Blüdhaven

Blüdhaven is a fictional city in the DC Comics Universe. Created by Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel in 1996, it was originally intended to serve as a backdrop for the Nightwing comics series.

Fictional geography

Maps, character conversation, and implied travel times have repeatedly represented Blüdhaven to be both south of and located close or adjacent to Gotham City, home to Batman. Some published maps of the two cities fit corresponding points on the New Jersey coast: Gotham's geography fits the Little Egg Harbor area of Ocean County and Galloway Township in Atlantic County, while Blüdhaven fits into the area of Atlantic City or Brigantine Island. Its metropolitan region is divided between two DC Universe-specific counties, named Haven and Avalon, neither of which is a county in any Mid-Atlantic State in a similar locations, though Avalon, New Jersey is a real place near Atlantic City.

Fictional history

Beginnings

Dixon and McDaniel created the city as a former whaling town, which was officially incorporated as a "Commonwealth" in 1912. The town has been depicted as having a generally poor socioeconomic populace, owing in part to failed efforts to transform itself into a manufacturing and shipping center. The stories often state that culturally and financially, Gotham City has always overshadowed Blüdhaven, and that the city has a worse crime rate than Gotham. Not unlike Gotham, organized crime syndicates always dominated Blüdhaven, which were, until its final years, protected by endemic police corruption. However, unlike Gotham City, Bludhaven's crime is known from coming from the corrupt rich downwards rather from the gangs upwards in Gotham.