Sommerset Township is a civil township in Gotham County, New Jersey. It is located on the mainland northwest of Gotham City and includes several suburban communities like Evanstown and Little Stockton.
History[]
The Old Arkham Asylum in Sommerset
The Sommerset area is separated from Gotham City by the Gotham River. Sommerset is connected to Mercey Island and the rest of Gotham City via the Trigate Bridge, while access to Bristol Township is provided by way of the Mooney Bridge.[1][2]
Sommerset is best known as the original location of Arkham Asylum in New Earth continuity.[3][4] The building was once the ancestral mansion of the Arkham family, but eventually converted into a mental hospital by Amadeus Arkham in 1921. Decades later, the asylum was run by his descendant Jeremiah Arkham. However, the original Arkham Asylum was later heavily damaged by Bane in the prelude to Knightfall, releasing all the patients in the process.[5][6]
Since the old building in Sommerset was left in ruins, Arkham Asylum was relocated to its modern location on Mercey Island, located east of Sommerset on the outskirts of Gotham City.[6]
Points of Interest[]
Map of Gotham City, with Sommerset on the mainland in the west
- Dayton National Forest
- Drescher
- Evanstown (Evanston)
- Bradford Heights
- Roxbury
- Westvale
- Gotham State Penitentiary
- Irving Grove
- Little Stockton
- Mooney Bridge
- Slaughter Swamp State Park
- Sommerset
- Arkham Asylum (Destroyed)
- Logerquist Street
- Sommerset General Hospital
- Sommerset Stadium
- Sommerset Woods
- Trigate Bridge
- Victoria Place
Residents[]
- Amadeus Arkham (Deceased)
- Arkham Asylum patients (Formerly)
- Elizabeth Arkham (Deceased)
- Lonnie Machin/Anarky (Formerly)
- Tony Bressi (Formerly) (Deceased)
Background Information[]
- Sommerset was included on the official map of Gotham City by Eliot R. Brown.
- Even though it was originally named Sommerset in Swamp Thing #52 by Alan Moore and on the official map of Gotham City, the suburban community has sometimes also been spelled Somerset in recent years. This might be the result of confusion with the real-life Somerset in England.
- In some of the modern continuities like Prime Earth, Arkham Island is portrayed as having been the location of Arkham Asylum all along, without any mention of an earlier asylum in Sommerset.
In other Media[]
- In Batman: The Animated Series, Arkham Asylum is located on a hill in the Somerset District, since the show premiered before Arkham was relocated to Mercey Island in the comics.
- Sommerset appears in the television series Gotham and was sometimes visible on maps of Gotham City that were used throughout the show. The Gotham Airport in Sommerset makes an appearance in the episode "They Did What?".
External links[]
References[]
- ↑ Batman: No Man's Land
- ↑ Daily Planet Guide to Gotham City
- ↑ Swamp Thing #52 (September, 1986)
- ↑ Atlas of the DC Universe
- ↑ Batman #491
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Batman Villains Secret Files and Origins #1