that consisted of a rare flower. In "I Am The Night", a gangster called Jimmy "Jazzman" Peake was imprisoned here to await trial since Gotham City Prison was full at the time. Also, Selina Kyle was once put on trial for Stonegate imprisonment.

• In the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Night of the Huntress, Blackgate Penitentiary is featured as Blackgate Prison. Babyface breaks into Blackgate Prison to free Skeleton Keys, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Polecat Perkins, and Hammer Toes. Black Manta, Clock King, Cavalier, Doctor Polaris, False-Face, Felix Faust, Fun Haus, Kite Man, Scarecrow, Shark, Sportsmaster, Top, and characters from the 60's Batman series (Archer, Bookworm, Egghead, King Tut and Mad Hatter) are shown as inmates trying to break out during Babyface's raid.

Film

• Blackgate Penitentiary is referenced in the "Field Test" portion of Batman: Gotham Knight. After stopping a gang war between Sal Maroni and the Russian at the docks, Batman restrains them and tells the Russian to keep the docks and for Sal to stay in the slum as he also quotes "That's the arrangement 'til I can get something on you. And then you can fight over who gets the top bunk in Blackgate. Got it?!"

Novels

• In the novel Batman: The Ultimate Evil, author Andrew Vachss refers to a "Hellgate Prison".

Video games

• The backstory of Batman: Arkham Asylum mentions that a fire at Blackgate has forced many of the inmates to be temporarily housed at Arkham Asylum until Blackgate was rebuilt. In truth, the event was engineered by the Joker in order to get his army of henchmen (on an interesting note Joker mentions that many members of his gang are on death row and have a combined sentence of 732 years) into Arkham for his master plan that involves the Titan Compound that he in one of his alias manipulated Dr. Penny Young into making. The Blackgate prisoners are the most common enemies in the game, acting as both foot soldiers and test subjects for the Titan compound.

• In Batman: Arkham City, it has been noted that because of the events in the last game, Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Prison are in no condition to hold prisoners, so the newly created Arkham City will hold all prisoners until repairs to both prisons are made. Several of Arkham City's prisoners mention that Blackgate was rumored to have been converted into a shopping mall, however, these rumors are never confirmed. The prisoners again act as soldiers to Joker, as well as Two-Face and Penguin, and act as both a source of information and entertainment if the player chooses to listen to their conversations (ie, one prisoner mentions that Harley Quinn was heading to the Sionis Steel Mill while earlier on another prisoner mentioned a rumor that Harley is a transvestite).

See also

• List of correctional facilities in comics
• Arkham Asylum
• Belle Reve
• Iron Heights Penitentiary
• Stryker's Island

External links

• Blackgate Penitentiary at DC Comics Wiki