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.
History
Gotham State Penitentiary is also known as Gotham Prison, especially when referenced after the Crisis. It is later officially renamed "Blackgate Prison". In the late 1980s, 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".
Unlike Arkham Asylum, Blackgate is where non-insane criminals such as Catman, David Cain, Monsoon, Ernie Chubb, KGBeast and various henchmen, mobsters, and mafia bosses are incarcerated when captured. The Joker, the Penguin, Two-Face, Clayface II (Matt Hagen), the Ventriloquist, Mr. Zsasz, Firefly, Calendar Man, Rupert Thorne and Bane are the only criminals that have done time in both Arkham Asylum and 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.
Known Inmates
- Actuary
- Bane
- Billy (one of The Ventriloquist's henchmen, seen in Detective Comics #610)
- Black Spider
- Bonaventure Strake
- Bruce Wayne (when he is falsely convicted of murdering Vesper Fairchild)
- Calendar Man
- Captain Stingaree
- Catman
- Frederick Rhino
- Mugsy
- Clayface (Basil Karlo)
- Clayface II (Matt Hagen)
- Cluemaster
- Crazy Quilt
- The Cypher (Avery Twombey)
- Dagger II
- Dalton Perry
- David Cain
- Deadshot
- Dean "Hungry" Fahy
- Dr. Fang
- Dragoncat
- Electrocutioner
- Emperor Blackgate
- Ernie Chubb
- Eustace Marker
- Faceless (Joseph Zedno)
- Firebug
- Firebug 2
- Firefly
- Roy Reynolds (The Getaway Genius)
- 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
- Matches Malone
- Mirror Man
- Monsoon
- Mortimer Kadaver
- Mister Polka-Dot (Abner Krill)
- Mr. Zsasz
- The Penguin
- Ratcatcher
- Rupert Thorne
- Sasha Bordeaux (when she is falsely convicted of involvement in Vesper Fairchild's murder)
- Stanislaus Johns
- Steeljacket
- Ten-Eyed Man
- Titus Samuel Czonka (Czonk AKA The Headbanger AKA The Baffler)
- Tony Zucco
- The Trigger Twins
- Two-Face
- The Ventriloquist
- Vincent Morelli
- Vincent "The Shark" Starkey
- Weasel (Chet Grimes)
- William Guillory
- Wrath II
In other media
Film
- In Christopher Nolan's 2012 film The Dark Knight Rises, the mercenary Bane liberates the criminals "wrongfully imprisoned" at Blackgate Penitentiary by Commissioner Jim Gordon under the Dent Act and uses them in his army.
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, Poison Ivy, Bane, Clock King, Rupert Thorne, Killer Croc, The Terrible Trio, Tony Zucco, Josiah Wormwood, Sidney Debris, Jazzman, Southside Eddie and Spider Conway were sentenced to Stonegate. In "I Am The Night", a villain called Jimmy "Jazzman" Peake was imprisoned here to await trial since Gotham City Prison was full at the time.
Video Games
- In the video game Batman: Arkham Asylum, Blackgate Penitentiary is referenced as having been burned down by a 'mysterious' fire, implied in the game's viral marketing campaign as well as Boles' reaction to Joker's implication that the fire at Blackgate was no accident to have been started by corrupted Arkham Asylum security guard Frank Boles, as part of the Joker's plan to have hordes of convicts shipped to the asylum while the penitentiary facility is reconstructed. The Joker plans to recruit the convicts in a brutal takeover of Arkham, since the asylum's maddened patients are far from model henchmen. In Batman: Arkham City, rumors claim Blackgate has been turned into a shopping mall, but by the end of the game it appears the criminals are being transferred back to the prison, proving the rumors false.
- See: Blackgate Prison (Batman: Arkham Origins)
- Blackgate is the main location in the video game Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate.
Novels
- In the novel Batman: The Ultimate Evil, author Andrew Vachss refers to a "Hellgate Prison".
